practical appliation

I have recently dusted off a lot of my gear for inspection and I have added a pair of khukuri's to my pack frame. I really don't think there is a better multipurpose knife out there (but I'm not a knife expert) and this got me thinking...

I started this thread to discuss how you keep up on your skills.

I know everyone has their own version of what may/could happen and that is what you gear your plans towards.

I plan for poweroutages, tornadoes, and just the plain old colapse of society. I have begun to have the wife drop me off with my rucksack several miles from home and I walk it. Nothing major but it keeps my feet and body used to it. In addition to this I just redid my pace count for 100yds. Changed a little from before.

I recently made soap just to see if I could do it. Recently ate a ham I cured last year. I just transfered my latest batch of mead to the secondary fermentor...Mead you say? Nectar of the Gods baby. I just finished of the last of my 2 y/o mead and it was better than anything I have had to date. So yea I added making booze to my survival skills...and not that I tried it but I heard from a friend that some recently distilled spirits were really good as well.

Hunting turkey and deer this year as well. This is something that I would like to do w/ a bow but don't have one.

My daughter and I went to the wildlife preserve this fall and spent the day w/ the guides on a tour of the edible plants in the area. This was extremely cool for her because she was having snacks in the woods "that God left her" I enjoyed just watching her if nothing else.

I don't know if you will consider this survival but was certified w/ my speargun this past summer. I will include my scuba gear in my survival gear as well. You just never know what you may need.

So this spring I plan on working on the fire building skills that have been almost forgotten about.

What do you guys do that keeps your skilled honed? I think maybe we should come up w/ list of the most common skills and put instructions and maybe pics/ videos of how to's...I process thing visually better than verbally. It is something to kick around...maybe we will be able to write our own survival manual who know?

Anyway, I hope you have some input and that this starts some dialogue that will maybe remind us of some skills that may need to be learned or just brushed up on.

Kafer

note: if you read a word that should have a C or a J in it and its missing...its my keyboard and I get tired of going bak and fixing it

[edit on 15-1-2008 by kaferwerks]

You sound well ahead of the game. Fire building and shelter construction in adverse conditions, [like pitch black in a rainstorm] should be added. A good self defense course maybe? [not sport martial arts] Basic construction skills and medical info beyond basic firstaid. Learn trapping instead of hunting it will save you lots of precious time in sitX That is what I can think of right now.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Yeah, sounds like you are doing pretty good so far with that. (A lot better than me, anyway!) Definitely you will need to be prepared for the simple basics. Things like food, shelter, security. Sounds like you got the food down alright, with hunting skills. How useful hunting will be will depend where you live, though. The best hunter in the world will starve if there's no game.

Shelter: You haven't mentioned this one, but knowing how to throw up a tent or build some kind of lean-to or other shelter will be important if you aren't planning on staying at home during Situation X.

Security: Sounds like you have this fairly well covered with the spear gun. I'm not exactly sure what a spear gun is, but I can use my imagination. :p I realize that you are certified, but remember that 'if you don't use it, you lose it'. Stay in practice with that spear gun, whatever the heck it is! You don't want to be out hunting deer and saying to yourself, *#^@ how do I reload this thing again???, while your deer waves at you and runs away!

I'd worry about things like fresh water supplies. There's tablets you can get to put in water to make it safe to drink, for instance, or filters. For power outages, batteries, generators, and the like, and devices that will work off of those. I'd keep a radio handy for news updates. Make a plan with your loved ones for things like, if the crap hits the fan and we are separated, meet at X location, with Y as a backup, or something like that.

I'll be honest, I'm a pretty lazy guy, and I don't really keep up on a lot of this stuff. Probably the thing I should be doing is reading up more on this kind of thing, and actually practicing it once in awhile.

This is actually a really good forum, and if you snoop around it, you can get some other ideas of things you might need and haven't thought of.

well the shelter is a good thing to practice but Ithink I should have that under control...Many years of practice there. Now I just have to change things up a little with a family to consider. We have a couple of tents that I picked ou that will connect together to form one tent if need be(very easy to set up...we did this last year in complete darkness in about 20 min) and several huge pieces of old od green canvas from a gp medium...heavy but useful.

The spear gun is for fishing while diving. It could be for defence but I learned to use it for fish. How handy will it be? Probally useless but who knows? I am not going to pretend to be the great white hunter. I dont really enjoy the taste of wild game but my family does and my old man is too old to be out hunting. I will save the security for the guns I own.

As far as water. I bought a uv pen light that has a solar recharger on it that purifies the water. I also have several storage containers for water. I grew up in the backwoods of Fl and my grandfather showed me a plant that purifies water. I dont know the name of it but I know what it looks like. The sewage treatment plants down home actually use them to begin to treat the water in some places. It's a shame that I dont see it up here in the colder climate that I live in now.

Trapping was mentioned earlier and Ihave to agree w/ you on that. I learned some very basic skills while at a winter survival course. I didnt do so well and ended up eating out of garbage cans for about 10 days.

I think there is a wealth of knowledge here as well but I also think that you can have all of the knowledge in the world and not be organized and you will fail. So, I guess my idea was to start a discussion on what you have and how you use it and why you chose that route. I think then that information could be compiled and put into one thread and could be used as a how to guide. I mean there are survival situations that as one person you would never think of. Like surviving in a city or in the mountians or on the plains. There are plenty of survival manuals out there and also a lot of useless information. There are people here that know what it takes...So let's put the information down in one place.

Three month's + of hunting daily every year keeps some of my skills well honed, stalking, land navagation/reading land form, camp craft, Rifle and Bow skills, and most important, the mental aspect of not giving up when cold, wet, sore and hungry for days at a time. An interesting thing I have noticed is how "rusty" those skills get during the "off " times of year, the first week of the hunting season see's me having to focus a little more on a given task, but after that they become second nature.

reply to post by kaferwerks


nothing wrong with the occasional dumpster dive Water purification skills will be necessary. Ideally you need to be able to provide without any mechanical assistance. Boiling water or creating a filter is necessary. There are many natural ways to do this. Look to nature for pure water. The swamps have been a natural filter for years as well as limestone. Can you build a multitude of different shelters from what is availably based on your needs? How well can you scavenge? We both have been thruogh the dumpster. We must remember that primitive skills are important but they must be coupled with a modern lifestyle. Do you really think that you will be out in the wilderness forever? Learn to adapt to your environment. Adaptability and versatility will win out the day. Can you provide clothing for growing children? How about toletries that are necessary? Just throwing things out in the air are often go unthought of.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Survival is much easier after you've acquired a taste for human flesh.
For a cannibal, Sit X would be like a buffet of magnificent proportions with no Law around to tell what and who you can't eat. Remember, it is not what goes in your mouth that is important, what comes out of it is.
Start by eating dogs, then when they're gone, eat the owners.

P.S. You don't have to eat the meat, you would trade it for other things. Tell people it is deer meat, they won't know once it is dried in strips.

[edit on 21-1-2008 by doctormcauley]

[edit on 21-1-2008 by doctormcauley]

I'd have to be pretty hungry to start viewing other people like items on a McDonalds menu.

A great food source that most people fail to think of is insects. They're high in protein, easy to find, and abundant. They can be dried and ground up into powders that can be added to soups, stews, breads, broths, etc.

Due to cultural biases however, most people would never even think of them as a food source.

reply to post by LLoyd45


Damn good idea! Though I did mention the same thing in another survival thread and it was pointed out that there some insects that are toxic or downright poisonous to humans.

I'd still be curious to know which to avoid and which are edible, as a good source would be nocturnal insects such as moths and would be easy to catch too...just a lamp propped under a sheet draped over a basic 3-pole tepee-frame and possibly coated with a sticky sugar solution as an added attractant

[edit on 21-1-2008 by citizen smith]

reply to reluctantpawn
as far as water treatment, i recommend iodine crystals. you have them in a small bottle which can fit in your pocket , add water and go from there. make sure you dont get any crystals in your canteen. the iodine tablets have a shelf life of about six months after they are opened, but the crystals never go bad.they also kill giardia and other critters that can pass through some filters.

reply to post by prepped

prepped,
Iodine crystals aren't necessarily bad but they are not for me. I don't like the taste. However having said that I am fully versed and skilled in clean water procurement. I don't recommend that others follow my example. It takes some time and an experienced instructor to learn. Yes I sometimes run the risk of disease but it is relatively small compared to the bad water in the conus.

respectfully

reluctantpawn