My "Bucket" book

My new book is out just in time for Christmas!

"Food Storage: Bug-out Buckets, Specialty Buckets, and Transition Buckets, for Preppers"

Buckets are often used for food storage, but they can also be handy as bug-out buckets, 'specialty' buckets, and 'transition' buckets. Bug-out buckets are what they sound like. They're packed with the things you would need if you had to bug out of your home in a hurry.

'Specialty' buckets, so named because I couldn't think of anything better, are buckets you pack with things that would be a treat several years after a major SHTF event. It could include things like coffee, white sugar, store-bought candies, and non-food sundries like matches, lighters, toothpaste, and fingernail clippers. Imagine brewing up some coffee a few years after your family ran out of stored coffee!

'Transition' buckets are mainly for children, from toddlers to teens, so they have some of their own comfort things in their own bucket. They can pack, or help pack, these themselves, choosing books, toys, small games, or whatever they like, plus a few special snacks.

I've included suggestions and tips, as well as things that do and don't work, and some how-to's for storing or caching buckets. Even if you don't choose to use a bucket to store or carry these items, there are many good ideas for keeping yourself and the people you care about safe and comfortable, whether you're preparing for natural disasters or Armageddon, or anything in between.

Bug-out Buckets, Specialty Buckets, and Transition Buckets

It's available in Kindle format for .99

and will be available in print the day after Christmas, for $4.99,

both at Amazon.com

     

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.

 

 

 

 

Bug-out bags

"Any such thing as an uncomplicated bugoutbag? Thanks in advance. A real novice at this.

SLW"

 

There are about as many ways to put together a bug-out bag as there are people and potential situations.  It doesn't have to be complicated though.

 

Start with thinking about what sort of things would cause you to need to bug-out.  Do you live in an area prone to flooding?  Hurricanes?  Wildfires?  What about winter snow and ice storms... if the power went out would you stay home or go somewhere else?

 

If you had to leave home for one of those situations, would you go to a public shelter, or to the home of friends or relatives, or somewhere else?  The answer to that also affects what you pack.

 

Some people consider the possibility of civil unrest, collapse, or war.  It could become dangerous to stay where they are.  Your bug-out bag would have to be packed according to whether you had a pre-planned place to go or just fleeing.

 

Those are all things to think about when you pack.  If you have a preplanned place to go you probably have some supplies already stored there, so you'll just have to pack what you'll need to get there.  If you have no idea where you're going to go, then you'll have to consider the things that will keep you alive for a while, and pack with that in mind.

 

Some basic items should be in every bag.  The necessities for survival are shelter/warmth, water, and food.  Other things, such as medical supplies, are good to have, but start with those first three.

 

You're probably trying to keep your pack on the light side to make travel easier.  One of the best clothing items for warmth, which is also lightweight, is a fleece jacket or pull-over.  The downside is that they can be bulky.  If you have the space, a fleece jacket and a wind-breaker jacket give you good layering options.  You can wear one or the other, or both.  Another combination is a down vest, compressed into a ball with a rubber band or tie around it, and a wind-breaker jacket.  Try to avoid one big bulky coat because it doesn't leave enough options for temperatures in between warm and cool.

 

The cheap and small things to put in your pack that contribute to shelter and warmth are the cheap foil "space blankets" and the cheap plastic rain ponchos, both sold at most discount or box stores for about a dollar each.  You can lay the plastic poncho on the ground to protect you from moisture, and wrap up in the space blanket, or do it the other way around.  Lay the space blanket on the ground to keep your body's warmth from being absorbed by cold ground, and get inside the plastic poncho to keep wind from cooling your body.

 

If you have a larger pack you might be able to keep a sleeping bag tied to it.  However if you find yourself out in the wild in the cold, don't just sit on the ground and shiver.  Sometime I'll devote a whole post to ways to survive in that situation, but just quickly, let me say that you should try to find a sheltered place and cover yourself with leafed branches or pine branches, bunches of tall grass, or even leaves off the ground.  If there are more than one of you, sit against each other for shared warmth.

 

When my kids were growing up we camped in the woods one night without shelter.  We huddled in a dip in the ground, with leaves piled over us.  The kids also stuffed leaves inside their shirt and pants for extra warmth.  It was quite comfortable.  We watch the show "I Shouldn't Be Alive" on Animal Planet and I can't believe how many people, who are lost in the wild, just sit on the ground all night waiting for the sun to come up and warm them, and behind them is tall grass and bushes. 

 

In with warmth and shelter is fire making.  Carry at least two things for starting a fire.  Fire can be used for warmth, cooking, and attracting the help of rescuers; but keep in mind if you DON'T want to be seen or found, that the smoke by day and the glow of the flames by night could be seen.

 

The easiest fire starters for most people to carry are a cigarette lighter and matches.  There are also flint & steel and magnesium fire starters.  Do your homework now.  One of the things you can do is watch youtube videos on firestarting.  There are techniques you can learn, such as bow drill and hand drill, for starting a fire with only what you find in the woods, but unless you get a chance to practice this in real life, you're taking a chance by assuming you could do it if your life depended on it.

 

That said, watch the videos anyway and learn the techniques, because if you find yourself in a situation where your life does depend on it, at least you'd have the general idea of what to do.

 

Water is the next item of need.  There again you have to look at your probable situation of bugging out and decide how much water to carry, and how to plan on filtering if need be.  If all you ever expect is to go straight from your home to a shelter or a friend or relative's house, you won't need as much water.  If you're preparing in case you have to head for the hills, you'll need to plan a bit more. 

 

The weight of water is going to be a big factor.  You can only carry so much.  Look into options for filtering and purifying water.  This could be as simple as boiling it, or as complicated as running it through a filter and purifier.  By the way, once water reaching the boiling point it's safe.  It doesn't need to boil for 5 minutes.  Boiling kills pathogens (bacteria, viruses, etc.), but doesn't remove chemicals and other pollutants.

 

Filtering and purifying are not the same thing.  Filters just remove the debris.  Some commercial filters will remove SOME bacteria and other pollutants, but find out before you buy.  A purifier does just that...it purifies the water so it's safe to drink.  It can still have some debris in it but be safe to drink.

 

But I don't want to make this complicated so here's the deal.  Carry at least a couple of those small water bottles.  You can buy a filter straw from places like Cabelas, and water purifying pills from sporting goods stores.   If you must filter water in the wild you can make a primitive filter.  If you can find a can or non-glass bottle, that'll work; or you might have to use one of your water bottles.  Take the pocket knife that you packed in your bag (did I mention that?) and poke holes in the bottom of a can or bottle. 

 

Now find some sand and fill the bottle/can about a third full.  Look around for charred wood, such as from an old campfire or a tree or stump hit by lightening.  If you can't find some, and you're able to make a fire, you can burn some wood until it's good and charred, then pull it out of the fire using another stick.  Crush this "charcoal" and make a layer on top of the sand in the bottle/can, about as thick as the sand.  On top of that, sprinkle some small gravel or stones.  You can put a little bit of grass on top to help catch and filter debris, but the gravel will do it too.

 

Pour water into the filtering bottle, holding the other bottle below it.  If you have a way to tie them or brace them on rocks or logs so you don't have to hold them, it's a good idea, because it takes a while for the water to run through the charcoal and sand.  But in the end you should have water that is safe to drink. 

 

If you're ever lost in the wild and don't have a bottle with you, keep your eyes open.  Mankind has left a trail of garbage behind for centuries, and even the most remote place can turn up old cans.  Hopefully you'll be in a place with abundant water.  Finding water in dry or desert areas is a whole other subject.  If you expect to be in an area like that, learn about solar stills, how to find springs, and how to look for pockets or water in rocks or trees.  Staying hydrated by 'drinking' cactus juice is more likely to give you diarrhea.

 

Moving on to food, at the very least we keep a couple of granola bars in our packs.  A few hard candies can be good for keeping energy levels up while you walk.  If you're expanding to add more food, think 'calories' and 'fat'.  This is the time when you want as much of both as possible.  They'll give you more energy for the size than foods with less of either.  Something with peanut butter or coconut oil, or other fats, plus sugar, is good.  However, if they're in a candy bar like Peanut Butter cups, you run the risk of it melting.  Peanut butter M & M's are a good one to carry.  You can nibble on one or two at a time and stretch them out for hours.

 

If you have the space and can carry the weight, a jar of peanut butter is good to have.  Change it out twice a year so it doesn't get old and rancid.

 

In addition to our packs we have 2-gallon plastic buckets with airtight lids from a local bakery.  My husband and I each have one and we call them our "Bug-out buckets".  Inside is a jar of peanut butter, a jar of coconut oil, and a can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk).  These are all high in calories and fat.  Peanut butter has protein and the condensed milk has carbs, in addition to the calories and fat.  We also packed a bunch of odds and ends like hot cocoa mix, hard candies, matches and a lighter, bandaids, small LED flashlight and a set of extra batteries, a pair of socks, an emergency poncho, and a space blanket.  I think there's a few odds and ends like a tube of chapstick and a small comb.

 

These buckets are pretty lightweight and easy to carry.  Depending on the circumstances we'd grab those in addition to or instead of our packs. 

 

For the possibility of being in the wild long-term it's a good idea to learn foraging.  Get a good book on edible wild plants for your area and study it.  Go out and look for these plants, harvest and eat them.  Make sure you're picking the right plant.  If you can find a mentor that's the best route to go, or take a class.  You can stretch the food you carry and survive longer.

 

This is a good thing for everyone to learn.  Once you master the wild plants of your area, study up on the edible wild plants of places you might travel to.  It increases your odds of survival if you get lost or have to flee into any wild area.  Keep a whistle on a string attached to your bag.  It's easier to blow the whistle to attract help than to shout for hours.

Read about, or watch youtube or other videos, on making a survival shelter.  It doesn't take much knowledge to break off and gather branches, the leafier the better, pile them up and get underneath or in among them for warmth or shelter from the wind.  Enough pine branches can shed water too.  Find a fallen tree and lean branches up against it to make a small shelter you can crawl into.  Have another pile handy to pull into the doorway after you get in, to further contain your body heat and keep out wind.  You won't suffocate.  Enough fresh air will filter into your shelter to provide you with oxygen.

If it's winter, dig a hole in the snow, line it with branches and pull more in over you.  Even a snow cave with no branches to put in it will be warmer than the outside air, plus provide protection from the wind. If your car gets stuck in the snow and it looks like it'll be a while before you're rescued, or it's so cold you won't survive even a short stay, rip your seat covers and pull out the stuffing.  Put it inside your clothes for added 'warmth'.  I realize this isn't bug-out bag information but it's still good survival information.

You can make your bug-out bag as complicated as you want. Here's a website that specializes in survival kits and packs, and carries a wide line of things you can put in your bug-out bag:
http://bepreparedtosurvive.com/ 

But this post is about the uncomplicated bug-out bag; the simplest bag you can put together.  For a simple, uncomplicated bug-out bag that you can assemble with what you have on hand: a layered combo of jackets, a spare pair of socks, a spare pair of underwear, matches and a lighter, a couple of water bottles, a handful (or more) of hard candy (mints, butterscotch, whatever you like), a big bag of peanut or peanut butter M&Ms or trail mix.  That is the basid stuff that will keep you going for a few days.

 

You can add whatever you want to it.  You can get the space blankets and emergency poncho, and you can put in more food, more clothes, maps, compass, small pair of binoculars, a deck of cards, a book or a kindle/e-reader, whatever you want.  Just don't over-burden yourself and end up struggling to carry the bag.  If you require medicine, try to keep some in the bag and rotate it.  Add things like tylenol, a pair of reading glasses if you need them, nail clippers, and a small bar of soap.

 

If you have the money and the time, you could buy a spare kindle (or other e-reader) and fill it with books that will help you survive in the wild.  You could get medical books, foraging books, how-to build books, whatever you think you'd need.  Check it from time to time to make sure the battery is charged, and keep the wifi feature turned off unless you're adding more books, to save on battery life.  You can also buy a small solar charger for things like Kindles and cell phones.  They're pretty inexpensive, starting around $15 last time I looked.

 

These are just some ideas to help you get started.  No one is completely immune from the possibility of having to leave their home, so it's a good idea to toss a few of these things into a bag and have it ready.