“To Plan A Survival Supplies List”

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Before We Start

In this article, I will suggest to you How to plan a Practical, long-term survival supplies list, But as usual, I am not going to give you a list. I will only suggest to you what to consider and why. You really should plan your own practical long-term survival supplies list to suit your circumstances, needs and wants. I have included a link to a workbook to make this task a little easier.

To download the workbook leave your email address in the form below

Please do not download a list from the internet and take it as gospel that it is what you need. Your circumstances, needs, weather conditions, terrain and more can be a lot different from the terrain and circumstances that the list was made for.

For the purpose of this article, I am going to assume no or little help from any refugee organisation as it normally takes many months for any organisation to get things organised, especially if there are masses of refugees, and in this situation, you are likely to be a refugee. This means that you should not bank on help from others because most of them will be in a worse position than you.

Before we start with the Long Term Planning and Prepping, there are a few things you should already have considered/taken care of. These are:

Are You Bugging In or Bugging Out?
Have you prepared the Bug Out Bags?
Have you planned a route and a final destination?
Are You Going it alone or joining a Group?
Is Your Vehicle Maintained?
Do you have sufficient fuel?
Have you packed the Chronic Meds?

Priorities Before you start making your list you need to list the priorities that you must consider while planning. These will be things like:

How many People
Ages
Medical Requirements
Final Destination
Support and services at the endpoint
How Will You Transport The Stores

Step 1 – Consider The Probable Conditions At The End Point

You need to plan for the conditions that you are probably going to experience at the endpoint. This part is not fun and can be very emotional as you need to consider the following:

How Is the group likely to be when they arrive at the endpoint?
- Were there injuries or losses along the way?
How will you deal with crippling injuries?
What Facilities and services will be available
Climate, temperatures, Rainfall Etc
Is there enough water to plant food
What will the food situation in the area be like

You really need to evaluate (not guess) what the conditions will be at your destination. It does not help you plan for wet and cold conditions and it is a hot and arid region.

There are groups out there that have a very detailed emergency plan that helps you take all of this into account. There are also a lot of groups out there that have “wannabee” Officers who start their own groups and make themselves Colonels but do not have the skills or the following. I have seen plans (definitely not all of them) and the most detailed and well-thought-out that I have found is SBB.

Now I am not saying that you need to join any particular group, that is something you must decide on with your family. You might decide to go it alone, and that is also your decision.

Stage 2- Finding Water

If you would like to maintain your and your dependents’ health through the crisis, you should store up to five gallons of water per person, per day. You should also consider the following when deciding how much water you should store:

The number of people in your family, Children, nursing mothers, and sick people, who will need more water
The climate in your area
Pets or animals that you will have to care for
The locally supplied water
The possibility of a medical emergency
Average rainfall and rivers in the area
Family members and/or friends who have special medical needs
The activities you plan to do during the crisis

Finding water is not always that difficult and if you choose your end destination carefully, there could be sufficient water for your needs. The question is, is it potable water, and even if it is to start with, for how long will it be if there are refugees upstream from you?

You definitely need to consider how you are going to purify and disinfect it. The chemicals that you might carry will not last forever and the longer you are there, the more likely it is that the water will need treatment. How will you “filter” the water before purifying it?

You should consider too, how you are going to purify sufficient water for the family’s use. You could use a very large Pot or drum to boil bulk water every day to ensure sufficient for your needs. If necessary, you could build a still if the water quality is very poor.

Don’t forget, you need containers to keep your clean water in. Not all plastic containers are safe for food and water.

Stage 3 – Shelter

This is probably the second most important consideration when you get there. You can use a tent or tarpaulin to build a temporary shelter when you first get there and you will survive for a while. The shelter that I am referring to here is a semi-permanent one built of Wood, Rock, mud etc. Something that you will consider home for some time.

You will need to ensure that you have the tools to build your shelter. Axes, Hand Drill, Spades, etc. It is unlikely that you will be able to convey things like cement etc. so research your end destination and what materials will be available to build some form of structure for yourself and your family.

If you have a Tent, you can live in it and build your structure around the tent, unless you are building an underground structure. A semi-sunken structure with a living roof makes it easier to enter and exit is fire resistant and helps with the Heat and cold. It will eventually become well camouflaged when the grass etc. starts growing again.

Once you have an idea of what you are going to build, you now need to consider what building materials you will use as this will determine the tools you will need. You will also need to have practised the skills needed to use the tools and build the structure.

You should make the basics as a matter of urgency, including items like toilets, showers, and furniture like beds, stoves, and a table. Once these are taken care of, you can start on things like a water well, vegetable patch, traps etc.

Make a list of the “extras” you would like to build. You can then consider what you need by way of tools.

Stage 4 – Cooking

At this stage, one would hope to have a way of getting food that generally needs to be cooked. Considering the difficult circumstances that you have survived thus far, you need to develop a sense of normalcy as far as it would be possible under the prevailing circumstances. Little things like a morning cup of coffee would really help bring a modicum of normalcy that will really give everyone’s emotional state a boost.

Being able to provide cooked meals as soon as possible will certainly help with keeping everyone’s strength up, not to speak of everyone’s morale. To this end, it would be good to build a wood stove so that meals can be prepared and it would also be a place where everyone could congregate and talk etc.

Imagine sitting in the cooking area talking and planning while Mom cooks a meal and bakes bread. Hot bread…it’s got to make everyone’s mouth water. OK enough. This article is about the equipment that you will need.

So, You have built a fireplace. Now, what kitchen utensils do you have?

Stage 5. Food, Build A Garden, Hunt, Aquaponics

If you have any food left when you arrive at your endpoint, It probably won’t last that long. Now it is time to consider sourcing food. There will be a few ways in which to obtain food.

Scavenging
Hunting
Vegetable garden
Aquaponics
Trading

Scavenging Probably the first course of action would be scavenging. It might work for a little while but, as more and more people arrive, the less there will be left to scavenge. The other consideration is that the food might not be edible. Scavenging is the most unreliable way to obtain food.

Hunting This could supplement your food rations for some time. The problem is that a lot more people will be taking hunting up as their primary food source. This means that the game and other animals will move further from the camps and you will have to travel further to hunt.

Once you have meat, You need to prep it, treat the skin (because you will need it in the future) and know how to store both the meat and the skin.

We are getting into the right mindset and learning how to plan a Practical long-term survival supplies list. So you will not be getting any “How-to” tips on doing everything. This you will have to research, but you can use this information to develop a stores list. While reading this, think of what you might need to carry out these tasks and add them to your list.

Building A Garden So, you want to plant? What? Did you remember the seed? What about the spade, garden fork and rake? These are large items and would be rather heavy if you were to carry them. This is why it is necessary to plan ahead.

What are you going to do about pests? remember to research natural plants that can be used for pests. By making this list, you have surely realised by now that there is a lot of research and learning to happen in the not-too-distant future.

Remember that it is not necessary to buy the biggest. One could leave the handles of the spades, forks and picks and make handles when you need to use these items. O.K. So the pickaxe handle could make a nice weapon along the way😠.

Remember that the seed must be non-GMO seed or you will not have seed next year. Most commercial seeds only provide a single crop and its seed will not sprout the following year if it even makes seed. Make sure you buy heirloom seed. That is really important for food security.

Aquaponics This is really a viable option if you have the skills and means. The skills can be learned and if you start a small system now, you will have the skills if you need them in the future. Starting such a system now will prepare you for the future.

There are a lot of fish species that can be used but restrict yourself to species that thrive in our conditions. Having an aquaponics system can provide you with veggies and fish for your own use and possibly some to trade.

Trading – Yes, you will probably be going back to the age-old Barter system. With this in mind, try to pack items that you could use for currency, items such as heirloom seeds. If you know how to work leather and make shoes and clothes etc., you could barter your skills for goods.

This goes for making furniture, shelters and more. There will not be things like soap, yeast, sugar, and the list goes on. If you have the skills, you can trade for food and other items. Don’t forget about items such as dehydrated Kefir Grains. They don’t require refrigeration and could come in quite handy for cooking, preserving food and making probiotic-rich drinks and food.

Water Storage

You will need some way to carry and store water. Needing about 5 gallons of water a day per person means that collecting water will be a major task as well as purifying and making it safe for consumption. Once it is clean, you will need to store it somewhere. Don’t just think of tanks and drums.

There are a lot of different ways to store water and some of them are:-

water bladders,
folding plastic containers (need to be food grade),
Plastic Sheeting (make a structure and line it with the plastic sheet).
Buckets
and yes, of course, the drums

Security

Let us not take this lightly. If you have ever seen the movie, Mad Max, then you will understand. The “have-nots” will be hungry, they will need food for their families and they will want yours. You will need to defend your home and stores and don’t take this lightly.

How will you defend your family? Do you have:

Firearms,
Crossbows,
Knives and swords
Knowledge of self-defence

How about your family members? Do they have any skills and knowledge in this regard? Do not forget to train them, you will need their help.

Animals

There is a lot of speculation about how to deal with animals. They can, of course, be a massive problem but;

Dogs can defend the family,
hunt and
raise the alarm.
Rabbits can be bred for food

So when deciding what to do with your pets, don’t write them all off lightly. Yes, you may need to put them down but they could come in handy if you have a place for them.

Books – Education Must Not Stop

If you have kids at school then you need to consider this seriously because you will have suddenly become a school teacher. your kids must receive education and far better it is from you than the other kids around the camp. To give education of any sort you need books.

Start collecting educational material. You will have to be careful and choose books that can serve multiple purposes, Learning to read and geography and history.

Don’t forget the paper and pencils. It might be a good idea to learn how to recycle paper. It could become a nice trading commodity. There will always be waste paper around so teach your kids to collect paper when you get to the endpoint. This will then be your raw material for your new paper.

When considering what books to take with you, don’t forget your knowledge. you will have to learn new skills and you might not have time. Choose suitable books that can be used for the kid’s education too.

Transport And Storage

So, once you have made your list and then acquired everything on it, what do you do with it? This, supposing that it all fits in your vehicle. So, before you start buying, decide on how to transport, and store. Will you transport it to a safe storage location at the destination beforehand or will you take it with you when you flee?

There are Pros and cons that you should consider. These are just a few you should consider.

Pros

You can move faster if your vehicle is lighter and not towing a trailer.
You will use less fuel when you are fleeing if the stores are already there. Fuel along the way could be a problem.
You will have room in your vehicle for “Other Stuff” that you might have forgotten before.
You will have more room for livestock that you could not take to your destination beforehand.
If your vehicle breaks down, you will have your stores at the final destination so you can just bum a lift with minimal bags.

Cons

If you cannot get to your storage for any reason, you have lost most of your stores.
What happens if, when you arrive there, your stores have been stolen? Everyone will be desperate and your stores might be at risk.
Rodent damage to your stores if stored for a long time
Water, fuel, and foodstuff expiring.
The tent being damaged by rodents.
Mites and other insects in your foodstuff ( these can be mitigated if you have packed them properly.

Now the work Starts

This is where things start to get interesting because I am sure you now realise that huge task at hand of trying to think of everything you will need. No! not the things you want or the things you would like to take with you. You start with what you need, see if you have the space to transport it and if there is room then you add the extras.

Don’t get despondent now. There is a lot to think of and it can be daunting but start at the beginning.

Haven’t Downloaded The Work Book Yet? Do it here.

It does not give you everything but it certainly shows you how and a solid start.

“It is better to have prepared and never to need it than to be unprepared and be in desperate need of it”.

Be Aware. Be Safe. Be Prepared!

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