Skill Guides
The manual and addenda tell you what to have and what to practice. These guides are the actual how-to: step-by-step instructions for the physical skills behind each topic, sourced to the same agencies and standards bodies (CDC, EPA, WHO, NSF) cited throughout the rest of this site.
80 guides in all: 16 core guides, one per topic, covering the foundational hands-on layer any household can learn from a page. The other 64 go deeper, into specific sub-skills that are genuinely teachable in text even though the addenda's own fuller mastery-level content is a real-world commitment (a certification, a growing season, a multi-day course) no page can substitute for. Most topics only need a handful of those narrow, single-technique additions; Food is the outlier, its storage, planning, growing, and foraging guides add up to real breadth, which is why that section alone gets its own subheadings below. None of this covers what to actually do during or right after an emergency, that's a separate companion manual, Surviving. Each guide has its own PDF download, or grab a combined one:
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The 16 core guides
- Water Water Purification Tier 1-2 Boiling, chemical disinfection, filtration, solar disinfection, and UV pen sterilizers: exact ratios and times for making questionable water safe to drink.
- Food Auditing Your Food Supply Tier 1 A step-by-step method for finding out how many days of food a household actually has on hand, not a guess, with a no-scale-required worksheet, a worked example, and a way to see what's left to buy for a target number of days.
- Energy & Heat Generator, Heater & Utility Shutoff Safety Tier 1-3 Running a portable generator without carbon monoxide poisoning or an illegal, deadly backfeed, the same risk from indoor propane and kerosene heaters, and how to shut off your gas, water, and electricity.
- Communication Family Communication Plan & Emergency Radio Tier 1-2 Building a family communication plan, programming a NOAA weather radio, and choosing between GMRS and ham radio.
- Medical Care First Aid Basics Tier 1 Wound care, bleeding control, shock, splinting, choking, heat illness, hypothermia, and anaphylaxis, including where infants and children need a different response, plus where to get hands-on certified training for CPR and severe bleeding control.
- Digital Data & Documents Document Go-Bag & Digital Backup Tier 1 What documents to gather, how to store them physically, and how to back them up digitally so a lost or destroyed original isn't the only copy.
- Economic & Financial Financial Preparedness Basics Tier 1 Building a real cash reserve and documenting your home for an insurance claim before you ever need to file one.
- Transportation Vehicle Emergency Kit & Roadside Basics Tier 1-2 What belongs in your car, changing a tire, jump-starting a dead battery, handling an overheating engine, and surviving being stranded in a winter storm.
- Shelter & Structural Safety Emergency Shelter Basics Tier 1 FEMA-standard home safe rooms, and improvising shelter when you don't have a building at all: the three principles that keep you alive, a tarp shelter, and a cold-weather debris hut.
- Pet Evacuation & Shelter Pet Evacuation & First Aid Basics Tier 1 A pet evacuation kit, finding pet-friendly shelter in advance, and safely giving first aid to an injured, frightened pet, including what's different for cats, birds, reptiles, and small mammals.
- Access & Functional Needs Backup Power for Medical Equipment & Caregiving Tier 1-2 Keeping CPAP machines, oxygen concentrators, and power wheelchairs running through an outage, protecting refrigerated medication like insulin, and formalizing a backup caregiver.
- Mental Health Psychological First Aid Tier 1 The WHO/Red Cross Look, Listen, Link model for supporting someone, including a child, through the acute stress of a disaster.
- Fitness Physical Readiness for Emergencies Tier 1-2 The specific physical demands an emergency places on your body, carrying a load and walking distance, and the exercises that train for them directly, plus why balance and fall prevention matter more for older adults.
- Post-Disaster Recovery & Rebuilding Filing Claims After a Disaster Tier 1-2 The correct order of operations: documenting damage, filing insurance, applying for FEMA assistance, appealing a denial or applying for an SBA disaster loan, and avoiding contractor fraud.
- Sanitation & Hygiene Bathroom & Hygiene Without Running Water Tier 1-2 Step-by-step instructions for using the bathroom, sponge bathing, hand hygiene, washing dishes, and doing laundry, including drying it, when the water is off: exact materials, quantities, and disposal steps.
- Security & Self-Defense Firearm Safety, Storage & Self-Defense Basics Tier 1-2 The safety and legal foundation underneath the addendum's firearms training pathway: universal handling rules, real storage options and their tradeoffs, Utah's actual self-defense statutes, and honest coverage of non-firearm self-defense, including why proficiency requires real training, not just ownership.
Going deeper
Water 7 guides
Download all 7 Water guides
- Storing Water Correctly Tier 1 Which containers to use, how to clean and sanitize them before filling, whether tap water needs treatment first, and how often to rotate stored water.
- Measuring Your Water Intake Tier 1 How to turn a daily water target into something you can actually observe: a kitchen scale, a calibrated container, or, with no tool at all, standard container sizes and sourced swallow estimates.
- Sourcing & Hauling Water Tier 2 Where to actually find more water once the stored supply runs low, how much a full container weighs, and when to switch from carrying to a cart.
- Legal Rainwater Harvesting in Utah Tier 3 Utah's actual rainwater storage rule, how to register for free, and how to build a basic collection system that doesn't create a mosquito problem.
- Building a Biosand Water Filter Tier 3 The real CAWST-standard design for a sand-and-gravel gravity filter that doesn't rely on a replaceable cartridge, why flow rate is the whole mechanism, and why the popular fast-flow bucket version is untested, not just less effective.
- Collecting Water From Snow, Dew & Condensation Tier 2 Real, honestly-rated low-tech ways to get water with no source nearby: melting snow correctly, dew collection, transpiration bags, and why a solar still is a last resort, not a real strategy.
- Water Testing: Strips, Labs & Field Methods Tier 2 What a cheap test strip actually tells you, when a mail-in lab is worth it, and real field-expedient bacteria tests, WHO-recommended and sold in the US, for when mailing a sample isn't an option.
Food 20 guides
Download all 20 Food guides
Food storage & safety
- Sealing Bulk Food for Long-Term Storage Tier 2-3 Sizing an oxygen absorber, the heat-sealing technique, and how to confirm a Mylar bag actually sealed before you trust it for years of storage.
- Food Preservation: Canning, Dehydrating & Smoking Tier 3 Why acid decides canning method, altitude-adjusted processing times, safe dehydrating and curing, and the specific traditional techniques, open-kettle canning, wax sealing, dry canning, that are genuinely dangerous, not just old-fashioned.
- Food Safety After a Power Outage Tier 1 Exactly how long refrigerated and frozen food stays safe without power, what order to eat it in to minimize waste, when it's safe to refreeze, and how to use dry ice as a stopgap.
- Improvised Cold Storage: Root Cellars & Evaporative Cooling Tier 2-3 Real crop-by-crop temperature and humidity targets, four buildable methods from a buried trash can to a full earth-bermed cellar, Utah's actual frost-line depths, and the honest correction on how cold a zeer pot really gets.
Planning your food supply
- Calorie Planning for Your Food Supply Tier 1 Real calories-per-pound figures for dry staples versus canned goods, how much more than 2,000 calories/day physical labor actually requires, macro balance, the vitamin C and B12 gap in an all-shelf-stable diet, and why menu monotony undermines a plan that looks fine on paper.
- What to Grow: Crop Selection & Seed Saving Tier 3-4 Which crops actually close the nutrition gap stored grains and beans leave behind, heirloom versus hybrid seed and why it matters for indefinite resupply, real isolation distances for saving true-to-type seed, and what to avoid in a commercial 'survival seed vault.'
Growing your own food
- Building a Walipini: The Underground Greenhouse Tier 3 Real design specs for a pit greenhouse that uses the earth's own stable temperature to extend a growing season, the honest cost correction on the viral '$300 walipini' figure, and the site conditions (water table, drainage) that can rule it out entirely.
- Building a Food Forest Tier 3 The real 7-layer design behind a food forest, an honest establishment timeline and labor curve, real case studies at their actual confidence levels, and which popular permaculture claims, dynamic accumulators among them, don't hold up.
- Row Crop & Raised Bed Gardening Tier 3 Bed prep, intensive spacing versus traditional rows, watering depth and frequency, succession planting for a continuous harvest, and real Wasatch Front planting dates, the actual technique behind the most common way to grow food.
- Growing in a Food Forest Tier 3 Real guild composition, fruit tree pruning timing and technique, honest evidence on polyculture pest management, and harvest staggering across a food forest's layers, the growing technique Building a Food Forest's design guide stops short of.
- Growing in a Walipini Tier 3 Succession planting to actually use a walipini's year-round capability, humidity and condensation management specific to an underground pit, the fungal and pest pressure that comes with it, and what changes if you're growing in an above-ground greenhouse instead.
- Hydroponics & Aquaponics Basics Tier 3 The four real system types and which one actually suits a beginner, aquaponics' nitrogen cycle explained honestly, nutrient solution pH and EC ranges, what actually grows well in these systems, and the real electricity dependency most of them carry.
- Perennial Vegetables Tier 3 Real vegetables that come back every year with no replanting: asparagus and rhubarb's multi-year establishment timeline, walking onions and sunchokes as genuinely low-maintenance options, and the honest containment problem sunchokes create if planted without a plan.
- Regenerative Agriculture: Cover Crops, No-Till & Composting Tier 3 Real cover crop species and termination timing, the no-till/sheet-mulching method, and the actual carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and pile size a home compost system needs to work, the hands-on technique behind the closed-loop soil fertility Long-Run Sustainability argues for.
- Microgreens Tier 3 Real harvest timing (7-14 days, not weeks), the best varieties for speed and nutrient density, why they're 4-40x more nutrient-dense than the mature crop but lose that edge fast after cutting, and how they fit a soil tray, a walipini, or a hydroponic system equally well.
- Backyard Poultry & Small Livestock Basics Tier 3 The real nutritional case for keeping laying hens (the one gap no garden can close), real coop space and ventilation numbers, why chicken wire doesn't actually stop a predator, the local ordinance most people skip checking, and what changes once you're keeping a flock for food, not just eggs.
Foraging & hunting
- Hunting, Trapping & Field Dressing Basics Tier 3 Real hunter education requirements, the three main trap styles and how each actually works, and the field-dressing steps and cooling window that decide whether a harvest becomes safe meat or wasted meat.
- Foraging Wild Edibles Basics Tier 3 The deadly look-alikes that actually kill foragers every year, the smell test that tells wild onion from death camas, why the Army's Universal Edibility Test is a last resort, and when to defer to a real class.
Sanitation & Hygiene 5 guides
Download all 5 Sanitation & Hygiene guides
- Household Trash & Pet Waste Disposal Tier 1-2 Real disposal technique for garbage and pet waste once collection stops: what to burn, what to store, how to pest-proof it, and how to bury pet waste correctly.
- Death, Burial & Body Disposition Tier 3-4 What actually happens legally when someone dies and a funeral home isn't available: the death certificate process, preserving a body without embalming, and the real, state- and county-dependent rules around burial on private land.
- Composting Toilets: Humanure, Vermicomposting & Incineration Tier 3 Real pathogen die-off science behind thermophilic composting, the actual carbon-to-nitrogen ratio that makes it work, vermicomposting as a genuine pretreatment step, and current incinerating-toilet costs, for when a bucket toilet needs to become a permanent system.
- Soap Making: Lye & Oils Tier 3 The real chemistry behind saponification, why the fat-to-lye ratio isn't optional, handling lye safely, and making your own lye from wood ash once store-bought lye isn't an option.
- Greywater Disposal Basics Tier 2 Why kitchen sink water is actually blackwater, the mulch basin design that disperses shower and laundry water safely underground, which soaps are safe to use, and how long pathogens take to break down in soil.
Medical Care 6 guides
Download all 6 Medical Care guides
- Medical Kits: What Actually Goes in Each One Tier 1 Real, sourced contents for a go-bag IFAK, a home medical kit, a vehicle kit, and a Tier 4 community cache, including the tourniquet-time-marking detail people forget and why a parked car is a genuinely bad place to store medication.
- Understanding START Triage Tier 2 The five-question decision sequence for sorting multiple injured people by severity in about 30 seconds each, and where to practice it on simulated patients.
- Pregnancy, Childbirth & Newborn Care Tier 3 Prenatal danger signs, recognizing real labor, what to actually do if delivery happens before help arrives, the single most life-saving postpartum action, and immediate newborn care.
- Isolating a Sick Household Member Tier 2 How to actually set up a home quarantine: a dedicated space, dedicated items, a cleaning routine, and when it's safe to end isolation, so one stomach illness doesn't take down the whole household.
- Herbal Medicine & the Home Apothecary Tier 3 Which common herbal remedies have real evidence behind them, the dangerous plants that get mistaken for them, serious drug interactions, and where to get real training.
- Dental Emergencies & Basic Care Tier 3 Recognizing a dental infection that's a real medical emergency, pain management that actually works, saving a knocked-out tooth in the first 30-60 minutes, temporary filling material, and the real risks of a last-resort DIY extraction.
Energy & Heat 9 guides
Download all 9 Energy & Heat guides
- Staying Warm Without Power Tier 1 Layering technique, picking and sealing the one room you'll heat, insulating from the floor, and which heat sources are safe indoors and which never are.
- Fire-Starting: Ignition, Fire Lays & Extinguishing Tier 1-3 Redundant ignition (ferro rod, flint and steel, bow drill), the real fire-lay to use for cooking versus an overnight burn, wet-weather and wind technique, and the actual U.S. Forest Service method for putting a fire out cold.
- Building a Jean Pain Compost Heat Mound Tier 3 A real, decades-old method for turning a pile of wood chips into months of free hot water or greenhouse heat: honest output numbers against the original claims, the right pipe material, and the real fire risk of a large compost pile.
- Building a Rocket Mass Heater Tier 2-3 A dramatically more fuel-efficient wood-burning heater than a standard wood stove: how it actually works, the real legal path to building one, and the safety practices that make it work as intended.
- DIY Solar Water Heater Tier 3 Building a simple, no-electricity batch solar water heater: real achievable temperatures, why it's a warm-season tool in Utah rather than a year-round one, and the freeze-protection design a real winter build needs.
- Sizing a Solar Array & Battery System Tier 2-3 A real sizing methodology across four load tiers, from whole-house down to bare-essentials charging, the formulas for panels, battery, and inverter, and the Utah-specific winter sun-hours gotcha that undersizes most first attempts.
- Sizing a Fuel-Powered Generator Tier 2 Running watts vs. starting watts, real fuel consumption and shelf life by type, why an inverter generator matters for a CPAP, and the honest tradeoff between a generator and solar plus battery.
- Pedal Power: Bicycle Generators Tier 3 Realistic bicycle-generator output, a real commercial option, the DIY direct-drive-plus-flywheel design that actually works, why the viral "pedal an hour, power your house" claim is false, and charging a thermal battery instead of an electrical one.
- Stirling Engines: Turning Stored Heat Back Into Power Tier 3 How a Stirling engine turns any heat source back into electricity, honest real-world efficiency numbers, the realistic combined-heat-and-power use case, and why it behaves differently on a discharging thermal battery than on a live fire.
Shelter & Structural Safety 2 guides
Download all 2 Shelter & Structural Safety guides
- Securing Your Home Against Earthquake Damage Tier 1 Finding studs, water heater and furniture anchoring technique, and where to start first, since falling objects, not collapse, cause most earthquake injuries.
- Basic Knots Tier 1 Seven real knots this site's own guides already assume you know, the square knot, bowline, clove hitch, two half-hitches, sheet bend, taut-line hitch, and trucker's hitch, each with a real illustration and the actual tying steps.
Security & Self-Defense 1 guide
Access & Functional Needs 2 guides
Download all 2 Access & Functional Needs guides
- DIY Assistive Equipment Fabrication Tier 3 Real organizations behind free 3D-printed prosthetics and open-source assistive devices, simple PVC-based builds you can make today, and exactly where DIY stops and professional help starts.
- Home Accessibility Modifications Tier 2-3 Real ramp slope ratios, why a grab bar into drywall is a fall waiting to happen, and the cheapest doorway-widening fix most people never try before reaching for a saw.
Mental Health 2 guides
Download all 2 Mental Health guides
- Substance Withdrawal: What's Actually Dangerous Tier 2 Why alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal can be fatal while opioid withdrawal, though far more miserable to watch, rarely is, real danger signs that mean a hard emergency regardless of tier, and what supportive care can and can't safely do without medical backup.
- Safety Planning When Home Isn't Safe Tier 1 Real safety planning for domestic violence and intimate partner violence, since this manual's usual assumptions, that home is safe and a shared family plan protects everyone, don't hold here: a go-bag that doesn't tip off an abuser, an escape route, a code word, tech safety, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Digital Data & Documents 1 guide
Economic & Financial 1 guide
Transportation 2 guides
Download all 2 Transportation guides
- Land Navigation Without GPS Tier 3 Orienting a map and compass, pace counting (and the two different counting conventions), terrain association vocabulary, and which natural-navigation tricks actually work versus which are folklore.
- Basic Bicycle Maintenance & Repair Tier 2 Patching a tube versus replacing it, the actual mileage interval for chain lubrication, why most shifting problems aren't the derailleur's fault, and the small kit that keeps a bike running as fuel-free backup transport.
Post-Disaster Recovery & Rebuilding 1 guide
Planning & Assessment 3 guides
Download all 3 Planning & Assessment guides
- Go-Bags & 72-Hour Kits Tier 1-2 What actually goes in a go-bag or 72-hour kit, how the two terms differ from a bug-out bag or get-home bag, and how to size one per person, per household, and per vehicle.
- Using AI to Plan Your Preparedness All Tiers Eight specific prompts for turning your own household's situation into a real plan, what not to hand over, and why you still have to check its work. See AI Prep Coach for a ready-made, fuller version of the first prompt below.
- Preparing Without Relying on Official Systems All Tiers Real disaster aid, legal help, and community resources for anyone who can't or won't rely on FEMA, insurance, or the police the way the rest of this site assumes: what FEMA aid covers regardless of immigration status, mixed-status household eligibility, the public charge myth, and real legal and mutual-aid resources that don't require documentation.