Urban Survival - Long Term Foods and Water

During times of uncertainty, natural disasters, or possible terrorist attacks; it is important to be prepared for both water and food shortages. The focus of this article is just that, food and water. We will discuss other much needed items later on but it is always a good rule of thumb to have a survival kit on hand like the one that was discussed in last month’s article. First, we’ll cover key foods that can last nearly half a life time or longer.

There are certain foods that if properly prepared and stored, can last almost indefinitely. Salt, Honey, and Sugar can all last for hundreds of years if they are stored in a cool, dry, and dark environment. Did you know that when several of the Ancient Pyramids of Egypt were discovered, that they found honey that was still edible even today? There are several vendors online that you can find that have these core foods that are already sealed in manners that will help them last long enough to literally feed your grandchildren. Salt is required for the human body to function properly, it can be used to help preserve meats, it can be used to help season up a rather bland meal, attract wild game for trapping or harvesting, and lots of other great uses too. Sugar has several uses as well, as far as meal preparation, drink preparation, and several others. Honey can be used as a food supplement by itself, it can be used as an alternative to sugar, an ingredient for meal preparation, and much more.

Other foods like White Rice, Wheat, and many forms of Beans can last anywhere from 25 years to well over 50. These types of foods provide critical proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals which are required to maintain to the human body as well as your immune system, energy levels, and several other important aspects of your body. These items can also be found through several vender's online as well. The ones that I personally recommend are packed and sealed in #10 Cans in a manner that will ensure they last for at least 25 years if stored properly.  A case of 6 #10 cans usually consists of about 33 lbs of food which would sustain one adult for about 17 days at a rate of 2 lbs per day. Rice, Wheat, and Beans can be used as complete meals by themselves or as accents to other forms of meats, vegetables, and fruits. Just like Salt, Sugar, and Honey, it is important to store them in a dry, cool, and dark environment to ensure you get the maximum life span out of them.

Water is even more important to the human body than food so it is critical to have an adequate amount of it on hand. Water is the key component within your body and accounts for about 60% of your body weight. The human body can only go a matter of days without water however most adults can last several weeks or longer without food. Though some people prefer storing bottled water, I prefer gallons of distilled water. The exact amount of water your body needs is different from person to person and depends on many variables including, age, weight, climate, activity level, ect… Most people are recommended to intake about 8 to 9 cups of water each day. However more active people need to account for their surroundings and increase their intake to match that of their total output or surpass it. This may mean increasing your intake to 12 to 13 cups per day to nearly doubling it. To better gauge yourself, you want to drink enough water to rarely become thirsty and to ensure your urine stays colorless or slightly yellow. You want to avoid having dark or murky urine because that is a good indication that your water intake is not sufficient and that your body may not have enough water to properly remove toxins from your vital organs or flush out your system. I would keep an absolute Minimum of a two week supply on hand for each adult and child within the household.

One strongly recommended practice in the event of a disaster is to fill your bathtubs up with water as soon as possible. If water pressure becomes unavailable, the water becomes contaminated or polluted after a storm surge as many natural disasters are known to do, then you will have a large amount of water stored for your use. This water would need to be used first and then when depleted, you can switch to using your stored water sources. Always filter or boil the water from the bathtub to ensure that there are no chemicals, soap residue, insects, or any other type of contaminants in the water as it will at that point start becoming stagnant. For keeping the water fresh for a lot longer periods of time, I would strongly recommend having an emergency water blob on hand. These are liners that fit into the bathtub that allow you to fill them with the faucet, seal them off, and use a handheld pump so that the water will not become unusable and will stay fresh until they are exhausted. The average bathtub can hold about 50 gallons of water, so that’s enough to sustain one adult for over 3 months. Then you can proceed to using your other forms of stored water.

How To Know When Your Campfire Cooking Oil Is Just Right

 

For those of us that do a lot of cooking among the outdoors, cooking with oil is a great way to prepare fish and dozens of other types of wild game as well. The only bad part about survival cooking or campfire cooking is that you probably won’t have access to a temperature probe or anything else that will help you monitor your cooking oil temperatures. Luckily there’s any easy way to monitor your cooking oil to ensure that it gets to, and maintains that perfect 350 degrees. First, put an adequate amount of cooking oil into your pan and place it over the fire. Then, place an unlit wooden match into the oil and monitor it. When the oil reaches approximately 350 degrees, the wooden match will then ignite and smolder itself out by the oil. At that point, you’ll know that the temperature is just right and all you have to do is take note of the size, strength, and power of your fire and just maintain it to ensure that your temperatures won’t fluctuate. In most cases this is not necessary; as the meal will be cooked by the time the fire changes or weakens. Just remove the match from the oil and throw in your food and that’s it. Now you can accurately cook out in the wilderness and get the same great results that you would at home.

Traps - The Large Game Pitfall

DO NOT ATTEMPT UNLESS YOU ARE A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL, EVEN THEN - BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL!!!!!


Safety first – place orange flags or ribbons around the tree line circling the designated area as well as another stick with a flag attached near the pitfall site to aware other hikers. If you have a permanent marker in your supply bag then write the words CAUTION – PITFALL TRAP IN PLACE. If you leave an area, dismantle the trap including the wooden spikes, remove the brush cover from the top of the trap, and fill in the hole to the best of your ability. You may leave the flags up to still ensure others yield caution to avoid from breaking a leg or twisting an ankle due to a partially covered hole.  NEVER leave a pitfall trap intact when you permanently leave an area! PERIOD! They can kill or severely injure other people including rescuers who may be trying to find you.

Setup – When trying to find an effective area for a pitfall trap try to locate active animal trails. These are trails where the grass or ground is noticeably trampled, small tree limbs have been broken over, or brush has been moved to the side or tampered with. Lots of these trails lead to open grazing areas or sources for water and are used by a vast array of different sized animals.

1)      After locating an active trail, start digging a large circular hole directly in the animal path. Circular shaped trap holes generate less footing potential for prey than a square shaped hole and will decrease the opportunity for escape. For smaller prey, a hole with a 3 to 4 foot diameter with equal depth is adequate. For larger prey, you may want to build a trap 5 to 7 foot in diameter with equal depth as well or possibly even larger depending on the overall size of the targeted animal. Like any intensive activity especially during the hotter months of the year, begin the task of digging early in the morning to avoid any additional dehydration or fatigue. If you’re with a group, take turns digging to help share the workload.

2)      Once the hole is completed, remove all the dirt around the hole to ensure that it is level on all sides to create a natural landscape and avoid making the potential prey detour around the trap. You can also use brush or some of the dirt to put on both sides of the pitfall trap in order to funnel the wildlife directly into the trap to help increase the traps success rate.

3)      Once the hole is completed, start collecting long branches or sticks that are straight, sturdy, and about ½” to 1” in diameter. You want the main spears to be about 1/3 as long as the depth of your pitfall but also include an additional 8” to 12” to put into the ground at the bottom of the pitfall to ensure the spears are properly supported for strength. You’ll also want to collect smaller spears about ¼ as long as the depth of your pitfall but again include an additional 8” to 12” to put into the ground at the bottom of the pitfall to ensure the spears are properly supported for strength. Now that the spears are collected, sharpen the spears at an angle that will ensure two things.  One that it’s not too pointed as to offer a weak or easily broken tip at the hide of tougher game like wild hogs. And two, that it is not too broad of a pointed tip which will have the advantage of being stronger but will cause less damage and may not kill the prey upon falling into the trap.

4)      Once all the spears are sharpened, then it is time to start placing them within the bottom of the trap. Push the longer spears into the ground in an equal fashion leaving about 8” between them, followed with the smaller spears in-between the larger ones. The idea between the two different heights is to ensure a staggered trap that will strike a more critical blow to prey given that the spears are further apart putting more of the animal’s weight into each spear creating more penetration. At the same time, the shorter spears will ensure that you’re not giving up any surface area for smaller game.

5)      The next step is to cover and camouflage the hole. The rule of thumb here is less is more. You want to develop just enough structure to hold leafs, grass, and light dirt but not enough to support the weight of a small/medium/large animal. Try to locate long and very thin branches or sticks in order to use as your core structure for holding up leafs and foliage to help hide the hole. Small leafy branches or weed straw work very well too. Sometimes it’s helpful to mock up several different types of coverings to the side of the actual hole or suspended on a large branch first to see which combination of branches, grass, or other materials supplies the lightest structure but still effectively covers and hides the hole. Once a method is discovered, transfer it to the pitfall to cover the hole. Sprinkle small amounts of dirt or crumbled up leaves to best make the cover match the surrounds as to not hint to the prey that it has been tampered. The better it matches the environment, the greater your potential of success.

6)      Notes – Be extremely careful entering or exiting the pitfall. Given that you’ll have to enter the trap to secure the spears it is sometimes helpful to leave a designated spot spear less to ensure a safer means of entering and exiting. Other forms of support as giving someone a hand, spotting them in and out of the hole, tying a rope or some other form of support to a neighboring tree, or making a homemade latter can all ensure better safety in and around the hole.

7)      When game is discovered inside the hole, try to use a large branch or stick that has a curve at the end to help pull smaller game out of the hole as well as to nudge them to ensure they are not still alive. Larger game may require two people pulling it out of the hole or throwing a rope over a tree creating a pulley system to lasso around the limbs of the animal and hoist it out of the pitfall. Take EXTREME caution when removing animals from the trap to ensure they are not still alive, that you yourself do not fall into the trap, or that the sides of the trap do not cave in which could also cause you to fall into it yourself.

8)      If smaller animals are the main potential candidates or when your pitfall is not successful, it may be necessary to bait the trap. The best way is to suspend the bait using fishing line or cordage about 2 to 3 feet above the center of the trap helping to lure prey in and encouraging them to jump which just further increases the success of the trap.

DO NOT ATTEMPT UNLESS YOU ARE A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL, EVEN THEN - BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL!!!!!