Bug out? Bug in? Alone? Join with others? Urban? Rural? or what...
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Many of us have a 'plan' and others, well ....an idea. My personal plan has evolved over the years. Married in the 70's, bought some land in Florida, built a home, raising kids, working, managing our small 100 acre farm, having a bug out location in the TN mountains up on a ridge-off grid. Then... The 4 kids grew up, I retired, sold most of my land, sold the bug out place, still have 10 acres and our homestead in Florida... never gonna give this up. Now I bought a beach side get-away for us, the kids, and family when they visit. I keep a 23' center console boat at the marina, which I truly enjoy. My 10 acres is about 25 miles away from our beachside location. We have a hunting leases (on timber land) in Florida and Georgia. Both locations have travel trailers on them... so technically we still have bug out locations, both fairly remote. Easy peasy.
So currently I would say I'm a bug in with options. Not tending to animals anymore, just one horse, quails (for eggs) dogs and couple of barn cats. My son and I are preppers not survivalists. My wife and I along with My son, daughter-in-law and grandson live on our 10 acres, not in the same house. His wife works and so does he. We see the value in our neighbors who we've known for a long time. However... they like my self aren't spring chickens and rely on their/our kids to some degree and they rely on us to help out with the youngins'.
Looking back... the bug out location in the mountains was not the best idea. Way to remote. To hard to take care of... way to hard. Used up a lot of time and energy just to use, just to have it, but it took me 16 years to figure that one out. I was sure a remote location was the best idea... I was wrong. It was BEAUTIFUL... especially at night. I think my circumstances now are good if not great for our time in life. My 10 acres is adjacent to 21000 WMA preserve, so I just open the gate to a 'pretty big back yard'. My neighbors (younger ones) are in the process of forming a prepper community and has really been quite popular and rapidly taking hold. Talked to some folks who are wanting to participate who I haven't seen in years... that in itself is good.
Our plan has worked out well. Twenty-six years ago, we bought 45 acres of mostly forested land with a house and turned it into a homestead. It's a tiny town, under 100 residents. We each had enough different and complementary skills to take our time in building the place into what it takes to survive in the middle of nowhere. We had a very deep pond dug, have an orchard, hunt on our land, garden year-round because we have high tunnels, have wood for heat and cooking, etc. We're able to scale down now since there are only two of us living here. We're boomers with an empty nest.
We live in an area where a lot of people came to bug out during Covid. Most didn't stay, but at least they have a place to come back to if they didn't sell when they left. It's been interesting to watch.
Our plan has worked out well. Twenty-six years ago, we bought 45 acres of mostly forested land with a house and turned it into a homestead. It's a tiny town, under 100 residents. We each had enough different and complementary skills to take our time in building the place into what it takes to survive in the middle of nowhere. We had a very deep pond dug, have an orchard, hunt on our land, garden year-round because we have high tunnels, have wood for heat and cooking, etc. We're able to scale down now since there are only two of us living here. We're boomers with an empty nest.
We live in an area where a lot of people came to bug out during Covid. Most didn't stay, but at least they have a place to come back to if they didn't sell when they left. It's been interesting to watch.
I enjoyed reading that... and about the covid bug-outers.
My homestead is very rural, but is an agricultural area with farms, dairy, cattle, ornamentals, etc. When I was active in the co-op I'd guess about 2o or so local small farms participated.
We had a bug out location of sorts. We didn't plan it that way but that's what it became. Like you described it became a hassle to keep an eye on it. Over time we made more connections and have reciprocal arrangements with like minded people. If they have to bug out, they have a place to go. If we have to bug out, we have a place to go. If we both have to bug out, we have other places we can go. This includes taking all of our animals with us if it's practical. We wound up selling the other property and used the funds to add onto our farm. I'm not sorry we hung onto it as long as we did- the appreciation in value was nice, but we don't miss having to maintain it.
You may be able to figure out how it all goes down by what happened in Argentina. If there is still the most basic of food around then you neighbors on the block will be looking to cooperate with ya. Being in a bug out location alone is going to be a problem. You will be vulnerable on any approach unless you initiate a hostile encounter, and that is also a problem.
I live in the country. Far enough from the city and away from the major transportation routes. It is a small town, less than 5,000 people. It is small enough that we know each other. The town is big enough to have a restaurant, a pharmacy and a Dollar General store.
I am within driving distance of a major city.
My biggest problem in relocating was trying to figure out which way the city was going to grow, and make sure I wasn't in the path of the growth!
If anything happens, I guarantee you that I will have family members descend on me. I just try to get ready for it!
I live in the country. Far enough from the city and away from the major transportation routes. It is a small town, less than 5,000 people. It is small enough that we know each other. The town is big enough to have a restaurant, a pharmacy and a Dollar General store.
I am within driving distance of a major city.
My biggest problem in relocating was trying to figure out which way the city was going to grow, and make sure I wasn't in the path of the growth!
If anything happens, I guarantee you that I will have family members descend on me. I just try to get ready for it!
similar here, I live on the very edge of a rural market town, less than 2,000 people and everyone knows everyone else, a small filling station, a corner store and a couple of craft shops.
My main thought is that I'm not delusional enough to think I can survive a true societal implosion / collapse, plus the more likely scenario is on the gradual or sporadic side. I do inexpensive things to smooth out speed bumps: supply chain disruptions, increasing utility disruptions and weather events, etc. So we have a deep pantry, water catchment and filtration, some basic power backup. We have spent ahead on clothing to where we probably could function quite well in that department for several years if we had to. This year I hope to buy out the lease on our solar system and expand it and add some integrated batteries.
We live in a 2,000 sq ft new-ish home in a small city.
The water catchment / rain barrel, we use to water our small garden. Costs us nothing to have it there. We filter tap water right now but could filter rain barrel or melted snow if we had to. Our tap water isn't high quality and we tasted the difference right away so it's a good thing. The only ongoing cost is the cost of filters, which are very cheap.
The deep pantry is food that we use anyway so it's just keeping extra oatmeal and similar staples around. It would be a boring but serviceable diet. The only cost is the cheap shelving and the trips to the cellar to cycle through the stored food.
The battery/inverter units I use to run my home office. They charge at night (cheap electricity) and run the office computers, etc. during the day (avoiding the use of more expensive electricity rates). I have a couple of solar panels to charge them if the mains are ever down.
I keep a few cylinders of gas around and have a couple of gas space heaters for winter emergencies. I keep a fireproof box full of cash in case there's ever an, er, unplanned bank holiday.
I always renew medications as soon as I can, slowly building up a surplus of meds because they will (for non-controlled substances) let you renew usually 2 or 3 days early.
I'm a 100% telecommute (and my wife was before her recent retirement) so we don't have a huge need for transportation.
We're planning to join an age-in-place cooperative this year, a built-in community of people to help each other out around the house as we get older and more decrepit.
In short, the cost of all this is very minimal, it is mostly a matter of planning and execution and a bit of discipline to keep it up.
IMO this is the non-nutter version of "prepping". I think people who buy a bunch of guns and freeze dried food are going to be surprised how little help that stuff actually is in a dire emergency. No one is going to hold out long against shambling hordes of zombies or immigrants or poor people or whatever your particular bogeyman happens to be anyway. If things get that bad, we're all toast.
Also, societal collapse doesn't generally play out like in Hollywood movies, it is more a gradual thing with the occasional very local exception. The world is already a hellscape compared to, say, 2010. In 2050 it will be some other level of "unthinkable". I think utilities and store stocks will get more and more wonky and prices will go up. Things like that. I am ready for what I can feasibly be ready for; beyond that it's bigger than us and what happens, happens.
there is nothing nutty about prepping, anyone who dosent prep given what is going on around the world these days is the nutty one.
societal collapse will come very quickly once the deliveries to the supermarkets stops, any one who relies on the man made systems wont last long once they collapse.
as for zombie herds, there is an obesity crisis in my country and many others, these people wont be able to waddle very far and even if someone could get to my location, many miles from a big city, doubtful, they would find the stores empty long before they get here and most people only have minimal stocks of food in the house and these would be used up in a matter of days.
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