Congratulations! If you completed all 12 months of the One Year Urban Survival Plan, then you now have 3 month's worth of food and supplies, and you have the skills necessary to get through a disaster or long-term crisis.
But as I've said before, preparedness isn't something you do once and complete—it's a lifestyle that you have to keep doing for the rest of your life. Preparedness is about building habits and constantly refining your skills and plans. With that in mind, here are some things you should try to do every month.
Things To Keep Doing
To make sure you stay prepared, here are some things you should keep doing on a regular basis:
- Rotate through your food – Check expiration dates and use up items before they spoil. This will keep your food supply fresh and ensure you're familiar with cooking your stored foods.
- Rotate through your water – Replace stored water every six months or use a water filtration system for long-term water storage.
- Practice cooking without electricity – Regularly cook meals using camp stoves, grills, or solar ovens to ensure you're ready if the power goes out for a long time.
- Check your supplies – Make sure everything is still in good condition. Batteries, first aid kits, tools, and other equipment should be inspected and replaced as needed.
- Practice using your gear – Whether it’s your bug out bag, first aid equipment, or alternative power sources, make sure you know how to use everything and that it works as intended.
- Drill regularly – Plan drills to keep your skills sharp. Rotate between security drills, first aid drills, fire drills, and bug out drills to stay prepared for a range of emergencies.
- Practice bugging out quickly – Time yourself and your family on how fast you can gather your things and leave if you need to evacuate in a hurry. Occasionally, go camping with just your bug out bag and nothing else.
- Practice every survival skill – Regularly review and practice the skills you learned during the plan. Even basic skills like starting a fire, tying knots, or building a shelter can become rusty if they aren’t used often.
More Skills To Learn
While the One Year Urban Survival Plan gives you a solid foundation, there's always more to learn. Here are some additional skills you may want to learn (of course, no one can learn all of these skills; just focus on the ones that interest you):
Advanced First Aid and Trauma Care
- Learn how to treat severe injuries like broken bones, deep wounds, or burns.
- Study how to manage shock, administer CPR, and perform advanced wound care.
- Consider getting certified in wilderness first aid or wilderness EMT (emergency medical technician).
Animal Husbandry
- Learn how to raise and care for livestock such as chickens, goats, or rabbits for long-term food security.
- Study animal breeding, feeding, and disease prevention for maintaining healthy and productive livestock.
Blacksmithing and Metalworking
- Learn to forge metal tools and weapons, an invaluable skill if modern manufacturing collapses.
- Study basic metallurgy to create and repair essential items like knives, nails, and farming tools.
Bushcraft and Fire Starting
- Learn multiple methods of starting a fire without matches or lighters, including friction fire techniques like the bow drill and hand drill.
- Master fire-building in extreme weather conditions like rain or high winds, ensuring you can always stay warm.
Butchering and Meat Processing
- Learn how to humanely slaughter and butcher animals like chickens, rabbits, or larger livestock.
- Master the skill of preparing and preserving meat through curing, smoking, or drying.
Communications and Off-Grid Radio Operations
- Learn how to use HAM radios for long-distance communication when cell networks are down.
- Study radio frequencies, antenna building, and solar-powered radios for reliable off-grid communication.
Food Preservation Without Electricity
- Master traditional methods of food preservation like canning, pickling, fermenting, drying, and smoking.
- Learn how to build and use a solar dehydrator for preserving fruits, vegetables, and meats.
- Study methods of building root cellars and other food storage systems.
Herbal Medicine and Advanced Plant Identification
- Deepen your knowledge of medicinal plants for treating illness, pain relief, and wound care.
- Study the preparation of more advanced remedies such as tinctures, decoctions, poultices, and infusions for various ailments.
Home and Off-Grid Construction
- Learn how to build emergency structures like earthbag or cob homes using natural and locally available materials.
- Study techniques for reinforcing your existing home to withstand natural disasters or physical threats.
Navigation Without GPS
- Master the use of maps and a compass for navigation.
- Learn about navigation using the stars and the sun in case you’re lost without modern navigation tools.
- Study advanced land navigation skills like dead reckoning and triangulation to find your way in unfamiliar terrain.
Off-Grid Power Generation
- Study how to set up small-scale solar power systems to keep lights and essential devices running.
- Learn about wind and water turbines and how to install them for off-grid power generation.
- Consider working with small generators or bicycle-powered systems for emergency electricity.
Permaculture and Sustainable Agriculture
- Study advanced gardening techniques like permaculture, which focuses on sustainable and self-sufficient food production.
- Learn how to create food forests, where every plant and tree serves a purpose in the ecosystem.
- Dive deeper into crop rotation, companion planting, and maintaining soil fertility long-term.
Self-Defense and Combat Skills
- Study unarmed self-defense techniques, focusing on hand-to-hand combat and escape strategies.
- Learn to use firearms, bows, and other weapons efficiently, including marksmanship training.
- Study tactical defense and small group tactics for protecting your home or community.
Sustainable Water Systems
- Study rainwater harvesting and how to set up filtration and storage systems that can provide clean water indefinitely.
- Learn to build greywater recycling systems to repurpose household wastewater for irrigation or other uses.
Tool Making and Improvisation
- Learn to craft essential tools from basic materials such as stone or tree bark.
- Study how to repair and maintain hand tools, weapons, and other essential gear.
Trap and Snare Setting
- Learn to build effective traps and snares for small game hunting, an essential survival skill if food becomes scarce.
- Study different types of traps based on your environment, including spring snares and deadfalls.
Water Collection and Purification
- Learn advanced techniques for sourcing water in the wild, such as solar stills, collecting dew, and using transpiration bags.
- Build and maintain more efficient water filtration systems using natural resources like charcoal, sand, and gravel.
Wilderness Survival Techniques
- Build natural shelters from available materials in the wilderness.
- Learn to identify edible plants, track game, and hunt or fish.
- Practice purifying water in the wild using natural methods or improvised filtration systems.
More Resources
Here's a list of books I recommend getting:
For more book recommendations, check out this article: How to Build the Ultimate SHTF Library.
Preparation Lasts a Lifetime
Becoming prepared for a disaster is a long-term pursuit. You’ll want to focus on improving your self-reliance throughout your entire life. But with the One Year Urban Survival Plan, you’re off to a great start! Remember, the more you practice and the more skills you develop, the more resilient you become.
Preparedness is a journey, and this year-long plan is just the beginning. Whether you face a short-term emergency like a power outage or a long-term crisis like economic collapse, the skills and supplies you've gathered will make all the difference. Stay committed to learning, stay vigilant, and most importantly, stay prepared.
Previous: Month 12 | Return to: Table of Contents
