By now it is highly likely that you’ve lived through a short-term situation where you may have not been able to get access to services or goods that you need immediately. It might be something as small as food wiped off the shelves before a winter storm hits.
Or it may have been something more serious like a tornado or hurricane that resulted in a lack of services for a limited period of time – including police and fire that were overwhelmed, medical services that were backlogged or even schools shut down.
Now think of what could happen if you experienced a major, long-term survival situation. This could cause a serious problem if you’re not prepared with the skills necessary to provide for yourself.
Fending for yourself might sound intimidating, but learning what to prepare for in this regard can give you peace of mind. It also gives you an added layer of bartering ability beyond basic supplies.
You May Need to Rely on Yourself for Medical Care
The first thing you may need in an emergency is medical help. You might end up in a situation where you can’t just head to the doctor or hospital or even buy the medications you need for an injury or illness.
We are heavily reliant on these conveniences, not realizing that our access might be limited. Just look at how limited things were during the pandemic. Some doctors offered drive up services or telecommunications for visitors, but others didn’t – and the supply chain was heavily compromised for medications, too. By the way – those shortages have continued to plague us – depending on where you live there were shortages on painkillers, cold and flu medication for children – basic meds you would expect to get at your local pharmacy.
You need to start out by stocking up on supplies you may need to treat medical issues. That includes first aid kits and supplementary products to last a long time. Make sure you have ample bandages, pain relievers and prescription medications, too.
Not only do you need traditional medications, but natural herbal solutions, too. Because eventually, your supplies may run out if you’re in a drastic, long-term survival event. You need to know how to grow, harvest and use things like aloe vera, chamomile, ginger and other local plants.
You also need the basic skills to go along with the supplies. You need to know how to dress a wound or set a splint. You may need to know more drastic medical procedures, like the Heimlich maneuver or CPR.
The best way to get you started on learning this skillset is to buy our Ultimate Preppers Guide for Survival First Aid Book.
You May Not Be Able to Rely on an Existing Food Supply Chain
Right now, you may be used to stopping by the grocery store whenever you need food or driving through a fast-food place – or even planning a nice dinner at a restaurant. But that doesn’t mean you’ll always have immediate access to these things.
We saw this happen during the pandemic, too – restaurants shut down and food supplies were diminished greatly. What if something worse happened? Would you be prepared?
Right now, you have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and grains. You don’t have to worry about how you’ll feed your family. However – you’ll need a variety of skills to tide you over if you’re in a major survival situation.
Those include hunting and fishing, foraging for food and gardening to grow your own produce, too. This isn’t something you want to wait to learn. You need to get started right now on this so that the transition from store to self-sufficiency is seamless.
We recommend you get our Ultimate Prepper Guide for Survival Gardening so you can get those vital skills to feed yourself and your family independently.
Don’t forget that in some survival events, the water supply might be compromised. If the grid goes down and water can’t be purified and delivered to your tap, you might need to have this skill yourself.
What if You Have to Make All Repairs on Your Own?
Something that you may not have considered because you rarely need it on a daily basis is learning skills for repairs. This can have a wide range of uses. These skills are things that may take time for you to learn, but it will be well worth it.
Start by learning basic carpentry skills. This might be needed if you have to build or repair something on your homestead. Not only do you need to know the skills, but you have to understand how to use hand tools and how to prevent injuries.
Carpentry can help you build shelters but you need to know how to measure, cut and assemble the wood. You might need to repair some sort of plumbing issue in your home, too.
Simply knowing how to unclog a drain or fix a leaky faucet can be helpful, but you might be dealing with something more daunting, like repairing a busted pipe that threatens to flood your home.
Electrical repairs may need to be made if your grid is still operational. You need to know about circuit breakers, blown fuses and even rewiring loose connections. This isn’t something you can learn haphazardly.
It’s a dangerous skill, so it requires you to be careful. You also need to learn car repairs for survival purposes. Everything from changing the brakes or battery to changing the oil are things you can easily learn how to do on your own.
The Education of Your Children Will Be Up to You
You may already homeschool your children, but if not, keep in mind that you may not have access to the educational system if a major survival event unfolds. During the pandemic, schools shut down for a time, and many switched to online education – but what if the grid were down for long periods, too?
You don’t want your children to lose precious time in learning, so you want to have the skills to teach your children age-appropriate lessons. Luckily, there are a lot of good quality homeschool resources already available that you can source and have ready for such an emergency event.
Homeschooling is a skill you can be ready for early on – in terms of knowledge and supplies. You can invest in educational materials such as full courses or individual learning sheets that are digital downloads you can print or purchase for your home right now and be prepared.
Keep in mind that you need to think ahead, too. If you have a child in elementary school, you don’t know how long the survival event will go on, so you need to plan for middle and high school, too.
Be Aware That Your Family’s Safety May Rest on Your Shoulders
Other vital services you may not have access to are police, firefighters or security. Whether you’re out in public or hunkered down at home, there may be no one available to come to your rescue if and when you need them.
You have to be readily able to protect yourself, your family and your property on your own. Consider the various roles these services play and learn the important skills associated with each of them.
Learn self-defense techniques – which means more than fortifying your residence. You want to know how to handle things if you’re ever confronted, such as how to disarm an attacker or escape a threatening situation.
You can sign up for classes or take a training course online that teaches you how to navigate perilous situations. You do also need to understand the security measures of fortifying your home, too – because you won’t be able to call your security service to come check the perimeter of your property.
Although this might be a huge burden and stress to have this type of responsibility for repairs, supplies and safety on your shoulders – once you’re aware of what could happen and you begin planning and training regularly for the worst-case scenario, you’ll gain peace of mind that you can handle any challenge that comes your way.
Now that you have learned about the essential skills you need to rely yourself on it is time to move to the next chapter in our Survival Prepping 101 series – Part 32: Why You Need to Have a Bartering Plan for a Cash Compromised World.
If you missed the previous report you can access it through this link – Part 30: How to Prepare for Non-Weather Survival Situations.