AGING BOB
*note: J.Y., most excellent PayPal donation-thank you.
*
You all know I’m not a
huge fan of Bug Out Bags. I don’t mind
them, per se, if the intent is a short distance to home or a back-up emergency
egress simply because you never know. I
don’t dislike the BOB’s, I dislike everyone’s unhealthy infatuation with them,
the endless articles and focus on something that should be no more complicated
than an Everyday Carry list. Which are also beat like a dead horse. Beat like a dead horse by a fish wife on meth
on the way to the glue factory. No list
is right or wrong and usually it is futile to attempt to improve on one. And it is an unfortunate activity for no
other reason than it adds to the acronyms preppers use ( and I hate acronyms
from my military days, and the crass attempt at Corporates to use them to
confuse rather than clarify ).
*
I had a truck bug out bag,
which I mainly used to move from Carson City up here to Elko ( good distances
between settlements ). After that, it
was just handy if I had to head for the hills.
Since I was living off grid without heat ( or not enough, anyway ), I
was pretty much always dressed warm enough that I only needed to grab a jackets
to cut the wind and I was warm enough.
The gun and cartridge belt were next to the bed and my bag was outside
behind the truck seat. And that was about
as much attention as I paid to the whole concept ( yes, I know I’m lacking a up
in the hills cache ). The only thing
that changed was the truck was retired around six years ago and the cab got
filled up with a bunch of crap I would have had to fight through ( well, that,
and I don’t live there anymore-now the plan is to get to the property ).
*
I just had a guy leave me
a note up at my place, asking if he could buy some parts off of the truck. Bumper, fender, grill and mirrors. Now, this is a 1975 truck. It was always a work truck. Beat hard, then rode hard, then put up
wet. I didn’t think anyone would want
the poor dear. Hell, it even has a big
enough rust hole on the floorboard I had a snake catch a ride with me into town
once ( NOT as exciting as you’d think ).
But what the heck, it’s a few extra bucks. So I’m up there clearing out the cab ( he had
mentioned the dashboard, but it turned out too cracked for him ), and I thought
I really should haul out the BOB and check its condition.
*
Besides a few bike parts (
the fenders I never used because of my baskets, taken off when I bought the
bike new, a few tires that had punctures but I didn’t want to throw away
thinking I might salvage ) and a trash picked RV propane stovetop, a box of
25cents paperbacks from God knows when, most of the cab was stuffed with strips
of pink fiberglass insulation left over from my B-POD roof. I had to rent a U-Haul for the lumber and
supplies to build the thing, and all in all I calculated all the material
rather well in advance. The only reason
I was short on 2x4’s was because I changed the design after I started
building. I’d say I was off about one
and a half rolls of insulation, to the surplus rather than deficit.
*
I don’t throw much away,
ever, and always end up using everything, even half rotted lumber, and I know
that insulation will come in handy somehow.
Of course, being in the sun a few hours a day ( I couldn’t completely
shade it ), the paper backing is now brittle, and the insulation fibers fly off
at the slightest touch. If I don’t get
cancer from my one cigarette a day, I’m wondering if moving that insulation and
sucking in the fibers as the wind whipped them back in my face will do the
trick. Yes, I know I’m TOO cheap
sometimes, not that that ever stopped me.
*
For being laid on a bare
metal floor and subjected to eleven winters ( and all the freezing that goes on
in seasons not officially winter ), the bag held up quite well. No mold on the canvas bag and on the inside I
had one fleck of rust on my fixed blade knife that I could scrape off with my
fingernail*. I’d call that a
success. Even more so, 95% of the food
was still edible. I sampled
everything. And all of the food had
expired ten years ago. I’m not sure how
old the bag was, but I’m pretty sure I built it just prior to moving out here
in the summer of ‘08. Unless I built it
for our first trip up here in ‘06, but I don’t believe so. I think the food just had about six months to
expire when I bought it at Wal-Mart.
*
( *again, this was Back In
The Day. Now, lower price stainless
steel doesn’t hold up as well. You get
the rusting of carbon steel with the crappier edge of a stainless steel blade,
at its worst. Now, I’d lightly oil coat
stainless steel going into storage. I’d
also coat factory coated blades with a better oil, just to be sure. I like axle grease )
*
I had really forgot
everything I had filled the bag up with, other than remembering the bottles of
water. I was WAY off in my
recollections. So who the heck knows
when I built the bag. It could have been
AFTER I moved up here rather than before.
Hey, this is how much importance I place in BOB bags. Anyway, I continue in far more detail than
you’d ever want, tomorrow.
END ( today's related link https://amzn.to/2JJ2VcB )
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Want a good laugh? Do a google image search on "bug out bags" or "every day carry" or "i'm never coming home" or "get home bags".
ReplyDeleteNot only are some of these people stupid enough to buy all that stuff in the first place but they expect you to believe they're going to carry all of it around.
The absolute worst condition I can imagine being in around here is, if my vehicle breaks down a long way (50 miles) from home in the dead of winter with snow and ice all over the place and I can't get a cell signall cause of the hills.
The first thing I do is a variable of the "Remus Rule". Avoid being in that condition in the first place! Seriously, why would I be 50 miles from home in the winter snow and ice?
If some unforeseeable circumstance arose and that situation occurred I have a small backpack in my Blazer with items to keep me from freezing to death and 2 16 oz bottle os water.
Gloves, hand warmers, reflective blanket, poncho, and maybe a couple other things, oh yeah, a small first aid kit. That's it. All the other standard items I normally take with me when I leave the compound are already on my person.
There's "being prepared" and there's "being a show-off".
You'll never see pix of my stuff online, ever.
Commander Zero is big on the winter vehicle bag. Not sure why, as he lives around a town. Just don't friggin drive past a few hours walk. Not rocket science.
DeleteYep, the B.O.B. topic is over molested by the pretty pony prepper brigades. I am of the category of pack up the best you can afford/minimalist items kit, zip it up and forget-a-bout-it. I exclude food unless road trip traveling and bring that as a separate module kit that I eat out of enroute anyway, avoiding fast food-stops-costs above just fuel and more coffe for thermos. An extreme deep cache mentality can be employed for environment protection by vacuum sealing a gun ammo first aid-meds,etc. It will be too heavy to run away with if getting carried away with all the what ifs packed. Exceeding it's intended purposes. It will be like finding gold in an emergency, but don't devote too much time-effort-money as there are other priorities more important and more probable.
ReplyDeleteI think I covered a lot of this while talking about a gear belt. What is on you at all times. Then you only need caches rather than BOB's.
DeleteJust an observation, if yuppie preppers are on foot-enroute, exposed and they are dressed all tactical tommy, not like refugees or trailer park folk they stick out. If they are carrying longarms,sidearms,china made mollie strapped up bags and packs with crap hanging on it they stick out. In the absense of rule of law, grid down, s.h.t.f. they are probably gonna be shot down and their gear stripped off of them as quick as meat on carcass. Minions may want fashion up like a bum or 19th century refugee and be left alone and not profile selves as a tempting target. Carry on.
ReplyDeleteI don't think most Tactical Tommy's will get very far anyway, under all the weight. A heart attack waiting to happen. As soon as they are attacked, if not outright ambushed, the 'ol ticker gives out on them.
DeleteThat would force me to move.
DeleteI'm heartened by Spud's experience passing through our fair town for the last forty years. Odds are good they all leave soon. Global gold reserves run out within about a decade-and the mines here will fold like a cheap tent as soon as the markets implode. They have been cooking the books awhile. Well, perhaps "cooking" gives the wrong impression. But they do play the futures and engage in other shenanigans. A lot of paper profits.
DeleteHere's two scenes from the Jackal. Maybe this will refresh your memory.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeaI_t4CuO8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gBKE5MUiQc
Damn, it's been far too long. Didn't remember any of that. Now, in Bruce's defense, that kiss was shot at such an angle it could have been faked. I like to think so, anyway. :)
DeleteNow I watched a video of a trail runner. He had his backpacking gear down to under eight pounds not counting food. That impressed me. He was geared up for summer...still. He was running long distances, like the entire Pacific coast trail, Mexico to canada.
ReplyDeleteBut don't listen to the experts! Just read about 50lb backs being so essential. You might need that kitchen sink, after all.
DeleteThat ultra light gear costs a bomb.
DeleteJust do what Lord Bison said - don't be more than a couple of hours walk from home.
*be me
* wife wants to visit relatives a flight over an ocean
* me not wanting to be more than a few hours walk from home. I've done the travel & it's OVER RATED.
My kids hate me for not visiting the east coast and my mom hates me for not visiting the west coast ( in California! ). Sorry, people, I hate being dead. The Great Basin is my area of operation now. Travel is not only over rated, you see the same asswhores no matter where you go.
DeleteI bet THAT was really cold!
ReplyDeletere: being laid on a bare metal floor
Excess baggage
Anyway...I think a lot of that shit gets dumped. As in all the crap that got dumped off the wagons heading west. Or those 60 belts in the streams of Vietnam.
YKW
MM
Well, sure, a lot of BOB items get dumped. But does that happen prior to health issues or being caught?
Deletehappens in the first hour they have to humping it (after the car runs out of gas or is jammed up with all the other cars on the freeway)
DeleteBefore. A LOT before. You yourself said it's a heart attack waiting to happen. These people don't know their limitations and think they can do it all. They can't. Nobody can. So they will be in angst on the trail as they try to decide what to let go of next. The 3 fuel $200 stove? Gone. The $400 thermo-gortex--20 degree sleeping bag that weighs 20 lbs? Gone. Mountain House meals? Dropped like a used rubber.
DeleteGS-don't toss used rubbers. Clean and reuse. Yum.
Delete3:19-anyone who thinks they can BOV should visit any major city and experience the rush hour parking lot.
LOL - in a disaster you're going nowhere in your BOV. Heck, you get nowhere in my city if there is ONE accident
DeleteBut...four wheel drive, and stuff! :)
DeleteBicycle. Package rack sporting a 7/8ths bushel cardboard box with black trash bag (flapping). At least 2 half-gallons of water in the basket, along with food/fuel/portakitchen & bike repair bits.
DeletePickup truck/van might be great to move the bikes a fuel tank toward the objective. +1 on "look impoverished"; take charity food and thank donor, especially if you don't need it. Pay it forward and share the gift around. Keep moving.
pdxr13
Are you suggestion taking food book food, and stocking it in your home, then doing the Rawles charity thing? In this instance, the beginning of the troubles, not a bad idea ( to be clear, people, he is dispersing charity while mobile, so there is opsec ). Just like you have to stockpile retail items since the store is always out. Bonus for the few who read the comments. Possible global pulp shortages-buy toilet paper while cheap and in stock.
DeleteTopics are firing on all cylinders again, JIM! Great input fellow minions. I struggle with this dog-gone topic all the time. Pack-dump-add-subtract crap. I am trying to stay within realm of day pack type kit of those carried by trust fund babies that tour europe-etc. as a well equipped tourist that can live outta the bag for @5 days (scratchin more food on the way) my add on is lethality with weaponry. I humped the wagon in USMC-0311,so thus know the difference. If it is anything more involved than just a walk home,away from squirrely situations, then I will need to go all "load master" with palletized cargo in my 3/4-1 ton trucks and cargo trailers. (After opening gas valves-shooting 26.5mm red cluster flares into the previous domicile and not coming back) "I" have been hoodwinked as well by 'consumptionism' regarding kit goods. Some useful/most just cockamamie junk. Minions mileage may vary. Lets continue di-secting prepperism like pickeled frogs in biology classes.
ReplyDeleteIf you still owe on the house, drive a masonry nail in the chimney and the only thing standing will hold your jingle mail notice :)
DeleteOwn it free and clear, but a major drop again in value ( gonna happen) or shtf, I will have to walk away from 100k@ valuation-money spent. Oh well better then dead or surrounded by hostiles.
DeleteCorrect recognition in your homes value. Shelter and Happy Place now, and not worth spit as circumstances change. I think too many Prepper Princesses use their #10 cans as an excuse to cling to their McMansions way past bug out date. And in many AO's today, right now, is past that date. If they can't do that now, one wonders if they can later.
DeleteFor the price of keeping a Lexus for 7 years instead of 3, a yuppie prepper could have a junk-land remote secret underground bunker with 3 feet of crushed gravel poured over the entrances.
Delete#10 cans in this kind of bunker allow for situations like the bunker in The Road.
Hold on. How do you show up and remove three feet of crushed gravel, without suffering a heart attack?
DeleteGood topic.
ReplyDeleteI always get a good chuckle from some of the "Check out my BOB" threads on survival forums.
Geez, people, just go to David Canterbury's channel(or any bushcraft channel) and look at how little you need.
Most people have enough fat on their bodies to make it for 4 or 5 days without food.
Of course, the one's that look like a Macy's Day float, aren't going to make it pass their driveways anyhow.
Someone needs to market The Preppers HoverRound.
DeleteTurning the direction of the topic sightly...
ReplyDeleteQuite some time back I read a thread that was started by Tim May on the old alt.misc.survivalism board in 2000. He felt that an apocalyptic scenario was far less likely than the authorities showing up to take you and your freedom away, and that one might be better served with a bugout bag that reflected what he saw as a more probable threat. He started the ball rolling with a proposed "Fugitive Kit" ("FUKIT") to address that scenario. There was some interesting discussion on the thread which was archived here if you're interested: http://web.newsguy.com/anozira/anozira1/SiteTops/kits/fukit.htm
The information is a bit dated and presupposes that you're still in the city. The Bison Plan would obviate much of the need for this kind of kit but I found it interesting as a "what if?" mental exercise.
Going off the reservation in discussions is how you more successfully wargame. Sounds like a good discussion. After all, any one with wealth is the new terrorist. Those assets aren't going to forfeiture themselves.
DeleteJim, speaking of rust on tools. One thing we have found to work good is anhydrous lanolin, or just lanolin.
ReplyDeletealso good for lube on reloading cases.
Not sure how it would do on ur hair but it looks good on sheep.
best to ya, steve
To lubricate my cases I use lanovaseline, it's a mixture of lanolin and vaseline that has been prepared for me at the pharmacy. Its cost is minimal and just a quarter of liter is more than enough to last a full lifetime.
DeleteNow you got me thinking of lanolin hair gel. For the beard, of course. The mane looks luxurious as always.
DeleteAve, it only lasts you a lifetime since you don't spray and pray :)
DeleteIt takes me about 60 minutes to reload 20 rounds, not including drying time after cleaning. At 3 minutes per round I wouldn't have enough time to spray & pray :)
DeleteI can't think of a better way to teach someone to shoot slowly. Obviously, money doesn't stop them.
Delete