Start Here

If this is your first time to the site then please read the Welcome Page.

Feel you are the only one concerned about the future? Read Am I Alone?

This site will help you generate Shopping Lists and To Do Lists from your specific set of risks and concerns. The Get Started Here page, also available via the Toolbar, will walk you through it.

The Forum will help you discuss your issues, learn about how others and tailor your preperations for your situation.

How we need to prepare


Categories

What Reference Material do you need?

Building up a reference library for an unknown event is not easy. Nor knowing what is going to happen means that you have to cater for everything that you consider likely. This expands the type and number of reference material that you want but as we are looking at dropping back 200 years in time it doesn’t make that big a difference except for the Nuclear Biological Chemical stuff where you have to make preparations to cover invisible killers.

Myself, I have an extensive collection of books in soft copy as well as magazine articles and writings not available in book form such as reference material from the web and magazines. I download these documents, usually convert it to a Word like document or PDF and store it on the computer. So I have a hard drive with almost everything I can find on it, currently just under 2Tb.

My main reference though is my books. I like books so I try to buy as many books as I can on subjects that I believe are relevant. Books on rearing animals, books on sanitation and plumbing as well as books on any other subject I think we may need and can make with tools we will have available. In addition to these books I also have story books and educational books to make things a little interesting.

I also have generated a set of folders containing print outs regarding various subjects. Reference details like Morse Code, First Aid, how to set up my UV3R as well as how to build a wooden 100W wind generator. A mixture of many diverse things I think that may come in useful and I don’t want to take the chance the computer doesn’t work. These print outs are from the soft copy books as well as magazine articles. I also include instruction manuals for my equipment as well. Just in case.

I have so many folders that I sort them. Specific stuff like medical articles, Bee keeping, etc. I have stored in separate folders. Each folder is a specific topic. General information I have put into two folders, to have a spare so that I have a backup and someone else can look at it at the same time. This set of folders contains quick reference material such as how to filter water, basic navigation and basic survival reference material.

In addition to that I have a Prepper folder. This contains reference material from magazines of the files that I need to read before an event. Things like lists of barter items, food lists, medical lists as well as advice on how to store them, set up comms networks and how to survive the actual event. Things that are no use after an event but of great help preparing for it and also for introducing others to prepping.

Finally, I have some laminated sheets. Basic stuff like Morse Code, The Alphabet list, radio frequencies as well as instructions for the family during and after an event. I have agreed codewords with them and a process to follow involving picking up the children, last minute shopping, sealing the house and unpacking and prepping the equipment. Prioritised checklists so nothing is forgotten.

Again, this documentation takes up a lot of space. It is 8 large ring binders and three 2Tb USB drives, not including backups of the drive archived in the EMP cage. Space is one thing that every prepper is short of.

So prior to an event, I read and work on the items in the Prepping folder. I add new found data to the drive, printing off any key information and putting in the relevant folder and I review and revise, if necessary, my prioritised checklists every time something changes or I find some new information from my reading which makes me want to change it.

It sounds a lot of work but it isn’t. I’ve been doing it for years and it has built up over time. I sometimes question the benefit of the folders in case I have to bug out as they are too heavy to take with us. I sometimes question the time spent on the computer files as they need a computer and power. I justify both by thinking about the information that will be available to our community after an event. Information that is going to be of great benefit in making out lives easier as well as potentially saving our lives.

Information is power.

15 comments to What Reference Material do you need?

  • webbo

    one book ive downloaded is the Stephens book of the farm
    written in the 1840s it is a great reference work for all matters agricultural

  • Kenneth Eames

    Thank you for this SD, You are well organised. I keep a great deal of material similar to this but about half of mine is Medical, herbal and homoeopathic. I also have small amounts of Spagyric medicine, Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic. A great deal of material on animals and their medical needs. Apart from this a great deal of other material on soap making, arts and crafts, etc., etc.I shall continue adding until I finally peg out. Kenneth Eames.

  • Kenneth Eames

    Webbo, Where can I find this to download. There are many old books out there that are worth downloading. Today people pay no attention to them because they think that the methods used are outdated. When a situation arises, the bagged composts and weed-killers will not be available, and so we will have to return to the old ways. Download such books as these whilst we are able. Kenneth Eames.

  • Grumpy Grandpa

    Ken, found it here. Hope you have better luck than I’m having – my connection keeps failing part way through the download! Will persevere though, it looks worth it…

  • Grumpy Grandpa

    Ken, patience payed off in the end but it seems that what I found was only volume two of a three volume book. Lots of value though and I’ll search for the rest but it may not have made to the digital world…

  • Kenneth Eames

    GG, thank you for this. I’m certainly looking forward to reading this. Some of these old books have a great deal of valuable information in them. I had a book a long time ago entitled ‘Irish Folkways’ and they used to use ‘breast ploughs’, they were wooden handled with a cross bar at the top. You pushed the plough with your breast. It must have been a hard job. No good for weaklings. Kenneth Eames.

  • Skean Dhude

    It’s a BBC book hosted on Google DE and can’t be downloaded. I can’t read the buttons they are in foreign. Anyone got a soft copy?

  • fred

    Das Kapital?

  • Grumpy Grandpa

    SD, it downloaded for me (although I had a problem with my connection going down several times!) I clicked on ‘Read it here’ and followed. Here’s where it lead me:

    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=i-gDAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

    Select the button at the top right (a cog symbol, whatever that means,) then ‘Download PDF’.

    As I said, it is only volume 2 of a 3 volume set but it looks very useful nonetheless…

  • Skean Dhude

    Thanks GG. I found it but as it was in foreign I didn’t want to just click around. That is a strange symbol meaning Download in foreign.

  • Grumpy Grandpa

    It’s all a bit odd! That link takes me to an all English page…

  • WongFeiFox

    If you really have a bug for these books,

    http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=10611425820&searchurl=sortby%3D1%26amp%3Btn%3Dthe%2Bbook%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bfarm%26amp%3Bx%3D40%26amp%3By%3D9

    can’t see it being worth the price, might just stick to my odwnload for now

  • Dan

    Hi all the guys at sigma 3 survival have been good enough to upload hundreds of survival, military and medical manuals covering all sorts of subjects hop it helps out
    http://www.survivalschool.us/survival-info/