The first 30 days: routine, food that grows, fuel and tools

In week two build a routine and quarantine the sick. In weeks three and four plant fast crops, cut firewood for next winter, repair shelter, and start teaching each other. End the month with a second water source, a working latrine and a counted food store.

Part of Day Zero, the plan for an AI-related crisis that gets out of control. Why it exists. General information, not medical advice: how these guides are reviewed.

After a week you are no longer in the emergency. The aim of the first month is routine: every day needs the same few jobs done by the same people.

Week 2: build routine

• A daily timetable: water, cooking, cleaning, watch, repairs, rest, meeting. Rotate hard jobs.
• Sleep. People who sleep badly make bad decisions. Keep night watch short and shared.
• A health check once a day: wounds, fever, diarrhoea, feet, teeth, mood.
• Quarantine anyone with a contagious illness in a separate room with one carer.

Week 2 to 3: food that is not stored food

• Plant what grows fast first: radishes (3 to 4 weeks), lettuce and leafy greens, beans and peas in the right season, potatoes and onions from what you have. Sow where it gets 6+ hours of sun and where you can water.
• Seeds: use what you have stored, what shops had, what you can save. Keep a few of every plant for seed. Do not eat all your seed potatoes or beans.
• Preserve surplus: dry (sun, air, a low fire), salt, smoke, ferment (cabbage, vegetables), pickle in vinegar. See food and agriculture.
• Protein: beans and lentils, eggs, small animals, fishing and trapping. Learn the local laws and the local risks; poisonous plants and mushrooms are a real danger. Do not eat a plant you cannot identify with certainty.

Week 3: shelter and fuel for the coming season

• Repair roofs and windows. Insulate one room well rather than many badly.
• Firewood takes months to dry. Cut, split and stack now for the next winter and keep a year ahead as soon as you can.
• A safe stove or fireplace with a working chimney; carbon monoxide kills. Never burn charcoal or fuel in a closed room.

Week 4: tools and salvage

• Make a list of every tool and who knows how to use it. Sharpen, oil and repair before you need them.
• Start the salvage clock: what is useful but will not last (tinned food, fuel, medicine, batteries) is used or secured first; what lasts (metal, tools, books, glass, cloth, seeds) is collected carefully.
• Set up a workshop corner: vice, files, hammer, saws, drills, nails and screws, wire, cordage.
• Begin to teach each other: first aid, water treatment, knots, fire-making. A skill held by one person is a risk.

End of the month

Look at the whole list again:

1. Water: a second source and rain collection.
2. Waste: a working latrine, clean kitchen.
3. Food: the garden planted, a preservation routine, a count of stored supply with weeks left.
4. Fuel: wood for 3 months drying.
5. People: a group that meets, a record that is kept, someone else you can trade or share information with.

Next: the first 6 months.