Practice makes perfect ...

Practice makes perfect ...

So here I was this evening sitting alone in the house bored then it came to me while everyone else is out now would be a good time to practice making a fire using just items out of the garden and my survival kit.
So i collected some dead twigs from around the bottom of some trees in the garden snapping them into small lengths, then i located some more slightly thicker twigs and so on making 4 small piles of different thicknesses of twigs.
then i had to find some tinder .... easier said then done as it had been slightly raining earlier.
i managed to find some cut grass that had been blown under the bushes in the garden. There wasn't alot but enough to hopefully get it started.
( looked dry so i had my fingers crossed there would be enough. )
Next i opened my survival kit.
Upon inspection i found i had several means to make fire so i started with my favorite. the magnesium block and striker. After shaving the block ( mental note to replace new magnesium block ) i made a small pile of shavings ready to put onto the tinder which i did.
after a few attempts of making sparks from drawing the striker down the flint section the sparks were flying ... but with the strong wind that was blowing the sparks werent really catching onto the tinder ... upon a very close inspection of the tinder i found that the tinder was ever so slightly damp so plan A went out of the window.
so i took out of the survival kit 1 piece of cotton wool ( i carry 3-4 pieces for this purpose ) and i fluffed it out and placed it into the middle of the tinder.
1 strike was all i needed to get the cotton wool to light ... but the damp tinder still refused toflare up even with a little extra help from me blowing on it while holding it all at head height away from myself. so i took out my candle that i use for this very purpose ( mental note to replace candle ) and with the still lit cotton wool i light the candle and using this i managed to get the fire going .
After this little problem ( the tinder ) adding the small twigs to build up the fire etc etc was easy.
Sitting there watching the fire burn away quite happlierly thinking about what could of done an how to improve i came to the conclusion that due to the wind an not as dry as i thought tinder hampened my efforts but using the contents of the survival kit and not just 1 part of it made me think and use what i had in the tin.
next time i do this i really need to find some really dry tinder or maybe some dead dry tree bark instead.

As always I hope this helps you in some way.

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Bug out bag's and contents

Bug out bag’s and contents.

Ok first thing you are going to ask is what is a bug out bag and what is its purpose . Well the answer is easy a bug out bag is exactly what the name says … it’s a bag that you grab when you have to bug out of a location . Aka a grab bag… this bag is meant to keep you alive and fed until you can get to your nearest cache of supplies.
Remember this bag is meant to be lightweight so you can move quite quickly while carrying it.
Anyway here is a basic contents of what you COULD put in it.
This is for a adult to carry … children should carry a extremely lightweight version of below… water / food / warm clothes / survival bag only!

Sample contents…
Bottles of water ( 4/5 )
A survival bag and /or a space blanket
MRE’s / food ( 4 )
Primary survival kit
Full change of clothes
Small wash kit
KFS ( knife fork spoon )
Metal mug
warm hat and gloves
A warm lightweight jacket
Ammuntion for your personal defence weapon
A cleaning kit for your weapon
Map and compass
F.A.K ( small first aid kit )
Mess tin
Bug spray
Drinks pack
Web gear
Waterproof jacket / trousers ( if warm jacket above not waterproof )
Any personnal vital medications
A small radio
A couple of tins of pet food if you intend on bringing your pet with you if you bug out.

This is just a example of what you COULD put in a bug out bag … in real life it is really down to personal choice what goes in the bag and what is carried by whom.

Options ...

Your options when an event happens … starve or survive!

When an event happens to you the first thing out of your month I promise you will be something like OH ####! So I decided to throw this little bit in between the topics that I stated when I first started this blog, just because I had a little extra spare time for once ! WOOHOO !

A government website states we should have 3 days worth of food and water per person in the household in case of a emergency as it will take the government this time ( 3 days ) to get help to us.
However as Hurricane Katrina proved that the government couldn’t get all the necessary support staff and logistics in place within there own stated timescale! So a lot of people suffered for a long time until the government help arrived.
So I personally suggest that you should try to stock up as much
food and water ( remembering that you want to be aiming for 1-2 gallons of water per person per day! )
Some people I know of have stocked up to over 1 yrs worth of food and water ( using bottled water and a high class water filtration system.
So I’d recommend at least 3 months worth of food for the household.
Yes I know your probably thinking right now “ what is he thinking! that’s a lot of food to buy , that’s a lot of money! “ however if you start buying a few extra cans and jars of items every time you go food shopping it soon builds up I promise you.
OH and make sure you only buy stuff you like to eat. Once you get to a nice base level say a months worth of tinned food think about buying rice in bulk like for example 50lbs as this will boost your amount of food supplies vastly! Also make sure you rotate out the tins of food as you don’t want to waste your money if food goes bad cause it goes out of date! Bulk food items can be stored in 5 gallon pales which are available from lowe’s or home depot for about $5 inc a lid.
This will hold about 30-40lbs of rice per pale.
Remember to get things that can be used to change the flavor of some foods like spices , oils , salts etc
don’t forget paper plates and cups and napkins as well …
This hopefully will get you started and pointed in the right general direction .

As always I hope this helps you in some way.

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Survival Kits

Survival tins also know as survival kits.

Survival tin contents is really a personal thing as some people like to have items others would never even think of having.
Also survival tin contents is not a fixed must have list. For example if you were in the desert and as there is no water then a fishing kit might not be the best thing to have in it. I hope you have the basic idea.

Any how here is what I carry in my tins.
Yes I said tins, I bet your thinking why does he have 2 survival tins an not 1.
Well the answer is easy if you think about it, you have a secondary survival kit which never leaves your person and the primary is stuffed into your gear that you carry. So if you are separated from your gear you still have a fighting chance using your secondary tin of surviving.
Anyway here is a list with explanations of what some of the items do.

Matches
Water purification tablets
Mini compass
Flint and steel
Candle
Wire saw
Knife
Signal instructions ( morse code / ground to air signals )
Small sharpening stone
Pencil and paper ( making notes / leaving messages / tinder )
Sewing kit
Fishing kit
Cotton balls
Whistle
Safety pins
Non lubricant condoms ( water storage / carrier )

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Water.

Water.

So this morning I was going to post about water purification but then I find out that I had no water in my house what so ever! so on top of posting about water purification I am going to post about what you can do if you come across this type of situation.
Safe drinking water is a MUST have in a survival situation . So you need to have approx 1-2 gallons of water per person per day.
This is not enough if you are in a hot climate or are doing a lot of manual heavy work. As the body needs more water in this type of situation. Anyway if you find like I did that one day you have no water first things first you switch off the mains water so it doesn’t get drawn back into the main water line. Now tell everyone in family whom live in house to stop an think before they flush the toilet etc.
Now drain the hot water tank as there will be no cold water pressure to push the water around the house so drain the tank into containers that can be sealed tight. Now you have X amount of safe drinking / washing water.
You can remove the top of the toilet cistern so you can pour dirty water onto there to help flush the toilet. if possible use water that has been used to wash with, so it is not a waste. So anyway on with my next posting.

Water purification.

Okay this topic is IMPORTANT let me say that again this topic is IMPORTANT!!! .

If you mess this up in training the worst you’ll get is a bad stomach bug but in a survival situation this could mean your death! So I’d recommend you practice this over and over again!
But who am I to tell you what to do ;)
First things first it is possible to make drinking water from any water source. However I personally would recommend you stick to rivers or fast moving streams as these are easier to make into safe drinking water. However the following way works on most water sources.
You will need 3 large pieces of material the tighter weave the better and some string and 3 1“ thick 5 ft long branches.
Push the ends of each branch into the ground as much as possible.
Tie the ends together to make a teepee shape.
Now tie at different heights the 3 pieces of cloth so they sag slightly in the middle making them layer above each other.

Now you have 2 options you can either just use this as it is by pouring the water SLOWLY onto the top piece of material until all the water has been put into it… now place your CLEAN container underneath the lowest layer of material and wait.
Once the water has dripped thru the 3 layers of material into your clean container you then boil this water for 3 minutes then leave to cool and then you have safe drinking water.

Option 2 is to put sand into the second layer of material and charcoal into the lower layer with leaves and grass in the top layer. Then do as above and pour the water in. The sand / charcoal / leaves and grass help filter the water more then without them but either way will work.
Now after all this if you are still unsure of the water put in a water purification tablet … shake the container with the tablet inside and follow the instructions on the bottle. But remember these tablets are a rare resource so in a survival situation they are to be used sparingly.
Now this is just a brief outline of how to do this using just one way. There are also many other ways to make safe drinking water. I would suggest you learn at least 2 other ways.
I hope this helps you in some way.

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Making Fire

Making fire.

Todays topic is as the title says making fire .
Man has been making fire since he was living in caves so if they could make it way back then , then we can do it nowadays.
Before we start to build a fire we need to decide how to make the fire ignite. There are many ways to do this from a simple use of a candle ( you light the candle with a match NEVER try to light a fire with a match as you just end up wasting them! ) another way ( my favorite one ) is the flint and steel. The rubbing 2 sticks together has yet to work as far as I know but I can say that making a fire bow really works! Even if you have a broken lighter as long as its sparking it can be used. Whichever one you decide to use make sure using it is second nature to you. I recommend that you learn more then 3 different ways to make fire and master each of them.
First items needed are the following: a means of making fire ( something like a BIC lighter to a flint and steel ) tinder (a birds nest works really well if you can find one ,but the shape is what your tinder should be looking like.), kinderling ,medium size sticks then larger sized sticks finishing up at logs.
Make sure you have a good sized pile of each BEFORE you start to make any type of fire.
All wood used to make fire MUST be dry!
If you have no dry wood to use then using your knife shave the wood making curls into the middle of the stick this is called making a fire stick. This will catch fire a lot easier even if damp.
Tinder can be almost anything. Dry grass, paper, cotton wool from your first aid kit , lint from your pocket, the list is almost endless.
Kinderling is very small sticks ( twigs ) shaved if necessary into the middle where the wood is driest.
Once you have a good amount of the burnable needed to make and sustain a fire you need to pick a suitable place to make a fire.
Wet ground wont help the fire!
Is possible set the fire up against something that wont burn but will reflect the heat from the fire back towards you like a stone wall or a pile of logs if they are approx 24” away from the fire. If you make a reflector it will also double as a windbreak and a way to dry damp/wet logs.
Anyway place tinder on the ground and fluff up the tinder ruffing up the edges so they will catch the sparks or fire more easy.
Next make a small wigwam out of kinderling around the tinder DO NOT SMOTHER the tinder with too much kinderling as the tinder needs air to make the fire grow.
Now using whatever means you have … be it a BIC lighter to a flint and steel light the tinder … BUT make sure all the rest of the wood is ready and close to hand …. Now that the fire has caught the kinderling … usually you can hear it crackerling add the next layer of wood and SLOWLY make the fire bigger until you are adding the larger sized pieces of wood.
Once you have the fire burning at the size you want it is very easy to run out of the correct sized pieces of wood so to help with this … try these 2 methods out.
On finding several large logs that cannot be cut put a end of each log into the fire you can do this to have upto 4 ends in the fire at any one time … if the fire looks like it is burning to fast pull out each log by like 6” this will slow the burn rate down … and if the fire looks like it will go out push these logs in more …. This way you can control the fire just by moving the logs into or out of the fire by only moving them a maximum of 6”.
The other method is placing the large log directly into the fire so the fire is burning the middle section of the log thus basically cutting the log into a more useable size. Once it burns thru remove one section and repeat if necessary.
This is of course a very brief outline on making fire if you wish to know more feel free to contact us and im sure we could arrange a demo so you can see this being done in person.

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Making Shelter

Making shelter.

Most people have some sort of tent so making shelter is really easy for them … however for the rest of us we have many more options which are in some cases better.
I speak of a simple 12 x 12 ft tarp ( or bigger ). Yes a tarp!
This can be set up in a many ways as you can think of, from a simple tying the corners to 4 trees and tying a small smooth stone to the underside up in the middle then attaching a piece of cord to that so it raises the middle so if it rains it simply runs off! To making a complex shape which includes windbrakes and a ground sheet! The only limitations are your lack of creativity.
All you really need is atleast 1 good tree !
And once you need to break camp you can just roll up the tarp and walk away. No need for tent poles and other fancy equipment you just need some cord and tent pegs with a small hammer.
Once you compare the weight and the other uses that the tarp to the tent have you will see that the tarp has several advantages over the tent. ( unfortunately I cannot post any pics on the blog … not sure if it is even possible but im looking into it … to show you what can be made )

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