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Basic Lesson Number 168
What is Required to BUG-IN at Your Home
What is Required to BUG-IN at Your Home
Background: Several Preppers have asked me to consider the possible of Bugging-in at home. Now I do not know what may cause you to want to stay home in the middle of a disaster. It may be your age, medical status, or you are trully ready to survive at home. What this lesson is about what is needed to survive the initial disaster and start rebuilding your lives afterwords.
1. Some of the resources needed to survive a disaster including:
Finding 2 sources of water independent of your local City Water Service. Most services will stop within a week of a disaster, it may take years to return.
Establish a way to destroy trash; by burning what will burn, burying what cannot.
Setup a way to handle waste water (Grey water) and human waste. This means establishing a latrine and Grey water dump site. Both sites must be 50 yards from any fresh water source.
2. A mantra in the prepping community on survival is the rule of three: you can survive three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. Those are the top three considerations for survival; however, to expand this rule we shall break it down into ten areas.
A. Air.
You can't have your health without air. Pandemics, volcanic eruptions, radiation, or chemical spills/warfare may affect the air you breath. Example: Victims of fire are subject to smoke inhalation. A Prepper can take measures to minimize the risk:
In a fire, you can improvise by wetting a bandanna with water to help filter out smokey air.
In a pandemic situation, you can secure your homestead through a quarantine from the outside world, Group members can wear a NIOSH N95 Respirator Mask when outside the immediate home.
Respirators filter out many chemicals via the filter attached to the mask. With the correct filters you can even stop radioactive dust from entering your lungs.
B. Water.
Assuming you're breathing for the moment, water is the next most urgent of emergency preparedness area to concentrate on. You'll need more water than you think to survive a disaster lasting days and weeks. A family of four needs 570 gallons of fresh water, according to Utah State University, for a three-month supply intended for drinking only. Remember also you need additional water for cleaning, cooking, personal Hygiene, pets and livestock, and your garden.
Learn how to shut off the hot water heater before this becomes a lost skill, and it's too late. Your hot water heater is a source of potable water.
C. Food.
Back to the rule of three, a three-month supply of food is bare minimum for a survival plan. Newbies will find it easiest to first gather shelf stable foods that they can buy at the grocery stores. Advanced Preppers learn much from reviewing history like the pioneers who forged the American West.
Start a garden; canning or freezing the food at the end of summer.
D. Shelter/location.
The best Prepper location is your homestead because you already know the lay of the land and you can hide your food and secure the contents; however, the day may come when absolutely necessary to bug out.
Do you know how to fortify your homestead? Simple steps including fortifying your exit doors to stop intruders from entering, Enclosing windows with Plywood and screws the same as for storm protection.
E. Fuel for fire.
No matter how long your Preppers supplies are meant to last you will need to replace your gas, propane stove with the use of a fireplace. You need to prepare to use hard wood as fuel. If you have the property start growing hardwood trees including maple, oak, hickory, apple etc. With the last two you will be able to gather nuts and fruit within a few years.
F. Equipment:
Gear up for the home, communicating with the outside world, and defending the homestead. Here are the Prepper items to own:
Gardening hand tools. Your power tools will last a year then what will you use for fuel?
Home repair hand tools: Tools for wood working, plumbing, electrical, metal working tools are needed.
Supplies should include sheets of 3/4 Exterior plywood to cover windows, screws, nails, 2x4's, plumbing, electrical, wood and metal working items.
Communications: Just buy a GRMS two way radio and a hand-crank AM/FM/NOAA radio is a good start. Additional items are explained in other threads.
Hunting/Fishing/Trapping gear: To expand your food supplies hunting, fishing, and trapping will need to come into play. "...For man does not survive on Rabbit food alone..."
G. Security.
Security goes beyond bullets. Defending the homestead means both passive and active defenses. Items include: built up enter ways, covered windows, observing the area around the home, talking to and cooperating with neighbors. After the disaster has passed help establish a night watch around the neighborhood.
Ensure all members are armed and experienced in shooting all weapons used by you in your homestead.
H. Skills.
Preppers must continually educate themselves on new products, new ideas and develop new skills. There is a lesson plan that list 78 skills you might put some time into learning.
I. Health.
Your health is priority number one. Have regular checkups with your physician and dentist, while these are still available.
J. Faith in yourself is the ultimate survival tool! As you learn and gain experience you will find that not only you find faith in your decisions but other members will too.
Final Notes: There is many other items we could add but this thread is to open discussions and thread about each of the 10 areas I just mentioned.
After 23 years of being first a survivalist then a Prepper, my group has survived most disasters over the years, that can befall you, except for Nuclear War.
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