The primary goal of building a prepper retreat is to create a place where you family can survive and never have to leave. That is why my husband and I invested so much blood, sweat, tears and money in our survival homestead. But, turning a blind eye to the mere possibility you might have to flee at a moment’s notice just might cost your family their very lives.
Developing a prepper retreat layout that includes a rapid retreat aspect is not planning to fail, it is actually planning to succeed at all costs. Whether you are forced to leave your bugin location temporarily or permanently, packing as many essential preps (both living and non-living) with you are quickly as possible, is vital to your escape plan. Ideally, you should hide caches around your property, if living on a large acre survival compound, or a nearby rally points…or both.
Top 10 Reasons You Might Have To Flee Your Prepper Retreat
- Fire
- Flooding
- Marauding Hordes
- Hurricane
- Tornado
- Nuclear Fallout – Acid Rain
- Airborne Pandemic
- Government Forced Relocation
- Water Contamination
- Survival Group In-Fighting
Depending upon the amount of time you have to prepare and how much money you have to spend, it is possible to harden a survival homesteading retreat against the SHTF scenarios or domino effects on the list – but not every prepper will have the luxury of possessing an over abundance of either time or disposable cash.
Automating your survival retreat as much as possible, keeping mobility in mind when designing the layout, will help you live a self-reliance lifestyle without sacrificing your ability to rapidly evacuate at only a moment’s notice.
Top 6 Preps To Include In Any Evacuation Plan
Keep portability in mind when starting seeds and cultivating your plants.
1. Water
A LifeStraw in your bugout bag is an excellent idea, but keeping cases of water inside of your vehicles and devising a portable rain catchment system that is also packed and ready to both more and install, enhances your chances of survival to a far more substantial degree.
2. Food
Nearly all preppers have a survival seed stash and long-term storage food buckets ready to grab. But, should also design the bugin location so at least a portion of the current crop cultivation can grow along with you.
3. Livestock
Leaving your livestock behind during an evacuation would create a far from optimal situation for your family in the days, weeks, or months it could take before reclaiming and repairing your prepper retreat, is possible. Not only will you need to create a rapid evacuation transport system for the animals, but also a means to pack some feed, temporary fencing, livestock first aid supplies, and any necessary tack and butchering tools.
4. Medicine
Keeping a go bag of traditional medications handy is a common prepping activity, but you need to do more to ensure the longevity of the family in case the evacuation alarm is sounded. Growing your own apothecary, stockpiling roots, seeds, herbs, and medicinal flowers and being able to tote them without ruining plants in progress, must also be incorporated into your prepper retreat planning.
5. Shelter
Your portable shelter can be a camper, motorhome, livestock trailer, or bugout vehicle should be used as living quarters, supply hauling, and as a part of the portable growing and rain collection system.
6. Educational Materials
Is everyone in your family or prepping tribe an expert on all topics? What happens if the one person who knows how to butcher, reload ammo, or administer advanced medical care dies or becomes too ill or injured to function properly? Having a copy of your prepping instructional binders comprised of educational materials and books on survival topics inside of your bugout vehicles at all times could become as integral to saving your life as a sip of water or bite of food.
Preserve the herbs, roots, berries, and flowers you grow in your apothecary so they can be stockpiled for use in many years in the future and be easily packed in lightweight containers.
Survival Retreat Evacuation Bugout Vehicle Planning
When planning not only how to evacuate from your prepper retreat rapidly, your first focus should be on the many ways you can use your vehicles (all types of vehicles) to serve not only as a method of hauling, but also for sheltering, fencing, water, and growing purposes.
Multi-Purpose Transportation
How many drivers will you realistically have during a SHTF situation? If we are talking about a time when conventional driving rules do not apply – and we really should be, teenagers younger than 16 could very likely be pressed into driving service. Vehicles which would typically not be allowed onto the roadway, like all-terrain vehicles and horse-drawn wagons, should be factored into the retreat rapid exit plan.
All-Terrain Vehicles
Bugout vehicles can come in all shapes and sizes. Even a small four-wheeler can haul some gear if the front and back are equipped with cargo racks and netting. You can also attach a ball hitch and trailer to the ATV so it can haul more gear, people, or livestock.
If the children in your survival tribe are “growing up country,” they have likely been riding on ATVs since they were in diapers and started to learn how to drive them by the time they were about 10 years old.
By placing a young teenager in the driver’s seat on a four-wheeler or side-by-side (even more hauling space and power) your bugout vehicle and stockpile transportation just increased significantly. Learning how to drive any vehicle with a trailer attached takes a bit of time and training, especially the backing up part – which I can still struggle with myself.
Any ATV being used as a prepper retreat utility vehicle and potential last resort bugout vehicle should not only be equipped with a ball hitch but also a wench. A wench placed on the front of the ATV will not only allow you to crank yourself out of the mud, but also can be used to pull heavy trees blocking road access during an escape or tug them toward the main house to chop up for firewood.
A toolbox mounted to the ATV can be used to tote basic first aid items and tools that can be used to make simple repairs (including flat tire repairs) when on the road.
Part 2 of the Survival Retreat Evacuation Guide will focus upon bugout vehicles that can double as sheltering quarters and have maximum prep storage potential.
Part 3 of the Survival Retreat Evacuation Guide will focus upon the best way to make your prepper homestead as portable and automated as possible.
