Outdoor Survival Skills
Outdoor Survival Skills vs Survive the Final Bubble
You've read countless books on survival methods and have watched YouTube instructional videos all day long. Until you get out into the field with your survival gear and practice those skills yourself, all you'll have is a false sense of security that you'd know what to do in a crisis.
If you've haven't mastered these outdoor survival skills there's no time like the present to practice learning those skills and learning about your survival gear. Bring your backwoods friend or family along for instruction and guidance. Please don't forget to let someone else (friends, family, park rangers) know exactly where you're headed before you take off.
Locate a Suitable Campsite, You want to stay high and dry.. Avoid valleys and paths where water may flow toward you. Choose a campsite free from natural dangers like insect nests and widow-makers, dead branches that may crash down in the middle of the night, as well as falling rocks. You want to be close to resources like running water, dry wood (from which you can assemble your shelter and build a fire) and rocky walls or formations that can shield you from the elements.
Building a Shelter. Hypothermia is the number one outdoor killer in cold weather. That means a well-insulated shelter should be your top priority in a prolonged survival situation. To make a simple lean-to, find a downed tree resting at an angle, or set a large branch securely against a standing tree, and stack smaller branches close together on one side. Layer debris, like leaves and moss, across the angled wall. Insulate yourself from the cold ground, which will draw heat from your warm body, by layering four to six inches of debris to lie on.
Fire building has four key ingredients: tinder bundle of dry, fibrous material (cotton balls covered in Vaseline or lip balm are an excellent choice) and wood in three sizes-toothpick, Q-tip, and pencil. Use a forearm-sized log as a base and windscreen for your tinder. When the tinder is lit, stack the smaller kindling against the larger log, to allow oxygen to pass through and feed the flames. Add larger kindling as the flame grows. Then add larger pieces of wood.
Finding clean water. There are two kinds of water in the wild, Potable water that's already purified, and water that can kill you. When it comes to questionable water, essentially anything that's been on the ground long-term, like puddles and streams, your best option is boiling water, which is 100 percent effective in killing pathogens. Sometimes boiling isn't an option.
Rain, snow, and dew are reliable sources of clean water you can collect with ease, and they don't need to be purified. With a couple of bandannas, you can collect two gallons of water in an hour by soaking up dew and ringing out into a cup. You can also squeeze water from vines, thistles, and certain cacti. Are there any maple trees around? Cut a hole in the bark and let the watery syrup flow, nature's energy drink.
Collecting Water With a Transpiration Bag. Plants "sweat" throughout the day, a process called transpiration. To take advantage of this clean, pure source of water, put a clear plastic bag over a leafy branch and tie it tightly closed. When you return later in the day, water will have condensed on the inside of the bag, ready to drink.
Identifying and eating edible plants (as well as small critters like fish, frogs, and lizards). Separating the plants you can eat from those that will kill you is a matter of study and memorization. Buy a book to familiarize yourself with plants in different environments. And don't take any chances if you're uncertain. A few common edible plants include cattail, lambsquarter (also called wild spinach), and dandelions.
Using a Split-tip Gig to Catch Animals. Gigging (hunting with a multi-pronged spear) is the simplest way to catch anything from snakes to fish. Cut down a sapling of about an inch in diameter, and then split the fat end with a knife (or sharp rock) into four equal sections ten inches down. Push a stick between the tines to spread them apart, then sharpen the points. You've got an easy-to-use four-pronged spear. Much easier for catching food than a single sharp point.
Navigating By Day. If you ever find yourself without a GPS tool (or a simple map and compass) you can still use the sky to find your way. The most obvious method to get a general bearing by day is to look at the sun. You can also use an analog watch to find the north-south line. Just hold the watch horizontally and point the hour hand at the sun. Imagine a line running exactly midway between the hour hand and 12 o'clock. This is the north-south line. (On daylight savings time, draw the line between the hour hand and one o'clock.)
Navigating By Night. Find the North Star, which is the end of the Little Dipper's handle. If you can find the Big Dipper, draw a line between the two stars at the outer edge of the constellation's dipper portion. Extend this line toward the Little Dipper, and it will line up with the North Star. Face the North Star, and you're facing true north. If there is a crescent moon in the sky, connect the horns of the crescent with an imaginary line. Extend this line to the horizon to indicate a southerly bearing. Once you determine your direction, pick a landmark nearby or in the distance to follow by daylight.
Related: How to Survive: Preparing to Survive Pandemics, Disease Outbreaks and Disasters
Tying a Bowline knot. Knots come in handy for a slew of survival scenarios, tying snares, securing shelters, lowering equipment or yourself down a cliff face. You should have a good knowledge of tying knots, from hitches to bends to loops. But if you learn only one, learn the bowline. It's the number one, go-to rescue knot, particularly when the rope will be loaded with weight: the harder you pull, the tighter the knot gets.
Sending a Survival Signal. When you have a debilitating injury, your only hope for getting saved is to maximize your visibility so rescuers can find you. Two methods, will guarantee that if someone's looking, they'll see you.
The first is a signal fire built out in the open for visibility. That means hilltops or clearings in a forest where nothing will disperse the smoke. Create a platform to raise the base of the fire off the ground so moisture doesn't saturate the wood. Save your absolute best combustible material for your signal fire to guarantee a quick light. Once the fire is lit, pile on green branches, like pine boughs in winter, to produce thick smoke. You will need about 15 seconds of smoke, as that's about all you've got when you hear a plane before it's out of sight.
The second is a mirror signal. A flash from signal mirror, even at night, by moonlight, can be seen for miles. Improvise with any reflective surface you've got, from rear-view mirrors or headlights to a cell phone screen. Aiming the reflection is the key, and it's simple. Hold out your two fingers in a peace sign and place your target, be it plane or boat, between your fingers. Then flash the reflection back and forth across your fingers.
Plan, prepare, protect, get through, hold on, hold out, make it, and keep body, soul and family together. You need a plan to prepare and to protect yourself and your family. Survival is our Strategy!"
Thanks for reading this. I'd love to hear what your ideas are and what you have done to better prepare to master survival in the outdoors and how you practice and why, so please leave your comments below and share your thoughts.
Survival: Meet the miraculous box that powers a house from Earth’s core
This professor plugged his house to Earth’s core.... totally legal
The Earth’s core is producing 47 trillion Watts of electricity right beneath our feet each and every second. That’s 1 million times more than the mankind can consume.
For various reasons, science couldn’t (or didn’t want) to figure out a way to harvest this immense source of energy up until now....
More Details:Discover how to power his house from earth’s core...totally legal.
You must simply plug a couple of wires into the ground …and not worry about weather conditions for your rest of life
