Rough Camping & Survival Tips

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Borrowed:
I got to test out my kit in Ukraine for a month. I was in the North when everything was going down. Spent days in the field at a time, in small groups of 4-12. Lost two team mates while I was there.
I'm here to tell you all, through a small(but intense) amount of personal experience, the following:
-People that tried to be a lone wolf were killed early and easily. Even those armed with assault rifles and kit. Have a team. If you don't already have a team, immediately join one when SHTF. You will not survive alone, no matter how well-prepared you think you are.
-Comms are everything. They don't need to be encrypted. Get your ham license so you can legally practice using your comms systems. Become proficient enough that making changes via FFP on the fly is second-nature. If it weren't for personal comms, my team and I wouldn't have known where to go to help people that needed medical aid, extraction, or defensive support.
-You do not have enough non-perishable food or medical supplies.
-Morale patches do not increase your chances of survival. Stop wasting money on crap.
-Gasoline will run out almost immediately. Keep it on hand, or expect to walk.
-Your neighbors are better-armed than you think, and they want to protect their family and their supplies a lot more than you want to take it. They know their house and their property. If your plan is to steal and pillage, you're going to get smoked. Just remember that randos wearing wooden sandals were able to successfully repel our well-equipped military because they knew their rice paddies like the back of their hand.
-I'd like to reiterate that BEING PART OF A GROUP IS NECESSARY. Being in a group where everyone is well-prepared makes EVERYTHING easier. Stop fantasizing about being a lone wanderer.

 

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MIY Rope from Plastic Bags - The Prepared Page

Its see a good survival use for plastic bags because I always have a large number on hand & one supply I do worry about having enough of is rope

www.thepreparedpage.com

 

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BORROWED:
I'm going to say a few things that think need to be said. One, I'm not an expert on survival, but I have learned a few things. Two I don't think most people here have a real grasp of what true survival means. They are preparing for short term survival. I call short term about a year, maybe two. You have to prepare like the situation never ends.
With that in mind learn to live like they did 200 years ago. Learn how to make fire as many ways as possible and practice. Learn how to collect water and filter it without modern devices. Learn how to hunt. Learn how to hunt with sticks, slingshots, bow and arrow, how to trap. Learn how to fish with the bare minimum of equipment. Learn how to make your own hooks and fishing line, fish traps. Learn how to make rope from grass and bark, and string. Learn how to make shelter from natural materials. Learn how to make your own oilcloth and tarps now to save money. I could go on and on.
You can't store more than a years worth of food and water very practically, and it just gets worse the more people that you have. I'm not saying don't do that, but how much room do you have? What if you have to bug out and leave it? Just as important, maybe more, store seeds. Lots of seeds. Get heirloom varieties because if you collect seeds from the stuff you buy in produce it maybe a hybrid variety. You will grow a bush but not fruit/veggies. Learn about natural fertilizers and pest control. Raise some chickens, ducks and geese. They will give you fresh eggs and meat, and fertilizer. Hell you don't even have to feed them they will forage for themselves and keep the bugs out of your garden. Geese are better watchdogs than anything on four legs! Learn how to cook on an open fire. I've even learned how to make my own charcoal.
Yes it's a lot to learn, start now time is short. Teach it to the rest of your family. Form a like minded group of people that you trust. One person can learn fire making, another can learn how to make shelters and so on. Then share the knowledge. Get physical books protect them and store them with your food supplies. Learn how to find wild foods. We kill, cut, burn enough food in our yard that can keep us alive along with what we store. Learn how to forage. Many plants we have in our garden are edible, like hostas, elephant ear etc. Dad told me that his grandad wouldn't plant a tree that didn't provide some kind of fruit or nuts. Good advice, but I would extend that to ANY plant in my yard. Learn what plants help keep pests off of other plants. For example planting garlic around roses keeps aphids away. That way you get garlic and Rose hips. Geranium around tomatoes does the same thing.
I guess I'm getting a little long winded here, but I think people aren't getting the big picture. I see so many comments about having power supplies for their cell phones. What makes you think they will be working? Get a shortwave radio, learn to use it. Forget batteries get things that will charge by solar. Get a hand cranked generator for rechargable items. And so on. You've got to be prepared to live like that forever if you really want to survive. I see a lot of very good ideas that will work for a little while, but then what?
I know there will be people that say "Who the hell are you?". I'm nobody really, but I'm 62 years old I've been in scouting for a lot of years, (back when they taught pioneering skills like fire making using an axe etc.) I spent six years in the Marine Corps,
I've spent even longer learning Bushcraft and survival, I try to learn as much about how the pioneers did things and the Native Americans as well. I just want to help everyone understand what real survival means. There may be times that all you can find are bugs , rats and lizards, but you need to be prepared to chow down if that's all you can find.
Again I apologise for being so long winded about this. I just want to help.

 

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Borrowed!
The Dark Side Of Survival
A subject not often talked about but it is a reality around the world
The Dark Side Of Survival is how far one will go to sustain their life in the most dire of scenarios.
It's often not talked about because it usually goes against everything we believe in, this includes eating pets, taking another's life, all the way down to cannibalism.
Many here might know the story now named the miracle on the Andes. In 1972 a plane carrying a rugby team crashed, with no food and desperate some members had to turn to cannibalism to survive a brutal 2 months.
Even in America cannibalism took place with the Jamestown settlers in 1609 to survive a hellish winter.
We prep to avoid such things, but truth is nobody knows the future, many would not want to live in a world where they are watching their kids starve, where they witnessed a loss of a loved one, where they might have to take a human life to protect their own, where they might have to kill a family pet just to get enough energy for their kid to make it a few more days.
Point is survival is not a game, most will be traumatized for life after dealing with a disaster scenario. It's a bitter pill we might have to swallow to stay alive.
I'm trying to keep this somewhat non detailed because stories I read are downright sickening, it goes against most of our religions, most of our morals, and what we know as civility.
To this day I'm still not sure if I would want any part in living in such a scenario, or if I could do the things others have to stay alive.

 

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This article appeared last week....
Do you have a friend who hunts like cavemen did?
A friend who stalks warthog as they did back in the stone age. Sitting still for hours, with geological patience while the sun fries him to a sizzle, ants crawl up his leg, and hunger gnaws like a rabit rat.
Then a quick lunge, and the spear flies straight and true, so the steel bites fast and deep, and brings the quarry home quickly and skilfully.
You don't? Well, I do.
Do you have a friend who hunts wildebeest with a longbow made from two gemsbuck horns, joined together in the middle?
You don't? Well, I do.
Do you have a friend who can make fire with his bare hands, using only rocks, and the skills that modern men no longer have?
You don't? Well, I do.
His name is Willem J. Pretorius, and when he came to visit me in the heart of the ostrich republic, he brought his beautiful bride with him.
I discovered something I already suspected, and found that it was true: These two people are the original South Africans.
The kind you only heard about from your grandparents, but whom you never really knew still existed.
But there they were, and the moment they stepped out of their coach, unmasked and fearless at the prospect of meeting an old-fashioned Boer with a stubborn streak, I knew what they were thinking. They thought that they were just going to have coffee for an hour and pay their respects before going home.
They were wrong, of course. That hour became a whole afternoon, and afterwards it felt as thought it had been only a quarter of an hour.
When you meet the Willems of this world - for there are more of them - you'd do well to try to be their friend.
When the world goes up in flames one day, as we know it will, you'll wish you knew one. Not only so that they could teach you how to keep yourself alive, but also to inspire you, give you a sense of self-worth and dignity, and help keep you reminded that you can stay alive, for as long as you may be alive.
This world has far too many limp-wristed sissies who apologize for their own existence. Scared puppies who bark at their own shadow, and then wet themselves as they run back to their kennels to be petted by their masters.
We need the Willems of the world in order to remain human.
I just thought I'd say that out loud today, in case anyone was wondering.

 

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Saturated in pieces of molten candle
It works well..

 

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100yds of 550 cord.
One way of storing it......

 

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Just a crude hole punched in the coffee can, candle stuck in, thin wire handle.
You can swing it around in a circle, then back and forth.
The candle will flicker but wouldn’t go out.

 

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In 1983, 23-year-old Tami Oldham Ashcraft survived 41 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after her 44-foot yacht capsized in Hurricane Raymond. The Category 4 storm's 40-foot waves and 140-mph winds killed her fiancé and nearly demolished her craft.

Below deck, the capsizing yacht threw Ashcraft against the wall, knocking her unconscious. For the next 41 days, she guided the battered yacht 1,500 miles to Hawaii with only a sextant, a watch, one remaining sail and living off of canned fruit salad and peanut butter.