Thanks Ken.
Here is the post on the subject that I said I would put up:
My thoughts on obtaining a piece of property for a BOL (bug out location). This is what I’m looking for when I get rich and infamous:
This would be for a primary home, a second home/BOL/retreat, or a location for a minimal BOL (described in other posts)(My preference is a very secure home, with a series of these small, minimal, 'hunting cabin' plus cache BOLs.)
As to reasons to bug out, my philosophy is to only bug out if staying is more dangerous, or will likely become more dangerous, than going. That covers many possibilities, but it is a decision that is very situational, dependent on many factors. And it will also vary with the capabilities of each of the places.
Remember, that even if you live at what could be considered an ideal BOL, things can still occur that could require you to abandon the place temporarily or permanently. So, though you might be set up for just about anything, you might still need to have an alternative location where you can at least stay for a while, regroup, and either set up permanent residence or get ready to go back to your original location, or move on.
The site should be:
Minimum of 100 miles away from any SAC base, missile site, naval base, military staging & training area, and major cities
Minimum of 50 miles away from large cities, nuclear power plants, research centers, dams up stream from the proposed location, concentrations of potentially dangerous businesses (refineries, bulk fuel plants, industries using chemicals in bulk quantities, airports, rail interchanges, etc). Some people recommend being at least the average distance that most vehicles can travel on one tank of fuel. This is in the neighborhood of 250 to 350 miles. This makes some sense, but may not be practical in many areas. Major cities can often be closer than that. But more is better, though, up to the point where you can still have reasonable access to the city for those resources a city does provide during normal times.
Near a small city or town of twenty-five thousand population or less, with a diversified economic base is best. Agriculture does not have to be the primary industry, but there should be at least some types of food production locally. Small truck farms are better than a huge single crop plantation.
Preferably, the town will own and operate its own power generation plant as well as the water supply and sewer disposal facility. In some smaller towns, this is not possible, or even likely, but check anyway. You might get lucky.
Make sure you have absolute right of way to the property. Some realtors will sell land in the middle of a tract that has no access. Beware.
The lay of the land should lend itself to easy defense, or be easy to make it defensible with the least amount of work, though significant work is justifiable to improve the defenses if the property is otherwise eminently suitable. This could involve fencing, landscaping, etc.
Climate/micro climate: The area should allow production of food crops with reasonable effort, and not have extremes of temperatures summer or winter. Green houses can off-set somewhat marginal garden conditions.
At least some of the property should be arable. The more the better, and the better the ground is for growing a wide variety of crops the better. If one has access to the means to greatly improve the long term growing ability of at least a large garden, and there will be stock animals, then more marginal property can be considered, but one must be able to grow plenty of vegetable foods, with meat available in some way.
Good southern exposure on at least part of the property, not only for growing food and other crops, but for solar energy use, be it solar electric production, solar heat, solar hot water, solar mechanical motion production, or a combination, is almost mandatory.
Buildings and anything needing security should not be in the bottom of a tight valley/canyon since you do not want people to be able to be above you to observe and be able to attack the property from the high ground.
Not on the top of a ridge, either. This makes you too visible and exposes you to observation and the worst of the weather as it crests the ridgeline.
Near perfect is to have the housing and outbuildings on the south side slope, a bit below a ridgeline, so you can see people coming, be protected from the north winds, and have plenty of sun for solar heating and for growing crops.
In any case, you want to be able to see anyone coming, so whether forested, or down lower on a slope, be sure that there are ways to see at distance, but not be seen well yourself. This may require the use of cameras, lookout towers, light pipes (see-through fiber optics or mirrored tubes), periscopes, etc.
Hopefully a wooded/forested area to the north of the property
Flowing water is nice, a good potable water source is mandatory. Check out the depth, quality, flow rate, and expense of water wells in the area
The ideal water situation would be a reliable city or rural water district supply of high quality untreated water, backed up by a twenty-five to fifty foot shallow well with a static water level of seven to fifteen feet and a flow rate of fifteen hundred gallons per hour or more of soft, uncontaminated water with a three-quarter horsepower to two horsepower shallow well pump with a forty-two to one-hundred-twenty gallon pre-pressurized storage tank. Finally, with a hand pump kept in good repair on the well you are ready for any emergency.
The sewer disposal situation is a little different. Very few areas permit installing a septic system if a city sewer line is within two hundred to five hundred feet of the property line. You have either city sewer or a septic system. You cannot have both of them. An exception is where a new sewer line is installed in an area not formerly served by city sewers. There is usually a period of two to five years to allow everyone time to make hookups before the septic systems are declared illegal to use.
If you must hook to the city sewer, be sure that the system is reliable. If it is not reliable during normal times you really have problems in a disaster. If reports indicate poor sewer service either find another place in the same town with better service, if possible, or find another area.
Check on the availability of telephone, cell phone service, natural gas, and electric service before purchasing the land. If any of the services are not available, you must consider what alternatives you will choose.
Besides room for a garden, there should also be space available for burying small amounts of human waste and garbage for a short time if it ever becomes necessary.
Space provisions for dogs, cats, rabbits, and chickens, bees, etc., should be made if you ordinarily have them or plan to keep these animals. Space should also be allocated for any other special reasons you may have.
Total acreage depends on how much elbow room you want, garden space needed, animal space needed, farm support crop area needed, firewood requirements, among any other needs you may have. I don’t think you can have too much land. Five acres if you aren’t going to burn your own wood for heat. Ten acres is better. Twenty-five should do. More at your discretion and bank account balance. If you are going for a high degree of self-sufficiency (producing your own firewood, cotton and wool for fabric, cooking oil, sugar, biodiesel, fuel alcohol, other power sources, and a few other things) of 85% - 95% you are going to need at least 2 acres per person, with a base minimum of 6 acres. And that is with high quality, well drained ground, with the ability to irrigate. The lower the quality of the ground, and dependence on natural irrigation ups the amount of land needed significantly. Keep that in mind.
If you are going to use wood for fuel, most forested lands can produce one cord of firewood per acre per year continuously by using coppicing techniques. Try to get double the amount of woodlot you need and set it up to coppice as you harvest the wood.
What to do first after you find the property. (These apply to any BOL, whether a full residence, ‘vacation home’, ‘hunting cabin’, or minimal shelter with a set of caches):
1. Decide how you are going to lay out the property and make a detailed, large scale plot plan, and hopefully make a good model of the place.
2. Clear any areas that need it for building purposes, including roads, trails, areas for ponds/lakes, etc.
3. Clear and sell any of the wood/lumber that has to be cleared, and take out any timber that needs clearing due to damage, disease, overcrowding, etc.
4. Set up controlled access to the property with gates and entry prevention barriers at access points until the final fencing is done.
5. Plant living barrier fences consisting of thorny blackberry brambles, rosa Ragusa roses, and close spaced honey locust trees (or the equivalent suitable for your area). This includes fences delineating various areas of the property such as crop fields, and especially animal pastures/grazing areas, crop fields, etc. Living barrier fences take a while to be fully effective. If at all possible install some type of fencings, such as welded wire, barbed wire, electrical fence line, split rail, or similar to delineate the area, and at least give the image of controlled access until the living barrier fence grows in and becomes effective. Other than the electric fence, which can be removed as the living barrier fence grows, the fencing can be left to eventually rust away within the living barrier fence.
6. Start the defensive landscaping, if needed.
7. Plant the fruit and nut orchard(s), blueberry patches, asparagus strips, strawberry towers, and other perennial crops.
8. If there is a firewood lot that is good. Get it set up for harvesting and coppicing. If not, plant the best coppicing trees for the area for firewood in one, and preferably two or three areas.
9. Have any services lines dug and terminated for future use for any commercial services available. Commercial electric, natural gas, telephone, cable, internet, etc. Do this even if you plan to be fully off grid. You never know what might occur.
10. Dig in any piping/wiring for out buildings, OP/LP positions, security and monitoring systems, etc. Install any underground items such as cameras, sensors, microphones, etc. and cover the trenches.
11. Drill and prove out any wells in that are required. Include an independent one for the living areas, preferably an independent one for the out buildings and fire protection, and any irrigation wells with the garden and orchards taking precedence after the living area well.
12. Get an electrical power drop installed in a convenient spot to provide power for one of the wells, and for the construction phase.
13. Dig any basements, building foundations, underground shelters/bunkers, underground LP/Ops, tunnel routes, fence foundations, pools, ponds/lakes, bridge abutments, low water bridges, driveways, parking areas, etc. Try to do it all at one time so you only pay one mobilization/demobilization fee for the heavy earthmoving equipment.
14. Pour/install these underground and surface items and get them covered back up where required.
15. Install any bridges and paved/graveled/dirt roads. Make sure you have a very good road base for all the roads, and be generous with the concrete/gravel where used. There will still be some heavy trucks travelling the paths for building materials, even if you do not plan to have heavy equipment on the property later. (Unless you are remote and bring everything in by helicopter/dirigible.)
16. Install any non-living barrier security fences. (Sometimes these will be in addition to a living barrier fence that makes getting to the security fence more difficult. Make them thick and strong, tall where required, or very tall, heavy duty industrial chain link with V top barbed wire or razor wire, and a strong bottom wire. It is best to have a solid wide concrete foundation, at least a foot or more deep, for chain link fences, or they can often be easily dug under. The same goes for any security fence, including wrought iron. (A note on concrete/block/rock fences. If they are to be as climb-proof as possible, make the tops semi-circular and smooth. This makes it more difficult to grab to climb over, or catch a grappling hook. Some people recommend spikes or glass shards on a wall top, but this is not always as good as a smooth round top.)
17. Install any remote elevated items such as cameras, microphones, sensors, etc.
18. Install any ground level items such as cameras, microphones, sensors, etc.
19. Do the finish landscaping on the property, except for the building areas.
20. Begin the building construction phase any buildings needed first.
21. Once the building(s) are complete do the final landscaping. (BOL structures are covered in another post.)
22. The BOL is ready for use.
A couple of tips. If you do not want everyone, their brother, and sister, to know about some things, either do them yourself, or hire work crews for a town or two over, bring them in, and take them home. It might even pay to have some temporary housing on site so they are there from start to finish and do not have any contact with the locals.
Just my opinion.
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