Practice Makes Perfect

Today I am going to link to a very informative site that deals with third world countries. This site has many many MANY how to articles on topics that may come in handy for preppers even here in the good ole USA. Topics range from agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, harvesting etc etc etc. Granted some of the topics would not be relevant to our country but once you start looking around you will find so much information that you can use that its worth putting the link in your favorites.
http://www.cd3wd.com/CD3WD_40/CD3WD/index.htm


Better yet, if you see a topic that is relevant and speaks to a topic you want to learn more about either print it off or jot down the relevant portions and keep them with your survival library material.

Your prepper/survival library is a very important aspect of being prepared. If there are skills you do not have search out someone who does and ask them to teach you. If that is not an option get a book or research it on line.

It is wise to practice skills especially those that are not easily accomplished or that you need to brush up on. If there are skills you have that you know you are good at, offer to teach someone else.


There is truth to the old saying that practice makes perfect. You do not want to be relying on a skill for survival that you have only read about but never put to practical use by actually doing it. Can you build a fire with no matches? Can you navigate with a compass? Have you and your family done a dry run on bugging out? Do you have a means of communication with others? Can you construct a temporary shelter if need be? Can you smoke or dry meat? Can you make a snare?


Understanding something in theory is not the same as actually doing it. There is a thing called muscle memory that kicks in automatically when a skill is practiced repeatedly. For an example remember the first time you split wood by hand? You may have been clumsy and slow. Now you can whip through a wood pile like no ones business! The first time you shot a handgun you were more than likely clumsy and nervous. Now you can shoot, drop the mag, reload, shoot some more and there is not a lot of thought process like there was the first time you picked it up or drew it from your holster. You have taught your muscles the actions to perform that task with practice.


If there was a true survival situation the more skills that you have stored in muscle memory the better. These things become automatic responses. For example I live in Maine. We have snow. We have ice. We lose power at times. This past winter the power went out, but we expected it. We already had our water drawn. I had a thermos of coffee ready. We started a fire in the old wood burning cook stove to supplement the heat from the wood stove in the basement. The candles, lanterns, and flashlights were brought out and ready. The radio was switched to battery power so we could still get news updates and the day went on. It wasnt a big deal, these things were done automatically. There was no question of who was doing what, we knew what needed to be done and just did it. This is because the power goes out here a lot. The reaction and action is a learned response.


There is no time like the present. Create a scenario that meshes with your level of preparedness and put your skills to use. Dust off that book on building a shelter or a smoke house and actually do it. If you have kids, have them pitch in to help. Make a day or weekend of it and make it fun. The more things you are confident at the better equipped you will be when you need that skill to kick in automatically.