BUG OUT STORIES...

[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/

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