Outdoor Survival

There is so much written about outdoor survival that I normally do not do much with it. Here I would like to do a few words to the people who may find themselves in the woods and not really know what they are doing. I am talking about a scenario where things get so bad where you are living that you just need to leave. You may wind up in a state or national forest or some other more or less wild area. This could happen due to rioting, martial law, terrorist attacks, etc. The thing to remember is that you may get away from the danger you face where you reside, but unless you know how to take care of yourself in the woods, you may be no better off.

I personally have no plans to head for the woods, but at the same time I am always ready. I live in the country in an area where I think the main rioting and other bedlam will not be as apparent. However, there is always the possibility the someone would come after me and I would need to move on. Here are some of the plans that I have and some of the preperations I have made.

First of all, I have a pop-up camper that sits ready to go at all times. If I were able to take that I would have no problems at all. That camper has two weeks food, a medical kit and most other things we need to live. The food and some camping equipment that is stored in the camper is stored in two backpacks. These are my bug-out packs, one for me and one for my wife. As my wife has back problems, most of the gear is in my pack. Some of the things I have in the packs are: two weeks food, a two person tent, sleeping bags, cooking and eating utinsels, medica kit, extra socks and underwear, extra jacket, waterproof matches, Zippo lighter and fluid, hatchet, fixed blade hunting knife, compass, survival fishing equipment, a roll of snare wire, 1,000 rounds .22 ammo and a long barreled, take-down .22 pistol. With all of these items and what I could get from the wild, I feel that I could livefor an indefinite amount of time in the woods.

Even in the middle of winter here in central WI there is a lot of food in the woods. While it is not as easy to find, it is there. With the hatchet a hole could be chopped in the ice and ice fishing done. Cattail roots are good at anytime of the year and can be dug out. I believe the hardest thing about surviving in the winter in the north is keeping warm in below zero weather. This is where you need to decide at bug-out time what type of clothes to wear and whether to throw a couple of more items into the packs. Things like long johns and heavy shirts might be well worth the extra weight if you feel that you will be out in the woods in the winter. I have winter camped many times and have had no trouble for a couple of nights. The problem will come after a couple weeks of the cold weather. One thing to do is to use the pistol to shoot animals like porcupines or beaver and eat the meat, including the fat. These are a couple of the most fat bearing animals in the woods and can be taken with a .22 pistol. This is not something you can practice bacause it is highly illegal at this time, However, in a survival situation all the rules change.

In the spring, summer and fall food abounds in the woods. By supplementing your two week supply that you should carry with wild food, you should be able to survive a long time. Fishing and wild plants along with some meat and you might not have to dig into your supply of food that you packed in. For those of you who have never collected wild food, a good field guide on it should be in your pack. While there are not many poisonous plants out there, there are definitely some. There are also some that it is just as well not to eat because while they will not poison you, they may make you sick. The best way is to start now to get out in the woods and learn as much as you can. There are some things that are very hard to practice right now as they are illegal. The trapping and snaring of small animals and birds is one of those things. All you can do is to read as much as possible about it and learn the habits of small animals. That will give you the best chance when the time comes.

This has just been a short note about survival in the woods. In some future column I may get deeper into the subject. Our problem is that we do not know exactly which scenario is going to come to pass, so we have to prepare for many contingencies. However if we are prepared, we will SURVIVE.

Surviving Martial Law

I believe martial law is coming to this country and that it is coming soon. We are seeing many laws now being put into place that will facilitate the declaring of martial law. We are also seeing many events around the country that will give the government a reason to do so. First, you have the war on terror. While there have been no terrorist attacks here since 9/11, we are constantly told that it is just a matter of time. Of course we are not closing the borders so that any terrorists that want to can come into the country. Could it be that another terrorist attack is what is wanted? I hope that is not the case, but I no longer trust a government that will go to Iraq and fight a war when our own country is being invaded by Mexicans. The other possibility is that our leaders know that eventually the invasion will cause average citizens to take up arms and that would be a reason to call for martial law. I do not know what the reason will be, but I believe it is coming. What can we do? How can we survive it? I am not 100% sure but I will give you my best ideas.

First of all, have a good supply of food that can be hidden at a moments notice. One of the things that the government will probably do is limit all families to two weeks or less of food. Anything beyond that will be considered hoarding and will be illegal. This is where freeze dried and vacuum packed dehydrated food will be the thing to have. MREs, camping food, food you dehydrate yourself and vacuum pack and even dried foods from the supermarket that you vacuum pack after you buy them will be great. Burying them in a large airtight container will be the best way to keep them. However, any place that you can hide them that you feel will not be found is great. You may want them behind a false wall in a closet or some other place that is not obvious. I wrote a book titled "Stash-It" which covered many of these hiding places. Some of you may have purchased it and still have it. If so you may want to review it and use some of the hiding places I wrote about. If you do not have the book and would like one, let me know.

Guns and ammo should be treated the same way. This may be the time that our government uses to do what the United Nations wants them to do and takes our guns away. I feel that one of the reasons that all of our military is overseas is so that there are not enough here to enforce martial law. That would mean that the many foreign troops that train on our soil probably be used. These foreign troops would not hesitate to come for our guns as our own countrymen might. Now is the time to have enough guns and ammo so that you can keep a couple out for protection while burying or otherwise hiding others. There are many ways to hide guns and ammo and I will not go into it here. I have covered it in many of my writings and may even have covered some of it earlier in this blog. You may not want to hide your guns at the present time, but be ready to do it at a moments notice. This goes for the food also, we need not hide it now, we just need to have everything ready to go when the time comes.

Another thing to do is to try not to be in a large city. The rioting and looting is going to be horrendous and you will have nowhere to go. If you now live in a large city and cannot leave, make plans to get out at the first sign of trouble. If you wait too long, they may not let you out. Have a place out in the country to go to, some land, a friend, even a spot in some wildlife refuge or national forest. Hopefully you can have a network of like minded friends that can assist one another. You are also going to need to learn how to barter. There may be many things that you need or want that you cannot obtain legally. However, there will be a black market as there always is in such cases. This will be a good time to have some silver on hand to pay for things that cannot be bartered for. Pre 1964 common coins and ounce silver bars and rounds will be the easiest to use. Should you manage to bury enough ammo that you have some extra, that may be one of the most valuable items to barter. The people that do not get any buried will want it.

These are just a few of the things that you can plan on doing for a martial law country. Also you should go back and read the cached articles on this blog to find out much more about survival. some of you may also want to go to my other blog. That one is political and you will see the direction we are heading. The address is: http://therealamericanpolitics.blogspot.com

First Aid

A great part of survival is knowing how to take care of yourself and your group. It may just be you and your wife, your wife and children or maybe even wife, children and grandchildren. You may also be a part of a loosely knit group that is more of a mutual aid society than anything else. It is almost a sure bet that if a survival situation lasts long enough someone is going to get sick or injured. Should there be anarchy and martial law as I expect, there could be gunshot wounds or knife wounds. Having invaders from Mexico and other parts of the world on our soil, with the gangs they bring along will not help. These people are not here to become Americans, they are here to take what they can get and they do not care how they go about taking it. They are already illegal so what is the difference if the kill, steal and rape?

Let us take a look at what is needed. First, someone needs to be in charge of first aid supplies and everyone involved should know where they are and what to do in an emergency. Personally, I like to have a fairly complete medical kit rather than just a first aid kit. I actually have both, a first aid kit to carry along in the car or in the woods and a full scale medical kit. Many people that I talk to have something between a full scale medical kit and a small first aid kit. If you purchase a first aid kit, you will want to add a number of things. For instance, you will want to have everyone's perscription medicines in the kit. This is especially if you have any idea of bugging out in an emergency. During the warm weather I keep my medical kit in my pop-up camper. In that way, I have it along on any camping trip and if I did have to leave in a hurry, it would be there.

In my medical kit I not only have the normal bandages and other necessities but I have a set of scalpel, suteres and other things for working on major wounds. I also carry things like antacids, keopectate and other over-the-counter medicines. These can be very important if the stores are out of them or will not sell them to you. Do you or anyone in your group wear glasses? If you cannot afford a second pair to keep in the kit, go to a drugstore and purchase a pair of reading glasses that you can cope with. They may not be ideal, but in a pinch they will be better than nothing. Make sure there are ear drops, eye drops and nose drops in the kit. A little bit of olive oil in a small bottle is probably the best ear drops in the world. For the eyes boric acid is great. When you do things in this way, many items can be used for multiple things. Over-the-counter allergy medicines are another thing that should be in the kit. Even if no one thinks that they have allergies, you never know when one may develop. If you are changing locations, it may be something that one never has been exposed to. I could go on with things to put in the kit but I think most people that want to be survivalists know how to build a kit to meet their own needs. Each kit will be slightly different as each of us is different.

What I do about perscription medicines is to try to always have a months worth in my medical kit. I get my meds through the VA and they send them to me three months at a time. I always order one month before I run out and keep a months worth in the medical kit. When doing this with any medicine whether it is over-the-counter or perscription, you need to rotate your meds. With over-the-counter drugs try to purchase them with as long a expiration date as possible. Now if it is anything you normally use at home, each time you buy that med for home use, rotate. One problem you may have is if you are on any perscription which contains a narcotic. Certain pain pills and pill for depression are examples of these pills. Doctors do not want to write perscriptions for more than one months worth. These types of pills the VA will only issue one month at a time rather than the usual three month refills. I found that when I was on one of these narcotics, that I could order so that I gained three of four days each month. I believe it took me either seven or eight months to get my month supply in the med kit.

One other thing that I have done and suggest to everyone is; I have a list in both the first aid kit and the med kit of various natural, wild items that can be used a medicine. Someone in your group needs to be able to identify and know how to use plants in case you run out of something. I have a short list of some common things like; plantain to help draw out infections, chewing willow inner bark as a replacement for asprin, etc. While I know many that I did not write down, I did write down the ones that can be easily identified by most anyone. You do not need a mistake in an emergency. I have taped a copy of these to the inner cover of both kits.

Once you have assembled everything you think you are going to need, you are going to need a good container to keep it in. the first aid kit is no problem but the med kit can be. I would wait until you have everything on hand that you are going to have. In that way you will know exactly how large a container you will need. With the first aid kit I actually pruchased a ready made one and then customized it. With the med kit, I started with one container and had to purchase a larger one because I kept adding to the kit. Make sure the container is sturdy and is waterproof. There are various ammo boxes and other containers on the surplus market that make excellent med kits.

Remember, we are looking at a survival scenario in the very near future in my opinion. Do not wait too long to get you medical gear in order. Survive!!