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

Bill Bates said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
arjay said:
They have no idea lol.Id guess the vast majority under 40 or so have no idea what manual labor is [emoji57]
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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.
 
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.
 
walnutred said:
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.
Click to expand...

Correct but the historic survival rate for pillagers can't be over 5% or 6 months. He needs to understand that.
 
Just look at the dust bowl back in the 1930`s. I havent read of any wide spread looting and crime back then. Those people were already poor and used to hard work. The Oakies picked up and moved west and picked fruit. My folks did the same. I wasnt born yet but dad, mom and my sister went. Actually dad thought it one of the best times of his life. He claimed he enjoyed the adventure. They ended up near Grants Pass Oregon picking peachs. Mom had to pay a woman more than she made to watch my sister. Seems it was part of the deal to get a cabin and dad got two bucks a day while ma worked in the packing house. The ranch owner had complained no one knew how to work some ranching equipment. Dad grew up on a huge farm in wisconsin and said, I`m your man and put the other men to work.
His family got ahold of him and said his old company, AO Smith in Milwaukee had tried to get ahold of him to come back to work and they had like two or three days or so to get back or lose his spot. It was 1940 and ma was pregnant with me. I think mom said they had like $12s saved up and started back! Dad traded spotlights etc off his old Studebaker president for gas along the way. They viewed it as a adventure.
 
I have a bug out bag. That is what I call it. Emergency survival for a week outside. To me, it is for emergencies. I pack it when I go on road trips.
I learned a few things long ago about bugging out:
First, living in the fourth largest city in the US with Katrina/Rita approaching. Watching traffic gridlocked for hundreds of miles on every major highway...even back roads and small towns distant were affected.
Second, necessary supplies were all but gone...you need gas for a vehicle and food/water and so on.
Third, people think small towns are safe. I know of a couple that are just as dangerous as inner city Chicago or Detroit.

If Katrina had hit us with all of those people on the road and unprotected, the results would've made New Orleans look like a quiet Sunday afternoon.

I think I'd prefer to take my chances in an area I already know and not go exploring out other locations during a crisis. I'll do the best I can with what I have available. In the end, that is all any of us can really do.
 
I don't know about bugging out, but roaming the Earth is losing its appeal. I want to go back to the farm. I realize it's more work than my current job, and I'm OK with that. It's also more honest.
 
HUMMMMM---I THINK--JUST MY OPINION.
Man can either fight or give up--no other options. In my life I have been surprised at some who give up and especially at a few I thought would crumble.
It is not so much that some are better men because they have been raised in hardscrabble ways. It is the measure of a man that will pick up a load that he is not conditioned to and carry on.
NOW---and this is really just my opinion---you may be surprised at who will stand against you and who will stand with you when things start going south.
Blessings
 
I have no plans to bug anywhere. For me it's not practical. The nearest highway is 8 miles away but if everyone is bugging somewhere it might as well be a 100 miles away. Getting stuck with all my gear and family in a week long traffic jam is not a good idea. Unless it's something where I have no choice. ..ie....wild fire, nuke radiation, some sort of immediate outbreak in my area...I plan to stay put. I have plenty of weapons, food and water for a few weeks. I don't have space for years worth of supplies but what I do have will be enough to get to the point of where you know if everything is getting better or its an apocalypse
 
arjay said:
They have no idea lol.Id guess the vast majority under 40 or so have no idea what manual labor is [emoji57]
Click to expand...

Sure we do! Manuel Labor` was president of Mexico, wasn't he???!!!:rolleyes:


Oh wait; I am not under 40................:o I LIVE manual labor....:(

Shucks.:D
 
bugging out

Bugging out is really only a very short term proposition.

It might work for a crisis like a hurricane , major fire, earthquake or terrorist attack.

If you can get to a safer place or survive a disaster for a few days it can work.

Thousands of urbanites running out to rural areas to live of the land will not be good.
 
Chip,

We need to look at this as a business opportunity....

For the lowly sum of 100 grand in gold per head, we'll bug-em
out to the tall and un-cut for a crash course in how it live life free and easy. ;)

Jest fork that ol pony and ride.........Y'alls follow me...........:D



Jest over that far ridge.....



Where Paradise lay......:D

 
Herknav said:
I don't know about bugging out, but roaming the Earth is losing its appeal. I want to go back to the farm. I realize it's more work than my current job, and I'm OK with that. It's also more honest.
Click to expand...

The Men That Don't Fit In
~ taken from a poem by Robert William Service

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
 
keith44spl said:
Chip,

We need to look at this as a business opportunity....

For the lowly sum of 100 grand in gold per head, we'll bug-em
out to the tall and un-cut for a crash course in how it live life free and easy. ;)

Jest fork that ol pony and ride.........Y'alls follow me...........:D



Jest over that far ridge.....



Where Paradise lay......:D

Click to expand...

Dave:

By golly, I think you're on to somethin' there.:)
 
mc1911 said:
Bugging out is really only a very short term proposition.

It might work for a crisis like a hurricane , major fire, earthquake or terrorist attack.

If you can get to a safer place or survive a disaster for a few days it can work.

Thousands of urbanites running out to rural areas to live of the land will not be good.
Click to expand...

Really, bugging out is NOT about going back to the land. It's more about heading to an area where resources are not so compromised, where safety is less compromised, and where shelter is not so compromised. In many cases, it's across one large freeway or river/ bridge. It's over one hill. It's NOT about trying to hustle a disheveled family with 60lb rucksacks to central Utah.
As to how long it would have to last??? That is a great question, and it would depend greatly on the situation and supply chain and available resources.
And...... how high your fences are, and how well built they are.
 
Years ago when I was a guard at a southern california defense plant I got a call about a bum on the property. On questioning him he asked me what state he was in. The last he could remember he was in Texas! This guy was about the dirtiest you ever seen. He had been passed out in a frieght car and rode it in through our train gate for deliverys. Looked to me like he had been on a high lonesome drunk and probley rolled a couple times.
I hate paper work and drove him to what I had heard was a half way house.
The point here is there are many people right here in survival situations every day and have only the rags on their backs.
 
I think most of them boys are kidding themselves.Armchair commandos so to speak.They see something on a you tube and figure that can't be that hard.Well I've spent most of my life working hard,hunting hard and being in the outdoors as much as possible.A lot of camping and cooking over the fire and scrounging for firewood.After a week of doing that for fun I ain't kidding myself.Hit the big SIX-O recently and have gotten pretty soft over the last couple of years.I probably wouldn't last too long but I would like to think I'd last a lot longer than most of these clean finger nailed little keyboard punchers that I see every day.Most of them live in condition white and really take nothing very seriously unless a Starbucks isn't within sight.Can't happen to me mentality.Well it can and probably will if they ever have to "Bug Out".
Yeah sorry I'm a little cranky lately.
 
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Frank237 said:
The average 20-30 year old out there doesn't know how to change a tire....
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I spent Friday morning explaining tire changing to our neighbor ladies 17 year old grandson who is living there with his 17 year old soon to be delivering girl friend.

Flat tire. Car set for 2 days. I asked if he had it under control, he said his grandpa was coming. Next day he had his prego girl friend get the jack out of her car. She pulled out 2 car stands. No jack.

He then took the handle off a floor jack his grandpa dropped off. He then took the pipe handle and was trying to fit the lug nut into the hole in pipe handle.

I ain't making this up, it happened this way.

I asked him what he was doing his girl friend said they were trying to loosen the nuts but they did not fit into the hole.

I lent him my 4 way wrench, all were too big for his little metric nuts. He then walked into his house with my 4 way and did not come out. Now what if I need it?????

That evening he took his girl friends car to pick up fast food for their dinner. I said "hey puleeze bring my 4 way over, now, I might need it". He said Oh wasn't thinking.

That explains too many young folks, oh wasn't thinking.

His dad came by today and I asked him if he was going to teach his son how to change a tire. He chuckled with a goofy laugh, Hu Hu Hu and said he is the worst guy on the planet to do anything mechanical. He then did the Hu Hu Hu and left.

This started last Thursday. The car still has a flat.

Why did I not change it? The lady next to us has always needed a few things done. My wife and I bought a new roll of chain link, posts and quick crete and built new chain link fence on the west half of her yard because her Min Pin had 2K worth of injuries from the dog next to her. Her son, his son who lives with Granny for free and does not mow her yard and her son in law did not show up to help. She said they are not mechanical. I said they could lift the wire out of my truck and unroll it. They could help dig the holes. She again said none of them are mechanical and went back into her house. I told my wife we just got un mechanical. She can pay to get stuff done going forward.

My 15 year old grandson spent a couple of weeks with us last summer. He helped with the chain link fence. I kept my yap shut and told him it is good to help others in need....

A day or so later my grandson said without any prompt from me that the ladies grandson is pure lazy and he would like to see his uncle, my son, take him to work for one day that would be fun to watch. His whole poor pitiful me world would get unraveled.
 
tacreload said:
I think most of them boys are kidding themselves.Armchair commandos so to speak.They see something on a you tube and figure that can't be that hard.Well I've spent most of my life working hard,hunting hard and being in the outdoors as much as possible.A lot of camping and cooking over the fire and scrounging for firewood.After a week of doing that for fun I ain't kidding myself.Hit the big SIX-O recently and have gotten pretty soft over the last couple of years.I probably wouldn't last too long but I would like to think I'd last a lot longer than most of these clean finger nailed little keyboard punchers that I see every day.Most of them live in condition white and really take nothing very seriously unless a Starbucks isn't within sight.Can't happen to me mentality.Well it can and probably will if they ever have to "Bug Out".
Yeah sorry I'm a little cranky lately.
Click to expand...

Did you ever see the documentary called I think Alone in the Wilderness? It comes on PBS every so often. The gentleman retires, moves to Alaska and builds a cabin out in the Twin Lakes area I believe. Stays for 30 years and pretty much lives off the land. Amazing story.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke
 
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