Many people remember the book Walden as the story of a hermit living in a hut who survived on twigs and berries in the Concord, Massachusetts woods. Its author, Henry David Thoreau, was no hermit, but a survivalist and philosopher who personified the best of American values of self-reliance, simplicity, love of the land, individualism and defense of personal liberty against governmental overreaching.
He lived simply on Walden Pond from 1845-1847 without a GPS, iPod, iPhone, laptop or wi-fi.. Long before we developed a dependence on electronic devices, Thoreau defined some first principles for personal autonomy and survival. We find them in Walden, his gift of essential life strategies that we ought to re-learn before stuffing our G.O.O.D. bags and thinking that we have prepared ourselves to meet the Black Swans ahead. He would warn us today that we must not bet our lives on electronic survival devices because others control them and can jam them by the flick of a switch.

Thoreau's EDC bag
This article lifts up seven of Thoreau's survival principles that we can rely upon; that each of us can own at no cost, and which no government or terrorist can destruct. Think of these principles as the fabric of an indestructible carry bag large enough to stuff with all our plans and tools for personal survival.
Many surprises await us in the 2000s. This we know, but none of us knows the timing. Thus, we create short-term and long-term survival strategies. Thoreau's principles are an overarching everyday strategy, holding that a life worth living depends upon remaining free and independent, living as autonomous men and women alert and able to confront, ignore, or go around obstacles in our way. The best survival strategy is to be always ready, but live well always.

The individual versus the world
"Simplify, simplify," Thoreau repeated, and be certain that you have the essentials for life--food, shelter, fuel and clothing--under your control. Thoreau's sojourn in Walden woods lasted two years, two months and two days in the cabin he built himself. It was no coincidence that his move-in date was the fourth of July. Thoreau explained, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Writing four hours a day on the shore of Walden Pond, he pondered how an individual could maintain his autonomy against a mighty government, powerful business interests and a growing trend to materialism. Just as in 1845, our politicians continue to grab power by making thousands of promises. What they deliver is trillion dollar debts and more promises. It is said that each of us now owns $2 million of government debt. (Have you budgeted for that?) In a cozy relationship with politicians, business spends billions coaxing us to buy things we do not need, that rarely perform as advertised and that often drag us under a pile of debt. Thoreau saw a way for an individual to get around these growing influences, and he spelled it out in Walden.

What's essential; what's not
To emphasize his points, he often wrote in extremes. For example, Thoreau defined anything non-essential to life as a "luxury." While he succumbed to a few luxuries himself, Thoreau spent within his means by deciding his own balance of essentials and luxuries and then earned just enough to sustain it. He called this living "deliberately", and it was the centerpiece of his life strategy. If he lived deliberately, he would not get into debt and therefore, not become enslaved by work to pay it off. Debt is more than dollars and cents because it represents the amount of life we must trade in work to pay it off. Time is money, and Thoreau became rich by acquiring it.

Thoreau enjoyed the work he did, but tried to work as little as possible. He believed that society had it all wrong about the role of work in life and said so in his Harvard graduation speech. People sat up in their seats as he declared that they had things backwards and that they should work just one day a week and have the other six to do what was important to them. This was no utopian dream. It is how he actually lived. Incidentally, I verified this with the Institute at Walden Woods.

Personal responsibility to do what's right
Thoreau believed that each of us has an intuitive sense of morality, what is right and wrong. He held that we have a personal responsibility to uphold higher moral laws when they come into conflict with manufactured laws. Consequently, he had a personal theory of "nullification" of government law when it conflicted with moral law. He maintained that no government has any "pure right over my person or property but what I concede to it.” Thus he was philosophically consistent that as a good neighbor, he would train with the Concord militia because he chose to. However, he chose not to pay a tax to a government waging an unjust war in Mexico, and that cost him a night in jail.

Thoreau's arrest inspired his world-famous essay Civil Disobedience where he proclaimed, "I heartily accept the motto, — 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically." Many people mistakenly limit Thoreau's thinking to passive resistance. He railed against the government's hanging of John Brown who raided the arsenal at Harper's Ferry to arm slaves. Violence is not the preferred way to protest government policies, but as a last resort, Thoreau agreed with President Thomas Jefferson who wrote, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

TEOTWAWKI
Today few of us could replicate Thoreau's life in a 10 x 15 foot cabin a mile from his closest neighbor. What we can do whether we live in New York City, Los Angeles, or in between is to think of Walden as a state of mind.

Walden's principles and maxims are as relevant in 2012 as in 1853. In fact, times were remarkably similar to our world today. Global competition was common. Better quality German pencils nearly drove the Thoreau family pencil business under. The Panic of 1837 was as severe as our financial downturn today. A real estate bubble burst due to sub-prime lending, and real estate prices plummeted. Families lost jobs, spending power, and risked their savings as half the banks in America folded within weeks. The federal government, whose policies touched off the contagion, was growing in power and would continue piling on public debt. Even then, the U.S. government depended upon foreign countries to finance its operations.

As the nation entered the industrial revolution, Walden was Thoreau’s challenge to a society forgetting cultural values and practices of the first Americans such as self- reliance, thrift, and the importance of the family. Fortunately, those practices are coming back into style, as survivalists worldwide look to authentic sources such as Survival Blog to re-learn skills our consumer culture has forgotten. These tried and true skills together with the seven critical Thoreau principles taken from my book Walden Today combine to make us better prepared every day.

Thoreau’s Choices to Live Deliberately:

1. Be true to yourself.
In 1837, Thoreau was one of the first to identify societal pressure as the underlying motivation that drove people to consume more than they could pay for. As we know, Thoreau resisted pressure to conform; his brain thrummed to the beat of what he called a "different drummer.” He wrote, “No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.” He urged us to think for ourselves-- to believe nothing told us by church bureaucracy, government or acquaintances without first checking it out and deciding for ourselves. Nor had he any confidence in advice from his elders: “Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living.”
In life, we alone have the job of choosing what to believe, and how to act upon what we determine. Any lifestyle or work, no matter how humble or unconventional is a success--as long as it works for you. Thoreau adds, “The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind...Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of others?” In other words, Thoreau exhorts us to question society’s
norms because the herd may understand an issue exactly backwards, often due to the influence of media. There are no do-overs in life, so do not waste time living up to someone else's expectations.

2. Network to grow and thrive.
Thoreau had friends with diverse interests, and he networked well among them. His friends included some of America's best thinkers including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman. Thoreau tested his ideas and stood his own ground against these thoughtful minds.

Thoreau’s relationship with Emerson brought him paid work as a tutor, handyman, lecturer, schoolteacher, and more. His friends sent him referrals in his surveying business because of his reputation for honesty and competence--attributes which never go out of demand. His love of nature connected him with famous Harvard botanist Louis Agassiz for whom he collected botanical specimens never before catalogued.
Networking is also the source of our family's small business success. Former business associates provide almost all our new opportunities, while our church family remains a key source of Christian fellowship and education for our children.

3. Life is short, so enjoy it by living simply to stay free.
To live simply, Thoreau acquired the things that are “necessary to life.” He avoided most “luxuries,” those things that he perceived as constricting his freedom because of debt required to acquire them or the effort required to maintain them. He worried that collecting "stuff" would make him "a tool of his tools." He thought it foolish to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. Doing so would distract him from his more
important activities and goals. In the bargain he remained autonomous by exchanging as little life as possible for possessions.

4. Become self-reliant: do it yourself.
The Thoreau family’s main source of income was the manufacture of lead pencils. Their product quality slipped over time and by the 1840s there were four pencil manufacturers within a few miles of the Thoreau factory. In a crowded market, and with an inferior product, the outlook for Thoreau pencils was grim. Young Henry came to the family’s rescue. Harvard never taught him chemistry, engineering, operations management or marketing—expertise that would be necessary for the Thoreaus to regain their market position. He learned all these disciplines on his own, and thought outside the box to create the country's highest quality pencils. His innovations included a line of pencils new to the world numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 for hardness—including the iconic #2 pencil we use today.
With so many resources available, we can learn to become a do-it-yourselfer at almost anything. Just painting your own home, for example, is a great way to save money, gain self-reliance, and involve the whole family in a satisfying accomplishment no matter their age or intellectual disadvantage. Even young children or the elderly can carry cool water to refresh family painters just as the first Americans did. A do-it-yourself attitude is not so common anymore in America. However, with the millions of weekly hits on practical skills articles and videos on the Web, and the rising cost of tradesmen, self-reliance is definitely coming back.

5. Adapt to changes in life by continually learning and trying new ideas.
Thoreau's ideal was to remain autonomous and earn just enough to support himself.
Surveying and pencil making were his primary income sources; however he was flexible and humble enough to earn his living even by menial work. He wrote to a fellow graduate, “I am a Schoolmaster— a Private Tutor, a Surveyor--a Gardener, a Farmer—a Painter, I mean a House Painter, a Carpenter, a Mason, a Day-Laborer, a Pencil-Maker, a Glass-paper Maker, a Writer, and sometimes a Poetaster [an unskilled poet].” He was also a consultant, lecturer and book author.

When he moved into his Walden home, Thoreau hoped to earn income by farming the field behind his house. He learned quickly that the time required to tend acres of beans consumed too much of his free time. He changed his gardening plan for the next year to grow food only for himself. Ever pragmatic, Thoreau looked to earn more and work less as a self-taught surveyor. In the bargain, surveying gave him two full seasons and many interim weeks off for leisure. His advice to us is to learn continuously all our lives and stay alert to new income opportunities to guard our independence.

6. Take advantage of the conveniences and opportunities of the age.
The train and telegraph were technologies that fascinated Thoreau. I think he would have loved our Internet to bring him the cultural riches of the world. I am equally sure he would never have wasted hours surfing the net, texting, or checking his email every five minutes. He chose to be poor in terms of money, but poor is a relative term. What is scraping by to one person, can be a life of plenty to another. Thoreau found countless
opportunities for cultural enrichment, personal growth, and entertainment available at no cost to him. He explored the Merrimac River by canoe, attended lectures at the Lyceum, participated in Emerson’s discussion groups, climbed Mt. Katahdin and walked for hours in the woods each day enjoying the beauty of nature and being outdoors.

America still has vast tracts of public lands for our use, and the electronic age provides us with innumerable opportunities—also at little or no cost—for education, culture, entertainment and earning a living. Each of us has access the same information as a college professor. We can watch sporting events free and see better than those in $500 seats in the stadium. We can savor the world's most breathtaking scenery and treasures from our homes and hear beautiful music in Surround Sound. In Thoreau's day, the average person never heard a symphony orchestra. To do so would have been a considerable expense to travel for days to hear one of the few symphonies in America. We can learn practical skills and economic analysis from expert bloggers around the world and be as informed as any reporter on the planet can. Today there is no reason for anyone, regardless of income, to be bored if they use the virtually free conveniences of our age for entertainment and learning once reserved for only the wealthy.

7. Work Deliberately.
Thoreau lived and worked "deliberately." He emphasized, “I make my own time. I make my own terms.” This is the key to freedom and independence. Controlling his time and terms, he would never lock himself in to a job that enslaved him with long hours, stress, and fear of losing the job. As a delightful side benefit, he would never have to bite his tongue when speaking to management, work for jerks or go to work every day if he could do the week’s work in a single day. When you work for yourself, you will never hear the words, "you're fired."

In 2012 with employment uncertainty in almost every field, many people hedge their bets by starting their own business on the side as they work their primary job. A well- employed client of ours bought a franchise business for his wife, and she is growing it to guarantee that the family will have income and independence no matter what happens to their primary source of income. Gaston Glock was a factory manager when he started a side business in his garage. In addition to planning for income redundancy, we advise friends to have savings stashed away to live for six months to a year. This is not easy to do. However, we have found that there are many things to cut back on if your primary goal is to remain free and independent.

Living "deliberately" belongs in every EDC bag.
Thoreau made his EDC bag from the principles of deliberate living. They guide my family today as in 1994 when we began to adopt them. Each of us must rely on his own effort to survive and truly live. The central decision--or non-decision is to "live deliberately" or not to. If you are reading this blog, you likely have made your decision already.

JWR Adds: Wayne M. Thomas is the Editor of Walden Today

From all appearances we are a typical family in our white trash, low rent neighborhood in the suburbs. Normal for our family of 9 has been living the last twenty-odd years on much more love than money. Scraping by, scrounging, bartering, repairing and repurposing things constantly in order to keep the home fires burning, gas in the tank, peanut butter and jelly on the table. Good times were relishing the pure gold of fat laughing babies, silly kids, and slow paced days when everyone was reasonably content at the same time.
What even our blatant survivalist solar panel/gun collecting/FedEx-bringing-cases-of- MREs- neighbor doesn’t even know is…

Ten years ago we found a parcel of raw land for sale in Central Oregon, in a heavily forested area of lodge pole pine trees, and purchased it at 100 dollars a month on a 10 year land sale contract. Near, but not on, a major highway that could be accessed by six routes from our hometown. Untamed, untouched, unimproved, 200 long miles away, worth every kid whimper and dog sick hour to get us there to pure freedom. The off-grid land is totally secluded, with a nearby canal that supplies sand and recreation, and at the business end, sports an artesian well with fresh drinking water. A place where seven kids and any size dog could run and play and scream and bark as loud as they wanted, without fear of the neighbors complaining or threatening our loud but harmless tribe of six daughters and one very active son.

Over the next few summers our little campground gained a driveway (Each tree pulled out with the truck and a chain or cut down and the roots painstakingly dug up with a discount-store shovel. We gathered huge pumice rocks and mortared them together into an outdoor oven. Handmade log benches ring the fire pit, and a distant forest neighbor sold us a tiny (18 ft.)  Travel trailer for $250. Garage sales and off-price surplus stores made it possible to outfit our camp on a free-school-lunch-eligible salary.
 Though summer was the busy season for his boat repair job, my husband joined us on the weekends and used a small chainsaw to cut a supply of 12 and 14 ft. poles that kept the kids and I busy making tipis and a very interesting outdoor kitchen shelter. This all happened mostly before I discovered the internet, so I patterned things after what I had seen on Gilligan’s Island and read about in The Mother Earth News back in the 1970s. It was a labor of love and a comedy of errors, but all ours.

Sadly, my husband passed away five years ago and with him the security of having a mechanic and someone to teach the kids more about hunting, fishing and driving. Lessons that began when they were small have prompted a competition between us to gather information and test our survival skills in real life scenarios on many occasions. The world has become a place where even a self-absorbed teenage girl can see the future need for a safe sustainable place away from the city. During our trips to the property, we have become familiar with the lay of the land, exploring all the forest service and BLM roads and trails with in a 20 mile radius. We know the locations of the nearest hiking/ATV/snowmobile trails, truck stops, restrooms, outhouses, creeks, lakes, wells, wetlands, ranches,  orchards, trailers, campgrounds, cabins, farms, hunting blinds, country stores, boat landings, public dumpsites, quarries, sawmills, railroad sidings, caves, ghost towns, mining camps and resorts. Escape routes and secure hiding places are entered in our handheld GPS. A mental list is forming of places we may be able to barter our winter salad greens and summer vegetable crops.

Driving into the mountains on our spring and summer vacations has not always been easy. One year an early snowstorm delayed us a week before I could dig the car out enough to get us back to school and work. The master cylinder in our old truck went out one trip while I was driving with 4 of the kids over the Cascade mountain pass, leaving me with no brakes in the middle of nowhere, (no cell phone signal). I coasted to the nearest town, not taking a breath, and thankfully we lived to tell the tale. Reliable, safe transport will always be our biggest hurdle if we need to get to our location in a hurry. We are also all aware of the route from the nearest Amtrak station within a day’s walk of the property. Aside from car repair issues, we have overcome many of the obstacles to living off the grid.
We have discovered that the batteries in our cheap solar garden lights can power our FRS radios and GPS. A bouquet of solar lights in a vase makes a perfect off-grid reading lamp. Our 1,000 watt Honda generator is used only for recharging 18 volt tool batteries and while that is happening, we can enjoy a DVD, crank up some tunes or play on the computer. For emergency backup we have a small inverter I can use with the car battery.
 
To amuse ourselves without wattage, along with reading, we use the bounty of branches and small trees to carve walking sticks, make log benches, small chairs and plant stands, and log furniture for dolls. We have discovered volcanic pumice rocks carve easily into self-watering planters, ashtrays and candle lanterns. These are used as gifts and/or for Saturday market sales whenever we have a good selection.
For heat we have a tiny wood stove in one of the tipis. We have always been able to keep warm even when night temps have been below freezing. The tipi frame is covered with chicken wire and stucco (ferro cement). Everyone sleeps with a down comforter. Washable duvet covers make everything easier to keep clean. These were purchased for a few dollars each at a Goodwill Outlet store, where clothing and most merchandise is sold by weight.
 
We have mastered the art of baking awesome biscuits, cupcakes and muffins at high altitude with a solar oven made of Mylar emergency blankets and an old storm window. Yeast bread gets baked (occasionally, as it’s a day-long task) in the outdoor stone oven, after a fire has been built in it. The sun tea jar is always brewing with a tea ball full of home grown Stevia leaves for sweetening. We can covertly cook baked beans and soups in a fire pit underground, and hot rocks cook foil wrapped chicken in our backpack while we work or explore. We also have a couple of propane backpack stoves and the adapter fitting to enable us to re-fill the small green canisters from a larger 20 pound cylinder.

For hygiene, we decided (after trying several options) five-gallon bucket toilets with cheap snap on seats are easier to maintain than the expensive flushable chemical camping toilets; as long as you have a supply of peat moss, saw dust, pine needles, sand or soil to bury waste in the bucket. For washing up, two milk jugs of warm water make a quick easy shower, one for washing, one for rinsing. We leave a line of filled jugs to warm on the sunny side of the gravel floor shower hut, or simmer a few minutes in the big pot while the dish washing water is warming. A fancier shower can be enjoyed with an air pump type garden sprayer tank. We have one handy for guests.   Obviously, you will want to use one that has not ever had any chemicals, fertilizer or pesticides in it.
 
During the school year in suburbia I teach indoor gardening classes, the kids attend school and in our spare time we do our research. We experiment with new Survival Log recipes (a high calorie/protein packed candy/cereal dough we invented made with storage foods that have a hundred delicious variations. (See my master recipe below). We plan new experiments and projects, plant seedlings, dehydrate foods and pack useful items that will be taken on our next trip. I read SurvivalBlog faithfully now and take notes from all the wonderful knowledge shared. We watch Survivor Man type man shows and laugh until we cry as they dramatize the obvious and almost die of hypothermia each day. If we are lucky we pick up a few useful hints that will be tried until true. We wrestle with our conscience whether or not to buy real rabbit fur hats and mittens, because someday our summer at the campground could last into the snowy days of winter. We decided the rabbits would be honored to save us from hypothermia.
 We have practiced and studied and experimented and now have the campground well supplied with caches of food, a well hidden root cellar/panic room, durable clothing, weapons, survival tools and gardening, medical and veterinary supplies.  Instead of being scared of an uncertain future we are continuing to prepare.

For now, my daughters (now high school and college girls) wear camouflage just for fashion. Not many people outside our family know that each and every one of them can make their own snowshoes, siphon gas, transform volcanic rock into a hydroponic garden, repair a bike, bake bread, shoot a wild turkey, sprout a salad, make a duct tape hammock, milk a goat, service a generator, purify water three different ways, catch fish with a bed sheet, navigate by the sun, disable an intruder, and start a fire 14 ways without a match.
Their Dad would have been so proud…

Addenda: Survival Logs Recipe
1 cup peanut, almond, cashew or other “nut butter”
1/2 to 3/4 cup honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, or homemade sugar syrup
2-3 cups crushed corn flakes, granola, crispy rice cereal, cookie, dry bread, pretzel, cracker or cake crumbs
Optional flavorings—dried milk powder, chopped dried fruits, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, gumdrops, m&ms, candy sprinkles, chopped nuts, coconut

1 .In a saucepan, heat syrup to boiling, remove from heat.
2. Add nut butter, stir until melted and blend well.
3. Stir in enough cereal or crumbs to form a stiff dry dough
4. Knead in optional flavorings; form into candy bar size logs.
5. Roll in additional crumbs, coconut or sprinkles as desired. Wrap individually in wax paper or foil for travel or hiking food. Makes 10 logs.

I am a father of three and have one on the way. My oldest is now almost 20 years old. One thing I have learned over the years as a father is not to underestimate children and young adults.

I am pretty blunt and a straightforward guy, if anyone gets anything from what I share it is this….if you love your children then do not shelter them, prepare them!
Let’s tackle the big one first, children and gun’s. When my oldest was around four years of age he had a rare opportunity for someone so young, he got to see first-hand what guns do. We were elk hunting and a friend of the family had the good fortune to take a bull elk very close to the cabin. We had just sent our friend on his way after breakfast and not even four minutes out the door we heard the shot. We came right away to see if help was needed and arrived at the downed bull just as our friend did. We got to watch as this magnificent animal drew its last few breaths of life.  At this point in his life my son had seen guns being fired and he had also seen the animals we harvested and had even seen us butcher them, but at this moment you could see the understanding click behind this child’s eyes, even at age four he got the connection between guns and what they could do. I knew right there and then I would never have issues with him being safe with guns.

Eight years later a couple of friends and I were asked to take a large group of “Gun Virgins” to a rock quarry and  give them an introduction to guns and let them try to do some shooting. It was interesting to see the reaction to some in the group when I arrived at the quarry with my twelve year old son. I learned something that day and so did they. See even though these people had an interest in shooting guns they had still been brainwashed by pop culture and lack of education from their own parents about guns. They were taught that guns were evil and wanting to shoot them was practically a sin that they as adults had a right to partake in even though it is basically wrong, like pornography, alcohol, or adultery. Not all them thought this way but it was disturbing learn that some did. To them shooting a gun was something they would like to experience but never would involve a “child” because a child automatically did not know as much as an adult and could not possibly know all the evils of guns as they did as an adult. I was beside myself at the thought and was reminded of the experience of the Elk and I decided right then and there who was going to conduct the review of basics in gun safety for the group of 20 plus people before they got to shoot! My two friends that knew my son and myself thought that this was a great idea, but there was much grumbling from the group of the idea of being taught by a twelve year old. I pointed out that I trusted my son more than any adult I knew on this earth, because I knew what he was taught and what he wasn’t first hand. There is no room for pride in gun safety, even if the president of the NRA himself was there that day and he did something wrong I would call him on it and so would my son (of course we would do so respectfully). By the time my son was done and they were given the okay to shoot they were starting to understand also. To my son guns were not evil and wanting to shoot them was just plain fun, nothing to feel guilty about. He also demonstrated that he knew they could be dangerous and that he was taught how to properly handle them and he was teaching them.

I could go on about how guns are not evil but that would digress my own point which is that they are not unlike any other tool, they have a use and a function, and the biggest factor in safety of any tool is knowledge of how the tool works and should be properly used. Your kids probably know more than you do about how to use your computer or DVD player, and most likely no one showed them how to use these things. They can figure out how to load and use a gun on their own, you can’t rely on keeping children safe from the dangers of guns by keeping them away from guns, they need to learn and you need to be involved in that learning so you know what they know. Heaven forbid that my life or the life of my wife would someday depend on our children knowing how to properly use a gun, but if that they day ever comes we are as prepared as we can be.
I met an elderly man one day that told me that in Physical Education when he was a young school boy they could sign up for a segment to learn things like knife safety. As a father the thought made me smile as I had just learned from my youngest son that it was mandatory that he learn dancing in PE, could you imagine if I went to the school board and asked them to replace dancing with knife safety! The same thought also saddened me, to think that our society has gotten to the point that knife safety would never ever be considered for topic related to our schools again. Let the children learn how to put a condom on but heaven forbid they learn how to properly handle the most basic of tools in human history. Look on any emergency preparedness list and you will most likely find a knife near the top of the list. It is the most basics of tools and yes it can be dangerous if handled improperly so why not start learning to use one when you are young. Earlier I stated that knowledge is safety but so is experience. I have been carrying a pocket knife for as long as I can remember. My knife gets used almost every day, and yes even the most experienced knife user may cut themselves every once in a while, but the fact that I have never seriously cut myself as an adult I attribute to the fact that as a child I was taught to properly handle a knife and was allowed to carry and use one every day.

During the summer months my children usually carry their knives. But during the school year since they cannot carry even a little gentlemen’s blade in their pocket during school without fear of being expelled they end up forgetting it even on the weekends when not in school. This gets explained to me often by my children as I always ask where their knife is when they ask to borrow mine. This bothers me because being prepared means more than knowing how to use your tools but having them available when you need them. This is one of the reasons I keep asking “where is your knife?” even though I know and understand the answer, so maybe they will remember to keep it with them when not at school.  As a side note my fourteen year old daughter seems to remember more often than the boys to carry her knife, I think this is because she likes to shock people when there is a rope or something to be cut and she is the one that produces the right tool for the job!

I believe that our society is doing a disservice to our up and coming generations, by teaching them that they do not have to think for themselves and that if they just follow simple rules like do not touch knives and do not touch guns they will be magically be safe. We are also creating an environment where parents are afraid to teach their children certain things. I was sitting at the table with my father and my four year old grand niece, my father had a package that he needed to be cut open, and he handed it to me and asked me to open it. When I took out my knife to do so, my grand niece looked like she was going to have a heart attack. She looks at my father and states “your kid has a knife” as she pointed at me accusingly. You never have seen the old man so confused. It was really cute the way she referred to her Great Uncle as “your kid” but really disturbing that she was already brainwashed into believing that knives are evil weapons. She is a smart four year old, so I asked her what else was I supposed to use to open the package. I got two rounds of the answer “knives are naughty and bad” before she gave it some thought. She finally got the message that they are not naughty and they are not bad but can be dangerous and therefore she is not to touch one until her parents are ready to teach her how to properly use it. Both her parents are hard working ranchers and use knives every day. The answer of “knives are naughty and bad” came from her less than one year experience at pre-school.  I thought about this the other day at my work when a similar situation came up when a Design Engineer asked me if I had something to open up a blister package with. I pulled out my pocket knife and handed it to him. Should have seen the look on his face it scared him to death. Now here is a grown man who you know has had to have used knives in the kitchen before but was scared to death of the one I pulled from my pocket. All because he probably was never taught how to properly use one and was probably brainwashed as a child that “knives are naughty and bad”.

I am not advocating that it is blindly okay to go give your children knives or let them shoot guns. Just like I do not think there is something magical about the age eighteen or twenty-one that all of a sudden enables a person to know how to handle guns or knives I also do not think there is a certain age to start children. You are their parents if you work with them (and that is the key, to work with them) you will find out how much responsibility they can handle and understanding they can absorb.  I think you will learn if you challenge them they will surprise you, my four year old grand niece understood the why knives are dangerous when I explained it to her but not all four year olds would. But she is safer now because someone took the time to explain it to her. She will grow up better able to handle a knife than that Design Engineer. One of the things I have learned as a father is that all children are different. My oldest son started shooting when he was five, my youngest when he was eleven. It wasn’t that one was more mature than the other at five it was that he was mature in different ways. Kids respond to being given responsibility, the key is to challenge them but only put on them what they can handle. I have only written of Guns and Knives so far but I testify that letting my children learn responsibility in areas that society has deemed adult only has had many positive side effects. In many ways my children are better suited than many adults I know to tackle what life throws at them, and it is not just father’s pride that makes me say that. I have had many experiences where my children were willing and able to tackle learning new things that seem to intimidate many adults.

When the world comes crashing down, I would rather rely on my own children than most adults that I know.  And they are still very happy and well adjusted children none the less! This is because I love them and therefore have prepared them by teaching them all that I know.

I still remember the conversation.  I was a freshman in high school, but I had the idea of  taking auto mechanics during summer school.  Dad told me that he would always pay for me to take a class because in the end, knowledge can never be taken away from you.  I didn’t take the class. I can’t remember why.  But his statement and philosophy has stayed with me forever.  Although it sounds cheesy, I consider myself a lifelong learner.  So, when I entered the world of prepping, I combined my love of learning with what I know of technology and learned a lot fast.

Information is growing at exponential rates ( see - http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/expanding-digital-universe.htm).  Lucky for us, that the exponential growth of digital media, includes information that is greatly valuable to preppers.  It used to be that you would have to take a class, buy a book or find someone with knowledge of a skill to learn and grow yourself in the arena of the “lost arts.”  But that is not the case anymore.  Turn on your laptop, get an internet connection and you are well on your way to learning the knowledge behind valuable skills to get you through any crisis that might be headed your way.

Blogs & Readers

There are so many great blogs out in the blogosphere.  And because so many good blogs are linked to each other, in no time, you can have a serious amount of prepping, survival, bushcraft, and homesteading blogs bookmarked in your browser. 

So, the unknowing prepper will start to visit each of these blogs on a regular basis to check for new content and information that will help in the quest to self-sufficiency.  However, traveling from blog to blog on a regular basis will get tiring and old, especially if you don’t find any new articles. The tendency after a while might be to start skipping out on checking your favorite blogs.  But then, you might miss out on some great information.  This is where blog readers come in.

A blog reader or RSS reader, captures the RSS feed from a blog.  The reader then displays every blog or RSS feed in one convenient place.  Blogs that have been updated or shown to be updated show all in one place and allows you to quickly browse through the new topics and select the articles that are truly of interest to you.

There are many readers out there.  But my favorite right now is Google Reader.  It is easy to use and you can get your feeds anywhere you have an internet connection, including your mobile phone.  Check out this link to see a quick video that explains Google Reader - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y .  And, you can visit this link for a short how-to-video on how to use Google Reader - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltttw5yORv8  NOTE: Google Reader has just been updated.  The video describes the old Google Reader.  However, the new Google Reader functions the same.

If you don’t like Google products, there is a free piece of software that I used before Google.  It is a stand-alone reader that downloads to your desktop.  It is a little dated and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it will keep your anonymity.  The program is called Bottom Feeder. There are also others.  A quick search will point you in the right direction.

I created two videos on blogs for a teacher staff development a while back that might be beneficial on searching for and understanding blogs as well.  Part 1 - http://www.screencast.com/users/tsepulveda/folders/Jing/media/ed7d0e6d-6c1d-4daf-9e6b-d9007e76df8d 

Part 2 - http://www.screencast.com/users/tsepulveda/folders/Jing/media/ee4313ff-3966-4eb8-8538-5ce2ebbc3922

YouTube

I have to admit, there are times I feel like a prepping noob.  But for me, this next technology is a no-brainer!  YouTube is a great place to get informed on specific skills for prepping.  For instance, I didn’t grow up hunting and fishing with my dad, so I don’t even know the first place to start when it comes to skinning an animal or gutting a fish.  But I can see it on Youtube!  I can see it over and over and even ask the author or uploader of the video a question.  The great thing is that many of the people who upload videos to Youtube have the heart of a teacher and choose to do so to help others along.

One video that was very helpful to me was how to use a mylar bag for food storage.  Now, I know that this skill is basic common knowledge for most, but I had never done it.  I easily found articles and even pictures on how to do it, but it wasn’t the same as seeing someone do it right in front of my eyes.  I felt comfortable that I wouldn’t make huge mistakes when my bags finally came in….And I didn’t.

Once you find a great prepping video, take some time to click on the uploader’s name and checkout their “channel.”  They might have a ton of other videos that will help you in your prepping.  For an example, check out Southern Prepper's channel.

Twitter

Some of you might be wondering, “why in the world is Twitter included here!”  Most of you would be right to think this.  I don’t necessarily care to read 140 characters worth of someone telling me their every move.  “I’m at the store #groceries.”  “I’m in the #dairy section.”  “I’m checking out #plastic bags.”  That’s not what Twitter is about.

Twitter is about sharing articles, blogs and other information that you might not have otherwise seen.  For example, let’s say that I’m following @prepperwebsite.  The Prepper Website posts a link to an article on a new blog that I have never heard of before.  The article is great and I realize that the other posts on this blog are very valuable too.  I might add that blog to my Google Reader.

Other information that might be shared might be news that is not being run by the mainstream media.  It is a way of communication that has reshaped how people communicate. 

Another thing you might want to do is to follow a trend or a search word.  Many people who use Twitter include hashtags to their tweets.  A hashtag is a way to set-off a certain term or idea on Twitter.  So if I post something about prepping, I might include the hash tag #prepper in my tweet. 

Go try it!  Go to www.twitter.com and type in #preppertalk in the search box. Try #preparedness, #foodstorage and #survival too!  Try anything that you are interested in.  For something to show up in Google’s search engine takes a few days.  However, the search results in Twitter are real time and you can find new information quickly. 

A word of warning - When you use Twitter in this way, it can be addictive.  You can find yourself searching, linking and reading so much information that you lose track of what you were there for.

Check out this video I did on using Twitter for Lifelong Learning.

Podcasts

Lastly, I will touch on podcasts.  Podcasts are audio posts.  When someone creates a podcast, they upload it for anyone on the internet to listen to.  Most of the time, you can go directly to someone’s web site and listen to the podcast.  However, that means that you have to be at your computer, or at least close to it.  But just like there are blog readers, there are podcast catchers. 

Podcast catchers work exactly the same way as blog readers do.  You have to find the RSS feed and put it in your podcast catcher.  After you do that, the podcast is downloaded directly to your hard drive where you can put it on your Ipod or mp3 player.  Now if you have an Ipod and Itunes, this is a pretty easy setup.  You just have to search for podcasts in your desired field of interest. The podcast will be “placed” or “sync’d” with your Ipod when you connect it.  If you have an mp3 player, it is a matter of going to the download folder and transferring it to your mp3 player, usually a drag and drop feature as most mp3 players are recognized as another portable drive on your computer.

To see an example video of a podcast catcher in action, click here - http://www.screencast.com/t/YWVhODNl .

To download “Juice,” the podcast catcher, go here: http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/

To search for podcasts, you can visit - http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php .

Recently, I have left my mp3 player behind for podcasts and just use my smart phone.  I recently upgrade to an android phone and downloaded the App “Beyond Pod.”  I search for my favorite survival podcasts and listen to them on the way to work through my car stereo system.  It is so convenient.

In Closing

To maximize your prepping efforts, you need to be informed.  Information is powerful.  Information is necessary.  And today, information is abundant.  You just need to know where to look. 

One last word, there is a difference between book knowledge and knowledge that is based on experience.  After you find the information that you are searching for, you have to put it into practice.  For instance, all the knowledge of gardening or skinning a rabbit doesn’t mean anything until you get your hands dirty…believe me, I know!

One last last word, a natural outflow of my learning has been my new web site.  I started http://www.prepperwebsite.com two months ago and the response has been great.  I read every article, listen to every podcast and watch every video I link.  I also monitor every web site I link through Google Reader.  The site is a great place to get a varied amount of prepping information in one place.

Mr. Rawles,
Thank you for your blog site. Sorry to add to the "snowball" burden but when building a library make sure the paper used is not acid-based or in a few years it will all turn to dust. Use alkaline paper or "Archival" paper only. This will make the information available for many generations. See the Wikipedia article discussing the matter.

Numerous companies sell their alkaline and archival paper on-line and it is available in larger office stores. Also a chemical test pen is available that will test whether a given sheet of paper is acid or alkaline is available.

I have no connection with any manufacturer or seller of these items. Given the invasion of chinese counterfeit products it might be prudent to use this pen to check papers that purport to be alkaline/archival, just to be sure.

Also. If the papers are to be stored in plastic protectors make sure the plastic is polypropylene. Some plastics emit chemicals that break down paper fibers quickly, leaving nothing but fragments after a few years. The basic rule is if you can smell it, it will destroy the paper. Polypropylene is odorless and harmless to paper. Also many office supply stores sell archival-quality protectors labeled as such.

And Mr. Rawles. The prepper movement is maturing. Instead of people attempting to gather all this information individually and on their own you should start a prepper version of Wikipedia or something similar and make it available for download. It is always the details that kill, and it would be a shame for so many otherwise survivable individuals to fail simply because they are missing a small bit of information that could have been available. - GMAN

My wife and I have just recently started prepping (about a year now) and were amazed to find out how little we knew, in regards to living a self sustaining lifestyle/homesteading.  We had recently moved from our big house in the suburbs where farm animals weren’t allowed, to a secluded 5 acre parcel just outside of a small rural town. We, in this troubled time are in the midst of trying to build a cabin (cash as we go) while preparing for The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI).  We started storing food while learning to garden with our newly purchased heirloom seeds.  My wife and I built a chicken coop which now houses 13 hens that are laying about ten eggs a day.  We have found our selves searching the internet constantly for information and soon a thought had occurred to me, if we lose the nternet, we are ruined!  I suddenly realized that information storage was just as important as food storage.  We have all this wheat, sugar, salt, beans etc..  But we don’t know how to turn it into edible foods!  Thus I began saving web pages on almost everything that had to do with cooking and gardening,  etc.. but the more I searched the more I realized I needed to know.  I bought a Storey’s Guide to Raising Pigs, then found myself wondering how I would store so much meat without a freezer?  That led me to another purchase of a book on how to build a smokehouse and cure your own meats. 

All of this has turned into a “snowball effect” on information gathering, as soon as I learn something new, I realize the need to learn something else.  At first I began to save the web pages on my computer (file save as, for most browsers) knowing that I had a back up generator and even if the internet was down I could access them.  I created file folders on my computer such as cooking, gardening, chickens, pigs, automotive, etc... and began to fill them with any pertinent articles that I came across on the internet. Then my sister emailed me an article about solar flares and EMPs.  Argghh!  Now, we are going to really be ruined, how are we going to protect our vital information?  The next day my wife returned home from shopping and handed me two 3-ring binders with the plastic sheet protecters. I know how much printer ink cost these days, but if the founders of the library of Alexandria had an Epson840 do you think they would have quibbled about ink prices?    Who knows what the repercussions were for the loss of all that information.  In a TEOTWAWKI situation we need to protect our vital information.  Thus, I began the long process of printing all my articles and putting them into the little sheet protectors.  My wife and I made a book on gardening and one on cooking.  

This giant information snowball then had a strange side effect, it collided with our survival supplies list and actually began to dictate it.  The recipes we had downloaded called for ingredients that weren't in our food storage.  The growing season at our altitude wasn’t long enough to accommodate some of our heirloom seeds therefore we had to research how to extend our growing season (we plan on building cold frames next year).  We had no idea on how to pump water out of our well in a grid down situation.  Until we came across a SurvivalBlog.com writing contest round five Winning article “How to Build an Inertial Well Slow Pump for Grid Down Emergencies” by TruthFirst.  You can bet that those articles will be added to our ever expanding survival book.  It is not enough however to just store articles without reading them.  You don't want to wait until the SHTF to read an article only to find that the article requires an ingredient, part or component that you don’t have.  We have found it is best to start to try and live as self sustainable as we can now.  That way we can learn from our mistakes without the serious consequences those same mistakes would have in TEOTWAWKI situation.

I would like to share with you how our information storage got started in order to give you an example of what you might store.  Keep in mind that everyone’s survival plan is different, therefore everyone’s information storage needs will be as well.  You might have different food tastes; specialized diet requirements; geographical location; or particular medical conditions which you will need to plan for.  Our survival plan and information storage focuses on self-sustaining living since we all ready have our own property away from the city.  First, we started by identifying some of the basic needs necessary for survival.  Let’s name a few such as air, water, shelter, food, and security.  Now, lets take food as an example and break it down further into some sub-categories:

1. Food

A. Growing your own food
                        1)Gardening
                        2)Heirloom Seeds vs hybrids
                        3)Climate Zones
                        4)Harvesting
                        5)Storage
                                    a)Canning
                                                1.Pressure Canner
                                                2.Water Bath Canner
                                                3.Jars, Rings and Lids
                                                4.Pectin
                                                5.Canning Salt
                                                6.Canning Books/Recipes
                                                7.Heat Sources
                                    b)Root Cellar

B. Raising Your Own Meat

                        1)Pigs
                        2)Chickens
                                    a)Various articles saved on how to raise chickens
                                    b)Various articles saved on how to butcher chickens
                                    c)How to store chicken
                                                1.Freezer - added Foodsaver to survival supplies
                                                2.Added recipe for canned chicken to cookbook

I don’t want to bore you anymore with a dull outline as that could go on forever,  as you can see learning one thing can cause the need to learn something else.  I also don’t want you to think that we sit around outlining all night either.  We just start doing new things, like growing potatoes, which lead to us putting articles in our gardening book such as how to grow potatoes, how to harvest potatoes, then one day we were sitting there with like 300lbs of potatoes which led us to adding an article to our gardening book about how to store potatoes which added burlap sacks to our survival list. We downloaded some information about how to make a root cellar. We also canned  20 quarts of potatoes, so we added a recipe for processing potatoes to our cookbook. My wife then added a delicious potato soup recipe.  Another example is since we planted too late this year we had to research how to extend our growing season.  Thisin turn added an article to our gardening book on how to build cold frames, which led to the discovery of these really cool hinges with nitrogen filled cylinders that open and close the vent automatically (www.solarventworks.com).  We then found another article about how to get your green tomatoes to ripen and added it to our gardening book.   

            In closing, I would just like to say that there is no cookie cutter program for survival and that buying a bunch of random survival supplies only gives you a false sense of security.  Knowledge is the key to survival!  Start a gardening book and a cookbook. Try living off your food stores and see how many recipes you actually need, then print them off and add them to your book.   You will be amazed at how many ingredients you are missing, then add those to your food stores.  Learning how to survive takes years, it is not something that happens overnight. Don’t wait till the SHTF it will be too late! Try learning self-sustaining skills today.  Take that knowledge and store it in some three-ring binders, even if you think you will remember it.  The three-ring binders make a great reference, not only for yourself, but if something were to happen to you, your spouse, children, and group will have a wealth of knowledge to draw from.  Currently, my wife and I only have the Cookbook and Gardening Book.  However, lately I have been thinking about all the other knowledge we could need in a survival situation.  Here are a few ideas for our next books:

1. A Maintenance Book filled with repair manuals for my vehicles, generator,chainsaws, tractors Etc... That could lead to a spare parts list like air filters, spark plugs, bar oil Etc...
2. An alternate power book with information on how to wire solar panels and micro hydro that could lead to a basic supplies list like inverter, panels, wire and batteries.  Even if you cant afford the supplies at least you would have the knowledge necessary    to hook up a system.  In an absolute TEOTWAWKI situation it’s quite possible that you could  scavenge batteries from abandoned cars for your battery bank.

The list goes on and on, create your own knowledge books and share your ideas on the SurvivalBlog.com forum.  Maybe collectively we can store enough knowledge to keep us from reverting back to the Stone Age.  Remember information gathering has a snowball effect. 

We all read and see in the media where the world is going. Many debate the "How" of the "end": Economic collapse, solar flare, pole shift, "Planet X" and so on. I believe we should ignore the "How" and focus on what we as the human race will do "when this happens", whatever "it" is? Let's take a minute and think: Certain disasters will necessitate certain supplies, specific preparations, and or survival techniques. If you are like me you've dedicated yourself into the world of "The End" then you have most likely done your due diligence and prepared to one extent or another. Some with a fallout shelter under ground, to those with a closet full of food and bug out bag.

My whole vision of "The End" was, burned into my psyche by Francis Ford Coppola in his film Apocalypse Now.  The napalm burning up the jungle with the somber words of Jim Morrison's, "The End' pouring over the horror of that image. Yet, in all of our fear and relentless preparation I came to have an epiphany. What are we doing for the future, for the next generations to come? The following is a brief  list of what I've come to believe is the true meaning of "Survival" and "Preparation".

The Epiphany - Phase One
I am a spiritual person. I wouldn't say I belong to any organized religion, because I find that when Men and power, over large groups of people where money may be included,… abuse tends to follow close behind. Now, I'm not saying all churches or pastors, priests or Imams are evil and corrupt. But I find that I personally don't need a place to worship. God and Jesus and I have a close relationship. I'm not insane when I say we speak all the time. However, I do communicate with God daily. Perhaps being from a Lutheran background is why i worship this way. However you worship, and even if you don't this will apply to all Preppers.

My vision came when I was collecting information on how to refine "Bio-diesel" from used fryer oil, some fuel anti freeze and lye. The whole process seemed so simple. I couldn't believe you could run a regular diesel vehicle like this. I couldn't believe you can make so much in 12 hours with household ingredients. I wondered: who else could benefit from this information?  I felt like part of surviving was making sure that other like-minded people, survive as well. I started to question the whole process?  What if someone else out there, with only some soup and a tent in the back of their truck, when "it" happens is out of fuel? What if I had shared, what I had just learned, and they had that small bit of information. Maybe that man is able to save his family by getting out of town and avoiding the riots at the pumps just because of one small act of sharing information with someone else. Someone else who doesn't know that making bio-diesel at home is even possible? Naturally I did what many of us are doing. I read blogs for preppers. While online with some of you the epiphany turning into a calling. I know this may sound corny, but it's true.  I feel now that the simple act of sharing information to trying to survive isn't enough.

Phase Two (The Realization)

I started collecting information: survival information, escape and evasion in urban areas, local edible plants, how to make a generator out of a car alternator and a lawnmower, etc. Solar power and hydro power, natural insulation, how to trap animals and caching, food and ammo. All became my hobbies. I'm sure many of you can relate to my hobby. I began taking tactical shooting, rock climbing, repelling and emergency medicine courses and classes. But as halloween approached every channel had a zombie movie scheduled. I am a long time science fiction fan--I love that stuff. But I started thinking about some of the classic disaster and dystopian sci-fi films like Logan's Run, Escape from New York, and Night of the Living Dead. I also considered the more recent ones like The Road (which was originally a great novel by Cormac McCarthy), or I Am Legend.

This is where it all started to come together. This isn't just about us, and our immediate survival. We as a race will survive. We have survived extinctions before, with no technology at all. So I believe we will again.

What about after our generation? What about the children who don't know what  a television ever was or a computer? What about their children… they will know even less. I truly believe that it will be similar to the life of the people in The Book of Eli. Those younger people had no knowledge of writing or reading. Technology was almost like magic. So after our gardens grow, and our solar panels break down, and brushes in every generator wear out, then what? Where will we have left our future? They will be lost. Unable to repair or manufacture anything. This is when the truth of my new calling was realized: Survival isn't about water filters, and gas masks. Of course we need all of these items to get thru the initial event or events. But what our legacy must be to leave the information for future generations to rebuild as quickly and easily as possible.

Phase Three (implementation and execution)

Now that I'm out on a limb, and most of you treading his probably think I'm a kook. Just think for a minute: I know I use many pop-culture references and movies to explain my calling. But I am an extensive reader. and I believe that movies and books are a direct reflection of the fears and desires of the people who make and watch them. There is truth in them. As educated survivors die, of whatever reasons if they don't pass on their knowledge, to future generations it will all be lost to time.
|
This is how the "End" can Become a "Beginning".  We have made many mistakes as a people. We have also done many things right. My calling is to collect as much information about the most important and influential, inventions, theories, systems, philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, religions, etc. Once I've collected information I copy it onto flash drives, disks, paper and post on blogs. I try to get all of that important information in one place, so the next generation can have a better chance of having it to learn from.

I'll give you all an example: I collected 20 GB of information on everything from mining and smelting iron and steel, to how to build a printing press. Now some future person who hopefully was taught how to read could reproduce words and ideas for others. He could make and build a printing press. That took 3,000 years for us to learn. The idea of loosing that forever, is my biggest fear. I have collected info on how to make glass, filament and light bulb. Or how to make a battery, and how to farm wind and sun. How to build a chicken coop, et cetera. If you are follow my train of thought then you understand why this is important for all Preppers.

Conclusion

My wife and I don't have children. But if we survive THE event that cuts the population by 80% then we will have a responsibility to the future. Beyond procreation. If we live to be old in our survival community, we would be teachers. We will all have to become teachers. You may not understand Calculus yourself. But part of your supplies should be stored information on multiplication tables through Trigonometry.  For the engineers and doctors that survive they will have the most responsibility to teach what they know to the next generations, But with volumes of reference materials, of all the sciences and arts in every community, the future doesn't seem so bleak. Infrastructure exists. It will not last forever. We as a people have a obligation to all of those brilliant, hard working people who invented, designed and built the world that we live in today. We owe it to their children and your children to share and store as much knowledge as we possibly can. So in the future, some bright young boy or girl might find your, Flash drive, or disk, or notebook and it inspires them to rebuild the national power grid, or fix the generators at Hoover Dam. Or it may be as small as feeding two families instead of one through a harsh winter with canning techniques?

This is how "The End can be a Beginning" The beginning of the new American Republic. The way it was designed by the founding fathers to be. By the way the first piece of literature in my collection for the New Beginning was the King James Bible, The second was the Constitution of the United States of American and the third was the Declaration of Independence. Those are the three most important survival tools in your bug out kit.

JWR -
I cannot thank you enough for all you do. Thanks to your "List of Lists" and articles I am well on my way.... above the 80% so to speak. 

As everyone is, I am limited by finances. So while I pursue the items I need I also wanted to pursue skills. That is the most important anyway. So I was searching the site for a list of practical skills. Skills many times can be practiced without money or with existing gear. 

Is there a list of skills on the site? And if not, then what articles would you say to start with? 

Thanks again for everything. - Ben J.

JWR Replies: In general, I recommend that you take a look at the SurvivalBlog articles and letters that I've indexed in the "Traditional Skills" category.
Also see these SurvivalBlog pieces in the archives:

• Preparing Kids for Disasters, by J.B. in Montana (posted in 2011)
• Training Sources for TEOTWAWKI, by Christopher E. (posted in 2009)
• Letter Re: Advice on Where to Learn Practical, Tactical Skills (posted in 2007)

JWR:
S. John's article on higher education generated some great responses, many of which urged careful attention to choosing an area of study that would be of practical use if/when TSHTF, engineering, medicine or nursing rather than law, English, sociology or political science.  I couldn't agree more that practical skills will be needed.   In spite of the general disrepute in which lawyers are held, however, I'd like to suggest that law is and will always be a practical skill.

If I claimed that 90% (or even 95%) of all knowledge in the field of medicine has been acquired in the last 200 years, I doubt anyone would find that surprising.  In a true collapse scenario, how much of that knowledge will still be practical?   Much of it depends on supplies, equipment and medications that will simply not be available, at least in the short run, but maybe forever.  However, what does remain practical will be much more accurate and useful than what was known 200 years ago.   Many of the basic principles of today's medicine were unknown back then.   In fact, in case of illness or injury, you'd probably be safer today in the hands of a reasonably well-read layperson with a well-stocked medicine cabinet than in the care of a doctor and hospital from the 1810s.

On the other hand, if a time-traveling lawyer from Abe Lincoln's era were dropped into the middle of a modern courtroom, after recovering from the shock of the modern technology of law and the presence of women, he would find most of the basic principles familiar.  After all, commercial and property transactions and dispute resolution have been going on for thousands of years, and the law has been distilling its wisdom on how to deal with such transactions all along.   The modern emphasis in media law on crime, civil rights, governmental regulation, and personal injury masks the reality that most law most people see and touch in daily life is commercial law.   It is just so thoroughly integrated in our daily lives that we don't notice it. 

A good engineer may be able to build a bridge that will stand up to the traffic on it, but either a warrior's skills or a lawyer's skills will be needed to make sure the bridge is built on land whose owner won't just tear it down again.   Throughout human history, that's what lawyers have done - found ways and developed systems that substitute contracts for wars, so that human ingenuity can be harnessed through commerce and its fruits can be made more secure.  That's not to say warriors can be dispensed with.  There will always be those who breach contracts, break laws and try to get their way through force or fraud.  Warriors will be needed on the front lines to stop them, capture them and compel them to submit to the law.

A good lawyer has a base of knowledge on how to identify and solve problems that has been distilled over more than two thousand years of human trial and error.   Ironically, preppers are among the people most like lawyers in their thought processes:   Both think beyond the expectation that tomorrow will be just like today, that the sailing will always be smooth; they think about all the things that could go wrong and then try to plan and prepare for them.

Everyone who does attend college would be well advised to take a basic course in legal principles, especially one with a focus on commercial principles.   Whether or not TSHTF, knowing what is involved in making contracts and learning how to read and think about them is a "survival skill" for life.

Having said that, I'm not sure modern legal education is as focused as it used to be on transmitting and refining that base of knowledge.   The mailings I get from my old law school suggest the focus has changed to one of training do-gooders, challenging "privilege" and implementing "social justice."  - Anonymous Attorney

James: 

The article "A Prepper Goes to College" by S. John aptly points out a problem in which is completely avoidable.  It is heartbreaking to know that so many people are setting themselves up for a life of lost opportunities by being saddled with educational debt.   This problem is the subject of the book Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching off My Parents by Zac Bissonnette.  "Debt-Free U" points out the huge disparity in the cost/value relationships of the many college education options.  It provides strategies (solutions) for getting a good quality college education and "the most bang for your buck."  It is a well written contemporary investigation into the myths and realities of higher-level education.   We have three college-bound high schoolers.  Our entire family has read this book and enjoyed it, including grandparents.  "Debt-Free U" has changed our expectations for college and convinced us to avoid educational debt at all costs.  I consider it a must-read book for any parent or student considering college.  (Coincidentally, I found out about this book while listening to Dave Ramsey, who is cited in the article by S. John.)

All the best, - John in Florida

Jim,
I completely concur with John's piece on the college scam.    

My spouse and I lived in a two-room apartment for seven years to pay off our loans. It was painful, but we did it. I would never borrow that kind of money again. The worst part of the bank scam (besides the no bankruptcy)?

When a student is awarded a loan, the bank takes a 10% "Origination Fee," right off the top.   So, if the loan is $5,000, the check to the student is $4,500. What a scam.  What other loan or investment pays off 10% at the beginning of the loan?   Mind you, the student has to pay back the $500 (with interest). And then of course, there is the schools parts in this.   College financial aid ("aid" what a joke) offices point students to particular kinds of loans, frequently the ones that give a kick-back to the college.

And then the colleges apply all sorts of late fees, interest (it was 21% on unpaid balances at my college in 1994), etc. I'm hoping my son becomes an electrician. - Mary Beth

JWR:
I appreciate S. John's article. He is quite correct in much of his evaluation. However, I believe the crux of his financial problem was not the higher education decisions, but his failure for he and his wife to wait on their marriage until they were debt free.  A decision to marry must include the freedom to marry and anyone in debt is not free.

As a former High School Guidance counselor, I encouraged my students to seek post-high school education with specific goals in mind...e.g. how that education will enable the student to be employed in a career. I encouraged maximum use of CLEP and community colleges. I encouraged them to live at home, attend college year-round and to take the maximum credits permissible each semester (the schools say 12 semester hours is a "full time" load. If you follow that for eight semesters (four years) and you have 96 semester hours (about a year short of the 122-124 semester hours required for graduation). I encouraged Technical Colleges and high schools to learn a trade to pay for their educations (being a part-time welder at $26/hour beats working at McDonald's for minimum wage...while going to college for mech engineering).

Unfortunately, we live in a "credentialed" world...and the beginning credential is a bachelor's degree. The unemployment rate for bachelor degree holders is in the neighborhood of 5% (the under employment rate is quite another matter!). Positions once held by High School grads (retail sales, etc) are now requiring a college education. So, if you must have the education, then get it as quickly and cheaply as possible.

BTW, I am a graduate of Hillsdale College (BS Math) paid for by work and scholarships as well as the Air Force Institute Of Technology (MS Systems Mgt) courtesy of the USAF and St Bonaventure University (MSEd Counseling Psychology) via the GI Bill. I left all schools debt free. My Hillsdale experience was invaluable in setting my life's course. I echo S. John's endorsement. Blessings, - John G.

James Wesley:
I felt the need to add some insight to the article regarding higher education.

I believe the author meant to use the total balance of all student loans instead of total cost of education.  If you play your cards correctly then you will be able to walk out with a degree and much less student loan debt than what your actual educational costs are.  In my case my education cost nearly $250,000 but I walked out with only $60k in student loan debt.

I hope my personal example may be used to help others.

I attended a state university for two years (getting a straight 4.0 GPA) and had to borrow nearly $20,000 in those two years to attend the local state school.  I CLEPed out of three courses from taking AP tests and from things I have taught myself.  In the beginning of my second year I applied to transfer to Washington University in St. Louis, (which happens to be one among the top universities in the nation)

I was accepted into the school and immediately took it upon myself to discover which courses I could CLEP out of.  I spent that next summer in constant self-study.

Prior to arriving at WashU, I applied for school-based financial aid and was able to receive many need based grants and scholarships (nearly $24,000 out of $40,000 in tuition and living costs).  After arriving, I CLEPed out of a few classes at WashU.  So far, I was able to save myself nearly a year of tuition.  The first year I did my best to obtain a straight 4.0 GPA at WashU as well.

Towards the end of my first year I went into the financial aid department  (when they were not nearly as busy as other times.)  I mentioned the fact that the school loans were going to be quite burdensome and that I was doing very well at the school and would like to continue attending but that the loans may become a problem down the road.  The financial aid officer / manager said well we'll take a look and see what we can do.  At the time I was receiving about $24,000 in need based scholarships and I had to borrow nearly $16,000 that first year.  He said "well we can convert this $8,000 school loan into a scholarship and then you'll get free tuition but you'll still have to provide for your own living expenses."  Having that short 10 minute talk has saved me $24,000 plus all of the interest.

After a few years at WashU, I was able to graduate with a BS in Physics and a MS in Computer Science (from the Engineering school).  I had many choices of internships during the summers and most companies were fighting over people from the university.  I took all of the opportunities I could to have an internship over the summers.  They are really worth their weight in gold and even to this day, when I have decided to switch jobs, they still are inquired about.  (But I should caution you, if you do not take the opportunity to have internships then you may not be able to easily find jobs.  I knew of many classmates who had B/C averages and no internship experience and by the time graduation came around they were still looking for jobs.)

When interest rates dropped really low I consolidated all of my loans into one big loan at 2.875% and most lenders will drop 1% off of your interest rate if you make 3 years of timely payments.  I'm now paying 1.875% and it is much lower than inflation (meaning it is essentually now "free" money.)

So to sum it up: Go to a local school first, use that to transfer into a much better school with a much better name.  If you notice it, WashU ended up being cheaper per year than the local state school. Talk to the financial aid department after you show that you are capable of succeeding.  It was such an easy thing to do, that I, at the time, didn't know if it would work or be worthwhile.  But I have been taught growing up that, if you ask, the worst that can happen is that they will say no, but if you don't ask then you will never know.  Mind you, I selected WashU because their endowment per student ratio is very high so I knew there was a good chance of obtaining better financial aid. Consolidate your loans into a lower fixed interest rate.  If the interest rate is higher than inflation or salary increases then pay it down fast, otherwise make the minimum payments. In case you are wondering, my tuition costs the last year were around $45,000, my student loan cost that year was around $10,000.  I was able to get a job immediately out of school starting at $74,000 and I had six offers to choose from.

I'm not sure if this had anything to do with it or not, but I believe it did, you should read the book How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Thank you and I hope my story will give others ideas on how to better afford their education, kudos to the original author, KJP

Mr Rawles,
I agree with a lot of the post  "A Prepper Goes To College" but there is one paragraph that is wrong: Here it is:

"As an example of this, you must realize that many colleges were created only to get free Federal money, which students have to pay back. “Trade colleges” like DeVry, University of Phoenix, and all sorts of art schools are only there to take students’ money which is “free” to them through student loans. If a school advertises on television then it probably offers junk diplomas."

This is simply not true. DeVry University has been in existence since 1931 and I know that in the field of  electronics technologies that DeVry has a sterling reputation and its graduates were generally known to be well qualified in that field. I know this because that is my profession and has been for over 40 years now.  I graduated from a competing school and am not affiliated with DeVry in any way, so I speak out of respect for DeVry having worked along side many of their graduates. Respectfully yours, T.W.T.

To S. John regarding higher education:
I've been a college professor for more than 20 years - and in higher education generally for twice that -- and I agree -- you have a point in saying higher education is a scam, but...

The system is the problem - not the education itself.  Clearly, a university degree isn't for everyone, but there are some things you can do -- as a Christian and a prepper -- to help:

1) Decide ahead of time if you need a university degree.  For some professions -- including professions that all preppers would probably agree we need -- bursing, medicine, engineering, teaching -- a university degree is useful -- and often required. If you don't need a degree don't do it -- remember the "dirty jobs" -- road work, ditches, sewage -- will always be needing people and you can do them without degrees. Better often to work at Home Depot and use your income (and employee discount) on preps.

2) If you go major in something useful -- sciences, nursing, engineering, computers.  You can always pick up electives -- languages are a good choice. Stay away from majors like gender studies, English, political science, sociology. Remember that your classes in those subjects will be likely biased towards left ideology.

3) Start in a community college.  Most of the first two years is the same everywhere and you save buckets of money.  The big four year schools won't tell you that.  Also think about taking classes on the side at your community/technical college.  Everyone should know how to weld and do electrical work.

4) Pick your school.  The small private school can do just as well as the big name school.  You can also find good Christian universities and colleges if that's your thing. Pick your location.  There are fine schools in many "safe" states e.g. Idaho -- why not spend four years in that area than on some eastern urban campus.  You can find a region (and possibly a school) which is more likely to be "prepper friendly" -- and if you are planning to marry.  Well, what better place to look for a like-minded guy or gal?  There are not too many Montana rancher's daughters enrolled at Florida State, I expect.

5) Stay away from student loans.  Quite right.  If you have all ready "drunk the Kool-aid" remember that you can get student loan forgiveness in a variety of public service professions -- nursing, teaching, librarianship -- make 120 payments and the government will forgive your loans.  Remember that the price on a school is always the "sticker price"-- I see students routinely get deals through grants and scholarships and, gee, working! There's a concept.  Don't buy the "You need to finish in four years"  Take six years, work, and avoid the loans.   Consider, dare I say it, military service and have the government pay for your college -- and you develop some useful skills.  What's better -- two years in camouflage or 10 years of paying loans in civilian clothes?  Stay away from the hucksters offering credit cards! That is the worst thing you can do! You are 18 -- if you don't have cash to pay for something then you can't afford it. And what do you need anyway? A ski vacation in Aspen?

6) Do the work! Students fail because they don't treat it like what it is -- a job.  That's why we have majors in basket weaving -- to accommodate the sheeple. The college librarian can be your best friend -- find the library and live there. Also, take care of your health -- eat, sleep, exercise. Get the habits now you will need when the SHTF.

7) Along with that avoid the sheeple students -- the parties, the distractions. Find a good church in the community and attend.  There are often campus ministry groups but they tend to be somewhat liberal. And if you are living somewhere away from home and the SHTF you want local contacts - not the campus ministry that is closed because it's summer and the sheeple students are on vacation.

8) Do not make an issue of your prepping.  Campuses are hotbeds of liberalism. You say "prepper" or "survival" and you will have the campus police looking under your bed for guns.  The resident assistants in dorms are not your friends -- in some cases I am aware of they were required to submit reports on students regarding their mental state, habits, etc.  in the name of "risk management". Live off campus if you can.  I have nothing to say about the issues of BOBs, guns, et cetera on campus except the lower profile you keep the better.  In a real emergency campus authorities are clueless -- for pandemic planning we were given, as faculty, a "Business Continuation Plan" that suggested that we would be sending everyone home and they (and we) would be doing everything we normally did -- just over the Internet via online instruction.  Right -- let's see how that works the day after an EMP burst, but I digress.

9) Find like minded people.  I was surprised to find a student shooting group from my campus, notably liberal, having a table at the local gun show.  I had no idea they existed. There are guys (and gals) with your viewpoint -- they will just be harder to find. And love your parents -- but leave them at home.  Helicopter parents of students, who hover over their child's every move and call every day -- are a curse.  You are 18, you are a grownup, act like it, -- call mom on Sunday and get on with your life the rest of the week. Be accountable for yourself, moral, and responsible and you won't have problems -- like large debt, arrests, or a pregnant girlfriend -- that you will need help with.

Your points about higher education are justified.  The system is a scam.  The knowledge that is in universities and colleges isn't.  There is alot of value in western civilization and our culture and history.  Universities and colleges are good repositories of that heritage.  Always the best? No.  There's lots of waste and corruption and idiots trying to find better "business models" and promote questionable ideology.  And frankly some scam artists who have figured they can make six-figure salaries managing all this Federal money that flows into higher education. But there are also lots of good people, religious people, preppers, who are genuinely trying to do good for people.  Find those people and pay attention to them. - A Prepper Professor

Jim:
S. John shared some very insightful views and suggestions to better navigate higher education and ways to find gainful employment.  I would like to share some other approaches and strategies which have worked for me and others, but were not mentioned by S. John.  Higher education is by definition, education past the high school level.  This would include trade, vocational, college, and university programs.  For preppers, not all information, knowledge, or skill can be found in one source.  With anything we prep, redundancy provides greater stability.    

Military Training, Education, & Benefits.  
As a U.S. Army Airborne Infantry veteran, I can attest to the value of training, education, and experience our armed forces provide.  While only 1% of our country serves in our armed forces, it is obvious the commitment to military service is not for everyone.  Some may not be qualified, while others have personal beliefs which prevent them, and others often have skewed views or a lack of self confidence.  I will discuss the Army's programs as I am more familiar with them.  If you seek more info contact a recruiter and research to see if it can work for you.   All branches start with basic training and include training in combat skills, marksmanship, physical fitness, survival, field craft skills, and basic first aid.  The length of training varies from 8 to 13 weeks depending on branch.  The next step is military specialty (specific job) training.  There are numerous combat related functions, such as infantry and special operations, but there are even more combat support and service support jobs with a wide range of technical vocations.  Everything from communications, medical, transportation, engineering, intelligence, law enforcement, mechanical, to legal and everything else in between.  The US Army alone boasts over 200+ specialized job fields.   In addition to this training, some branches have basic training and military specialty schools accredited for college credits.  Those that don't still provide the option of having training evaluated for credit as well.  While you serve on active duty or with the reserves you are eligible for tuition assistance to cover up to 100% of tuition, books, and fees.  If you serve with National Guard or Air National Guard units, depending on each state, most cover 100% of in state tuition at the state university rates.  After you complete your service, the Army College Fund and GI Bill can pay between $44,000 for education after a two year enlistment or up to $81,000 for education after a six year enlistment.  Also, if you have already attended college and acquired a large amount of loans, if eligible, the Army can pay off those loans up to $65,000 in return for service.  If you have an advanced degree, such as law, nursing, or medical there are additional special programs.   After your service you not only have an established experience in a trade, you have applicable vocational training, and the financial ability to further pursue additional higher education.  This provides one the ability to get paid to learn skills others pay money to acquire.  In addition to those skills and opportunity, you also have other VA benefits such as home loan grantee and hiring preference for civil service jobs.    

Other ways to reduce tuition costs...   When I landed on top of a heavy drop (parachute platform with equipment and vehicles strapped to it), after jumping out of a C-17 and screwing up my shoulder, I was told to ride a desk or take a medical discharge.  This was disturbing to me, as I had planned for a career and after seven years, the thought of a desk job in the army did not appeal to me.  I took the discharge, moved back home and decided to pursue a career in law enforcement.  I needed to work, as did my wife, to support our kids and make a living.  I got an easy gig managing security - hired on the spot - just after inquiring about the job and discussing my prior experience in the military.   As I began researching law enforcement in my area and related education through local community colleges and universities, I discovered something few people know of or take advantage of.  I learned that most colleges and universities provide tuition waivers for employees.  These are not like a work related only tuition reimbursement program, but an actual waiving of cost.  Some are like the one I work for, which provides tuition waivers for the employee and spouse (100%) and for dependent children (75%).  In my state, all public colleges and universities, also operate their own public safety or police departments.  This was fantastic for me and my family as I was looking to pursue both a career and education and was able to do it at the same time and the same place.  The university I work at provides these benefits for every staff member employed, from landscapers to janitors, maintenance, IT, to various services, and secretaries.   Using a tuition waiver, in conjunction with GI Bill or Pell Grants, produces the ability to not only attend college, but to actually get paid for it.  The tuition is calculated, then waived, with the remaining funds disbursed to the employee/student for other costs associated with college.  Things such as text books, room and board, transportation, childcare, computers, and internet service.  I have earned an associates degree in administration of justice, an associates degree in law enforcement, and I am finishing a  bachelors degree in emergency management.  My wife has earned an Associates degree in organizational management and is finishing a Bachelors degree in operations management.    All with no student loans or out of pocket expenses.  As a family of seven with us both parents working full time, this wouldn't be possible without the research and time we were willing to invest to make it work for us.  To say it is easy to juggle five kids while both working and going to school full time would be a lie.  Finishing our education is the last step before we join the American Redoubt and move to establish our family retreat.  However, education is only one part of our plan, and it is combined with additional experience, knowledge, and skills.    

Redundancy is required in all things, to create greater stability, not just prepping.  Before you prep, you need to plan and mitigate first.  I second S. John's warnings and advice to ensure you research well and chose your financial obligations wisely.  I would also add to plan your education to match careers available in or near your retreat or if not practical, to match them to benefit you post collapse.  Being able to combine both career and post collapse efforts through education would be optimal and require additional research.    I realize how blessed I am and know this may not work for everyone.  I am confident in the course of action I took and recommend it to my own sons and daughter.  I wanted to share my experiences and hope it works for someone else too.  Good luck! - C.W.  

Dear JWR,    
After reading "A Prepper Goes to College", I felt that I needed to make a qualified rebuttal to this article. Going to college can be a very important means of getting out of the minimum wage grind and building the sort of income needed to prepare adequately for bad economic times. First and foremost, if you go to college, you need to pick a degree in something that will have practical use in a world that has to focus on self-reliance or at least a significantly reduced reliance on the government. I know, for many people, it is their dream to study the arts, music or law. But when you find yourself in a survival situation, the people who are going to have skills of real value will be those who learned how to build or fix things. For the most part, that means people with degrees like mechanical engineering or similar areas of specialization. As someone who learned about fixing cars from my father who was a mechanic for Cummins, I can easily see how an engineering degree can have very practical value for a prepper. I also saw my step-daughter have to incur tremendous amounts of debt in her quest for her PhD in Psychology. She was exceptionally hard working though and is now is an associate professor at the age of 30, specializing in the treatment of autistic children. She literally worked her way through college as a therapist. But even this is the exception, rather than the rule. It will still take her years to finish paying off her debt. Someone with a degree in the liberal arts will find that achieving her success to be almost impossible.     

The article also brings up the very valid points of how the cost of college degrees have skyrocketed and how school loans can be a very heavy burden for years after graduation. It is very important then that when you select a school, that the real cost has to be considered very highly. Students often learn that they pay an unnecessary premium for the privilege of attending a 'big-name' school. Find the least expensive college or state university that carries the degree program that you seek first. Secondly, try to find as many grants and scholarships that do not need to be paid back before exploring loans that do. There are a lot of opportunities for college money that does not have to be paid back, but it takes time and effort. Another option that should also be considered is military service, either with your state's National Guard or with one of the service ROTC programs. They can often pay for most if not all of a student's tuition plus supply a student with a couple of hundred dollars a month of drill pay as well. This option also gives the student to learn other skills like fieldcraft and basic rifle marksmanship training that can prove to be very helpful in a survival situation. If you can, pick an officer specialty that can teach you skills that can translate into the civilian marketplace like Military Police or even Military Intelligence. (The latter teaches a lot of skills that can translate into other fields not to mention that a security clearance that can open a lot of doors.)     

If you do decide to pursue higher education, be serious about it. Don't do to school expecting to have a great time at parties and breezing your way to a degree. Getting a useful college degree is hard work, especially when you are working in more of the more technical areas. If you don't have a decent GPA, your job opportunities can be few and far between especially when competing with other students with 3.5+ GPAs. But it will be worth it in the long run. I found this out the hard way myself.     

I'm sure that the author's wife is very intelligent and likely performed very well in law school. But how much real use will there be for lawyers when the economy shuts down and we have to learn to make do with what we have? I can easily see how an engineer can be helpful by building or adapting machines to produce power or to make the tools that their community can value however.     

Higher education is important, but choose carefully and work hard. The skills that you learn need to be able to sustain you and your family in the future. - Tek