# The first 6 months: a growing season, health, trade and winter shelter

> Months two to six decide whether a group feeds itself through winter: calorie crops, preserving the harvest, health records, skills and trade.

## Quick answer

Plan calories first (grain, potatoes, beans, roots), compost and rotate, preserve the harvest at once, stack firewood for the whole winter, keep a medical log, and trade fairly with neighbouring groups.

*Part of [Day Zero](/day-zero), the plan for an AI-related crisis that gets out of control. [Why it exists](/day-zero/purpose). General information, not medical advice: [how these guides are reviewed](/day-zero/review).*

## The first 6 months

By month two the stored food starts running out. Months 2 to 6 decide whether the group **feeds itself** through the next winter.

## Food: one real growing season

- Plan **calories first**: potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, beans, squash, root vegetables. Greens give vitamins but not enough energy.
- **Rule of thumb:** a person needs roughly 2,000 to 2,500 kcal a day. One adult needs the produce of about **500 to 1,000 m² of well-managed intensive beds** with grain or potatoes as the base, much more with dry-land grain. Start with beds you can manage; expand each season.
- **Compost** everything. Rotate crops. Mulch to hold water. Save seed from your best plants every year.
- Keep **chickens, rabbits or goats** only if you can feed them without taking food from people.
- **Preserve the harvest** the day it comes: drying racks, salt, smoking, root cellar, jars sealed with salt or vinegar. See [food and agriculture](/day-zero/food).
- Seeds you save from open-pollinated varieties grow true; seeds from hybrids do not. See [what to store](/day-zero/stockpile).

## Health

- Keep a **medical log**: who has what, doses, expiry. Plan for childbirth, broken bones, dental pain and chronic illness: these are the things that go wrong.
- Vaccination, antibiotics, insulin and dialysis cannot be replaced: use stock carefully for the people who need them most, and plan for the day it ends.
- Practice **hygiene** as culture: washing hands, safe cooking, clean water. It saves more lives than any medicine you hold.

## Shelter and energy

- Stock **firewood for the full winter** before autumn. Insulate and repair.
- Small **solar panels** with a battery run lights, a radio and a reader (see [reader power](/day-zero/reader-power)). A **water wheel or wind pump** is a project, not a task for week one.

## Skills and tools

- Learn and teach: **basic carpentry, sewing, leatherwork, pottery, simple blacksmithing, soap, rope, brick or cob building.** Each one makes the group less dependent on dwindling salvage.
- Children and teenagers learn alongside: reading, mathematics, practical work. Education is part of survival, not a luxury.

## Trade, other groups and travel

- Make contact with **neighbouring groups**. Agree on peaceful trade and information sharing: water sources, disease, hazards, seeds, skills.
- Take care with strangers: meet in the open, keep weapons out of sight but ready, never walk alone. Be fair; reputation lasts longer than any stock.
- A **market day** with simple barter (labour, tools, seed, food, cloth) rebuilds trust and gets scarce skills moving.

## Check at six months

1. A first harvest in, stored, and enough planned to last the winter.
2. Fuel stacked, shelter sound.
3. Everyone's health known; medicine rationed on a plan.
4. Tools repaired; at least two people for every key skill.
5. Neighbours known, and a way to warn each other.

Next: [the first year](/day-zero/first-year).

## Common questions

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Source: https://www.toswo.com/day-zero/first-6-months
Published by TOSWO Research (https://www.toswo.com/research). Free to cite with attribution: https://www.toswo.com/cite