Question:
First, I will note that this post does not concern Y2K. If there are peopleinterested in survivalism for reasons other than Y2K please continuereading.

I am interested in continuing my survivalism training. Two winters ago Ibegan my training in earnest. A friend of mine and I packed up severalbooks, food (corn meal and some jerky), water, a water purification vial,and winter clothing. We spent eight days in the woods of Tennessee. It wasan eye-opening experience to say the least. We spent two days buildingdebree shelters. The lack of food made us very lethargic. We spent two hoursevery day finding fire materials and getting a fire lit with flint andsteel. We were unsuccessful in trapping small game, and there was littleedible vegetation. I realized surviving is tough, but I had a great timeanyway. Since then my training has been limited to one day excursions ofidentifying edible plants and tracking animals (my favorite hobby). Myquestion is to anyone that has extensive survival knowledge. I am planningmore overnight trips. What is the best way to divide the learning material?I do not want to work on all areas (fire, food, shelter) at the same timeagain until I feel completely prepared. My goal is to one day walk into thewoods with a knife, and not come out until I feel like it.

Answer: as you stated, pick one area and get proficient, then go to the next.in your case, start with shelter. a debris shelter [temporary shelter]should only take 20 minutes at most, remember, your freezing and/or soakingwet. after the shelter you have time to think your situation through andfigure what comes next.read your books on shelter-practice to proficiency. carry food and waterwhile getting it right.then-read your books-edible wild plants IN YOUR AREA . carry food and waterwhile you get the hang of it.again-read your books- trapping, snares, tracking, skinning, cooking. carrysome food to suppliment your edible wild plants. and waterread your books-water finding and purification. learn how to make/use asolar still, expiedent water filter, chemicals safe for purification. carrysome water.get the idea ? good, my fingers are tired !