EMERGENCY BUG-OUT BAGS Reconsidered:

That Must Have Been An Emergency:

COVID-19 coronavirus (or is it SARS-CoVid-2 ?) whatever .. It is making folk who live on Big Macks & KFC anxious and panicky about "self isolating"  & .. toilet paper supplies.

Wash your Hands First eh ;

- It's just about six years since I posted my original version of this essentials story - My emergency 'Bug-Out Bag' is actually a plastic crate in the back of my car .. I also keep a miniature kit in a $20 stainless steel billy-can: 

. I've now bought & pocket carry a small ferro rod fire starter (attached to another Opinel ring-lock knife).

 In the car crate I've stashed a Glock Trench-Tool (this is a combined spade-shovel-pick with a decent saw-blade in the telescoping handle .. you can also sharpen an edge of the spade to use as an axe.
Here is a personal observation: Many camping & military surplus stores stock for sale a type of FOLDING SPADE that must be the weakest most poorly made piece-of-crap that has ever been sprayed olive-drab.
- A "mountain-man" hunter friend who traverses the exposed & steep Southern Alps - for fun with a cheese sandwich in one pocket and an apple the other - sleeps in bivvy (bivouac) bush-camps built using this Glock tool .. testing it - No worries as both joker & tool are lean & tough buggers!

Excellent Quality from Glock

Next in my car crate there is a saucepan, copper-kettle, stainless-steel pan/plate, canned foods (baked beans, Irish stews, tinned meat etc.) a packet of dry biscuits (crackers?), a jar of dry 'rolled oats' (porridge), a screw-top container with tea-bags and sugar, - a plastic water container (with a squirt of bleach in it to stop it turning green) - eating irons, a Glock sheath knife, a pruning saw, a machete  (axe if you prefer), matches, Bic lighter, box of candles, strips of old rubber inner-tube, fuel-tablet folding stove, para-cord, LED battery lights, a small first-aid kit ..

I should have a couple of space-blankets and a sheet of polythene or something better for a 'fly-sheet'.
- Remember to 'Rotate' - replace, the food items whenever you think of it. - Why not keep a sleeping-bag and a small gas stove in your vehicle? .. but I do realise that keeping stuff in your car in places like U.K cities is a worry - especially if it gets parked kerbside overnight several streets distant.

.. If things Nuclear are on your mind - consider that while you can 'purify' water with tablets, filters or bleach - 'iodine' (or Lugols Solution) will also sterilise water - and drinking that water with iodine in it will help saturate your glands with "good iodine" that will then prevent radio-active iodine fallout from being absorbed. - Never forget or ignore that there are more than 14,000 nuclear warheads on our planet .. plus around 160 tonnes of Plutonium stored in UK's Sellafield.

'Thorp' PLUTONIUM dump at Sellafield Cumbria

THE FACTS OF LIFE .. Glock & Ruger tools work.
Something BIG in your life such as a major EARTHQUAKE or NUCLEAR attack will reduce your life expectancy to a simple matter of luck .. but do consider that one yard or metre of soil will stop a hell of a lot of ionizing radiation .. but will also hurt some if it's dropped on you by an earthquake.

We Kiwis live where we get earthquakes .. so do Californians, Italians, Afghanis, Armenians, Pakistanis, Japanese, etc., etc. - so there is a REAL possibility of a problem. - In the last ten years we have had three serious quakes in The South Island of NZ - destroying lives, homes, and businesses - it will take many years to re-build peoples lives, the roads, the sewers etc. 

- And those quakes were not the BIG ONE  that we are overdue from the big South Island Alpine Fault .. sometime when?

Camping Equipment could be a very worthwhile asset eh.

Christchurch Eastern Suburbs Street After The Quakes ..

In U.S.A - the whole 'what-to-put-in the emergency bag' discussion often centres around which AR15 rifles to pack - how many cases of ammunition and what calibre pistols or revolvers? - All important issues that you only speak of in hushed tones here in New Zealand - as we are forbidden by our Police to consider (or voice any intent to use) the need of firearms for self-defence - However, nobody could complain about you having a legal rifle to hand for hunting / food gathering in emergency times. There's nothing wrong with rabbit or duck meat (or squirrel) - roasted or in a stew ..

Would it be bossy of me to suggest that if you keep an axe or machete for emergency shelter building and firewood cutting - Use it from time to time .. carefully for practice - to 'train' your muscles and practice keeping every part of your body CLEAR of impact from the edged tools swing .. an axe sticking-out of your foot would not be a good starting point for long-term comfort.

Place wood on the back/far side of Chopping Block .. In case You Miss your Swing

I guess that in theory your 'bug-out' bag should contain as much as is practicable of all the things you need to live - so that should include some SHELTER, HEAT, WATER, FOOD, CLOTHING, LIGHT, and TOOLS. - Don't neglect a supply of any essential Medications.

- Having that stuff handy means that if you are out driving in a good hunting location or a beautiful fishing river etc. - you can change your plans and stay overnight anytime .. that's freedom eh.

Alternately - if you are lucky enough to have your own home with a patch of dirt .. there are good reasons to work a veggie garden (together with a well stocked pantry:
1/- Healthy chemical-free vegetables
2/- Cost savings from grow-your-own
3/- Healthy exercise digging & weeding etc out in the air
4/- Your crops are a personal food bank in the ground
5/- A woman's home is her castle - why bug-out if you can stay safely where you are?

WASH YOUR HANDS PROPERLY eh, - Soap & Water

Marty K.