by Cody Lundin
Whether you pack the basics or the kitchen sink, make sure the components are in a portable container such as a spare daypack or duffle bag in case you need to hit the road while on the road.
Office Kits
If you feel you need basic emergency supplies at your place of work, by all means pack a daypack with gear and leave it stashed at the office. Although your car kit may be waiting for you in the parking lot, getting there during a power outage might be a challenge if you work in a huge multistory high-rise. Something as simple as a flashlight might save the day for you and the coworkers who gave you a hard time about your survival gear, allowing you to safely and quickly exit a pitchblack building. I remember when, three different times in two weeks, incompetent backhoe drivers unintentionally dug up the water main to the college campus I was working at. Since I had a water bottle with me and three gallons of water in my vehicle, each time I continued to get stuff done when others scurried off on search of something to drink throughout the day.
* * *
PRIMARY PAPERWORK:
IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS IN
THE MODERN WORLD
Sometimes in our society, the one with the most important documents wins. If given half a chance (and not at the expense of your life!), keep the following items safe, some way, some how.
Driver's license
Passport
Credit cards
Medical and immunization records
Birth and marriage certificates
Social Security card and papers
Bank records
Titles and deeds
Insurance policies
Military discharge papers
Religious records
Wills
Miscellaneous family treasures: photos, etc.
* * *
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! Persistent Paranoia or Prudent Preparation?
Survival kits in the house, the car, and the office—man, I can hear your friends and family giving you a hell of a time. You can never be overprepared, unless the act of preparation takes over your life and transforms you into a hyperparanoid, doomsday freak. Once you have your bases covered, and you take a few minutes every six months to a year to rotate certain items in your kit(s), it's time to relax and enjoy life. This doesn't mean that you should drop your guard. Simply pay attention to your life and just enough of the news to keep in the loop regarding current affairs. I know people who have consumed themselves with survival preparedness. They live it, breathe it, and force others to listen to it. They are so busy preparing for the horrific variables of the future that they never truly live in the now. They rob themselves of life in the present moment due to their fears of an unknown future. Folks, this is not what preparing for an emergency is supposed to accomplish. If your survival plan doesn't increase your ease and confidence in life, then it's the wrong plan. I support you fully in being prepared, but not at the expense of your not living your life to the fullest and doing what you are here to do as part of your sacred pact with life.
On the other hand, you will need to tolerate and ignore, if possible, people that have been completely seduced by the modern conveniences of life to such an extent that they have become sheeple. Oblivious to most forms of common sense, independence, and reality, obnoxious sheeple will take great pleasure in criticizing all of your attempts at becoming self-reliant in your life. They will harass you about storing this or that and laugh at your "paranoid" behavior. Some of these sheeple might live in your house and you will be beholden to feed them if the brown stuff hits the fan. There have always been those throughout time that have mocked another's sense of intuition about preparing for the unseen. Don't let them disrupt your harmony. Do what feels best to you, like the ant, and pay no attention to the grasshoppers that cross your path. After listening however briefly to people on both sides of the fence, only you know if you're balanced in your family's emergency preparedness plan or not.
What About Running To the Hills?
"RUN TO THE HILLS. . .RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
—CHORUS FROM AN IRON MAIDEN SONG, 1982
Due to my profession, I've been subjected to countless monologues about "getting out of town when the %@*# hits the fan to live off the land." Ninety-nine percent of these well-meaning people have no idea what living off the land entails, let alone the skills, the supplies, the landscape, or the guts to do anything about it. Yet somehow, the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side concept waxes strong within their psyches.
For those who are entertaining this concept, and torturing your family with it, have you ever tried to live off the land? Have you tried to do so in the wintertime? Have you tried it with a dozen other armed crazies in the woods that had the same bad idea that you had? Have you tried to hunt and gather with your nagging kids and pissed-off spouse by your side? Have you been camping for more than a weekend or a week without the usual modern-day camping comforts that are guaranteed to distance you from how unforgiving the natural world can be? Have you been camping at all? Are the calluses thicker on your butt and fingertips from surfing online survival forums than from being outside practicing what you're blabbing about? Do you need to drive several hours in your SUV to find the land to live off? Are you (and every one of your family members) physically able to hike even one mile across a potentially rugged, backcountry landscape that will eventually be very hot or cold, and covered with biting and stinging bugs and plants that poke, prick, and tear at your flesh? Have you ever been hungry, really hungry, where your only option is to gather weird-tasting plants or attempt to kill something? If you have tried living off the land, how long did you last (be honest!) before raiding the energy bar stash in your camouflaged bug-out pack? Do you remember how you felt afterward, physically, mentally, and emotionally? If you thought your experimental living-off-the-land trip was successful, do you assume that Mother Nature will deal you the same playing hand the next time?
I have come across a few less-than-hidden survival stashes in the wilds of Arizona. I like to look at the contents and see what their creator(s) thought was important enough to haul out into the bush. One stash had not one, two, three, four, or five, but six different cooking pans; from a huge frying pan to various skillets and cook pots. I applaud his or her choice of at least one cook pot, but six? Maybe they thought they would be exceptional hunters and gatherers, thus requiring the extra cooking capacity. Along with this were dozens of paper plates complete with many pieces of plastic silverware. This gear alone took up more than half of the would-be survivalist's rickety wooden military ammo box, the one which animals had forced open and pillaged to eat the packets of instant coffee.
If I burst your bubble about living off the fat of the land. . .good. Be realistic about you and your family's physical, mental, and emotional abilities during times of extreme stress and leave the wild boar hunting from a tree up to Rambo.
Really Cool, Gotta Have It, Multiple-Use Stuff
The following items, listed in no particular order, contain many multiple-use options for the savvy survivor. Their practical uses in mitigating the cause or effects of emergencies are limited only by your needs and imagination. While this list is by no means all inclusive, it will give you a head start in your ability to adapt to changing environments. These are not all necessarily for your bug-out pack, although some of the same things are listed.
Methods to Make Fire
All hail the power of fire! It has the power to create, sustain, transmute, or destroy if the owner of the fire is ignorant about how it works. Lighting and safely maintaining a fire is a massive responsibility and one that demands that you receive the proper training. I've often wondered why local and federal fire officials are quick to ban fires on public lands during dry seasons yet offer no training whatsoever on how to responsibly make and build a campfire. The tools most commonly used to light the fire itself were covered on page 317.
Cutting Edges
Metal knives are the most obvious choice and are far from a tool used
only in the wilderness. Try not to use a knife for a few days in the kitchen and you tell me how useful they are around the house. All cutting edges—knives, saws, axes, etc.—should be kept sharp and in good condition.
String and Rope
Indigenous peoples literally tied their worlds together. String and rope show up on every survival kit list in existence, both primitive and modern. This supremely multiuse gear is second only to my beloved cutting edges and fire.
Five-Gallon Buckets
Entire cultures revolved around the making and use of containers. Five-gallon plastic or metal buckets, especially those with tight-fitting lids, have unending uses for the survivor. Plastic buckets should be stored out of the sun as ultraviolet rays will eventually degrade and weaken the plastic.
Plastic Sheeting, Both Clear and Black
Native peoples the world over would have given their eyeteeth for a lightweight barrier that sheds rain, snow, and wind. It can make your house warmer or cooler, create an improvised window to keep out the elements, and wrap up a dead body. Along with crumpled up newspaper, duct tape and a cutting edge, plastic sheeting makes a pretty slick improvised diaper. Purchase plastic sheeting that's 4 mil or thicker to meet the widest variety of tasks.
Two- to Four-Quart Capacity Stainless Steel Pot with a Tight-fitting Lid and Bail [Handle]
A multiuse, fire- and waterproof container that will prove itself over and over again in its usefulness.
Duct Tape
I can't say enough about this wonder material. I've made handles, containers, cordage, sandals, and repaired many, many things, including packaging up broken body parts for transport to the hospital. There are many grades of duct tape available at the hardware store. Buy the thicker, more expensive stuff as you get what you pay for, yet I've seen some of the cheaper brand names perform well too. I have two or three different types of duct tape wrapped around my water bottles so I can choose the one that best fits my needs of the moment.
Rebar Tie Wire
I love this stuff. My entire home was lashed together with tie wire before being sprayed with concrete. Available at any hardware store or building supply center, its multiuse noncombustibility excels where duct tape cannot go.
Zip [or Cable] Ties
Zip ties offer strong, multiuse, static bindings without the complication of fine and complex motor skill knots.
Old Newspapers [At Least Two or Three Weeks' Worth]
Newspapers can be used as insulation against hot or cold temperatures in the home or in clothing. They have numerous packing, cleaning, and sanitary uses, can help with fire building, and can be read to keep your mind from being taken over by boredom or fear, among many other uses.
Fifty-five-Gallon Drum or Barrel Liners and Plastic Lawn and Leaf Bags
I've already mentioned the awesomeness of plastic sheeting and containers. So imagine the power of a collapsible plastic container! Both can be purchased at most hardware and building-supply stores in clear and opaque plastics. Their rugged, contained, nonpermeable disposability makes them excel at dealing with sanitary and storage issues from excrement to improvised body bags for the dead. They also make great raincoats.
Zipper-lock Freezer Bags, Quart and Gallon Size
The staggeringly multiuse "mini-me" version of the drum liner, except in this case it's food-grade plastic! They also double as disposable mittens that have any number of uses such as skinning rodents and moving the dead.
Plastic, Canvas, or Nylon Tarps
The ability to quickly create shade, cut the wind, or keep things dry might mean the difference between living and dying in extreme conditions as they all deal directly with the regulation of core body temperature. At the very least, tarps will help make your family more comfortable. Tarps work well for creating privacy around the improvised potty as well. While opaque plastic sheeting can double as a tarp in many ways, it lacks the durability and factory grommets that make the tarp such a great addition to any family's preparedness gear.
Mouse and Rattraps
A simple and effective way to put fresh, nutritious meat on the barbie during the most austere conditions. They also work great for eliminating critters that are raiding your food stash.
Backpacks, Daypacks, and Fanny Packs
Being able to move lifesaving gear from place to place might come in handy. Packs allow you to resupply your stock and gather useful improvised items or products on the move without tying up your hands.
Household Chlorine Bleach
How many times have I mentioned this stuff? According to the "find" feature on this computer, more than thirty times, and I'm not done writing. Chlorine bleach will disinfect everything from your dishes and drinking water to your doo-doo and your dead. Buy a gallon today and rotate it every year whether you use it or not.
How to Assess Remaining Daylight and
"Tell Time" with Your Fingers
There are circumstances when knowing how much natural light you have left in the day can go from a welcome convenience to a matter of life or death. Although this method is accurate in telling human-created time down to within five minutes if you know the exact time of the sunset for the day, its primary purpose is telling you how many hours of sunlight you have remaining to find shelter, travel without the aid of artificial lighting, or accomplish the dozens of tasks so critical to your family's comfort and survival when no other lighting options exist. I have students use this method on almost every outdoor trekking course to accurately assess when they should stop walking and focus their attention on finding and creating a safe base camp for the evening without the use of artificial lighting.
This method is used for an average adult with an outstretched hand(s). Each finger equals fifteen minutes worth of daylight or time, so four fingers equals one hour.
1 Stretch your arm out in front of you toward the sun. Bend your wrist so that your palm is facing you and your hand is horizontal with your thumb on top. The bottom of the sun should rest on top of your index (pointer) finger.
2 Put your other outstretched hand below the first.
3 Now move your upper hand under the second and continue "walking" your hands down toward an imaginary horizon line, counting the hands as you go. (If you're doing this on the ocean or in a Kansas cornfield, there won't be much to imagine about the horizon line.)
The accompanying illustration shows four hours (sixteen fingers) worth of daylight left. Be sure to keep your arms straight as you slowly walk both hands down toward the horizon. It's easy to get sloppy with this method by using only one hand or by putting your hand too close to your face because your elbows are bent. This method can also be used with the moon or to see how much sunlight has already passed in the late morning or early afternoon.
Before, during, or after any disaster, you are trying to save your body and those whom you love, not material possessions. Although a potential agonizing mental and emotional decision, you may be forced to leave your home to stay alive or your home may be destroyed in a catastrophe.
A portable "bug-out pack" or disaster kit contains within it a distillation of the most important gear your family will need during its emergency. This pack should be fully loaded and ready to go before it's needed so you can grab it at a moment's notice in case of an evacuation. Some gear can be divvied up among family members so that all of the eggs are not in one basket. However, each family member should always carry basic needs within their individual pack, such as potable water and adequate clothing for the weather.
There is no one-size-fits-all bug-out pack so modify the contents according to your family's needs.
Compiling a bug-out kit first, before outfitting your home, will force you to pare survival necessities down to a manageable level. The motives and gear within your kit can then be simply expanded upon for your home.
The contents of your bug-out pack should be highly adaptable and meet a wide variety of conditions regarding the user and the environment in which the kit will operate.
As the variables are almost limitless as to what could happen during a crisis, keep gear and survival plans simple by adhering to basic core concepts for supporting life.
How you pack your gear is important. Think ahead about what high-use items you'll need from your pack and keep them easily accessible. Mark gear with brightly colored tape for greater visibility and use smaller stuff sacks to make gear easier to identify and locate.
At minimum, have on hand important identifying documents such as a driver's license and passport.
Duplicate bug-out packs can also be kept in your vehicle(s) and at the office.
Don't let overpreparation for an emergency consume your life. Once you have your bases covered, rotate certain items every six months to a year, pay attention, and relax and enjoy life.
Running to the hills to live off the land is usually a bad idea and could hasten your death.
There are several multiuse items that will allow you to create more with less, such as methods to light a fire, cutting edges, rope, five-gallon buckets, and plastic sheeting to name a few. Make sure your household has basic items that allow you to improvise and adapt from your environment what you'll need to stay alive.
It's possible to tell how much daylight is left in the day, and the time, with the use of your outstretched hands and fingers. For an adult, each finger equals fifteen minutes worth of daylight.
