I also live in a rural community and plan to bug in for anything that does not threaten my home such as a wild fire or the like.

save a bomb in my house, there is little reason for me to leave.

a large fire is a risk, if things are bad, there is more wilderness around me, with a lot of hunting, people doing stupid things with fire is a risk.

i'd like to get that gel you dump on your roof that stops it from burning, but a metal roof is likely in the near future any way.
i have a 6000gal tank, and i'd like to have it hooked up to a large pump to do some real firefighting if needed. the house has wood trim and the barn is well a barn!

i have my food, water, garden, alt power, securty system here. . .
but if i have to leave i'm taking a lot with me. two trucks, two trailers and a few different places to go.

(love back ups can you tell ) 😀

I agree. I have alot of gear and am happy staying with in at home .

I have 12 months of food as well as trapping gear and realisticly unlimited water. I have a back up genny but can do fine with any power. Have a wood stove and can cook with wood. In addition a tremedous supply of medical gear and equipment. Cold and warm weather camping gear out the ying yang. I have a plan for my personal waste.

I do live in a small rural town about 40 km out side of the city but am a member of the local firefighters and I think of a supportive community. I was concerned about those starving and unprepared but if I can keep on the down low for the first 2 months the problem should minimize itself.

Any other concerns or thoughts?

Anyone here have photos of their land? It would be interesting to see.

The water situation could determine my staying or going.
It would be easy to haver solar panels along with a back up generator to power everything needed to have a fairly comfortable existence. I believe if you can fortify your property and defend your loved ones as well as having a well or ready access to water and have stored lots of good nutritious food away then bugging in would be my first option in your situation.

The back up genny is hooked to city natural gas and I am on a well. I'm near a river and have a great sump well in the basement if need be. Security is an issue. Bars on the windows make me feel safe but there are none on the "cosmetic" windows. And unfornunatly any one can jump a fence. I was thinking some of that laminate you can buy to reinforce the glass. My big dog is my alarm system 🙂

i think being in the country has a lot of security in it's self, but when i was young, i knew some guys that use to park and walk down country roads, they would walk into peoples houses at night, move stuff around and i know the one guy did take some medications once. (not sure how they didn't get shot in this area. . .every one has guns lol)

because i have firearms i take their protection as serious as my own safety. (GOD forbid my firearms hurt someone because they were stolen) of course they are locked, in safes no cabinets. but i have cameras around my house, motion sensors at different entry points, and another system that can be put out down the raod to notify me when people coming that way

my cameras are aided by IR lights, (my night vision works with them too lol) but i also have motion sensors on lights on the barn.

not to mention good doors, window bars, great locks. . . but those only keep honest people out.
once inside you have 5 dogs and two owners that can shoot real well lol.

post fan security upgrades are, trip wires that can be set up to make noise, or set of an IR light stick. i like the silent notification better, as it lets me know where they are without letting them know i know that lol. but noise has it's place too so i have parts of that. "BEWARE OF DOG" signs. . . i don't have them out now, but "dogs on premises" warning people you have dogs works against you in court, but telling say "fire fighters" i have dogs please save them with a nice sign, gets the point across. . ."there are dogs here"

a simple pipe running just outside your front door could be hung and turned into a pepper spray fogger. this of course being illegal, it would be unwise for anyone to use this while your lives can be protected by the men in black (ours have black uniforms)

my camera systems are lorex, i use some X10 stuff, and my motion sensors are "chamberlain" and the "dakota" MURS system. i have some small wireless cameras for inside, and some independent cameras set up directly to the TV in the bed room to watch the inside lower level (the only way in)

i have some cheap "house link" products that tell you if a door or lid has been opened. i used these on my shed and fuel boxes in my old place. i'll find a way to use them here. the range isn't great, but extending the antenna does help.

i've also bought some vibration sensors, they pick up some one walking through a field, and with practice and proper settings, you should be able to tell the difference between a deer and a person. my system is only set up to "light up" but a friend is working on a easy way to add sound to the system.

all this can be run of either rechargeable batteries, or my solar system . . .i don't want to announce to the world "here's my genny" all the time lol

my one dogs would watch the security monitor, he watched if it he heard a cat outside, or if someone pulled into the lane. he would run down stairs if 'mommy" was home lol, or stand and watch if the neighbour was coming in.

all my dogs now know that two BEEPS means it's the front gate and they watch. . . but they usually know when it's "mommy's" truck coming or just someone else's.

yes, this is very extreme, but i have too much to lose. the system runs in the back ground, and lets me know when i need to look some where. all this stuff was bought over time and worked in to where it was needed. my frist cameras didn't record. they also didn't deter the neighbour the way i hoped they would. but neither did the videos i recorded of him breaking the law. the motion senses became needed when he step up his threats. . . now i live with no neighbours, a dead end road in the winter, and lots of space around me. . .

i'm not paranoid either lol, i have all the guns and systems to not have to be lol. 😀

just one other reason i don't want to bug out. (but the motion sensors would be coming with me!)

The back up genny is hooked to city natural gas and I am on a well. I'm near a river and have a great sump well in the basement if need be. Security is an issue. Bars on the windows make me feel safe but there are none on the "cosmetic" windows. And unfornunatly any one can jump a fence. I was thinking some of that laminate you can buy to reinforce the glass. My big dog is my alarm system 🙂

that laminate is pricy, and i've seen videos of beat with a bat and hold the window in place. . .then a knife cut the glass, it was a small delay in getting in.

Yeah. Its tough to keep my home unassuming, as I live on a regular street, and still work on security.

We are in a rural area and only look at bugging in, we are 15min drive from a town of 5,000 and 45min drive from a larger town of about 80,000.
We are up in the hills and there are probably easier areas to get to locally than ours.

In some respects I would prefer to be further away from town, but we still at present have to function in society so this is where we are.
But the good thing is that we are about 6 hrs drive away from Sydney and 8 hrs from Brisbane, so at least we have no huge populations close-by.
Still got to look into cameras and sensors etc though.
At least we've got a nice long driveway of about 800m and can see the front of it and a few other sections so we can at least see if people are coming up it.

If the SHTF (EMP) natural gas (unless it's your own well) will stop flowing to people's house just as electricity and water will, in fact all utilities will cease to function and you may need an alternate source to power your generator.

The genny can be switched over to LP. Hosnestly, in a real SHTF situation I'd give up on electricity pretty quickly; I've tried to gear up my preps in that direction.

I read something recently, ummm it might have been in the LDS manual or online....comments from a fellow who went through the war in Yugoslavia and he thought if you have to forgo one luxury it was the electricity and that they coped okay without it.

I lived the first 3rd of my life without electricity or telephone. They are a convenience not a necessity but many are still prepping in an attempt to keep up with the Joneses.

Those of us who have experienced life before the internet and social networking will be ahead of the game. Can you all do without your phone or radios ect. Can you function without someone telling you what the weather will be like tomorrow? These behavioral addictions will cause some serious adjustment problems that will get in the way of making sensible decisions during hard times. Cabin fever is real and serious. Isolation is not the norm these days.