Posts Tagged ‘survival’
Posted by carnifex676 on September 30, 2011
Gaye Levy, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
Once the prepping bug hits, it is easy to want to go for it. You know what I mean: Let’s do it and let’s do it all Right Now!
There are some problems with this. First there are time constraints, and second there are money and budget issues. But the biggest problem and undoubtedly the one that is overlooked in the initial flurry of readiness preparations, is that without reasonable care and thought given to the process, the tasks and the actual products involved, you can make some costly mistakes. I say this from experience. In my haste to get “stocked up” I bought gear that I don’t like and will never use. I purchased foodstuffs I will never eat. Stupid stupid stupid of me. I should have taken my time, done my research, and made a well thought out and educated decision before I even got started.
Today I would like to help you break down the overwhelming task of emergency preparation by providing you with a month-by-month calendar of things to do, tasks to complete and items to purchase. For the newbies, this gives you a manageable number of things to do in a short period of time. Instead of looking at a task list 10 pages long, you have a short list that is eminently doable in 30 days or less. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Food Storage, Survival | Tagged: emergency, food, Gear, Prepping, survival, water | Leave a Comment »
Posted by carnifex676 on September 27, 2011
When it comes to wilderness survival, large scale disaster, or even just camping outdoors we often try to do things in the same manner as we are accustomed to doing them at home. However what works well enough in civilization does not necessarily translate smoothly to a wilderness or disaster scenario where familiar supplies of every sort are limited or non-existent.
Solutions are available to most outdoor and survival problems, if only we have the knowledge and inventiveness to use them. But because we usually spend most of our time in civilization where specialized tools and products are readily available, we loose some of the edge in our abilities to utilize the common items we find around us in the wilderness.
Often it is simply a matter of key pieces of information missing in our expertise, which once provided suddenly gives us a powerful new way to accomplish necessary tasks. Survival Topics maintains that the best survivalists are experts at repurposing what is available to them under field conditions.
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| Wood Ash Soap
You can use wood ashes instead of soap to clean your mess kit and cooking gear
Shown here is a greasy pot with food residue that we want to clean, a bottle of water that has been treated to destroy disease causing organisms, a pile of wood ash, and a scouring pad
Important: do not wash your gear with 200 feet (60 meters) of any source of water |
Consider the daily chore of cleaning your mess kit after a meal. There can be no doubt that the proper cleaning of your mess kit and cooking gear is an important wilderness or disaster survival task; when it comes to the food you eat and the cooking gear and utensils that come in contact with it, a lack of proper hygiene can lay you low in short order.
Easy Access to Soap is Limited
In a disaster or wilderness survival setting you will often lack soap with which to wash your camp cooking gear and mess kit. Soap takes up weight and space, which is a very important consideration when every ounce and every cubic inch of your gear must be measured against what is most important for your survival. Especially when you are on foot the less you carry the better off you are; hard decisions must be made on what you bring with you and what is left behind.
On extended stays in the wilderness or during a large scale disaster re-supply from outside sources is usually not available. You are likely to eventually run out of any soap you have so an alternative means for cleaning your cooking gear and mess kit is preferable.
When practicing survival skills in the field I usually do not bring soap to clean my mess kit and cooking gear. To save on bulk and weight, I would forgo using any soap I had in favor of rubbing and swirling a mixture of water, mud and sand on cooking utensils in order to scour off caked on grease and food particles. Although sanding down cooking gear certainly removes food residues, it often doesn’t eliminate all the grease. And the mess kit and cooking gear sure take a beating.
For many years I was content on using the sand and mud method to clean my cooking gear when in the wilderness. But one evening while sitting around the camp fire after having washed the remains of the evening meal from my mess kit with the usual mud, sand, and water mixture, the smoke sudden cleared from my eyes and the world seemed fresh and new. I had independently made a discovery that had already been known for centuries. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Food, Survival | Tagged: Ash, Disaster, Hygiene, supplies, survival, Utensils, wood | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 29, 2011
Perhaps the most difficult survival situation to be in is sea survival. Short-or long-term survival depends upon rations and equipment available and your ingenuity. You must be resourceful to survive.
Water covers about 75 percent of the earth’s surface, with about 70 percent being oceans and seas. You can assume that you will sometime cross vast expanses of water. There is always the chance that the plane or ship you are on will become crippled by such hazards as storms, collision, fire, or war.
THE OPEN SEA
As a survivor on the open sea, you will face waves and wind. You may also face extreme heat or cold. To keep these environmental hazards from becoming serious problems, take precautionary measures as soon as possible. Use the available resources to protect yourself from the elements and from heat or extreme cold and humidity.
Protecting yourself from the elements meets only one of your basic needs. You must also be able to obtain water and food. Satisfying these three basic needs will help prevent serious physical and psychological problems. However, you must know how to treat health problems that may result from your situation.
Precautionary Measures
Your survival at sea depends upon–
- Your knowledge of and ability to use the available survival equipment.
- Your special skills and ability to apply them to cope with the hazards you face.
- Your will to live.
When you board a ship or aircraft, find out what survival equipment is on board, where it is stowed, and what it contains. For instance, how many life preservers and lifeboats or rafts are on board? Where are they located? What type of survival equipment do they have? How much food, water, and medicine do they contain? How many people are they designed to support?
If you are responsible for other personnel on board, make sure you know where they are and they know where you are.
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Posted in Safety, Survival | Tagged: birds, fish, fishing, open sea, raft, sea, survival | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 28, 2011
Survival planning is nothing more than realizing something could happen that would put you in a survival situation and, with that in mind, taking steps to increase your chances of survival. Thus, survival planning means preparation. Preparation means having survival items and knowing how to use them People who live in snow regions prepare their vehicles for poor road conditions. They put snow tires on their vehicles, add extra weight in the back for traction, and they carry a shovel, salt, and a blanket. Another example of preparation is finding the emergency exits on an aircraft when you board it for a flight. Preparation could also mean knowing your intended route of travel and familiarizing yourself with the area. Finally, emergency planning is essential.
IMPORTANCE OF PLANNING
Detailed prior planning is essential in potential survival situations. Including survival considerations in mission planning will enhance your chances of survival if an emergency occurs. For example, if your job re-quires that you work in a small, enclosed area that limits what you can carry on your person, plan where you can put your rucksack or your load-bearing equipment. Put it where it will not prevent you from getting out of the area quickly, yet where it is readily accessible.
One important aspect of prior planning is preventive medicine. Ensuring that you have no dental problems and that your immunizations are current will help you avoid potential dental or health problems. A dental problem in a survival situation will reduce your ability to cope with other problems that you face. Failure to keep your shots current may mean your body is not immune to diseases that are prevalent in the area.
Preparing and carrying a survival kit is as important as the considerations mentioned above. All Army aircraft normally have survival kits on board for the type area(s) over which they will fly. There are kits for over-water survival, for hot climate survival, and an aviator survival vest. If you are not an aviator, you will probably not have access to the survival vests or survival kits. However, if you know what these kits contain, it will help you to plan and to prepare your own survival kit.
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Posted in Common Sense, State of Mind, Survival | Tagged: kits, planning, survival | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 28, 2011
Resist being harnessed by the New World Order as an economic slave, chattel or agent. Restore American, private sector free enterprise to its prominence and productivity before government intentionally regulates and disables it to death. The U.S. government replaced the private-sector with nonproductive, socialist, transnational schemes for destroying the American economy and controlling it from abroad. You must recognize that the United States has been a socialist-democratic state since the first federal bankruptcy socialized the corporate state through the New Deal (1933). Recognize that declared national emergencies and executive orders are symptomatic of the financial collapse of the U.S. Corporation, the federal government and its political subdivisions. Recognize that we must eliminate all deficit spending (thus the size of government) and eliminate the welfare state to restore private initiative and incentives for productivity and excellence. There are no more free lunches. Fund self-reliance and economically sustainable enterprises, owned and controlled by sovereign, American Citizens. Prepare for the collapse with community-based infrastructures, local scrips, and barter network organizations. Prepare for the inevitable re-monetization of debt through the issuance of either a domestic-use currency, or through the free-fall of the U.S. Dollar. Shift all investments out of U.S. Dollar enumerated mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. Invest in more secure stores of value (gold and silver), and commodity- based items. Stop paying all income taxes and funding government oppression. Repudiate the federal debt. Stop voting and obligating yourself to pay an un-payable debt with your property and rights. Boycott all unnecessary consumer items. Prepare for survival into the 21st Century. Preparations for your own personal and family survival include adequate food and water, radio communications, land to grow food and retreat from the cities, healthcare provisions, water/air purification systems, and fuel for generators and vehicles (solar-hydrogen, solar-electric). We must also be able to protect ourselves against biological/germ warfare, AIDS, cancer and other degenerative diseases, and be prepared to build our immune systems with ozone/herbs and other natural means. We must be prepared for any government encroachment or attack by joining with others in citizen’s militia, community networks, and mutual survival infrastructures. Too often the emphasis has been exclusively on personal and/or family survival. This is an important foundation. But we mustn’t forget that our neighbors, communities and friends are the second, necessary tier of our strategic plan for survival. It cannot be everyone for themselves, without regard for each other. We must not only provide and take responsibility for ourselves, but must consider being prepared to be generous to those unprepared. For if we do not, it will be our unraveling. No man or woman can create and maintain a fortress against the entire world. If our neighbors are not considered, they may very well turn against us. Utilize the resources, skills and support that we can be for each other and set-up these infrastructures before the social disintegration gets any worse. Take the time to talk and interact with your neighbors. Build alliances and network everyone you can.
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Posted in Common Sense, State of Mind, Survival | Tagged: economy, new world order, Sovereign, survival | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 15, 2011
Most people think of the tropics as a huge and forbidding tropical rain forest through which every step taken must be hacked out, and where every inch of the way is crawling with danger. Actually, over half of the land in the tropics is cultivated in some way.
Knowledge of field skills, the ability to improvise, and the application of the principles of survival will increase the prospects of survival. Do not be afraid of being alone in the jungle; fear will lead to panic. Panic will lead to exhaustion and decrease your chance of survival.
Everything in the jungle thrives, including disease germs and parasites that breed at an alarming rate. Nature will provide water, food, and plenty of materials to build shelters.
Indigenous peoples have lived for millennia by hunting and gathering. However, it will take an outsider some time to get used to the conditions and the nonstop activity of tropical survival.
TROPICAL WEATHER
High temperatures, heavy rainfall, and oppressive humidity characterize equatorial and subtropical regions, except at high altitudes. At low altitudes, temperature variation is seldom less than 10 degrees C and is often more than 35 degrees C. At altitudes over 1,500 meters, ice often forms at night. The rain has a cooling effect, but when it stops, the temperature soars.
Rainfall is heavy, often with thunder and lightning. Sudden rain beats on the tree canopy, turning trickles into raging torrents and causing rivers to rise. Just as suddenly, the rain stops. Violent storms may occur, usually toward the end of the summer months.
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Posted in Survival | Tagged: jungle, palm-trees, rain-forests, roots, savannas, survival, tropical, vines | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 15, 2011
To survive and evade in arid or desert areas, you must understand and prepare for the environment you will face. You must determine your equipment needs, the tactics you will use, and how the environment will affect you and your tactics. Your survival will depend upon your knowledge of the terrain, basic climatic elements, your ability to cope with these elements, and your will to survive.
TERRAIN
Most arid areas have several types of terrain. The five basic desert terrain types are–
- Mountainous (High Altitude).
- Rocky plateau.
- Sand dunes.
- Salt marshes.
- Broken, dissected terrain (“gebel” or “wadi”).
Desert terrain makes movement difficult and demanding. Land navigation will be extremely difficult as there may be very few landmarks. Cover and concealment may be very limited; therefore, the threat of exposure to the enemy remains constant.
Mountain Deserts
Scattered ranges or areas of barren hills or mountains separated by dry, flat basins characterize mountain deserts. High ground may rise gradually or abruptly from flat areas to several thousand meters above sea level. Most of the infrequent rainfall occurs on high ground and runs off rapidly in the form of flash floods. These floodwaters erode deep gullies and ravines and deposit sand and gravel around the edges of the basins. Water rapidly evaporates, leaving the land as barren as before, although there may be short-lived vegetation. If enough water enters the basin to compensate for the rate of evaporation, shallow lakes may develop, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, or the Dead Sea. Most of these lakes have a high salt content.
Rocky Plateau Deserts
Rocky plateau deserts have relatively slight relief interspersed with extensive flat areas with quantities of solid or broken rock at or near the surface. There may be steep-walled, eroded valleys, known as wadis (mainly dry weather course) in the Middle East and arroyos or canyons in the United States and Mexico. Although their flat bottoms may be superficially attractive as assembly areas, the narrower valleys can be extremely dangerous to men and material due to flash flooding after rains. The Golan Heights is an example of a rocky plateau desert.
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Posted in Survival | Tagged: desert, enviornment, heat, heat-exhaustion, heat-stroke, minerals, mirages, salt-marsh, sanstorms, survival | 1 Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 14, 2011
(TacticalIntelligence.net) Did you realize that knowing just 4 wild edible plants could one day save your life?
If there were any four categories of plants that I would recommend all people to know how to use and identify it would be these: Grass, Oak, Pine, and Cattail. For the knowledgeable survivor, knowing just these four plants can make the difference between life and death if stranded in the wilds – for each one is an excellent food source which can sustain you until help arrives.
GRASS
Surprising to many is the fact that you can eat grass. Despite there being hundreds of varieties of bladed grass found in the Americas, almost all (99% of them) can be eaten. This ranges from wheat, oats, and bamboo to the wild meadow varieties.
The young shoots up to 6 inches tall can be eaten raw and the starchy base (usually white and at the bottom when you pluck it) can be eaten as a trail nibble. The more mature the grass plant gets, the more fibrous the plant becomes. For older plants the base can be chewed and spit out — extracting the beneficial juices in the process. Or a tea can be made from the fresh or dried leaves.
The best part of the grass plant to eat are the seed heads, which can be gathered to make millet for breads or filler for soups & stews. Of the 99% that can be eaten raw, about 1% have toxic seeds and require that you roast or cook the seeds first. As a word of caution, stay away from blackish or purple colored grass seeds. This is a good indication of toxic fungus. Just make sure they are green or brown. Also use common sense when gathering. Don’t gather where there has been recent sprayings of weed killer.
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Posted in Food, Health, Survival | Tagged: cattail, flour, food, grass, oak, pine, seeds, survival | Leave a Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 13, 2011
After having solved the problems of finding water, shelter, and animal food, you will have to consider the use of plants you can eat. In a survival situation you should always be on the lookout for familiar wild foods and live off the land whenever possible.
You must not count on being able to go for days without food as some sources would suggest. Even in the most static survival situation, maintaining health through a complete and nutritious diet is essential to maintaining strength and peace of mind.
Nature can provide you with food that will let you survive any ordeal, if you don’t eat the wrong plant. You must therefore learn as much as possible beforehand about the flora of the region where you will be operating. Plants can provide you with medicines in a survival situation. Plants can supply you with weapons and raw materials to construct shelters and build fires. Plants can even provide you with chemicals for poisoning fish, preserving animal hides, and for camouflaging yourself and your equipment.
EDIBILITY OF PLANTS
Plants are valuable sources of food because they are widely available, easily procured, and, in the proper combinations, can meet all your nutritional needs.
WARNING – The critical factor in using plants for food is to avoid accidental poisoning. Eat only those plats you can positively identify and you know are safe to eat.
Absolutely identify plants before using them as food. Poison hemlock has killed people who mistook it for its relatives, wild carrots and wild parsnips.
At times you may find yourself in a situation for which you could not plan. In this instance you may not have had the chance to learn the plant life of the region in which you must survive. In this case you can use the Universal Edibility Test to determine which plants you can eat and those to avoid.
It is important to be able to recognize both cultivated and wild edible plants in a survival situation. Most of the information in this chapter is directed towards identifying wild plants because information relating to cultivated plants is more readily available.
Remember the following when collecting wild plants for food:
- Plants growing near homes and occupied buildings or along roadsides may have been sprayed with pesticides. Wash them thoroughly. In more highly developed countries with many automobiles, avoid roadside plants, if possible, due to contamination from exhaust emissions.
- Plants growing in contaminated water or in water containing Giardia lamblia and other parasites are contaminated themselves. Boil or disinfect them.
- Some plants develop extremely dangerous fungal toxins. To lessen the chance of accidental poisoning, do not eat any fruit that is starting to spoil or showing signs of mildew or fungus.
- Plants of the same species may differ in their toxic or subtoxic compounds content because of genetic or environmental factors. One example of this is the foliage of the common chokecherry. Some chokecherry plants have high concentrations of deadly cyanide compounds while others have low concentrations or none. Horses have died from eating wilted wild cherry leaves. Avoid any weed, leaves, or seeds with an almondlike scent, a characteristic of the cyanide compounds.
- Some people are more susceptible to gastric distress (from plants) than others. If you are sensitive in this way, avoid unknown wild plants. If you are extremely sensitive to poison ivy, avoid products from this family, including any parts from sumacs, mangoes, and cashews.
- Some edible wild plants, such as acorns and water lily rhizomes, are bitter. These bitter substances, usually tannin compounds, make them unpalatable. Boiling them in several changes of water will usually remove these bitter properties.
- Many valuable wild plants have high concentrations of oxalate compounds, also known as oxalic acid. Oxalates produce a sharp burning sensation in your mouth and throat and damage the kidneys. Baking, roasting, or drying usually destroys these oxalate crystals. The corm (bulb) of the jack-in-the-pulpit is known as the “Indian turnip,” but you can eat it only after removing these crystals by slow baking or by drying.
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Posted in First Aid/Medical, Food, Garden, Health, Organics, Safety, Survival, Tools | Tagged: antihemorrhagics, antiseptic, contact dermatitis, death, decoction, diarrhea, edible plants, healing, identification, infusion, ingestion poisoning, Medicinal plants, medicine, mushrooms, nature, nutrition, organic, poison, poisonous plants, poultice, sick, survival, tisane | 1 Comment »
Posted by nwnikkie on July 11, 2011
This is taken from the US Army Survival Manual, therefore I do not have an external link readily available for you. If you would like a copy of the manual please post a comment below the article and I will email you a copy.
REQUIREMENTS FOR MAINTENANCE OF HEALTH
To survive, you need water and food. You must also have and apply high personal hygiene standards.
Water
Your body loses water through normal body processes (sweating, urinating, and defecating). During average daily exertion when the atmospheric temperature is 20 degrees Celsius (C) (68 degrees Fahrenheit), the average adult loses and therefore requires 2 to 3 liters of water daily. Other factors, such as heat exposure, cold exposure, intense activity, high altitude, burns, or illness, can cause your body to lose more water. You must replace this water.
Dehydration results from inadequate replacement of lost body fluids. It decreases your efficiency and, if injured, increases your susceptibility to severe shock. Consider the following results of body fluid loss:
- A 5 percent loss of body fluids results in thirst, irritability, nausea, and weakness.
- A 10 percent loss results in dizziness, headache, inability to walk, and a tingling sensation in the limbs.
- A 15 percent loss results in dim vision, painful urination, swollen tongue, deafness, and a numb feeling in the skin.
- A loss greater than 15 percent of body fluids may result in death.
The most common signs and symptoms of dehydration are–
- Dark urine with a very strong odor.
- Low urine output.
- Dark, sunken eyes.
- Fatigue.
- Emotional instability.
- Loss of skin elasticity.
- Delayed capillary refill in fingernail beds.
- Trench line down center of tongue.
- Thirst. Last on the list because you are already 2 percent dehydrated by the time you crave fluids.
You replace the water as you lose it. Trying to make up a deficit is difficult in a survival situation, and thirst is not a sign of how much water you need.
Most people cannot comfortably drink more than 1 liter of water at a time. So, even when not thirsty, drink small amounts of water at regular intervals each hour to prevent dehydration.
If you are under physical and mental stress or subject to severe conditions, increase your water intake. Drink enough liquids to maintain a urine output of at least 0.5 liter every 24 hours.
In any situation where food intake is low, drink 6 to 8 liters of water per day. In an extreme climate, especially an arid one, the average person can lose 2.5 to 3.5 liters of water per hour. In this type of climate, you should drink 14 to 30 liters of water per day.
With the loss of water there is also a loss of electrolytes (body salts). The average diet can usually keep up with these losses but in an extreme situation or illness, additional sources need to be provided. A mixture of 0.25 teaspoon of salt to 1 liter of water will provide a concentration that the body tissues can readily absorb.
Of all the physical problems encountered in a survival situation, the loss of water is the most preventable. The following are basic guidelines for the prevention of dehydration:
- Always drink water when eating. Water is used and consumed as a part of the digestion process and can lead to dehydration.
- Acclimatize. The body performs more efficiently in extreme conditions when acclimatized.
- Conserve sweat not water. Limit sweat-producing activities but drink water.
- Ration water. Until you find a suitable source, ration your water sensibly. A daily intake of 500 cubic centimeter (0.5 liter) of a sugar-water mixture (2 teaspoons per liter) will suffice to prevent severe dehydration for at least a week, provided you keep water losses to a minimum by limiting activity and heat gain or loss.
You can estimate fluid loss by several means. A standard field dressing holds about 0.25 liter (one-fourth canteen) of blood. A soaked T-shirt holds 0.5 to 0.75 liter.
You can also use the pulse and breathing rate to estimate fluid loss. Use the following as a guide:
- With a 0.75 liter loss the wrist pulse rate will be under 100 beats per minute and the breathing rate 12 to 20 breaths per minute.
- With a 0.75 to 1.5 liter loss the pulse rate will be 100 to 120 beats per minute and 20 to 30 breaths per minute.
- With a 1.5 to 2 liter loss the pulse rate will be 120 to 140 beats per minute and 30 to 40 breaths per minute. Vital signs above these rates require more advanced care.
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Posted in First Aid/Medical, Food, Health, Health and Fitness, Safety, Survival, Tools, Water | Tagged: ailments, antibacterial, antibiotics, boils, bone, burns, dislocations, emergencies, enviormental injuries, food, frostbite, fungal, heatstroke, herbal medicines, hygeine, hypothermia, injuries, insects, joint, medical basics, medicine, open wounds, skin diseases, snakebites, sprains, stings, survival, trench foot, water, wounds | Leave a Comment »
Gaye Levy, Contributing Writer
