The Survival Blog

Well, I was right about not getting a chance to do the video blog this week. The wife and newborn...

Thu, 31 May 2012 17:40:00 -0700

Well, I was right about not getting a chance to do the video blog this week. The wife and newborn both came down with an ear infection. I swear, I don’t think my whole family has been well at the same time yet this year. I may just need to do a deep clean and decontaminate this entire house, but I really think that it’s stuff that my daughter is bring home from daycare.

If you don’t believe in evolution, have a kid, and send them to daycare. You’ll be amazed at the bugs and viruses they have these days. I grew up in a house with a mom that worked in a hospital, and would have to go in with her quite a bit when we would be out somewhere and she would get called in to work, and I NEVER got sick like this.

So anyway, yesterday was my wife’s birthday. That was fun. Got her jewelry like any smart husband should. And next month Aly turns 3! Man, time flies when you get older.

But the biggest news of the day is that I’m going to need to have knee surgery again. I had surgery in late 2010 but the problems came back, and now I get to do the whole thing all over again. No scheduled date right now, but I’ll let you guys know when it will happen.

Okay that was enough venting my own problems. You still reading this? You are? Wow you really must not have anything better to do right now. Anyway, I’m going to get everything together and maybe this weekend I can film the blog for next week. Thanks for being patient, and I’ll see you guys next week.

-Animal Out

Fire it up

Thu, 24 May 2012 05:51:02 -0700

Well, I’m finally back from the hiatus. Thank goodness. I posted last week that both of my girls were sick. My (soon to be) 3 year-old came down with pink eye, and like any overactive toddler would do when they have a contagious disease - she touched EVERYTHING in sight. And that included her sister. “Aly don’t touch that! Aly keep your hands to yourself! Aly don’t touch your sister!!!” *Rubs eye* BONK! Finger right in the baby’s eye. Saturday night I had to take Aly to the ER since it was the only thing open, and then after the eye poke of doom I had to take Eva to the ER Sunday night. It was loads of fun. All the people at the ER just looked at me like ‘weren’t you just here?’ So, to keep from having to decontaminate the entire house we quarantined off the upstairs, and had a 5 day camp out in the living room with me sleeping on the couch, my wife in the recliner, Aly on the floor, and Eva in her play pen. Good times.

But now we’re back, and it’s time to get into this week’s blog.

Fire. The tool that allowed man to leave the caves. The gift that Prometheus stole from the Gods and gave to man. Fire is probably the most important tool in the history of mankind - even more so than the invention of the wheel. Wielding the flame allowed us the ability to see into the darkness, cook our foods, and also gave us warmth needed to survive in colder climates.

Nowadays though we take the ability to handle fire for granted. If you’ve got a gas stove go over and click it on. We’ll wait. No seriously, go do it. Back? Okay. See that, you turned a knob and you got those pretty blue flames. Or at least you should have, so long as you’ve paid your gas bill. And if you haven’t, you should really do that. Or how about you pull out a BIC lighter if you have one, and if you don’t they’ve got them at every gas station in the country. Or how about a pack of matches?

What I’m getting at is getting fire these days is really REALLY easy. But what if you had to go back to basics? And I mean bare basics here. Did you see that movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks? You remember, the one where him and that volleyball were BFFs. Remember how much work it took him to make a fire, and just how damn proud he was of it when he actually got a flame going? Well, you would be too.

Again, I’m not saying that you’ll never find yourself without a lighter, but military training has taught me the lesson of ‘plan for the worst, and hope for the best’. Plus it’s one of those really manly things to go all cave-man and make fire the old fashioned way. *Cue the Tim Allen Home Improvement grunting*

Fire is nothing more than a chain reaction. To get it going you need three things: fuel, oxygen, and heat. The fuel can be anything that will burn - wood, paper, butane, lighter fluid, gasoline, etc. The heat of the triangle means bringing the fuel to a temperature called the flash point, which is the point at which it will ignite. And oxygen is required to keep the fire burning. Starve a fire of oxygen and the flame will go out. Sounds easy right? Well that’s the science of it. Now comes the application.

When creating a fire you need to start with something called tinder. Tinder is what will take the initial spark to begin the type of fire you can cook smores around. Good types of tinder could be paper, dry grass/moss, or lint. Tinder burns easily and burns long enough to begin the reaction in the next piece - kindling. Kindling is the middle ground between the spark and the roaring fire that we all want to get warm in front of. Small twigs, strips of cardboard, or cut pieces of wood can make good kindling. The key to this is they need a larger surface to volume ratio - meaning they need lots of surface area to heat up. Think thin and long for kindling. Then we get into the bulk fuel. This is the cut logs that we think of when we think of a fire. Once the fire is established and the temperature is high enough we can start to add a long term fuel source that that logs supply.

There’s a lot of different ways of creating fire. I have some knowledge on these, but I am far from an expert on most, but this blog is a way for me to try my hand at things that I don’t know about and share those experiences with you. But I do recommend that you do your own research after reading this. A good starting point would be to Google ‘firecraft’. So let’s get through some of these:

Friction
We’re going caveman style with these. These are the ones I know the least on, but there are three primary ways of creating fire this way: Fire Plough, Hand Drill, and Bow Drill. I don’t want to give bad information here so I’m going to leave it at that. If you want to do the research go for it, but these are the most old school of old school methods. At some point I’ll try to research them and maybe do an article on this later, but at this point I don’t have the knowledge on these.

Flint
Flints have been used since the Stone Age. These minerals work as a fire starter because when they are struck against steel they produce a spark. A common version of a flint is referred to as Swedish Fire Steel, and comes with a flint and a steel rod to strike against it. Flints are very cheap, can be found at any sporting goods department, and will still spark even when wet. They are used by sparking into the tinder. The heat of the spark is higher than the flash point of the tinder and will thus begin the burning process.

Concave Mirror
The mirror is an easy method of firecraft. It’s the old concept of burning up ants with a magnifying glass. Harvesting the light from the sun and focusing it on a single point until it reaches the flash point. There are products out there specifically for this purpose, and one of the benefits of this is that it’s a reusable fire source, so long as you have sunlight.

Modern tools
I throw matches, lighters, etc into this category. While they are very handy and easy to come by, we live in a society of disposable items. Once you use that match, it’s done. If that lighter runs out of butane, unless it’s a refillable one and you have a supply it’s worthless. I’ll always go this route first because it is familiar and the easiest to use.

So why are these important skills, and when would I ever get to use them? Well, as I have said before, I love to go hiking and camping. And whenever I go out into the woods, I always take my BOB with me. I’m also a smoker, and I always have a lighter in my pocket. But what happens if I’m out in BFE and there is a flash flood and I lose my pack? Or I fall into a stream and the flint on my lighter gets wet? I’m pretty boned at this point.
So when I go out with my bag, I always try to make sure that I have multiple sources of fire depending on my situation. Some of them are conventional, others not so much. By knowing I can reliably create fire, I give my self a much higher probability of survival during an emergency situation. With fire I have light, warmth, means to cook food, ability to signal help (either by thermal signature or smoke) in case of emergency, as well as protection. I may be looking a little to much into that last one, but I watched The Grey, and now I don’t like wolves so much.

But that’s about all I’ve got for this week. I’m glad to be back to writing this, but I may not be writing for much longer. I finally dusted off that Flip Video camera I got for Christmas a few years ago, and I think it’s time to give it a try. So I need to test it out, and figure out what I need to do for editing if needed, but if that goes well enough, this could very well become a video blog which would be pretty awesome. So if next week’s blog doesn’t go up on Thursday like I usually aim for, I probably got stumped on something, so just bear with me.

Next time: Fire Starting demonstration using a 9-volt battery and steel wool!

Until then…

-Animal Out

Remember: By learning how to make fire the caveman way…you too can be this happy.

heads up

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:46:16 -0700

Followers, sorry but I didn’t get a chance to write this week’s blog. Both of my daughters have been sick since last weekend. I’ll be back next week.

Do not pass go, do not spend $200

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:46:00 -0700

Welcome back to the Survival Blog! In the last couple of weeks the number of followers of this blog has more than doubled, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’ve received some very flattering feedback from people as well, and truly want to say thank you. But that’s enough about that for now. People want info, and that’s what they’re gonna get. So let’s get this show on the road.

One of the repeat questions that I’ve received is about how to put together a Bug Out Bag (BOB) on a budget. Well, the first thing that you have to understand is that building a BOB is not free. But there are ways to limit your spending and still be able to build a functional bag.

You could go to the REI or any other camping or survivalist store, and spend your life savings while buying every shiny object in the store - and trust me there are a lot of shiny objects out there. Instead of giving into the panic, perhaps you can come up with a plan before hand.

When building my BOB I began by doing some research. I focused on my current situation and possible scenarios that would require me to bug out from my location, and most importantly what items I would need. I need to mention right now that the bag that I posted was my one-man bag, and I’m currently working on a family bag that I’ll be posting my plans for soon. So I planned out my bag before hand and then started to build it piece by piece. Here are a few tips on building a bag, and not breaking the bank in the process:

Plan, plan, plan. Know what you need. Research items for your bag before buying them. You may find a similar item for much cheaper.
Repurpose household items. That bleach under your kitchen sink is the exact same that I use for a water purifier in my bag. Those band-aids and that bottle of hydrogen peroxide in the bathroom are the start of your own first aid kit. Those clothes that you were planning on putting in the yard sale because you never wear them, those cover the clothes needed for a BOB. You’d be surprised how much of the items for a BOB are around your house and you’re not really using.
Set a budget. Figure out an amount each month that you can afford to put aside to purchase items for your bag, and stay within that budget.
Shop around. The web is an amazing place to find items, specifically items that other people are getting rid of. Many of these items may be in mint condition. Search eBay, Craiglist, Amazon, etc.
Search out deals. Sales, and couponing can help save money when purchasing items. Save money on one item, put that savings toward the purchase of another item.
Figure out what items are worth spending the extra money on. Some items that I have cost a bit more than I wanted to spend on a single item, but were multifunctional and replaced others that I would have to purchase, such as my crank flashlight/radio/USB charger.
Gifts. My wife usually buys me cool survival items that she finds for holiday gifts, or for my birthday, which is always exciting when I get a new toy.
Justifying your purchases. I love to go camping and hiking. Not only do I use my BOB for disaster prep, but I also take it with me when I go out to the woods. If something happens while I’m away from civilization, I have supplies on hand to help me take care of myself, if say I have an injury or weather conditions get bad up on a mountain.

So yeah, pretty much it. Not that hard. If you’re smart with planning your bag, it’s not that difficult. Again, I’d like to thank all of the new followers to the Survival Blog. Please share this blog with your friends. I hope that none of you ever has an emergency situation, but if someday the worst happens, maybe information from this blog may help you out.

Next week we get to the good stuff!

Next Week: Making fire

- Animal Out

The nature of disaster prep

Thu, 03 May 2012 06:02:17 -0700

Before I begin this week’s blog, I feel the need to make something clear. Since last week’s blog I was talking to a friend and mentioned that I wrote this survival blog, and her response was “you mean like those people on Doomsday Preppers?” Here’s a fun fact about me - I don’t really watch much television, so I didn’t know what she was talking about. The majority of television that I watch these days consists of Dora the Explorer, Yo Gabba Gabba, Blue’s Clues, and the old 80’s cartoons that I have gotten my almost 3 year-old daughter to watch with me. But I had never heard of this show. So, like any descent journalist, I did some research and discovered that it was on National Geographic. I found a few full episodes on YouTube and watched them, hoping that it would help enhance my own blog. All I can say about these people is wow! I try to not thing of myself as better or superior to others, but I do worry that I may be grouped in with these people. I consider myself a sensible person, and I try to uphold those same ideals when it comes to survivalism. My take on the show is that those displayed are extremists, and like with anything, their compulsion has become an obsession, and any obsession may become a negative on your life.

I believe that there are threats out there, and that having knowledge about these situations and being prepared to respond is important, but I do not intend to let it control my life or the lives of those around me. I also believe that another area where i differ from the people on Doomsday Preppers is that they believe that impending apocalypse is right around the corner that will completely destroy our current way of life. I on the other hand believe that there are disaster situations possible that could be a detriment to our way of life in the short term. Think more post 9/11, and less zombie apocalypse.

And that brings us to today’s article. Today I’m going to cover disaster situations that I think could happen, and how a combination of survival skills and disaster preparedness can help to ensure your safety. While most people think there are many different types of disaster scenarios, I try to look at it at its most basic. There are two types of disasters: Natural and Man-Made. Everything else just dictates how the situation plays out, and how to best react to it.

Let’s start with Natural disasters:

Hurricane

In the 21st century alone we have seen numerous hurricanes making landfall in the US, many of which have reached wind speeds in excess of 100mph. While the occasional storm develops off the Western coast of Mexico and impacts Hawaii or California, the vast majority of storms come from the Atlantic Ocean, and may hit an area anywhere from Belize to Canada. Hurricanes not only have strong winds, but also produce a storm surge that raises the water level that hits the shore, large quantities or rain, but also tornadoes. As these storms push inland, they begin to weaken but they are still potentially dangerous. While hurricanes are dangerous, they take considerable time to develop, and meteorologists can predict their movement. This frequently gives people time to determine the need to either hold in place (bug in) or evacuate (bug out) based on their situation and the storm’s strength.

Earthquake

The ground shakes without warning. Building collapse, fires rage all around. An earthquake has just struck. The destruction of an earthquake radiates from the fault line from which it came, and thankfully this allows us to know areas that are at risk. Earthquakes however come without warning, and so preparing for them is difficult other than designing structures that resist collapsing during an earthquake. If you live in a earthquake prone area, having a Bug Out Bag (BOB) at the ready may allow you exit a dangerous situation after shaking ends if your area is unsafe, and gives you the supplies to survive in the short term while emergency services help those more in need.

Tsunami

We all have seen the videos of the tsunami waves that hit Sumatra, Indonesia and Thailand in December of 2004, as well as the destructive wave after the earthquake that struck Japan last year. These tidal waves more wipe the landscape clean than cause damage. While the destruction of anything that stands in the way of these tsunamis is almost certain, they do give us warning signs. Tsunamis are created by a vast release of energy into the ocean, most likely an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption. This is a perfect example of when a BOB comes in handy. With just minutes to escape with their lives, a person could grab their BOB and head for high ground.

Volcano

I find it amusing that one of our iconic vacation destinations is a set of islands created by, and still being reformed by volcanic eruptions. While the eruptions in Hawaii continue to be smooth flowing, other eruptions are far more explosive. Pyroclastic flows from volcanoes can create havoc over enormous areas. The blast from Mount Saint Helens dropped ash as far away as Oklahoma, while the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (yes I had to look up the spelling) in Iceland in 2010 downed all air traffic over Europe for over a week, costing billions. While volcanoes are scattered around the world, these kinds of explosive eruptions are uncommon. If one does occur in your area, a BOB would be a helpful tool in case an evacuation is necessary.

Tornado

Similar to the earthquake, there is little warning of an impending tornado. Most commonly forming in an area of America’s midland known as “tornado alley”, these spinning columns of wind leave a path of destruction in their wake, with often only minutes of warning. With such little warning bugging out is not likely, but having supplies on hand may make it easier to maintain as close to a normal lifestyle if such amenities as the power or water goes out.

Wildfire

Like many others, wildfires come on swiftly and cause massive destruction. It seems like wildfires have become an annual thing in the US, and while firefighting techniques are in place to fight these blazes, that does not ensure safety. Having a BOB to grab and go if a wildfire occurs in your area, while it won’t protect your property, will give you the chance to evacuate as quickly as possible.

Flood

Either a slower flooding type - monsoon - or a flash flood may become a risk to those living in low lying areas. I currently live in Las Vegas, where we lack a good drainage system. If we have a quick heavy rain, flash flooding becomes a serious problem around the valley. If flooding became a serious enough risk there is always the option to bug out and find higher ground until the water recedes.

Man-Made Disasters:
In my opinion, man-made disasters are the more frightening. There is science to natural disasters. They can be predicted. Their causes can be studied to better understand why these things happen the way they do. Mankind however is unpredictable and emotional. This leads humans to do some crazy things for whatever reason, be that race, nationality, religion, or what have you.

Power outage

Even a basic power outage can disrupt our normal routine. Before I joined the Air Force, I lived in Arkansas. While living there we had a series of severe ice storms that knocked out our power for nearly a month, so I’ve experience what it’s like losing power for an extended period of time. Our society has become so dependent on electricity that any sort of power outage seems like it lasts a lifetime. But what if there is a more long term power outage? An outage that lasts week, a month, or even longer. Take into account that much of the country uses electric heaters, and electric stoves/ovens. I’m not saying that bugging out is the best course of action, but having stores of supplies for a bug in scenario could help to survive while the grid is being reconnected

Civil Disorder

We’ve seen a lot of upheaval lately around the world. Thankfully Occupy Wall Street has been peaceful in this country, but the riots last year in England weren’t so peaceful. Then the revolution in Libya, and now Syria. I’m not saying that this would happen here, but in the unlikely situation that people lose their minds, I’d rather be able to walk away from the situation before it gets out of hand.

Radiation

There are two ways that a radiological terror could affect us: either a disaster at a nuclear power plant, or by attack - i.e. “dirty bomb” or nuclear weapon. I highly doubt that a nuclear weapon detonating over American soil is extremely unlikely. We came closer than most can imagine on more than one occasion during the Cold War, but America’s nuclear powered enemies lack the technology to send a missile our way. The alternative is a disaster at a nuclear power facility. I would like to point out that this also is highly unlikely. Nuclear facilities are built do stand up to severe assault. Nuclear One, the plant in Russleville Arkansas is designed to withstand an F-4 tornado. The plant in Japan took a 9.0 earthquake and then a tsunami before its core was breached! The two other well known nuclear incidents were Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl. The Three Mile Island disaster occurred because of a combination of human incompetence and mechanical failure. Chernobyl occurred because of a severe mechanical failure due to failure to uphold safety standards by Soviet management. So that says to me it takes an awful lot to cause this sort of disaster.

Terrorism

We finally make it to the elephant in the room. Just over ten years ago everything changed. Before 9/11 we didn’t consider a terrorist threat at home a possibility, but now our national security planning centers around it. We have seen other attempts since then, such as the shoe bomber, underwear bomber, and the Time Square bombing attempt. Thankfully none of these have been successful, but they are still trying. One important point to note is that terrorists will always look for a weakness and exploit it. There is little way to predict just what their next attack will be, but the ability to bug in or out to find safety is not a bad idea.

So that’s it in a nutshell. I know that this wasn’t every situation that could be covered, but these are the ones that I felt would best work as examples for this article. That’s it for another week. I’d like to thank all of the new followers of the Survival Blog for signing up. Hopefully this article made sense and gave you even more to think about (kind of a running theme).

I have been receiving questions about this, so…
Next Week: Ways to build a Bug Out Bag with little money

- Animal out

This sort of thing is my bag...baby

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:03:10 -0700

Before I get started, I would just like to explain that this is the reason why there wasn’t a blog last week:

That is my new daughter - Eva Rose. She was born Thursday the 19th, and came in at 19 inches, and weighed 6 lbs 14 ounces. Both mommy and baby are now at home resting peacefully.

Okay, and now back to the blog! In the last survival blog I covered the basics of a Bug Out Bag (BOB), and gave a couple of examples of BOB building guides. Hopefully that blog served its purpose of getting you thinking about building your own BOB. This week’s blog is aimed at helping you in developing a bag of your very own. First off, I will be sharing my BOB list. You can reference it against the Red Cross and FEMA lists that I posted last week, but if you don’t want to have to cross check it item by item, know that my list is very similar but is augmented with items that fit the desert environment that I currently live in.

I’ve chosen to divide this list into subdivisions in an attempt to better organize it. As we go through, I will cover each section as we come to it and try to explain why I chose the include these items in my bag.

Before we begin, my bag list is designed to to multitask items. Some items on here are divided up to show the importance of each individual item (such as the crank flashlight and radio - my crank flashlight has a built in radio, which allows me the ability to scratch both items off my list at the same time). While this is very good for limiting weight and use of space in the bag, it does have the negative aspect that if one of these items breaks, it could potentially break multiple items from the BOB. So without any further adieu let’s check out this list:

Clothing:
- Waterproof boots with insoles
- Bandanas (2)
- Wide brimmed Outback hat
- Shirts (2)
- Pants (2)
- Underwear (2)
- Socks (3)
- Beanie
- Jacket
- Work Gloves

Most of this should be pretty obvious as to why it is there. For boot, I use my outdated military combat boots - this gives me durable shoes with strong support, while the insoles protect the feet from injury in case I have to walk over debris in an urban setting or rocky terrain outside of the city.

The bandanas are included in this bag for the purposes of head protection during high heat, but more importantly to serve as a mask in a situation where the air is contaminated with things like dust or ash.

The “Outback” Hat (though I have seen them called different things is my primary head cover. This gives me considerable protection from both sun and rain, especially if applied with a waterproofing spray.

Shelter:
- Emergency Tent
- Emergency Sleeping Bag
- Hammock with canopy

The hammock is my primary means of sleeping arraignment and the canopy gives great cover from the weather, but requires a location with two anchor points to secure it to. If that is not available, or if weather is bad, I have both a tent and sleeping bag available. You can purchase emergency tents and sleeping bags online, and often in the sporting goods department of your local store. They are very affordable, are folded and bagged to take up almost zero space and are almost weightless.

Fire:
- Disposable Lighters (4)
- Swedish Firesteel
- 9-volt battery & steel wool
- Ziplock bag of drier lint
- Vaseline dipped cotton balls

I like fire…. a lot… probably more than I should. Learning how to make fire in unconventional ways is honestly the reason I started learning bushcraft skills all those years ago. I’m not going to spend long on this because I’ll be focusing on fire starting techniques soon in this blog. For now, all you need to know is having multiple sources of fire is a really good idea.

Food & Water:
- Food Ration Bars (3)
- 32 oz Nalgene Water Bottle
- Water filter
- Water purification tablets
- Collapsible 5 gallon water bladder

I chose food ration bars for my bag because they supply more than enough calories, take up far less space than canned foods, and have an extremely long shelf life.

As you can see, I try have multiple ways to purify and carry water. Again, this is because I live in a desert and extra water could be the difference between life and death in the middle of the summer.

Hunting:
- .22 Rifle
- .22 Pistol
- .22 LR ammo (200 rounds)
- Hunting knife
- Fishing kit

For weapons I chose both the .22 rifle and pistol. This not only gives me the ability to hunt for small game, but also personal security. .22 ammunition is also very cheap, lighter, and will take up less space in your bag than other ammo - plus having both weapons using the same ammunition means you don’t have to worry about carrying multiple kinds. You won’t be taking down a bear, but in a situation calling for you to defend yourself, this isn’t a terrible choice, especially with practice at improving your aim.

This entire hunting section is designed to be an alternate to the food rations. It is always a good idea to hunt/scavenge when possible. This will allow you to extend the lifespan of those goods you brought with you - which means if it takes longer than expected for help to arrive, you’ll be able to go the distance without running out of supplies.

Tools:
- Multitool
- Knife sharpener
- Flashlights (2) - one battery powered, one crank powered
- Compass
- Carabineer (4)

Yay tools! Nothing really that seems to need much explaining in the tools section in regard to its function. The compass is there to help with direction, the flashlights are for inside structures without power or working after the sun goes down. This is where the crank flashlight works so well because it helps to conserve battery power in the other flashlight. Carabineers are there to hang off the outside of my BOB, but may not have a spot to connect to yours. I use them to connect less important supplies if I need to make room inside of the bag for something I may find along the way.

Many people forget the knife sharpener. I think it was in this last season of “The Walking Dead” where one of the characters mentioned that they took every single one of the knives from a store but left the sharpeners. Keeping your blades in good order will help ensure they’re ready for use when the time comes.

As for the multitool, I’m going to do something that I’ve tried to avoid up to this point: recommending a specific company. In my experience Leatherman multitools are fantastic for their price, reliability, functionality, and most importantly they have a lifetime warranty. If your multitool breaks, they’ll send you a brand spanking new one for free!

Miscellaneous:
- Additional batteries (2 sets of replacements for all items requiring batteries)
- Poncho
- Duct tape
- Whistle
- Watch
- P38 Can opener
- Mesh bags (3)
- 550 paracord (100 ft)
- Radio
- Signal mirror
- Trash bags (5)
- Bar of Soap
- Toothbrush
- Toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Disposable razor
- Toilet paper (2 rolls)
- Glasses repair kit
- Small bottle of bleach
- First Aid Kit
- Sewing Kit
- Sun block

Most everything in this section is rather obvious. The soap, toothbrush/toothpaste, deodorant, and razor are all creature comforts that will help with morale during a survival situation. Things like the whistle, watch, mirror, and radio are means of communicating with others. And the different kits are to help keep you and your gear running at peak performance.

Entertainment:
- Notepad and pen
- Tennis Ball
- Deck of cards
- Book

Lastly, entertainment. This doesn’t exactly sound like something you would be too worried about during a survival situation, but what happens when you reach your destination, or have to stop to recover for one reason or another? During that time boredom begins to sink in and morale begins to drop at an exponential rate. I keep the notepad and pen to write things to myself that I may need to remember later. I keep a few regional pocket books with good information on the local flora and fauna - this makes it where I’m learning while getting some entertainment. The ball and cards are there for light weight fun things that I can toss around as a time waster when needed.

So that’s my bag in a nutshell. Overall, my bag is designed to cover all the bases for items that I would need in this situation, while trying to combine objects such as my crank radio/flashlight to reduce space usage and weight. I weighed my bag the other day and it came in at 26 pounds. Which to me is an acceptable weight. Anything more could weigh me down and make traveling much more difficult. I hope that the explanations of why I have decided to include these items has made sense, and hopefully may have given you some ideas for items to put into your bag.

But that’s all the time I have for this week. Again, sorry for not posting last week, but just like in a survival situation, my family will always come first. Now that the baby is here and everybody is doing okay though, I see no real reason for missing future posts.

Next week: Bugging out Situations

- Animal Out

It's all in the bag...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:42:25 -0700

So what exactly is a Bug-Out Bag? First thing, as I said last time I am a member of the military, and we have a bit of an infatuation with acronyms so to save time on typing it over and over can we just abbreviate it to BOB? Is that okay? Yes? Good.

In the event of an emergency, there are two ways to attempt to survive. There is the traditional zombie movie method of holding in place, locking the doors, and just trying to ride out the storm which is called “bugging in”. Or option #2: Getting the heck out of Dodge, i.e. “bugging out”. The BOB is a pre-assembled bag with supplies that a person would need to survive unassisted for a given period of time - most frequently a predetermined period of three to seven days. So let’s look at a few pros and cons of having a BOB:

Pros:

In the event of an emergency you can literally grab and go if desired

Allows you a chance to prepare and train for a disaster situation without the need to experience it

You can build the bag YOU want with items you feel you’d need - take your time and build as you go

Can also serve other roles. Works fantastic as an emergency aid bag while camping

Cons:

Requires upkeep and knowledge of how to use items in the BOB

Can be time consuming and pricey, especially if you just buy every item on the shelf because it looks shiny

What happens if you are out, and your bag is at home when the ____ hits the fan? (Are you prepared where you are?)

So what do we need for survival, and no I’m not talking like that scene from Spaceballs with the giant hairdryer that the Princess couldn’t live without, I’m talking life and death survival. When we break it down there are 3 things we need to survive as humans: water, food, shelter. I throw clothing in with shelter because as humans we have softened ourselves to an extent. I don’t know about you, but my skin is whitey white white, and the bottoms of my feet are lacking in the tough skin to walk barefoot through the woods.

Water, food, and shelter? That’s it? My wife could carry that in her purse. Not so fast though. Did you know that you need 4-6 liters of water per day in a survival situation to keep from dehydrating? That’s 1 to 1.5 gallons….every day……per person!!! Or how about the fact that an adult male needs 2,000 - 3,000 calories a day? That’s roughly 33 cans of tomato soup, just to survive a single day! That weight really adds up quick.

I’m not going to tell you what items you have to have in your BOB because every person is different and will need different items for their bag. Gender, fitness, environment, and dozens of other variables will go into making your bag. I live in the desert, so having additional water rations may be more important and could take up space in my bag that would have gone to another item. BOBs are 100% customizable to you, and your situation. As we get further and further into the blog I will begin to give examples of items for ideas to put in your bag, but for right now let’s just stick to the basics.

To give you a general idea of what disaster preparedness supplies are here are a few different lists so you can see just how much people’s plans of supplies and preparation differ from each other:

(Source: Wikipedia)
- Enough food and water to last for 72 hours. This includes:
Water for washing, drinking and cooking. Canada recommends 2 liters per day for drinking plus an additional 2 liters per person per day for cleaning and hygiene. New Zealand recommends 3 liters per day for drinking. US recommends 1 gallon per person per day.
- Non-perishable food
- Water purification supplies
- Cooking supplies
- First Aid Kit
- Fire starting tool (e.g., matches, ferrocerium rod, lighter, etc.)
- A disaster plan including location of emergency centers, rallying points, possible evacuation routes, etc.
- Professional emergency literature explaining what to do in various types of disasters studied and understood before the actual disaster but kept for reference
- Maps and travel information
- Standard camping equipment, including sanitation supplies
- Weather appropriate clothing (e.g., poncho, headwear, gloves, etc.)
- Bedding items such as sleeping bags and blankets
- Enough medicine to last an extended evacuation period
- Medical records
- Pet, child, and elderly care needs
- Battery or crank-operated radio
- Lighting (battery or crank operated flashlight, glow sticks)
- Firearms and appropriate ammunition
- Cash and change, as electronic banking transactions may not be available during the initial period following an emergency or evacuation
- Positive identification, such as drivers license, state I.D. card, or social security card
- Fixed-blade and folding knife
- Duct tape and rope/paracord
- Plastic tarps for shelter and water collection
- Slingshot, pellet gun, blowgun or other small game hunting equipment
- Wire for binding and animal traps

(Source: FEMA)

Emergency Supplies: Water, Food, and clean air are important things to have if an emergency happens. Each family or individual’s kit should be customized to meet specific needs, such as medications and infant formula. It should also be customized to include important family documents.

Recommended Supplies to Include in a Basic Kit:

- Water: One gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation
- Food: at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
- Battery-powered radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert, and extra batteries for both
- Flashlight and extra batteries
- First Aid Kit
- Whistle to signal for help
- Infant formula and diapers, if you have an infant
- Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
- Dust mask or cotton t-shirt, to help filter the air
- Plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
- Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
- Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)

Clothing and Bedding:

If you live in a cold weather climate, you must think about warmth. It is possible that the power will be out and you will not have heat. Rethink your clothing and bedding supplies to account for growing children and other family changes. One complete change of warm clothing and shoes per person, including:

- A jacket or coat
- Long pants
- A long sleeve shirt
- Sturdy shoes
- A hat and gloves
- A sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person

Additional (optional) supplies:
- Rain gear
- Mess kit, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils
- Cash or traveler’s checks, change
- Paper towels
- Fire extinguisher
- Tent
- Compass
- Matches in a waterproof container
- Signal flare
- Paper, pencil
- Personal hygiene items including feminine supplies
- Disinfectant
- Household chlorine bleach: You can use bleach as a disinfectant (diluted nine parts water to one part bleach), or in an emergency you can also use it to treat water. Use 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Do not use scented, color safe or bleaches with added cleaners.
- Medicine dropper
- Important Family Documents such as copies of insurance policies, identification, and bank account records in a waterproof, portable container.

(Source: Red Cross)
- Water: one gallon per person, per day (3day supply for evacuation, 2week supply for home)
- Food: nonperishable, easy to prepare items (3day supply for evacuation, 2week supply for home)
- Flashlight
- Battery powered or hand-crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
- Extra batteries
- First aid kit
- Medications (7day supply) and medical items
- Multipurpose tool
- Sanitation and personal hygiene items
- Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
- Cell phone with chargers
- Family and emergency contact information
- Extra cash
- Emergency blanket
- Map(s) of the area

Consider the needs of all family members and add supplies to your kit. Suggested items to help meet additional needs are:

- Medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, cane)
- Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
- Games and activities for children
- Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)
- Two-way radios
- Extra set of car keys and house keys
- Manual can opener

Additional supplies to keep at home or in your kit based on the types of disasters common to your area:

- Whistle
- N95 or surgical masks
- Matches
- Rain gear
- Towels
- Work gloves
- Tools/supplies for securing your home
- Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes
- Plastic sheeting
- Duct tape
- Scissors
- Household liquid bleach
- Entertainment items
- Blankets or sleeping bags

Wow, that’s a lot of information, and a whole lot of items! If you notice though, a lot of items repeat from list to list. Honestly you could do a Google search for “Bug-Out Bag Checklist” and every single list is going to be slightly different, because each writer is basing their list on their own personal needs.

I’ll be getting much more in depth shortly in this blog. But I think that’s about enough for this time. Hopefully this post gave you a bit to think on. Right now, my plan for this blog is to start with just a basic overview of disaster prep. As we get further into this I will start posting more videos and pictures to show better examples of what I am discussing as well as hopefully going a bit more in depth as to the mechanics and applications of the topic. Hope you enjoyed this quick glance at the BOB.

Next time: Bug Out Bag Supplies 101, and MY BOB list.

- Animal out

Welcome to the Survival Blog

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:16:00 -0700

Hello and welcome to the Survival Blog. Your one stop for all things emergency preparedness related.

Before we get jump into this let me give you a little backstory on myself. My name is Animal (nickname, but wouldn’t it be awesome if my parents had actually named their kid that). I am originally from central Arkansas, but currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am an active duty member of the US Air Force.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “me, why should I listen to this guy about survival preparedness, and just what is that?” Well I’m glad you asked. In the Air Force I have worked as a member of a base emergency coordination response and recovery staff, which you need certified training by the Department of Defense, FEMA, and Department of Homeland Security. Before entering the service, I used to go survivalist camping, where you take bare materials with you and live off the land for a few days. Plus I watch a lot of Bear Grylls. So I think that qualifies me to talk like an expert on the matter.

As you can hopefully tell by now, I like to joke a lot, so hopefully this blog will educate as well as entertain. To most people survival preparedness is one of those things that paranoid people do that live “off the grid” because the New World Order is coming to take their guns. News Flash: there will be another year after 2012. And I am not a nutcase (I may be wrong on this one). But that’s not the point.

Most people accept that that our civilization has moved past the hunter/gatherer time period. And this is true…for the most part. But civilization is one of those things that can come crashing down a lot quicker than we realize. My favorite example to use - not because of the tragedy, but because of the fact it took place in modern day America- is the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. After the storm hit and the levies broke, those who chose not to evacuate the city were stranded. We all saw the pictures of people wading through chest-deep water making their way to the Superdome, or people stranded on their rooftops.

The roads were underwater making it impossible for the National Guard and Red Cross to make it to the city. And because help wasn’t coming, the people still there began to revolt. Looting began to occur. Shots were taken at police officers trying to keep order. For a few short days, New Orleans had become a war zone.

Now tell me, if another disaster like this happened in your area would you be able to survive until help could arrive? If the answer is ‘no’ then I hope you stick around and hopefully you can learn some interesting information. If you said ‘yes’ you can stick around too, because maybe something will be covered that you didn’t think of.

So again, welcome to the blog. Next time we will discuss the basics of Bug Out Bags.

- Animal out