Do the "bug out" folks really want this kind of living???

[carpriver]

I grew up on a farm, farming is a 24/7 job. raising animals and the assorted gains and hay to keep them alive and then raising food for the family is a another job, tending the garden, canning the veggies and fruit, storing tatters, cabbage, beets, turnips. knowing how to smoke and salt and cure meat. And this is just for the winter and spring. To stay warm in the winter cutting wood, storing the wood close to the house, making sure it is dry to burn well for the winter. Water, a well and a way to get the water to the surface and to the animals and to the house. now there is waste management. cooking the food; can you cook over a wood fire or wood stove, that takes skill.

As a kid in one long cold winter we collected cow patties to burn and heat the maintain room of the house, had to stretch the wood. Survival is an all day every day job. You can't walk into the country without a years supply of food for you and your animals and expect survive. there are no days off.

 

[feralmerril]

In 1960 I worked in Yosemite NP for 6 months. Was a blister rust checker, spent lots of time fighting forest fires and spraying bug infested trees in the back country. Probley a month of that was sleeping out in the open the rest in tents. We did have a cook and didnt have to contend with that. Most of the rest of the guys were college students but they only stayed for the summer break and to fulfill my 6 months I was by myself a lot on details. Now Yosemite is well known as being a pretty place to be. Lots of wildlife, pretty tourist girls, some worked there too for the curry company. It could be callled a paradise. Here`s the punch line. Even in paradise when the jobs done and your by yourself in the middle of the quiet woods for a young guy, you do get restless in short order and welcome getting a chance to go to town. Unbelievable, huh? I also did it in the Grand Tetons in 1961. I got to be a regular in Jackson.

 

[Grayfox]

Id guess the vast majority under 40 or so have no idea what manual labor is.

Manual Labor? Isn't he the mexican guy who mows our grass every week?

 

[Jinglebob]

Yesterday I cut hay. Today I raked hay. Tomorrow I'll bale hay.

I've read "bug out stories" and they leave me scratching my head. What are those people thinking? There is no way a person is going to leave the city, land in the country and magically start supporting themselves and family off the land, even if that land belongs to someone else. This bug out stuff has to be the biggest money making racket since the pet rock.

 

[Engine 21]

Like Paul Harvey said "9 to 5 out here is 5 to 9". Friend of mine use to tell his son " 8 hours real work and a cold glass of water will probably kill ya'." He was right - the value of work is foreign to the new generation.

 

[Hellraiser]

Hey... Skule Slacker... all that hard work... is that why you stay so fat?

(Boys... Packer has to wear that hat in order to be big enough to get rained on. hehehe)

 

[steelslaver]

Even if the big event that causes the bug out to happened in early spring. Very few would have the ability to get to a good location and set up and get enough essentials put up for the winter months.

I am not going anywhere. Got enough land, the creek is right here, the farmers and ranchers will need me to repair things. I have the pieces for a reflux still to make ethanol. My welder will run on it and there are oil wells close. I worked in the maintenance dept of a refinery for many years and could make raw gas and diesel. Besides having friends in the local Amish community. It won't be easy but, I should do OK.

Those that think they can just go to the wilds of Montana and survive are going to be in for a serious wake up call.

 

[venomballistics]

There's a reason that it is called "bug" out.
That's a large portion of your protein intake.

 

[boatme99]

I've lived in most areas of the continental U.S. other than the left coast.
From New England and SE coastal, high Rockies in Co., desert Az., mountainous Az., farmed the Mid Atlantic piedmont, and am currently in a semi rural southern area.

While I know Mulepacker can kick my butt up one side of a Montana mountain, and down the other, I feel that if something were to happen, in the present circumstance, I would probably fare well for a while.

You see, I'm living in a small city in the middle of a fairly rural state.

The area is shot through with underground rivers and surface springs.
There is an abundance of wildlife. Turkey, deer, hogs, dove, opposum, squirrel, armadillo, and black bear, to name a few.

We have numerous large lakes and streams filled with fish, salamanders, crayfish, and fresh water mussels.


To top it all off, this is a college town.

And if the students get spooked and become wary, there's a 700+ bed (always full to capacity) hospital just a few blocks away.

I may run low on fresh greens over the winter, but I will not lack for protein.

I think I'm in a pretty good place to hunker down.

 

[Mule Packer]

While I know Mulepacker can kick my butt up one side of a Montana mountain, and down the other...

Naw...that ain't the case, boatme99. As Hellraiser alluded, my physical stature isn't much to write home about. And he probably knows me better than most folks on this forum. I'm just a tad over six feet and only weigh a buck sixty-five. As one of my friends used to say, I'm like a stringy piece of jack rabbit jerky. I'm a wimp. I've got three brothers and they're all bigger than I am. I'm the runt of the litter...so I sure as heck won't be kickin' anybody's butts up and down a mountain. Besides, as everybody knows, I'm a peace-lovin' man.

 

[Bill Bates]

For some reason I'm humming Hank Williams Jr's."Country Boys Can Survive."

My SHTF plan is to stay put and become the local
War Lord.

Okay, carry on.

 

[Hillbilly77]

Wanna know who's gonna starve first?

Go to your local McDonalds.
See that guy out front? The one holding a "more money" protest sign?

That's him.

 

[islamoradamark]

wait till the power goes out peoples attitudes change real quick trust no one

 

[Bkreutz]

If the SHTF, I won't last long without the drugs I take. The most immediate effect will be the lack of insulin. I would have died decades ago without it so I don't really plan for the end of the world scenario. I've had a good life.

 

[walnutred]

For some reason I'm humming Hank Williams Jr's."Country Boys Can Survive."

My SHTF plan is to stay put and become the local
War Lord.

Okay, carry on.

My son says in a long term disaster there are pillagers and pillagees and he plans on being a pillager. At least until he can get home to our house. I'd like to dissuade him but most of history supports his theory.

 

[Frank237]

The average 20-30 year old out there doesn't know how to change a tire...much less SURVIVE.

The majority of rural folks would do alright.

But the City dwellers would be resorting to cannibalism within two weeks.

 

[EugeneNine]

I think your missing the fact that bug out is just a popular term and doesn't mean running into the woods.
I'll give an example, I live in OH and my parents on a farm in WV. I've "bugged out" twice. Both times where receiving a call and having to leave work and go. I've made that drive many years so I've taken steps to have some items pre-packed or pre-staged always to make it easier. So when those emergencies come up we can go quickly.
I've known two families who had to "bug out" of their homes in the middle of the night because their house was on fire. Neither was prepared for it. One family sent their teenaged son barefoot through the snow a mile to our house to use our phone to call the fire department.
Moving away to OH when I started college I had to be independent so I've always tried to be prepared. And after seeing people having to go out their bedroom window so they can't even get their shoes by the front door I decided I would not subject my family to that.
We have backpacks, or bug out bags if you want to call them that, next to where we sleep so we can evacuate via the window with a little bit of something to keep us safe.
Its no different that my carrying a pistol to defend my family, I have a bag to shelter them should the need arise.

 

[JJEH]

They have no idea lol.Id guess the vast majority under 40 or so have no idea what manual labor is [emoji57]

I grew up in the country and I know what manual labor is, despite the fact that I'm still under 40.

It's a big advantage if you have the resources available in order to support yourself. It sucks if you cannot do it due to health issues.

So I'd say it really depends on the situation and your personal health if you should rather bug in or -out.

 

[chaparrito]

I have concluded that the bugout types have abandoned all hope. Instead of working positively for any sort of change or improvement, it's much easier to tear your hair and gnash your teeth and hope for the end. Instead of being a positive member of society, you hoard and fiddle with your powdered milk and flashlights and count your .22LRs and share foil-hat conspiracies online. It's the over-elaboration of a simple-minded solution to problems that are just too confusing.
My ranch is two hours north of the sixth largest city in the country. A city full of the well armed and poorly practiced. They will head this way if things get tough. It's my opinion that most of the preppers will find out that all their so-called prepping hasn't prepped them for anything, and they'll resort to theft and violence against their fellow man when their batteries go dead and the macaroni is all gone.

 

[mtgianni]

My son says in a long term disaster there are pillagers and pillagees and he plans on being a pillager. At least until he can get home to our house. I'd like to dissuade him but most of history supports his theory.

Correct but the historic survival rate for pillagers can't be over 5% or 6 months. He needs to understand that.