OPSEC

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Walking my dogs this morning I smelled a cigarette. Being a non-smoker this is a smell I can pick up easily. This got me thinking, how many times have we camped and smelled that bacon that someone else is cooking in a campsite maybe a 100 yds away.

Okay, it is 8 weeks into PAW. Electricity is gone, water is not flowing due to no electric. Refugees are walking and looking for a safe place. Neighbors, even some that live in the boonies, won't be prepared for longer than a few weeks to a couple months. Many will be boiling water over open fires. Many people will be cooking outside on open fires.

We all know about OPSEC...Light discipline, noise discipline, etc. but what about smell discipline? You want that cup of coffee, maybe that chicken you raised, heck even cooking just plain beans and rice will have a smell. How will you provide smell discipline? Heck, even the fire will give off odors (and smoke). You say cook indoors...well your windows will be open unless it's winter, or you have a whole house solar that will run your A/C.

Would like to hear what others plan to do for this part of your OPSEC.

[Lowdown3]

Excellent post.

A friend brought this up in the early 90's. He said "after a little living in field conditions people's real sense of smell will come back to them." We were discussing using wood to cook with.

At first it seems like the best plan- it's "renewable", fairly plentiful, etc. However the scent of the smoke will travel for miles under the right conditions.

Things like this are another reason to have some time "boots on the ground" living at your retreat. It took us a couple years of tinkering with various times of the day, under certain weather conditions, etc. to see when was best to run the genset or not (sound and smell).

Every location is different. A hill next to you can dampen the sound or block smells from going further, or at times it can seem to act like a funnel putting it where you don't want it to go. We did a lot of time driving around and walking around with radios at various times of the day, during different weather conditions trying to figure out when was the best time to do certain tasks and keep them as much as possible on the down low. It would vary greatly in the same spots during times of more humidity, time of day, etc. Sorry to get off topic a bit, but it is all connected.

We went with a LP stove/oven mainly for this reason. I expect that two years after the fact, their will be a lot less security problems around.

[Tofu]

P. Sheepdog: What a fantastic primer. Hadn't really thought about it much, but you're right. It all really depends what the circumstances are. Plan A is to Bug In and ride this thing out. In my backyard I could build an Imu (a hawaiian pit oven). This same type of oven could be used in the bush. Folks passing by could smell the occasional waft of smoke, but would have a hard time finding it.

[slingshot]

Our house is located on the 2nd/3rd (depending on who you talk to) highest hill in the county. It's windy here 99.9% of the time. In fact, we nicknamed this place "Windy Knob." I'm hoping the wind will disperse any tell-tall smells before it gets picked up by some undesireables. The wind, plus our own land surrounding the house, plus distant neighbors, will all work to address the problem put forth in your post. The only ones that could smell any odors would have to be squatting on my land, and that won't last long.

[biathlon]

Good question Sheepdog. The wind up here is so ferocious most of the time folks in the next county will be the ones smelling my cooking.

[EX121]

Something to consider is on the move is to not cook & camp in the same area. Do like they did in the olden days when in zombie country is to prepare food and then move on. If most of your travel food only requires hot water to prepare this will lessen coooking food odors.
I haven't reallly thought about odors at home. Thnks for making me think.

[slingshot]

Remembered another technique used by ones trying to avoid detection. If you're camped out, get up before daylight and put some distance in between where you camped and where you stopped for a meal. Once you've had a quick meal, put some more distance between you and where you ate. Hopefully, before someone can react to smelling something, you can be long gone.

[Klayton]

Two pronged approach!!

I plan on throwing some fish & meat scraps across the road, far enough not to offend us, but strong enough to "upset" any straglers from smelling me cook. (think stink bait)

Second, same as running my future genset, 2 AM in near complete darkness. Take away one of the senses (vision via darkness), and it is REALLY REALLY hard to triangulate smell fast enough to find me.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Truthfully there is only so much that can be done for this. It is easier if you are on the move with just you and a BOB.
I probably will be in a solid location with 5-6 or even more people. That means someone will know we are there no matter what we do. It will be no different than my friends showing up during the icestorm when everyone else was in blackout conditions and no heat. They saw the light, heard the laughter and like moths were drawn to it. You can't stop the cooking smells unless you are on the chimny with a bottle of freebreeze. LOL Smoking needs to go and I know it's tough. I chewed for 11 yrs and it took about 3 yrs for the cravings to go away completly. I smell smokers when I'm hunting from great distances out to 200yds. Our trash will need dealing with and alot already burn it now. That may be hard to hide too in terms of smell. What about poo, are you gonna do the military burn barrel, trenches or what and what of those "we live here and poo therefore we eat" smells.
If you are set up and cooking, staying warm and living you can be sure you will be found by the "herd animals". I think it is good to have a flexible plan in place to deal with it. I can not help you with what that will be and truth is it will be a struggle for most of you all because you can't just pull the ole Eastwood "get off my lawn" routine on everyone all the time IMHO. I will elaborate on that because it's an issue I struggle with in my Christian life daily. If a group of 4 mouthy teens with bats comes up they are zombies, easily dispatched. If a mother and an infant show up are they zombies, can you pull the trigger? If a doctor, a small engine mechanic and their wives show up and your child is sick and your generator went down 3 days ago they are not gonna look to much like zombies.
I dunno, these are just my thoughts. I can't ghost it with a family in tow.

[RyanMac]

Regarding scent - it will DEFINITELY be enhanced. 3 months in Afghan with no shower/change of clothes/deodorant.... and we could smell EVERYTHING. Except our BO. Weird....

Regarding cooking - I like the solar ovens. Only good if you have sun, but in Oklahoma we get a pretty decent amount of it (sometimes too much). Otherwise - smoking can be an alternative. Smoke a lot when you can after sending out patrols and being on high alert while smoking/cooking. Old days they would only cook once a day anyways.

Regarding Matt's comments about "visitors" - this is a concern of mine also. What to do, besides have LP/OP's (I live in the country) and check points. Problem with this is manpower.... Rawles' Survivors is a prime example. But not all of us have trees surrounding our place for miles and miles. And what to do with disgruntled stragglers that you turn away? You know they will talk about what they saw/think they saw/begin to fantisize about what they saw. Eventually your place has stores and stores of "hoarded goods". If I was not a Son of GOD then the answer is easy. But there is that whole "Thou shall not murder" thing..... Regarding things like this - the best thing is to look at what Israel used to do. GOD protected them even though they had to fight their own battles sometimes. Sometimes they fought, other times He did. It all depends on where you put your trust/faith. As long as they were faithful and sought Him, He was there to protect.
That is the #1 thing that allays my concerns. We prepare. We use our minds and we be stealthy if needed. But we Trust in GOD. (sorry about the preaching - I just LOVE Jesus...)

[Klayton]

@RyanMac: let me first say, glad you are one of the few that believe the true commandment says Thou Shall Not Murder, versus the more common Thou Shall Not Kill. Many believe the kill was mistranslated, and like humans usually do, never corrected it. That being said, those that are not turned away by the mere fact that you put up a fence and no tresspassing signs, well, I like to think they are a "threat" to my family and their survival, so I do not view it as murder, but rather protecting what is mine. ;)

I am pretty sure I can still ask for forgiveness on judgement day. :)

[monkeybird]

I can tell you when anyone in my neighborhood is cooking on a grill. I can't see them, can't see any smoke, but I can smell the steaks! What makes it worse, it that starving people will smell it even quicker. It's a survival mechanism.

[Lowdown3]

Ryanmac- No need to apologize for that!!! Praise Him!

[Tofu]

Was prowling around on the internet and found this link for the rocket stove for more efficient cooking producing less smoke and using less fuel to do the same job. Looks like a good project on an upcoming weekend.

[eeyore]

Years ago i brought this up on the original SF. Was shouted down pretty good. Does not really matter, back on point.

As you alluded too, when people get hungry they will smell the cooking and come a running. I guess somewhere down the line you will have to consider what you will do to stop them. Not really an easy decision, but one that should be considered before it happens.

Noise discipline will be very important also. A chainsaw or even chopping wood will draw a crowd (imo).

Excellent thread.