Now, I have absolutely no use for the Bug Out Bag Crowd. As each year passes, the idea of Bugging Out to the woods with a Man Purse just sounds sillier and sillier. How did I possibly think that was a good idea once?..

Simple really, you just hadn't developed the skill set needed, to close that door for good. But I will second the thought, being prepared is the opposite of Buging out to me (excluding leaving a fire hazard, earthquake or such area) Being prepared is being all in, and putting your efforts to that end, in the place you have legal claim to. Until someone accepts this they will not achieve escape velocity.

While I totally get what you are both saying and hunkering down in your home is the best case scenario. Most of ones efforts should be on placed here. But I would not rule bob's out completely. Bug out Bags have their place. Everyone and every situation is different. I for one do a fair bit of travelling on the road and while not as much as before I sometimes travel some lonely roads. Having a fully packed bag and temporary shelters (and yes some are in the woods) along the way is just added protection against car trouble or whatever. Plus you just never know. If your home is compromised you have options. True they are only temporary ones, but options all the same.

p.s. this guy videos are pretty darn cool.

LOL. I just wanted to point out the guys videos...but harking on the BOB crowd is never a bad thing. I went over to visit another site recently...and I just couldn't put much effort there. They were stuck in the Bug Out Bag and weapons phase. Piss Poor Prepping. The only reason people would focus on that is either receiving really bad advice that just got entrenched in prepping...or that they just refuse to change their lifestyle...and want a placebo parachute fantasy.

There is nothing wrong with supplies to help get you home...or to a second location. But real BUG OUT will most likely require a passport. Its called being a Refugee.

This isn't an argument For Bugging In either. If where you are Bugging In is unsustainable...Move! Completely change your lifestyle and expectations.

But most preppers are just not there yet. Much Prepping just seems to me to be an excuse for not altering expectations. There is nothing wrong with Mud Huts 😉

But most preppers are just not there yet. Much Prepping just seems to me to be an excuse for not altering expectations. There is nothing wrong with Mud Huts 😉

I have to agree with this point. DH and I are old enough and were raised in a way that we know what "getting back to basics" really means. Thinking we may have to do some road trips through Nova Scotia and beyond to scout out a new home site. We miss BC but it taint what it used to be and I don't think there is any going back if we wish to get further away from it all.

the funny things is that hubby and I are giving the eye to that province as well.. I am planning a trip out that way, I want to see the land and do some driving and looking.. I am currently planning the trip for not this summer but next at the moment...

I find the responses here interesting. I have said for a while that we stopped being actual preppers at some point and became prepper philosophers.

Prepping, itself, is very easy. You can learn all you need to know in the first year. The prepper philosopher faze is when you wrestle with the weightier issues with other experienced preppers. We critique prepping itself. Its why I often find myself back here instead of other more popular boards. More popular usually means...foolish. We wrestle with, "can this survival advice produce actual survival". No, that is not right. That is the university phase. The philosopher faze is when you examine the basic premises, the history of where those premises came from, plot your own path and teach, not the skills but the world view. That is a bit esoteric so let me map it out some.

Grade school. The basics get drilled into you. You need food, water and shelter to avoid hypothermia. You also learn about bullies...and that the teachers sort of suck.

High school. You learn a bit more about how things work in the world. How challenging people are...and that the teachers sort of suck. But you are finding your self identity.

University, first year. You are now being exposed to a bunch of new ideas. Pretty radical stuff. The world is opening up to you. You make a lot of bad decisions...

University, year two. Most people drop out at this phase. You realise that student lone is expensive...and you are just not living up to your parents expectations. It gets stressful... and you realise you have to specialise. You are choosing a path at this point whether it is right or wrong. You realise you have to study.

University, year three, you are paying attention and cramming. You lose a lot of friends and lovers at this point. People resent you and worry about your mental health.

Next, you are supposed to write your thesis. You have to take a position and be able to argue it. Only years ahead will you realise how naïve you were when you wrote your doctorate and were supposedly respectable.

Then you face the world and see if your "Survival advice can produce actual survival"....or you teach. People that teach at this point or earlier...are the teachers that sort of suck I mentioned above.

I suppose there is also the Acid Phase at some point in that list. Conspiracy theory run amuck. It could be ghost stories in the high school phase or the suddenly exposed "The Truth about", phase of University year one and two. Recovery starts by acknowledging you have a problem.

Next, you are onto the prepper grown up phase. Lots to do. LOTS To Do. Things to grow, People to meet and organise with. You start to realise how little you really know.

Now it gets serious as you start to really change your life.

Then comes the Prepper philosopher phase. "What is prepping and what is my place in it". How do we solve the problem of "The teachers that sort of suck" and "Is survival all its cracked up to be"...etc....

Just me doing the prepper philosopher thang.....thoughts?

was just mulling a few of these thing myself, I am at this odd spot this year where I am being put into a combo of teaching and doing, and my conflicts are

A) teaching can not conflict with the doing and getting it done
B) being one of those sucky teachers

while I love my blog and have for years used it as my "teaching outlet" I share a huge amount of information on it but its a messy form in regards to finding it all after 5 years but its also very clear that the posts with the biggest staying power are in many ways prepper related area.. getting it done areas..

and while I have done talks are my local meet, last year was the first year I agreed to do a public paid talk in regards to food preservation and it went well, very well, this year I have been hired to do a number of talks and by a number of different places, all are related to food preservation to date but there is a expressed interest in me also teaching nose to tail eating

I am not at all sure how I feel that at my last attended event, that at least a dozen people that I do not know, introduced themselves to me as they said, they are so happy to get to meet farmgal.. at the table, a gentleman sat down an I said hi, and he smiles and says I am so impressed with your ability to produce in your garden... hmmmmm

so on one hand, its great to see some of the local food movement in our area, we have so many new good things happening locally, including a huge community based root cellar that is going to be retrofitted into our old cold war bunker that will allow local farmers to rent a part of the cellar to hold huge amounts to extend our seasons produce

on a more personal example, I am a mod on a local edible food producing facebook group and we decided five years ago to start a program to help folks be able to afford plants.. we have now done a large amount of different things per year but to show the biggest point, lets keep with the strawberry order

locally a pot of three strawberries will cost you ten dollars, but if you order them at the 1000 rate, they are 11 cents per plant, now this year 12 cents including shipping, our first year we ordered just over a thousand plants, and it has increased each year, three years ago it was over 500 dollars worth of 12 cent plants, I did the order last year and the order was the biggest we did to take over two thousand but this year the person in charge of the strawberry order was wow.. we ordered in over 4,000 worth of them to be shared among our members..

I am in charge of the high bush blueberry order this year and at the moment we are sitting at 800 bushes.. I will not be surprised at all that by the time it arrives, that I will have a thousand on order.. we have increased the amount of food producing trees, bushes and soft fruits in our local area by at least 10,000 plus plants in five years..

wow, when I write that out, that's just awesome.. but more important to me is that hundreds of local folks are doing it, they are learning how to plant, care for, produce and grow and harvest local food.. and that more and more are learning to larger for the year scale..

so I will round out todays musing with,

where does teaching now fit in that question of where Is my place in it? Does teaching need to fit in most folks plans at some point, regardless of the scale they choose to do it at?