Help with survival Lists?

[TyrannyUnleashed]

Here is/are my question/s,

Is there any lists' in this forum that will help me in getting started in getting prepared? If not does anyone have lists of critical items to be ready that you made? I'm not asking you to post something that may be against the rules of this forum, but I just don't want to "re-create the wheel" if I don't have to. and for lists' I am referring to all lists' of use, e.g. food, hardware, clothing, etc...

If you are willing to share, but would rather not publish here please feel free to send me an email.
Any help all of you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Mike

[jmsneorrcom]

survivalblog.com has a list of stuff in a spreadsheet format you can access

[TyrannyUnleashed]

survivalblog.com has a list of stuff in a spreadsheet format you can access

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback. I'll check it out.

Mike

[protus]

food,water ,shelter.
expand as your plan needs.

sorry. but i hate list.

[littleant]

I have always been a person who organizes better with lists. I have a notebook with lists I have made for myself of BOB contents, FAK contents, LTS on hand, etc. I keep lists of what I need to get and have prioritized those needs with approximate costs and dates. These lists help me to know where I am, see holes in my preps, and figure out what I need and plan for how to accomplish that. Everyone is different but if you are a list person then the organization helps.

The important thing to me is that my lists are customized for my family, our situation, our finances etc. No one can find the perfect handbook with ready made lists that will suit their individual situation. I pieced together my list over time. Everytime I am reminded of something I am missing or hadn't thought of before I add it to the notebook.

[barfife]

A couple of quick thoughts:

My lists are constantly changing. I do keep an inventory list reasonably up to date. Make a habit of keeping a notebook next to the computer to write down items, things to remember, web sites.

Also there are tons of free medical manuals and how to books on here and other sites. Think no doctors or dentist. Think about downloading important ones, also put a copy on zip drives to go in B.O.B.s and print out a copy, place in notebooks for personal survivlal library. Think EMP and no computers.

Think about sharing your new knowledge with other family members. The more EVERYONE knows, the better. Don't put yourself in a position where, if a person becomes incapacitated, you lose that person's knowlwdge base and skill sets.

[TyrannyUnleashed]

Thank you to everyone who replied in this thread and via email. I have received a lot of good advice and assistance. Now it's time for me to get busy. Oh and I'm sure I will have a ton more questions as I go.

Mike

[Lowdown3]

It sounds simplistic but I've rarely been caught off guard with this approach and it's a great mental exercise-

Start really thinking through the implications of the scenario your talking about. Start "wargaming" out each part of it in your mind. Follow each thing as far as you can. For example-

"Warmth" - we all need it.

This starts with shelter. OK start with your house, what can you do to make it warmer, better insulation, solar air heater, install a wood stove. Wood stove means spare chimney pipe, extra rope and firebrick, cleaning brushs and most of all firewood. Firewood means axes- splitting and cutting, chainsaws (plural) two of the same exact model, about 10 extra chains, couple dozen files, spare bar or two, sprocket and spindle, half dozen spark plugs, oil air and fuel filters, X number of gallons of fuel mix, bar and chain oil, pull start assemblies. Firewood means mauls to split or if you "ain't learnt nothing" like me :) a log splitter. Fuel for these means gas. Gas storage means PRI-G , means quality metal fuel cans at a minimum, planning for 5 years at least means upwards of 25 gallons of TREATED gas. Firewood means keeping it dry, covered and where air will flow to it, which means a decent firewood shed. Where to put it? Security implications, fire issues, bug and pest issues and lastly convenience issues. Firewood means backups- bow saws, cutting axes, files for same, cross cut saws. Moving and handling firewood means having a peavey/cant hook, etc. wheelbarrows or other means to move it -sled in snowy conditions? Couple packs of lighters, tons of matches, firestarters or would you rather try to use a bow drill INSIDE the wood stove?

Warmth means good clothings, means ECW clothing, good socks, work boots, hats and gloves X5.......

You see where I'm going with this.

I personally think their is MUCH MORE VALUE in going about it this way versus the "Happy Meal" approach- i.e, give me a list. No offense meant by that.

It's important that we go through the MENTAL EXERCISE of really wargaming out various scenarios. Drive a lot for work? Do this in your mind versus listening to the radio. Exercise the gray matter.

[610Alpha]

Excellent point LD3. I would add to this by saying get a digital voice recorder (if you have a commute) so that you can capture this "list" while you are talking through it. Its great to talk through the scenario however you want to capture these things that you need unless you have a perfect memory and never forget anything. :)

[monkeybird]

Lowdown that is a great idea. My sister and I did that in the beginning of our prepping journey, but things have changed significantly since then! It might be a fun game for us to play!

[Lowdown3]

If you think about, pretty much everything has a logistics train of some sort. Or a "backup" train.

Could you miss some stuff this way? Sure but that's possible with the Happy Meal approach also. Some things won't become evident until you are actually doing it, working with it, etc.

I remember I didn't mess with any of my comm stuff before I moved cause I didn't want to go to all the trouble of setting up antenna arrays only to have to take them down, etc. a year or so later. So pretty much all I messed with was the handheld type stuff.

So it's December 1999, a couple weeks after we moved. I'm setting up my comm area, thinking I'm Mr. Squared Away guy.... "thinking" being the key word there.... A frantic purchase of an antenna tuner later, some modifications to antennas, change of coax, etc.


So yes each way is fraught with potential problems. However we should attempt to work them out NOW, versus OJT.

For example- even an AK CAN break. The simplistic approach would be to simply have a 2nd one. And a lot of people go that route either for real or to justify more firearms purchased. However maybe the better idea would be to attend some armorer's classes, do some work on yours now, make sure the spare parts you buy WILL interchange and keep decent manuals and DVD's. While the DVD's may have limited use without power, you could reference them now.

The "easy button" answer would be to say "well it's an AK and they never break" but that's not true. Anything mechanical CAN break, AK's just break LESS :)

The other thing you can do is seek out people who are doing it and ask them things like "hey if I was going to heat my house with wood solely, what all would I need?" This way you can compare what you came up with and get some insight from those with actual experience if you do not yet have actual experience yourself.

Hope that makes sense...

[TyrannyUnleashed]

WOW,
One thing is very clear, I have a long way to go to even consider myself partly ready. I did start a few "Square foot gardens" today (I currently live in suberbia).
But, this is going to get overwhelming quickly. I don't have an unlimited source of cash, just like most everyone else (maybe).

[Matt In Oklahoma]

WOW,One thing is very clear, I have a long way to go to even consider myself partly ready. I did start a few "Square foot gardens" today (I currently live in suberbia). But, this is going to get overwhelming quickly. I don't have an unlimited source of cash, just like most everyone else (maybe).

Eat the steak one bite at a time, small steps

[Knobster]

Yup. What Matt said. Baby steps! "A journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step" and all that.

[1Admin]

WOW,
One thing is very clear, I have a long way to go to even consider myself partly ready. I did start a few "Square foot gardens" today (I currently live in suberbia).
But, this is going to get overwhelming quickly. I don't have an unlimited source of cash, just like most everyone else (maybe).

TU- it's really not a question of having "unlimited cash", I don't know anyone who does.

It's a question of TIME and most importantly WHAT YOU DO WITH IT.

If you spend a year "researching" things and not actually DOING something, well that's year you'll never get back. People- most especially those who are always acting like TS is going to HTF tomorrow, need to realize the loss of a couple bucks isn't nearly as important as the loss of TIME of which you will NEVER get back. You can always work an extra hour to make up for the $20. lost on something. Good luck getting time that's wasted back!

Their has only been a couple years in my life wherein I have made more than $30K a year. However I got started in 1986.

The problem is everyone sees pics of your solar panels, reads what you write and thinks "well that guy MUST be rich." Not at all. Just have made wise PREPAREDNESS MINDED moves my whole life. Most of these moves work out for my family on a daily basis. We don't have a mortgage on our houses and land so that's a thousand or more a month we don't have to put out. We don't have a mortgage not because of "unlimited cash" but because we did not "have to have" a 5,000 square foot McMansion for 2.5 people just to impress others. We initially built a small house and paid cash as we went. It took a couple years, but we aren't in bondage for 30. We built an addition later and did it the same way. Our AE system took years to get where it is now. Could we have went to DisneyLand with the money spent on a couple panels? Sure could have. However I wasn't -and try never to- just "live for the day." Those solar panels keep us from having an electric bill most of the year.

Lest that last paragraph make anyone think we are sitting on a mountain top on guard duty as I type this=- We have fun, we take many trips and mini vacations (hard to go away for 2 weeks when you homestead). However you won't find me saying "TS is going to HTF tomorrow" and then take the family to Disneyland while we could barely feed ourselves.

The bottom line is people need to act on their BELIEFS. If they truly believe or act like they believe bad times are coming- or here already- they should ACT on their convictions.