Most folks who begin their survival prepper plans focus on what they have likely lived through before – things which were short term weather events that took out the power or even the pandemic, where supply chains were temporarily interrupted.
But most people have not lived through a severe, long term survival situation. Therefore, their focus is on the short, 72 hours bug out bag measures or stocking enough food and supplies to last them one or two weeks.
Their hope is that everything will return to normal within this amount of time. But what if it didn’t? What if you did not have electricity for more than a month or even several years?
What if you couldn’t just drive to the store any longer to get supplies? Not only do you have to consider what you would do in these situations, but you have to be mindful of what others might do so that you can protect both your family and your supplies from desperate people turning feral and coming to you intending to rob your supplies.
In this article we are going to teach you about a long-term survival plan to guide you and help you making the right decisions about what you want to stock up on, how to manage those resources, what you’ll do for power and security if an emergency lasts a lot longer than anyone expected, and more.
Survival is about all types of preparedness – from a few hours to the rest of your life. It might be a road blocked due to a flood in a short-term event, or worse – global war or economic collapse in a long one.
Instead of just having supplies, you have to have a plan for renewable resources. The last thing you want to have happen is that you run out of supplies and are forced to seek out more from somewhere else.
You Need to Learn How to Manage Resources for a Long-Term Survival Situation
One of the first things you want to consider when you are planning for long term survival events is the management of your resources. In addition to stocking up on as much of the supplies you want, you should also think about how you are going to manage everything to make it last and what you’ll do after it is all used up.
You also want to make sure that your supplies are properly stored so that they will last longer than normal. Start by getting foods that have a long shelf life, but that also provides you with the nutrients that you need, including enough calories.
| In case you are concerned about the nutritional quality of food from cans we can reassure you – we have some great news: canned foods are an effective way to add more nutrients to your diet. |
| Researchers explored the association between canned food consumption and nutrient intake in children and adults. The scientists analyzed data on people who had high canned food consumption (more than six canned items per week), average consumption (3-5 canned items per week), and low consumption (less than two cans per week). |
| People who ate six or more canned items per week had higher intakes of 17 essential nutrients — including Vitamins A and C, potassium, and fiber — than those who ate two or fewer cans per week. |
| The scientists in this study do not advocate replacing fresh fruits and vegetables with canned alternatives. Instead, they highlight the potential benefits of incorporating canned foods into a balanced diet. So, if your budget doesn’t afford as many fresh options, that doesn’t mean you still can’t eat healthily. |
| Adding canned options — whether beans, fruits, vegetables, or proteins such as tuna or salmon — can provide a convenient and cost-effective way to boost your nutrient intake. In general, look for canned foods that are lower in sodium and added sugars, and opt for varieties packed in water or their own juices rather than heavy syrups or oils.
You want to have a variety of vegetables, fruits, beans, and meat in different formats, whether they are canned, freeze dried, smoked, etc. If you store everything properly, you can get more life out of the supplies that you are stocking up on. |
Keep in mind that in a long-term survival situation, you may begin to deteriorate in terms of the vitamins and minerals that your body has, so supplements will be an important part of your long-term survival strategy.
Make sure you keep tabs on your supplies and rotate your stock so that it is used before the expiration date. Even with good supply management, you will eventually run out of all of your resources if the survival situation goes on long enough.
Therefore, part of your plan needs to be renewable, such as growing your own food where you have a garden that can provide you with produce as well as an orchard with fruit trees or berry bushes.
For gardening purposes, make sure you have heirloom seeds so that you can save them and regrow your produce. You also want to have a way to get protein, so you’ll need chickens that can provide you with eggs or meat, or fish in a pond on your property.
You can also raise animals for meat, milk and other resources like wool and fibers. This will require more room on your property, and skills that will allow you to properly care for them.
In addition to food, think about water. You will eventually run out of water that you’ve stocked up on as well as water purification tablets or straws, so think about how you’re going to collect rainwater or get it from other sources and make it drinkable from that point on through boiling or solar distillation.
You also need to think about renewable energy options. If the grid doesn’t come back up quickly (or ever), and there’s nowhere to get gasoline, you need to have alternative options.
These can include solar or wind power. Solar is the most popular option (and more reliable than wind) and you have everything from small solar gadgets that charge your phone to large, full-home solar panels with storage for backup electricity.
If you do live in a location where a wind turbine makes sense, you can use that, but the maintenance will be more than what’s required for a solar panel setup. There are other, more complicated options like hydropower (water power) or biomass energy (from the breakdown of organic materials), but these won’t be a viable solution for most new preppers.
What Are The Skills You’ll Want to Have for Lengthy Survival Events?
You have to have certain skills for long-term survival that you may not have to worry about in a short-term situation. In a short-term situation, you can simply wait out the emergency so that you can get the services that you need.
But with a longer survival event, you may have to have things like first aid skills in order to ensure the safety and well-being of your loved ones. This could include how to handle wounds and infections, or life-threatening medical emergencies.
Don’t forget that you will also need to know certain dental skills for situations that can be painful or even dangerous in terms of infection. Having knowledge about herbal medicine will be important if you are unable to get access to medications from a pharmacy.
You need to know which plants have certain properties that can help with things like burns, pain relief, and more. This is going to be beneficial for those who also have chronic health issues and who need alternative treatments when traditional medications are unavailable.
You’ll also need to learn repair skills so that you can take care of everything from mending or creating clothes and cars to fixing up your home, furniture, and more. Make sure you understand how to use all of the various tools you will need, and what kind of materials you can gather in your geographic location to help you.
Farming is another skill that you’re going to have to understand. You need to know how to make the soil viable, proper planting, watering, fertilization and harvesting of crops, etc.
If you’re raising animals, then you’ll need caretaking skills for their shelter, nutrition and health issues – but also how to process animals for meat, and how to make sure you aren’t injured while caring for the animal.
Why Community Is Important in On-Going Survival Situations
While it may be okay to hunker down in your home and avoid any contact with other individuals during a short-term survival emergency, if the event lasts months or years, you will want to build a community that can help each other with resources.
You want to network with others in your geographical location, and without revealing what supplies you have, get people to pool their skills and certain resources to border with one another and help each other achieve a better lifestyle.
In some situations, you may have events where everyone gets together and barters or trades for food, medicine, tools, and even skills that provide what other neighbors nearby are looking for.
You’ll definitely need to have some sort of conflict resolution in place so that there are no problems arising in the community. Have a way for everyone to vote and make sure their voice is heard so that everyone is working together to get through the situation.
Security Measures Are Vital When Survival Events Last
Your safety and Security is another area that you will need to consider if a long-term survival event unfolds. If it’s a short-term event, even though everything may disappear off store shelves, desperate people aren’t likely to break into your home and steal supplies.
However, as time goes on and people begin running out of their own supplies, they will be more likely to take any measures necessary to survive, which means breaking and entering into your property to take the supplies you have for their own family.
You may be in the type of survival situation where calling the police is simply no longer an option. Therefore, you need to have a perimeter that repels people from breaking in on your property, and then have barriers in place to keep them outside of your living quarters.
Be proactive with your defense options – from building a safe room to protect your family to making sure everyone knows how to handle weapons for self-defense and engage in martial arts is a good first step.
Don’t just learn one form of self-defense, either. Even with firearms, you will eventually run out of bullets and it will no longer be a sensible option. Not only do you want to have a good plan in place for all of these issues, but you have to know what your alternative methods will be, too.
You may want to get a good quality bow or crossbow and learn to use it effectively for example. A high-quality compound hunting bow can also be a effective weapon for self-defense in a long term survival scenario when firearms are no longer usable or everyone has run out of ammunition.
Now that you know about creating a Long Term Survival Plan, let’s bring it all together in our next chapter with report 35 in our Survival Prepping 101 Series – Why You Need to Work on Cultivating a Resilient Mindset.
If you missed the last installment of our series, you can study it by clicking on the following link: Survival Prepping 101 Series Part 33: Practice The Art of Improvising and Adapting for Survival