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.