-
Step 1
My last article spoke very bluntly about the weapons and stores you need to accumulate, so I won't rehash it, but you need to include getting a gun, ammo, and practice time into any plans to survive. Also, a fully stocked pantry with six months' worth of food dried/preserved food.
-
Step 2
Get to the doctor and get everything taken care of. If you have a flaring hemorrhoid - get it operated on and removed. When everything's gone to hell, including the hand basket, that's precisely when that hemorrhoid will flare up and suddenly become infected. Without antibiotics, it could literally kill you one day. The same goes with any other untreated physical problem. Cavities? Get them filled. Root canal needed? Get it performed. Wisdom teeth need extracting? Talk about your infection risk - get them removed!
-
Step 3
Lose the weight NOW. Go to the gym while you still have time. You need to be in shape NOW, not later, when you need to run for your life from a mob of people who want what you have, or carry a pack full of all you have left for miles at a time.
-
Step 4
Take a martial arts class: that's right, you need to learn how to fight. Boxing is fine, and so is Karate or any stand on your feet fighting style, sure, but if you can manage it then take a Jujitsu class or other form of grappling. The rise in popularity of mixed martial arts has completely revealed the weaknesses of standing on your feet and fighting. Most fights almost immediately end up on the ground, and a properly trained person can overcome any untrained person, regardless of size (See the fight between Dan Severn and Royce Gracie in UFC 4 - and Severn was trained, no less!). But back to the point, you need to be able to defend yourself without weapons.
-
Step 5
Get a book on edible plants for your region - then go out and start identifying. Be careful - don't eat anything, just identify. You can test your knowledge after the fall of civilization, not before. A toadstool mistaken for an edible plant will kill you.
-
Step 6
I also went over this in my previous article, but it deserves closer attention. Start collecting and possibly burying barter goods. You'd collect them in the usual sense, with money, but you'd bury them in various locations. The most obvious location to bury anything is your backyard. But if your plan involved fleeing your home for a bug out location (BOL, in survivalist terms), bury the goods there. Or in a local park - good thing about parks is that they will never be dug up and developed. Barter items would include:
a) Gold
b) Whisky/alcohol and 'other things' in that vein.
c) Medicine
d) Bulk Ammunition of varying calibers
e) Camping gear. You could travel lightly on foot from even far locations, with the certainty of having lots of your gear waiting for you.
Obviously, anything you bury will have to be thoroughly protected from the weather with plastic or sealed containers of some kind. -
Step 7
Learn one or more useful crafts. Quick examples would be skinning/tanning and leatherworking, butchering and food preservation. Notice those all go together? You could 1) kill a deer, 2) skin it, 3) tan it, 4) eat the meat and 5) wear the skin. When civilization fails, there will be no JC Penny to go to - and all the good stuff will already be taken.
-
Step 8
Join a militia. Contrary to what the media will tell you, militia's aren't havens for racists or people who want to overthrow the government. Most are populated by 2nd Amendment loving folks who are distrustful of Big Government, and who want to be prepared to protect their communities if government fails altogether. Joining a militia would give you immediate access to a network of rugged individualists who, like Twinkies and cockroaches, will be the last things standing when everything goes poof.
Comments
sonni57 said
on 7/30/2009 It really does sound like the world has gone mad in the world you've created in an eHow article.