MORE Knowledge Empowers You … A first step for survival.
[NOTE: Not all of my posts will be about survival techniques. I simply want you to begin gathering information for that JUST IN CASE scenario.
To make it easier for you to distinguish my strange life posts from survival posts I will ad the title K.E.Y. In front of the topic which stands for Knowledge Empowers You.]
If you want to empower yourself with valuable knowledge in your quest to emulate the “MacGyver” plan for survival you need to know what resources you have around you right now.
I don’t mean what you have around your house or apartment. I mean the real resources that will make a difference. Many reading this may think that is common sense but I have learned over the years sense is not so common any longer.
Even long time “preppers” are so focused on their own status they forget to do what is suggested below.
People are your first line resource.
Your friends ( if you still have any after trying to awaken them), neighbors, relatives, acquaintances, business people. In each case, you want these people to live very near you, say within a block or two.
It’s a sad truth that in today’s society the majority of us tend to stay isolated. Trust is hard. The media at the insistence of various levels of authority, has instilled a culture of suspicion.
You might observe someone, that you know lives nearby, in the local grocery store or church but, what do you really know about them? You may have a few close friends … but do you know what they might offer in emergency situations?
If you are already relegated to the “tin-foil-hat” category in their eyes, how might they respond if what you have tried to warn them about … actually happens?
Your first step in gaining self-empowering information (in addition to the techniques you will be learning from Internet or library resources), will be learning to know your neighbors. For some of you that may be hard … the hardest thing you’ve ever done. But, if you want to maximize your ability to adapt to future challenges you will need to put on your best smile and get to know them.
If you have relatives that live within a mile you could start with them. Good practice.
Don’t talk about your ideas of what might be coming! Instead, ask them about work, hobbies, boy or girl scout training. Are they red cross trained? Do they know how to use carpentry tools? Do they have such tools? Any question that might give you knowledge about how they could associate with you and your “village” of resources.
In times of trouble, it is important to know who knows what and who has what. It is also important to know who you DON’T want involved. Don’t make the mistake of excluding someone just because of their history. For example, if you have a neighbor you know was once incarcerated for some non violent event, consider that they would have a larger experiential knowledge set for survival than most. They survived a micro-culture in a prison where innovation and social skills are greatly enhanced. Learn from them.
Gather as much knowledge about your friends and neighbors with resource skills and knowledge as well as their emotional personality. You aren’t a spy … you simply want to know elements of their lives to apply to your potential village.
For example: I have a friend who has certain medical challenges. His medical challenges are not particularly the kind of challenges that would make him a burden in an emergency situation. He has some supplies and is learning the knowledge necessary to be helpful in his neighborhood. He knows very little bout his neighbors. That needed to be rectified … he needed to get out there and meet neighbors.
Once he applied himself to meeting his neighbors within a block of his home he learned he had two police officers, a nurse, a carpenter and several doctors nearby. That is valuable to know for the potential challenging future. It is also valuable to know if they would actually be there in an emergency. Most emergency workers would be called away and might not be available at all in a large scale emergency. So it is important to know what their family ties are also. Would the family members be staying?
Why is that important?
Well, in times of great emergency, if houses are vacant there might be possible resources available for you if you made prior arrangements. For example again: Screen doors make excellent drying racks for vegetables you might have to grow. They might be taken to other locations to be with their emergency worker family member leaving lots of emergency supplies at their place… they could grant you access.
Once you have “inventoried” your neighbors and also made them aware that YOU are a good team player for the future, begin to inventory items around the neighborhood. Are there water canals? Where are they? Could you safely get to them for water? Are there fruit trees in neighborhood yards? Growing spaces? Such questions of inventory available from neighbors will decrease your need for duplicating resources on your own.
You need to begin thinking differently. Especially if you are without financial resources to quickly gather the resources that each person should have in your household.
Cooperation with your new associations will enhance your ability to weather any crisis.
In my next posting I will get specific with simple techniques to “MacGyver” things you may not even know you have in your home or nearby.
Recent Comments