What Are The Minimal Requirements for Long Term Survival?

People have often approached me and inquired as to what I consider to be the minimal necessities which they should stock up with for a family other then the obvious necessities such as food and water.

It totally amazes me that so many survivalists and “preppers” look at the inevitable upcoming situation as a mere transitory occurrence. Unfortunately, I foresee the situation as a more permanent episode in our life once it has begun. Let’s get this out in the open at the time once and for all. When the final balloon goes up it will be for keeps and not merely for a few weeks or several months. As a nation we will begin anew and that means we will need to accomplish all our needs by ourselves.

We will no longer be able to rush to the neighborhood grocery store for supplies when we begin to run low. We will no longer have canned foods at our disposal other then what we currently have in our emergency food storage. It will also mean no more electricity being generated to operate our high energy consuming devices.

That’s right folks, the time is close at hand where we will need to make our own clothing from materials we have either grown or raised in our retreat. We will quickly discover that it is high time to devise alternate methods of transportation since there will no longer be tankers full of gasoline delivered to our local gas station. Naturally, there will be no public transportation available to get us out of those large crime ridden cities.

This also means that when the batteries you have die there will be no more to purchase in order to operate all those nice to have 12 volt appliances that you may have at your retreat. It will be a time of humans returning to their very essentials once again and getting back to the simpler life.

With these thoughts in mind you may be asking why you should store up on supplies if you have to reinvent the wheel. My response to this is to buy you some valuable time. If you are well prepared for that undesirable moment when the balloon goes up you are basically prepared to survive until such time as you and you family are tooled up to make everything yourself.

When we enter an emergency preparedness mode we never know what we will expect however the key is to be ready for anything.

As we have previously mentioned transportation will quickly become a problem so if you live in the city you should plan to evacuate ASAP, If you are fortunate enough to be able to purchase a small piece of remote rural land with its own water supply then you should do so.  

Since you will need to buy time for yourself until you can establish a garden to grow your own food, you will need to have as much canned goods as you can possibly afford to get. This stockpile of canned foods should be stored in a cool dry location. Nitrogen packed dried foods that are sealed in metal cans represents an excellent means of storing for long term use. You may wish to consider raising a few small animals such as chickens, rabbits, goats, quail or turkey to supplement your dinner table menu at your rural retreat.

You should be learning new and interesting skills to help you survive better in those upcoming times. Consider learning how to smoke meats or to make jerk out meat. You won’t have a refrigerator so these skills will help you to provide for long term storage.

Perhaps you may wish to create a small greenhouse or cold frame to enhance and improve your gardening activities as well. Store up on enough seed to get you through several years of hard times, Make sure your seeds are viable and not one of the hybrid varieties.

As you can readily see, preparing for the future is not a temporary step but rather an intermediate one completely necessary until you can regain your individual freedoms in the new society.