Topic: Knowledge = Preparedness

That's a fantastic idea.
Army Survival Manual... Scout Handbook... Black and Decker Decks and Patios... Ouch. I have work to do.

Another excellent book in my collection is "Edible Wild Plants, A North American Field Guide" (ISBN 0-8069-7488-5) Most of us reading this forum, I'm sure are hunters, so gathering protein is pretty much taken care of... but man can not live by protein alone (at least that's what the wife tells me). You should take a guide like this along with you when you go out hiking or hunting and collect some of the edible plants you find there and try them out in the comfort of your home when not under duress. You will find that quite a few of them are actually quite tastey too!

Then there's "How to Survive on Land and Sea" (ISBN 0-87021-278-8) from the Naval Institute. This book has been in print since the 1940's. I have the Army survival manual too, but the naval institute one is far more detailed and it includes information and data on surviving natural disasters as well.

I really enjoy the Foxfire books and recommend them for anyone. The Naval Institute book I've never heard of. May have to check it out. Preparedness for me involves more of what you referred to above in the use of old time methods of living. You need an established garden & orchard and a way to preserve what you grow before things go bad.
Small scale livestock of some kind, chickens and rabbits are the easiest and take up almost no space.

www.backwoodshome.com is a good magazine and their website has a wealth of articles that are free to access. Gene Logsdon has many books on the small scale self reliant lifestyle. Two Acre Eden, The Contrary Farmer, The Contrary Farmers invitation to Gardening and Homesteading are all good. Kinda preachy on the whole "organic lifestyle" and what not, but that's ok.

Tom Brown has a whole series of Field Guides for outdoor survival that are very good and I recommend them.

For me many of the National Audobon Society Pocket Guides are good. Great pictures for identifying edible and poisonous flora. Never know when you might need to make the sharpened stick more effective lol.

Oh yeah and I have a bunch of engineering text books, chemistry and biology both basic and advanced, 19th century army field manual "Barracks, Bivouacs and Bunkers", I know how to make solar panels and rudementary windmill generators among other things thanks to the USN. I definitely agree on the garden necessity. I know I need one, but my plan has always been to grab my trunk, guns and dogs and head into the mountains. Probably not the best plan come to think of it, but it's kind of based on that whole breakdown of society thing.

I'd give the ISBNs for the books but many of them are out of print. But basic text books can be snagged from Amazon on the cheap.

Definitely get books on the stuff that you don't know. That's the stuff that will bite you in the ass when push comes to shove.

I think something about auto repair and maintenance would be great. Some folks know enough about their cars/trucks that they wouldn't need such things, but a lot of people don't. But the last thing I want to happen to me is be stuck in the mountains, dessert, etc. or have the SHTF and have my truck go ape shit and not be able to do anything except sit there with my thumb up my butt.

I think something about auto repair and maintenance would be great.

That's a given... Everytime I buy a new vehicle I buy the matching Chilton's manual.

You can't go wrong having a copy of "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" by Carla Emery. It is currently on its ninth printing.

Everytime I buy a new vehicle I buy the matching Chilton's manual.

I don't have the manual for the Contour, which is odd... because I've got manuals for cars I've only just thought about buying.

That can't be any worse than the stacks of mags,manuals,accessories and ammo I have for guns I don't own yet.

I have to agree with g-man on several accounts. Truly being prepared also includes practice before it becomes a necessity. I find that talking to older people that are familiar with the area is a terrific help in learning about edible native plants, etc. If a family has never sat down for a meal of dandelion greens and rodent pie it will be difficult to just throw it in front of them or convince them you are not going nuts in time of need. Having a wheat grinder in your closet and ten buckets of nitrogen purged wheat berries will soon be rendered useless if you don't know how to make bread. My wife and daughter bake from this stage to the table on a regular basis, but there was a huge learning curve when we started out. Not only is living prepared for the worst fun, but it certainly becomes healthy, much cheaper, and just flat out tastes better. Here in Maine we have incredible natural resources even though the growing season is short. On the banks of the rivers we find fiddleheads, which is a spinach like green. The woods provide several species of wild berries that come ready to harvest at different times, which allows for a progression of canning and freezing from early spring through late summer and then the things in our garden become ready to harvest. Last year we had over 200" of snow and it is not uncommon to see -30 to -40 in the winter, it sure was nice to have a quart of our own green beans that we had canned back in August in the middle of March. Along with fall animals this year we are fortunate enough that my wife hit the moose lottery!
If all goes well we will have the moose hunt on video on my website for the first week of October. Not professing that I am wise but wisdom is key and wisdom only comes by applying knowledge. Knowledge that you do not apply is worse than ignorance.

Perhaps we should start a new thread for native foods recipes. BTW Jim, those are some damn fine looking rifles that you have on your site! Nice work.

Got the US Army survival manual, and some old scout books.

Now don't just throw them up onto a shelf... give them a read through.

Foxfire books......+1.

.... I'm thinkin' there are Hillbillies that have forgotten more about how to survive than most of us will ever know.......

Now those hillbillies might know survival in their neck of the woods... but they would be out of their element in Alaska or in the desert. But you are right... they live in the woods and understand field craft as a way of life.

Yeah they might be a little out of place in Alaska or some such place, but I'd bet a bunch that they'd be a hell of a lot better off than some LA yuppie in such places. LOL! The image of some smarmy LA trial lawyer dropped, expensive suit and all out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness just makes me smile uncontrollably.

"The image of some smarmy LA trial lawyer dropped, expensive suit and all out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness just makes me smile uncontrollably."

Didn't they make a movie like that? With Sir Hopkins and a Baldwin? The Edge.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119051/

I think the movie would have had a very different ending if it was made to be actually realistic. There would have been less yelling and far more crunching of bone.