After almost two hundred episodes of podcasting, I've learned a lot along with the listeners. Today we are going to take a look at the top ten things that I've learned along the way.

10. Eat what you store, store what you eat!

 

It feels horrible to throw away food that you have spent hard earned money on and even worse when it is the food you grew and canned yourself.

 

Lots of individuals store long term food supplies, including myself? Have you tried them? Is it something you are going to want to eat long-term? There are many different choices, maybe you should choose another one, but you will never know unless you try it.

Make sure you are rotating your stocks. As you eat food you have stored and buy new, make sure you put the new products in the back, so the oldest ones are being consumed and not going bad.

9. Seeds, seeds, and more seeds.

Know how to garden and grow food. As you set off on this adventure plan to fail. You will be contending with many different threats to your food supply. Stock seeds for two or three years. Allow some of your plants to go to seed and learn how to harvest them so that you can do that when you need to. Lots of seeds require specific methods to collect and store them. Make sure when you are purchasing seeds to grow your garden, you are buying seeds that will grow plants that produce seeds.

8. Problem-solving skills and communication

Being able to calm your mind and think logically about problems makes life much more comfortable. When you have a survival mindset, you are ready to take on any challenge, and it helps you to prevent depression. You start to think about doing the best you can with what you have. This ability to think through and solve problems, allows you to be more self-reliant and solve problems without a significant impact on your pocketbook.

7. Tools and skills, not gear

Gear will always fail. Time takes out everything. It would be best if you were resourceful and tools allow you to make gear.

Skills are forever yours. No one can take them from you. Skills and knowledge will set you apart from the rest and help you survive and thrive.

6. You can't store enough water

We use a ton of water. You need water to stay clean. Water is tough to store, so you have to think beyond the stores. Know what will provide you a supply of short term water but also know where you will get it in the long term. Know how to filter your water without relying upon a store bought filter. Filters have a shelf life, and in a long-term situation you will use them up, so you have to know how to clean water without them.

5. Animals require special consideration

Animals need to eat and have water too. Plan on making this happen in the long-term without going to a feed store. Animals will also have medical problems of their own. Without access to veterinary care, this could be a challenge. There are natural plants that can help your animals, but you have to know what they are before a disaster strikes.

4. Practice means everything

It is one thing to learn a skill; it's an entirely different thing to do it. Every skill that you learn requires training to become efficient at it and maintain your ability to perform it. Use any situation you can to practice your survival skills. Make sure you are visiting a gun range and training with a qualified individual on self-defense techniques.

3. Wild foraging may save your life

Food supplies, both short-term and long-term, will run out. You need to know what you can harvest from nature. Also, if you have a planned evacuation route, you must know what there is to eat along that route. Long-term food supplies are often not very nutritionally rich. Supplementing these supplies will not only make them last longer but give you better nutrition and a varied diet. Specific plants can also help people who have medical ailments or are experiencing a lack of certain nutrients. Know what they are so you are not left helpless.

2. Physical Fitness is paramount

All of your skills and preps are useless if you are not physically fit enough to defend yourself and handle strenuous labor. No matter how many bullets you stock, if you don't know how to produce everything that makes one, you will run out. You need to know how to defend yourself without a weapon, and you need to be fit enough to do so.

Also, if you have medical issues that require procedures to eliminate, get them done now. Don't put off the operation because you can't take time to deal with the aftereffects. If you are done having children, get the procedure to ensure you will not have any in the future. Childbirth without access to medical care is a perilous undertaking.

1. Community is priceless

You can't survive without a community. There is no way a family of less than thirteen can survive without other people there to help. Sacrificing efforts on critical activities will result and it may very well be security.

Prepared communities working together can help to support other refugees while producing enough resources to care for the community members.

The trust of fellow individuals is priceless. Knowing that you have a team that will help to protect and support you is the purpose of life. Once you find this group of individuals, don't ever break the bond because it may save your life one day.