Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
We all agree that being prepared for an emergency is important. That's why preparing a "Bug Out Bag" that will allow you can grab and go can be a lifesaver. So I began posting information here over 6 years ago, and I'm updating that information regularly. I've also gone beyond the traditional products. Because creating "the bag" is just the first step to being prepared, not the final product. We now know we each need to have at least 30 days of essential supplies like food water and medicine. We must be our own first responders.
I cover topics like:
*Products I both use and trust.
*Often forgotten items you need to have in your bag.
*Psychological and Emotional planning for the family
*Planning for Kids and Seniors
*What to do when Plan "A" fails?
This includes a curated list of links from a variety of sources too. I'll be sharing and updating links to sites I buy from and products I use. So we are clear, I have no sponsors, so the opinions, both good and bad, are my own.
Join me as I begin the 7th year/6th season of productions in an ongoing series of podcasts for you and your family to use and to share with others as you build a community. Is this fun or what?
Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
Beyond the Bug Out Bag:New Season! Re-setting to 2.0
Can your family handle an unexpected emergency like a power outage or natural disaster? Join us this National Preparedness Month as we kick off Survival Beyond the Bug Out Bag 2.0 with the theme "Start a Conversation." In this episode, we explore the critical importance of discussing emergency preparedness within families, ensuring that even the youngest members know what to do when the unexpected happens. We shed light on Oregon's leadership in the prepping community while acknowledging that many still find themselves unprepared. Our goal this season is to reset and provide valuable insights for both newcomers and our loyal audience by comparing past and present strategies to keep everyone ready for anything.
Discover the essential preparations you need to handle emergencies, from having a get-home bag in your car to building a modular and complementary preparedness system. Learn from personal experiences and understand the importance of community networks and multiple contingency plans, including a last-resort "Alamo" plan. We also introduce you to a premier firearms training center in Southern Oregon, where you can access a range of self-defense programs and customized training solutions. Stay tuned for a teaser on the upcoming Bug Out Bag 2.0 event and don't forget to share your comments and suggestions. Stay safe, stay strong, and let's get prepared together!
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Well, great, googly-moogly, it's September 1st already and that means it's National Preparedness Month and hey, we're all over that here. Come on inside, let's talk about this. Well, hi everybody, I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a Victim, personal Protection Training and this is Survival Beyond the Bugout Bag. It's hard to believe, but this is our seventh season and my actually the eighth year of doing this program and, interestingly enough, national Preparedness Month, which is a national thing this is going on all over the United States. The theme this year is Start a Conversation. It's not easy to talk about disasters or emergencies. Sometimes you think you're going to avoid talking about it so you don't scare the kids. Well, not such a good idea. Basically, I have been thinking about how to make this program more beneficial, more useful, and I came across it in my last episode. We have about 27% of people here in Oregon who are involved in prepping, and that's really good. We're leading some other areas, and that's really good. We're leading some other areas and, of course, oregonians got it going on, but so do people all across the United States, and I'm finding out more and more. We have listeners in other countries, and that's good. I am pleased to see everybody is getting learned up, but I think that means if we got like 27% of you on board, that's over 70% who haven't joined the team yet, and I'm finding I've been gearing a lot of the stuff that I do towards senior citizens. Now that's not a bad thing, because if you can prep for yourself as a senior which, by the way, is the largest group in Oregon of preppers Stop and think about that. Yeah, stop and think about that. Grandma and grandpa are going to be ready and you're going to have to go to their house and you know what a weekend there can be like.
Speaker 1:Oh, so I'd like to hear we're going to call this Survival Beyond the Bug Out Bag 2.0. I'm going to kind of go back to the. I'm going to reset and we're going to go back to the beginning, and there'll still be content for the regular folks. I'm going to be comparing what it was then to what it is now. If you were coming to my OLLI class as a brand new person it doesn't matter what age you are you would be hearing this kind of information. Now, I do want to remind you that, beginning October 15th 2018, we began this program and every one of those programs is available on this website. You can scroll down the list of broadcasts and you'll see the initial programs. There's also a transcript. Now, hmm, what could you do with that? You could perhaps follow along and compare what we did then to what we're doing now.
Speaker 1:If you're a regular listener, I'd like you to go out and your homework assignment is get two more people to listen to this program. Bring it up at church, bring it up at club, bring it up at bingo, bring it up with your guys on your team at the grocery store when you're online, watching the person up front compare their vacation photos with the cashier's Always a pleasure. Survival Beyond the Bug Out. Bag 2.0 is going to be geared for new listeners, with value for you, the regular listener, and this doesn't matter if you're here in Oregon, down in Cali, over in Ohio and Illinois, or maybe across the pond in England, the Czech Republic or Germany. We've got some good listeners there too. So, thank you, thank you for that. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Basically, for the new listener, what are you waiting for? The theme starting a conversation. That's your first step. Acknowledge the problems can happen. If we look at what's been going on this year, I mean, just in my neighborhood we had a windstorm serious enough to drop trees, we had heavy rains, we had power outages, we've had high intense heat, we've had electrical outages because of the heat and because of the windstorm. We even had a squirrel-caused electrical outage that took out things from Medford to Ashland, which is almost to the California border. So this happens all the time. These are not just the major, serious disasters like a tornado or a flood or an earthquake, emergencies affecting thousands to hundreds of thousands of people, especially with related items like weather causing power outages or flooding. Look at back east. Oh, my gosh, hundreds of thousands of people are without the basics and we're going to be talking about what that really means. Oh, the power's out. That's terrible. I'll light a candle. Well, there's a lot more to it and I know you know what that means.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to start a conversation, that's step one. Set a time when everybody's calm and relaxed. Don't make this a scary thing. It can help to hold these discussions over a number of time periods. You don't have to sit down and do it in one afternoon. People are going to get more comfortable the longer you work on this and you do want to include the entire family, talk about steps you may have taken or things you've heard here on this site, and encourage other people to ask questions about preparedness and things that might work for them. There are no bad ideas, seriously.
Speaker 1:So it's very important, especially for younger families. If you have kids uh, considering the age, of course, toddlers aren't going to get a whole lot out of this, but you've got eight, nine, ten year olds, fourth, fifth, sixth graders, uh, even, uh, down into the third grade. They are pretty sharp little ragamuffins and they are definitely going to be listening, even if they're not participating. So include the young ones. They're going to be able to help, they're going to have good ideas and you're going to have things to share with them, which is going to help keep them safe. Sometimes young kids will get very frightened, as they would and how they're going to act or react you can help start dealing with now, like a fire drill. We have fire drills here at our house occasionally.
Speaker 1:I'm well past the age where I want to get up at four in the morning and bang pots and run around and get everybody up, and it's likely I'd end up sleeping in the garage. But we do have a plan here. So make plans, share the plans, and everybody is a part of that. Everybody has a task to prepare. Everybody has a place to be. So if you're a new person, the question always is well, bill, what is a bug-out bag Basically?
Speaker 1:This started out and if you've ever been a fan of NCIS, dinozzo has his bug-out bag when they have to go to an emergency location. It's just stuff to get you through for 24 to 48 hours. That's one type of bug-out bag. In the military, it's a whole different thing. It's supplies necessary for a specific mission, and I know many homeless children, young people, who often are having trust issues or having problems. They keep a bug out bag, so if they have to bolt from the foster home, they've got the stuff they need. Contents of each are going to be different. Situations for each are going to be different.
Speaker 1:For our purposes, a bug out bag is a collection of items you as a family have put together that you're going to take with you if you have to leave your home in an emergency. That is what a bug out bag began as back in 2018. Interestingly enough, you regulars are going to go. It certainly has changed, hasn't it? Yes, it has. The big thing is. Initially it said you needed to have enough supplies for 72 hours. Now it's recommended you have enough gathered for 30 days. And we're talking about supplies. I mean, that's not just granola bars and batteries. This is things you're going to take with you. If I have to walk out my front door in the next 30 seconds, what can I grab that's going to help me be safe, healthy and prepared outside that door? This is usually a fire, sometimes a flood. This could be a situation where you have to leave to move to a safer area because of civil unrest.
Speaker 1:If you're going to go, include things in this bug out bag like medicine. I take certain medicines every day. I feel much better if I take them. I can live without them, but it's much better to have your medications. There are some people who must have their medications. So in your bug-out bag you're going to want to have some medicine Information.
Speaker 1:I have a thumb drive. It's got copies of all my documents. Who's my insurance agent? How do I reach so-and-so? What do I do if this happens? If I come back and the house is in ashes, who do I call? What are the values on my policies? This is a thumb drive. This fits on the end of a keychain and this is going to save you hours of problems.
Speaker 1:A bug-out bag for me has something to keep warm in it. Savor. It is the Don't Die in the Woods thermal blanket. It's so much better and we'll be talking about that. If you haven't heard of it, it's well worth googling. It's bigger. I'm a large person. I can wrap up in this thing and stay toasty, warm out in a snowstorm. It's amazing. So the bug out bag is what you have when you're going to go from your house to someplace else. Hopefully you've got a plan.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, this has continued to develop over the years. It's also been determined you should have in your car a get-home bag. That means if you're at work or you're stranded on the road, what do you have in the car that will help you survive? Now, interestingly enough, we're not big. Go out and interstate and camp and that kind of stuff. It's just not that much fun anymore, but I know a lot of young people do. I know we just had friends and family come by this weekend. They hopped in the car. They went from Portland to Sacramento and didn't even think of that any more than it would be going down to the store for a candy bar. So what do you have when you're on the road, and do you have enough for you? Do you have enough for everyone in the car? And what if there's an accident? Are you that person who can stop and render aid? Things to consider for future broadcasts.
Speaker 1:Getting out of the home, getting from work to home I happened when I was working. I worked at SOU. That, from my present home, is 14 miles. So if I had to get home in an emergency the last fire we had in this area the highways were impassable. I was at that time riding a mountain bike. Don't visualize that, you'll hurt your retinas. A 14-mile ride on a mountain bike, no problem.
Speaker 1:But what could I carry? What could I carry with me? What if things got out? It's a what-if game. So I had supplies at work. That's the third thing. So you have a bag to get out, a bag to get home from work. And if you can't get to your car now, I was in an office not everybody works in an office in your truck, in your van, in your work area. Do you have some supplies there? And supplies of those types are basic first aid, basic food, basic water and filtration for air, because air, food and water are three things you cannot do without breathing. About three minutes is the max. I've gone over two and I didn't care for it. Much water three days and food generally three weeks In these fire situations. Or I was in Santa Barbara once when they had a leak. A tanker truck crashed on the freeway and downtown Santa Barbara was a goat town. Everybody had to get out of there because of some gas that leaked out from the tanker truck and, believe it or not, way back then and this is in the 80s I had face masks. I could successfully leave my office and get to where I needed to be because I had a face mask.
Speaker 1:Now this will, as we go, folks are going to start hearing. There's level one preparation. There's just the emergencies, just what you can carry, and there's what you can build up. In my office I had supplies In my car. I had a backpack. So if I had to leave the car, if the car became disabled, what do I have? So not only did I have the backpack in the car, but I had supplies that I could carry with me, like a shovel or a small tent, things like that. This I carry with me all the time.
Speaker 1:Now you're starting to see a pattern. This is modular. It developed into a system as folks started thinking, wait, I need a get-home bag, I need a work bag, I need a bug-out bag and a stay-at-home kit, because really, if you have an opportunity, staying at home is your best idea. In an emergency Bunker, in hunker down, you know where everything is, you know what you've got, you keep up with it regularly, or you should, and you also have friends and family, neighbors, community in the area. If you want to and I strongly encourage this build a home system, encourage this. Build a home system, build a team. You have this Neighbor Bob has this Neighbor Jose, rather, has that. You can all look at each other and agree in advance.
Speaker 1:Now I will tell you in times when the excrement hits the air conditioning, a lot of these plans go right up in smoke. You should have at least three plans because, as we know, plans don't always hold together. We saw that in the fire and I've spoken of that. If you're a new listener, the short version is you got plan A. That doesn't work. You got plan B and I have plan C because I'm type A. And finally there's what we call the Alamo. When everything goes completely south, it's all come and undone. Where are you going to go If you have never considered that that's your first? This is part of sparking a conversation. In our geographical area, there's only two ways to go north and south and there's two roads and they run parallel. So if those roads are closed, you better have an Alamo in the local area. We had an Alamo when we had that big fire. We had plan A, plan B, a plan C if things got really goofy, and then we had the Alamo. When we ended up needing our Alamo situation, it was on fire too. We couldn't go there, so we had to then use our plan we had developed and alter it on the fly, and we were ready for that. And that's the difference between looking like the three stooges when Shemp needs cheese. If you don't know what that means, look it up, google it. It's kind of funny.
Speaker 1:Having preparation, having the conversation, having the information, is what you're going to have to do if you're going to get through things safely. Having supplies set up, having different things in different bags that will join with the other bag. Don't have bug out bags in the car, at work, at home. All the same, make these so they are complementary. And what I mean is you've got a water filter in their car and then at home you've got a larger water filter unit that will hold more and then you have water bottles you can fill if you have to leave from these large water filters you have In the car. You're going to have some rations At home in your bug-out bag. You'll have some rations at home in your bug out bag. You'll have some rations, emergency food, and those then combine to make extra food. The idea is each bag is combined with the other and those contents complement what's in it. It improves. You've got one pocket knife at home. You've got one pocket knife in your bag.
Speaker 1:Now this brings us to an interesting topic. One is none and two is one. Say that again for you One is none and two is one. That means if you've ever dived into your handbag, ladies or gents, you're digging in your pocket or under the seat of the front car. You know you had that pocket knife there. You know you had that fire starter and by golly it got out of place. It fell, it went under the seat, it went down into a cushion. That's life. That's like reaching for a pen and having five pens when you leave the house and you get to the meeting. You've got none of them. This is okay if you don't have an extra pen at the meeting, but if you need a fire starter or God forbid you need a tourniquet. You've got to have a couple of these things in different places. I have them in my home. I have them in my car. When I was at work, I had them in my home. I have them in my car. When I was at work, I had them in my workplace. I knew where they were. I knew they were high quality.
Speaker 1:That's the third really important thing. You're going to get your plan. You're going to have a conversation. You're going to realize the plan is going to change as circumstances change and you're prepared for that. You're going to include the entire family, absolutely Including the kids, including grandma and grandpa. What are you going to do if? What happens if you can't do that?
Speaker 1:We have neighbors here. We actually had a beautiful demonstration of everything working correctly. The trees blew down. As I mentioned, we had a heavy rainstorm, hail, wind, boo it was pretty scary. Dogs still under the bed. We came together like a hive of bees. We have known each other here a good long time. Many of the people have been here for 10, 15 years, so we know who can do what. That's a key part In your family discussions probably not the first meeting, but who's comfortable doing what? That's a key part in your family discussions? Probably not the first meeting, but who's comfortable doing what? Now?
Speaker 1:My wife is a nurse. She is just nurse strong. She's got the big cape, the boots, the belt, the whole thing, super nurse. And I've taken a lot of classes stop the bleed, taking first aid, cpr, aed, trauma medicine, things like that. Some people faint at the sight of blood and we're not going to give them any grief.
Speaker 1:If you know you can't do those type of things, there's other things you can do. Train to that. Don't let people oh, I it all queasy, hey, stop it. This person's here. They're here to help and maybe they can't wrap a wound or help with applying a tourniquet, but they can clear the area to make sure it's safe. They can get 911. They can gather supplies. They can go get additional help. There's lots of things all of us can do.
Speaker 1:Bug-out bags started as a single item. They are now a modular system. Bug-out bag A when added with bug-out bag B, home and car are now double in value because they have extra things. We have extra things because things, especially in an emergency, get misplaced. We're looking at basics, to start, and understanding that being surviving, that being a survivor, is not always comfortable. I mean, I took survival training and you know you're eating bugs and sitting in a rainstorm. That is surviving but that's not really comfortable.
Speaker 1:So what can you get? What can you take to be comfortable? And it is going to vary by your geography. If you're in Europe, it's going to be different than if you're in Oregon, than if you're in the Chicago area, than if you're down south in Nolens. The geographical area you're living in is going to help dictate what you have. If it's very, very hot versus very, very cold. The weather is going to be more changeable. Get used to it, it's going to be a factor. What happens in an extreme weather event? Do you have floods in your area? Have you had floods in your area? Knowing the area, the geography you're living in, if you're in a city, it's going to be totally different than being in a rural or a country environment.
Speaker 1:All these city folks and I've said this a hundred times and I'll just keep saying it folks seem to decide that, boy, this gets scary here in the city. We're going to run out to the country, set up our Coleman stove, shoot a deer and we'll be just fine. Well, I got bad news for you. Everybody in the city has that plan. So home base is the best place to be.
Speaker 1:We'll talk in the weeks to come about what to put where At my home I have backup solar batteries. I decided not to go with gasoline because of the storage concerns of storing gas, but a way to generate electricity and stop and think. I'm going to leave you with one final point. When just the power goes out, what does that mean? Okay, that's heating and cooling, lighting, refrigeration and any medical things you have, like a CPAP or keeping your insulin cool in the refrigerator, that type of thing. So just one interruption can really be an issue. But if you have a major interruption cell towers down, electricity down, heating down, if you have gas, if there's an interruption with the gas lines what does this mean and what are you prepared to do? That's what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:So welcome to the conversation if you're a new person, if you've been coming back weekly, thank you. We will continue to look at ideas to maybe make your preparations and the things you're doing a little better preparations and the things you're doing a little better. And going through these new things, these new ideas, is going to have a lot of ways to help you fine tune. So if you're a newbie, welcome. If you're a regular, welcome back. And everything we're going to do here is to keep you and your family safe. Reminder everything going out at the range is just as it's been.
Speaker 1:We've gone away from a specific time for a specific class. The only exception is our concealed carry. That's still on Saturday, second Saturday of the month, and that's held at the Medford Rifle Pistol Club and you can register online. The other classes, if you have interest, are available. You can schedule them out and do this with your church group. We're getting a lot of that. Houses of Worship are bringing in some parishioners and they're getting prepared.
Speaker 1:We have everything from basic pre-gun ownership classes. Basic pistol shows you how to select a pistol, how to select a handgun, how to hold them, how to shoot them. The basic always, always, always ideas, and we go all the way through concealed carry, shotgun and through tactical for the more advanced shooters. So if you've got an interest, go to the website. The link's there where we log in and give Phil a call. Phil CJ and I are always standing by to help you.
Speaker 1:Come on out to the range if you haven't been. We're at 6800 Kershaw here in the Medford-White City area. It's a little tricky to get there now because Foothill Boulevard, if you're following your GPS, is closed, so you're going to have to. You can call us, we'll give you directions, but it's a good place to spend a Saturday. It's a little hot, but that's cooling down. We'd like to see you, we'd like to invite you. Even non-ballistic self-defense is something we offer for folks and, like I mentioned, we have customized programs for customized situations. So if you'd like more information, we are the premier training center here in Southern Oregon. We've been here a long, long time. The skill sets you would not believe, the skill sets we've got to share with you. So give us a call or pop into the website see what's going on. We look forward to seeing you real soon. Bug Out Bag 2.0 is underway. We'll be back next week and, as always, your comments and suggestions are welcome. Be safe, stay strong. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.