Post by COB on May 27, 2012 19:22:50 GMT -7
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Let’s recap the basics for survivalism, shall we? We have had a lot of discussion about TEOTWAWKI and TSHTF and the end of days and such recently, and I grow increasingly weary of the pessimism involved. There should be no debate that if it’s your time to go, it’s your time and crying about it ahead of time won’t do anything to change that. If a bomb drops out of the clouds or a thunderbolt strikes you from above or a super volcano pops it’s cork a few towns over, then there isn’t any point in talking about survival. You might want to talk about getting religion at that point. If you LIVE through any event, then there are some basic things that anyone should be thinking about for their continued survival. That is what this site was designed to do: pass along that information.
1. Learn the basics of woodland survival. Ron teaches a LOT of that on his site, and you would be doing yourself and your family a favor to take notes on it. Things like making fire with a variety of sources, like matches, lighters, flint and steel, firesteels, bow and hand drills, exothermic chemical reactions like potassium permanganate and glycerine, etc. ; plant identification for edibles and poisonous varieties; how to hunt, trap, and fish for meat; making shelters with what is at hand, such as snow caves, debris huts, lean-to’s, tarp and tent structures, log cabins, sod and adobe homes, and other options for both the short and long-term; making weapons like flintknapping spear and arrow points, expedient weapons from bone, stone, or wood, and creating useful tools like fishing rigs, cordage for nets, etc.; knowing orienteering and map reading; knowing how to preserve food without refrigeration; and of course, knowing how to purify water and find drinkable water in the first place.
2. Learn what a B.O.B. actually IS, how to make one, and when to USE it (and when to just stay home!)
3. Learn all you can about your local area. What disasters has it ever had? What disasters is it most PRONE to? What are the local escape routes? What plants and animals does it support and where can you gather them with the least trouble (both from a hunting standpoint, and from running afoul of other humans)? What are you doing to make yourself safer in that environment, and is relocating to a safer place part of your plans?
4. What can you do? What are your skills, what are your weaknesses? What can you do to fill in the gaps in your own knowledge and who do you know that can complement those skills you already have in an emergency?
5. How much do you have on hand today if a disaster struck? Could you continue eating, drinking, and living as you do (obviously with some minor inconveniences at least) for a week? A month? A year? What would you need to buy today to make that happen? How much food is ‘enough’ for you and your family? How LARGE of a disaster are you really prepared for? Can you count on others (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) to aid you with your emergency preps, or would they only show up to mooch off of you when something DID happen without contributing anything of their own?
6. What land do you have available? Is it your home or is it a distant retreat? How do you plan on protecting it? What happens if it becomes unlivable at that location? Is there a secondary ‘bug-out’ location you know of, and if so, how prepared are you to pick up and reach it? How would you live there? Does it have a building or would you be camping (tent, camper, etc.)?
7. What about livestock and pets? Small Children or infants? Do you have any provisions for THEIR long-term survival? How much pet food do you have on hand? How much feed for livestock? How much formula or baby food? Is there a way to improvise and provide food for them locally?
8. What about durable goods, such as clothing, bedding, items to build or repair damaged property? Do you have all the tools needed, proper clothing for all seasons (including seasons affected by the disaster?), enough bedding and such to handle any houseguests no matter how long they have to stay? What about laundry? Can you effectively wash and dry clothing without mechanical means?
9. Weapons and ammunition? Depending on what disaster happens, do you have a weapon capable of self-defense? Of effectively hunting big game? Do you have enough ammunition for such an event, presuming you couldn’t get more during the crisis? Do you know how to shoot properly and have gone to a range to practice? Do you have (and know how to USE) items for silent hunting, such as bows, crossbows, or airguns? Do you know how to dress a carcass and butcher the meat? How to preserve it properly once you have it? Have you or anyone near you ever hunted before and can you shoot an animal without a problem?
10. Do you know anything about first aid, medicine, or wound care? Have you ever had to deal with a severe illness close to you? A death? A severe injury to yourself or someone you were responsible for?
11. Have you ever had any fighting experience? Hand to hand combat training? Military field experience in a combat zone? Full contact martial arts or other fighting style? Knife , fencing or stick fighting in tournaments?
12. Do you know about livestock and their care? Butchery? Veterinary skills to help them through illness, birthing, or injury? Feeding and proper nutrition? Have you ever gardened or farmed? Do you know how to sow seeds, manage seedlings, take care of pests and diseases organically? Do you have enough manpower to harvest crops before they go bad in the fields?
13. How many people will you be responsible for in a disaster? What are THEIR skills and weaknesses? Do you have enough goods for them, and anyone THEY might bring along? Do they all know your plans and what your rules will be in a crisis?
14. Can you make any goods you run out of? Do you have skills with pottery, smithing, glassblowing, woodworking, mechanics, etc.?
15. What about power? Will you need it for anything, or is it just a convenience? Do you have skills to survive without it? Can you manufacture it? Do you know enough about alternative energy that you could rig up a system assuming you could get the materials?
16. What about fresh water? Do you have a well? A stream, river or lake? Some way of catching rainwater and purifying it? How much do you know about finding hidden water and digging shallow wells? Do you know your average precipitation fall for an average year?
17. Do you know enough about weather that you can predict a storm, or snow, or a frost/freeze a day in advance? A couple of days? Even a few hours?
18. How much do you know about the dangerous animals in your area? Snakes? Spiders? Predators? Humans?
19. Do you have even a small library of survival and back-to-basics/homesteading skills? Experience in using any of those skills?
20. What areas have you already identified as weak spots in your preps or defenses? What steps have you taken to fix that? Do you actually HAVE survival plans, or is it just a nebulous “I’ll survive somehow” mindset
These are important issues. Answer them for yourselves as HONESTLY as you can. If you fail in any area, then those are your weakest links, and should make you re-evaluate your readiness. If you feel strong and confident that you have done all you can to be ready as you read this list, then you shouldn’t fear whatever might be coming. You will survive, if you live through the initial crisis. This is just the basics, obviously, but we do what we can, with what we have available to us. You can’t moan and cry over what you do not have or know after it is too late to do anything about it. You have to adapt and evolve to overcome that challenge, and to find NEW strengths to balance out your weaknesses. If anyone is capable of that, it is the members of this forum. We are all here to make a difference, to learn from each other and teach each other. We have this opportunity to learn POSITIVE steps to survival NOW, before it is too late. Don’t despair, and don’t give in to the fear of the unknown. Disasters have two kinds of people that come out of them: victims and survivors. I think we have all decided by BEING here which of those two choices we’d prefer!
Let’s recap the basics for survivalism, shall we? We have had a lot of discussion about TEOTWAWKI and TSHTF and the end of days and such recently, and I grow increasingly weary of the pessimism involved. There should be no debate that if it’s your time to go, it’s your time and crying about it ahead of time won’t do anything to change that. If a bomb drops out of the clouds or a thunderbolt strikes you from above or a super volcano pops it’s cork a few towns over, then there isn’t any point in talking about survival. You might want to talk about getting religion at that point. If you LIVE through any event, then there are some basic things that anyone should be thinking about for their continued survival. That is what this site was designed to do: pass along that information.
1. Learn the basics of woodland survival. Ron teaches a LOT of that on his site, and you would be doing yourself and your family a favor to take notes on it. Things like making fire with a variety of sources, like matches, lighters, flint and steel, firesteels, bow and hand drills, exothermic chemical reactions like potassium permanganate and glycerine, etc. ; plant identification for edibles and poisonous varieties; how to hunt, trap, and fish for meat; making shelters with what is at hand, such as snow caves, debris huts, lean-to’s, tarp and tent structures, log cabins, sod and adobe homes, and other options for both the short and long-term; making weapons like flintknapping spear and arrow points, expedient weapons from bone, stone, or wood, and creating useful tools like fishing rigs, cordage for nets, etc.; knowing orienteering and map reading; knowing how to preserve food without refrigeration; and of course, knowing how to purify water and find drinkable water in the first place.
2. Learn what a B.O.B. actually IS, how to make one, and when to USE it (and when to just stay home!)
3. Learn all you can about your local area. What disasters has it ever had? What disasters is it most PRONE to? What are the local escape routes? What plants and animals does it support and where can you gather them with the least trouble (both from a hunting standpoint, and from running afoul of other humans)? What are you doing to make yourself safer in that environment, and is relocating to a safer place part of your plans?
4. What can you do? What are your skills, what are your weaknesses? What can you do to fill in the gaps in your own knowledge and who do you know that can complement those skills you already have in an emergency?
5. How much do you have on hand today if a disaster struck? Could you continue eating, drinking, and living as you do (obviously with some minor inconveniences at least) for a week? A month? A year? What would you need to buy today to make that happen? How much food is ‘enough’ for you and your family? How LARGE of a disaster are you really prepared for? Can you count on others (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) to aid you with your emergency preps, or would they only show up to mooch off of you when something DID happen without contributing anything of their own?
6. What land do you have available? Is it your home or is it a distant retreat? How do you plan on protecting it? What happens if it becomes unlivable at that location? Is there a secondary ‘bug-out’ location you know of, and if so, how prepared are you to pick up and reach it? How would you live there? Does it have a building or would you be camping (tent, camper, etc.)?
7. What about livestock and pets? Small Children or infants? Do you have any provisions for THEIR long-term survival? How much pet food do you have on hand? How much feed for livestock? How much formula or baby food? Is there a way to improvise and provide food for them locally?
8. What about durable goods, such as clothing, bedding, items to build or repair damaged property? Do you have all the tools needed, proper clothing for all seasons (including seasons affected by the disaster?), enough bedding and such to handle any houseguests no matter how long they have to stay? What about laundry? Can you effectively wash and dry clothing without mechanical means?
9. Weapons and ammunition? Depending on what disaster happens, do you have a weapon capable of self-defense? Of effectively hunting big game? Do you have enough ammunition for such an event, presuming you couldn’t get more during the crisis? Do you know how to shoot properly and have gone to a range to practice? Do you have (and know how to USE) items for silent hunting, such as bows, crossbows, or airguns? Do you know how to dress a carcass and butcher the meat? How to preserve it properly once you have it? Have you or anyone near you ever hunted before and can you shoot an animal without a problem?
10. Do you know anything about first aid, medicine, or wound care? Have you ever had to deal with a severe illness close to you? A death? A severe injury to yourself or someone you were responsible for?
11. Have you ever had any fighting experience? Hand to hand combat training? Military field experience in a combat zone? Full contact martial arts or other fighting style? Knife , fencing or stick fighting in tournaments?
12. Do you know about livestock and their care? Butchery? Veterinary skills to help them through illness, birthing, or injury? Feeding and proper nutrition? Have you ever gardened or farmed? Do you know how to sow seeds, manage seedlings, take care of pests and diseases organically? Do you have enough manpower to harvest crops before they go bad in the fields?
13. How many people will you be responsible for in a disaster? What are THEIR skills and weaknesses? Do you have enough goods for them, and anyone THEY might bring along? Do they all know your plans and what your rules will be in a crisis?
14. Can you make any goods you run out of? Do you have skills with pottery, smithing, glassblowing, woodworking, mechanics, etc.?
15. What about power? Will you need it for anything, or is it just a convenience? Do you have skills to survive without it? Can you manufacture it? Do you know enough about alternative energy that you could rig up a system assuming you could get the materials?
16. What about fresh water? Do you have a well? A stream, river or lake? Some way of catching rainwater and purifying it? How much do you know about finding hidden water and digging shallow wells? Do you know your average precipitation fall for an average year?
17. Do you know enough about weather that you can predict a storm, or snow, or a frost/freeze a day in advance? A couple of days? Even a few hours?
18. How much do you know about the dangerous animals in your area? Snakes? Spiders? Predators? Humans?
19. Do you have even a small library of survival and back-to-basics/homesteading skills? Experience in using any of those skills?
20. What areas have you already identified as weak spots in your preps or defenses? What steps have you taken to fix that? Do you actually HAVE survival plans, or is it just a nebulous “I’ll survive somehow” mindset
These are important issues. Answer them for yourselves as HONESTLY as you can. If you fail in any area, then those are your weakest links, and should make you re-evaluate your readiness. If you feel strong and confident that you have done all you can to be ready as you read this list, then you shouldn’t fear whatever might be coming. You will survive, if you live through the initial crisis. This is just the basics, obviously, but we do what we can, with what we have available to us. You can’t moan and cry over what you do not have or know after it is too late to do anything about it. You have to adapt and evolve to overcome that challenge, and to find NEW strengths to balance out your weaknesses. If anyone is capable of that, it is the members of this forum. We are all here to make a difference, to learn from each other and teach each other. We have this opportunity to learn POSITIVE steps to survival NOW, before it is too late. Don’t despair, and don’t give in to the fear of the unknown. Disasters have two kinds of people that come out of them: victims and survivors. I think we have all decided by BEING here which of those two choices we’d prefer!
