BASIC PREPPING: DIY BOUNCE BACK BAGS
Wondering how to put together an emergency bag for
your vehicle? Here’s Poor Richard with a
step by step guide to the items and the costs.
The idea of a Bounce Back Bag (3Bee) is to have in
your vehicle means to try to get back to your home or other safe haven after
some emergency event has occurred that has disrupted the normal grid. It
differs from a true Bug out Bag (BOB) in that it is not designed for an
extended stay in the mountains or forests. But it would be better than nothing
as a BOB in such an extreme situation.
My guidelines for this bag were based on what my
cousin (and my nephew’s wife) could carry reasonably for the estimated two days
maximum it would take them to get back home or to our safe haven here at the
foot of the mountain. I allowed them to be up to 25 miles from here at work,
shopping, visiting, or out with friends. (Despite what cynics will tell you,
preppers DO have social lives.)
I decided to make two bags because by buying in bulk
allowed me to have enough to do so. I will be making two others in the future
for other female family members.
It all starts with the bag. The bag is shown here
loaded, with .5 liter water bottles in web pouches on each side. If there is a
danger in the bottles being seen there is plenty of room inside, as shown in
the next photos of the empty bag, to put them or any extra items they may want
to add before, or that might be able to be bought from a street vender or store
that takes cash right after the event before people realize what has
happened. As you can see from the tag,
the bags were $5 each, brand new. I got them in basic, neutral colors so as to
blend in and not call any attention to the person. In my humble opinion, a red
bag which has “Survival kit” in white letters on it is asking for the wrong
kind of attention.
Next up is the first of the “Seven Sisters of
Survival”, WATER. As the photo shows, I put in 6 standard, store bought, .5
liter bottles of water. Yes, that is below the “gallon per day per person”
you’ve heard about, but water is heavy!
To make up the difference, I put in 20 water purification tablets (see
photo), each able to purify 1 liter of water for a total of 20 liters or 5
gallons. The tabs can be cut in two or be used to take care of two bottles by
filling one with water, adding the tablet, then after it mixes pour half into a
second bottle and fill both.
Next up is FOOD.
This is a personal choice, so they can put in any kind of non-perishable
, non-crushable goodies they want from beef jerky to trail mix, but I wanted to
give them something to start off with. I found packs of 5 energy bars for $2
and another one on sale for 58 cents along with 10 powdered energy drink mixes
for $2 (5 drink mixes per bag = $1 cost). These are in a zip lock bag to
protect them, which also gives them a bag if needed for storage of items they
might find, or pick up. (see photos)
SHELTER: As
they might have to walk in the rain, or possibly “camp out” for the night,
there is a poncho, a Mylar foil emergency sleeping bag, and a bracelet with
enough Para cord to make an emergency tent. The bracelet also has a simple
compass, a whistle, a cutting edge, a magnesium scraper stick and a spark
striker, the last two items for making a fire. (Since the ladies are not
exactly skilled in this area, I am not going to put a lot of emphasis on it.)
FIRST AID
Each bag has a DIY first aid kit that has more than the average pocket
or small kits do. I covered this in a previous article where I bought in bulk
at the dollar stores which enabled me to make 4 fully stocked kits for an
average cost of $6 each. These kits have almost every item on the standard Red
Cross list for a home first aid kits, along with the 20 water purification
tablets.
SANITATION
The need to keep your hands clean and germ free, along with basic
cleanliness is even more important after a disaster or disruption. I included 5
packs of tissues and a small bottle of hand cleaner. There are also “baby”
wipes in the First Aid Kit. The odds are they will have to “go” before they get
back, so they will need to stay clean.
LIGHT, HEAT, GENERAL SUPPORT, COMMUNICATIONS These are important areas and are addressed
with a few simple items.
LIGHT There is a 9 LED mini flashlight with batteries, along with an extra set. (Normally I don’t leave batteries in a flashlight, but the ladies may not have time to put the batteries in. It’s better to have the flashlight loaded and include a spare set.) There are also a pack of 4 chemical lights (yellow) and a big, fat emergency candle.
HEAT
There are two packs of matches (in the First Aid Kit) and a new mini
lighter for lighting the candle and starting a fire if necessary. The hand
sanitizer can be used to start a fire also by rubbing a small amount on the
tinder. This plus the “sleeping bag” will help against the cold.
GENERAL SUPPORT There is a P-51 (the larger version
of the P-38) manual can opener on the ring of the flashlight. There is also a pocket multi-tool in the bag. I have included photos of the sheet from each
listing all the features it has, which includes a working mini flashlight.
COMMUNICATIONS There is an AM/FM radio that can go
inside the pack and have the ear buds go through an opening to it so they can
walk and listen at the same time for announcements of safe routes or problem
areas, yet be as discreet as possible. The radios were a bit of a surprise as I
found them in the pack with the flashlights and batteries for $5 at the close
out store. (See photos)
FINANCE (money)
I’m
advising my cousin and my nephew’s wife to have $20 (or more if possible) in
ones, fives and change tucked in the bag in some small zipper pouch and tell NO
ONE outside of our group. There may be situations where having a few dollars in
cash might help a lot.
SECURITY This
covers self-defense and is a very personal area. I have advised them at the
very least to have pepper spray on a key ring.
So what did this all actually cost?
Bag $5
Water $1
(24 bottles for less than $4 = 6 for $1 or a little less)
Water tablets $1.65
for 20 (100 for $8.25 with free shipping)
Food $3.50
total (5 energy bars for $2, one for 58 cents, and 5 drink mixes $1)
Shelter $8
(Poncho $1 at flea market new, sleeping bag $3.50, bracelet $3.50)
First Aid $6
(estimated cost based on 4 kits from bulk buy of items at dollar store)
Sanitation $1.50
(5 packs of tissues = 50 cents. /10 packs for $1) Hand sanitizer $1
Support $12.50
$1.50 (1 lighter from a 3 pack
for $1, 2 packs of matches,
(Light, Heat 1
big candle, 1 pocket knife/or tool kit $4, 1 pack with an
Communications) AM/FM
radio, a flashlight and batteries $4*, ear buds $1,
1
can opener $1 1 pack of 4 light sticks $1)
TOTAL: $39.15 ($40.00)
(*Minor note: The radio and two flashlights cost $5
but I only used one flashlight so I dropped it to $4. I’ll use the other two
flashlights in the next two bags.)
You’ll find very few ready-made bags available for
less, and with less in them, but if you have more money than time, some of them
are not bad. For me, I am well experienced in finding the bargains, so I can
set up the bags for the ladies. They are our gifts to them. While we hope and
pray they will never have to use these bags, we also know that for less than
the cost of a night out we can give them a fighting chance should anything ever
happen.
What about you?
BASIC
PREPPING: WHEN IT’S
PERSONAL
Official
type emergency handbooks and such from FEMA, the Red Cross, and other such
sources use general guidelines for most situations. They also concentrate the
most on natural disasters, and stick to the common basics.
Some
“survival and prepper” sites stick to country/worldwide, Level III
“apocalyptic” type events such as solar flares, EMP’s, epidemics, economic,
governmental, or general societal collapse, and the old standard, zombies.
You,
however, should take a look at your own personal situation and try to access
the threats to you and your loved ones. True, many of those listed above could
affect you, but there are some others that are more likely for your area.
As
far as the natural disasters, I live in an area that has very little chance of
a major earthquake. With my home here at the foot of the mountain, the terrain
makes a tornado much less likely, but still reasonably possible. I am also
sufficiently high up from the valley below so that the direct effects from the
river flooding could not reach me.
But,
I am in the “snow belt”. Ice storms can bring down lines here. Artic cold, like
we had this winter, can affect the normal grid in dangerous ways. Snow can
reach blizzard levels, blocking roads and taking down lines. It also causes icy
roads, which can lead to crashes taking down power lines that may take days to
fix due to the bad weather.
We
also can see lines come down from summer storms, or the side effects of
hurricanes or tropical storms. Heavy rains could affect the reservoirs with
their run off. Also, with the forest only a hundred yards or so from our front
door a wild fire could be a threat.
Then
there are the man made threats. There is a nuclear plant some 30 miles or so
away from us that could cause us to evacuate. We are generally on the flight
path to a fair sized airport. A crash could start fires that could burn up the
neighborhood or the forest.
You should
also keep in mind about getting caught in the secondary effects of an event.
This is what we call RAGE, the Relative Area of Grid Effects. Simply put, you
could be in between the area, such as with us, the flooded out valley below,
and where the grid is operating normally.
In turn, this could cause your personal “grid” to be affected from
annoyance level to a major problem.
What
causes the event is important towards what you need to be able to deal with it.
But, the general rule of thumb is to be able to be cut off from the grid for
whatever reason and exist on your own little island until things get back to
normal.
So
look around and think about the kind of threats that are specific for your area
in order of most to least likely. IN other articles we will talk about threats
you can see coming (floods, etc.) and those that come out of nowhere (water
main breaks, loss of electricity, etc.).
Later
we’ll talk of what to do if you are at work when things get bad, because as the
average Ann and Andy knows there is always that boss who says that there is no
problem and you can come to work and you can’t afford to lose the job.
AFTER
THE BASICS: ADVANCED: ELECTRICITY PART I
With storm
related power outages fresh in our minds, let’s look at the question of
electricity. With all of our devises that run off it, it would seem that we
can’t live without it.
But
if you take away that which is a nice to, and get down to that which is a have
to, you get a better idea of what you really need. From there you can start to
work on how to have it, or replace it in the simplest, and at the least cost.
What
do you really need? Light, refrigeration, and heat in the colder months are the
main items on the list. If you can recharge the batteries for your laptop,
notebook, phones or other devices it can be of help.
Simply
figure to be your own “power grid”. You will produce the electricity in some
way and deliver it to your devises. Generally this comes down to manual, solar,
wind or fuel powered generation.
Manual
can be as simple and economical as a crank flashlight, lantern or cell phone
recharger or as advanced and expensive as a bike powered generator.
Solar
also can be as simple and economical as solar pathway lights brought in for use
as nightlights or as advanced and expensive as a home with large solar panels.
Wind
also can be a simple wind generator, enough to recharge a car battery or a
massive wind tower that can power the entire house.
Fuel
generators can go from a small generator that can run 8 hours on a half a
gallon of gasoline to one powered by propane that can run a house.
I
will cover all these alternatives and how they come together to make your own
grid. As I am NOT an electrician, these guidelines will be for all of us
average people.
POOR RICHARDS CORNER: MEET SYD THE CYNIC
With all the new folks discovering us, I thought it would be a good time to introduce Syd the Cynic. I chose Syd because this is the type of time and situation, both locally for us and nationwide, that he may bring out his comments.
Syd sneers an anything that even sounds like prepping. To him, no storm or situation would even knock you off the grid long enough to be a problem and that individuals shouldn’t try to take care of themselves. They should trust their government to rush to their aid.
Syd is why we stress two ideas, especially to new preppers. First, don’t talk about your prepping to others, and second, stick to normal looking supplies and gear. Save the camo backpacks and combat vests for the zombie hunters.
But what about the points he makes, that it’s a waste of time, money, space and effort to prep? Well, that’s his opinion and his choice. What he fails to see is that your prepping doesn’t have to be anything too out of the ordinary. Simply put, your prepping can be having an extra 72 hours, or a week or two weeks of water and non-perishable food along with the other support items on hand, with foods you eat normally. You eat or use and replace the items, always keeping your stock at your chosen level.
Let’s take this case, a possible bad storm for us here. The roads might be blocked, the power lines down and the water/sanitation affected if it were severe. But because we are stocked up with normal items we have enough water and food, and the means to cook and have lights at hand at any given moment.
You may be seeing a pattern here. It’s one we have seen work time after time. Simply put, it’s NOT what knocks you off the grid as much as you being able to be off the grid. That’s not to discount the seriousness of a virial pandemic or a hurricane. But in the end it comes out the same, you and yours are “hunkered down” in your home or other safe haven with the supplies you need and the means to take care of yourself. That’s why we talk about being prepped using the least in time, space, money and effort. Each extra can of stew or ravioli, each extra case of bottled water, each pack of first aid items gives you one more ace up your sleeve in case something does go bad.
In short WE PRAY FOR THE BEST, WE PREP FOR THE WORST.
TOUCAN
BILL’S BIRD’S EYE VIEW: JUNK MAIL TO FIRE BRICKS
Toucan Bill here with another simple, basic way to
save money on your prepping and take care of a security risk at the same time.
We all get junk mail and a lot of it is the type
that needs to be shredded and disposed of well to prevent identity theft and
financial loss. The shredding part usually isn’t the problem. It’s the bags of
shredded material that have to be gotten rid of. Sure, you can put them at the bottom of the
big garbage bag and pile all the other “stinky” garbage over them. But some
thieves view the picking past the peels as just the price of doing their evil
crooked business.
Besides, why not make the junk mail work for you? If
you have a fireplace, fire pit, wood stove, grill, or can make an emergency one
from an old rusty drum, you can turn that bag of shredded junk mail into “fire
bricks”. Now you may have seen fire brick making forms on sale for an average
of $30 or more. If you want to go that route, more power to you. But I have
found how to make my bricks for about $5 total.
I went to the dollar store and got a plastic
container the width, length and twice the thickness of a standard brick, along
with a plastic pail, a roll of standard masking tape, a pack of standard brown
lunch bags and a pair of rubber gloves. Total cost: $5 plus tax.
I filled the pail ¾ of the way with the shredded
paper, covered it totally with water and placed it in a corner of the garage
out of the way. After a week or so the paper was pulpy enough to begin.
I took the plastic container and lined it with old
newspaper. I then put on the rubber gloves and took handfuls of the pulpy paper
and holding them over the pail, squeezed out the water from the mass. While
still pliable I molded the pulped paper into the newspaper covered plastic
container, keeping the height to that of a standard brick.
I now folded the newspaper over the top of the mass
and used the masking tape to seal it. I placed a regular brick over the mass, a
piece of board under the plastic container, and a large C clamp over both. By
tightening the clamp I was able to squeeze out more water as I held the
container upside down over the pail.
Once I felt I got out all the water I could, I
removed the newspaper wrapped “brick” and placed it on a tray. After doing the
rest of the pulped material the same way, I placed the tray with the now
wrapped “bricks” in the bottom of my greenhouse in my workshop to finish
drying.
After a week of 80+ degree days, the wrapped
“bricks” were dry and ready for the final step of sliding each of them into the
brown lunch bags and sealing them with the masking tape.
Out of a standard kitchen trash bag full of shredded
paper, I get 8 “fire” bricks usable in my barrel stove when I burn leaves in
the fall, or for emergencies to keep the home fires burning.
If
you like what you read here, help us reach others. We ask you please to share
what we offer to others you think will benefit from it.
Thank You, Poor Richard and Mama Donna
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