Making a Habit of Survival Part 2

Part 2 of this topic, which is a good one to think about, and to take on board.

Survival Habits- Part 2, by Northwoods Prepper

As habits develop, processes become routine. For example, I have a process for stacking wood. There are several different ways, but I found the one I like best for my wood storage area, taking into consideration access to our house, snow drifts, and levelness of the ground. I have had cords fall over, which is not only a time loss but dangerous as well. In my area of the world, I like to set old pallets down to keep the cordwood off of the ground; otherwise, the bottom row freezes into place and is available only after a thaw or some work with a sledge hammer.

While some of these habits you can learn from a book or YouTube videos, some of them just need to be experienced. Educational materials can get you close, but they will not get you a bullseye, and this has to be clearly understood. That does not mean educational material has no value, as it is key when trying to establish new habits to ensure you do not create a bad precedent, but in combination with experience it becomes much more so. Let’s go back to the commute example we used earlier. If you are looking at a map, it can provide very clear directions. If I need to plot my way to work, the map will give me the right directions, but there is no guarantee it will give me the best directions. Even mapping programs and applications will almost always give you the most direct route. It is after the experiences that I better understand the map; instead of reading of an intersection of “Wall” and “Stowe”, I can visualize that corner and have a rough understanding of the traffic pattern there, if used regularly. It is the knowledge of the road where it moves quickly or slow.

It applies to every habit that you create for yourself. It is human nature to look for shortcuts or the easier way. If I am at somebody’s house and they have split wood or used a different log splitter or chainsaw, I’m asking them about how it works. Sometimes it’s a cursory discussion, but other times it can be educational. Looking at how others do things and their success or failure is the basic principle of education. But these events are more worthwhile when your knowledge base is stronger. It is even better when you have routine and habit to build upon, because during the discussion you can visualize the event you are discussing, which should make it more applicable to you and, if it is routine, it is more likely that you will remember the conversation when performing the routine, allowing an opening for experiment or change.

Now there are more than several books on good habits, breaking habits, et cetera. Many of these are for the business world or to lose weight or have specific objectives. Some will be applicable or at least have some positive impact. We all have what works for us, and you will have to customize what works for you, but I will share how I look at it.
1.Understand your end goal.
If you do not know why you are doing something, it makes it more difficult to do it well. Back to firewood, having the realization that this is being cut for firewood allows me to cut it to the right length from the beginning and save time. However, I also do not have to be overly neat as, again, it is firewood, so the primary concern is fitting into my stove to burn.

2.Know the process chain.
Knowing all the steps helps as well. While my goal is to ultimately cut the wood to fit into the stove, having the knowledge that I will split the wood allows me to not worry about girth when cutting for stove size (although I still have to know how much I can lift onto the splitter or will have to do by hand). When cutting and splitting, having knowledge about how you will stack your wood saves time later.

3.Understand the dangers.
Developing successful habits can also involve processes that are dangerous. While cutting firewood sounds fairly innocuous, it is fraught with peril. Here are some of the dangers with firewood that you should be aware of: tree toppling the wrong way or not as expected, chainsaw blade getting wedged, cords falling over, critters setting up home inside your woodpile, tripping over cut wood, splitting axe deflected, chimney fires, et cetera. This doesn’t mention muscle soreness from over exertion or blisters, splinters, bruises, and aches. Knowing the dangers helps minimize the risk, and there are many stories of those who have lost equipment, body parts, or worse while cutting firewood, so take any dangers seriously.

4.Get going!

This is probably the most important point. Getting started is often the hardest, but once you get going the rest starts falling into place. Revel in the fact that you have taken that first step.

5.Start with an open mind.

Regardless of what endeavor we are initiating, we have some preconceived idea of what comes next. Getting started is important. Realize you are going to make mistakes and probably make many changes. Be open to suggestions from yourself and others. Experiment when you can afford to in order to learn. For example, I have tried stacking wood in different ways and still do. I know what works, but I’ll try different things occasionally to see if it saves time or dries the wood better or is more secure. There will come a point where I’m satisfied with my process, but I still try other things occasionally to see if there is room for improvement.

6.Set short goals.

Don’t try to do everything at once. For example, our process started with installing the wood burner and making sure it was safe and usable. The next goal was getting wood. The first couple of seasons, we purchased as much if not more that we cut ourselves. The following season was establishing a pattern of cutting and splitting our own wood and setting it to age properly. Now we are still evaluating proper tools and what we need to improve our process as well as building a small outbuilding for better protection of the wood.

7.Evaluate regularly.

Take time to step back from the process and assess. What should I have done differently, and what can I change now to make it better and more efficient? While you may not be able to correct all your mistakes, it is still worthwhile to reflect upon them for future opportunities.

8.Use all available resources.

When starting something new, use all your resources, from owner’s manual to Internet. Talk to experts and friends (realizing the differences), and look at how to apply them. The ones that you find the most insightful, save and reuse after three or six months. It will have a very different meaning once you have some basic experiences.

9.Have the right tools.

Having the right tools is key to any job. Understanding the need in the right circumstances is also valuable. With cutting my own firewood, I’ve invested into a very nice Stihl saw (Farm Boss). In addition, I have a couple of axes and wedges (bought or given as gifts) and hand saws. I’ve had other chainsaws that are good for some work but cannot always handle everything. At this time, I am still evaluating log splitters and borrow my neighbors’ or split by hand. I am longing for a good quality log splitter.

10.Think of alternatives methods to achieve your goal.

So after we have committed to a wood burning stove, invested in tools and equipment, have three years of firewood to go, I ask you to look at alternatives. Of course, my goal is heat and keeping warm, not the simple joy of having a fire. So alternatives could be as simple as additional insulation. The value of improving the weather stripping of windows not only becomes an energy saving project but a true trade off in labor of moving firewood. If I can reduce the heat leakage in my house by x%, that is x% less wood that I need to move over the years. Perhaps I am close to a place where I can access corn cobs inexpensively and use that as fuel for my furnace instead of wood? Both electric and therma-electric fans to move the heat may be valuable to increase the warmth of the house. Solar could be considered as an additional heat source as well. The point of this step is to realize that there are multiple ways to increase efficiency, and some of it may be in finding ways to minimize use.

However, alternatives could mean finding a whole new way to heat your home. You may realize, unfortunately, that there is not enough lumber in your area to practically heat a home. There may be a more cost effective and less labor intensive process. This is why the majority of homes are heated with natural gas. It works great and is easy. While hopefully you fully vetted your options before you started, sometimes life just is unfortunate and you realize your mistake too late.


While I thoroughly enjoy the tangible knowledge of gear and gadgets or the basic how-to articles I find on SurvivalBlog, it is my belief that the mindset of individuals will be the key to getting through any grid down scenario. Book knowledge is good, but it is no substitute for real world experience. Real world experience is gained by “doing” regularly (not practice, not studying, not watching others) and routinely and having the various issues arise that you must overcome, i.e. instilling good habits. It prevents similar issues from reoccurring and increases your mental toolkit to handle the next issue. It also allows you to work on autopilot so your mind can figure out other issues while still keeping busy and handling tasks at hand. In a grid down situation, fear of the unknown may be paralyzing, but if you know instinctively through habit that now is the time to get the wood, feed the chickens, or weed the garden, it will give you a significant edge over those who are figuring these things out for the first time. In addition, habit is developed by experience over a period of time. Having a habit means you will also have a better understanding of the outcome, therefore relieving some insecurity for a very uncertain future. Good luck and start your path to good habits today.

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Making a Habit of Survival

Here are some great points to ponder about survival, and how to make it a habit, or a part of your normal life.

Survival Habits- Part 1, by Northwoods Prepper

The majority of the people in our country and the world are urban dwellers. Even those living in the country, let alone in the smaller cities and towns, do not embrace a truly self-sustainable lifestyle. The ease and low cost of getting a gallon of milk at the store versus the time and space required to raise a milk cow or two, let alone keeping them healthy and productive and then finding a way to store the milk, is almost prohibitive. This is due to the economic principal of “division of labor”, where the specialist with hundreds if not thousands of heads of cattle can produce milk inexpensively and fairly reliably. However, it is also a habit and a way of life, and if you have always raised your own cows then the idea of buying milk from someone else’s cow let alone a factory-produced, plastic constrained, highly pasteurized and manipulated milk is a totally foreign concept. This article is directed toward those in the city, although anyone can gain insight.

All of us have bad and good habits and know the difficultly in changing them. Exercising regularly, giving up certain things (whether sweets; caffeinated, carbonated, or alcoholic beverages; tobacco; et cetera), addictions to television or social media, or even reading your bible on a daily basis can often be a challenge and one that is difficult during the best of times (which is what we are living in now) with every opportunity and resource for us to change them. Some habits are forced upon (the majority of) us, such as getting up and going to school or work every day or paying taxes. It is a way of life. Good habits tend to be more effort now and beneficial in the long run, while bad habits have the opposite impact.

As a SurvivalBlog reader, you have the same grid down concerns that I do. In the most extreme situations we will all have to radically alter our way of living. My family has moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a remote farm. This move, with full access to modern conveniences, has not been easy, but it is even harder to change our habits. From my perspective, there are two major types of preppers. There are those who are preparing for the instability of world change with a complete grid down golden horde scenario that will be utterly devastating, i.e. get through the hard hump and hopeful that things will return to normalcy at some point. The others are full lifestyle changes based on the belief that the current situation (growth, resource use, population density, et cetera) are all untenable and will force a long-term change on the human race, whether we have a massive convulsion or not. We are a bit of both and wanted to share so you understand our perspective. Still, coming from a traditional suburban lifestyle, it is hard to give up watching television or playing a video game in the evening after a long day at work. It is hard to spend time and money setting up a garden that, if lucky, we may break even in cost instead of buying the food outright. Yes, we fully understand the intangibles (organic, environmentally friendly, control of our food source, et cetera), but making this change is hard.

Habits are important as they allow you to operate without critical thought. Consider this for a moment and your average commute to work. After a while of working at any job, you know the traffic situation, how long it takes for you to waken, get ready, grab lunch, and drive to work. If you forgot gas or lunch, you know the time it takes to figure it in, and it barely impacts your day. If you sleep in, you know how much faster you need to shower and dress. These actions are all built on knowledge and habit. The time you save not having to plan a route with gas refilling stations and food options is huge, especially when it is extrapolated over a period of time. Obstacles become minor issues that allow your day to be uneventful. Some argue this is knowledge, not habit. Take the same situation above and a friend or spouse needs to drop something off at your place of employment. Can you remember all the street names or are you guiding them by landmarks and vague recollections? Some of us will know the details, but most of us “just know the way” and end up giving the friend the address of the place with faith in GPS or telling them to turn left at “First Bank” and right after the “Green Gas Station”.

Habits also make us more efficient. In the same scenario above, if you work long enough at the same place you will find the most cost effective and/or convenient places to stop for gas or groceries. If your commute is long enough, you will have your primary route, which will be the least amount of miles or time (whichever you value greater) but will also have one or two key alternatives, should there be a car accident or construction work. Instinctively, you know if there are traffic problems and whether you need to call your boss based on the anticipated time delay. You know if it snows that you need to be up an extra half hour early and the weeks around holidays you can leave ten minutes later. Again, these are habits developed over time and experience without a significant amount of thought or study.

Establishing a self-sustainable lifestyle requires hundreds of habits. Depending upon your choices, there are thousands of differing subjects that each need their own routines, especially those surrounding plants and animals. We can go through pages and books on habits and different routines. However, as an example, I am going to pick one subject that is common to all: heat. Even in the southern states, winter nights get cold, and where I live– north of Chicago– it is cold from November through March. I also like using firewood as an example because it requires a regular process of feeding wood to a furnace, which has a similar rhythm to having animals or managing a garden and is very simple concept to understand and most of us have the basic concept of firewood down well. It is not that great of a mystery.

At this time, we still utilize natural gas, so we are not solely dependent upon wood for heat. In addition, we have electricity, and on the very cold days we use supplemental electrical heat or bake in our electric oven. To say we are self-sufficient is a far cry, but we have built better habits.

We have instilled a habit of keeping the wood burner running all winter long, night and day. What have we learned from this habit? We’ve earned how to maximize the heat the wood burner can produce. Instinctively I can damper the air when the fire is hot and open the airflow when starting or wanting more heat. It is a rare day and more of a fond distant memory that I smoke out the house when starting a fire. We have learned how often to remove ash and clean the fireplace and how to utilize warm daylight hours to retrieve wood. It has become a regular system and a good daily habit.

The seasonal habits are also starting to form well, such as taking time to chop, split, and stack wood. Aged wood burns hotter, and while it requires more preparation in the front end it saves time when you want good hot fires. Moving and stacking wood is a constant process. If it sits and ages too long, it has the potential to rot or become infested. You want to set up a series of piles for burning by age so the oldest goes first. This is a seasonal habit that does not occur on your first year or second year. Sometimes it takes a cold winter where your wood supply gets really slim or even disappears before you learn the hard lesson. We are still figuring out exactly how much wood we need to burn each winter. After several years we know what we need to ensure we have a constant supply, but I have not developed the instinct or habit for the consumed amount. Part of that is due to the kind of wood that is readily on hand. We have a good idea of the wood that we have easily available for us to chop and use without concern of running low. We have not determined which wood burns best at what age. That comes from experience, and you can read for hours on wood burning, but like so many things it depends on specific circumstances: your type of stove, age, type of wood, et cetera. There are good combinations and poor combinations.

Another habit that I’m developing is learning to be available when wood is free (aside from labor). After storms or if somebody is clearing an area, a polite visit to the land owner can often provide access to trees, and there is usually somebody on Craigslist willing to give away a tree if you can cut it down. If already cut, this can be a huge time saver if the wood is right for you. But even if there is nothing quite as aggravating as turning a tree into firewood (cutting, splitting, storing, and stacking) and finding it does not burn well, it is also a learning experience. Maybe that wood can be utilized for outdoor campfires or landscaping projects. The more wood I can access off my property allows for greater resources on my property when needed, since trees take time to replace. While this may sound a bit selfish, I am offering fair trade in the current market and more often helping people get rid of unwanted waste.

https://survivalblog.com/survival-habits-part-1-by-northwoods-prepper/

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