Bug-out Buckets

 

 

Meet B.O.B.

 

...which stands for Bug Out Bucket.

 

This is a 2-gallon bucket I got from the bakery department of our grocery store. It's air-tight and water-tight, and when filled with just about anything, light enough to carry and small enough to not be bulky. 

 

Since I can get them for free I've been using them to store beans, rice, flour, sugar, and anything else that'll fit inside the bucket.  When the lid is snapped on, the contents are protected from water, mice and other rodents, and insects.

 

My husband and I were talking about Bug-out bags a couple of years ago, and stories from friends came to mind.  They'd had trouble with things like water damage and mice getting into the backpacks they had made into bug-out bags.

 

We started talking about water- and rodent- proof containers.  The first thing that came to mind was plastic totes, but they're awkward to carry.  Then we thought of the buckets we'd been filling.  The disadvantage in comparison to a backpack is that your hands aren't free.  You can loop the handle of the bucket over your arm for limited hands-free use, but generally, you'll be carrying it.

 

There are some oddball options, such as packing a length of baling twine in the bucket; maybe a piece around 5' long, and you could tie each end to a bucket and drape the string across your shoulder, or tie them to a pole and carry the pole across your shoulders.  Strange, I know, but if we're tying to think of every possible situation and every possible solution, it's one.

 

When I packed two of these buckets for us, I was thinking 30-days of supplies plus whatever we can forage for, depending on the situation.  I planned to throw in basics that would go with those foraged foods, and possibly a few snared rabbits or squirrels.

 

Today when I took the lid off for the first time in two years, I was surprised at the bad choices as well as some of the good choices I'd made as I packed it.

 

First thing on top was half a dozen fast-food napkins.  Okay, not a bad choice for a filler item.

 

Let's look at the rest of the items.  The bag in the bottom right corner of the picture is white sugar.  I had packed it for the quick burst of energy from even a small pinch of sugar placed on the tongue.  I also figured it could be used with tea made from wild plants, as well as added to foraged berries for energy.  To the left of the sugar is a ziplock bag of mint hard candies.  Those, too, were for quick energy.

 

Below that is a small tube of toothpaset, and at the top of the picture are two new toothbrushes.  I left them in their packages to keep them clean and because the cardboard backing could be used to start a fire if necessary.

 

Next to the toothbrushes are some packs of matches and a vacuum-sealed pack of cigarettes.  None of us smoke.  These were acquired with a free coupon and sealed, to be used as a barter item if we had to bug-out, or as something to calm down an irate person we might meet along the way.  Our plan was to trade or give them away one cigarette at a time, never the whole pack at once.  We buy the matches in cases and distribute them among everything we store.  Fire can save a life, and matches are likely to be good trade items or gifts if things get bad.

 

The two jars with blue lids, laying next to the bucket, are bouillon cubes.  one chicken, one beef.  My line of thinking was to use them along with foraged greens and other plants, to flavor soup and provide sodium.  In every day life that much sodium might not be good for us, but if we're on foot walking and foraging, we'll need to replace the salt we'll sweat out,  Plus, we won't be eating as much other foods with a high sodium content, so it'll average out.

 

What I'm not sure about is why I left the cubes in the glass jars they came in.  The extra weight is probably not worth it.  Maybe I was thinking they would make good cups after they were empty?  I have no idea.  When I repack it today I'm going to dump the cubes into ziplock bags and leave the jars out.

 

Below the jars are two different sizes of bandaids.  Not much of a medical kit.  To the left of them is a pair of fingernail clippers.  That's a good choice, but the smaller, compact size might be an even beter choice.  Most Dollar stores sell them three to a pack for a dollar...at least the Dollar Tree near us does.  Two are small, one pair is bigger.

 

On the bottom left of the picture is a 1-lb. bag of black beans.  I'm guessing it was to be 'camp' food along the trail.  How I was going to soak them and keep a fire going long enough to cook them is beyond me.  I'm going to leave those out of the bucket this time.  I have some beans that I cooked and then dehydrated, and I'll be packing a bag of those instead.  They're like "Instant beans", in that all I have to do is add water to them.  They don't even have to be heated.

 

The reason I would still pack beans in this bucket is for the protein and iron.  I had intended to pack a jar of peanut butter in here, but I didn't find one.  That would be more ideal than beans.  A person could eat a spoonful (or finger-lick full, but don't double dip and get bacteria from your saliva in the jar, and second thought, you don't know what's on your finger, and it might cause nasty things to grow in the peanut butter!) and get a large amount of fat and calories.  One Tablespoon of peanut butter has 8 grams of fat and 100 calories.  It's ready to eat and delicious right out of the jar.

 

Digging deeper in the bucket I pulled out a jar of Vanilla imitation flavoring (above the bouillon cubes in picture).  What in the world was I thinking?  What possible plan could I have had for carrying a full, unopened bottle of vanilla seasoning?  I have no idea.  If I had to bug-out unexpectedly from my home and hoped to rely on the contents of this bucket to contribute in a big way to my survival...why vanilla?  It won't be going back in the bucket.

 

There's also a full bottle of Cinnamon.  I sighed when I pulled it out. I could see putting a little bit in a small, snack-size ziplock and tucking it in a corner, but why a full bottle?  It, too, won't be going back in.

 

You can't see it in the picture but I pulled out four regular rubber bands.  That's an okay addition.  Extremely light-weight and doesn't take up much space.  Could be useful.  There were about a dozen tea bags, green tea.  I'm not sure what I expected to make the tea in, but at least I had sugar along to sweeten it!  Using boiling water is the best way to make tea, but I've added a tea bag to the water bottle on my bicycle and let it sit there for a few hours as I pedaled in the sun, and gotten pretty good 'sun tea'.  So the tea bags can stay if I have room to slide them in between things.

 

Next I pulled out a can of hot cocoa mix.  I'm addicted to it, and I suppose I had room in the bucket, so I put it in.  Nothing would make a bad situation more bearable to me than to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.  But again, what was I going to heat the water in, or drink the hot cocoa out of?  The glass jars from the bouillon cubes?  I don't know.  I should at least put one of those lightweight tin cups with a handle into the bucket.  I can stuff it full of things and it won't add much to the weight or bulk of the contents. The hot cocoa added 1 lb. 4 oz. of weight.  I'm undecided about keeping it in there.

 

Also in the bucket was a 2-lb. can of coconut oil.  That, I'm sure, I put in the bucket for calories and fat.  One Tablespoon has 120 calories and 14 grams of fat.  It has a very long shelf life, is stable in all temperatures, and tastes fairly good straight out of the can.  It could be used with the wild foods, and scientifically speaking, help the body absorb vitamins and other nutrients from the wild greesn and other food. 

 

Is 2 lbs. too much weight?  Too much volume?  For a 30-day survival bucket, it's not too much.  For a 3-day bucket, yes, it's too much.  I'd eliminate the coconut oil and just rely on the peanut butter for fat.  In the longer term you'll be struggling to get enough fat and calories.  Wild meat usually isn't very fatty, though there are exceptions.  Wild food is low in fat too, with exceptions like nuts and seeds.  Since this is a 30-day 'supplemental' bucket, the coconut oil will stay.

 

Lastly, there is a 1 1/2 pound can of salt in the bucket.  I think carrying salt in a 30-day bucket is a good idea, but perhaps only half that amount.  The bouillon cubes are also a source of salt, so I'd pour half the salt into a ziplock bag and put that in the bucket.  The total weight of the bucket did not seem all that heavy, so I was considering keeping the salt, but then I thought about carrying it for 30 days and I'm not so sure.  On the other hand, salt is a valuable barter item.  So I'm not sure.

 

There are things noticeably missing.  Maybe I had figured on those things already being on my person in a pocket, or in a survival belt bag.  There's no knife in this bucket.  Even a small, cheap pocket knife would have been useful.  Although there are matches, there is no lighter, which is something I usually pack into everything.  There is no flashlight and spare batteries, which is one of my staples.  I have dozens of them stashed everywhere, including in a few places in our car.  But none in this bucket.

 

There is no water or way to purify more water, other than the matches for starting a fire to boil water.  But then, what container would I use?  This is another use for that tin cup I mentioned.  Foil blankets and thin plastic rain ponchos are another cheap item that take up almost no space and are almost weightless that should have been in the bucket.

 

I'm really surprised at how unprepared I really would have been if I had had to grab this bucket and go in the last couple years.  Time to gather up some things and repack it, using my head this time!

My goal is to open the bucket once a year and rotate the items like peanut butter and coconut oil.  Peanut butter, especially, will go rancid after a while.  Twice a year might be a better idea.