We didn’t want to bug out to an out-of-the-way rock outcropping with too few of the things we needed since we snatched them up at the last moment from the house and from local stores. The best thing we could do we decided was to plan and pack carefully for a new life in the outlands.

So, at first, we made simple lists of things that would save us from an unforeseen disaster. This turned out to be like writing epic poems. Yes, we made up prospective inventories. Nooks and crannies of every closet, pantry, kitchen, garage, basement, drawer, garden shed or bathroom necessary was examined for what its ideal uses might be. This wasn’t some exercise for empty or ugly hours of our days. We literally looked at everything, including things from bed lines to bookcases and picture albums, and considered how safe, secure and sustainable, if not happy, we would be to have brought it along with us and away from the sinking ship of App-Land.

We could not take everything we wanted to our new solitary island of existence out west. We worked hard at it, remembering that even inconsequential things might have a hairbreadth escape impact on our survival. Everything of critical use could not be saved or taken. We accepted that we would make poor choices that might have untoward and untimely future impacts. We concentrated not on the perfect list but on the good-enough one.

We tried to give ourselves choices considering that we might look at things and needs differently once we were out there. We sensed that it was impossible to consider all of the potential situations. We’d never be automatically sure that we knew what the new realities would be and who and what would be really important.

So our lists became about learning how to think, how to pay attention, then we might know that what we took would provide us options. Then it’d be within our power to deal with a difficult problem without regret.

To live in the outlands, we assumed that we would be on our own in a virtually depopulated world. Contrary to App-Land where the organizing principles were that everything was owned by someone and could be purchased, no one owned squat and money didn’t matter in the outlands. Thus tools and knowledge were worth more than all the gold and comforts in App-Land

We would be emigrants not natives. We would not bend the land to our will but would adapt to what we encountered. Harmony not dominion was key.

To survive in the outlands would require adopting completely new identities. It is impossible to express here the flutterings of my heart when I looked over these journal notes, and especially when I realized that all the wealth and status about us was about to go poof and mean nothing.

The trials, solitude and challenges we would encounter in the outlands would not be random disastrous events but segments in an elaborate lesson in patience, unlearning and rebirth.

With these draft lists, my journal’s daily notes became dry recitations of prioritized items we should bring and actions we should take upon our arrival. This listing period lasted for some time.

Here’re a few sample entries from my records:

Actions upon arrival:

+ find temp location then permanent location; find seasonal shelter locations, adverse weather shelter locations
+ H2O
+ protect goods from the elements, flora and fauna
+ build shelter(s)
+ find and exploit fishing and hunting prospects by season
+ establish garden(s)
+ search, plant, harvest, preserve, store edible/medicinal plants, fruits, nuts
+ transfer and parcel out goods, food, weapons and tools to new home(s) and cache(s)
+ set up tent and spent first nights in it
+ fortify location(s)
+ establish daily schedules/routines by season with daily nap; bad weather schedules when required
+ make and finish furniture, shelves, storage, and tools
+ parcel out weapons, tools, meds, food, and critical necessities in various caches so that if some were destroyed, all would be not lost
+ camouflage dwellings, gardens and other spots so they are not discernible from air or ground observation
+ build fences & ladders
+ tend garden(s)
+ sharpen, clean tools
+ gather firewood, fire pit materials
+ read
+ write journal & reflect
+ search out and expand defensible perimeter(s) to 5 miles

Listed items were all over the map, sort of like how Noah did his Ark inventory as the animals arrived dockside. After a while, candidates fell into these categories:

+ shelter, sites, heating, cooling
+ protection
+ hydration
+ food — initial supplies, hunting, gathering, farming, animal husbandry, cooking
+ clothing
+ travel, navigation

Here are some entries from our lists:
+ shovel
+ ax
+ hammers, saws
+ knives
+ fasteners, nails
+ basic meds
+ rifle(s)
+ pistol(s)
+ ammo; ammo making tech?
+ books
+ paper
+ compass
+ maps
+ machete
+ leatherman tool
+ twist ties
+ rope/line
+ canvas, tarps
+ first aid
+ seeds – lots and lots of seed
+ H2O purifcation tech
+ mirrors
+ binocular(s)
+ fire starting tech
+ container(s) for water, food, seed, water, ammo,
+ designs and parts for homemade conveyances for food, water, dirt, large items
+ blankets
+ clothing for cold, hot; shoes, shoes, shoes; gloves
+ sewing, weaving and tarp repair kits
+ cooking tech (pan, pot) measurers
+ moonshine & tech
+ fishing line, nets, hooks, bucket
+ salt
+ bow & arrow tech
+ magnifying glass(es)

A little more than a year of this, we started to gather the materials on the final list. We did this quietly so as not to be noticed, buying items for cash or barter at yard sales and junkyards and from want ads in the local papers.

The tide had ebbed so far out in favor of the apps that their conquest seemed near. And at this juncture we should have found a fresh renewal of fear. Only after we left did that feeling overcome us.

Once relocated to the outlands we clearly saw that if we had stayed among the apps we would have been destroyed. This forced tears to our eyes, but, as there was little relief in this, we resolved to get on with it.

So, we pulled up our work clothes — for our work would be hard and at times extreme — and sought out that first day’s water.

When we found the creek bed, our difficulty was to collect water into a bucket from a half inch deep trickle proved difficult. We had work to do to make this daily task less labor intensive. Thus began a new list with this item being the first of our many public works projects in the outlands.

It was in vain for us to sit still and wish for what was not to be had; and this roused our ingenuity to create multiple well-like indentations along the creek bed to collect water for our daily use. An hour of digging and rocking satisfied us until the first rainy season came.

We had three encouragements — first, a smooth rocked creek bedded, clear and calm water; next, a steady likely spring fed water supply that proved consistent across the dry season; last, what little open to the sky space over the creek and its banks was sparse and pine treed, thus preventing our water sources discovery by the apps’ drone monitor force.

As an added benefit we discovered later, there seemed little to no animal use of the creek due to its remoteness and difficult bramble patches that prevented easy access from either side.

Our next list item was to review the candidate locations we had selected and judge their properties for our shelter, the stowing of our tools and supplies and securing us and them from whatever might happen.

Where we were, we knew — the western Carolina mountains but we were clueless whether the places had other two legged or four legged inhabitants.

There was a ridge not more than a mile from us, which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overlook the adjacent hills and ridges.

After putting my 70+ year old body through a survival school panting exertion test, I got to the top and saw, to my great joy, that we were in a deeply green space enclosed every way with the trees and vegetation and no signs of humanity to be seen across parallel ridge lines to the east and west of our location.

I found also that this place had treed areas that looked to be candidates for fruits and nuts production. So, except for bears, a beast problem was likely minimal. From the sounds I heard, we were likely to be blessed with an abundance of ducks and geese.

On my return to camp, I shot at a large goose which as sitting upon a rocks on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there for a long time. As soon as the rifle fired, the woods exploded with a honking like in midtown Manhattan traffic jam during the Friday 5 PM rush hour.

Water, food, and security prospects were looking up.

— thoughts on my 2019-2021 journal notes, typed in 2026

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