The Reality of Prepping

I sat down to write the first entry in this new blog about prepping and survival. Suddenly the neighbor’s dogs start barking and someone walking up the road tells me there is a large fire burning in the dry brush a few miles away. The photo is from a CalTrans traffic camera showing the smoldering fire and a line of fire trucks on my access road.

My commitment in this blog is to be totally real in what makes sense and what doesn’t. I will be deconstructing some of the discussions I see on survival forums and conversations I have along the way. We will look at Prepping, Self Defense and Survival as an interwoven triad of issues. Writing this with a fire burning this direction just seems appropriately real.

So you understand where I am coming from, let’s walk through the current reality. I live in a box canyon surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest. The area out my front door looks ripe for a good burn. My only transport is a motorcycle with a small trailer I can pull behind. We will discuss this more in the future on the topic of bug out or escape vehicles.  For today’s purpose, I will simply say it is a large dual sport cycle which can take me over the forest service roads to a safe area. That is good for escaping a pending issue like a local wildfire.  However, I can’t pack much on the bike. Most of my stuff would need to be left behind. Bike not good for organized evacuation.

The realization hit about 6 weeks ago that I had no effective means of evacuating with my gear. Looking around, I noted that the dry creek bed just a few feet from my front door is well below the surrounding surface and lined with big rocks. Only took about an hour with a small shovel and rake to pull all the weeds out of there. Now I have a no burn area to toss stuff if needed. Certainly, embers will still be able to fall on my stuff and ignite it, but the fire itself should not spread to the dry creek bed.

Do you have a plan on what to pack and where to pack it if an evacuation order comes through? You should.

Quick packing is never fun. I had to evacuate previous home three times due to wildfires. Once a fire engine was in my front yard spraying the edge of the flames. I packed real fast.

Now I keep just about everything stored in 12 gallon totes (the ones with the flip open tops) or in 5 gallon buckets. You cannot believe how much simpler moving or evacuating is when everything is pre stored in this manner.

Another thing I did just three weeks ago is print up a priority list for evacuation. Few of us think clearly during an emergency. A small list printed on an index card hangs from the key rack by the door. The title is simply “Packing Priorities.”

With that I will close today’s entry. We already tossed out the following suggestions that you should be considering:

• Know the local threats and what you will need to do if they strike.
• Evaluate your vehicles and plan escapes and evacuation accordingly.
• Think about what you leave behind – is there some way to limit the potential loss?
• Have your stuff packed in a manner that facilitates efficient evacuation.
• Prepare a Packing Priorities list to make sure you don’t forget something important in the chaos.

Thank you for visiting this blog. Please be sure to subscribe so you can track new entries. Tomorrow I will be discussing the Folly of Bug Out Bags. Email me at DragonEdge@ShadowSurvivor.com if you have topics or questions you would like discussed in the future.

In the meantime, Prepare - Protect - Persevere!