|
[From: groups.yahoo.com/group/ChildCaring]
Back to Basics Date: February 01, 2005
I am not absolutely sure that it qualifies as bugging
out, but we were
evacuated from our home due to flooding in 1986, we
had to travel 50
miles
to a relative and were not allowed back in for 2
weeks. We had 6
children at
the time and all I could take was what I could load
into the trunk of
the
car in the 30 minutes the sheriff gave us to be ready
to go. Luckily I
always keep a small camping kit in the car so my main
concern was
clothing
for the children, my animals and their food. We were
ready in 20
minutes but
if I had been prepared with BOB's it would have been
much smoother.
We
had
only been living in Oklahoma for 2 months when this
occurred and I had
no
idea that we were in a flood plain. Now we are back in
Wyoming and I
keep a
winter car kit in my car all year round, a small camp
kit and we each
have a
BOB ready by the front door. I hope I never have to
use it, but I feel
better having it ready.
I also have a retreat and it is pretty well livable,
but I am always
adding
to it and improving it and eventually it will be
everything I
envision. If I
never need it for safety, then so much the better, I
will retire
there. I am
known around here as being the silly survival woman,
but I don't mind,
I do
not reveal my preparations, but I take any opportunity
to encourage
others
to prepare and hand out lists of things they should
have on hand if
they
give me the least encouragement. Sometimes it seems to
penetrate and
others,
it goes in one ear and out the other.
I tend to lurk on lists, read allot, learn what I can
and speak little
unless I think I am able to truly contribute. In real
life I try my
best to
educate people about the need for emergency
preparations even if they
never
believe the need will arise.
Sharon
Subject: Re: Back to Basics
a couple of
questions.......
What were the ages of the kids?
What items were easily forgotten?
What did you grab, but didn't need?
What items were the most needed?
The kids were 13, 10, 8, 7, 4 and 2. We were evacuated
at 2 am, so
they were
asleep and not really much help except to grab pillows
and blankets
off
their beds.
I forgot the baby's favorite sleeping toy, that was
not fun, but we
found
something that substituted. I forgot the children's
Tylenol, because
at that
time I did not have a first aid kit in my car, but I
do now. I forgot
nightgowns for me, and we were sleeping in the living
room at my in
laws so
I ended up sleeping in t-shirts and shorts.
The kids' Halloween costumes were the thing I did not
need to take,
but did
anyway, silly maybe, but I was afraid we would not get
home before
Halloween
and my panicked brain would not let go of the idea so
I packed them,
we were
home several days before Halloween.
The things I would not have wanted to do without were
the kids
sleeping bags
(which we had purchased for a Christmas present and
were hiding in the
trunk
of the car), toys and baby wipes, my baby was potty
trained, but a
very
messy eater still.
I now include books, baby wipes,
activity books and
matchbox cars in the BOB's for my boys, they are 16
and 13, these 2
were not
involved in the evacuation as they were not born yet,
but they have
benefited from the experience because I learned allot
from it.
I have also added an AC/DC 5 inch TV to my bug out
gear because in the
2
hours we were in transit (big traffic problem) I could
not get clear
news
reports on the radio and I needed to be up to date. And
of course a
cell
phone, I never leave home without it and then they
were not readily
available.
Could I manage primitively? Sure, at our retreat,
there is no running
water,
it is in a cistern, no electricity, we use oil lamps,
candles,
lanterns, no
flush toilet, we have a composting sawdust toilet. We
live like the
pioneers
there and we manage very well. We practice living
there every weekend
from
March to October and at least 2 weeks during the
summer. We still do
not
have the wood fireplace installed, but it is there
waiting and we have
enough wood for 2 winters and are still gathering and
collecting wood.
Am I
ready to live there permanently? Nope. But if needed I
could do it and
complete my preparations from there. I have a decent
food supply and
am
always building on it. I have an old beat up 1974
Isuzu pickup for
transportation parked behind the barn and farm fuel
stored in approved
barrels. I look pretty much like an poor dirt farmer
to the casual
observer
and no one except my mother, husband and children know
where we are
located
or how prepared we are.
I hope these helps answer your questions, if not feel
free to ask
more.
Sharon
Child Care Providers Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChildCaring/
You are welcome to write it down and save it, share it
if you think it
will
help.
My husband was so freaked out at our being evacuated
that for the next
5
years that we lived in Oklahoma, he would do a evac
drill once a
month. He
worked nights and got home at 1 am and would come in
and yell at us
that the
civil alert had sounded, get out to the car or to the
tornado shelter,
depending on which thing we were supposed to be
practicing. He timed
us and
yelled.
The kids and I got smart after about 2 months
and put extra
pillows
and blankets in the shelter and toys and stuff, so all
we had to do
was get
in there and have our flashlights ready. We also
packed the trunk of
the car
with things we knew we might need, but he did not get
us ice cream
when we
had completed our drill, we spent the rest of the
night in the shelter
or
the car or in summer we drove to the lake and camped
out for the night
or
even a day or two. He wanted it to seem real for us so
we would keep
being
ready.
To help us practice our outdoor skills we camped out
on a piece of
land that
his uncle owned, 25 miles from the nearest store,
bathed in a horse
trough
that we hauled water from the creek to in a bucket, I
kept it full all
the
time so we could bathe or do laundry. We lived in
tents on this land
for 3
months during the summer. It was fun, the kids slept
on haybales
because the
ground was to hard, hubby and I had an old mattress in
our tent.
We
cooked
in a pit, the food was mostly good, but the kids
learned a valuable
lesson
about not using kerosene to start a fire when I caught
myself on fire
and
burned off my eyebrows and eyelashes. If you asked my
kids that was
the most
fun summer of their lives, we had 7 kids then, the
youngest was 9
months old
and we also took 4 children of a friend, a set of 16
year old triplets
and a
17 year old, it was very educational for all of us.
Sharon
Child Care Providers Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChildCaring/
|
|
|