Me and some friends got kicked out of the hotel lobby and are now watching Doomsday Preppers. Watch a joke.

yes, they have some good ideas. But, they are missing the most important thing. When prepping you have to make sure you have things no one can take away from you - Skills and fitness.

A fat man with tons of food is easily robbed of his goods by me.

You will have to move in the apocalypse. Can you bring enough supplies for the rest of your life with you? No.

I am not saying don't stock up. I am saying spend as much effort preparing your body and mind. They can't take your fitness and skills away without getting through your fitness and skills. Fitness is not just physical, it is mental as well.

A good library of books on foraging, gardening, hunting/fishing and natural medicine will do more for you than a bucket of crappy freeze dried foods. Adding some exercise and combat training, you are good to go.

But, the fact is, you will probably just need your food and water supplies. i say this because I don't think a total social break down is going to happen in our life. Our biggest concern should be a Katrina event.

Semper Fi,
Warren

This is why I love the internet I have gained so much knowledge and new skill sets from it.

Practice what you've learned.

Oh I do of course the fact that it is 30 below tonight puts a kabosh on anything lol so I am taste testing another skill I learned on the internet, beer brewing.

It's wise to prep for the most likely scenarios first, usually weather related events. Then continue improving your preps for other possible scenarios. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

walked up and down through some woods for about 5 hours yesterday. found out my knee started bothering me when going up hills. would've never known but it definitely slowed me down so now I'm going to add some sort of knee support to my gear.

trying to bug out won't get you far if body parts bug out on you first.

Cool post JJ. Fitness is something not looked at enough imo. My cardio is weaker than I want right now, but I could make some good time on a 3 mile run and that's a decent base I guess.

Some of the common sense stuff reminds me of something Jeff Randall wrote on BF moons ago- was something like "people buy the newest AR or 1000 rounds but don't have a water filter"

On my short list now are one of those survival seed packet buckets and a book on gardening...

I have always been a maniac for fitness and martial arts. One of the things Architect mentioned in one of his threads is calorie restriction, so I have tried it a few times...it sucks. Think 1200 kcals a day for a few days. I could barely make it through one. I remember reading a book on elite competative wrestlers and they all mention "making weight" was the most intense form of mental toughness.

Prepping for different situations are a good idea. We have so many different situations that one can not prep totally for one and not another. I guess a person has to take a long look at the things going on around them and figure out what is most important. Being that I am from OK and my roots have been here for a few generations our biggest threat is weather, then again we had the Murrah Bombing in 1995, that showed us that the midwest is vulnerable. I know that I am not happy with my preps but do what I can, and to be honest will never be truly happy with my preps. Time will tell, hopefully we will never have to use our skills to survive--I like indoor plumbing,heated house in winter, cool house in the summer, running water, a roof over my head, being able to go into the tore and get supplies without having to toil for it, but what we can call "fun" or a "hobby" is in reality a prep. Making it through a breakdown will be something in itself, but having a skill that you can trade for other items/services will be important too--think about how many people can work on a motor, farm or ranch on a scale needed to support a family, mechanically inclined, those who can actually make something work.......see what I am getting at?

i picked this two book collection a while back at Barnes and Noble when they were on sale. I read some of it and plan to read more, but mostly I got them for a reference library. Some pretty basic stuff on living off the land that has been lost by people like me who didn't grow up on a farm.

I think books like this will go farther than a cupboard full of food. Sure, you need the cupboard at first. Once it runs out, hopefully you started something sustainable.

Was looking at that very book last week!