bug out II

BUG OUT II


Some time ago a minion asked me about a preference between more 12 volt batteries or more solar panels. Which one was better? Now, obviously this is specific to your location. If you have a month of clouds between sun you need both in abundance. If you have almost everyday sunny you need almost no batteries. And if you have a modest amount of cloudy days you need few batteries. My advice is only based on my own weather. At worse, we get a solid week of clouds with one day of sun. And cold weather. My batteries aren’t freeze proof in their location, so the best way to compensate for that is to try to keep the charge maximized most times. A charged battery usually won’t freeze. I prefer less batteries and more panels. Since I usually only use five amps of juice a day ( about 60 watts ), six days of clouds barely draw down my two marine batteries. On the seventh day they recharge ( I use one hour of charging capacity per day ). Thus, my batteries don’t work too hard which helps maximize their life and I don’t have to worry about freezing. Also, panels last much longer than batteries and the cost difference between a deep charge battery and a fifteen watt panel is negligible. Sorry I didn’t answer sooner. Sometimes I need time pondering and sometimes I forget the question if I don’t write it down.

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Yesterday I was rambling a bit but two things to take from the article were, 1) fear your own government more than terrorists and, 2) bugging out is useful for the evil people. I won’t elaborate on government evil, that has been covered scores of times. But let me touch again on convoys of evil dudes descending on your tiny town five hundred miles away from an urban jungle. Almost no one is inaccessible. If you have a road in, so does everyone else. Lucifer’s Hammer is a great illustration of this. The problem with living far from a city is that the farther away you are, the higher the probability that those that reach you are far more capable of Very Bad Things. By the time the last of the cars with the last of the gas reach you, they will be veteran fighters that bushwhacked and hijacked their way to you. And I’m not just saying they will be escaped inmates or gang members. There will be a few Yuppies that are able to throw off their civilized training and revert to barbarism. Those that first figure out that only the ruthless will make it, and are the first to act on that conclusion will be the survivors. It could be any meek and mild mannered former accountant or clerk that has a baby and wife to provide for. The truly scary ones will be the “guns-only” survivalists that made up their minds long ago this would be their escape route and actually planned for it. The regular civilians will take precious time making up their minds. The gun heavies already have. Ladies, do you see what denying prep money does? Your crazy as a craphouse rat husband could have sheltered in place and only been a threat locally. But since they could only buy ammo and guns, they have to raid outwards. Okay, I’m mostly jesting. Any spouse in denial would prohibit both food AND gun preps.

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So, not only must you compete with government interference if you decide to bug out, far worse you must contend with the parasites that want your gasoline to get their over laden SUV as far away from the city as possible. Now, I’m not saying all bug-out plans are silly. If you can do one or both things, be able to walk worse case and/or go to an undesirable location, you should be okay. Take my earlier example. I lived in Carson City and had land 330 miles away in Elko. If I had pre-positioned my supplies in Elko, I could have walked there in two weeks at the longest. In Lawrence Of Arabia by Liddell Hart, more than one reference is made to Arab raiding parties carrying fifty pound sacks of flour as their only rations for month plus long journeys. They lived off a pound of flour a day. Granted, they were riding rather than marching, and the friendly villages at the start and end of their journeys allowed them to feast to compensate for lost weight. But it does illustrate that a healthy individual can live on a pound of wheat a day for some time ( prolonged periods would see an increase of ill effects, but for those of you questioning a year long diet of wheat, it is far better than starvation ).

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Jerky would be a better food weight wise if you are making bug-out bags for the family for two weeks walk, but it can be done with flour. To get back to my example, I was quite worried about either sudden gasoline shortages, government road blocks, or both. Since I could comfortably work minimum wage jobs, and since my situation would be improved rather than worsened by moving up to my retreat, it worked for me. I didn’t have to worry about bugging out. But if you have no choice, just be close enough to hoof it. And, try not to be moving to a post-apocalypse paradise. If you are moving to the mountains or naturally watered agricultural land, of course all the dangerous survivors are going to be joining you. Bugging out has mostly focused on the good and righteous going to their super retreats in pimpin SUV rides towing tons of gear. Rouge warrior bands made up of former gang members attacking your retreat would then follow. But really, the reality could very well be those bad guys being the successful bug-out survivors.

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The universal desire is to flee to security. The mountains are a safe castle and the plains of food are the granaries for all those fleeing the cities. If all aspiring survivalists think this way, why doesn’t it follow that the urban sheeple also have the same conclusions? Bugging out won’t work if you need your vehicle. The most successful survivors of the city flight will be the most ruthless and dangerous. And the number one destination for them will be mountain towns of farm villages. It isn’t enough to avoid bugging out, you also need to stay away from those that do. If you need a car to escape you will face gas shortages, government road blocks, gridlock, and the farther away you get the more dangerous the journey will become as the savages need to replenish their gasoline stocks. They didn’t carry gas cans, but you did. Target. They will attack anyone just for the gas in the tank, but if they spy cans attached to you, you are done. Aren’t you glad you decided to live so far away from a safe place? Your wife and children will certainly think so until they are under attack.

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