Been wondering about this

[VesperSparrow]

For some time now...


How the HECK am I supposed to carry a buncha canned goods, H20 AND supply stuff (batteries, radios, clothes, shelter, etc, etc, etc, etc) to ANYWHERE if or WHEN TSHTF????
This weekend I'm planning on getting it all together but good Lord on high I think there will be much more than what I can carry. What if you aren't allowed to drive to anywhere? What if you live in sorta suburbia and your best route is north to the woods?
PLUS I'll have 2 boys in tow, one big one that carry stuff and a 7 year old...they can carry what they can but what if we're on foot? If we have to run?
I rent my place so if it all goes down I don't thek mr. slumlord will allow me to stay here without paying some kinda rent.
Cash? If there ain't none?
Barter? My food? No way.
It isn't feasible for me to have some cabin hidden in the deep dark wood either.
Of course I guess desperate times call for desperate measures....
I can picture us surviving for 6 weeks max. Then who knows.........

 

[WonderWhy]

There's a possibility that when IT happens, nothing will be the same, hence the phrase TEOTWAWKI.

Mr. Slumlord may be confined by bird flu/quarantine or nuke/societal disruption. He may bug out himself. Lots of possibilities, and many of them do not involve dropping by to collect rent.

Sounds like you would be better off staying put in the short term, while you figured out what might come next.

 

[diamonds]

I think someone will help you along the way. Esp if you have your own preps and are willing to help out. However I would make some kind of arrangements now. Find someone you can trust. Someone who stockpiles/preps too. I feel that there is safety in numbers in a true emergency.

 

[HeliumAvid]

I aggree, if it gets real toasty the land lord will be the least of your problems. Make sure your camping gear is in place, hunker down as long as you can, then put as much as you can in the car...

Get some good backpacks, water filter, freeze dried food is lighter to carry but you need water to eat it.

Great question, good luck to all of us.

HeliumAvid

 

[rryan]

It is a really good question.

In most situations I think I could jsut sit out msot anything due to my location in the boonies of the boonies.

However, my idea of a BOB is the backpack sitting by the door that I pick up when I plan on walking away and NEVER coming back or seeing any of my other posessions again.

Think tools and equipment to fabricate shelter, provide food, hunt/fish, etc that will last a long long time and serve multiple purposes.

A good knife, some rope, an axe, and a hunting weapon are worth a thousand times their weight in canned goods IMO.

And one last thing----if there are potentially hostile people about all a tent is good for is trapping yourself and defeating your senses.

 

[Cardinal]

VS, here is what I would do if I was in your situation.

1-Make sure your car works, is in good repair.

2-Keep enough fuel stockpiled to get outa there if you must.

3- Have enough camping gear-tent, sleeping bags, cooler ect.. so you can stay in the woods a while and be as comfortable as possible (do you go camping with your boys now, for vacations? I would start)

4-get a rooftop carrier for your car so if you must bug out, you can take as much of your supplies with you as possible.

5-Maps. Know where the national forests are and how to get to them.

You don't want to be on foot with two kids, you are much too vulnerable. If you can't shoot, learn. If your boys aren't in Scouts, enroll them. They will learn exactly the kind of skills that would come in handy in the woods.
Make sure the boys learn to shoot. (the 7 yr old can start with a pellet gun. You can get lots of small game with a pellet gun)
Make contact now with some other (TB2Kers) survivalists who will let you stay on their land if you need to (pm me, I'll send you my ph.#)

I know you asked about what if you aren't allowed to drive, but you cannot allow yourself to get stuck like that. If you see the hurricane comin (whatever the problem is) leave before it gets to that point. Take vacation time and clear out before martial law comes down in your area.

 

[Worrier King]

Worse case scenario, it would take your landlord some time to legally evict you so that would buy you some "hunker down" time. It would also allow you to make more than one run in repositioning supplies if you knew where to reposition to.

The good news is Spring is on the way, so another month or two solves cold weather problems.

All you can do is all you can do. After that its in higher hands for all of us.

Try to relax some, you'll think much more clearly that way.

 

[registered_lurker]

Hi Vesper,

A lot of people use or plan to use a trailer of one type or another for their bug-out-buddy. Unless it is somehting you use on a fairly regular basis, it's an additional prep expense, $700-800 around here for a little 4x6 utility trailer, like for lawnmowers, etc. Some plan to use U-hauls. I knew one guy who kept his large trailer backed into a storage building, then filled it up with various seldom used prep items, plus food and water barrels. If/when he felt he need he could just open the door, back up to the trailer and be gone with all his preps.

If you are not allowed to drive, no one else will be either. We will all be in the same boat. If you have to bugout, it will have to be on foot. Take a look at how others have successfully done so in the past, the US Infantry. Take a look at how others have been unsuccessful - lines of refugees travelling along the shoulder of the road dragging wagons or pushing wheelbarows loaded with their belongings. This is an example of what to avoid.

If you are bugging out, you must know where you are going. If you have to go on foot, expect to arrive with practically nothing in hand.

If you have to run, you will probably throw down everything except ife sustaining items. You may have noticed in war movies, the grunts will drop their packs and even their canteen belts for combat, the idea being that they do not need these items for combat, if they survive they will return to reclaim their gear; if not... In your care, it would be more important to make haste than to cling to five gallons of clean water.

Perhaps you could use some help along the way? Check the Frapper Map, you may find one of us along your planned route, or even in your general area who can give you a hand.

 

[timbo]

VesperSparrow, it sounds like you are doing a good job of the prepping in place.

If you have accumulated to the point where you know you cant carry it all then you have done good.

Keep that in mind. It's important that we feel a confidence in what we have done already. Without a good frame of mind all the prepping in the world wont help.

So VS,this weekend do that inventory. Several people here have given darn good ideas to help you. That should be part of your weekend planning.

Think simple. Food. Clothing. Shelter. Always water. But why carry water? In most places there will be water. Maybe not drinking water as is,but water.

Someone here mentioned a filtering system. Do you have one? You really need something even if you stay in place.

Self protection? Without that,you wont be able to protect what you own. Its going to be a big part of a really crappy future. It doesnt have to be fancy schmancy. Just reliable.

So food? Look at the nutritional value per pound of what to have with you. Noodles are great but they are bulky. Rice is weighty but can carry more in a smaller space. Think small. Vitamins and other nutritional supplements should be some part of leaving so that when things do get slim you at least are getting some good stuff in you.
Clothing. Think layers. Carry what you need by wearing it. You can always peel stuff off and stuff it somewhere but by having it right with you,you cant lose it.
Rainwear? Nothing wrong with garbage bags with holes for your arms. Will keep a lot of rain off you and dont take up hardly any room.
Keep thinking mass and weight.
Shelter. This is wide open on what to have. A 8X12' plastic tarp could cover the three of you. Not the best but enough to get you out of the elements. Think natural shelter in your travelling. Of course the car as long as you can is a great shelter. A few of the little heaters made from egg cartons,wax and dryer lint can ward off cold. Remember when you have a flame though you must have fresh air!

Plans plans and more plans. That is what you need as much as the stuff you will carry. Do you have maps?
Where are you going? Why are you going that way? Do you really know what's there when you get there? Have you scouted out the terrain,the neighboring terrain? The people?

Print this thread out if you can VS. Its a good one and should give you plenty to think about this weekend.
You are doing good. The fact that you want to be even more specific in your planning says you are ahead of about 98% of the people in the world.
Best to you.
Tim

 

[window2watcher]

Get yourself a dehydrator and begin to dehydate fruit, veg and meat---cuts the weight. If you can get your hands on a vacume sealer, that will add life to your dried stuff, but beware that the bags do get holes in them if roughly handled. Use freezer zip lock bags. They are sturdy and double bag your stuff, sealed or not.

 

[Satanta]

Two options:

Be preppared to hunker in-that's where the extra canned goodsand such come in.

Be prepared to leave-that's where the backpack comes in.

If the landlord gets in the way slip an ice pick into the beck of his skull between the spine and cranium and make slurry out if his brain or into a kidney and let him bleed out silently in the tub.

 

[tsk]

VS, IF they quarantine the area, you will not have to pay rent. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO ANYWHERE!!! YOUR LANDLORD WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO ANYWHERE. TPTB, will forego your landlord's mortgage payment, rent payment, etc...BECAUSE THE BANKERS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO OPEN THEIR BANKS...IT WILL BE AS IF A MASSIVE SNOW STORM HIT, AND YOUR LANDLORD CANNOT GET TO YOUR HOUSE TO PICK UP THE CHECK! (KINDA)

You're thinkin though...

tsk, tsk...

 

[Walrus Whisperer]

The ice pick into the ear works, too. Or a good upwards slug with the heel of your hand or well placed head butt to the nose will drive two little bones in there right into the brain. Lights out. Or if he's trying to rape you in exchange for the rent and you cant do the above, act turned on and wait for your chance to stick your thumbs into his eyes-Did you know that it takes more pressure to open a soda pop can than it does to pop a would be rapists eye balls out? Before you go EWWWWW, is it gonna be you and your kids? or him?

 

[RC]

What if you live in sorta suburbia and your best route is north to the woods?
. . . .

I rent my place so if it all goes down I don't thek mr. slumlord will allow me to stay here without paying some kinda rent.


You need to put it in perspective....

You probably stand a better chance with Mr. Slumlord than you do with whoever happens to own the "woods" you are planning to retreat to.

Chances are, if you don't pay any rent to Mr. Slumlord, he'll go to court and try to evict you. He might not even do that--if nobody else is paying rent, and you have done so in the past, he might correctly conclude that he's better off letting you stay, and resuming the collection of rent when life returns to normal. Even if he decides to evict you, the courts and the sheriff might have bigger things to worry about.

On the other hand, if you just start squatting on some vacant corner of the woods, when the owner discovers you, it's much less likely that you will be allowed to remain.

I think your best bet under almost any circumstances is to take your chances with Mr. Slumlord. He probably won't do any favors for you out of selfless charity, but he could very well conclude that letting you remain and take care of his property is in his best interests.

When the time comes to discuss these matters with him; however, address him by his real name, and not "Mr. Slumlord."

 

[WonderWhy]

Bug out only if necessary

Mr. Slumlord won't have the option of legally evicting anyone in a true TEOTWAWKI situation -- who would be in the courthouse to prepare the paperwork? If there are still officers on duty, they will have things to do far more important than serving eviction notices. Besides, you are someone who's been preparing -- what about the great masses of folk focussed on their tvs and who didn't see anything coming. They won't be ready with extra rent, and they will be agitating for food. The numbers of people eligible for eviction in a TEOTWAWKI situation is mind-boggling, and there will be far worse things to deal with rent collection.

If you need to move to a safer location, then by all means go. But don't base your plans on what Mr. Slumlord might do. JMHO

 

[timbo]

I have a slumlord living two houses from me. He has several properties in a very bad area of Flint.
He is not a nice man. I've known other slumlords that are not nice men as well.

A lot of the time they dont even use the courts.

And the fact that VS calls him a slum lord makes me believe that she doesnt live in a nice area and with the kids she feels an extra responsibility to get the hell out.

I dont blame her. If she has a slumlord there is a good chance that she is surrounded by people that have slumlords too.

A lot of people may not be nice people.

If all this is the case she needs to get her.....children and herself away from that.

If you can VP, this may be the next step in your prepping if you can. I know there maybe a lot of extenuating circumstances holding you there but for me,I would do my best to get out now.
There are small towns in the USA that have cheaper housing and no slumlords per se to worry about.

 

[Samson]

I am coming to the conclusion that if you are going to bug out you best do it well before the sheeple know why they shoud be doing the same.

Even though we are in the city and things could get nasty, at least we already have shelter, water, food and the weapons to put up a good fight.

My worst fear is being stuck on a highway somewhere with thousands of others because of roadblocks and mayhem while we do not have what we need and are in a position that is impossible to defend.

If you are going to bug out you need to have a rock solid plan and be able to make the call. I do not think most of us will have that luxury.

Bottom line I would prefer to die in my home than out there.

 

[imaginative]

One of the handiest lil' transporters I've found is a good-quality, old-fashoned newspaper carrier sack.

Actually two; one for each shoulder.

 

[Deemy]

One, it sounds like you need to figure out how to leave anyway. Two, learn what wild plants are edible.

 

[alpha phi]

Red Cross had a really cool bug out pack
It was a huge duffel bag
The top part zipped off into a backpack
And came with a vest.
The idea is the most important things go into the vest
a three day supply of the basics go into the backpack
The big duffel part is for the rest.
The part I didn't like is that it was bright red.....
I'd want to be a little more descrete.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

I've only been reading the board about an hour or so a day lately. So I have to ask, what's the big deal VesperSparrow? Why are you wigging out about this now, at this particular time? Did you see a Russian nuclear misslie fly over your house today or what? What gives?

 

[Caplock50]

Under normal circumstances, it takes about three months to get legally evicted from a house. First, you have to be over one month late on the rent. Lets say one month, one week. It normally takes about a month to go through the court system. That gives you two month, one week of time. The courts will give you one month to either pay up or move out. That gives you a grand total of three months, one week of rent-free living space. And this is during normal times, not the abnormal TEOTWAWKI times. Does that help?

Edited to add: But...if you leave that residence at any time during the eviction proceedings, your landlord can legally lock you out of the house...in which case you loose everything still in the house.

 

[VesperSparrow]

Edited to add: But...if you leave that residence at any time during the eviction proceedings, your landlord can legally lock you out of the house...in which case you loose everything still in the house.

Well now, I guess that sums up what I wouldn't do before tshtf....

I thank you all for your tips and suggestions. Especially the storage shed idea. Everything in one place...
Heck, I could just get one as far away as is feasible (where I know I can get to it if something happens) and take up squatter's rights for a time, times, and half a time.

One thing I notice when I get to the grocery store lately is that the bottled water is scarce. There is still some there, enough to buy for me, but its dwindling. It just didn't hit me till yesterday though.
I've actually got one of my landlord's better places. Right on HIS property. Not alot of riff raff around. Beach about a mile away. NAS P'cola right in my backyard, so we're definately on the first 'hit-list'. But I just know that ole geezer too well, his greed (from his OWN admission and actions) is something that makes me realize that there won't be any staying here if something happens.

I've driven up around the nnorth ends of the county and up into Alabama and I know all the back roads, where the abandoned homes and cabins and such are...just keeping those in mind. Plenty of rivers and streams and creeks.
My biggest worry is getting to them though.
I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Oh, and I'll be buying an ice pick today

 

[registered_lurker]

If you are going to bug out you need to have a rock solid plan and be able to make the call. I do not think most of us will have that luxury.

I've driven up around the nnorth ends of the county and up into Alabama and I know all the back roads, where the abandoned homes and cabins and such are...

At the end of the world, if you have any kind of a plan at all, you are ahead of 98% of the people.

Vesper, if you decide to stash in a storage building, don't forget to sock away some extra fuel for further evacuation.

Also, I recall hearing last year about some guy who went to his storage unit to retrieve or drop off some stuff, and heard Spanish coming from another unit, people and little kids talking. He snooped around a bit and found a family of Latinos were actually living in one of the units, and were using the single electrical outlet to run their TV and fan and cooking on a camp stove. So I guss it would be possible to use a storage unit as a "vacation cottage"....

 

[idelphic]

< registered_lurker>
A lot of people use or plan to use a trailer of one type or another for their bug-out-buddy. Unless it is somehting you use on a fairly regular basis, it's an additional prep expense, $700-800 around here for a little 4x6 utility trailer, like for lawnmowers, etc. Some plan to use U-hauls. I knew one guy who kept his large trailer backed into a storage building, then filled it up with various seldom used prep items, plus food and water barrels. If/when he felt he need he could just open the door, back up to the trailer and be gone with all his preps.
<...>

I've been thinking about this thread a bit.

Regarding using a storage shed -
It's a great thought. However please make sure you consider the area of which the site is located. Have just recently closed a storage unit in another state I have a few thoughts to share.

Package everything sealing it from dust and moisture. I did not store what I had in the manner, and thus the books now smell dusty and of mold - Thankfully they are not books I need to keep. Everything was covered in dust. The cloths that I had in storage will have to be cleaned at least once. I prob will just yard sell them or donate them as to deal with them as I havn't seen or used them in six years.

What can you store in a storage unit? Anything 'non hazardous' that you wish. I had only a 5' wide x 10' deep unit. Units across from mine were larger. On the day I cleared mine out, a gentleman was working on his vehicle. The old car was backed in. So you can get large items into one. But remember that they are not where you are,... and in the case of mine, in a different state. I could not monitor it for vandilism or theft. If you do use one, make sure that you do use care. Additionally, my rent was the same until just this year when I closed it. But it was almost a full house payment for a year. For just 50 square feet of space.

<timbo>
Clothing. Think layers. Carry what you need by wearing it. You can always peel stuff off and stuff it somewhere but by having it right with you,you cant lose it.
Rainwear? Nothing wrong with garbage bags with holes for your arms. Will keep a lot of rain off you and dont take up hardly any room.
Keep thinking mass and weight.
<...>

Yes - think layers wear what you use, use what you wear... Yet why garbage bags. Think multi use If you take a garbage bag and put holes in it,... then you can only use it for one thing. Why not grab the shower curtian. Or get a set of G.I. ponchos. They can be used for rain gear, and a tarp or to catch rain water to drink. I used two ponchos to increase the size of a pup tent while tagging along on a Boy Scout canoe trip. I surprised several with this, including an eagle.. as none of them knew of using a poncho as tarp. I have even seen a G.I. poncho used as a floatation device (not a boat) for light backs (I have a link somewhere).

<VesperSparrow>
Beach about a mile away. NAS P'cola right in my backyard, so we're definately on the first 'hit-list'.
<...>

Ahh,... the Panhandle. Been there. I was in 'A' school in P'cola. Sure alot has changed since I was there in 89-90. Right in line for for a direct and indirect hit from from hurricanes... I'm a wanton for punishment,... but not a direct one. If you have the ability,... try moving a bit north...

<Cardinal>
Make contact now with some other (TB2Kers) survivalists who will let you stay on their land if you need to (pm me, I'll send you my ph.#
<...>

Cardinal has the right idea. While you have to use caution in your choices. I am amost directly north of you. So you know that there are those that will give assistance.