Now that you have a small survival community in place with the essentials of fire, water, shelter and food, what are some tasks that need to be done daily in order to continue to survive? Here is a short list.
Fire
You must continuously gather fuel for the fire. You also need to find tinder bundles, and other items like termites nest, in order to maintain comfort in your community. This should be a daily task, and designated people should be assigned. You should also protect the firewood from the elements (specifically rain and snow), so if you don’t have a shelter for your firewood, build it immediately.
Someone should also prep the wood gathered for campfire fuel, smaller sticks for cooking and tinder to prepare fire for cooking.
Water
You must continuously gather water. The bare minimum should be 1 gallon per person in your community per day. My recommendation is 3 gallons per person per day. Someone should be filtering the water for potability.
Food
Everyone in your community must eat enough calories per day. Someone should be foraging and gathering, and someone should be hunting and/or fishing. Once completed, it must be prepped for extended storage, or only gather/hunt for a couple days worth.
Power
If you have a set of battery banks and a solar system, someone should keep an eye on the setup and adjust the panels based on the sun. If the weather changes, make sure that it is out of the rain. They should also budget for important items for charging. Sometimes a phone is less important if there is no cell service, but a daily use comms like a radio is important. Headlamps are nice to have, as you can build a torch for light if necessary.
Guard
This is something most people omit. If your group is small (less than 4), it is difficult to properly guard and protect your community. What are you protecting your community from? Wildlife and looters. You need 2 people to stay awake during the sleeping hours. Here are some example schedules:
4 people (not preferred)
- 2 people guard from 10:00PM to 2:00AM while others sleep from 8:00PM to 2:00AM
- 2 people guard from 2:00AM to 6:00AM while the 2 prior guards sleep until at least 8:00AM
6 or more people (preferred)
- 2 people guard from 9:00PM to midnight (these people can sleep from midnight to 6:00AM)
- 2 people guard from midnight to 3:00AM (these people can sleep in until 9:00AM)
- 2 people guard from 3:00AM to 6:00AM (these people sleep from 9:00PM to 3:00AM)
If your community is larger, you can stick with the 6 or more schedule, but can have more than 2 people on guard.
