A small glimpse into boredom and the workings of my brain...

[concreteblonde]

My understanding of a "bugout" bag is that you take it with you when you leave your home after something happens. But maybe that's not the generally understood meaning of it.

Otherwise they would be like huge man purses and everybody would look at those suckers and think "boston bomber".

Everybody I know that have BOBs ( bug out bags ) have one they keep in their car, one in the house, one at work..... All have supplies for a few days so you can get to a safe place.

Personally we have BOBs for each of us that are here at home. When we go out we toss them in the vehicle. They have emergency supplies. a blanket, flashlight, batteries, change of clothes, snack foods, water ( changed regularly ), basic med kit, things to assist us to survive if we were to break down far from home.

Being in the Great white frozen north this time of year what others consider a BOB is for us emergency winter survival bag.

Well anybody that's ever had to drive through a blizzard up north would consider that common sense. Or at least I would hope so. It isn't fun getting stuck out on a fishing trip and finding yourself unable to see the highway and the temps dropping so low the heater can't keep the windows defrosted. That happened once to me.

But as far as a BOB, I feel like it's overkill. That's just for me personally. I think my husband would agree.

I've gone through a couple of hurricanes and a week without power or running water, but I stayed home and defended the home front both times.

I was raised by some sweet old ladies that grew up during the Great Depression. My grandmother and a neighbor lady had more to do with my outlook on life than just about anybody. They were both preppers and they taught me a lot. I made my first quilt when I was 7 yrs. old. I cooked my first complete meal including cornbread from scratch when I was in the first grade. I learned to can and grow a garden and it went on from there.

Whatever comes down the pike, I'll be staying put. Unless I get a heads up from the Lord. But to date, He's always lead me to believe that I'm staying put. So, I'll stick with that.

 

[Miss M]

We've dealt with a week without power and the aftermath of hurricanes, as well. Still, we have BOBs, because if we break down on the road, or some other unforeseen event occurs, we want to have supplies that will last us hopefully until we can get back home.

So we're not planning on bugging out... more like on-the-road emergency supplies.

 

[Fernie]

We refer to them as BOBs so most people have an idea of what we are talking. The kids have a few toys / games / books to keep the occupied. Things to make it easier on them and us. We just keep things that we would need to survive 3 or 4 days in a vehicle.

It is considered common sense supplies for this area, but not so much in Philly.

 

[Miss M]

Same here, Fernie, we still call them BOBs, even though that's not what they're really for.

Water and non-perishable food that would last 2 - 4 days depending on how many are in the vehicle, and a first aid kit. The kids always bring more to amuse them than they need, so I don't even worry about that.

 

[Fernie]

I was influenced by my Grandfather who lived through the Great Depression. I keep in the house extra food. We grow our own vegetables, fruits and meat. We can and freeze all we can to get through. This year was the first year we had a garden in a few years. Due to no space for one for a few years. Being new to the area we were not sure what would grow here. So we tried a bit of everything.
Now we know what we can and can't grow. This year's garden harvest should be much much better.

 

[Miss M]

My great-grandmother used to can some. I'm sure she did it a lot when she was younger... by the time I was old enough to pay attention, she wasn't doing it very much at all, and I wasn't paying attention.

We're trying to learn some of the stuff I'm sure she could have taught us. Like gardening, for instance. Now, we got an overload of tomatoes and peppers last year. We want to plant even more of them this year. (We dehydrated the peppers... oh, my word, YUM!) Beets did well, chard did well, squash did well. Beans and cantaloupes did not do well. Pole beans should do better, though... I was always better at those.

 

[Fernie]

I told DH we need to can, dehydrate, smoke, or freeze everything we want to eat over the course of a year. Once we get to the point I doubt we will every get ahead. I convinced him to cancel the satellite TV service. It is either TV or a vehicle at this point. We need a vehicle. We need a roof over our heads. We need food. everything else we can do away with.

We are going to watch our internet usage to see how far down we can cull the data to. Once we get that nailed down we will be down grading it all.

 

[Miss M]

Boy, I know how that all is! We have the smallest internet plan, the smallest cell plan (no landline), an antenna for TV... we use tiny ceramic heaters for space heat a lot more than we heat the whole house with the furnace. We hang out our laundry to dry as much as possible. We've been skating on the razor's edge for a long, long time. Thankfully, it looks like we'll be having some breathing room in the budget soon -- and we'll use much of that to pay down our mortgage!

 

[concreteblonde]

That's great guys! Sounds like you are doing good! Just don't get discouraged, it isn't easy watching everybody else live it up and not bother to prepare while you are scrimping and saving.

Our house is paid for. No credit cards. No cell phone. The only extravagance I have is Wi-Fi and Netflix. That's it.

We've been planting fruit trees and other stuff. I still don't have canned as much as I would like but I'm learning to garden in a totally different growing zone now and the bugs (stink bugs) are killing me.

But, God has really blessed me. I was given a huge bag of onions and I chopped them all up and put them in the freezer and I was given several boxes of tomatoes. I canned those. Last year, I was given almost 50lbs. of potatoes and those got put in the freezer and/or eaten outright. They stayed good a long time. Only had a couple of potatoes out of the entire bag go bad.

I also dry canned some rice and beans and organic corn meal. There's a restaurant supply near here, GFS, that sells by the 25 lb. and 50 lb. bags and the beans are pre-cleaned and about half the price as the grocery store or the wholesale clubs.

The corn meal I got at Albertson's. It's awesome! Whole Grain!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I also dry canned some rice and beans and organic corn meal.

Dry canned? You mean you just put the stuff in jars and heat sealed them?

Did you do that mostly to prevent bug infestations? Or does that also significantly lengthen the shelf life?

To prevent moths an weevils in our food storage, I add 1 cup food grade diatomaceous earth per 100lbs of dry goods and we store in food grade plastic buckets. We pay $1.50 per bucket and lid from a shop that sells smoothies. Their fruit concoctions come in the buckets. Bakeries or places that make their own ice cream also have the buckets and usually just throw them away.

 

[Miss M]

Just don't get discouraged, it isn't easy watching everybody else live it up and not bother to prepare while you are scrimping and saving.

This is true! However, we liked having no debt for years... we are determined to get back there. We found ourselves suddenly needing to move about a year and a half ago. That's where the mortgage came from.

Fruit trees we are about to plant. The stink bugs were horrible here, too. But I'm going to try trap crops this year:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/elimin ... -with-food
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic- ... iment.aspx

Restaurant supply... hadn't thought of that! I'll have to see if there's one around here!

We pay $1.50 per bucket and lid from a shop that sells smoothies. Their fruit concoctions come in the buckets. Bakeries or places that make their own ice cream also have the buckets and usually just throw them away.

We get ours at Sam's Club, their bakery. They just throw them away. I've gotten many smaller buckets that are handy for gardening and animal stuff, too.

 

[concreteblonde]

I also dry canned some rice and beans and organic corn meal.

Dry canned? You mean you just put the stuff in jars and heat sealed them?

Did you do that mostly to prevent bug infestations? Or does that also significantly lengthen the shelf life?

To prevent moths an weevils in our food storage, I add 1 cup food grade diatomaceous earth per 100lbs of dry goods and we store in food grade plastic buckets. We pay $1.50 per bucket and lid from a shop that sells smoothies. Their fruit concoctions come in the buckets. Bakeries or places that make their own ice cream also have the buckets and usually just throw them away.

I buy half gallon canning jars and use oxygen absorbers in the jars. That seals them without heat. And it's a small enough quantity that it doesn't go bad before using it all if I open it.

You can also oven can the dry goods. Can't use it on milk because milk and brown rice will go rancid/bad.
Milk can't tolerate the heat and brown rice has too much oil. I use par boiled rice in jars. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:26 am __________ <br /><br />

Just don't get discouraged, it isn't easy watching everybody else live it up and not bother to prepare while you are scrimping and saving.

This is true! However, we liked having no debt for years... we are determined to get back there. We found ourselves suddenly needing to move about a year and a half ago. That's where the mortgage came from.

Fruit trees we are about to plant. The stink bugs were horrible here, too. But I'm going to try trap crops this year:
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/elimin ... -with-food
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic- ... iment.aspx

Restaurant supply... hadn't thought of that! I'll have to see if there's one around here!

We pay $1.50 per bucket and lid from a shop that sells smoothies. Their fruit concoctions come in the buckets. Bakeries or places that make their own ice cream also have the buckets and usually just throw them away.

We get ours at Sam's Club, their bakery. They just throw them away. I've gotten many smaller buckets that are handy for gardening and animal stuff, too.

That's cool! Just be aware that plastic is not completely airtight and it does break down over time. If you put beans and stuff in, just be sure to take the buckets and roll them on their sides to help kill anything that hatches, unless you use oxygen absorbers.

 

[Miss M]

That's cool! Just be aware that plastic is not completely airtight and it does break down over time. If you put beans and stuff in, just be sure to take the buckets and roll them on their sides to help kill anything that hatches, unless you use oxygen absorbers.

Yes, plastic is somewhat gas-permeable, even if it is "sealed". I know with 2L bottles, they are made so they won't let CO2 out very well, but O2 is smaller, and I imagine it can pass through much more easily. Not easily enough to keep them from being a good storage solution, though.

I hadn't thought of rolling them on their sides to kill things. The 2L bottles I pack beans and rice in, and then freeze them for a week to kill eggs.

I need to put some DE in my open bucket of wheat.

The buckets I have gotten from Sam's... actually, the only food storage I have done in them so far is packed in mylar with oxygen absorbers, before being put into the buckets. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Jan 24, 2014 12:18 am __________ <br /><br /> Forgot to mention that I learned about the usefulness of 2L soda bottles from Steve Harris, who, according to one of his books ("Surviving the Blackout of 2003", I think), has a stack of 2L bottles that he filled over 10 years ago (can't remember if he put a few drops of bleach), and the water is still good. Then I started doing some research on them. They're not impermeable, but they're pretty close.

http://www.stevenharris.net/
http://www.knowledgepublications.com/

He's really interesting, and easy to read. Constantly tinkering to figure out what he can do to store stuff, harness sunlight, produce and use various fuels... and do it in a way that can be practical for the average person (who knows their way around a few tools).

 

[katiebear]

I know I'm not the only christian here , so anything I have "perped" is not for me but for someone who has not had the "ultimate prep,"Yeah our government sucks, so who do ya"all think is really in control? surely I am not the only one who gets this......

 

[Miss M]

Oh, I definitely get it... at the same time, while we're here, it's good to have supplies if blown engine in the middle of nowhere, a hurricane, civil unrest, or whatever hits. The hurricane I've done quite a few times. Civil unrest my husband went through.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Potassium iodide pills are a waste of resources-- what we have NOT been told is this--the Potassium Iodide ONLY protects your thyroid from picking up airborne radioactive isotopes for about 48 hours-- and does NOTHING to protect the rest of your body from radiation poisoning--- :ugeek: One of my professors was the person responsible for the storage and distribution of those things in case the nuclear power plant nearby were to 'leak'- and he had them buried under who knows how many years of magazine subscriptions and 'to file' notes. A tattered piece of orange paper with an arrow on it pointed to the location where they were placed-- And for those of us allergic to iodine-- well, if I am gonna die anyway, they become a 'suicide pill'-

 

[concreteblonde]

I know I'm not the only christian here , so anything I have "perped" is not for me but for someone who has not had the "ultimate prep,"Yeah our government sucks, so who do ya"all think is really in control? surely I am not the only one who gets this......

Oh, I get it on ALL levels. I also get that God warns His people to get prepared and it is faith to prepare, because He told us beforehand what to expect. Just like Joseph and Noah and one of the prophets in the NT. I believe that if we don't prepare then we are either rebellious or just don't believe His Word.

And I don't know which Camp you are in because your post doesn't clarify, but I've had enough "discussions" with those opposed to preparing and who believe that when or if the time comes God will supply. So...this is a quote from a great article and it pretty much sums up my position on the issue.

And I hate arguing.

http://stevenmcollins.com/html/hard_times.html

"A New Testament example in the same vein is given in Acts 11:28-30. A prophet named Agabus received a warning from God that a “great dearth” (a food shortage) was imminent. The early Christian Church took the warning seriously and made such advance preparations as they could. The elders gathered up food supplies and sent Barnabas and Saul (later named “Paul”) to deliver the food to the brethren in Judea so they could survive the prophesied food shortage. The word received by Agabus must have specified that Judea was to be particularly hard hit by the food shortage for the Christians to direct their main food storage effort to that location. Again, we see the believers took the warning seriously and made advance preparations. There was no hint in any of these three examples that anyone thought the right approach was to “stand still and do nothing.” Both Old and New Testaments are consistent that when God warns his people about an impending danger, he expects them to show faith by acting on his warning and preparing for it. "


God is ultimately in control. He's had me warning people to get prepared since the early 90's. Remember the year of the Tornado? That was when the Midwest flooded out and all of that farmland was under tons of silt. That was '92 I believe.

That was when God gave me chapter 1 in Joel to study. And it is right on the money. Both literally and figuratively. That's when God started confirming with His Word that His prophecies were coming to pass and He continues to do so.

That's where I'm at with it.