Making The Hard Decisions Somewhat Easier- Part 2, by Old Bobbert

Okay, we are at the second example in our consideration of making hard decisions whether to go or not go in a crisis situation. I am using scenarios to illustrate the decision processes. This time we will be looking at bugging out from a large, suburban, bedroom-type community.

Scenario 2: Family From Suburban Community

You will have the same sort of general circumstances that were prevalent in our first example above, except with these two differences. First, you still have three kids, but they are all teens and all boys. Their ages are seventeen, fifteen, and fourteen. The second difference is the big one– you’re the stay-at-home, very talented “Mom”.

Dad works at the family’s commercial property management business, with offices near to your neighborhood, where he is the senior managing partner. His two brothers are his junior partners and are earnestly learning to survive that very competitive business environment as mid-level area managers. Again it’s the same Tuesday at ten in the morning. Your teens are in school, and you and Dad are both watching the news and growing very concerned.

The Alert Announcement and Exit Plan

You are on full alert after an announcement that both metro New York  and the D.C. capitol are both shut down totally with a full blown area wide power grid outage situation. Your west side suburban St. Louis area is a very densely populated, residential, upper mid-level income area. The two of you are in full agreement that you are fast moving toward a pre-planned decision to gather up the immediate family and bug-out to your parent’s home in western, rural, central Missouri. It is an easy four-hour trip but possibly longer if you delay your ideal exit-town schedule. Your earlier estimates of timing ran nearly four hours for a daytime weekday hasty leaving exit. The boys are very involved and are fully aware that exit knowledge security is a paramount item.

His Family

Sadly, your brothers-in-law (that’s his family, not yours, of course) have repeatedly scoffed at your family’s positive preparedness attitude and the stored supplies and practice exit time activities at your home. So, you and hubby happily agreed a few years ago to not bring them, or their families, into your planning or your preparations. This absolutely applies to any knowledge concerning the ample supplies currently stored safely in your parent’s, long “unused for farming” barn.

Both of you are fully agreed that at the last minute Hubby will telephone from home to his brothers and simply state that your family is leaving now. He will invite them to join you and inform them that they can meet up with your family at the second highway rest area in about 90 minutes. Your family will wait just one single hour for them, just 60 minutes! Their 150 minute exit clock will start at the end of the exit notice conversation.

Exit Notification Procedure

The family exit notification procedure is simple and has been practiced twice this past year. Hubby will phone you and ask you if you would like for him to take you and the boys to Wendy’s for an early dinner this evening. That will be your only notice that he will drive to the boys’ school and meet them at the school’s central office area so as to get approval for them to leave the building immediately with him. They will drive their car home, following Dad. Your family has a large family van with a fully equipped and fully stocked eight by twelve trailer, plus your oldest son has a not too old model, full-sized, 4 x 4 Jeep.

Time To Go Move Records and Pack For Trip

Hubby drives an older Chevy sedan as his company car. The family has planned well in advance. It’s still Tuesday, and it’s 11am. The TV news has just announced that Chicago has gone dark.  The phrase “power down” has begun to spread.  It’s time to go. The phone just rang and you and the guys will be eating at Wendy’s early this evening.

It’s time to move the more important family records and the emergency cash stash to the van, start to pack the coolers with food for the trip, and use the frozen water bottles to chill the food and to drink as needed.

Each of the family members has a van trip B.O.B. duffel bag stored in the bottom of their bedroom closets. The family individual two-way radios and the SW transceiver will be ready to be put into the van. The medications supplies and first aid kits (2) are go-ready and packed in a cooler. The family weapons are easily available when the guys get home. It’s time to wait and pray for safety and peace of mind.

Everyone is home now. It is noon, and the news is not good, not anywhere. There are riots in New York and in Boston. The boys are trying to stay calm and collected.

Pre-Exit Action Lists

Their pre-exit action lists are so very welcome and so very important. Each one has a specific action list for their individual responsibilities.  Each one is responsible for different communication/computer items for the family activities and for family security.

Code Wordage

They are well prepared, and there has never been any doubt that they would be hasty moving to the grandparents mid-state refuge home. Mom calls her parents and mentions that Dad is taking them all to Wendy’s for an early dinner. There is great safety in the same code-wordage among the family group, and most especially if there is a single word change in the memorized security statement everyday, just one word to change.

Picking Out Small Items to Take

Everyone is walking through the house to pick out small items to help them to get through the near future. They are each leaving someone behind that they care about and can not bring with the family. It is very emotional and Dad and Mom have to set the positive example.

Calls To Say Goodbye

It is one o’clock, 1300 hrs militarily speaking. It’s time to say a prayer for peace, safety, and help to make good decisions and to find good people when they get to their new home with the grandparents. Everyone is using their cell phones to call a few left behind close friends and tell them goodbye. The story is that they are going to visit out of town family for a few weeks.

This important decision to bug out was actually made two plus, no stress yet, years ago. Your family action plan is now fully completed.

Scenario #3: Small Town, Patriotic Family

We are at example scenario #3. Here, we have a small town, seriously patriotic family that operates a strong, busy, Internet-based used book sales business from their home. They have an arrangement with Amazon.com for drop shipment resales.

Now  is their best time to go, right now. The family’s standard one-liner joke is timely indeed– “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” It’s very true, unless it’s the politicians who are causing the need for aid to the country. That has been a very real concern to many of the people who live in most of the small towns. In this, our third example of decision-making concerning “bugging in or bugging out,” the people factors are very similar but with differences enough to be an excellent SHTF teaching scenario.

The Family

Your family is still Mom and Dad and three sons, who are ages twenty, seventeen, and fifteen. The boys are all very bright and Tim, the eldest, is in his second year at the area community college, where he studies computer science and enthusiastically participates in the school’s excellent Army ROTC program. Henry,  the younger, who only answers to the name ”Hank,” and the youngest, Karl, all have been raised to feel strongly about freedom and patriotism. They are quiet Preppers.

Their Internet-Based Used Book Business

Their knowledge of American history has been well supported by the many hours of going through the used history books being resold through the family business, known as “The Hub Store”. Mom thought up the business name early in the life of the business. She saw husband Henry working and handling hundreds of used books and thought of “Henry’s Used Books”. Then, she wrote “H” for Henry plus “U” for Used and “B” for Books– HUB. The HUB Store was born that day, long ago. In the beginning, they had dealt mostly with used college texts and magazines, and then they discovered the possibility of doing a national Internet used book enterprise. That is also about the time the family began their quest for knowledge concerning preparedness.

Henry would scour the Internet ads for popular books being offered inexpensively and would confirm the quality. They then advertise the same book at a higher price with  a small increase in handling charges. He already knew about the lower postage costs of using the lower “printed matter” media postage rates. He taught his sons to work hard and to be totally fair and honest in all of their dealings with other people. They stocked prepper books and magazines. Their store name was recognized nationwide as the special Prepper Book Store.

The family existed as a loving single entity with high personal standards and responsibilities. They were totally committed to realistic preparedness. The family business income was erratic and unpredictable with seasonal highs and lows. Because of this, the family stayed ready to live on tight financial budgets and to always have enough food and treats on hand to help those folks who were in honest need of help to get through the month.

Tomorrow, we will wrap up Scenario #3. Then, we will take a look at all three scenario and what we can extract from them.

See Also:

• Making The Hard Decisions Somewhat Easier- Part 1, by Old Bobbert
• Making The Hard Decisions Somewhat Easier- Part 3, by Old Bobbert (Active on 11/16/18)

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been part one of a three part entry for Round 79 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
5. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
6. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Third Prize:

1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 79 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.