Many people on here are lucky enough or have had the foresight to invest in a BOL, others like myself have not been in it long enough to have had enough time and money to aquire a location. For me personally (just scraping by) it would be along time before I was able to purchase a parcel of land and set it up like I would like it.
For those who have one: You are def ahead of the game but in a true SHTF scenario would you be able to complete all the required tasks that would need to be done on a daily basis on your own? Or with the help of your immediate family that you would have with you in a bug out? Im talking in regards to farming, building, wood chopping, hunting, water gathering and purification among the many many others?
I would imagine many of you would be inviting your family and other loved ones who unfortunately may not have much to offer.
Is there any of you that would entertain sharing your location with a person/persons that would have some skills, supplies, knowledge, ability to provide labour? Im not talking opening your location to the masses but what about to one person or small family that you feel might be of value.
I am of the opinion that one person cannot do it all, nobody is free from the possibility of injury, sickness, etc. A family of 4, man, woman and 2 children, if the man were to be incapacitated for a period of time what would you do? If your BOL was found and the need to defend was ineviatable how much can one man or man and woman do?
You have to sleep, you have to cook and eat, you have to reload your magazines, you have to get the chores done.
Just something I was wondering.
As I am on the farm, I am planning a bug in, not a bug out, and yes, as someone that is planning on hunkering down, I have asked a few carefully selected families to join me on the farm, because I do believe that you need numbers to make it work, plus I have worked at creating networking in my own small community.
I have worked hard to figure out how many peaple I think my farm can provide for, along with stores and have a good idea of what the limit would be, I think having a small group of peaple working together is a very valid statement.
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Like Farmgal I am planning on staying put. My bug out location is my bug in location by design. I can't think of many scenarios that would cause me to abandon the property but if push came to shove I have a plan for that too. I am working on a group and have some members already, some at "adjacent" properties.
I still have not figured out how big of a group is the optimum size for this location but I am leaning towards sixteen adults. It would be hard to operate with less but eight should be able to make it. Skills are very important and everyone in so far has essential skills with no duplication.
I think the goal should be to comfortably survive a disruption of one to six months and in the event of something much worse to be completely self sustainable after one year.
My plan is to bug in too, and I have everything I need to be self sufficient for a few months without having to go outside once. But reading some articles have made me weary of relying on my one and only option, bugging in. In the below excerpts of an article I found (link below) the likely hood of something like that happening seems too high to ignore.
"After a week of starvation and lack of access to food, most neighbors will gather together and head for any house merely “suspected” of having food. Unless those desperate individuals are stopped, they will ransack a home of everything that is in it like a hoarde of hungry locusts. It is called the irrational conduct of a mob mentality. An excellent example of this is how a person can be trampled to death by a herd of wild eyed shoppers desperate enough to get some electronic gadget at some super holiday sale.
Fictional prepper family:
Grandpa Smith understands that trying to feed 100 people would dwindle their supplies quickly and decides to leave everything closed up and not answer the door. The Smiths find out how hunger will drive a civilized person into wanton rage and animalistic acts. Four members of the mob pick up a railroad tie and use it as a battering ram to knock down the front door. Then like a pack of sharks in a feeding frenzy the mob rushes in and takes everything the Smiths have including their food, blankets off the beds, the TV sets and computers, pots and pans, even the refrigerator is hauled out. Why does this happen? People in an erratic state of mind will grab everything they can, most riots prove this all too well. The last items to be picked clean are the family’s pets to the screaming pleas of their 9 year daughter not to hurt her dogs. Of course the dogs, the cat, and the bird are killed and cooked up for their meat. The Smiths are lucky that they too did not become someone’s meal."
My residential property is un-defendable to a mob on all 4 sides. A railroad tie through my door, its all over and im joining the mob, another article mentioned molitov cocktails to smoke you out, mentioning that the zombies dont care that it would also destroy whatever is inside that they wanted. And another mentioned driving a truck through your wall to get in. However far fetched they are, and ill admit some are, they are at least plausible.
I'm feeling that I need another option to bugging in.
I believe that you will find several posts dedicated strictly towards finding like-minded people who can work together in a true teotwawki situation... at least I think I've seen one in each provincial forum.
Keep interacting with others and show up at the meetings when you can and meet people.
Trust is our most precious commodity. After that is exactly what you're talking about; labour and knowledge and mindset.
Every community post-shtf will need an abundance of all 4.
just a though if you dont have a bol spot a good idea maybe find a conservation area to go to most ontario town and citys have places outside of them that you could go to', even if you dont have a group to run to or a bol location this could be a good place to head to not many people will be using these places cause of the same reason your buging out for it could give you a safe location for a few days or even longer just a though plus there so many conservation areas in ontario alone i think you could keep yourself safe for a long time!!! just a idea...that could save your a$$ if needed...