It's the end of the world... do you know where your acronyms are?

Let's review the premise of my paranoia. I believe that it is likely (so possible that it is probable) that America is at risk of a calamitous event. It would help if I knew what that event is going to be. It would help even more if I knew when. Those uncertainties evince a debilitating velleity. (Yes, I often do talk like that... decoded: since we don't know for sure what bad thing might happen, we prepare for nothing at all - and that's a bad thing.)

The Federal Government encourages us each to figure out the likelihood of local catastrophe and prepare for that diligently. I still can't get over the absurdity of that, but I've blogged that horse to death. If you'd like a shopping list of potential triggers-of-the-apocalypse, I recommend this one.

As I've said before, whatever happens, Plan B world is likely to be marked by a return to pre-Industrial Revolution agrarian subsistence. The CHS Plan B blog is a rambling monlogue about my preparation for that "transition". Plan B world will not find success in suburbia... which happens to be where I live. There's a lot to prepare for; learning agronomy, husbandry, black-smithing, etc. Again, that's a process. What I can do now, what I should do first, is prepare for those first few hours after the Shostakovich Hits The Fan (SHTF). That's where B.O.B. comes in.

Bug Out Bag

The idea of a B.O.B. is that you have collected in one place (easily accessible, readily portable) the munitions of survival that you will need in the first 72 hours after SHTF. It's the stuff you need to "bug out" of Plan A. It's the stuff you need to survive as you G.O.O.D.

Get Out Of Dodge

What's in B.O.B. depends on your circumstances and how well you have prepared for Plan B. My plan is to have a rural compound within an hour's drive of town awaiting me - fully provisioned for long-term subsistence. My B.O.B. will be light. I'm nothing if not optimistic! :)

Nonetheless, I feel a duty to all of you who think I'm crazy to at least counsel you on what should be in your B.O.B. while you make your way to my compound where you will first apologize for thinking me crazy and then beg like a dog for me to let you in. I'll consider your tearful appeal. I'm nothing if not merciful. :))

I suggest the following four sites that discuss B.O.B.'s contents. Find the common elements, use common sense, and always remember, when it comes to surviving anything - More Is More.

Wiki (which begs the question, can man survive without Wiki?)
Survival (comprehensive discussion - follow each link)
Exxcess (follow the links at the end of the short article)
Zombie (love the "assault vest" concept)

My plan is to stock a fairly robust B.O.B. Whatever I do put in it will not be wasted in Plan B and since the Federation has not yet informed me exactly which catastrophe for which to prepare, I should be broadminded in my preparation. I'm stocking my B.O.B. patiently, but deliberately. Every trip to the store is a chance to grab one or two items. Having a list handy and working on it intentionally will pay off.

First purchase: an all-terrain little red wagon to carry my bags of silver coins and 10,000 rounds of ammo. Don't mess with my B.O.B., when it's all said and done, I'm nothing if not paranoid.

P.S. A bag is a bag unless you have more than a bag. Then the "bag" becomes a synecdoche - a part representing the whole. I realize that my little red wagon neither constitutes nor fits in a bag. I'm nothing if not clear on what fits in a bag and what doesn't. :)