Survival Memory Page

This page is not about long reading. It’s about giving you a few key images and words that stick.

If the power goes out—and it’s not coming back soon—you may need to forage, build, and endure. By simply browsing here, you’ll carry the essentials in your memory. Enough to keep calm. Enough to stay grounded. Enough to focus on what matters most for you and those beside you.

The 3 Pillars of Survival

We begin with the three pillars: Fire, Food, Fortress.

Fire gives warmth, cooks food, cleans water, and signals for help.
Food restores energy and clears the mind. Even small bites matter.
Fortress means shelter. It keeps you dry, protected, and rested.

Remember these three words. They are your compass.

The First Step: Decide

When the lights go out and don’t come back, the very first survival task isn’t fire, food, or fortress—it’s decision.

“The power isn’t coming back tonight. We need to start living differently now.”
“Fridges are done. From this moment, we think like foragers, not shoppers.”
“Waiting won’t save us. From here on, we prepare as if this is long-term.”
“This is survival mode. Let’s act together, not drift apart.”
“The grid is gone. We focus on fire, food, and fortress—starting today.”
“From now on, we stop hoping and start working.”

It doesn’t matter which words are chosen. What matters is the shift—from waiting to preparing, from hoping to acting.

What Not to Do

Words are weapons in survival, and careless words cut morale. The group must practice psychological hygiene as much as physical hygiene.

No personality judgments. Assign tasks based on strengths, but avoid insults.
No public questioning of ability. Corrections should be private, and framed as guidance, not condemnation.
No demotions. If a role needs to shift, simply promote someone else into a responsibility.

👉 The rule is simple: Promote, don’t demote.

Emergency Order: Calm Before Action

When the grid fails, panic is often the first enemy. The truth is: survival begins with structure.

Initiate — A Trustee proposes an action.
Second — Another Trustee signals agreement.
Consensus check — “Opposed? Supporting?”
Act — If there is no strong objection, the group moves immediately.

Every conversation should answer: “What do we do next?”

Hats and Roles

Think of survival work as wearing hats.

Trustees & Beneficiaries

Trustees carry responsibility. Beneficiaries are protected.

Primary Hats

A Primary Hat is your main survival task for a block of time. You can only wear one. Example: forage for food in the morning.

Secondary Hats

These can stack on top of a primary hat:

Delegator — turns group plans into assignments.
Recorder — maintains the barebones archive.
Negotiator — trusted to act when consensus isn’t possible in the moment.

👉 Primary Hats = survival tasks. Secondary Hats = support roles.

Delegation by Group Size

Every survival group balances two centers of effort:

Near the Fire — tending flames, boiling water, caring for Beneficiaries, defending the base.
Outfield — gathering food, firewood, water, and materials.

2 Trustees + 1 Beneficiary

Trustee A: Fire + care for Beneficiary.
Trustee B: Outfield — gather, scout, return with resources.
Simple split: one protects the core, one extends the reach.

4 Trustees

2 Near the Fire — steady flame, food prep, Beneficiary care.
2 Outfield — scouting, foraging, hauling water, cutting wood.
Balanced and stable.

5 Trustees

2 Near the Fire — enough to manage fire, food prep, Beneficiaries.
3 Outfield — more hands gathering means more calories and supplies.

Larger Groups (6+)

Keep 2–3 Near the Fire (no more — crowding wastes effort).
Everyone else Outfield.
If Beneficiaries are many, shift one extra Trustee back toward fire duty.

Rule of Thumb: Near the Fire protects. Outfield provides. Adjust daily based on weather, health, and threats.

Rations Out, Resources In

Survival isn’t just about gathering — it’s about how you handle what comes back. The rhythm is simple:

Rations go out — carry safe food and water with you. Do not drink from the stream or eat raw plants in the field.
Raw resources come in — gather water, firewood, plants, or game. Always separate categories. Never mix.
Refine at base — boil water, cook food, clean and sort resources, then redistribute.

This creates a steady loop:
Outfield brings raw → Base refines safe → Safe becomes rations → Rations fuel the next run.

Review

Quick anchors to remember when everything feels overwhelming.

The 3 Pillars — Fire, Food, Fortress. These are the compass points.
The Point of Decision — someone must say it out loud: survival mode has begun.
Promotion over Shaming — no demotions, no insults. Adjust roles by promotion, never by tearing down.
Emergency Order — short discussions, quick consensus, then immediate action.
Rations Out, Resources In — carry safe rations into the field, bring raw materials back, refine at base.

👑 Rise of the Calorie Kings 👑

Farmer King: a gardener with a crown of vines and wheat, holding tools and produce

If we strip it down:

Fire is hard in damp conditions, but once you solve ignition and fuel storage, it’s a technique problem.
Fortress / shelter is usually already solved if you’re in a home. Tarps, blankets, basements—people can improvise.
Food is the bottleneck everywhere. It doesn’t scale easily without time, skill, or stockpiles. Calories are a daily cliff.

That’s why historically:

Farmers, gardeners, hunters, fishers became the backbone of communities.
Those who produced food were the most valued—sometimes the most powerful—because everything else collapses without calories.

⚠️ Reality Check

Food is the cliff every group faces.

Stored food runs out.
Foraging is thin and inconsistent.
Hunting & fishing take tools and practice.
Gardening takes time—often months before yields.

That’s why, in any survival collapse, food gatherers and gardeners become the new kings.

The ones who can secure calories may have special authority. Learn now, practice now, and support them. Protect your food producers—without them, no other plan holds.

Trading with the Homeless

Collapse doesn’t always arrive as fire and smoke. More often, it looks like what the homeless already endure: no power, no steady income, no stability.

It may feel natural to think: “Should we house them?” But the truth is, that usually brings more risk than safety. Inviting strangers into your shelter creates security problems that can spiral out of control.

But there is another way: trade.

The homeless already know how to live with less. They can navigate tents, tarps, alleys, and scavenging routes.
What they lack is often the same bottleneck everyone faces: food, clean water, safe calories.
A fair exchange system can benefit both sides.

Example Exchange System

They forage or scavenge raw materials — berries, roots, recyclables, scrap.
You refine what is useful into safe calories, clean water, preserved goods.
The cycle builds trust without blurring security boundaries.

👉 One in the hand is worth two in the bush. A raw bundle of cattails is useless until cooked. But with the right trade, both parties win: one provides the hand, the other provides the fire.

The Survival Mindset

Cooperation and trade are the lifeblood of survival. Seek them wherever possible. Build networks, exchange resources, and favor collaboration over isolation. But collaboration must not be mistaken for gullibility or universal trust.

Territory & Boundaries

Private camps are private. Families with children or other beneficiaries may refuse entry — respect this.
Territorialism has limits. Saying “this is our hunting ground” may be a bluff. Survival demands foraging where necessary, even against pressure.
Stand firm against bullying. Cooperation doesn’t mean submission.

Final truth: if you bring only conflict and no value, you risk becoming a liability — and in the harshest reality, even a food resource.

Expanding the Knowledge Base

We are now separating this knowledge base into two areas:

The Foragers — What to look for when you’re out in the semi-urban wild. Plants, roots, water, firewood, and other resources that can be gathered.
The Processors — How to take what has been foraged and transform it into safe food, clean water, or usable resources at base.

Both roles are essential. One brings in the raw. The other refines it into survival.

Practice the Sequence

After looking over the Forage and Processing sections, we recommend you try the following:

Take a day or two, the next time you have it free, and try the two in sequence. Go on a forage run, and then follow it up with a processing turn.

Get a feel for it, so that if the need strikes this won’t feel so foreign. You will look very different in the eyes of others if you have already done this.