How to Get Started: Advice from one Newbie to other Newbies
How to Get Started: Advice from one Newbie to other Newbies
I have no camping, military or survival training and am unquestionably a newbie. I’ve spent significant time reading and thinking about the topics on this site... here’s what I’ve learned, in hopes it will help you get started on the road to peace-of-mind and general preparedness:
1) You need to get a clear handle on what you want to prepare for and what concerns you have. Preparation for a “winter storm: 3 days w/o power” is different from “3 weeks w/o power” which is mighty different from “3 months w/o power.” Your decisions will be much easier and results better if you internalize your concerns rather than just “jumping-in.”
2) Emergency, wilderness and survival preparation is an art, not a science. There is much more grey-area than black-and-white answers. You need to understand that. You can’t expect to read one book or website to find all of your questions neatly packaged together… there are simply to many variables and opinions.
For example, to a newbie, the question: “What is the best way to prepare for cooking w/o electricity?” seems perfectly reasonable. But what you will learn is, there are at least 5 methods, all different, some overlapping, all with passionate defenders. The best method for you depends on personal preferences and circumstance. It has helped me to think about these topics as I would think about a serious medical condition. I would do plenty of reading and research and gets lots of opinions before forming my own opinions. That’s how these issues work.
3) When using this site, the first thing you must do is Register. The SECOND thing is go to the Introduction thread
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...splay.php?f=14 and introduce yourself to the others. Why?
A) So that the Super Moderators don’t have a cow (or a calf :-)
B) So that the people who are going to help you, can find out a little bit about you. No one is interested in your resume… but a little bit of information like: where you live, your age and any special skills or training you may have will help the teachers better teach.
C) This is a very intelligent and helpful community… but you are stranger, so YOU should take the first step.
D) Oh yeah.. I’ve read this maybe 50 times: If you have a website or want to promote something, KEEP IT OUT OF YOUR POST! (No one really cares, especially if you are a Newbie.) You really should try to contribute something to the Community FIRST, before trying to sell it something.
4) Read! Before my first post, in fact, even before I registered, I spent several weeks reading through hundreds of threads and literally thousands of posts. I spent an hour per day, probably 100 hrs total, getting educated. (Thanks to all of you!) (And, yes, my wife was a bit concerned, at first.) So now, I’m a hellova lot smarter than when I first meandered onto this site.
And to make the most of my reading/research, I created many word docs on different topics (water, gas, candles/light, food storage, food prep, etc.) Whenever I found some useful info (very often) I summarized or copied it to my docs. And whenever I found a new topic of interest, I created a new doc. Later I organized the snippets and before long, I had complete 1-page strategies on all sorts of topics. You can’t remember everything and it is easy to get overwhelmed with the breadth of information and opinions. This method helped me a great deal.
5) Ask intelligent questions. Think first about your question and then ask it completely. Here’s an example of what I mean:
I’ve seen lots of Newbie questions like “What is the best way to store water?” That’s a legit newbie question that will receive many different responses. But, I suspect will be ignored by some senior members and those you really want to hear from. Why?... because the question is incomplete. What you should have asked was: “My family of three lives on the 10th floor in a small apartment in a very old building in the middle of a big northern city and I’m concerned about pipes freezing or water-main breaks and loss of water for 2-3 days, what is the best way for me to store water?” Now, that’s a question that will get direct and specific and very helpful answers.
Appreciate, if you live in the desert (but don’t tell anyone) and ask about food storage; then get answers from experts living in Alaska about "burrying supplies under the tundra for the long term"... how helpful is that? There’s an old computer term “GIGO” stands for “garbage-in, garbage-out.” It’s fully applicable here too.
Remember, we were all Newbies once… so go forth and learn and then contribute whatever you can to the Community.
I hope this helps.
PS: Special thanks to: Rick, Crash, Chris, Ken, Bulrush, Beowulf, Trax, Sarky, Ole Coot, Pict, Sarge, Wareagle, Remy, Nell67, Owl Girl and Hopeak for getting me from bumbling idiot to Newbie.
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