My Two Cents on Bugging Out

I just got back from a survival/preparedness conference and there was a lot of information about bugging out during a disaster. There were even more vendors selling stuff (everything from books and tools to land) for this same purpose.

I am not a hard-core, "head for the hills" survivalist. Not that I don't think having the land, skills, education, and ability to perform every subsistence task necessary to keep you and the family alive for decades isn't valuable, but for me it just isn't very feasible. As a rule, I am BUSY. I run two companies, travel a lot, and have dozens of other projects to work on each day (this website/blog for example). So here is how I balance the need for survival/preparedness/bugging out with the need to have a pretty "normal" life:

#1--My motto is to be prepared for anything. I keep things organized, updated, and flexible. In addition, I take any class/opportunity/experience that comes up because sooner or later the information you learn will be valuable in itself or relatable to another circumstance. Whenever or where ever a disaster strikes, I know that I always have with me basic survival skills and supplies so that any plan I come up with would be "do-able" whether I need to evacuate from a place where I am vacationing or travel surreptitiously from the office to my home.

#2--My house will be my primary bug out location. It is in a good suburban to rural area, is well stocked, easily defendable, has many natural water sources that are close by, plenty of woods nearby for fuel and small game hunting, and has many escape routes should the need arise. Conversely, I am not so tied to my house that I wouldn't leave it in a heartbeat if it became too dangerous to stay in.

#3--Bugging out to the wilderness will be my last resort. I would rather bug out to a foreign country which has a relatively stable infrastructure (think Nazi Germany--should a Jew have tried to live in the woods there or head for America?). I also generally avoid following the crowd (and there will definitely be a crowd out in the wilderness should things turn particularly terrible). And finally, I don't believe it would be particularly realistic or advantageous to try to grow my own grain while simultaneously fighting off marauders, bandaging up a broken leg, and reloading my ammunition (because you certainly can't carry all of the ammo you would need to your bug out cabin which is 20 miles from the closest road).

I guess the bottom line is that each person has to decide for themselves what degree of prepared they need to be for whatever may happen in the future.