survive « Robin Writes

There are so many choices when it comes to SHTF regarding bugging out or staying in place. It’s hard to know what to do, and it will be harder when SHTF actually happens, because you, and everyone else, will be in crisis mode.

What? You thought you’d be perfectly calm and collected? Probably not. See, it’s one thing to talk about it and to prep for it, but it’s something entirely different when it happens—because it hasn’t yet happened, and few people have that experience; even fewer have the experience of complete collapse.

However, if you prep, you’ll be better off than most. Think about it.

So now it comes down to do you stay or do you go?

If you’re staying, you’re pretty well set, right? Food, water, ammo, defensive measures, heat sources, etc. Unless, of course, it’s impossible to stay because of fires, looting, rioting, and so forth. Only YOU can make the distinction, the decision.

But if you go, you’ll probably have to decide that pretty quickly. People will be in panic mode, some hunkering down at home and waiting to get supplies, some heading out and creating more traffic and confusion and congestion than rush hour.

Our plan is to wait and see—to a point. As you know, things around here may be getting crazy in the next few weeks. Crazier. If things start spreading south and west, we’ll be watching. If it’s more of the usual, and pretty well contained, we’ll be okay; if panic starts, we’re outta here.

Of course, the big question, if you decide to leave, is where are you going? You need a plan, and a route, and a means of transportation. And, of course, a destination.

I don’t recommend crashing at a friend’s house, or even that of a relative. We’ve talked about this. You likely won’t be let in, unless you can bring something to the table—food, ammo, skills—and maybe not even then.

Some folks are lucky enough to have a place to go, one of their very own, that has been ready and waiting. Awesome—go there.

The important thing is to get out of the city and out of suburbia. Why? Because more people equals more chaos. More mayhem. More danger. And fewer supplies. And that decision to go or stay needs to be made quickly, before these things escalate.

So where do you go?

The less population, the better. Avoid homes and anywhere near buildings and what is clearly private property—you don’t want to get shot. Study maps. Learn the lay of the land within a reasonable driving distance, or further out if necessary. Look at satellite images to determine where people live, bodies of water, and so forth.

Don’t forget public land—private is dicier, but remember that some of these people may not be able to actually get to their property or perhaps even live in another state. It’s good to check out as much information as you can find.

Parks, particularly county, can be a good spot for a temporary relocation. Sure, others may think of it, but not as many as you might imagine. One thing that will hold up their decision is the “permission” factor. We’re all conditioned to make camping reservations, go in or out at certain times of the year or times of day. Forget all that. When SHTF, no one’s going to care. Or even be around to enforce it.

Look, make your call—stay or go—and then have a planned route and a planned location. Even two or three locations, just in case. And definitely several routes, the less traveled under normal conditions, the better. Again, study those maps.

Like I said last week, you have to prepare for you and your family. It does no good to have a lot of extra stuff, like food you can’t stand. Of course, we’ll all have to make some sacrifices when SHTF, but you may as well try to make things as easy as possible.

Let’s start with breakfast:

For our family of three-plus, granola is a big staple. It has oats, sugar, protein, and fruit. And it keeps really well:

Robin’s Granola Recipe

3 cups rolled oats (regular oatmeal, not instant)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 dry roasted peanuts

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup dried fruit

Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and peanuts. In separate bowl, mix honey, oil, vanilla; pour over oats, mix thoroughly.

Spread evenly on cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes, until toasted, stirring halfway through.

When done, remove from oven and sprinkle with dried fruit. Do not stir. Allow to cool, then scoop into container.

I keep mine in a freezer bag, stays fresh for about two weeks or longer. When you get down to the crumbs, you can eat it just like cereal.

This makes about 4 cups, which is roughly 8 servings.

So, in order to feed my family breakfast—using only granola—for three months, a standard supply, it would take about 32 batches. Sealed properly, granola could last a long time; I’d suggest freezing, which is fine unless the power goes out, or oven canning. I watched a video on this other day, with crackers, and I’m sure it’d work with granola too. In a 225-degree oven, it took 20-30 minutes.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure my preference would be to eat granola every single day for three months. I would, I could, but let’s look at other options:

I buy bacon on sale and freeze it; there is also shelf-stable bacon available. Love bacon! You can, of course, do the same with other breakfast meats. You can also can meat, although I haven’t tried that and not sure I’d want to . . .

As long as you’re buying oats for granola, you could also just prepare oatmeal. Don’t forget the items you eat ON your oatmeal. And, of course, skip the sugary, flavored varieties. That goes for cereal, too.

Bread, coffeecake, and other baked goods can be prepared and frozen. Learning to bake from scratch is important—what happens when the grocery store shelves are bare?

Whatever you do, prepare for three months—and this usually isn’t gathering and cooking and preserving for three months and stopping. You have to rotate, so foods don’t go bad—since you’re now cooking without preservatives, the commercial kind, some foods don’t last as long. But that’s a good thing! It’s much better for you. So you have to keep it up, on a regular basis, for many items.

Look at packaged foods and see what the recommended servings are. For example, two pieces of bread make a sandwich, so for three people I’d calculate six slices per day. There are about 10 servings in a loaf of commercial bread, so for my family of three I’d need 40 loaves of bread for three months—assuming we eat bread every day, which we usually do not. Let’s guesstimate a total of 26 loaves instead, or two-thirds.

Now, I’m obviously not going to bake that much bread and leave it in the freezer, even given the rotation schedule and assuming I had enough space, but if you know how to bake, you can always bake—even without gas or electric power.

I suggest getting started!