TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) and Christmas? Really? What do the two have to do with each other? Well, this year, plenty actually. No, I’m not saying that we will be living in TEOTWAWKI this Christmas (while it’s a possibility, I don’t anticipate it). But this Christmas, I’m going to encourage you to give the gift of life in the form of a TEOTWAWKI bag.
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Bugging out and TEOTWAWKI
I have an unusual opinion. I believe too many people get TEOTWAWKI and bugging out confused. As a matter of fact, I’ve written two blog posts on the subject – here and here. But let me give a recap of the VERY BASIC gist of those articles.
Bugging Out
Bugging out happens when we need to leave our homes for a short time, but we’re going to a place of civilization and sleeping on a bed – either at a friend’s or relative’s house or at a hotel. You might bug out if you’re close to riots – like we were in Ferguson, MO. You might also bug out if you have a chemical spill near you. Since we purchased our house, we got a Public Service Announcement on our phone that told us to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice if we received instructions to because there had been an anhydrous ammonia leak within five miles of our home. Yet another reason you might need to bug out is that you’ve got a category 4 or 5 hurricane barreling down at you, and the best thing to do is for your family to get out of Dodge.
TEOTWAWKI
Those are all perfectly fine reasons to bug out, but when I say “Bug Out” most people don’t think that. They picture their family walking down a road or a back trail each with backpacks on their backs. They are looking for a safe place to forge a new life! Yeah – not bugging out. That’s TEOTWAWKI.
So before I can really dive into the meat of this article, you need to understand what I mean when I say, TEOTWAWKI. I will cover what to put in a bug out bag in another article. Most people don’t think of TEOTWAWKI bags. I’ve long called them Grab-N-Go bags. But today, I’m going to introduce you to them.
TEOTWAWKI Bags or Grab-N-Go Bags 
So back to Christmas. My father-in-law, who I love dearly, is coming for Christmas this year. And my love language is giving gifts. Put the two together, and I realized that I’m going to give him Christmas gifts this year. Okay, “lavish” is probably more the word to use. Now, I can tell you this since my father-in-law doesn’t read my blog. I was really pondering about what I should get for him – because, I’m not kidding – I really love the man that gave me my amazing husband! He is so gentle and kind and giving, and gracious!
SO while I was thinking over having him for Christmas, I started thinking over what I should give him. He’s not a physical gift type of person – unless it’s a book. And since he’s flying in, I don’t want to send him home with a bunch of books. They will make his suitcase way too heavy. So while thinking over what to give him, I realized that while he believes in preparedness, he’s not prepared. And I *KNOW* he doesn’t have a TEOTWAWKI bag.
So that’s what I’m giving him for Christmas. Since I don’t have unlimited money, I’m not giving him exactly what I WISH I could give him, but I am giving him what I can afford.
Do You Know Someone Like that?
I’m betting that you know of someone in a similar situation. You have someone that you love dearly. They either think that you’re a little nutty – but they love you. Or they think that you’re hitting on something with this preparedness “thing” but they haven’t gotten around to doing anything about it yet. That is the exact type of person that getting items for a TEOTWAWKI bag is PERFECT!
A TEOTWAWKI Bag
So I think of TEOTWAWKI in categories. If I were literally walking down an out-of-the-way trail to nowhere looking for a place to start a better life, what would I need?
Shelter
Now what I would have loved to give my father-in-law was a tent. I even looked around for what I could give him. *IF* I could have afforded a tent, this is the one that I picked out. If he were trying to get to our house in the winter, I would want him to have a four-season tent, and this one rates right up there.
But since money is an object, and I want to give him more items instead of less, then I decided to give him a Life Bivvy bag. This is a reusable, compact, lightweight sleeping bag. It is lined with Mylar so that 90% of his body heat will be reflected back into the bag. According to its description on Amazon, “The Life Bivy emergency sleeping bag serves as your emergency blanket, survival shelter, and emergency bivy sack all-in-one. Engineered for emergencies and survival.” Perfect for a TEOTWAWKI bag.
Ability to Cook 
If you, me, your loved one, or my father-in-law leaves their home without hope of returning, we’re going to need a way to cook food. And in order to cook food, you have to be able to light a fire.
I started by getting him a Zippo Lighter. Why Zippo? They are windproof, reusable, and refillable. Plus they are made in the USA, which I really like! If one of us is trying to light a fire the last thing we need is our lighter to go out. Having a windproof one is invaluable.
Once you can light a fire, we can cook food, and I decided on an Ohuhu stainless steel portable backpacking stove with a grill grid. Why did I choose this one? It’s collapsable, lightweight, uses wood for a fire (so no one needs to carry fuel). I also liked the fact that it had a grill grate. If you caught and skinned a squirrel or rabbit, you could grill it.
The person bugging out would also need a container to cook food. Unlike Frodo and Sam in The Two Towers, I don’t plan on my father-in-law hanging a cast iron pan from his backpack. Instead, I purchased him a cooking set called MalloMe Camping Cookware Mess Kit. This is the same kit that I’ve carried in our main vehicle over the past four or five years. It is VERY compact but has plenty of room to cook for 2. It comes with a decent-sized anodized, non-stick pot with cover, a pan, a wooden spoon to stir and serve with, a serving spoon, a spork, 2 bowls, loofa (to clean with), and a bag that they all fit into. It’s the penultimate cooking set. And it’s really inexpensive!
Ability to filter water
Now again, I was torn. What I wanted to give him was The Survivor Filter Pro. It’s tested against viruses and heavy metals as small as .01 microns! It also has a three-stage filter – two of which are cleanable! It filters out 99.999% of Protozoa, viruses, and staph, and other bacteria. It also filters out 99.95% of mercury and 93% of lead. Pretty amazing!
I love this filter because I can filter water at the source and carry clean water with me! I can use water that I filter to cook – just add water soups. And soups are a pretty perfect backpacking (TEOTWAWKI) food to carry because they are so compact and lightweight.
So because we carry that filter – which doesn’t come with a container to hold the water, I’ve done two other things for my family. On Amazon Subscribe and Save, I have added a subscription to a Hydration Bladder 2 L Leak-Proof Water Reservoir. This would go into one of our TEOTWAWKI bags. I also have two Goetland Stainless Steel WWII US Military Canteens (1 Qt).
So why didn’t I get it?
I had a budget and that filter (at $65) would have been about half of my budget. For my family though, I’ve purchased TWO of them. My son at college has one, and I have the other in our main vehicle.
So what did I get him?
Instead, I purchased a Life Straw Water Bottle. At $31, it was half the price of the Survivor Filter Pro. It still allows him to carry water with him. This bottle will just filter the water as you drink instead of filtering it when you get it from your water source. My biggest concern was that he needed to be able to carry water with him and filter it to keep himself safe. And this water bottle has some impressive stats. It filters out 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, and 99.9% of all waterborne protozoan parasites, and it has almost a 3 cup capacity – a great size for a TEOTWAWKI bag.
Ability to see in the dark 
No, my father-in-law doesn’t have x-ray vision and isn’t from the planet Krypton. But I thought a headlamp was another perfect thing to round out his TEOTWAWKI or Grab-N-Go Bag. I purchased him a Gearlight LED Headlamp Flashlight. It can run for an impressive 45 hours on low or 3 hours on high. It will function in rain and snow, and weighs only 3 oz WITH the batteries.
Safety/Survival
So I wasn’t about to purchase him a gun, but I was looking for something that could help him stay safe and also aid in his survival. I have purchased the XuanLan Emergency 13 in 1 Survival Kit. What I like most about it is that it’s very compact – measuring in at 7″x4″x2.5 inches. I keep one in my backpack at all times.
My favorite item in it is a chainsaw. I don’t intend to cut down branches off a tree, but the fact that I could do it if I need to impresses me. I guess it doesn’t take much to impress me. It also contains a flint and steel, a tactical pen, a compass, a mylar blanket, a loud whistle, a compass, a paracord bracelet, a knife, a survival “credit card”, a keychain flashlight, a hand-held bright flashlight, and the box.
Putting it All Together
So I wanted to get him a backpack to put it all in. This way if he wants to keep it in his car, he’s always prepared if he’s out and about. We’ve purchased four of these backpacks ourselves at different times, and I love them. They are incredibly STURDY and lightweight. If you don’t want to keep anything in it, it folds down into a very small size.
So What About You?
Who is the person in your life who thinks you’re a little crazy, but would accept a gift like this? Or who thinks that you’re on the right track with this preparedness “stuff” but hasn’t taken definite steps to do anything about it? What are your thoughts on giving the gift of preparedness this Christmas? What else would you add to the TEOTWAWKI bag that you would give as a gift? Leave a comment below so that we can learn from it and all be better prepared.
Together, let’s love, learn, practice, and overcome.
