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July 2015 Bug-In Report

July 2015 Bug-In Report
« on: August 09, 2015, 09:34:27 PM »
I planned something a little bit different for the Bug-In Drill.  Rather than shut off the electricity and water, I chose to take it a step farther and simulate extensive damage to my home and the need to camp in the backyard.  For those that do not know me and for reference as to why I chose to camp in the backyard, when I was living in Colorado I was buying a piece of property and was homesteading it.  For three years, I lived in a small travel trailer without running water or electricity.  The property was 32 miles from the nearest town, at 8500’ elevation on the northeast slope of the Continental Divide.  We were building the home by hand, as we had money and resources to build.  We lived off the land, endured the coldest and snowiest winters on record for the state of Colorado while living on that property.  It was an incredible experience, one that taught me many lessons.  So rather than live in my home without electricity or water for a day, I choose to rough it in the backyard.  And I gotta tell ya, this was much harder than I anticipated.

I started my day by dropping off my vehicle at the shop for some regular maintenance.  The shop is only a mile from my home, so I used the walk back as scout mission.  I surveyed the area immediately along the sidewalk, looking for the types of trash tossed aside.  The edges of the sidewalk were littered primarily with small liquor bottles and beer cans/bottles.  These were much denser in quantity nearest the local 7-11.  As I got closer to home, the trash along the sidewalk became non-existent.  The reason I chose to survey the trash along the sidewalk was to get a better sense of the typical foot track along that stretch of road.  I did not see any drug paraphernalia which is what concerned me the most. 

I also took note to the backyards and homes visible from the sidewalk.  I noted who was growing small vegetable gardens, who had shops and equipment as well as homes that were dilapidated and in disarray.  I used the morning business of dropping my vehicle off as a reconnaissance mission, getting more information and knowledge about the neighborhood.  Who could be potential allies, who were possible trouble, what businesses were in the immediate area if I needed last minute supplies, what sort of foot traffic was regularly traversing the area and just getting a better sense of my surroundings.
Once I returned home, I made my final preparations for the drill.  My plan was to exit my home at precisely 10:00am.  The rule was no access to the home.  The garage was the only portion of my home that I was allowing myself access.  I had other ulterior motives for this drill.  I needed to fully deploy my field gear, sort through it and repack.  Since all my gear is in the garage, that was the only portion of the home I allowed myself access.

I busied myself with some final touches on cleaning up the kitchen, taking out the trash and pulling out my Ready Freddy 72 hour kit, grabbing my everyday carry bags, bug out bag and other supplies.  I had already been up for a short bit and was starting to get hungry, so made myself a quick breakfast, knowing that the day was going to be lean on food.  I don’t usually eat breakfast first thing in the morning and was starting to get hungry.  Time was ticking, so I made myself a breakfast sandwich. LESSON #1 – Daily habits can have a huge impact in the event of an emergency.  If I had not had breakfast, my afternoon would have not gone very well.  I would not have had the strength, energy or mental fortitude to handle the day and this was a planned event.  During a real emergency, the added stress would have made it more difficult.  Hence, the importance of nourishing yourself properly on a regular basis. DAILY HABITS CAN SABOTAGE THE BEST OF PLANS.

LESSON #2
- Keeping up on daily household chores.  Life can get busy.  There are times when doing the dishes, laundry and staying up on basic household chores can take a backseat to the chaotic schedules of modern life.  However; as I was preparing for this drill, I realized that staying on top of these chores is really important.  Imagine not being able to do your dishes for a few days, or having a pile of dirty laundry at the moment of an emergency and needing those clothes during the emergency.  I read about this in a blog from someone that had gone through a long-term power outage in the Mid-West during the winter and how having the laundry done was critical to getting through a week of power outages. One time, when I was living in Colorado, I had loaded up my laundry and took it to town.  It had been snowing for about a week already, and the storm intensified that day.  Rabbit Ears Pass, my normal route home, was closed for 2 whole days.  I was stuck in town for 2 days, got a motel room that first night and stayed with friends on the second night.  It’s a good thing I had my laundry with me!

The 10:00am hour approached rather quickly.  I grabbed my half-eaten breakfast sandwich, everyday carry bags, 72 hour kit, bug out bag and HAM radio, walked out the door with the dog and began my excursion in the backyard.  The cats would have to be on their own.  I stepped outside, set my bags down at the patio table.  I pulled out my phone and HAM radio.  I designated the patio table the communications table and maintained an hourly check-in on both.  I wanted to conserve on my batteries, so I did not leave them on.  I finished my sandwich, walked the perimeter of the house locating all major utilities, went through the motions of turning everything off, practiced my FEMA training for post-earthquake building assessment and started to plan my day.  It was then that I realized that I had forgotten the most critical piece of equipment.  MISTAKE #1 - My firearm was still inside.  I was completely defenseless.

I began with taking a full inventory of my Ready Freddy pack.  I opened each pouch to inventory the supplies.  This pack is a good start for emergency supplies but needs lots of supplementation to complete it.  Once I got to the communications pouch, pulled out the hand-crank and solar powered radio.  Ironically, when I flipped on the radio, the station was pre-set to 780 AM and the local Washoe County Emergency Manager Aaron Kenneston was giving an interview on emergency preparedness.  Great background conversation for the plans I had for the day!  I set the radio in the sun and let it continue to broadcast.  It played all day long sitting in the sun.  As I sat at the table, looking at my communications, I took notes on my current energy preparedness and gaps in my current preps.  Not only are communications important but energy has become an integral part of modern life.  Considering the fact that I have a deep freezer and a refrigerator, my current energy back-ups are not adequate for a long-term situation.  So I made my list of energy preps that need to be put on priority #1!

After taking an inventory of the Ready Freddy, I simulated debris clean-up.  Naturally, with an earthquake causing severe damage to the home, there would be additional debris in the yard that would be need to be cleared before setting up camp.  The clean-up revealed an ant nest of Biblical proportions near the patio.  It has been an extremely bad year for ants, and I had just discovered one of the numerous nests in the backyard.  Despite all my efforts to conquer the ants, all efforts were only temporary.  LESSON #3 – Keep up on pest control around the home!  Since this drill, I have taken a 3 punch attack on the ants and have started to see relief. Pest control will be added to my spring home maintenance checklist!

Once things were cleaned up, I began to deploy my field kitchen.  I had a hard time getting to stuff.  My garage is kind of small, my daughter has been in the process of revamping her room, cleaning out her little girl stuff in favor of teenager distractions, so boxes had been set right in front of all my field gear and water storage.  Getting to the things I need took extra time to move boxes out of the way.  LESSON #4 – Organization.  Have a system and stick to it.  Keep all emergency supplies accessible at all time.  On top of all the other projects, organizing the garage has landed on the top of list of things to do!  Not only is organization a key, but I also thought of what sort of mess I’d be looking at in a real earthquake.  What would still be on the shelves, and what would be in a pile on the floor?

I finally got all the field kitchen supplies staged in an area of the yard that I felt would work for the day.  I opted out of fully setting up the screen tent I typically use.  In the event of a true emergency, my outdoor kitchen would be set-up inside a tent.  My ultimate desire is to have a covered outdoor kitchen area in the backyard.  I discovered an unwanted inhabitant in my gear upon unpacking.  A mouse had found its way into my gear and nearly gave me a heart attack upon discovering it!  How is it that something so small can scare the begesus out of ya!  I got the kitchen set-up and took notes on supplies I would need from the store to supplement and better organize the pack up and set up of the kitchen supplies, both for camping and in field use as well as in an emergency situation.  My vehicle was ready for pick-up, the mechanic came to pick me up and after I got my wheels back, I headed to the shopping center just a mile away for the storage supplies I needed for the field kitchen.

I treated this excursion to the store like another scouting mission.  I was taking inventory of the stores, pharmacies and restaurants in the vicinity of my home.  I would like to think that in the event of a true disaster, I would be of a more prepared mindset to get to the stores before the crowds to stock up on any final needed items as well as barter or trade items.  I was also keeping in mind the potential of salvaging missions, not that there would much leftover if I waited too long.
 
Once I got back to the house, I rearranged the field kitchen to be far more functional and was happy with the new configuration.  The afternoon was getting hot.  I had already consumed 2 24 ounce bottles of water.  The dog had also had 1 liter of water.  I was getting a little hungry, so I grabbed a package of chicken salad with crackers from my bug out bag.  I scarfed it done in no time flat; then I raided the field kitchen for a granola bar and some crackers with peanut butter.  LESSON #5 – Have more meals ready to eat or meals that require minimal prep and clean up for the immediate time after an emergency.  The stress and additional work from a disaster will take a toll on your body, so have some meals ready to heat and serve that can provide hearty sustenance in the first 72 hours after a disaster.  As a sat thinking about my food stores, I realized that I needed to spread my stores out more.  My garage is not temperature controlled, so I do not keep canned goods in the garage.  However; I do have my stand-up freezer in the garage.  As I was pulling out the field kitchen gear, I pulled out my winter car emergency supplies.  Inside the crate was a small lunchbox sized cooler that I had stashed cans of food and other emergency food rations for the vehicle.  I discovered that the cooler had kept the food at a stable temperature.  Perhaps coolers could be a short-term solution to spreading out my emergency food supplies.  Not only would the cooler keep food temperature stable but also keep pesky rodents at bay.

The day had already been a full day and I was starting to wear out.  I set up a camping cot in the garage, grabbed a large stuffed animal my daughter had cleaned out of her room to use as a pillow and laid down for a nap.  It was a hot day, I didn’t sleep very well but enough to recharge.  I stepped outside and thought about my plants.  There was a bucket that had collected some rainwater, so I used that to water half of the plants in the backyard.  I had taken an inventory of my water supplies earlier in the day, but that water would not sustain any garden.  I noted in my notebook ways to supplement water storage and have water storage for garden plants.  LESSON #6 – Plan for water storage for backyard gardens.

There did come several points in the day when I needed to consider sanitation needs.  I’m totally okay with squatting behind a bush, and some experiments have shown that the nitrogen from urine is good for composting, but I had to stop and consider the other alternatives.  In a worst case scenario, I would dig up the lid to my septic tank to dump buckets into.  But in the short-term, what would I do? LESSON #7 – Get a plan for dealing with human waste.

It was approaching 6:00pm and I was worn out.  I had a pretty full day, above and beyond your typical bug in drill.  I learned many things about roughing it in the backyard.  It’s hot, I need more shade coverage and shelter from the elements.  Camping in the backyard is not all it is cracked up to be.  The first few days after a disaster can be very tiresome.  Just getting things set-up can wear you out, I am not in the same shape I was in when I was roughing it in Colorado without electricity and water.  I have much more space in my backyard and time to develop more outdoor living space.  I did not utilize my campfire pit which is there if I need it.  But during the day, I did consider the various methods of cooking currently at my disposal as well as methods that I can add for outdoor cooking and food preparation.  Overall, I do feel that I am in a good place.  If I needed to rough it in my backyard, it can be done.  Now that I have my gear dialed in better and a prioritized plan to supplement my preps, I think I’ll do fine.

Considering the massive ant nest near where I was planning to pitch a tent and the fact that I was just plain tuckered out, I decided to wrap up my bug-in drill.  I feel I gained enough knowledge and insight from my day in the backyard, shaking out my gear as well as scouting the immediate neighborhood for local intel.  I wrapped it up and headed back inside.  I was hot, sweaty and hungry.  I wrapped things up, packed up the field kitchen and headed back inside, thankful that this was just a drill and not the real deal!
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Keep calm and PREP on!

Offline Jerry D Young

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Re: July 2015 Bug-In Report
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2015, 11:05:24 AM »
Wow! Excellent! Great write up. I like how you ran the drill, as well as the approach you took. Great lessons, from which I think we can all benefit.

Jerry
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Jerry D Young

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and always remember TANSTAAFL

(TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch - Robert A. Heinlein)

Offline Rob McKevitt

  • Unofficial Organizer of the Northern Nevada Preppers Group
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Re: July 2015 Bug-In Report
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2015, 07:53:11 PM »
Awesome write up! I learned some things from it that I can use for my own. Thank you for posting this!
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