Knowledge

You don't know what you don't know. If you don't know what you don't know how will you be able to know what you need to know when you need to know it if you don't know.

I feel like the best way to have the knowledge of what to do in a situation is best learned by practice. how to make a fire, how to connect up an emergency generator, how to repair something. That said, what happens when you don't remember or know how to do something or you havn't learened it yet. Rather obviously these days if you have a way to get on the web, youtube etc, you can figure it out probably rather quickly. So I think as part of a short term, light incident situation its good to be ready to connect to the internet a couple different ways. You can get to all the info you need. What I want to talk about is what happens in a situation where you have no internet. power outage. remote situation. etc. It seems on the web there's a lot of great advice on how make preparations for a situation but it rarely seems as though people suggest to simply keep a few how to books with your prep stache. Are you going to know how to connect a generator in a pinch? maybe a book on electrical wiring would be good to keep in your stache. Maybe a manual on furnace repair. Maybe a little index card with different knots. Theres probably a limitless amount of subjects to think through to be ready for. One thing I am a fan of is quick directions. The illustrations that show how to do it without a lot of words. Seems the most effective tome one could gather would be a very condensed set of subjects (small form factor for taking up the least space) with no extra words, just the basics.

Here are some thoughts on some Subject Matter to keep a book in your stache covering:

First Aid/Medical

Electrical (AC and DC)

Manuals/for whatever types of heating sources you use

Recipes

Ways to heat a home in a power/fuel outage situation

Edible/medicinal plants/trees in your areas

Manuals for your vehicles

Ways to generate electricity

Ways to source and purify water

Plat books showing land with public access

How to setup and do maintenance on a sump pump