No matter the situation and no matter how well prepared you are, there will always be something in a survival moment that surprises you, something you missed or something that did not work as planned or something you though you were prepared for, but are not.

Reducing those situations as much as possible is the goal of any prepared survivor, but the areas we most often overlook are Food, Self-Defense and First Aid.

On Staying Fed

There are three main types of strategies for staying fed.

1. Food Storage
2. Food Production
3. Food Preservation

We believe that Food Storage, specifically Freeze Dried Food Storage, is the first priority for you as a prepper. There are some great Freeze Dried Food companies out there that sell great tasting food that you can just stuff away and not have to worry about rotating out or having your food go bad. We review many of these companies, and strategies for getting the most out of these foods.

We believe you should have at least 1 million store-able calories of food per member of your family, and that acquiring this food supply is your first priority. 1 million calories per person is enough calories to feed an adult for one year very well.

But What If The Crisis Is Longer Then 1 Year?

Some experts believe that there are certain crisis that could last for nearly a decade before society is able to recover. I am admittedly no expert on predicting when this societal collapse will occur or for how long it will last, however an EMP over the heartland of America could cripple us for decades, whereas a financial collapse may only injure us for a couple years.

If we do run into a situation where we are needing to use up our year-food supply, then sustainable gardening and farming skills are something you need to start learning about now, as the learning curve is too steep to learn in a single year.

My personal belief is that raising chickens or some other form of easy-to-raise livestock needs to be at the foundation of your long term food production plan. If raised correctly an animal like a chicken can be a major fertility booster for your soils. But what do you feed them? What crops will sustain them through winter? What about breeding for meat? These are all questions that I’m learning too, and share with you amongst the pages and articles of this site.

You Need To Discover Your Local Food Production Constraints

Certain climates like the one I live in (the Pacific/Maritime Northwest) are not able to grow good vegetable gardens without fertilizer. Stocking fertilizer is an option but learning to grow your own organic fertilizers is something I’m actively doing and show you how to do as well. Did you know there are plants that can be grown that act like fertilizer? We bring you the experts that show you how to find, grow and apply them yourself.

My climate also doesn’t get any rain in our growing season, and attempts at drilling a well have failed… so I’ve had to become an expert at Rainwater Harvesting. We share several creative solutions on how you can harvest rainwater to not only irrigate your gardens and orchards, but also provide clean drinking water.

There’s just one problem with all this long term food production stuff…

You Need To Know How To Defend Yourself, Possibly Even Attack

There are wonderful training schools that teach firearms training, and weapons manipulation. But one area where my brother and I realized we wanted to get better at was tactical shooting, fighting in buddy teams and night vision training. There’s a reason why our troops with PTSD dream in Night-Vision-Green… hunting humans at O-Dark-Thirty was the most effective way to eliminate the threat.

Lots of firearms instructors don’t teach this stuff to civilians, because it’s the kinds of things that military and SWAT are responsible for, not citizens. But if there ever comes a day when those guys aren’t around to help me solve a problem where a buddy and I need to execute tactics to save our families, I feel it’s my duty to not only learn those things myself, but share as much as I can about my learning process with you as well.

The Often Ignored: Medical Preparedness Plan

Emergency medical skills are not something that Dave and I are experts on, but we have a series of experts lined up for you from Herbal Medicine Gurus to Battle Field Medics to Medical Doctors whose goal is to show you what medicines, medical gear, and equipment you’ll be most likely to need if there is no doctor available.

Stuff like how to stave off infection, how to treat a burn, suture a wound, or remedies to bring comfort in a world where there is no ibuprofen. Many of these off-the-grid solutions are currently available under sud0-names without a prescription.

As a rule, no matter how much you practice your bug-out or survival skills / plan, you will discover something you overlooked.

If you do not practice, you will have many of those moments, no matter how well prepared you think you are.

For other tips on survival as well as materials to help you be as prepared as possible, please visit The Prepper Project.