Right now is 15th May 2022. It is late spring, sommer is coming, and nature is abundant with food. But autumn will also come, and the winter. And Nordic winters are cold, wet and dark times.
My quest is to survive and thrive through the coming winter, pretending I will live during the winter in the past, as if it was Viking times.
I will add to the challenge, that there is a great risk the Romans will come and plunder and burn down my village before winter.
I have the advantage that I start my prepping in modern times, thus having car, electricity, internet, smartphone etc. available during the summer, as well as I can store modern times “treasures” before I go into ancient times winter.
Securing my basic survival needs
My body cannot function in the long run, if it is cold, hungry or thirsty and heat, water and food can be difficult to find during winter.
Moreover, since I can’t start a fire nor feed myself, unless my body is mobile, my body’s mobility is also listed as a basic need and one of the three top summer prepping priorities.
1) to secure I have shelter, firewood and other sources of heat to make my body sufficiently warm to function well.
2) to secure I have food and water to make my body function well.
3) to secure a strong disease immunity and a healthy well-trained body
In the Wr’alda Yul model illustrated below, my body’s 3 above three basic needs are placed in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd yul sections in the yul’s right side. My body can survive without any contact to any other human beings, however, for many reasons, I do not consider a “surviving alone plan” to be neither wise, nor attractive. The Wr’alda model lists my top priority three “spiritual basic needs” in the left side in the 4th, 5th and 6th Yul sections.
My summer prepping will therefore also include:
4) to secure I am welcomed and given inclusion in other homes and villages than my own.
5) to secure I can be useful and valubale for other homes and villages than my own.
6) to secure I am trusted by other human beings in other homes and villages than my own. (Love cannot be planned – it comes as a result of trust. Trust cannot be planned either, but it can be earned)
Worst case scenario prepping: By late fall the Romans arrive and pillage and burn down my village and other nearby villages
I will start with expecting the worst and plan my prepping to survive through that scenario: expecting very powerfull Romans to come and pillage and burn down my village and all nearby villages during the autumn.
In this scenario, I will have no other option than to flee and hide. The first question I should be ready to answer immediately is “Where to go?” and then, “How do I survive there?” Therefore my summer prepping will involve
Action A) to find and map the best 3 hiding places in short distance of my village.
Action B) to secure I have shelter, bodycover, dry clothing, firewood (or gas) plus water and hidden storages of food and most basic “bug-out survival gear” available nearby my 3 best hiding places.
Action C) My hidden places will contain most of what I would pack in a “bug-out-survival-back”, but additionally I’d secure I have a well packed bug-out bag ready-to-grab.
Now comes a dilemma. Who should I tell about my hidden places and the locations of my hidden “survival treasures”?
My conclusion is to tell no-one, not even my own children. Why? Well, because my first instinct is to protect trust. If I tell no-one, I eliminate the risk of distrust to arise, plus I eliminate the risk of anyone revealing the information, by accident or under pressure.
Action D) What I’d do instead, would be to encourage and teach my kids and all I can reach, to establish their own 3 hiding places with their own personal nearby hidden “survival treasures”.
This would make each of us able to survive on our own for some time, but also, all who have done this prepping, would be much stronger in unity. Therefore, my next prepping actions are
Action E) to find secret meeting and communication points and define codenames and/or codesignals for each. Information points are places we can approach and exchange information and meeting points are good places we can meet without being noticed.
Action F) to define meeting times and give them codenames and signals, such than we can communicate both where and when to meet.
Action G) to define “personal coding methods” so that I can communicate with individuals, without any other being able to read our communication.
Action H) to communicate all the above to as many as possible, not only in my own village. I want to reach as many and as far as possible. The more we are locally, the higher our suvival chances. Furthermore, our strengths, mobility and survival chances will increase with the number and geographic spread of villages that take similar prepping precautions, as well as will theirs. We will also be better equipped to withstand the plundering of the Romans and other entities.