The 'how to' project

Hi everyone,

I've been recognising a lot of articles being posted on mass recently, packed full of useful information. Not unlike something I've been doing myself for over 2 years now.

Concerned and inspired by what we MAY face in the future, I took it on myself to compile information that would be useful to myself. I was worried that I didn't know how to do much. I'm not talking about food and water (athough no doubt, I'm certainly covering it), I'm talking about things we take for granted.

Let me put it this way, does anyone know how to source, mine, refine and smelt metals? How about sourcing iodine for water filters? Do you have to knowledge to build 'something'? Can you make someting as simple as paper and an implement to write on it? See my point?

"We are of a generation that landed a man on the moon and the best we can do is talk about making tools out of stone..." - Peter Copley, Survivors (BBC) 1975

So my self imposed task was to write a book for myself and anyone else who wanted it, that told me how to do these things. I've grown to hate the idea of looking at anything and not knowing how it came to be right from scratch. I can make a table out of some wood, but where do a get the metal to make the nails, or the axe to chop my wood?

I've covered a lot so far, and will compile the contents soon in a following post for you all to see. But what I really want is some help. It's one thing to source the information but it's another to actually try it out for yourself. And more importantly. It's another thing to know what you should be covering. One person can realise that a square has four sides, but a friend can also recognise the fact that it's also blue.

The more people involved, the more we can uncover on each subject.

If there's anyone that would like to help me in this project, as any of the following please e-mail me. There's no financial gain here, only a thirst for a deeper understanding of everything that helps us to live in comfort and sucess. No ego's please

-Writers
-Researchers
-Testers (of information gathered)

If you are a 'self confessed one of the above', who feels safe in the knowledge of your surroundings and has the heart to want to understand, then please send a U2U or reply (or something!..) for more information on how we can work together to achieve this intense idea.

Cheers,
Ben

Here's a sample of some of the topics covered, from a sketch of the outline I did a while ago. Most of the newer versions of the below are handwritten, but hopefully this will give a broad idea!

Chapter One – Food and Water
Part One – Water
a) Sources of Water
b) Cleaning Water
c) Storing Water
d) Recycling Water and using it properly

Part Two – Farming and growing food
a)Food list and FAQ
b)Caring for crops
c)Harvesting
d)Storing Food
-Getting seeds, planting seeds and when to sow them
-Crop cycles


Part Three – Hunting and fishing
-Animal snares and traps
-How to fish
-tracking animals

Part Four – Livestock
-Bees
-Cows
-Sheep
-Chicken
-Pigs
-Ducks
-Dogs
-Rabbits/Hares

Part Five – Cooking and food storage
-Food Storage
-Alcohol
-Cooking meat
-Preparing flour and baking bread
-Killing, skinning and preparing an animal


Chapter Two – Taking Care of yourself
Part One - Medical
-Dehydration and Starvation
-Abrasions, cuts and wounds
a) Scratches
b) Cuts
c) Wounds
-Broken bones and fractures

Part Two - Staying at your best
- Exercise
- Hygene
- Staying happy and attitudes

Chapter Three – ‘Survival Skills’ and 'BushCraft'
Part One - Survival Skills
- Natural disasters
a) Wind based
b) Water Based
c) Fire based
d) Earth based

Part Two - Bushcraft
- Fire
- Map reading
- Camping
- Predicting weather

Chapter Four - Multipurpose and useful items
- Rope
- Containers
- soaps and parfume
- adhesives
- paper
- paints and ink
- candles
- iodine

Chapter Five – Raw Materials
- Mining Metals
- refining ore
- glass
- wax
- clay
- fabrics

Chapter Six – Textiles

- shoes
- bedding
- warm/winter clothes
- cool/summer clothes
- fabric bags
-nets
-rope/string

Chapter Seven – Construction
Part One - Carpentry
- joints
Part Two - Tools
-hammers
-saws
-plows
-shovels
-knives

Part Three - The Eco-Dome

Part Four - Useful Structures
-Toilets
-showers
-underground fridge


Chapter Eight - Electricity
-batteries
-wind turbines

Bigmoose

Sir good luck with your project, one very good book that may prove to be a good source of material is WHEN TECHNOLOGY FAILS by Stein published by Clear Light ISBN 1-57416-047-8.

I've already tralled that source for all it's worth. But thanks for the help mate

Bigmoose

Nice list, indeed. You forgot to add communication skill. How to avoid conflicts, how to lead a pack or follow the leader. How to make a pack. Midwifery also is outside the list. Mate - survival of the person is of no importance. Howtos has to be for survival of the group.

reply to post by bigmoose


Good luck with your project, I'm going to do something similiar and write a personal survival guide for myself. One thing I would add to the list is Self - Defence, nothing fancy or flashy but some general tips, tricks & technique on how to physically look after yourselve and others if need be.