Having Several Bug Out Locations Is Cool. Here's Why...

        - By Dan Sullivan from Survival Sullivan

In case you don’t know what a bug out location (or BOL, for short) is, it’s a place you can run to, hide in or even live on for an undetermined amount of time in case of an emergency. War, chemical attacks, EMP, hurricanes, Martial Law, these can all force you to abandon your home and find shelter and safety somewhere else.

Though many preppers see themselves bugging in in case of an emergency, bug out scenarios are just as important and should never be disregarded. Many need to put more thought into what they’ll be doing when they’re out there on the run. The migrant crisis in Europe, the biggest mass bug out in recent history has taught us valuable lessons.

Now, most preppers have a bug out location somewhere 30 to 100 miles away. They purchased some land or maybe they inherited it from their parents and grandparents. Maybe they went ahead and build a cabin or even a house and started to store gear and supplies inside.

The only problem is, them safely getting there is not 100% guaranteed. The only certainty in emergency situations is uncertainty, that’s why we should always follow the old saying: two is one, one is none.

Here’s a crazy thought: how about having multiple bug out locations? As you’re about to see, you don’t have to pay dozens of thousands of dollars for each and then build a cabin. Not all bug out locations need to be permanent; the main requirement is that they offer you shelter until you’re ready to move to a more permanent place.

BOL Requirements

The bug out location basics are straightforward: you need a place that’s low key to protect you from the elements as well as uninvited guests. It has to:

• be low key,
• have good visibility so you have plenty of time to prepare in case someone or something is getting close,
• have one or several ways out in case someone finds you and comes after you
• ...and ideally be located in a mountain area, although that’s not a requirement for all BOLs, as you’re about to see.

Of course, a more permanent retreat is going to need a few “extras”, such as:

• a water source (a river, a well, a rainwater harvesting system etc.),
• the possibility to grow food,
• offering a permanent shelter (that you’ve built in advance),
• offer means of protecting it, yourself and your supplies (you might have to fight a group of people, not just one)
• and to be fully stocked with supplies for at least a few months (a few years, maybe)

The List...

OK, now that we talked about the importance of having more than one location, let’s see some ideas of where to find them. I bet you haven’t thought about some of them and, even if you did, you probably didn’t see them as BOLs. Here we go!

A Friend’s House

Having a place within walking distance from your house could be a lifesaver. Maybe your building catches fire or there’s an explosion inside. Maybe you wake up with a burglar or a rapist and you need a place to run to and stay there for a few nights to calm down.

If you have a friend you can count on, that’d be great. In fact, in personal emergencies such as the ones mentioned above, any friend’s house can be seen a bug out location.

Your Workplace

If you have a job, I bet you have keys or an access card to get inside. If you’re not able to get home or evacuate, this could be a good temporary location. The big benefit is that if you have a desk or a locker, you can keep a small survival bag with some food, water, a water filter and a mini first aid kit.

Places You Used to Play as a Kid

Abandoned houses or warehouses, narrow spaces between apartment buildings, I bet you can remember playing in a lot of such places. As children, our natural curiosity drove us to find them while playing hide-and-seek. Can you remember what they were?

One other thing you can do as you run errands across town is to look for places that would make good bug out locations. You never know what part of town you’ll be forced to spend a few hours or even the night when it hits.

Caveat: it’s very likely that some of those places already have people inside. Remember you won’t be the only one looking for shelter so you must proceed with caution as you get near. If you think someone else might be in there, you might as well keep walking than risk getting into a face-to-face confrontation.

Places You Went Hiking or Camping

It’s not enough just to know about them and say:

Oh yeah, I guess I could hide there for a little while.

You have to inspect them to make sure they’re a good fit. The most important thing is to be able to make shelter or set up your tent. If you’re on the trail and you see such a place, remember others will see you if you camp there. You have to find a hidden spot that’s as low key as possible.

Buying More Land

Well, if you have the money, maybe you can use that land for more than just SHTF emergencies. It’s a lot better than buying a bunker or more of the things you already have too much of.

If you decide to start a business related to survival and preparedness such as raising bees or growing veggies, you might actually recover your initial investment (in time, that is).

If you’re gonna buy a second property or even a third, you need to make sure it’s in a strategic location. If the first piece of land (your main bug out location) is north of your town or city, you don’t want your second one to be in the same direction. Start looking in other places because you never know which bug out route you’re going to use to evacuate.

Your Relatives’ Land

It doesn’t matter whether they are preppers or not, you should probably mark it on your map just in case you have no better options. Remember these would be temporary locations.

Shared Bug-Out Locations

I didn’t want to end this list without mentioning this. What would you say to the idea of sharing a bug out location with other preppers?

I know many fear that, the more people know about their BOL, the riskier it gets but not in this particular case. Sure, people (preppers included) could do irrational things to keep themselves and their families alive but hear me out...

You already have one or more bug out locations that only you know about, right? So you already have options. A shared BOL is extra and whether or not you will use it is something to be decided when the time comes. (Who knows, maybe the others won’t show up so you’ll have the whole place to yourself.)

The big benefit of having them is that you:

• split the cost of the land with everyone else,
• can make a bigger better house or cabin (also by splitting the costs)
• and get to share resources such as gear, weapons and food.

Now what?

There’re a few things you can do to make all of these locations a part of your survival plan...

• You should mark all of them on your maps...
• You need to find all the possible ways to get from your house to each of them and, after that, out of town (both on foot and by car). Even better, you can mark these routes on your maps as well.
• If possible, you should hide some supplies there (maybe bury them underground).
• Keep phone numbers of the people whose homes are on your map to be able to contact them in an emergency and see if you can stay there. Store them in places such as your bug out bag, your get home bag and your car.

Can you think of such locations that would fit the bill? Leave a comment below.

Doom Blog welcomes Dan Sullivan

Doom Survival Guide Blog is proud to welcome Dan Sullivan. Dan runs the excellent site Survival Sullivan and will be contributing articles to this blog from time to time.

Dan offers some of the best survival advice I've come across, presenting realistic and sensible strategies for dealing with almost anything. It's highly recommended that you check out his work.

His first article will be posted shortly.

Amazing Plants (pt 3) Incarvillea sinensis

It took me six attempts to germinate this particular plant. It is a little bit tricky to start, but as you will see it is more than worthwhile. In fact I consider it essential.

Incarvillea Sinensis

Aka: Fern-leaved Trumpet Flower, Cheron, Jiao Hao

Incarvillea sinensis has been used in Chinese medicine to treat conditions such as arthritis and for pain management in general.

It can be used topically as a poultice for wounds or bites, or taken internally when made as an infusion (tea) or decoction of the fresh leaves.

The main alkaloid incarvillateine shows an analgesic and anti-inflammatory action similar to conventional analgesics such as morphine, as well as a second stage action similar to aspirin.

It is not just comparable to the effectiveness of morphine, it's actually better.

The analgesic index of incarvillateine is is between 6 to 33% higher. As well as this, it has a lesser ceiling effect than morphine.

Ceiling effect refers to a phenomenon best described as a system of diminishing returns. As you take more of the drug, it has less and less of an effect on pain and eventually no matter how much more you take, your pain level will not be reduced.

The value of this plant in a survival or basic living situation is obvious.

Care

Young Foliage

Incarvillea is native to mountains in China, which presents challenges in warmer climates. Their natural environment is cool dry air. They prefer full sun if the temperatures are cold enough, but intense heat will kill them. That means nearly full shade in warm areas.

A good approximation of their natural environment may be to grow the plant near an equator-facing window indoors in a cool room. An air-conditioned room will help the air stay dry. This might be an ideal plant for a well-lit office.

It likes (but does not need) constant watering but should not be allowed to drown. Well drained soil is essential. If growing in a pot, use a sandy cactus mix with gravel or rocks at the bottom of the pot.

Propagation by Seed

This is where it gets tricky if you are in a warm climate, but there is always a way.


The plant needs a period of cold to break its dormancy. It does not need temperatures below freezing, but it won't hurt. To simulate this it is a simple matter of putting the seeds in the fridge for a few weeks to a couple of months.


We don't have a freezer at the nursery so the seeds went in the bar fridge. I'm guessing the temperature is around 2-5 degrees celsius.

I tried both sowing the seeds and placing the seed tray in the fridge, and keeping the seeds in their packet and then sowing. I found a better germination rate when the seeds were left in the packet. However, the tray of seeds was in the fridge for 2 weeks, and the packet of seeds was in there for a month.

A cool and sheltered place

Next I found a shady protected spot at the base of some tiger grass. The seeds get no direct sunlight at all, but still plenty of light. To further help keep the temperature down, I sprayed the tiger grass periodically throughout the day hoping to create evaporative cooling as the breeze whipped through.

This seems to work as I picked up the pot today at around noon and it was cool to the touch.


The sprouts are very delicate at birth. I killed the first batch of seedlings because I used a shower setting on the hose (we water using this setting almost exclusively, even on very young sprouts with no issue). The rain-sized droplets knocked the sprouts to the ground, and they never recovered.

After 2 days I was down from 17 sprouts to 2, and shortly after, none. They rotted as they laid along the ground.

Because of this I am very careful to water only with mist and I avoid the seedlings like the plague when I wet the tiger grass to make sure no heavy droplets fall off the foliage onto my delicate seedlings.

Sensitivities

Apart from heat, incarvillea is also sensitive to root disturbance. If you need to transplant a seedling or small plant, it is important to get the entire root structure intact. It does not like its feet being torn.

Dosage

A typical internal dose is around 2 to 15 grams of the fresh leaf daily. Make a decoction by steeping the fresh herb in water that is almost boiling. Be careful not to let the water boil, but rather keep it to a point of the gentlest simmer you can muster. Steep for around 10 to 20 minutes, let cool and consume.

The effects are said to be opioid but obviously at this stage I am yet to test it.

Conclusion

Although this plant is rather tricky at its early stage, it is well worth the effort to add this to your survival crop. Keeping the temperature low in a climate that does not experience the frost that is needed for germination is the most difficult part but improvising a refridgerator in a survival situation may very well be do-able.

I bought my seeds from Chilterns, based in the UK

Amazing Plants (pt 2) Toothace Plant

The Toothache plant is an ideal companion to Iboza for dealing with cold and flu symptoms. It is a local anesthetic and also has antiseptic properties making it useful against a wide variety of ailments.

Toothache Plant

Aka: Eyeball Plant, Paracress, Jambu (in Brazil)

Latin name: Spilanthes acmella or Acmella oleracea

Flowers - About 1cm Round

Toothache plant is a tender annual growing up to 40cm high. It can be grown as a perennial in warmer climates but will suffer from frost, although it is often the last plant to ail in cold conditions. It has small yellow flower clusters that can develop a central red spot, somewhat resembling an eyeball.

It is a rather pretty plant and is often grown as an ornamental, but its true value lies in its medicinal properties.

Care

Toothache Plant is not a fussy plant and unless you live on Mercury or Mars, you should have no trouble cultivating this little wonder.

They like rich soil and will tolerate full sun if given plenty of water. Growing in part shade conditions will reduce the amount of water required without impacting growth.

Toothache Plant Bush

If you are growing in areas that are subject to frost or near-freezng conditons, either grow them as an annual or take them inside during the winter.

Propagation

Propagation by seeds is very easy. Pull the pods off the plant when they are dry and about to fall off, or pull them off before this and allow to dry in a paper bag or ventilated container.

Shake the seeds out or break the dried pods out by hand onto a seed tray prepared with loose rich soil, or seed compost. Start the seeds indoors or in a greenhouse in early spring. They may be started directly in the garden, but cold and damp conditions need to be avoided.

They need direct sunlight to germinate, so cover only with a paper-thin layer of sifted soil, or not at all. Germination will take from 7-14 days in moderate temperatures.

Food Uses

The fresh leaves are occasionally used (sparingly) in salads for some reason. They can also be used in chili dishes to offset the burn somewhat.

Medicinal Uses

This is where this plant really shines.

As hinted at by its name, this plant is effective at numbing the pain of tooth or gum ailments. This does not mean it will prevent a trip to the dentist, but the local anesthic action (due to the spilanthol contained) will immediately and effectively dull the pain.

The fresh leaf is rubbed near the area of the pain, and held in the mouth for continuing relief. Reapply as needed. It is safe to use when babies start teething.

It is also effective against mouth ulcers. Not only will it relieve the pain but due to its anti-bacterial, antifungal and antibiotic properties, can help to clear it up completely.

For sore throat, steep about 0.5 gram of the fresh leaf (or 1-2 flowers) in a small amount of boiled water for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then gargle thoroughly. You can discard or swallow the mixture at your discretion. However if repeated applications are necessary, it's probably best not to swallow every time.

When little Doomlet starts teething, this plant will be very handy.

External Sores

Rubbing the fresh leaf on a painful sore or rash will numb the pain immediately.

Other Ailments

Toothache Plant is effective against problems such as thrush, fungal issues, viruses, candida, stomach issues and auto-immune problems.

When eaten daily in salads and other foods, it's tangy flavour is hardly noticable, especially when cooked.

Harvesting and Storage

The plant can be harvested throughout the year as needed, or if grown as an annual may be harvested fully and dried, or made into a tincture. The whole plant is medically active - roots, leaves, stems and flowers, and when dried still retain their 'zing' for up to a year, especially the flowers.

Additional

An ethanol extraction of the flower has been shown to induce erectile function in rats. If there's ever a situation where you need a bunch of horny rats, this plant is for you.

Amazing Plants (pt 1) Iboza Riparia

Male Flowers

The first post in this new series is about an amazing and mostly unknown plant that should be included in everyone's garden. Mrs Doom was ill with swollen glands, sore throat, headache, sore ears, blocked sinus, and was generally miserable.

I made a very simple concoction which was gargled, and then drank (I will detail the recipe and treatment later). Immediately the sore throat was soothed and the headache dulled, shortly after her sinuses cleared, about 30 minutes after treatment her headache was gone, not long after her glands went down, and finally her ears stopped hurting. She felt fantastic. This plant is magic.

Iboza Riparia

Aka: Wild Ginger, Ginger Bush, Nutmeg Bush

Latin name: Tetradenia riparia (formerly: Iboza riparia)

This plant is a highly aromatic shrubby semi-deciduous plant which blooms during Winter and possibly up to early Summer, depending on temperatures.

It is a member of the mint and salvia family and partially drought tollerant, but sensitive to both heat and cold. It will drop all of its leaves if the temperature drops below freezing, but will still bloom even if completely bare.

The growth rate is fairly fast becoming bushy quickly due to new shoots being constantly produced from the stems.

Care

Iboza can be grown in full sun except in areas of extreme heat in which case they will benefit from afternoon shade, or dappled sunlight during the day. It prefers light and well drained soil and will benefit from mulch and water during Summer, but should be not given much water during Winter.

It responds well to pruning which is best done after flowering and will encourage new growth. You can prune it back hard once it is well established.

Foliage

Propagation

Propagation is best done by cuttings because you will need both a male and female plant for pollination. Most Iboza plants that are bought from nurseries are male because they produce more flowers that its less flamboyant partner.

During Spring or Summer, woody branch cuttings will strike easily in a slightly-moist loose sandy mix. A single leafless stem can provide many cuttings.

Medicinal Use

In traditional medicine an infusion of the leaves were used mainly as a remedy against cold and flu symptoms.

Headache

Crushing and inhaling the scent of the aromatic leaves can relieve or dull a headache almost instantly, and clear the sinuses. I have woken up with a throbbing headache, and (sceptically) cupped a branch in my hand and took a few deep breaths. To my pleasant surprise, this actually worked. This plant is amazing.

Cold and Flu

Iboza's main traditional use is to alleviate cold and flu symptoms. An infusion of leaves or leaves and stems taken orally will relieve sore throat (gargle for best results), coughs, respiratory problems, stomach ache, diarrhoea, dropsy, fever and symptoms of malaria and dengue fever.

Emetic

An infusion of the leaves and roots can be used to induce vomiting. It is unknown what the dosage required is, but it's probably not a good idea to use Iboza as a general emetic.

Bacterial Ailments

Iboza has antibacterial and antiseptic qualities and is shown to be effective against: Escherichia coli (E-coli), Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Bacillus subtilis.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Ethanol extractions (or a tincture) from the leaf and root have been shown to inhibit the growth of the above bacteria, and many others. This gives credence to the validity of traditional treatments against ailments such as food poisoning, urinary tract infections, meningitis, wound infections, throat problems and malaria.

Other Uses

• Stored grains and beans can be protected against insects and other pests by drying and crushing the leaves of the Iboza plant and storing them with the produce. Wash the plant matter before preparing the food.
• The stems of the plant were often chewed - presumably this helps with oral hygeine due to the antibacterial and antiseptic properties of the plant.

Recipe and Dosage

No information can be found about traditional dosage, but in practice I have found 1 gram of the fresh herb to be a safe and effective amount against cold and flu symptoms.

• Take 1 gram of fresh Iboza leaves
• (optional) Take 0.5 of fresh Toothache Plant leaves (this plant will be detailed in the next entry)
• Steep in 1 cup of boiling water for 30 minutes
• Gently simmer to reduce the concotion down to about 10-15% of the original volume. Do not boil vigoursly, but keep it just on the point of boiling.
• Let this cool and strain the tea, but do not discard the plant matter.
• If sore throat is part of your symptoms, then gargle the tea and swish it around as your would mouthwash and then drink the tea. Otherwise just drink it.
• The remaining plant matter can be reused a number of times in the same manner throughout the day for ongoing relief.

 This plant is a surprising and welcome addition to our arsenal and deserves a lot more popularity.

Update 2015

Hi fellow doomers. It's been a long time since posts and a lot has happened in the doomstead. I met a wonderful woman, married the hell out of her, and had a doomlet. On top of that my wife and I now run a plant nursery.

I have researched and am growing an array of interesting plants,  many that I consider essential to an off-the-grid lifestyle.

Here I will be detailing plants that will be useful and should be in everyone's survival garden. In addition they are being added to a new publication to go alongside the Doom Survival Guide, which will of course be available at no cost when finished.

As far as the Doom Survival Guide itself goes, editing and updates to the main document have not stopped since publication (although they have slowed down due to my new lifestyle). There are over 80 new pages of interesting and useful information and edits to existing material.

You can expect a new edition by the end of the year.

In the meantime, keep prepping, keep gardening, and never stop learning!

- DoomGuy

Homemade Chilli Sauce

Having an abundance of a variety of fresh chillies at our nursery, including tabasco chillies, we decided to try our hand at making Tabasco® Sauce. Deciding that we didn't want to wait 3 years for a small bottle, we modified the method a little bit, as well as the ingredients. The result was delicious.

We made an initial test sauce consisting of tabasco, habanero, sweet thai and possibly some birds eye chillies if I recall correctly. It turned out delicious and although it's very potent we devoured it quickly, so we decided to make a sweet version, and a hot version.

The process is described below.

Ingredients

Sweet sauce ingredients

The sweet sauce consisted of around 200 grams of sweet thai and cayenne chillies. In addition we added 2 tomatoes, an onion, some garlic, about a 1/4 of a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of salt.

Most sweet chilli sauce recipes call for a lot more sugar than this, but we weren't trying to make jam. We want some bite dammit and this sauce sure does have some.

Hot sauce ingredients

For the hot sauce, we amped it up a little, while still keeping it flavorsome because we aren't going for world records here - we want something we can enjoy.

But because we also want to hurt people, we used the three hottest chillies we grow - the ghost, the dorset naga, and 1 carrot chilli. The ghosts are the three on the top right, the carrot is the one that looks like a carrot, and the three dorset nagas are just under the ghosts and look similar, but smaller.

The fat ones are the habaneros and the rest are sweet thai and some birds eye. All up there was just shy of 150 grams of chillies. We also added some garlic, and a teaspoon of salt.

In our opinion sweet thai chillies are a must in any sauce we make because they are so flavorsome. They are very similar to a jalapeno in heat and flavor, but much more 'fruity'.

The carrot chilli is nasty. It doesn't really have much of a flavor but it has a lot of heat.

Vinegar

You will also need some vinegar. We used plain old distilled white vinegar, but almost anything will do. In our first test we used sushi vinegar, and we used a little of that in the hot sauce too.

Method

First thing you need to do is pulverize the ingredients. We did a rough chop first, and then threw it in the blender.

Something to be taken into consideration when blending it, is that it will throw a lot of fine particles into the air - try not to inhale it. This also happens when you wash the dishes used.

After blending into a pulp, put it into a pot and put enough vinegar in it to cover the pulp and then a little more to account for loss from boiling.

Bring the vinegar/pulp mix to a boil and simmer for about 10-20 minutes. The vinegary smell will be gone by this time.

Next pour the slush into a strainer with something to collect the goodness under. Push the juice through the strainer with a big spoon. It takes a little time to get all the juice from it.

All that remains now is to decanter the juice into a bottle or other container. But don't throw the left over pulp away! It's great in chilli con carne or anything like that.

And here is the final product, 2 bottles of sweet sauce and 1 little bottle of facemelter. This should last us a while... maybe.