Jargon

Bugging Out: In short, evacuating a dangerous situation.

Bug Out Bag (BOB): A bag or backpack made in advance of a bug out situation that holds enough survival supplies for 72 hours. In theory, in most evacuation situations, the emergency either has deescalated or you've died within 3 days. Cheery. However, it's much less threatening when you call your only chance for survival Bob.

FUBAR: FUBAR has several translations, and none are good. I learned it as "fucked up beyond all repair," and that encapsulates the meaning of all the variations. Allegedly, this term was coined by the U.S. military, of all people. ::Facepalm::

Get Out of Dodge (GOOD): Clever acronym for when you need to "bug out." People tend to gravitate to one term or the other.

Homesteading: Homesteading is basically about living a self-sufficient life, generally in a rural area and possibly off the grid.

Living Off the Grid: Often a goal of homesteading, living off the grid technically means living off the electrical grid. It generally refers to being self-sufficient, particularly from the government.

OPSEC: Military term for "operation security." These are the procedures that keep your operations secret from your enemy.

Prepper: In general parlance, "prepper" is used to describe someone preparing to survive the apocalypse. See Doomsday Preppers on NatGeo. On this blog, the word is used to describe anyone who prioritizes being ready for any disaster situation from tornadoes to floods to earthquakes, and yes, to the apocalypse.

Redoubt: Generally used to describe a geographic retreat location. Redoubt originally refers to an isolated, independent fortification.

Self-sufficiency: The ability to take care of yourself, with or without society as we know it. Self-sufficiency requires supplies, but it's primarily knowledge- and skill-based: gardening, canning food, sewing, cooking/baking, carpentry, raising livestock, etc. You can build your self-sufficiency by increasing your knowledge, even if you live in an urban area or an apartment. This is a goal for many hippie dippie eco-types like myself, in additional to the "gotta go buy more ammo" style of prepper. Self-sufficiency may have nothing to do with prepping in the mind of an individual.

SHTF: When the shit hits the fan and all hell breaks loose. I will generally refer to this as when the "ish" hits the fan.

Survivalist: See Prepper above.

TEOTWAWKI: "The End of the World as We Know It." In other words, doom, gloom, and the apocalypse: economic collapse, societal collapse, electrical grid collapse, or anything else that sends society back 100 years or more.