4 Hobbies Any Survivalist Should Have

I know some of you might think “isn’t prepping already a great hobby?” and “where in the world to find that extra time for other hobbies?”. My answers to you are:

1. No, prepping is not just a hobby, it’s much more than that. It`s a way to secure your family’s future and well-being  (I don’t think you treat your safety as a hobby, do you?), and…

2. You CAN find the time if you really want to – it surely depends what other hobbies you already have and how much time they take, but the hobbies I’m suggesting are not very time consuming. Plus, they’re not only fun, but really help improve your long-term SHTF survival skills.

Gardening

What other hobby could be more related to prepping than gardening? Think of all the benefits: your own organic, fresh fruit and vegetables for daily consumption, a way to relax, your own food source, independence from grocery stores… plus, it saves you a lot of money.

You know most stores keep food supplies in the warehouse only for about 3 days? This means they’ll be emptied out almost instantly in a case of emergency. You won’t have to deal with this problem if you’re gardening. Start small, with a traditional garden and grow a few things you like that are easy to cultivate like carrots, peas and potatoes.

 You can find out morehere about survival gardening and suggestions where to start from. After you’ve learned to work the soil you can take into consideration stepping up to asecret survival garden for pros. You`re not going to put in a lot of effort,but your garden will be safe from looters at all times.

Beekeeping

If you’re gardening, then you might as well get into the practice of beekeeping, too. Bees have an essential role in fertilization and pollination, so your fruits and veggies will grow bigger and juicier.

But that’s not all. Raising bees has many more benefits for survivalists: you`re going to get a lot of honey, wax (maybe you should re-read the5 great survival uses for wax article to find out why preppers need wax), bee pollen and propolis, a lot more than you could use yourself. So you could sell the extra and make some money. You can also use honey and beeswax to make cosmetics. There`s an infinite number of things you can do with such a simple hobby.

Exercising

Fitness, mountain biking, hiking, trail running, you name it. As long as it improves your physical and mental condition, go for it. Exercising is crucial for preparedness success and it is something a lot of survivalists don’t take into consideration.

If you want to manage in the woods or other wild places, to easily carry your BOB and endure stress, to run with no effort — in other words to SURVIVE — you have to be fit and healthy. And exercising is the most natural way to get there.

It doesn’t have to be hard exercising like going to the gym daily, but something you can enjoy with your family or friends on the weekend. Try country biking (it builds leg strength), hiking to get used to walking in the wild for long periods of time, orgeocaching if you’re looking for the perfect hiking, treasure hunting and trading items mix.

Hunting

Hunting is essential to endure the extreme conditions of a survival situation, so you most definitely understand why this is a great hobby for survivalists. You need to learn how to track and trap small animals you can afterwards eat, it’s a necessary skill.

There won’t be time to learn when you’ll find yourself  in the situation of needing something to eat fast. If you`ve never hunted before, buy some books on the subject or talk to an experienced hunter – hunting is not a walk in the park. Also, learn more about guns and weapons if you don’t already have all the information you need about shooting and what decent gear to own. You can also introduce your children to hunting, it’s a life skill they should early develop.

There are a lot of other rewarding hobbies for survivalists you should try. I can also think of collecting guns (this goes hand in hand with hunting), woodworking or carpentering, raising small animals like chickens (works great if you’re also gardening), camping or going to naturalists clubs. Choose to spend your spare time in a useful way that will later help you in your survival efforts.

 By Alec Deacon