I am looking for some tips and info pertaining to surviving the worst. BOB's, web sites, magazines and books, as well as your personal advice. Figured I'd go to the source...you guys. Any help is appreciated.

Welcome, you came to the right place.

One thing you could do to get started is click on the 'active topics' link at the top of this page. You will find 38 pages of things we are actively discussing right now.

You can also use the the 'search' function, and whatever you put in there we've probably argued, agreed, disagreed, photographed, and quoted already.

Have fun...

The campfire is open to all have a seat and stay a while. Welcome to the forums.

Lee

Welcome aboard!

1) Determine the threats that you want to prepare for. For example, at home I plan for short (three days or less) to medium term (between three days and three weeks) loss of utilities. In the car, I plan for being stranded (perhaps in a snow drift) for three days. On the commuter rail I plan for an unexpected overnight if the train breaks down or there's some other kind of transportation disruption. In addition to the gear I carry on the commuter rail, I also have some extra food and clothes stashed at the office if I get stuck there.

2) Figure out what skills you'll need, and find ways to get them. If you want to learn about wild edibles, for example, Blast teaches a class in his area that gets rave reviews. There are some great first aid classes from the basic to the very advanced. Several schools teach wilderness survival skills as well.

3) Make a plan. Written emergency procedures and information can really make a big difference; if you're not home when the emergency occurs, your loved ones will know what to do. If you are home chances are that you'll be pretty frazzled and forget something important; with a procedure and a checklist you reduce that chance.

4) Get your gear together. Once you know your threats and have the appropriate skills and plans, putting your gear together should be a snap. Many people make the mistake of starting with gear and then moving on to the other things. The best survival kit in the world is useless if you don't know what's in it or how to use its components. With that said, for your situation it might be relatively obvious that it's a good idea to have extra water and food, so by all means you can start working on those sorts of things while working on the other parts.

Most important is a prepared mindset. Complacency kills.

Welcome to ETS, ruReady!

You'll find a great group here. The folks here are willing to share their experiences and wisdom, as well looking forward to learning from you. There's a lot to learn and figure out and most of us find it an ongoing process. Pull up a stool by the campfire and stay a while!

I assume you have been exploring the information that Doug Ritter put up at http://www.equipped.org/? I think it's a very good starting point.

This is a good forum, because people are civil, level-headed, and informative. Most people here know a lot more than I do about preparation. But let me try to make myself useful on one point. Many people feel quite urgently about the *necessity* of preparation, but I think the degree of preparation is really up to the individual, though you may encounter strong opinions ("you are a fool if you don't prepare for this particular type of disaster!"), probably elsewhere more often than here. So for someone starting out I'd point out that preparation is like insurance or other risk management techniques. You assess your risks. You look at your monthly budget. You figure out how much being prepared for Disaster X or Situation Y is worth to you. Then you budget for preparation, and invest your budgeted money wisely in equipment and training. Don't let people browbeat you into thinking that you must prepare for floods if you live in a desert.

The other thing is that some people will get caught up in the gadgets. Yes, I'm one of those. I like my gadgets. I have more than is necessary for survival needs. I have more flashlights, knives, etc. than I'll actually need in an emergency. For some people this part is kind of a hobby: boys and their toys. As long as you recognize this, you can buy all the gadgets you want and share them with us.

Thanks to all who have responded...I feel welcome and comfortble already. I am going to spen some time reading thru the forum. if I have questions I will be sure to ask. Again a big thanks to everyone.

I'm probably nowhere near as prepared as others here, but something that I've found that helps me is to keep a notebook (or folder on your computer) where I keep track of new things I learn, things I want to learn, advice, etc. When you start reading through all of the helpful websites, it's sometimes easy to find yourself following the links into a huge variety of subjects. So I literally take notes, so I can know what subjects I want/need to revisit. Also, your printer is your friend! When I first started into 'preparedness', the first thing I did was make copies of all my important documents. Then I printed out a bunch of different information about purifying water. I keep everything organized on my computer, but hard copies are important so for that everything is in a 3-ring binder, so that I can add to it as I go.

Also, it's easy to get overwhelmed! So I second Chaosmagnet's advice of deciding what and how long you are preparing for. I think preparing for 3 days worth of power outage is a great start.

I'm no expert. But the people here are friendly and willing to share advice. You picked a good place to learn. Welcome to ETS.

Welcome to the forum. Make sure to read the rules. There are a few things we don't discuss on here. Otherwise prepare for some serious knowledge dump. Ask away if nothings clear

RuReady:

Welcome to the forum.

Ask away any questions you have, even if we have discused it and you missed that fact in your searches, people are always helpful in pointing you in the right direction.

Welcome to the Forum!! After you have done a Risk/Threat Assessment, There are checklist that can be found through the SEARCH Function that will further assist you with your preparations.

ruReady - Welcome to the Forum!! When you are doing your searches and getting the info, feel free to copy and paste the info for your reference. You will notice that you will initially gather tons of info. As you are doing this you will automatically start making categories in your mind. Separate it out into the categories. If you do post anything that you borrowed just give credit the author and the site as a courtesy.

When you run into a snag, let us know. We will probably not mind reviving the topic too much. New info always comes to light.

Again, welcome to the Forum.

Thats a great point. I had a spare Flight Crew Checklist Binder, plastic, very malleable 3 ring binder of clear plastic sheet protectors. When I print something out like homemade washing detergent, triage, knots, maps, etc, I just tuck into the sleeve and go. Easy to update and change up.

Welcome

As for taking notes: I've just started using the online service "evernote" (evernote.com). It's free, it's simple and it works.

Apart from that, I juggle down some things in my paper notebook and other things on my phone (plain old "dumb" phone with a note application - I can display any of those notes on the screen for easy reference if I want to).

What I use depends on the application. For long time reference (information you might need at some distant future), nothing beats an online, searchable service. All memorable survival tips, tricks and hints would go there. For things such as shopping lists or juggling down an adress I use my plain old paper notebook. For things I really should remenber (pick up X at location Y) I use my phone and display that on my screen.

Life became easier when I systematically stopped using my brain as a combined storage facility, calendar and task manager (i use todist.com for that!). My brain works best when I don't add the stress of all those details I really MUST remember. Writing it down (on the web, on my phone or on paper) is a great relief - I can consentrate on productive things instead of going "Oh, I SHOULD have remembered that" or "I MUST NOT forget this" every 10th minutes. It really breaks consentration, workflow and adds stress.

Your brain is for thinking, not a mediocre task manager/file cabinet.

For reading material, check out Cody Lundin's book 98.6 Degrees. It does a great job of covering thebasics of what you need to survive. I found it a great help when I got started. "When All Hell Breaks Loose" is very good too.

http://www.codylundin.com/degrees.html

Agreed. 98.6 Degrees is well-written and very helpful. I don't know of a single better book to start learning about prepping and survival.

Related link for beginners - ETS

I've probably bought and given away a dozen of 98.6 degrees to friends and family. Easy entry into preparedness and lots of details.

My survival kit is based on his 98.6 design but it also goes into a larger backpack I carry everywhere with me.

My advice for a newcomer: relax a little and don't freak out about every possible threat. Just plan for the realistic possibilities. It's probably not worth blowing the kids' college funds and taking out a second mortgage to build a radiation-hardened bunker.

Also, don't compromise and buy junk gear. If you buy a junk $20 knife, you'll still want that $150 knife and eventually buy it too. Either skip the $20 knife step and go right to the $150 knife or pick the best quality $20 knife and live with it.