I and S - Improvise and Scrounge

Improvising and scrounging are two very important skills to learn for preparedness and survival. One of the things I have tried to drill into the readers of my newsletter is to do the best you can, with what you have NOW!

In the recent past it was my belief that money was the primary limiting factor on an individuals preparedness plans. However, now I believe that attitude, creativity, and doing the best with what you have now are as or more important than money

Yes, it would be ideal if you could buy a 5-year supply of Mountain House freeze-dried meals in the # 10 cans. However, most people won’t have the money to do that. However, there is nothing stopping most people from buying 1 or 2 cans per month.

Improvising is doing the best you can with what you have now. So lets say that purchasing 1 or 2 cans per month of Mountain House freeze-dried food is too much. You can stock up on dried beans and grains like rice. Buy them in bags at your grocery store and put them in plastic pails with lids on them secured by Gorilla tape.

Scrounging is when you actively search for something you need. Usually if you find what you need, there will be an element of barter involved.

For those of you who are Star Wars fans, you will remember C3PO, a protocol droid fluent in over 6 million forms of communication. Another droid who never made it to the big screen but was in some of the Star Wars books was M3PO, a military droid. Image C3PO in olive green instead of gold. In addition to M3PO’s military training, he was loaded with commodities trading software so he could “scrounge” for what his unit needed when deployed to some backwater planet. Earth could become a backwater planet during several TEOTWAWKI scenarios such as a 1 mile wide asteroid hitting the planet or even a limited nuclear war between the United States and Russia or China.

So how does one learn to scrounge?

First, you’ve got to know your area and know your neighbors. If you don’t know your neighbors and your area, scrounging is going to be difficult. If your neighbor Jack is a welder, you know he’s probably got welding equipment and welding rods. If your neighbor Bill is a carpenter, you know he will have hand tools.

Problem: You need some welding done on your trailer. Jack, the welder will do it in exchange for a large hammer. What do you do? You find something you have the Bill wants and trade that something to Bill the carpenter who gives you a big hammer. You give the hammer to Jack, the welder and Jack does the welding needed on your truck.

The previous example is a good reason to get to know your neighbors and what they do for a living and what skills they have.

Learning your area is also important. Learn what items are in demand in your area and learn who has them. Stockpile these items if possible or have some good or skill you can trade for them.