Bug in Trial

An idea Ive been toying with lately is to actually see what life would be like if you had to "bug in" without modern comforts.

I know full well I can bug out if needed and have practiced this often. However, I have never tried actually staying in my house/yard for an extended period of time.

So what I am going to do is this.

On the morning of April 4th I will be shutting down everything in my house that is electric. No fridge, freezers, lamps etc... Only exception will be 20 minutes a day to come online, post here about what is going on and to check my email. Then its back to the dark ages.

I have two heat sources currently, gas and wood heat. I will be shutting off the gas and be strictly on wood (which wont be that hard)

As for water, I have a well, however it is on an electric pump, so that will be off and my pipes drained to keep from freezing. (Yes, its still that cold where I am)

I will keep this up until the 11th, so 7 days. Cant miss Easter you know.

What this means is I will have little to no contact with the outside world aside from a hand crank radio, which I will use to keep my phone charged in case of emergency. No use of a car, TV, computer, lights, "grid heat", or easily attained water.

I have water and food stocks which will easily hold out, so I will not be out killing my neighbors dog for supper, I have a spare room that will hold a 5 gallon pail for um, refuse. Keeping that area sanitary will be of great importance to me. So all in all, I should do well, just want to give it a test run.

Over this week I will break no laws or take any unnessacary risks that could serious harm myself or others, as this is not a real sit-x, merely an exercise.

If anyone else has tried something like this, please post before I give it a go with any tips or advice.

Thanks.

Ill be keeping my eye on this one!
Star and Flag my friend, great idea.

Great idea

I will be watching this too with interest.

Don't forget to warn off any family members incase they try to contact you by phone, i take it you won't have a phone either?

Don't want the police busting down your door as everyone thinks you're dead.

Good luck anyway.

CX.

Originally posted by CX
Don't forget to warn off any family members incase they try to contact you by phone, i take it you won't have a phone either?

CX.

Good point. As I stated, Ill have a cell phone for any type of emergencies, Ill inform family/friends/work that Ill be unable to take calls unless it is said emergency.

Please keep a record daily of the experiment, and good luck
NR

That is a great idea, and is exactly why I'm building up my collection of books, dvds (yes even regular dvds should be able to make one provoke thought)and free energy sources, I'm already somewhat a hermit, but I enjoy this, I often don't leave the house for more than a few hours a week to get food, do washing etc. I enjoy being alone and thinking, trying to find the answer, or the key to my answer, if you get me.

Though I do have electricity, if you were smart you could get a magnetic generator, yep there are deigns out there, and there is also a ton of other stuff so you wouln't need to be without electricity, ever, and never have to burn fossil fuels to do this.

Anyway I wish you the best on your adventure, I'm sure you'll live.....lol.....look forward to your updates

May I suggest something for every ones well being. When we had a big wind storm the power was out for about 6 days. A flush a day takes about 3 to 5 gallons of water. Take all your water from washing dishes, hand washing and tooth brushing and save it. At the end of the day fill up the tank with the saved grey water and give a flush. This is a little more work than a thunder mug but I think well worth the trouble. Also it smells a lot better.

reply to post by waterdoctor


That is a great idea, and not just for emergencies.
This should be a great idea for inventors, not just for buggin in!

Great idea!! Another way to keep the privy from smelling up your living quarters is to take a heavy weight towel or small blanket and cover the lid when not in use.

We generally do this "experiment" every winter unwillingly when the power goes out during snowstorms and ice storms. If you don't live in a part of the world that has this built in feature, it's a good idea to practice occasionally, so one knows what to do.

Great topic OP, S & F for you!

Soul Sista

Have you come up with anything to add to your list, like say one of us decides to "practice" this at home?
I love to camp, and rough it, so im game to do this at any point.
How bout a short list of things youve decided to do and not to do, like an unwritten law of the "bug in"?

Good luck, My opinion is to also cut down on your food intake as well, sort of a forced fast.
If I had the time, and the wife wasn't at home all the time with me, ( like if she went to her Mothers for a week) I would try the same.
Except we live in a flat on the 6th floor, I'd unplug all the appliances and ensure that I had a good supply of water and non spoiling foodstuffs, rice and pasta etc.
I think I would have to invest in a solar panel to supply the fridge with power though and a couple of old car / motorcycle batteries to store power as well. But thats me.
Your 'experiment' is a good idea and possibly the first on this site ( ATS) as a lot of people go camping anyways but I think your the first to actually 'Bug-In'.
Good luck and keep us up on how your doing, and like a previous poster said, inform your friends/family what your doing otherwise they might get worried. I'd say tell them that you'll be turning on your mobile phone for an hour at 12 every day to check for messages and to speak to someone if needed, otherwise your phones going on vibrate. You might want to invest in a replacement battery for it as well and charge it up before you start your task.
Other than that good luck.

reply to post by salchanra


Excellent idea sachanra; It's sure to help you refine your survival strategies, not to mention spark ideas on how to more efficiently utilize your power or utilize alternate power sources. I think sometimes we talk about bugging out as the primary response to a Sit X, but for many that might involve greater risk -- at least initially -- if others are adopting the same strategy.

We recently performed this experiment for a period of 64 days. Hurricane Paloma hit our island on November 8th. Officially it was deemed to be a Cat 4, with 150 mph sustained wind. Other instruments here locally measured much higher sustained winds. Fortunately it was a small storm with a 10 mph forward speed, and carried only a 9-foot surge. Our systems worked well, and in fact I'm in the process of making a thread to outline those systems and supplies that performed well and those that didn't. Tell the truth, it was pretty painless for my Bride and I. We just got internet/land line back last Sunday.

Rechargeable battery-powered headlamps with solar charger were very useful. Just as an aside....... did you know that red-lighted headlamps illuminate animal and human eyeballs like red-glowing lamps? The headlamp has to be actually worn on your head to utilize this effect and it's the same angles of light and mechanism that creates red-eye when we take photographs.

In regard to your water system -- you might want to look at www.northerntool.com and check out their 12V water pumps. We have one from them that has a demand switch on it such that it only comes on when you use water, and it pressurizes to 40 psi. Ours runs off a deep cycle battery and is charged by a 5W solar panel. We'd set this up to draw well water for watering our garden, but I also plumbed it in with several valves so we can draw off the cistern or well and direct that flow to hose bibs, or pressurize the house. Pump+battery+5W panel was about U.S. $275 plus shipping. In times like these, good quality water filtration is as important or possibly more so, than the water delivery mode.

Very interested in hearing about your experience and what you learn from it. We can all benefit from your findings. Best of luck and skill to you, friend! Will be watching your thread with interest.

Cheers

Edit to add: red-lighted LED headlamps.

[edit on 24-3-2009 by argentus]

My tip? Buy a generator for extreme emergencies.
If you dont want to go that way thats cool.

However, I would suggest a large enough solar/wind setup
that would run your well/fridge! My sytem works great...

reply to post by argentus


Thats an excellent and cheap way to go!
2nd line

What type of solar panel do you have?
I read about them in another survival thread.
Saw that they are available at Harbor Freight, my favorite toy store.
I love to camp, too and always wanted to bring my small coffe pot cuz i havent perfected the ol' pot on the fire thing yet.

Originally posted by SoulSista
Great idea!! Another way to keep the privy from smelling up your living quarters is to take a heavy weight towel or small blanket and cover the lid when not in use.

Soul Sista

That does work very well. What I am planning, is I have a couple of bags of some stuff called enzyme 300 that is supposed to kill bacteria and knock out the smell. Also I am planning on shutting that room off and running a dryer hose out through a window to vent any nasties.

As for washing. I have means to heat water outside, will bathe with sponges, rags etc... for laundry. Not that I will need to do any in one week, I do have a wonderwasher. Ive used it before, but will do at least a couple of loads next week just to do it without power and with wood heat to dry everything.

Originally posted by guinnessford
Have you come up with anything to add to your list, like say one of us decides to "practice" this at home?
I love to camp, and rough it, so im game to do this at any point.
How bout a short list of things youve decided to do and not to do, like an unwritten law of the "bug in"?

I was actually thinking of putting a list of to-dos together, but figured that might be kind of cheating if I started now. As I said in the OP, I will be online each day to post to let you know what Im up to, how things are going, what is working, and what isnt.

Originally posted by argentus


In regard to your water system -- you might want to look at www.northerntool.com and check out their 12V water pumps. We have one from them that has a demand switch on it such that it only comes on when you use water, and it pressurizes to 40 psi.

[edit on 24-3-2009 by argentus]

Thanks for the info. Not a bad idea to get one of those for the house. I have generators and hand pumps at my BOL, just the well here.

The one thing that I would suggest is to convince yourself that this is real.

If you know you only have 3 or 4 days left, you won't "understand" what doing without is like. Try to convince yourself that you have no idea when you will get power back.

It's hard to do, but you will get more from the experience.

Looking forward to your posts, and hoping to learn from you...

Originally posted by tribewilder
The one thing that I would suggest is to convince yourself that this is real.

I agree completely. If I just sit on my couch with my stove going boiling water for beans and ramen waiting for a week to pass, Im not learning anything new except how to waste a week of my life.

Its also the reason I havent started doing anything out of the ordinary, such as stocking an extra 50 gallons of water, or taking everything out of my freezer, or setting up my commode.

Plan is to wake up on the 4th, shut everything down, stop by here and let ATS know my little idea has begun, with some basic information about what I did to turn my life off, what my first course of action will be, and then Ill see you the next day.

The one thing I didnt like about Les Strouds show was that after 7 days, he knew he was fine. In some episodes, he really wasnt surviving, just starving for 7 days until help arrived. I dont want that in this experiment.