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Lester On The Essential Skills For Survival
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Original Message
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After about 10yrs, it is on my heart to revisit the concept of Survivalism. There is much here in the old threads I began. For these search in the archives. One, entitled, Survival Guns, I was timed-out on so it won't come up if you search under my name. It was about 24pgs last time I bumped it. A good read with many old school GLPers contributing much.
But, what are THE Essential Skills?
Top of the list is probably FIRST AID & MEDICAL. I have taken Red Cross training in CPR and Lifeguard; but not like I can do surgery. Then again, few will have that training, and not many of them even MD's. Too much specialization and other than a fulltime ER Surgeon in a Big City charity hospital, nobody sees the full gamut.
But! You can Read about it... You can buy and assemble Medical Kits, learn Homeopathy and use herbs and vitamins. This morphs into lifestyle changes, or did for my family. Back to basic reference; no, you won't need a PDR... Merck Manual, Gray's Anatomy, Earl Mindell's Vitamin Bible, Jethro Kloss Back To Nature, Kent's Repertory, and some other stuff like Where There Is No Doctor/Dentist, and some military field manuals like handbook of battlefield surgery.
Skills... Not talking understanding of concepts here; talking ABILITIES and Knowging From Doing...
So maybe we go forth with discussion on each topic as this evolves on other threads?
Being able to live through a trauma event or wounding accident pretty much comes at the top of the list.
From there on we come to:
-Water and Sanitation
-Food Mgmt and Preparation
-Electric Generation & Power Storage
-Heating/Cooling and Comfort
-Security & Safety
-Transport
-Communications
-Repair & Fabrication
-Clothing and Personal Gear
-Outdoor Gear
-Firearms, Ammunition, Marksmanship
-Mindset and Preparations
-Animals & Pets
-Food & Materiel Acquisition
-Homestead & Location
-References & Tools, Spares
Skills come by DOING and LEARNING.
Owning a generator you've never used to power your household is better than not having one; but, only marginally.
In Mel Tappan's Personal Survival Letter, a subscription newsletter still worth reading today, Tappan hired Gunsmith JB Wood to write a column covering the maintenance of the most commonly suitable Survival Guns. Wood wrote from his experience fixing various pistols, rifles, shotguns. The idea was to identify the common parts that broke and acquire spares. Most common breaking parts are springs, sears, and pins including firing pins. Some people think they need to own complete spare weapons, well buy $40 of parts and a learn to dissemble your weapon and you have saved $800 and can fix it several times, and likely make your own parts later...
Self-Sufficiency. Knowing HOW to make your life when you can no longer buy your way to what you want...
It's not rocket science to live in a deliberate fashion. HD Thoreau said that was why he went to the woods, to live Deliberately...
Pretty easy, really to live in tune with your environ. In the Desert Southwest, adobe bricks made good insulation and could serve for fireplaces in the corner. Electric lines can be routed after construction or building adaptation. A few solar panels, a decent inverter and some storage batteries and you have electric. A freezer kept in a cool place and out of direct sunlight can run on 3hrs of power a day. You can manage your electrical load; you will if shit hits fan...
It's a BIG Learning Curve to have to face all at once though. You will need your skills when you require them. Having a laptopp with 500gig of epub/mobi downloads means nothing if you haven't extracted the files much less read them.
The events of daily life now certainly indicate time is short. When the baloon goes up you may have an hour to make whatever relocation you plan happen. Good Luck With That...
Maybe the most critical skill is that of having enough confidence in your judgment that you don't wait for the Final Event to move to your survival location. Not everyone's blessed to have such a place, but God Does Make Our Way, if we are HIS. That is something to always remember...
The grid's gonna go down.
Your water services are gonna go down and that includes waste water and sewage.
Gas remainders in pipes will be a fire danger.
Lots to consider and learn to manage.
Hopefully you are already managing and working a plan for your family.
More to come, if there's genuine interest. Might motivate me to replace the headgasket on my portable genset that I keep putting off, or cause me to setup the chronograph and be sure about velocities I otherwise just estimate. Nice to have the time and resources to use leisurely.
Best regards to all who sense what's coming and are trying to do what they can...
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