*
Rain and Spiders oh my! Part Eight
I don't know how the boss can keep punching out so many blog posts. I'm just trying to share what I learned from a course.
So back to it
There's no 100% rule. This is important. Cue a story about a life long survival instructor getting stuck in the middle of the desert with his family when his well maintained car died. Eventually they found him with his family all dead from dehydration. They waited with the car like you're supposed to. Only, nobody came.So keep that in mind. No 100% rules
That being said, if there's no water nearby, don't wait until you run out. Call it early and move on. Some places just can't sustain life.
********************
Knives.
At the end of the day they're just cutting tools. Once you realise that it gets a little easier. They only have to be sharp enough to do the job.
Bash two rocks together. They'll splinter and the splinters are sharp. Sharp enough to cut things ;-)
Bones. You'll find them around the place. Break it then use a stone to hone a sharp point / edge.
Buying a knife - you don't want one with a serrated back edge as you are unable to apply pressure to the back, harder to use it to batten wood.
*************************
WATER
This was the part I was most keen to hear. I've always been big on water, especially as it relates to survival &/or prepping. I don't know why that is, but for me, it's a huge blind spot everyone seems to have. Prove me wrong, but a lot of what I see "preppers" bang on about is guns guns guns and lights. Yeah, I love it in that order as well. In fact, yesterday I saw my LGS have a prize of $900 worth of torches and I got super excited. That's what I want to win. Screw the lottery. I want more torches.
OK so we're into water. (these are from my notes they're not my musings)
* Buy a Filter or Be a Filter (more on this later)
* Keep yourself hydrated with a high base level of water at all times. Then, should a survival situation occur, you start off fully hydrated. Starting off a survival situation a bit thirsty isn't advisable.
* Infantry soldiers will tell you that you can only carry so much water before you're carrying water to drink water. In other words, you can't carry enough.
* The military sends trucks out and they drop water off at various points. This works for the military. You're not the military and Trailer Trash Militia doesn't count
* Water Source. Now you'd think this would need to be said but apparently it does. Water flows downhill. You're going to find water downhill. If you're on flat(ish) land. Get down on your belly in a pushup position and it's easier to discern the slope. Seriously, the instructor had anecdotes of people wanting to go up hills to find water. When pressed they said they were looking for springs.
* Always Always treat water. My instructor didn't tell war stories. However he did share his experience with contaminated water. Long story short, he didn't even drink the water, he was thrown into a river from a boat following a misadventure and got a mouthful of river water. He nearly died from dysentry because the misadventure also caused his unit to lose all their gear, they were weeks away from being listed as "missing" and the only clothes they were wearing were shorts because they were on a boat on a river. So yeah, he's big on treating water.
* My anecdote - My mother in law is a real stickler on boiling water. Even tap water. It's a PITA when she's visiting. I try to tell her I have a very expensive filter but she DGAF and insists on boiling. This is because of personal experience as a world traveller
* Don't wait until your thirsty to drink water. Search and Rescue frequently find people dehydrated / dead from dehydration with water still in their bottles. They were saving the water for when they needed it. You need it when you're thirsty.
* It's best to use two systems to treat water
*** BOILING
-> Doesn't kill Cysts
-> 3 minutes (your altitude effects it) not a hard rule but a rolling boil will bring it to above 70 Degrees Celcius (the goal)
-> Boiling is your baseline treatment / fall back
*** CHEMICALS
-> you have to have them on you
-> Also "purifies" your internals
-> Better that it "purifies" your internals than drink contaminated water
-> Bleach 8 Drops : Litre
-> Iodine 2-3 Drops : Litre
-> also those tablets
*** Filters
->Lifestraw and Katydyn got the nod.
->The instructor said if you're in Dingoland and out in the bush without a water filter you're an idiot.
-> Boil the water after putting it through the filter
*** Bush skill
-> Some area's of Dingoland has crocodiles
-> Dirt / rocks filter water (to an extent)
With that in mind ** SOAK HOLE **
* Dig a hole beside the river
* 1/2 hour it should fill with water
* Let the murkey water to settle
* Collect water and boil
*** Transpiration Bags
* https://www.survivalsuppliesaustralia.com.au/products/hydro-kit-solar-still.php
* Hang these on branches of trees
* Max one daylight period per branch (the tree catches on if you have it on for to long)
* Desert areas produce more water
* They're quick to set up but take a while to produce (yet require no effort) so set it up at the start of the camp
* Set them up as soon as you know you're in a survival situation
The instructor showed us some other tricks but to get the idea across I think I'd need pictures.
Next up FIRE and we'll probably wind it up with a list of suggested tools
Regarding that water, I'm concerned as well. My mobile unit is based on the small Sawyer model and it is a kit I put together from multiple sources. The goal was to create a lightweight and effective system that was committed to preventing dirty water from contacting clean water. Just one drop will do you in. Took a little thinking and planning, then running down the best materials for the least money. It's important.
ReplyDeleteI also have an extensive base station created from new 5 gal buckets and several filters (spares) and again, prevent the clean from touching the dirty. Carefully staged loops in the hoses gives nefarious water flows a place to jump off rather than cause problems. Accidents occur...try to foresee them.
Accidents occur because Murphy hates you. Mother Nature despises you. And Baby Jesus thinks you could use a little work.
Delete"Buying a knife - you don't want one with a serrated back edge as you are unable to apply pressure to the back, harder to use it to batten wood."
ReplyDeleteDid you mean the back of blade (spine) with a chiseled 'breaker' edge ? That I can see damaging the bludgeon used to hammer blade through wood.
Transpiration bags - I've never tried this, but those who have HIGHLY recommend that the bags be clear or very nearly so, so that photosynthesis can help produce water vapor. Colored bags aren't nearly so productive. I really do have to test this out, as my area has extremely limited flowing water sources. Gathering dew, distallation and transpiration will likely be my recourse for water gathering.
Thank you - the posts are a good read.
You are right, I did mean along the spine of the blade. The reasoning was that it made it difficult to batten and the other important reason was that you couldn't apply pressure to the spine with your thumb when you want to do fine work with the knife.
DeleteI forgot to mention he liked a full tang knife as well.
Another point I forgot to mention is that he talked about the different steels that are used and the short version is that it's all a trade off. There is no best
Right, I need to try it out too. Seen this a couple years ago but keep forgetting about it. A neighbor gave me a spool of BIG industrial size clear bags that might work well. I'm going to do several come summer. On a couple tree branches and a few shrubberies, see what produces the most.
DeleteI was going to try turkey oven roasting bags, they are very reasonably priced but am not sure of long term durability. Most of the advice I read about transpiration bag is to switch branches every day to allow the branch to recharge. Long term, the same branch would produce less vapor - makes sense to me.
DeleteWell, most plastic won't last long at all ( either UV degrade or ripping ), correct? And this is a short term problem you are solving.
Deletere:
ReplyDeletepoisoned
I lived and worked all over this particular planet. I eat standing next to street carts frequented by locals; longer lines are better.
I was poisoned thrice:
*** at a well-established well-regarded restaurant in Oakland California, and
*** from California rabbit-food tainted by the tons of petroleum-based chemicals we dump on crops, and
*** from California olive oil tainted by those same chemicals.
Some lessons don't need to repeat for me to get the hint.
* * * * *
I loathe and abhor survival reference based on Hollywood script-writers imaginations. Because Hollywood.
In the flick SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, kids work in a restaurant kitchen filling used plastic water-bottles == Evian? Dasani? == from the faucet, then sealing the cap with a drizzle of SuperGlue.
* * * * *
I heartily endorse a regular consistent regime of probiotics and prebiotics to establish and maintain a healthy gut.
That's a new one on me about the refilled water bottles. Priceless! Kill those Yuppie Scum, for profit!
Deletere:
ReplyDeletewealth transfer, comma Rawles comma
I enjoy a good paradox.
Today, SurvivalBlog asks for a dime-a-day because 'their costs exceed their multitudes of advertising revenues'.
Years ago during her final months/weeks, the soon-dead wife heart-warmingly advertised for the next in the series of Rawles wives, proudly boasting 'comma earns a substantial income'.
And then, we have the dead wife memorial fund.
Hilarious.
* * * * *
At the yuge Reno gunshow decades ago, I saw Rawles sitting alone at a vendor table pimping his stacks of books. I didn't stop, nor did any other buyers and browsers. He seemed perturbed by the lack of fawning adorers. Downright huffy.
My impression == James Rawles is a punk, a self-absorbed self-important punk, stuck in his 'rightness' with unsustainable beliefs based on his need to be right.
George Carlin == "Invisible man in the sky, omnipotent but financially-incompetent so he needs your money."
Rawles. I didn't much care for his hair neither.
I do agree with you on his hair-embarrassing. But then, so is most peoples. I'm not nearly as unforgiving as you-although I'm impressed by your commitment, don't get me wrong-so I'll just say, officer in the military. That should tell anyone everything ( yes, there are a FEW good ones. Just as there are a few good lawyers. I don't have the time or lamp oil to search for them ).
Delete"I didn't much care for his hair neither" LMAO
DeleteI'm getting to really like Marge. Nice and lippy.
DeleteYet you seem to like me Jim,,,of course then too. I'm most definitely nothing like JR either.
DeleteMust be my hair ?
Definitely your hair! :)
DeleteIt costs a lot to maintain the mountain castle bunker with all the mod con's. You gotta pay for the FLIR scope, Federal Tax Stamp items, and AN-PVS-xx Gen4+, if you want to keep them after reviewing, not to mention the mag-dump ammo costs! No one worries about post-apocalypse hair: kept short to avoid infestation.
Deletepdxr13
I feel I should add something about the soak hole.
ReplyDeleteIt's a technique the Aboriginals picked up by watching kangaroo's.
Also, if you *are* doing it to avoid crocodiles you need to do it a decent distance (use some nous) away from the river.
The last * should read "Collect water, filter sediment & boil"