Date:         Sat, 3 Feb 2007 09:13:34 -0600
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject:      Re: What's in YOUR Git Box/Bug-out Bag
In-Reply-To:  <834C8872-0597-46C5-AB74-FB556CBFF7FC@pottsfamily.ca>
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I agree with the need for having everything organized so you don't
have to pick through stuff and think ahead for even a camping trip. I
can't tell you how many times we've been camping with friends or
family who ended up without tents, food, footwear and so forth
because they "thought they'd brought it." If you want to have what
you need, you need to get thinking out of the equation. Whether
you're coming home from work and trying to make it to a state park
before they close the gate or you plan to hunker down for three days
without electricity, the last thing you need to be wasting your time
on is figuring out what to take and where to find it.

Our family backpacks and westy-camps, and I spend a certain amount of
time outdoors with a photographer for some of the work I do.

We have several levels of readiness organized, depending on what it
is we're doing. But we also have some emergency preparedness plans
that overlap in general with camping and home cooking in beneficial
ways.

First, there's always a daypack hung in my closet with a couple of
power bars, , lighter, firestarter, flashlights, GPS, toilet paper
and the like. Stuff you'd be crazy to go into the woods without. What
we've discovered about being prepared for the woods is this: you
don't know why you are going to be in the woods unexpectedly after
dark (somebody started throwing up, kid got lost, dog got interested
in what some other family was doing, wayfinding more difficult than
expected), but just accept the fact that you will and you'll be OK.
the pack goes in my car for even a day hike or client work that takes
me outdoors.

Then there's the fact that the westy always carries things important
to its survival. Tools, bentley, belts, tow strap, oil, funnel, etc.

Then there's the stuff for humans that stays on board always: a
change of clothes for two, including jackets; cookware, tableware,
flashlights, linen and towels; weather radio, small grundig short
wave with AM/FM, plenty of toilet paper and paper towels. This stuff
weighs hardly anything, takes the longest to pack into the westy, and
if brought into the house eventually gets absorbed into house stuff,
at which point you can't find it on a moment's notice.

For camping, Home Depot sells a clean-up tub that just fits under the
westy seat. It holds all the hoses, cords, electrical adapters and
water regulators and adapters you'd need on the road or in a
campground, plus a gallon of diesel. It has a handle on top, and I
know exactly which shelf it is on in the garage.

The porta-potty sits next to it.

Next to that is a plastic tub that holds pillows and extra clothing
we travel with.

On another shelf in the garage is a plastic tub with backpacking gear
like tents, stoves, etc. Two other tubs contain the various sleeping
bags in fluffy, unstuffed condition.

We eat very well when camping, and we rely mostly on dehydrated (not
freeze-dried) foods which are much cheaper and more interesting and
store ten years or so in the cans and pouches they come in. They
rehydrate and then can be used like fresh or frozen foods. There are
hundreds of kinds of foods available from places like waltonfeed.com.
You can make almost anything you make in your kitchen with this
stuff, and it keeps for years and years. As I said, we camp with it,
but it also is the basis for our emergency preparedness setup. I keep
it in cardboard boxes and plastic tubs, along with canned tuna,
canned butter, canned cheese, a few MREs, pet food, latex gloves,
face masks and even some russian surplus gas masks (at $7.50 each
online, why would you not?). The pet food, gloves and paper face
masks are important because none of that would be available to you
within 20 seconds of the announcement of a major influenza outbreak
or anything like that, and you'd need them. My theory is that if you
**REALLY** need to make a trip to the store, for anything whatsoever,
including meds, you either won't have the time or the ability. Oh,
and there's fifteen gallons of diesel fuel stabilized and a gallon of
olive oil for cooking. On stuff like the olive oil, we keep a gallon
and rotate it into the kitchen so what we have is always fresh.

For backpacking we use a ceramic water filter and pump, and could
make clean water out of anything so I don't worry so much about that
although we do keep a few gallons on hand for convenience.

Some batteries are kept in the car, but we keep some with the inside
stuff too because they last much longer when they don't go through
the heat and cold like they do in a car.

Why do we do this? Well, as I said, we camp so will eventually eat
all the food anyway, even the long term stuff. We live in a tornado-
prone area. The power has been off for days here in the past with ice
storms. We live 20 miles from a nuclear plant. We have children,
grandchildren and aged parents to think about (I bought cases of MREs
for the old folks and keep them at their houses with face masks and
rubber gloves. I made sure they understood how to use the heaters).

And then there's the scenario of any of several flue pandemics, which
in my opinion is not a "might happen" thing, it is going to happen.
If I'm wrong and it doesn't, I'm out about $200 for the consumables
even if we don't eat them and nothing for the camping stuff which I
use a lot anyway. If I'm right, my family is in relatively good shape
for say a month when you either couldn't get to a store or wouldn't
want to.

Anybody wanting urls to any of the abovementioned materials just ask
and I'll dig it up.

Finally, there's the fact that it all fits in a easily westy or a
vanagon, either of them being the presumed getaway vehicle. It would
take maybe three minutes to get everything I've mentioned into one of
the cars for two reasons: because I know where all of it is, and
because I already thought about what I need.

Jim


On Feb 2, 2007, at 6:35 PM, Greg Potts wrote:

> Hi Volks,
>
> I find that I have pretty much EVERYTHING I need to get by with a
> family of 5 in the westy or in the westrailer. We prove that
> regularly on summer weekends by hitting the road within an hour of
> my arrival home after work. Camping got a LOT easier once the
> westrailer was perfected... now we just pack clothes as required,
> load up the coolers and we're good to go.
>
> Where would I go if I had to?  I could tell you, but then I'd have to
> kill you. ;-P
>
> Happy Trails,
>
> Greg Potts
> 1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
> www.pottsfamily.ca
>
>
>
> On 2-Feb-07, at 2:52 PM, Pensioner wrote:
>
>> If you had to, could you be gone in 30 minutes and self sufficent for
>> several days?  What would you take, knowing that perhaps when you
>> returned,
>> nothing would remain.  The Vanagon is a capable emergency shelter if
>> outfitted properly.  What would you put in that git-box?  What kind
>> of box
>> would it be?  The folks in Florida had a middle of the night
>> visitor that
>> flattened their lives, their fortunes but not their honor.  What's
>> in your
>> bug-out bag?  Cell phone and Visa card?  Full-on-conditions urban/
>> ex-urban
>> survival stuff?  Batteries for the x-box or MRE's?  Canned tuna or
>> doritos.
>> Sorels or sandals?
>>
>> Long ago, my friend Bill skied a last run off the back of Mount
>> Rose Ski
>> Area in a fog and wound up below the last chairlift thousands of
>> feet above
>> the Carson Valley with just his skis, his ski apparel and a now out
>> of date
>> lift ticket.  He walked out to US395 after spending a very cold
>> night in the
>> trees.  Later that month, just outside a cozy ski cabin in Squaw
>> Valley, I
>> tried Bill's trick and spent the night outside in the snow with
>> just what I
>> would have been carrying had I been skiing.  Sobering experience.
>> Bill was
>> lucky, had the clouds gone away the temperature would have dropped
>> precipitously and he likely would have died of hypothermia.
>>
>> So what's in YOUR Bug-out Bag?  Where would you go if you HAD to?
>> How would
>> you adapt, improvise, and overcome?
>