Skills, Not Stuff

"Tools Without Training Are Almost Useless. Owning a gun doesn't make someone a "shooter" any more than owning a surfboard makes someone a surfer. With proper training and practice, you will be miles ahead of the average citizen. Get advanced medical training. Get the best firearms training that you can afford. Learn about amateur radio from your local affiliated ARRL club. Practice raising a vegetable garden each summer. Some skills are only perfected over a period of years." - SurvivalBlog.com

Today I recommend reading articles found on SurvivalBlog.com. Goggle alerted me to Two Letters Re: Advice for City Folks on a Budget? where readers of the blog ask for practical advice for normal families and apartment dwellers. The author Jim Rawles responds with a host of links to articles he has written on practical preparedness:
Budget Preparedness--Survival Isn't About Stuff, It is About Skills
Letter Re: Hunkering Down in an Urban Apartment in a Worst Case Societal Collapse
Letter Re: An Urban/Suburban "Stay Put" Survival Strategy
Ten Things That Will Get You Killed While Bugging In, by Paul C.
Letter Re: Advice on a Budget Water Filter
Selecting a Rifle for a Budget-Constrained Prepper
Letter Re: Preparedness on a Very Tight Budget
Letter Re: Advice for a Canadian with a "Just One Gun" Budget
Letter Re: Will Peasant Farmers Fare Better than the Rich in TEOTWAWKI?

Bottom Line
Jim Rawles has an excellent "about" page where he talks about his background and interests. I especially the section "Surviving What, You Ask?", the answer being...

• A Dollar Crisis/Monetary Collapse
• Naturally occurring plague or pandemic
• Nuclear Blackmail
• Terrorist LNG fuel sector or power grid attack
• Terrorist nuclear, biological, or chemical attack
• Fuel and/or food shortage crisis
• Major volcanic and/or earthquake events
• Nation-state nuclear, biological, or chemical attack

This puts a nice focus on not-unrealistic dangers that we all must live with and hope never to see in our lifetime.

Update

This theme can also be found in the blog, Some say invest in gold. I say invest in you.