It saddens me that the world is a place that requires this. but it is, so act accordingly, or you might just be the next victim.
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
Survival Hacks – Fire good
You should know by now one of my favorite topics is fire. I believe it is the most important tool outside of what you carry. Being able to start a fire can be the difference between life and death or just simply make your life a lot more comfortable and tasty.
So let’s get started with my favorite fire hacks:
- Empty toilet paper rolls stuffed with dryer lint: This is my favorite because of both its simplicity and thrift, it is completely free and way too easy to make, to not have one on hand. Simply collect the dryer lint from your dryer, if you use communal dryers you could collect everyone’s, then simple stuff it loosely into an empty toilet paper tube. You can also cut a paper towel tube in half and make two. These make excellent tinder.
- Cotton balls smothered in petroleum jelly: Ok, this one isn’t free and uses new materials, but it really works well. Just like it sounds, take a few cotton balls and saturate them with petroleum jelly – I usually stuff them in an old pill bottle, but a film canister would work, too. Oh wait, we don’t have those anymore but you get the idea. This is also excellent tinder.
- Tea lights: These are so cheap and light that you should carry a few and they have so many uses that I consider them indispensable. For example: they replace tinder with a self-sustaining mini fire.
Of course all of the above hacks assume you have a lighter or matches, they are not ways to make fire without the former, they are simply aids. Which gives me the idea – we should talk about how to start a fire without a match or lighter. Keep your eyes open for that in an upcoming post.
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
Skill Development – Water, finding it and making it safe
As usual, one post leads to another, you saw me mention finding water in my last post, if you read it. So, today we talk about water. Water is the third of the 3’s, the only two more important are air and shelter. Here in the NW we tend to dismiss the importance of water due the usual abundance of it. But, let me tell you, from first hand experience, when you need it and can’t find clean water to drink, you will realize just how scarce it is. Now, I realize most of us are in either an urban or rural setting where potable water comes straight out of the faucet, so we spend little time thinking about the acquisition of water. We don’t think about how we will find water when the pipes run dry.
In the wilderness there are no artificial water pipes, but there is plenty of water, even in the desert. Nature has a way of finding water, it is the only way it can survive. So, keep your eyes open and look for the signs. Mother nature will show you where the water is, or at least where it usually is. Animals need water looks for signs of activity. Small birds that are grain eaters like finches will lead you there in the mornings.
In the forested wilderness that is most of the gorgeous NW, finding water can be as simple as traversing (moving laterally across the slope) a hillside or mountain. you will most assuredly find a stream or pond. In the desert you will want to look for what appears to be a stream bed or dry river. These will usually be found near strips of land that have larger vegetation growing, the greener and bigger the better.
If you find what looks like a dry stream bed there may still be water there. Just as in the desert, dry streambeds with green vegetation are good places to look for water if a readily available source has not been located. The greener the vegetation the better.
A Seep is going to be your go to method of getting water where there is naught.
- In the dry stream bed, at a low spot or the outside of a bend, start by removing the bulk of any rocks lining the stream bed in the area you have decided to dig.
- Now, dig your seep about one foot deep and two to three feet wide. Start by digging an exploratory hole. Look for the soil to start getting darker as you dig. Once you get to about a foot deep you should see either moist soil or if lucky you will see water starting to fill the hole. Sometimes you need to give it a few minutes, take a break and relax, come back to check in a few minutes. You may need to go deeper than a foot. If you don’t see signs of water, find yourself a better spot to look.
- Once you have your seep dug, line it with the smaller rocks you cleared out earlier, this will reduce sediment from getting stirred up when using the seep.
- Filter the water or boil it if you have the means, but in general this water should be fairly clean and safe to drink.
- You can use a t-shirt, kerchief or any piece of fine knit material to filter out particulate.
A Seep or Egyptian well can be used to filter water from an active stream or river, if you find yourself without a filter or means to boil your water. Just dig it about a foot or so away from the water on the bank. The water from your active source will be filtered through the earth and you seep will gradually fill. When you have an active source of water the seep does not need to be as wide, but always go at least a foot down.
If you source of water is a lake or pond, it is best to add a secondary seep about a foot further away, in line with your first seep. Now, take your water from the second seep, it has been double filtered. Since the water in a lake or pond is static, it is more prone to bacteria and parasites.
Remember, it is always best to be prepared for these types of emergency and carry the appropriate tools to make your water safe to drink, whether a filter, tablets or a pot and fire source. Although, we don’t get to decide when bad things happen, we can choose to be versed in the skills that will get us through them. These are the basics, nothing replaces hands on experience. go out there and try it out before you need it to survive.
As alway,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
There is No Promise of Tomorrow
Good evening,
I visited my fathers grave today, it is his birthday. I try to visit his grave every year on his birthday, rather then the day he died, that way we celebrate his life, not his death. So by now you are wondering, what does this have to do with survival. Well, it has everything to do with preparation, you see my father died suddenly, with absolutely no warning, in fact just 6 months before his death he had a complete physical and passed with flying colors. He was an athlete his entire life, went to college on a athletic scholarship, was drafted by the CFL, but decided to play pro golf, OK, you get the picture. He died when he was 54 years old, just died, like someone turned off a switch.
So, I guess where I am going with this is, when it comes to getting prepared, there is no tomorrow. you cannot predict what will happen or when. Will you have what you need when disaster strikes?, are you prepared?, do you have the training you need?
Live with purpose, say what needs to be said, love with all you are and live today likes it’s your last. Now is the time to act, there is no promise of tomorrow!
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
A Civilized Act
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception, reason or force, that’s it. In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through reason. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some. When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force with impunity. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunken guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender. There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat— it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly. Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force, watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced with impunity, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation, and promotes reason, that is why carrying a gun is, a civilized act.
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
The Five C’S of survival
Never go into the wilderness without these 5 C’s
(1) Cutting Tool: Ultimately, this means a sturdy, full tang knife, something that is always on your person in the backcountry. A four to five-inch carbon-steel blade and a flattened back edge is the most dependable and versatile. Well-made survival knives allow you to do everything from clean fish to split kindling.
(2) Combustion: A fire is critical in a survival situation during foul weather, it’s fundamental to maintaining your core temperature. Carry tinder material such as Wetfire or dryer lint with a ferro rod and a good lighter.
(3) Cover: We don’t get to decide when disaster strikes, this is important to remember. Always carry some sort of emergency shelter, a large garbage bag, a tarp, a poncho or even a wool blanket will do. You need to be able to setup some sort of shelter from the cold, rain and even sun. I would say forgetting this, is the most common mistake of outdoor enthusiasts.
(4) Container: Staying hydrated is essential in the outdoors, let alone an emergency. It is important to carry a container that can serve you in multiple ways. A large single walled stainless steel container is ideal, it not only allows you to carry plenty of water, in an emergency you will be able to boil water in it to make it safe for drinking. The are also very durable and well dent before the break
(5) Cordage: Carry a 100 feet of paracord, it is incredibly strong and has a myriad of uses, I never leave home without it.
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
The Rule of Threes
In an emergency, you will not last more than …
Three seconds without staying calm
Three minutes without breathing
Three hours without taking shelter
Three days without water
Three weeks without eating
Numbers are not concrete because they depend on the situation, environment, and person, but the rule of three gives us a solid base
Stay Calm, Apply First Aid, Find shelter, Find water, Find food
As Always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
Everyday Carry
It is my philosophy that each of us should make a habit of always carrying a few basic tools.
1 – A good sharp knife.
2 – A flashlight – rechargeable
3 – A length of cord
4 – A lighter
5 – A basic first aid kit
6 – A bottle of water
7 – A backup power source Anker
8 – A pen or pencil
9 – A small pad of paper, preferably water proof
These items should go with you everywhere, they will empower you.
As always,
Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared
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