This section will help you prepare for your own risky situations. It will provide tools that will enable you to evaluate your risks, prioritise them, plan a solution and provide a prioritised Shopping and To Do List.
By choosing to do this you are already thinking with a survivors mindset. You have decided that you are going to fight and struggle to live whilst others will wait for the government or others to come and save them. Everything you learn from this and other sites will help you live and everything you put aside as contingency will improve your chances and make your lives easier. Start here and start now. Every step will improve your chances and improve the results.
Start by reading Northern Raiders Family Prepping Guide and then downloading the Get Started Spreadsheet. This will enable you to list your risks into the Risk Register and advise you on how to identify their priority. An example list of risks is available here to give you examples and potential mitigation for those risks. Bear in mind that your situation will be different, you may live in a valley overlooked by a dam, you may live next to an Army base. Ensure that you include your own risks and consider their priorities.
Identify what you have already by creating an Inventory List which will itemise everything you have. Check each item is fit for purpose and viable.
With each risk should be a list of mitigating actions. Most of these actions are generic such as a Bunker Down Kit. There are, or will be, separate lists available for what we think should be in each kit available on the Kit Shopping List Download Page. Download and open the appropriate spreadsheet, cut and paste the lists in there into your Shopping List and add any other items you think you would need. If you do add something then let us know so we can consider adding it to the main list as an option. You can see the methodology behind the lists in the articles ‘Identify what you need to put aside‘. If you add the items from the top to the bottom, deleting lower duplicates, then your shopping list will automatically be prioritised. Now you may already have many of the items identified. Compare the Inventory List and adjust the Shopping List as necessary, If you have 2,000 gallons of water stored already and your plan requires 1,000 gallons then you don’t need water on your Shopping List. Spend your money wisely and remember that it is not all about getting more for less.
Its not all about shopping though. There are tasks you need to do as well. You need to learn skills, gather information and prepare yourself as well. Identify where you are by updating a Skills Matrix for everyone in your group. Then using this list and the To Do Lists from the downloads update the To Do List with the tasks you need to do. Again, ignore duplicates on an individual basis and again these should be prioritised automatically if you add them in the order of your risks. If you think of something we are missing, then let us know so we can consider adding it. Gathering information in the Information Age is easy. Download as many books as you can find. There are several torrents available full of survival books. Download them all. Make sure though that you have paper books though for the critical things. Access to computers may not be possible so you cannot count on that. Here is my list of recommended paper books to acquire for your library. Read your books, identify tasks and tools that you could buy now and store while you can. For example: Syringes and needles for medical use, valves for gas and water, hacksaw blades. They are easy to get now, relatively cheap and think how difficult it will be to make them in a survival situation.
Now you have a populated To Do List and a Shopping List. Simply start at the top, do what you have the time and finances to do and simply reduce the list as quickly as you can. It may appear to be a daunting task due to the size and costs involved but it needs to be done. You have decided to do it because you believe you need to prepare for events that you think could happen to you.
Remember that ‘The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step’. – Lao Tzu.
Soon you will have have a stock of goods and tools that will help you become more self sufficient. You will gain skills that will save you paying tradesmen to do tasks you can do yourself. You will also need to get into the regime of rotating your stores religiously. Ensure the older stock is brought to the front whilst the new purchases are stored safely. This needs to become a habit.
You also need to test your plans and fine tune them. Test them on paper first and by doing dry runs but you must ensure you do real tests to validate all your assumptions. You can stress test your preparedness using the simple tests here.
The tools here will help you identify your risks and enable you to build your lists to mitigate them. The other part of this site, the posts, will provide other people life experiences and opinions. For example, everyone has a different view on what should be in a personal First Aid Kit or Bug Out Bag. There are several good Survival and Self Reliance based sites out there, read those as well. You can use the published posts to identify new risks, identify new mitigation’s or amend mitigation’s and provide information for you to modify your Shopping List and/or your To Do List. If you come across something that other have missed or have not fully considered then share it. We need to help each other, not hoard this information. Write a post about your experiences or at the very least leave a comment. Each page on this site may change so that it holds the latest information. So check them when you review your risks.
There is also a Forum where you can ask questions and get involved in discussions on survival, prepping and self sufficiency.
In addition using this site, the Forum and the Contact Database you can communicate with like minded people. Use their knowledge to build your own, share what you have. It is an interesting community.
But, you can’t just stop there. You need to revisit your risks every few months or when your situation or society changes and rebuild your shopping and To Do lists. You might move or a new chemical factory is built upwind, you may have a child or a new partner. All these should trigger a revisit to your risks and perhaps change your To Do lists.
It may seem a lot of work, effort and cost but think of it like house insurance. You don’t really want it but in the event something happens it helps you get back on your feet. In some of these situations it could save you and your families lives.
Finally, hope and pray that you never have to use your plans. It may sound exciting and adventurous but it won’t be. I can assure you.