Jim:
Larry is to be congratulated for taking the initiative. In years past I have bugged out on numerous occasions just to “be sure.” I have never felt jilted for doing that. It is ALWAYS good practice and you always learn something.
Larry may want to investigate buying a 20 foot or 40 foot (depending on his size needs) Sealand (CONEX) container and having it placed on his retreat property.
This will allow him to ditch the rental storage shed (saving probably $30-50. per month. In two years or so you will “break even” on the cost of the container) and give him a possible shelter to use if he needs to live at the retreat prior to having a normal dwelling built. He can pre-position his supplies in the back of the container and build living quarters in the front of it. The walls can be insulated, windows and doors even put in if he is so inclined. This would give him a relatively low cost ($1,000 to 1,500.) way to pre-position his supplies and have emergency living quarters if needed.
If he’s worried about his supplies being looted I’d suggest putting them all in the back of the container, then buying a few dozen straw bales and building a wall of straw bales right at the front of the container. Someone opens the door and sees hay bales from the floor to ceiling 2 layers deep. I would assume someone is about to move horses or cows on the property and is stockpiling hay. He will have to weigh the risk of breaking over the risk of having to run all over the countryside retrieving supplies from storage lockers. This would also allow truly one trip- right to the retreat. Allowing him to get his family immediately out of harm’s way. In my opinion their is just as much chance of having the sealand container broken into on the property as their is the storage shed broken into, probably more risk of the latter being broken into, especially after civil unrest.
Larry is to be commended for being a doer and taking the initiative. He has learned many lessons that others will not learn until the day comes. – Mr. Lima