Skills and Knowledge After SHTF

From Survival and Beyond

By Jarhead Survivor

Lately I’ve been reading various articles about the economic meltdown headed our way.  I’ve always believed – and still do – that the next big SHTF event that hits will be something to do with the economy.  The most likely scenario I see is a hyper-inflation event due to all the money the Fed has been throwing at the stock market lately in addition to the other QE programs/bail outs they’ve done.

If not hyper-inflation then we’re surely looking at some kind of inflation once the world recognizes that our money is pretty much going to be worthless after the way we’ve been diluting it lately.

Regardless, this is an article on skills and knowledge in the right areas that will be good things to have once things go to hell around us.  If you’re a highly payed corporate lawyer, computer programmer, or other type of knowledge worker chances are good that your skills won’t be worth much.

What skills will be useful?  If you have a solid knowledge of gardening, composting, and canning you’ve got a great skill set.

Can you swing an axe or run a saw?  Can you tell the difference between hardwood and softwood?  Do you know how to stack a cord of wood so it will dry properly?  Have you ever twitched a tree out of the woods with a team of horses?

Do you know anything about cows?  Sheep?  Chickens and rabbits?

Can you knit or sew?  Do you know first-aid, CPR, or have other medical skills?

Can you make furniture with hand tools?

Can you make candles or lamps?  Do you know how to make lye?  Do you have plumbing knowledge and tools?  Do you understand the components of a solar panel system or a windmill?

Have you ever cooked over an open fire or a wood stove?

Society Reset

If and when our society hits the reboot button we may find ourselves struggling to survive instead of wondering what we’re doing for fun next weekend.  It may very well be a more physical society we find ourselves in.  Are you ready for that?  Working a full day in the woods or on a farm with only with hand tools is incredibly tough by today’s standards.  You might find yourself eating 3000 or more calories a day just to maintain your body weight.

When I was young I remember my dad using a buck saw to cut up logs in the woods.  Me and my brother would haul the logs out to the pick-up from wherever they happened to be lying, load them up and then unload them at the wood pile at home.  Then he’d cut them to stove length with the Buck saw and us boys would split it and carry it in the house.  At the time my father was probably in his late 30′s and me an my brother in our early teens.  At the time we hated doing it, but if we wanted to stay warm in the winter, which we did, we spent a lot of time cutting wood.

How many people out there today do you suppose could do that?  Most people pay to have their wood cut, split and delivered and then pay the kid next door to stack it in the basement for them.  Only a very small percentage of the population that heats with wood knows the entire process by which a tree standing in the woods becomes a piece of wood that gets thrown into a stove today.

Another area people will have to consider is long term medications.  So many Americans are on various meds today that the pharmaceutical companies have grown fat and rich because of it.  It seems like there’s a pill for everything today.  We’ve medicated ourselves for just about everything and what happens when that medication is no longer available?

I think a lot of the ailments our population suffers from might go away with a year’s physical labor and a proper diet.  Not all problems of course and I’m not trying to take away from those individuals with legitimate physical issues, but those who are drinking, eating and smoking too much won’t get any sympathy from me if they can’t get off their butts and do even the slightest workout to get ready for what might be coming our way.

So not only will you need to have some kind of skill or knowledge, but you’ll also have to be in good enough shape to implement it.  How unfair, Jarhead!

I know.  Ain’t life a bitch?

Questions?  Comments?  What other skills will be needed?  I know I haven’t even come close to listing them all out.

Sound off below!

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