Preparedness for when

armyknife

Frugalsod wrote: »

Yes but with route planning you can try and avoid hills. Though I do accept your point. Though if you are trying to get to your bug out location you will be trying to get there with as many supplies as possible. With a cargo bike and panniers you could at least take the panniers off for obstacles and reattach everything once past. Secondly a cargo bike would have problems going over fields as would most bikes anyway. You might try and stick to roads. Only mountain bikes would cope, and then you are still going to be limited in what you could carry. At least with a cargo bike and panniers you could take items for trade or to abandon as a decoy. Dropping a pannier full of brains will definitely enable you to get away from the zombies with the rest of your items.

Then there is the size of your party. You might have a number of mountain bikes along with a number of cargo bikes being able to carry the loads for say children or elderly party members. There are so many variables to consider.

If you live in the hills then you will know how practical each solution is and develop a plan accordingly. Hiking boots would win in this situation. For city dwellers a bike would have advantages in being able to get out of the area quicker.

Then you need to consider what time of day to move, walking can be silent if you need to move stealthily even in a city. Once power is gone you will need to move only during moon lit nights to conserve batteries and to not give yourself away. Cycling is much harder by moonlight.

Mountain bike aren't necessary for typical off-road tracks/routes in non-mountainous areas, because if the going gets tough, you can always get off and push it through more difficult terrain/sections. Though ideally you'll have chosen a better route or got off and pushed the bike before entering the difficult section.

You'd be surprised how nice cycling by moonlight is, especially as in these scenarios there wouldn't be any car headlights to ruin your night-vision.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Although failed racehorses not going to be used for breeding have always been stripped of their racing names, had their passports handed in and been sold into the market as hunters or regualar riding horses.

So that is what horse pies/lasagne are called now!
:rotfl:

GreyQueen

greenbee wrote: »

which is why nowadays the poor stallion is unlikely to see the mare... If he's lucky he'll be diverted by some placid and reliable mare while his valuable genetic material is being collected using an AV...

Pal's doing it old-fashioned way; put the in-season mare into a horsebox and take her to the stallion whose services have been pre-booked (they call it nomination) months earlier. A teaser-stallion is typically used to test her mood; the idea being if she lashes out she'll injure a not-particularly-valuable animal rather than one of the country's top racehorse sires. Tell ya, it's often north of £10k for one of those animals to get his end away........:rotfl:I've always felt a bit sorry for the 'teaser'.

Frugalsod

armyknife wrote: »

Mountain bike aren't necessary for typical off-road tracks/routes in non-mountainous areas, because if the going gets tough, you can always get off and push it through more difficult terrain/sections. Though ideally you'll have chosen a better route or got off and pushed the bike before entering the difficult section.

You'd be surprised how nice cycling by moonlight is, especially as in these scenarios there wouldn't be any car headlights to ruin your night-vision.

I totally agree. There will be ways to use bikes across non roads. Though it does also depend on the weather. Trying to get some bikes across a muddy field is tough enough. During a dry summer it will be a different matter.

I have ridden a bicycle by moonlight as well but the lack of cars is a real boon. Though a cloudy night with no moon is pretty tough to ride without some lights.

armyknife

You know, people should try out their bug out route/scenarios; I used to run crisis management games and it could be both educational and fun to give it a go.

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

I have ridden a bicycle by moonlight as well but the lack of cars is a real boon. Though a cloudy night with no moon is pretty tough to ride without some lights.

Once upon a time (OK, the 1950s) there was so little crime to be had that, in the country area where Dad grew up, police used to hide in hedges out between villages and hope to catch someone at a heinous crime - cycling without lights - on roads so empty that you'd routinely bike for miles without seeing another living soul.

One night, PC Plod accosted an old farmworker my Dad worked with, in just such a way. The feller was Plymouth Brethren and very religious.

PC Plod Where are your lights?

Farmworker The Lord is my light!

PC Plod Well, the Lord can pay your fine at

---

Magistrates Court!

:cool: See, sarky and impious minions of state power oppressing the working man.

[Deleted User]

It's one thing planning an exit from a situation or event and another altogether to envisage a life after that 'event'. No one could possibly take with them all they would need to make a new life, just those few absolute necessities to see them through the first difficult stages. Life would be very hard, dangerous and terrifying for quite some time afterwards. To make new lives from the 'ashes' of the old would be a mammoth task for all survivors. Skills, I know I've said this so many times, but skills to make the things that give security and safety are paramount, to make watertight shelter, to know what is safe to eat and just as important what isn't, how to purify water, how to make fire will need to be known so learn them NOW! The skills of civilisation will also be needed once life has settled, pottery for cups and bowls, tanning and curing for hides, spinning and weaving for cloth, animal husbandry and agriculture, brewing, hunting, mining, smelting , metalcraft and blacksmithing, weapon making, carpentry and wagon making, basketwork, herbcraft for medicines and the still room, safe food preservation techniques and many many more skills would need to be retained to make a future world liveable in any degree of comfort. The retention of words and reading and record keeping would be very important too or we descend into another age of darkness in the long run. It's an easy thing to disregard old skills in this 'instant gratification' age when anything you could possiby need can be got from a shop without having to give any thought as to how it was made, transported and ready waiting for you to buy it. No skill is too small to be retained and even something like rat catching would be invaluable wouldn't it? Keep the old skills alive, you never know when they'll be all you have!

Frugalsod

armyknife wrote: »

You know, people should try out their bug out route/scenarios; I used to run crisis management games and it could be both educational and fun to give it a go.

Actually walking to your bug out location with a bug out weight will highlight loads of flaws in your plans. It does not even have to include bug out items, just the same weight. It will highlight how fit or unfit you are. Trying to do it in summer is fine with optimal conditions does show some flaws. Doing it in winter with the worst possible conditions will highlight a lot more potential problems.

beedeedee

Hows about this......?
http://www.designboom.com/art/mobile-shelter-pops-out-of-a-pair-of-sneakers/

HeeHee...

nuatha

Frugalsod wrote: »

Yes but with route planning you can try and avoid hills.

I live in the North East, the choice is hills or water (and some of the water goes vertical)
Now, if I lived in the fens avoiding hills would be easy.

GreyQueen wrote: »

I read some years ago that the amount of leisure horses in the UK is in excess of the numbers of horses in the horse-drawn era. But they always were a luxury item, hence the old proverb about how if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Most people walked everywhere, through necessity, might have paid a penny to hop up on a cart or wagon.
...
Fortunately for the future, not all the carefully-improved-over-centuries heavy horses have been lost, even if they're mostly kept by hobbyists these days. My grandad was ploughing with horses as late as 1953 and my Dad was using them for light carting duties in the late 1950s on another farm.

I think it was 73 when my Grandad retired his heavy horses, they'd been a good earner for the farm, mainly pulling tractors out of mud, but tractors and land drainage were both improving and horses need a lot of work (and need to be kept in work) The Mazda that replaced them got hosed down every fortnight and serviced every three months - a lot less work. My Father's first delivery vehicle was a horse drawn van, that would be '60 and he was still using working horses in the winter of '63.
Most hunters and hacks could be trained to pull a trap or a light buggy, of course sourcing the trainer let alone the cart could be a bit of an issue.

armyknife wrote: »

You know, people should try out their bug out route/scenarios; I used to run crisis management games and it could be both educational and fun to give it a go.

Hence knowing that the river route is almost unseeable for 7 miles. And knowing that it would take me 4-5 days to reach Mar and that I'll be low on cake by then.
Straight down the coast depends on the state of the tide, there are several points were you won't survive high tide.

Now I need to do a massive rethink, I have a non ambulatory dependent. There are some preps onsite but bugging out into an urban environment has not been on my radar until now.
Tomorrow I'll move a set of kit and supplies to MiL's house as I'll be spending a lot of time there for the foreseeable future.