For several weeks now Amy over at Homestead Revival has been holding a Preparedness Challenge on Saturdays. I've been meaning to join in, but haven't been doing very good at fitting preparedness into my weekly routine. This week my husband and I decided that over the weekend we would start working on our Bug Out Bags (BOBs), so I was thrilled to wake up this morning and read that Amy was working on hers as well!
This week I am working on our 'take everywhere' bug out bags. For me that means a backpack that will go in my car with me to work, or when I am out with Little M. So my BOB has to carry things for me and potentially for a one year old. My husband's BOB needs to hold slightly different things. Since he is in law enforcement and is into hunting, his bag will hold guns and ammo, and more woodsy things - firestarters, rope for making shelters, etc. Of course, my bag will hold some of that stuff, but as I will be limited by having Little M, I need to have things that are easier to use & make (lighters instead of firestarters, emergency blankets instead of rope to make a stick shelter). Longer term we will need a larger 3 person kit at the house, including items for our three dogs.
For now I am focusing on the basics - food, water, & shelter. I've ordered several stainless steel water bottles (to avoid plastics, and in theory they could be used to boil water in if we needed), some energy bars, and some paracord (thin strong lightweight rope). We already have a couple of emergency blankets and iodine tablets. I'm thinking about also getting one or two headlamps & a couple of whistles depending on how far I can make our money stretch. We already have things like knives & extra clothes, but we still need to work on our first aid kits.
We set aside money from our tax return this month to pay for these items, but for the future we need to think about whether we want to have a budget line for preparedness items so that every month we can beef up our preparedness kits a bit more, or whether we want to get preparedness items when we have extra money come in one month.
Farming Mama, I'm so glad you joined the challenge this week! Thanks for linking up. One thing I've been meaning to research is an extra gas can (a rather LARGE gas can) that could go on top of the car on on the back so as to get us WAY out of Dodge if necessary. Our old suburban had a 42 gallong tank, but our current SUV only holds about 22. I'm thinking of adding this to my 72 hour kit preparations. Guns and ammo are good, too. My husband is working on permits, but I think I'm going to see about getting mine, too.
ReplyDeleteAmy - a big gas can is a really good idea! Whenever I think about prepping I tell myself to always keep a 1/2 or more full tank in our vehicles, but then in practice we drain the tank to the last drop... Silly really, because one of the top natural disaster reasons for us to need our preparations is forest fires - we would have to get out of dodge - thats hard to do running on fumes!
ReplyDeleteKaty
We store extra fuel to use in the generator and vehicles.Currently we have about 40 gallons. Hubs does a good job of rotating the gas and testing the generator once a month.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a great bag going. We need to get on the ball with this stuff too. Rob works for WSP and also a hunter so the gun stuff is already taken care of;) I have said over and over again that I need to get a preparedness bag for the cars. Great job!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn - we really need to prioritize a generator, we still don't have one, but it would be such a good thing to have.
ReplyDeleteTeresa - too funny that both our husbands are LEO's! I didn't realize! I'm loving the preparedness challenge on saturdays over at homestead revival because it's finally forcing me to get ours together - think about joining in!