The following are lists of preparation project and skills to consider developing for yourself or in community with others, prepared by Jim Dame, a Portland Peak Oil and WCPO member.
[Also please note that Our Own Website Contains its Preparation List: Click "Peak Oil Info" in the upper tool bar, then click Downloads, then click "What Anybody can Start Doing Now to Powerdown their Lives. And, Do Go to the "Resources" section also found in the upper tool bar. There is tons of information there, provided by Peter Lunsford, to get you started on lots of the ideas found in the list we have posted and in the lists below.]

The first list is covering skills that would be neccessary in a worst case
> scenario but would be useful to have anyway. These I consider for the long
> term.
>
> 1) Know how to grow your own, learn all the gardening skills you can.
> Learn how to compost, how to preserve and put up food, and probably
> really important, how to collect seeds for future use.
> 2) Learn how to harvest water. Harvesting and using rain water. Know
> how to purify and store water. Along with gardening how use irrigation.
> Experiment with dousing, have a basic understanding of wells.
> 3) Start bicycling, learn bike repairs.
> 4) Understand basic home repairs. Learn basic carpentry, familarize yourself
> with hand tools, start picking some up (garage sales, craigslist, etc.) Roofing
> skills will come in handy, composition shingles may not be available.
> 5) Learn some basic waste disposal. Weekly trash pickups may not be available.
> It may be neccessay to learn humanure techniques, sewer systems may be iffy.
> 6) Learn basic medical and first aid techniques. It wouldn't hurt to acquaint
> yourself with natural and herbal medicine.
> 7) Household sk ills.
> Cooking (maybe over something other than modern stoves)
> Sewing, knitting (darning socks)
> Soap and Candle making.
> Along with gardening, learn canning, dehydrating, other preservation
> techniques.
> 8) Animal husbandry, raising and caring for livestock. Learn beekeeping.
> Along with this it wouldn't hurt to develop some hunting and fishing skills.
> 9) Community building. Communication and organizing skills. Developing
> cooperation (for farming, support, protection)
> 10)Music, Art. Learn an instrument, sing, act, dance, write.
> 11) Learn a barterable trade or skill. Carpentry, masonry, basic electrical,
> basic plumbing, painting.
> 12) Beer/Wine making. Alcohol distillation (for fuel, medical disinfectant, as
> well as adult beverages or barter).
> 13) Learn about and use solar power. Learn about photovoltaic & hot water to
> solar cooking.
> 14) Learn about leather tanning and working.
> 15) Develop some metalworking skills.
> 16) Knowing how to grow, maintain & use a woodlot.
>
> You don't have to learn them all in depth but it wouldn't hurt to have them to
> fall back on for 11), have a barterable skill.
> Many of these skills would be handy in almost any emergency.
>
>
> Next I consider the Short Term Skills (or goals). These are things to get
> started on now that will help you immediately.
>
> 1) Get healthy (diet, exercise, use your health benefits if you have them)
> 2) Get out of debt (reduce consumption)
> 3) Start gardening (even one plant in a pot)
> 4) Use public transportation (the more we use it, the more they'll provide)
> 5) Get to know your neighbors (you don't have terrify them with post oil
> stories, just get the communication going, have a bar-b-que, block party, book
> circles, push the idea of community)
> 6) Learn all you can (start one topic at a time)
> 7) Push public officials on awareness and preparation. Get them to start
> thinking about planning and organizing responses to the upcoming challenges.
> (the more people working on the problems the better)
> 8) Simplify, reduce, recycle, reuse. Like the old farmer from New Hampshire
> "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
> 9) Buy local, farmer's markets, local retail. Try to keep your dollars local.
> 10) Join a CSA (community supported agriculture). This helps the local farmers
> to have a solid base for their products.
> 11) Bike, walk whenever possible.
> 12) Store up some food, medical supplies, household supplies. You don't need to
> go into survivalist mode but it wouldn't hurt to have a few months in your
> larder to tide you over. Build it up gradually (take advantage of sales),
> rotate it, Make Sure you know to use it.
> 13) Learn emergency preparedness. Check out the Red Cross, your local fire
> department, see if there are Emergency Response Team training in your city or
> county.
>
> I know it seems daunting when you step back and look at it as a whole, so don't.
> Take a couple of them that interest you the most and get started.
> I'm reminded of when I moved here from the midwest almost 2 decades ago.
> I was used to fishing in fairly small rivers or streams, you could usually cover
> most with a single cast. When I first saw the Deschutes, this big, brawling,
> fast river, it was intimidating. You want to fish the whole thing on one cast,
> you can't, it's frustating. My fishing buddy taught me to approach it in
> pieces, fish a rod's length out then work up to a cast out,try to break the
> river down into a familar size I was used to. I still can't catch many fish but
> it's more fun.
>
> Jim Dame