How To Stay Alive In The Woods

Written by Bradford Angier in 1956, this 283 paper back is a substantial work for the serious survivalist.
Survivalists come from such a wide range of political and cultural, not to mention financial backgrounds its a word often misunderstood.

My meaning, for this blog, is someone who wants to make it out alive, regardless of the circumstances. Whether its government shit hitting the fan, or falling into a ravine, or becoming stranded for whatever reason, a survivalist in my book will figure out what to do and do it.

We don't expect grandma to hold our hands, a bailout or group hug.
Ok, back to this book.

The author's writing style is the old fashioned, Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper stuff. Not as plain and down to earth as modern times requires.

But its very much worth the read. I'm on chapter 4. He really makes a case for wild foods as soon as you think things are not going too good. Don't wait til your out of canned goods and dried beans before you start living off the land. He talks a lot about our taste and social preferences. For instance, I didnt't know that it took 10 eggs to fullfil a man's daily requirements for iron. Four Tablespoons of blood will do the same.

Some religions have a thing about blood. I remember a friend who got "saved" had to quit making Blood Soup. I've never had blood soup, but apparently real cow's blood went into the pot along with other delectable things.
According to Angier, blood is like milk, a product so valuable it should never be completely drained from the wild meat. I saw an article about tribes in Africa which often bled their cows, one quart at a time and used it for sustenance. This did not harm the cow who immediately replaced the blood draw  through its normal body functions.

There are a few things that strike me wrong, things I personally would be hard pressed to do. According to Angier, one may rob a scavenger of his kill, even a bear, especially if there are small trees in the vicinity. Never, never never would I attempt to deprive a bear of his kill. Black bears can climb trees, while griz can knock it completely over. No go.

Another place, page 22 talks about firing a field to collect the cooked bugs and grubs. I would not try that either because a wild fire is hard to control. Back in 2009 a nearly blind guy tried to hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail alone. He got lost on a side trail not far from a town. He set the grass on fire as a signal. He got found alright. I hope he paid all the firefighters, too. Thankfully, no homes were lost, no lives taken.

I remembered this story because the guy worked with an outfitter and could have carried a host of electronic devices to overcome his poor eyesight. I'm not saying we need to go with a partner every time, but if you have a handicap, solve it before you head out to the trail, not after words.

I'm still working on the Never Say Die book. I finished the chapter on shelters. The diagrams for igloo building was interesting. It looks like an astounding amount of work for one person. The lean to was promoted for good reason.

Survivalistblog.net A Great Resourse

I came across this link while searching for tips on dealing with nuclear disasters.


http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/

This is a huge issue right now, even enough for the President to do a complete review of our current emergency systems and who would do what.

The links page on this survival blog has many places to read about guns, gardening, trailer living, hand to hand fighting and self defense, food and water with calculators, trapping wild game, raising animals. Some links are for videos, some for books, some are websites.

I've become interested in skills which involve improvisation. Using only what is at hand, easily obtainable, or can be hand made are the true skills for coming disasters.

Admittedly, this type of thinking will not endure you to governments and authority figures. They want you to think things are under control, just get in the line for assistance.

Others know and have seen that only self reliant thinking will get you through when there is a true disaster. Food, water, shelter and self defense are critical elements in a catastrophe.

Life Post Japan-Get Ready

We're still testing gear here. I did an initial review of the

Eureka Woman's Casper Sleeping Bag at http://brawnyview.blogspot.com/

Plan to take it this weekend for a trail- real trip event.Then we'll post photos here.

I'm all about hands on testing. Just thinking about stuff, reading, and book knowledge works for starters. Then, a person has to get out and try it. Like my hobo stove, hobo lamp, survival shelters, acorn and wild food experiments.

The horrible catastrophe which befell Japan, starting with the massive 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami is causing some people to look at survivalism again.

Who knew iodine tablets taken just before exposure could assist in preventing radiation poisoning?
Not like "they" are giving us real numbers. Sorta like getting your complete cholesterol profile done only to have the doctor say, "its fine, let us worry about the actual numbers". Anybody knows that's dangerous ground. A lipid profile can vary so much, the HDL and triglycerides telling much more than a LDL reading alone.

So, I went searching for real numbers.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=400+milliseverts+per+hour+Japan+radiation&ei=utf-8&fr=b1ie7

by putting 400 millisivents per hour Japan radiation into the yahoo search engine.
I had heard yesterday the term "400 millisievents" which put me onto real information. According to experts, the sun gives us just 3 millisivents Per Year. If we get a cat scan we get 8. I've been reading warnings about that, so the number 400 sure caught my attention.

Some experts claim we lay people can't understand the "numbers". We are computer literate. I take exception to that theory.

Not to be a fear monger here. Just wondering why we are told such pacifying things when in reality we should be thinking about our own survival kits at home. Our skills in water management, food storage while people in Japan go hungry for days on end should be sending us messages about preparedness.

Japan is the third largest economy in the world, an industrialized nation. A natural disaster has brought untold suffering. Time to look at our own readiness. If they are going hungry, it could happen here as well.

People of Purpose-a Huge Resource

I stumbled upon this huge resource while following back referrers to my website.

Amazing list of links and information available in one place, plus this mission statement:

"The purpose of this web page is to provide people with the information they may need to successfully adapt to the looming threats of peak energy, climate instability, economic irrationality, toxic politics, wars and violence."---Bob Waldrop

http://www.energyconservationinfo.org/compendium.htm

I plan to surf this site extensively.