Prep Guide Introduction

This is a working document. It is not complete, but it is an attempt to be as inclusive as possible. You will surely think of many things that could have been included, but were not. You may be unhappy with the underlying assumptions, such as the inclusion of information about considering moving out of the country. Please feel free to leave a comment on page in question.  Also, their is an attempt here is to be as complete as possible without being any more political than necessary. 

Originally, this document was divided into two sections. The first section was entitled Long Term Advanced Preparation. This section has been removed. The reason being the belief that Long Term Advanced Preparation is no longer a possibility; the need for action is already here. Peak oil and U.S. financial problems will be upon us soon if they are not already. So the Principles of Preparedness that are presented here are of a more immediate nature.

There are many suggestions here. Many of them will require a good deal of work to accomplish. No one will do all these things. But doing some will involve you in the process of making decisions about what to do with the money, space, and time you have available. The suggestions will also stimulate you to discover the thinking that is behind these suggestion. Sometimes you will think, “Why would anyone think that would be necessary?” Other ideas will make you think, “I wouldn’t have thought of that.” Don’t let this long list stop you. Start doing what you can and what you think is most important. Doing something now helps with the anxiety of knowing that problems are on the horizon.

Finally, there are three ideas that inform all the suggestions made below. Please keep them in mind as you look at the more specific recommendations.

REDUCE  DEBT  ...

This is probably the most important and most difficult thing that any of us can do. It creates the most flexibility in times of difficulty. It also makes you less able to be manipulated and threatened by those to whom you owe money.

BUILD  LOCAL  SUPPORT  …

Building groups and small communities to work together means delegation of responsibilities is possible with fewer tasks for each person, but maybe more important, it allows us to support each other, to talk about these difficult times and plan, and to protect each other and work together on a larger scale.

PROTECT  YOURSELF  …

It’s important not to get too extreme here, but everyone wants to do what they can especially if there are few opportunities to coordinate with others. The more each person prepares the more there is to share when needed and the easier it will be for everyone to accomplish needed changes.

Use less energy

Buy ONLY what is needed

• Give up frills.
• Make an effort to stop being a consumer.
• Don’t watch advertising; it affects you no matter what you think.
• Buy from local merchants.
• Buy food grown locally.
• Don’t buy styles; buy long term quality.

Evaluate vehicle needs & use

• Combine many auto trips into one.
• Consider a Flexcar.
• Give up one or more vehicles.
• Get a job closer to home.
• Take your vacation at home and relax.
• Consider not flying any more.

Evaluate alternative energy

• This is a big topic; let’s take it in steps:
• Start with small scale solar hot water heating.
• Buy the most efficient appliances.
• Have your home site evaluated for solar use; so you know what will be possible.
• Consider construction of small passive solar solutions, for heat retention.
• Get an estimate for construction of a solar grid-tied system.
• Consider buying a diesel vehicle and using biodiesel fuel.
• Is there a micro hydro power project you could develop?
• Is wind power a possibility for you?

Remodel now

• It is cheaper to make expenditures now because of expected inflation.
• Make needed repairs.
• Clean out septic systems.
• Fix the roof.
• Insulate attic, walls, windows, & doors.
• Build green.
• Consider solar.
• Consider a well.
• Consider composting toilets.

Buy used

• Shop at local thrift stores.
• Visit your neighborhood garage sales.
• Buy used clothes, shoes, coats, linen.
• Buy used building materials.
• Buy antiques and old stuff; it’s trendy, too.
• Sell used things.
• Buy what is durable and will last.

Consider shared ownership

• Buy occasional use items with friends & neighbors.
• Buy a truck together.
• Live with family, a very old idea.
• Move your parents into your house.
• Rent space.
• Own a time share instead of a one owner second home.

Recycle everything you can

• Find out who sells used, the items you need.
• Buy extra used materials you will need soon.
• Reuse all types of containers, especially plastics.
• Learn more about greywater so you can use it safely.
• Consider reusing water.
• Greywater water can be used on some plants.
• Learn as much as you can about recycling and practice it regularly.
• Don’t throw away things if you can give them away or recycle them some way.

Stay home more (ie, use the car less)

• Go out for entertainment less often.
• Develop nearby neighborhood friendships.
• Socialize more with your neighbors.
• Work in your yard.
• Stay home and enjoy your own company.
• Eat at nearby restaurants.

Walk, bike, public transport

• Try NOT using a car for a week; for a month.
• Go shopping on your bike.
• Find the nearest farmers market is; shop there.
• Talk to neighbors about carpooling.
• Combine trips with many stops with your neighbors.
• Get familiar with the buses, especially near home.
• Walk everywhere.

Pollute less

• Find ways to produce less garbage at your home.
• Don’t use the dry cleaners.
• If you burn wood buy the most efficient stove.
• Keep pollutants out of drains.
• Be careful what you do with solvents and oils.
• Buy biodegradable products.
• Recycle everything possible.
• Buy natural products instead of synthetics.
• Stop smoking.

Use less

• Give up some of the things you think you need.
• Buy fewer comfort items.
• Use less water.
• Turn the furnace down; the lights & computer off.
• Cut electricity use and use your furnace less often.
• Use a clothesline not a dryer.
• Discuss with the family what the real necessities are.
• Wear clothing longer before giving it up.
• Grandma used to darn socks.
• Don’t just go shopping; stay out of the malls.
• Make gifts, especially useful gifts, for others instead of buying things.

Organize with other people

Share with neighbors

• Have a party.
• Invite neighbors over when they move in.
• Eat together as an initial way to start involvement.
• Meet and plan with neighbors.
• Start a neighborhood garden.
• Start up work parties to accomplish large projects.
• Develop regular meals together.
• Own expensive tools and equipment together.
• Have a garage sale or clothing swap.
• Share vehicles, costs, insurance, fees and maintenance.
• Share land for gardening, farming, animal husbandry, solar & water projects.
• Share your labor - like old time barn raising.
• Barter labor hours for return labor or things others need.

Support local businesses

• Learn about CSA - Community Supported Agriculture
• Buy at local food coops.
• Make a relationship with the people you buy from; appreciate them.
• Support local crafts and artisans.
• Encourage small businesses to stay in your neighborhood; get the neighbors help.
• Learn about the Sustainability Movement.

Plan with your family

• Meet with your family to plan.
• Have an intentional gathering to get organized.
• Start with what to do in a power outage; ie, outage in California; it’s a reasonable way to start.
• Make plans that assume no cell phone communications are possible.
• Know where to meet locally.
• Know where to meet, if an in-town meeting is impossible.
• Make a communication phone tree.
• Know whose house to go to and under what circumstances.
• Make financial plans as well.
• Talk about what to keep at home for emergencies.
• Develop your plans and supplies as far as you can with your family.
• This may take a long time to complete with your family; don’t push too hard.

Make community disaster plan

• Volunteer with Red Cross Disaster Relief
• Find out about the Disaster Planning in your city or county.
• Become a volunteer fire fighter.
• Join a local organization or steering committee
• Run for a position or the local water board.
• Join a political group or a political action committee.

Boycott unsustainable business

• First, what IS a sustainable business?

Answer:
1 - A business that people can still get to if gas is very expensive.
2 - A business that sells things that people must have to survive.
3 - A business that sells things made locally.

• Nearby buyer & seller, plus a basic inventory  =  more sustainable.
• Support these: the nearby shoe repair shop, feed store, and hardware store.
• Support CSA, farmers markets, local agriculture, community gardens.
• Stop supporting large impersonal retail chains.
• Boycott stores with mostly foreign made goods.
• Don’t support stores in large malls.
• Don’t buy things advertised on TV.
• Buy from the small local person nearest you, even if it costs more.

Develop new skills

Collect skills information - build a library

• Collect how-to info.
• Craft info and trades.
• First aid information & drug use.
• Collect old magazines for specific subject matter.
• Find edible plant, medical plant, & cooking info.
• Organic farming  and permaculture info.
• Animal husbandry info.
• Tool making info.
• Survival info.
• Small engine repair info.
• Home repair info.
• Construction info.
• Collect information on any needed skill you can learn from a book.

Sustainable living

• Take a class in Voluntary Simplicity.
• Take a class in permaculture.
• Make longterm friends with your classmates.
• Take sustainability as a long term personal philosophy.

Growing food

• Become a Victory gardener, like your grandparents.
• Learn to garden in winter with a cold frame.
• Plant berries & nuts.
• Start composting and improve your soil.
• Think like a person who plans to live in the same house for 30 years.
• Develop your garden plan for what it will be like in 30 years.

Small motor repair

• Buy & keep the appropriate books handy.
• Take a small engine repair class at the community college.
• Learn how to service your lawn mower.
• Some day you may need to pump water with that lawn mower engine.
• Learn how to tune it up too.
• Do the same with your chain saw.
• Now learn how to work on a small electric motor.
• Keep needed part at home.
• Now graduate to a tune up on a larger engine.
• Change your brake pads.

Medical

• Buy & keep the appropriate books handy.
• Build your own first aid kit from scratch, a big one.
• Take a first aid class.
• Learn CPR.
• Learn to rely on herbal medicines & remedies.
• Get a Wilderness First Responder Certificate.
• Become part of a Mountain Rescue Team.
• Make a first aid kit for your car.
• Become responsible for the health of your animals.

Home repair

• Buy & keep the appropriate books handy.
• Take free classes at Home Depot; just walk in any Saturday.
• Do some home repairs if you don’t already; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
• Build a chicken pen.
• Build a small out building or shed.
• Learn to fix your roof.
• Learn to do some basic wiring, and keep some materials around.
• Store plumbing parts and learn how to use them.
•     Small animal care – Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can learn these things overnight from a book.
• Get chickens and raise them from chicks.
• Get rabbit fryers and breed them.
• Learn how to butcher small animals.
• Get bees and learn to tend them and get the honey.
• These can be done on a small scale in the city to learn the basics.
• Now it’s time for a goat.

Food preservation & canning

• Learn how to can food & juice the way your grandmother did.
• Have canning equipment on hand.
• Have lots of extra jar lids too.
• Learn how to sun dry food and keep the flies off.
• Get a food dryer, even better build one.
• Learn how to smoke food to preserve it.
• Make apple cider with your press.
• Build a smoker; have firewood too.
• Learn how to preserve food by salting it.
• Keep enough salt.

Evaluate home security

Secure your house

• Evaluate window & door security.
• Add curtains or shades.
• Add metal grates to unsecured windows.
• Limit entries to your house.
• Replace doors with single pane glass.
• Have important phone numbers handy.
• Have a safety deposit box or safe or both.
• Put important things where they normally would not be found.
• Prepare a hiding place in your home for small items.
• Get a bigger dog.

 Improve your computer security

• Update software.
• Use spam & email filters.
• Use power surge protection.
• Backup important files.
• Backup online.

Keep emergency equipment on hand

• This is a big subject, from generators to biohazard gear.    
• For starters: flashlights, batteries, a radio, food, and water.
• Buy kits to suit the emergency you expect.
• Weapons, tools, more food, and more water.
• Flares, signaling devices, water filters, more food, and more water.
• Rain gear, camping gear, cold weather clothing.
• First aid, cell phones, extra gas, local maps.
• Finally, more food, and more water.
• There are many other items to add to this category. Add most specifics for  particular types of emergencies.

Keep the car prepared

• Have a traveling kit in the car.
• Keep a first aid kit in the car.
• Have extra clothes and an extra radio.
• Be sure to have extra maps.
• Extra water and snacks.

Keep cars in good repair

• Have it well repaired and know where to go to get some extra gas.
• Keep oil and filters on hand.
• Have spark plugs and an extra distributor if needed.

Protect yourself

• Have a powerful flashlight to use as protection.
• Learn self defense skills.
• Keep a low profile.
• Stay home and watch your neighborhood.
• Have a plan for the family to stay at another location.

Protect your mail

• Shred papers.
• Buy a strong mailbox or get a P.O. box.
• Keep paper with personal information out of recycling.
• Burn old mail.

Secure your yard

• A dog provides considerable security.
• Install outdoor lighting.
• Fence your yard(s)?
• Make doorways easily visible.
• Gate your driveway?

Improve your health

• Stop smoking.
• Give up fast food.
• Become more active: walk, bike, garden.
• Evaluate your health care plan.
• Take care of current health needs now.
• Do needed dental work now.
• Develop strong personal relationships.
• Find ways to be creative.
• Develop your spiritual and emotional life.
• Learn first aid.
• Learn medical self-care.
• Talk a workshop on herbal remedies.
• Learn local edible plants.
• Learn butchering animals.
• Improve cooking skills.
• Learn to eat less.

Act in concert with neighbors

• Get to know your neighbors.
• Trade off vacation watch with an immediate neighbor.
• Learn about local threats.
• Start a neighborhood watch.

Evaluate your job

Shorten the distance to travel

• Work in your neighborhood.
• Carpool.
• Work fewer days per week.
• Make fewer trips to work each week.
• Move to a branch or division closer to home.
• Interview with your company’s competitors near your home.
• Change jobs.

Become indispensable

• Evaluate the likelihood of job loss.
• Consider retraining.
• Work yourself into a position that is critical to your employer’s business.
• Be the only person who can do your job.
• Continue upgrading your training.
• Work in the food or water industries.
• Get certified/qualified for your supervisor’s job.

Plan new income sources

• Keep your resume current.
• Interview for new positions even if you plan to stay where you are.
• Keep your interview skills sharp.
• Network with others continually.
• Is your current job likely to continue in a crisis?
• Learn new skills and professions.
• Work for yourself.
• Consider growing and selling food specialty items.
• Consider ways to start your own business.
• Sell something you make.
• Evaluate skills and crafts that could turn into a job.

Work at home

• Reduce driving.
• Write off more expenses.
• Write off a home office.
• Write off equipment and trips.
• Stay with your family.
• Develop skills to sell.
• Become self reliant.

Consider moving to another country

• Decide on your priorities.
• Identify important concerns.
• Develop goals.
• Evaluate locations.
• Determine weather & fuel needs.
• Determine agriculture potential.
• Consider your family & friends.
• Evaluate job possibilities.
• Consider cost of living.
• Consider language.
• Determine the cost of housing.
• Evaluate the local economy and the inflation rate.
• Be clear about visas and citizenship.
• Visit many times.
• Do your homework well.
• Learn the local geography and climate.
• Evaluate specific homes to live in.
• Come to grips with the fact that you may never move back to the U.S.
• Be employed BEFORE relocating.
• Consider everything, again !

Get your finances in order

Get out of debt

• This is the most important thing you can do.
• The less you owe and the fewer places you owe money, the less you can be manipulated.

Have cash on hand

• Keep two to three months worth of expenses on hand in cash.
• Do not live month to month.
• Keep enough money on hand to be flexible.
• Find a safe place to keep things.

Copy important documents

• Keep copies of documents.
• Keep copies of contracts and agreements.
• Make a copy of your passport.
• Renew your passport BEFORE they start using biometric ID.
• Make copies of your credit cards and ID.
• Know how to cancel credit cards quickly.

Invest expecting the worst

• Save if you can.
• Buy physical gold; it is a hedge against inflation.
• Buy physical silver. Gold & silver are real money.
• Keep gold in your IRA.
• Buy gold and silver stocks.
• Consider cashing in most stocks & bonds.
• If you invest, invest in commodities, companies that make real things and pay dividends.
• Be conservative when investing; expect the dollar to loose its value over time.
• FDIC insurance is not a guarantee.
• Your pension may not be there.
• Investment accounts could vanish.
• When stocks, bonds, and the dollar go down - gold & silver will go up.
• Invest in education – classes and skills training.

Cut entertainment

• Stay home and save on gas, food, and tickets.
• Cut out sports and lessons for children.
• Become involved in neighborhood activities.
• Create entertainment within walking distance of home.
• Start activities that don’t cost money and are near you.
• Be more involved with school and churches near by.

Stop buying alcohol

• Save money.
• Brew your own.
• Drinking is a luxury.
• Have more useful time in the evenings.

Quit athletic clubs

• Save the money you would pay for dues.
• Save on the gas to drive there and back.
• Get your exercise in the garden, or your bike, and walking.

Don’t give expensive gifts

• Make something by hand.
• Just send a card.
• Make a handmade card.
• Make a meal instead.
• Give your labor.

Grow & organize food

Lawn out; start a garden

• Cover parts of your lawn with newspaper or cardboard.
• Put compost or chips over that.
• Take out small pieces of lawn at a time and plant them in food.
• Use mulch to cut summer water use.
• Learn more about gardening.
• Learn what grows in the Willamette Valley.
• It takes practice to produce good food.

Learn permaculture gardening

• This integrated system makes a great planning tool for a yard or bigger area.
• Develop an edible yard.
• Plant more edible shrubs.
• Learn about tree guilds and food forests.
• Plant fruit, berries, & nuts.
• Learn pruning.
• Start composting: weeds, yard debris, kitchen waste, grass.
• Keep bees.
• Get chickens, rabbits, maybe a goat.
• Collect rainwater.
• Use your grey water.
• Save seeds.
• Build a greenhouse or cold frame.
• Learn canning & preserving.
• Consider a root cellar.

Support local agriculture

• Seek out local farmers & craftspeople.
• Support CSA.
• Buy local produce.
• Find local meat producers.
• Buy local & buy from small businesses.
• Store food.
• Learn new ways to cook.
• Use local coops.
• Support everything small and local.
• Don’t buy from the big box chain stores.

Store up things you consume

Store food

• Do what the Mormons do: store a year’s supply of food.
• Rotate food supplies.
• Can garden vegetables and fruit.
• Learn how to sun dry your fruit.
• Keep extra glass jars on hand and lots of lids.
• Buy extra canned food at the store, on sale.
• Buy food in cases of #10 cans.
• Example - Mountain House products.
• Buy vaccuum sealed, nitrogen packed food with oxygen absorbers in the cans.

Store water

• Store drinking water (potable water).
• Can you store rainwater ?
• Learn what greywater is safe.
• Plan how to use grey water from showers, sinks, and washer.
• Use garden soaking systems to conserve water.
• Mulch.
• Learn how to store rooftop rainwater in tanks.
• Take a class to learn all this low tech water info above.
• Or store plastic pipe, tanks, and fittings to build a system when you need it.

Store fuels

• Store firewood if you have a way to burn it.
• Have fire starters and wood cutting tools.
• Keep newspaper and matches; also use newspaper to kill your lawn.
• Do you have a barbecue? Get more propane tanks.
• Store some extra gasoline; keep your car’s gas tank full.

Store materials to build with.

• Store building supplies.
• Store hardware supplies.
• Have good hand tools.
• Store insulation, pipe, tanks, extension cords, wood.
• Know how to repair and sharpen tools.

Communication equipment

• Don’t give up your telephone land line; batteries could be gone fast.
• Get a hand crank radio and flashlight.
• Consider CBs and short wave.
• How can you contact your family without electricity?

Other consumables

• Have animal feeds and medicines, fencing and wire.
• Store cleaning supplies, paper products, TP, candles, batteries, and cosmetics.
• Have extra medical supplies, medical books, and drugs.
• Store computer ink and paper.
• Consider getting a supply of rechargeable batteries and a charger.

Evaluate consumption AGAIN !

This section is meant to detail the things a person would do or consider doing under the very worst of conditions. Cut back again, to a more basic level.

Cut to basic energy needs

• Keep power switched off most of the time.
• No clothes or hair dryer use.
• No cell phones.
• Use furnace only occasionally.
• Stove only occasionally.
• No computer, TV, electronics, or stereo.
• Stop mowing the lawn.
• No electric yard tools.

Reduce living space.

• Live and work in one room.
• Cook in the one living space that you heat.
• Insulate and seal off the living and working space.
• If sleeping in another room, no heat.

Reuse everything

• Begin reusing SOME water - grey water
• Bath water, to dish water, to garden water, etc.
• All water should end up watering crops.
• Start a no garbage life style.
• Keep all containers.
• Food waste to compost or chickens.
• Or to feed worms.
• Packing material is insulation.
• Reuse any building materials.
• Kill the lawn with newspaper.

Consume even less

• One or two meals a day.
• Sew up clothes; keep all rags.
• Don’t break things.
• Buy as little as if possible.
• Share anything that others can use too.
• Stay home; garden with hand tools; watch your home.

Live in a family group

• Give up living at multiple houses.
• If gas is available, plan car use to accomplish many tasks in one trip.
• Pool labor at one central location.
• Garden, cook, tend animals, cut wood as a group.
• Fill a house with many family members living together.

Set up barter

• Store things to trade.
• Trade for your skilled labor.
• Search out barter currencies.
• Find swap meets.
• Gold and silver will most likely be the money.
• Learn what the neighbors around need most and have to trade.
• Online swaps: Craigslist, Yahoo, Freecycle, even Ebay.

Start a NO-EXTRAS routine

• Everything will revolve around food and water.
• Reduce the energy and work you put into nonessentials.
• Take stock of everything you have.
• Work on the necessities first, no matter how hard.

Turn your heat WAY down

• Evaluate whether you need heat at all.
• Living in the Willamette Valley, you can survive all winter with no heat, but you must stay dry.

Protect your family

• Consider weapons of all and any types.
• Keep your mouth shut; think ... “Loose lips sink ships.”
• Become invisible.
• Always know what is going around you and in your neighborhood.
• Set up neighborhood patrols that are not observed.
• Consider blocking off your street to vehicles.

Consider helping others

• You can’t help everyone, but you must help some.
• Be selective.
• The old and the young are the most vulnerable.
• Helping people is a form of barter.
• People you help will help you.
• People you feed will feed you.
• People you protect will protect you.

Scavenge

• It’s time to go to the dump, so to speak.
• Figure out where the abandoned resources are.
• Stores and businesses will close without notice.
• Some people will abandon their homes.
• Abandoned vehicles have many resources, more if you can cut metal.
• Get there first; don’t fight over things, it won’t pay.
• Have a way to move things: a cart or wagon or cycle or horse.
• You will need help, especially getting things home.

Don’t discuss preparations

• Keep your own counsel.
• Even in your closest circles be careful who you tell what you have.

Develop water sources  *

• This is probably the toughest problem besides getting out of debt.
• You need at least 2 quarts of water to drink daily, minimum.
•     Best solutions:
• Drill a well. ( 20-30 feet could get you water to use for everything, EXCEPT drinking.)
• Start rainwater collecting.
• Buy a water tank, or two.
• Build a cistern.
• Keep a supply of potable water on hand all the time.
•     Other solutions:
• Never use water you can drink for anything else; save it.
• There is drinking water in the water heater and the toilet tank.
• Cooking water needs to be clean but not perfect; boil it and drink it after use.
• Buy a water filter and purification tablets.
• Reduce washing and cleaning to very little; put it on the garden.
• Bath water doesn’t need to be very clean.
• Don’t give pets or animals the best water you have.
• Learn how to hold various grades of water to reuse many times.
• You need some tanks, at least tubs and buckets.
• You need a good siphon or manual pump, or both
• Clean it, and filter it, and put tablets in it, and use it again.
• * MINIMUM - A family of two ( 2 qts/day  X  2 people) can “get by” with one gallon of drinking water per day. Your hot water heater holds from 40 to 80 gallons.