Living where I do, away from cities and neighbors, I have been through two hurricanes (looking at number three) and one tornado disaster. After being without power and phone for up to two weeks, as well as not being able to leave my property due to the road being blocked by trees and debris. The first time I was trapped, I had no generator, so my lights came from the 12 Volt batteries taken from the truck, lawnmower, etc. I kept them recharged by rotating them into vehicles. In addition to this, I also used candles, oil lamps, for lighting, rainwater for drinking, etc... Still besides the obvious, I know that the people that post on ATS are concerned with surviving in a very uncertain world. I was wondering what original survival techniques that you may have come up with that may save all our lives…

If you get a rash from poison ivy and have no access to a drugstore. Mix mud (I've only used red mud, but I guess any mud will do) with vinegar to make a paste and apply to the rash and let dry. Wash with soap and water then apply a new mud/vinegar poultice for a couple of days until the rash dries up.
I heard about this from my grandmother and tried it myself. It works pretty well.
Does that count as an original survival technique? It's all I can think of at the moment. Besides the usual.

Thanks! Iwill try it! When I moved to Alabama from Wisconsin I was used to poison ivy growing on the ground. Here it grows up into trees like Kudsu and the more you are exposed to it the worse the effects become, everytime you get it...so much for natural immunity...

There are lots of survival tips all over the web - just do a Google or a Yahoo and have some fun. A lot of it is really useful...

I read on about surviving a nuclear bomb that was very interesting. You can actually build a mini-shelter in your basement and keep out most of the radioactive fallout.

The main thing you should concentrate on is preparation. Everyone differs in what they're comfortable with, but generally having a week's worth of canned food and bottled water is a good idea. (water more important than food)

To people that are really interested in this stuff, I recommend going on a backpacking trip for 4-5 days. Aside from the great benefits of relaxation, you'll learn a lot about getting by for multiple days without the wonders of modern technology. And you'll learn how to plan.

For lights I would recommend lamps with LEDs, some of those can be kept on 10 days with same batteries.


Also headlamp is handy... after all human has this design flaw, only two hands.
(and if you don't keep lamp in hand it always points to wrong place)

If you have a bad cut and no first aid cobweb work great to stop bleeding.

Take meat any kind from beef to fish to hot dogs Slice as thin as possible and if you can start a small fire do so and put the meat near the fire not to cook it but to dry it out . Of corse everone knows beef jurky.
But did you know if you compleatly cover fresh meat not cooked with backon fat it will keeps for weeks.
No food No gun? want to feed your whole family for a week with a few hours worth of work ?
find a creek or lake or pond or the ocean wich ever is closest to you .
take a good nife or hand axe .and a bucket or bag to carrer the food back in.
Cut 50 or 60 sticks 4 feet or so long an ince round or in that range .
walk out into the water and start pushing the sticks into the bottom about an inch or two appart making a wall looking thing.
Mak it at an angel then after fifteen feet leave a one foot opeing
the make another wall angel it as well so the wall looks like a V with the middle open.
Now go back to the middle and behind the V make a 3 by 3 box with sticks behind the opeing .
Now go into the creek or pond away from your V and start walking towards it making as much comotion as possible the fish get scared and start swimming away from you hit the wall start swimming along the wall find the hole in it swim into the box .
Done right you can get hundreds of fish this way .
I was in survival corses when I was a kid back in the duck and cover days .
know tons of stuff like this and had to use most of it during survival camp.
Ps it works but personly I like windixie better and air is cool .
One good thing though is with in a month youl be in GREAT physical shape .assuming your not dead that is.

Duct Tape...

Whether from terrorists, etc., awesome protection!

All kidding aside, this is just one of those things you shouldn't be without...

1. Tape windows to make more sound in bad storms...
2. Instant band-aid/suture for first aid situations...
3. Can fix holes/gashes in auto hoses temporarily...
4. Can patch holes in just about anything...
5. Can make a temporary sling, tourniquet, etc...
6. Straps of it from one stick to another can make an instant stretcher...
7. Works better than rope (and faster) in building temporary shelter...
8. Can use around doors and windows to make more watertight for keeping out floodwaters...
9. And about a ZILLION other things...

If you can't fix it
Duct it!

Many good recommendations here, mine is to buy one of the military survival books and read it.

Once you have read that and assess your situation gather up what you need to implement your plan.

Just don't wait until the need actually arises.

As an example when the Ivan remains passed through west central Georgia as a tropical storm my family and I had no need whatsoever to go to the store for supplies - we already had-em.