Know-how
A step-by-step plan to audit what your household knows, decide which skills are critical, and learn them from reputable courses before a blackout. It covers first aid, safe electrics awareness, plumbing and water treatment, carpentry, engines, gardening, animals, preservation, cooking, sewing, fire and wood, navigation and radio, and record keeping, then how to practise, teach children, share with neighbours and keep skills fresh.
Why it matters
In a total blackout there are no tradespeople, shops, online tutorials or services on call. Every system on the estate is only as reliable as the people who can run, maintain and repair it. Skills take months or years to build and fade without practice, so they must be learned and drilled while help is still available.
Audit who knows what and plan the learning (Plan)
- Run a household skills audit skills-1
- List the critical skills for your estate skills-2
- Write a skills plan by priority and by person, including teenagers skills-3
- Find reputable courses near you, by country skills-4
Life-safety skills first (Plan)
- First aid and health skills-5
- Fire safety and wood handling skills-6
- Basic electrics awareness and safe isolation skills-7
Skills that keep the estate's systems running (Install)
- Plumbing and water treatment skills-8
- Carpentry and basic building repair skills-9
- Engine and generator maintenance skills-10
- Navigation and radio skills-11
Food, animals and household skills (Install)
- Gardening and seed saving skills-12
- Animal care skills-13
- Food preservation skills-14
- Cooking from scratch skills-15
- Sewing and mending skills-16
- Record keeping skills-17
Practise and build the reference library (Test)
- Practise skills with drills skills-18
- Build a printed reference library skills-19
Teach, share and keep skills fresh (Run)
- Teach children age-appropriate skills skills-20
- Share skills with neighbours skills-21
- Keep skills fresh skills-22