Show Notes
It’s another packed
show this week and I begin with the Blizzard Survival offer then move onto The FREEKEY System Review, Survival Essentials, Navigation for Survival, Support
these Companies, Infused Dandelion Flower Vinegar, Dandelion Salad with Vinegar
and Oil Dressing, Old-Fashioned Elderflower Recipe, Forming Prepping and
Survival Groups, more companies to support, Prepping For The What Ifs and The Oh Nos!, Britons Must Dig for Survival,
Urban Survival Preparation– Testing the Bug Out Plan, further companies to
support, SO, You Are Going to Bug-Out, What
to do if a Nuclear Disaster is Imminent, Here is a Great Offer From the
Wilderness Gathering, Basic Survival Skills, Can We Catch Parasites from
Foraged Foods?, When the Trucks Stop the UK Stops, Chinese Researchers Created
Flu Virus Strains, Outbreak Of New SARS-Like Virus Kills 5 In Saudi Arabia, And
Another Super Bug, A Terrifying holiday
bug that can burst your blood vessels, Bushcraft shows.
Blizzard Survival 20% Discount Offer
Blizzard Survival .com have a fantastic offer for you the
listener they are offering a 20%
discount on all goods bought from them at www.blizzardsurvival.com
The Ultimate in
Lightweight Thermal Protection.
The Blizzard Survival Brand incorporating Reflexcell™
material has become the new standard wherever thermal performance in a
lightweight compact package is essential - for military use, casualty care,
emergency preparedness, disaster relief, personal survival, outdoor
activities...and more.
Reflexcell™ products are totally unique: weight-for-weight
far warmer than goose down, yet 100% weatherproof, tough, ultra-portable and
re-usable.
Life-saving technology has never been so affordable.
Their product represents a step change in the way both
civilian and military users prepare for emergencies and treat trauma cases.
Here is an exciting
New Product from Blizzard Survival
Blizzard has launched the Blizzard Heat Blanket an insulated
and active warming system for the whole body. Utilising it's unique 3-ply
Reflexcell™ material in a reflective insulating blanket with self-activating
heating pads it incorporates front & side vents for easy access, and
integral hood for head protection. Now is the time to visit
www.blizzardsurvival.com
All you have to do to get a 20% discount is enter the code
“PREPPER” at the checkout, it is that simple. Thank you Blizzard Survival.
The FREEKEY System Review
The FREEKEY SYSTEM is the Press to open key ring with three
smaller rings attached and boy is it a welcome sight. Last Tuesday I managed to
rip my thumb nail when attempting to add another item to my EDC key ring,
unfortunately it being titanium it decided to resist my attempts.
Freekey System is not just any old keyring but is designed
with a patented wave to enable keys to be added without pain, broken nails or
frustration.
By pressing the Freekey System logo position of the Freekey,
the end part will open to release or add the key or set of keys appointed. The
Freekey System is ideal for carrying keys for different locations or as in my
case my EDC key ring
And at only £ 4.99 it is a must have for the prepper who
uses key rings to carry his EDC you gat get your from http://www.wilderness121.co.uk/
SURVIVAL ESSENTIALS
This part is why you need to stock up on all of the other
items now. Most of us live a cashless lifestyle. We use checks, debit cards,
and credit cards. When we lose power in a disaster, so do the shops. If the
shops were not damaged too badly, and their goods were not damaged too badly,
the owner might even open the shop for business.
You could buy whatever didn't break. Well, some people
could. You see, the owner can't run your credit card or debit card through any
machine. You have checks, but he isn't set up to deal with them either without
electricity.
That's okay because you have three £50 notes in your wallet.
But, his cash register is electric and won't open. You can use one to buy
whatever you want to, but he can't give you any change.
The ATM machine that would have been able to give you
smaller notes doesn't work without electricity. So, an important item to stock
up on is cash. Twenties, tens, fives and ones, and even some coins.
Those who didn't prepare were the first ones to go the
shops. That includes lots of people. There is a run on water, milk, bread, baby
food, batteries, matches and candles. To prevent a riot, the owner has to put a
per-person limit on all these items.
The queue is around the corner. Two hundred people want to
buy water at the very least, and there are now only about forty bottles left.
Your credit cards, debit cards, checks, and even your cash
probably won't be able to help you survive a disaster after it strikes. Most of
where you live is broken, damaged or destroyed. Grocery items are delivered
daily, and supplies could certainly be brought in from other counties. But, the
motorways all have major damage and trucks can't get the supplies through.
Trains won't dare run until every inch of track is checked
for movement or breakage that would throw the train onto its side or worse. Even
if you could get to another town for supplies, your car is almost out of
fuel. Don’t forget petrol station pumps
work off electricity.
Too many people, not enough supplies, no spendable money, no
fuel, and family members at home waiting for you to bring home dinner. Dinner?
It could be at least three days before a safe route can be found for supplies
to reach the stores - or it could be three weeks.
Please start stocking up on essential items now, and stock
up for at least a month's worth. Three months would be better if a major power
station were to be put out of commission. It would take so little to give you
so much peace of mind.
You can't even balk at the cost for two reasons: 1) buying
for such a long period of time can be done in bulk, resulting in a lower price
per item than buying one or two at a time; and 2) you can use all of these
items now if you simply replace them right away.
In fact, this replacement method will insure that everything
will be safe and usable when it is actually needed.
Your only real worry at the time of a disaster should be the
immediate safety of you and your family, and taking care of any injuries that
may have occurred as a result.
Firstly you need to check to be sure that no one is injured.
If there are any injuries, you will have to use your own first-aid kit. Phone
lines may be down so you may not be able to call for help, and rescuers will be
helping those most seriously injured first. Even if the phone lines are down,
your mobile will probably work.
If a disaster strikes while you are at work and your family
is at home, you might need a mobile phone on both ends to check on each other.
Think through possible injuries so you can be prepared in
advance. Butterfly bandages can be used as "stitches" in smaller
wounds.
Menstrual pads can be used to cover and protect large
wounds. You may actually need to stitch a large wound yourself if medical help
simply can't reach you and you are unable to get to help.
St. Johns and the Red
Cross both run first-aid courses locally, you should sign up now.
Many types of disasters can severely damage your home. If
you are not sure if your home is safe after the initial strike, stay outdoors.
Go "camping." If your home seems unsafe but your garage looks very
safe, get the car out of there and move into the garage.
You can get an idea of a building's stability by looking at
the walls, ceilings and floors. There may be many thin cracks, but these should
not be a real problem. Large cracks, broken beams, or any new gaps or openings
are not good signs, neither are creaking or cracking noises.
Before September 11, 2001, most wives thought that having a
mobile phone simply was an essential. If a woman's car broke down in the middle
of nowhere, she could either call roadside assistance or her husband for help.
And, she could tell her husband she was late but safe. This spread to parents
feeling safer about their teenage drivers if their kids carried a mobile phone
at all times.
Watching all of the disaster news, we kept hearing about
people who called their wives, husbands and mothers (etc.) to say good-bye or
"I love you" when they knew they were going to die. That was like
being hit with an emotional hammer.
Some people who were trapped during the disaster were able
to tell people where they were because they had a mobile phone.
We now know that a mobile phone can be a critical
"survival essential" in more ways than we ever imagined.
If we lose phone lines during or after a disaster, wives
will most likely still be able to call their husbands if they both have a
mobile phone. Kids with their own mobile phones can call their parents to let
them know where they are and if they need immediate medical help or if they are
safe. Etc.
You will need a solar or battery-operated radio to find out
what is happening in your immediate area and the rest of your city, possibly
even the rest of your county. It can be comforting to hear that all is well in
many areas and that help is on the way.
You will probably also hear warnings like the water supply
is not safe to drink or looting is occurring three streets away. You can
protect yourself and your family from problems only if you are able to find out
that they exist.
If you don't hear any warnings about the water supply being
tainted, you may want to quickly clean out the bathtub, rinse it well, and fill
it with water because the water may be shut off soon.
Rinse the dust out of any buckets you have on hand, then
fill them with clean water. If you do find out afterwards that the water is not
safe to drink, there are many more ways that it could come in handy in the next
few days or weeks and of course there are many ways to make it safe to drink if
necessary.
The atmosphere of most disasters is one of helping each
other and sticking together. But, sometimes you have those few who think it is
a good time to go looting. In an extended disaster scenario, you could be
threatened by people who are desperate for food and water.
It is totally up to you, but you may want to have some sort
of weapon on hand for emergencies. Even in a disaster, children could still
find a gun and the bad guys could still turn your own gun on you. So, if you do
arm yourself, you must keep the gun locked up and separate from ammunition that
is also locked up.
Baseball bats seldom
fire unexpectedly and they never miss fire.
You need an ample supply of all of the medicines that anyone
in your family take on a regular basis. The need for other medicines may arise
later. An unbreakable thermometer is a good item to have on hand. Vitamin
supplements for all members of the family will be very beneficial with a
limited diet, and will be needed more than ever due to stress.
It is not likely that you will be able to get antibiotics in
advance, but you could ask your doctor saying that you were going off on a long
trip, or you could buy OTC vetinary drugs as they will work on humans. Some
people have been putting some away from what they get from the doctor.
This is a dangerous method because the full dose that you
are prescribed is necessary to kill an infection. On the other side, you would
need to save up enough antibiotics to make a full dose to receive any benefit -
and that is only for one infection for one person.
Since you know that a biological attack is possible in the
immediate future, start a fasting regimen now. This doesn't mean you stop
eating. A fasting regime includes eating less, which puts your body in its own
protective mode.
Besides eating less food overall, a fasting regimen includes
giving up fast foods, junk foods, and most sugars; adding natural fruit juices;
and making all of your food healthy, whole or raw foods as much as possible.
In addition to eating correctly, start taking multi-vitamins
now.
And, take natural
Vitamin C.
Since you may be on your own for all your first-aid and
health care needs, it is a good idea to learn now how to take care of yourself
and your family.
Don't forget to stock
up on any medicines or vitamins that your pets may need.
Navigation for Survival
The wonders of modern technology are all fine and dandy,
with super accurate compasses and GPS gizmos making navigation as simple as can
be.
However, what would your situation would be if, in the
middle of nowhere, you come to the realisation that your GPS unit has gone
South or been crushed underfoot or run out of batteries, and your trusted
compass is lost/broken/left at home because you were trusting in your GPS?
Alone, in unfamiliar territory, without your basic
compasses, maps, communication equipment, unless you have some idea of
'survival navigation', you are effectively in the deep and smelly region of
LOST.
Such situations call for an innovative approach - what the
psychologists call "lateral thinking". With a degree of natural
cunning, you can utilise various odds and ends, plus celestial bodies (no, not
the kind in dodgy magazines - the ones in the sky) to find your way.
This requires some knowledge and application to get right,
but even Cub Scouts know the basics and can navigate without a compass with
reasonable accuracy.
The first step is to improvise a compass. This can be done
in various ways, but each requires a ferrous metal object such as needle, pin,
nail razor blade, metal rod or similar, and a suspension system.
The simplest way to magnetise your rudimentary compass
needle so that it is attracted by one end to magnetic North just like and
compass needle, is to stroke it with a magnet in one direction only. If you
stroke towards the point of your needle, the point will indicate North.
Failing the availability of a magnet, stroke your compass
needle with silk. Both these methods will need to be repeated regularly to
maintain the magnetism of the compass needle.
Lacking silk or a magnet, you can also magnetise a needle,
or similar, using a battery of 2 volts or more, and some insulated wire,
preferably copper.
Coil the wire around your soon-to-be compass needle, and
connect it to the terminals of your battery for about 5-10 minutes. It is
important that the needle is insulated from the wire, so, if you only have bare
wire insulate the needle by first wrapping it in paper thin card or similar.
A razor blade can be
magnetised in the same way, or by stropping it (be careful here) on the palm of
your hand.
It is also possible to magnetise metal with a hammer and the
earth's magnetic field. Place the nail/needle against the ground aligned with
magnetic North/magnetic South, the raised end pointing South in the Northern
hemisphere, North in the Southern hemisphere.
The angle that the earth's magnetic field enters the ground
the angle to which you elevate the rod - unfortunately varies from place to
place; it is 68 degrees in England, but between 62 and 80 degrees around
Europe.
This angle of elevation should be as accurate as possible,
though good results can be achieved with up to 10 degrees error either way. Hit
the positioned metal with the hammer, and with trial and error, and time, you
should be able to produce a magnetised compass needle this way.
Of course, you will need to suspend your compass needle so
that it can swing freely. This can be done by tying it onto the end of a thread
- beware of kinks and twisting in the thread, and be sure to balance the needle
carefully.
For more accurate results, float your improvised compass
needle, using paper, bark, grass etc. as a floating base on a still pool of
water, eg. a puddle, full mess tin of the like. Be sure to protect this compass
from any wind.
You will need to identify which end of your compass points
North and to mark it for easy recognition. Check it against other systems of
finding north. Be warned: gross errors may be caused by nearby metals, such as
tanks, knives, and metal deposits underground.
If you lack the materials to make an improvised compass, you
can rely on the sun, moon and stars for guidance.
Everyone knows the sun rises in the East, sets in the West
and is due South at local noon (or North if you are in the Southern
hemisphere). To find which hemisphere you are in (boy, are you lost!) watch the
shadow's movements for a few moments to establish East and West.
To use your watch as an approximate compass outside of the
tropics in the northern hemisphere, hold the watch horizontal and point the
hour hand at the sun.
Half way between that point and the twelve o'clock mark on
your watch points to the south. For example, if it is eight o'clock, point the
8 on the watch face at the sun and south would be at the ten o'clock position.
If it is four o'clock, point the 4 on the watch face at the
sun and south would be in the two o'clock position. At midday (twelve o'clock),
the hour hand itself should point south.
The method of halving the angle between the hour hand and
the twelve o'clock watch position is required since the earth rotates once in a
day, but the hour hand goes around the clock face twice.
In the southern hemisphere, hold the watch horizontal and
point the twelve o'clock mark in the direction of the sun. The north-south line
is half way between the hour hand and the twelve o'clock mark.
Using a watch to determine direction within the tropics is
more complicated, since there are two solar maxima. The sun may lie to the
north or south (or at midday be directly overhead), depending upon the time of
the year.
Because time on our planet is divided into 24 broad time
zones, the sun is not normally directly south or at its highest point in the
sky at exactly midday. The watch-as-compass method is therefore an approximate
guide to direction only.
The most exact method of finding direction without using a
compass is to mark and measure the shadows that occur around midday. The
shortest shadow cast by an object always points exactly north.
To find where the sun is on a cloudy day, hold a pencil or
stick upright over a light piece of paper or a lighter part of the ground. The
stick or pencil will cast some kind of shadow, indicating the position of the
sun.
While reasonably accurate, this is a fairly rough and ready
method of finding North/South, and it gets less precise the nearer you are to
the Equator. In addition, it relies on your having a timepiece, knowledge of
true time and a visible sun.
Lacking all, or any of these, the system fails, but as long
as there is enough light to cast a shadow, and you have a stick or similar
object (even your oppo standing still will do) the sun can still give you the
North/South line. A straight stick about 3 feet long is ideal, and you will
need preferably flat, clear ground to work on.
The quick method can be used on the move, takes about 15 -
20 minutes as you take a rest, but is not terribly accurate: Stick the pole
upright in the ground and mark where the tip of its shadow falls. Wait at least
15 minutes, then mark where the tip of the shadow now falls.
Join the two points to give your East/West line. Your
North/South line naturally bisects this at right angles.
A more time consuming, though more accurate method uses the
same stick upright in the ground, but can take all day (your oppo may resent
being used for this method): Mark the first shadow in the morning at its tip,
then draw a perfect arc (use string tied to the base of the pole for best
results) with the pole as the centre point.
When the tip of the shadow fall reaches the arc again in the
afternoon, mark this spot exactly. Join the morning and evening marks to give
the East/ West line, and, again, the North/South line bisects this at right
angles. In both methods the first mark is West.
At night you lose the sun (never!), but you will have the
moon and the stars to guide you as they have guided travellers for centuries.
The moon, having no light of its own, is seen by way of
light reflected from the sun, because the moon's lighted area varies as it
waxes (grows larger) and wanes (diminishes), this, combined with its rotational
rate, can give a rough help to your navigation.
Cutting the technical explanation, if the moon rises before
sunset, the light side of the moon is on the West. If the moon rises after
midnight, the illuminated side is to the East.
As a rule of thumb, stars rise in the East and set in the
West, but knowing, and being able to identify, some simple to recognise
constellations will give you an even more accurate fix on your North/South
line.
In the Northern hemisphere, we are lucky to have the Pole
Star sitting over the North Pole with a variation of only about 2 degrees. This
star is extremely useful for navigation, and can be found using the obvious
constellations of the Plough (also known as the Dipper)
The Plough and the Cassiopeia never set. While all three
constellations seem to rotate around the Pole Star, Orion is the most useful if
you are near the Equator.
An imaginary line drawn from the 'tail" of the Plough
to the lowest of the points of Cassiopeia, goes through the Pole Star while the
central peak of the 'W' formed by Cassiopeia points to the Pole Star.
The two lower stars of the Plough also point to the Pole
Star approximately four times the distance between the two stars.
Orion rises above the Equator, and can be seen in both
hemispheres rising due East, and setting due West. The three stars forming the
'belt' point East/West.
In the Northern Hemisphere: if the star seems to fall, you
are facing West; if the star seems to curve flatly to the right, you are facing
South; if the star seems to curve flatly to the left, you are facing North.
Although this is a rough and ready system, it can be made to
work with any star other than the Pole Star. In the Southern hemisphere, the
directions are reversed.
Should you have zero equipment, and 100 per cent cloud cover
day and night, the best advice is to sit and wait either for better weather or
for a rescue party!
If you are looking
for some new kit then please Support these Companies
The following
companies have supported this station and I will support them they are:
You will never need to boil water again
The FreeKey
For I-shields UV Protection
For top quality 550 Paracord
For Survival Knives and Survival Kits
For the Nano Striker fire starter
For tasty MX3 Meals
The Lifesaver bottle
For the Knot Bone Lacelock
For the Wild and Edible Nutrition E Book
Browning Night Seeker Cap Light RGB
Multi lite Multi-tool
For the Ghillie Kettle
For the Blackbird SK-5 or his handmade leather sheaths http://www.hedgehogleatherworks.com
For the Farside Outdoor Meals
The Survivor knife
For the Chris Caine companion survival tool
Spring is here and the Dandelion is here too
Infused Dandelion Flower Vinegar
My garden is totally full of dandelions at the moment. My
wife goes made as she hates them so I decided to make some dandelion flower
vinegar.
Ingredients
Dandelion flower
heads
Cider vinegar
Sealable jar
So I took a carrier bag out into the garden and filled it
full of dandelions.
Back in the kitchen I washed them to remove any bugs etc.
shook the water off and put them into the sealable jar and I covered them in
good quality cider vinegar then sealed the jar and put it into the cupboard
under the sink.
Some say they should be left for up to 8weeks but I usually
attack in after about a week.
Do try it as you might just like it.
Dandelion Salad with Vinegar and Oil Dressing
This is a salad of freshly gathered dandelion greens, tossed
with a homemade vinegar and oil dressing
Ingredients:
One huge bowl full of freshly gathered dandelion greens
Vinegar and Oil
Dressing Ingredients:
1/4 cup vinegar
1/8 cup water
1 rounded tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/8 teaspoon celery seed
1/8 cup olive or vegetable oil
Optional toppings:
chopped fried turkey bacon
chopped hard boiled eggs
shredded cheese
parmesan cheese
any other favourite salad topping
Instructions:
1. Wash the dandelion greens in water in the sink. I usually
wash in at least two sinks of water, and then cut off the root and put the (now
separated) dandelion greens in a clean bowl. Be sure to include the buds (which
have not flowered) -- they're tasty!
2. Combine dressing ingredients in a container with a
tightly sealing lid. Shake until sugar is dissolved.
3. Put dandelion greens into a large bowl (to allow room for
stirring). Pour dressing over greens and toss to coat. Serve into bowls and add
optional toppings if desired.
Dandelion greens are best eaten before the flower has
appeared. Using a large flat-head screw driver (or similar object), cut the
root of the dandelion to release the plant.
Old-Fashioned Elderflower Recipe
With May nearly upon us it is time to think of this most
English of drinks.
Ingredients
20 heads of elderflower
1.8 kg granulated sugar, or caster sugar
1.2 litres water
2 unwaxed lemons
75 g citric acid
Method
Shake the elderflowers to expel any lingering insects, and
then place in a large bowl.
Put the sugar into a pan with the water and bring up to the
boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved.
While the sugar syrup is heating, pare the zest of the
lemons off in wide strips and toss into the bowl with the elderflowers. Slice
the lemons, discard the ends, and add the slices to the bowl. Pour over the
boiling syrup, and then stir in the citric acid. Cover with a cloth and then
leave at room temperature for 24 hours.
Next day, strain the cordial through a sieve lined with
muslin (or a new j-cloth rinsed out in boiling water), and pour into thoroughly
cleaned glass or plastic bottles. Screw on the lids and pop into the cupboard
ready to use.
Forming Prepping and Survival Groups
Lots of people talk about how forming a group of like-minded
preppers which I think could be a big advantage in a SHTF scenario. But how exactly do you form a group like this
and how realistic is it really to do so?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and I have
watched the usual films and documentaries and I think it’s fairly clear (even
in the fictional accounts) that groups do better than individuals in SHTF
events.
I myself am not preparing for the end of the world or
anything that sinister, I am prepping for more likely events like flooding and
power cuts, you know things that happen all the time.
However I really do feel that a prepping group could be a
big help and a giant safety net. But how
exactly do you form one?
For me I think that forming a group of likeminded preppers
will start with my existing contacts, people like family and close friends and
then expand the group slowly depending on the skill sets of any proposed new
member.
Imagine what a benefit that would be in just about any
situation. With these family members and
close friends who are also serious preppers it means that I’ve got people I can
rely on in an emergency that also know they can rely on me.
Imagine if your house gets flooded or is damaged all you
would need to do is go to your buddies place and you’re safe and sound. If Civil unrest starts and it is getting a
too dangerous for you and your family I would head for a friend who owns a farm
where we could stay and survive very well indeed. Of course that means I could get a knock on
my door from him and might have house guests for a bit but I’m fine with that.
So what about my neighbours then? Well the more prepared they are the safer the
whole neighbourhood is and by extension, the safer I am.
I’ve always said that the more prepared people are the less
panic there will be. If my closest
neighbours are at least somewhat prepared to get through a series of bad storms
or other natural disaster then I’m less likely to have to carry them through by
sharing my stores. Also, if one or two
happen to be gun owners then the safety factor goes through the roof.
So how do you go about broaching a subject like Prepping
where many uninformed people may automatically assume you’re an over the top
survivalist preparing for doomsday whose movements should probably be tracked
by the security services and Local authorities??
I actually think it’s not as tough as you might think. First of all, in my experience when I have
nudged close friends in the direction of prepping it has never taken more than
a couple of mild real world examples and a gentle reminder that we live in a
very vulnerable way to get people to stock up on food and water.
Without exaggeration there are probably ten or twelve
families that have stocked up on at least two weeks of food because of
conversations I’ve had with them. None
of which were shocking or frightening in any way. It’s all about how you approach it.
Also living here in the country it is quite easy to persuade
people to stock up just in case of power cuts or bad weather anyway.
For the neighbours I think this is a great time of year to
bring up the subject very softly. It’s
not too tough to strike up a conversation while your neighbour is out cutting
the grass especially if you offer to help out a bit.
Mentioning the damage the last flooding we had and how we’re
all just one storm away from being in the same boat as the folks in the
Northeast is an easy intro as well.
Especially if you live in an area that is prone to flooding,
drifting snow, power cuts and other natural disasters.
I’ve had a couple of these conversations lately and they’ve
always ended with my neighbour saying, “come to think of it, I should stock up
on some extra food and batteries”. There
you go, now you’re a prepper.
I also mention that having an umbrella, a first-aid kit or a
spare wheel in your car makes you a prepper and the only difference between
them and me is that I prep for different scenarios that’s all.
Now, I should probably point out here that while it’s great
to encourage friends and neighbours to prep that doesn’t mean it’s a great idea
to let them know the extent of your own preps.
Personally I’m very open about the fact that I have extra
food and water stored up, just like everyone knows you’re supposed to when you
live in the country (although very few people actually do).
I also give a little
“tisk tisk” to people who say they don’t, but I don’t overdo it. Leading by example is great, but no one
should know the full extent of your preps.
Keep that to yourself.
If you can do all of this then hopefully what you end up
with is not a full on mini-special forces troop of preppers ready to battle the
end of the world, although I do love reading those adventures in fiction
novels.
But rather a community of like-minded individuals that can
rely on each other during times of strife and who are prepared to help
themselves and others. If every
community was like that we wouldn’t have near the problems we have now.
Here are some more
companies to support
72 hour survival pack
Blizzard Survival jacket
Survival Ration Packs
SOL Complete Survival Kit and SOL Bivy Bag
The answer to rough ground sleeping
Simply your EDC supplier
For all your military equipment needs
NEW MRE’s
The Fire Piston
Great tasty MRE’s
The 95 Puukko Survival Knife
Gold Standard Whey Protein Isolates which are 90% pure
protein by weight
The RIBZ Front Pack
Prepping For The What Ifs and The Oh Nos!
The flooding disaster that hit the North East and many other
parts of the UK this year was bad enough to leave over 80,000 people without
power which meant no lighting, heating, hot food, or baths and showers.
These floods happened in what would normally have been our
spring time seeing only a fraction of the actual rainfall that fell in such a
short period of time.
Without doubt, being prepared for the what ifs and the oh
no’s, makes sense. Whether or not you
feel compelled to prepare at the level of those practised by the Doomsday
Preppers – a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel, because of their
heightened awareness for disasters;
I believe this group offers a lot of great tips for
consideration when creating plans to protect your family and assets.
If a flood disaster were to hit your town today as has
already hit many here in the North East, are you prepared at all to hang in
there for the necessary time it would take to put the pieces of
normalcy back in place?
If not, listen up because that is what this show is all about, helping
you get prepared.
I first considered prepping way back in the 80’s when
involved in civil defence and other things closely connected to it and it was
obvious then that if I survived an attack from the Warsaw Pact then I would
need to learn how to survive post attack.
9/11 reminds us that not all disasters are natural
disasters, and 9/11 did point out significant issues with disaster preparedness
and response, 7/7 brought it home to the British public, who now had to contend
with living with people who actually planned to do us all harm, and the
realisation that they were vulnerable and that perhaps they too should plan to
survive post an attack.
If we are lucky to get pre-warnings, can you be ready to go
with all the important things already considered, some basics already packed so
you can evacuate on a moment’s notice?
If you had no warning and found yourself trapped where you
were, could you hang in there with meals, water, basic first aid and more until
help arrived? If the answer to any of
these is no, then you need to start thinking about how you need to protect your
family and assets today, because it is not really an issue of IF, but when.
Disasters can strike
at any time, and I want all of you to be prepared.
Prepping involves setting aside resources, and with finances
so tight for many, saving in any way, shape or form has become impossible. That is why I am doing this show now, well
ahead of the next heavy floods – to give people time to add a few things to
their shopping trolleys as they go along since most can’t just go out and shop
for all the supplies at once.
We can never know what exact disaster to expect, although
the risk for some are higher than others. What are some of the disaster risks
to keep in mind when prepping?
What do you think realistically are the most generic
preparations that a person should have in place to encounter most types of
possible disasters?
In flooding disasters, the personal loss is so excessive,
and many even lost proof of their identity – loss of your driver’s license,
birth certificates, passports and more.
In the planning process, what are some strategies for keeping vital
documents safe and within reach for escape?
Now some people have been known to decide to remain in their
homes rather than leave when they are warned. Heavy flooding can led to sewage
and rats surrounding homes.
Water contamination, downed trees, power cuts and more. Let’s talk about having an escape plan, and
what that includes.
What if computers were down and basically service came to a
complete halt as computers can easily be down because of lack of access to
electricity or damage to a location.
With the credit /debit card swipe habit, most of us no longer carry cash
on us.
Let’s talk a bit
about financial preparation for a disaster.
Sometimes there isn’t a large scale disaster, just personal
ones that impact a single family. These
days, zero income homes are a stark reality for some. It seems to me that the preparations I just
discussed for preparing for a financial disaster would have come in handy for
those who lose a job unexpectedly, or have to quit a job to care for an ill
partner or loved one.
Preppers are prepared to be self-sufficient for up to
several years. However, for those just
getting started, let us break down the basic prep into stages of time say: How much more of the basics I just mentioned
do we need to get by for say 3 days? 7
days? Two weeks?
What are the most basic skill sets, if any, listeners should
consider getting?
It is said we are only 3 meals away from anarchy that is
approximately one day.
Preppers talk about this a lot, and so many are secretive
about their prepping in anticipation of neighbours and friends becoming
aggressive about getting access to your stuff.
Britons Must Dig for Survival
Farming Minister David Heath has urged families to grow
their own to cope with food shortage crisis
The Government is promoting the famous WWII slogan 'dig for
victory'
Our fruit prices up almost 11% since March 2012, vegetables
7% higher
And farmers warn Britain is running out of wheat after year
of bad weather
Families have been told they will have to grow more of their
own fruit and vegetables to cope with food shortages.
Mr Heath warned Britain could not rely on cheap imports to
meet its food needs.
Disruption to the food chain triggered by disease, conflict
or bad weather hitting harvests would drive prices even higher.
Britain is on the verge of running out of wheat after a year
of terrible wet weather, with more than 2million tonnes lost in last summer's
deluge.
Farmers have also struggled to sow crops for the 2013
harvest, which is already predicted to be 25 per cent down on potential
production.
Households will have to consider becoming more
self-sufficient to limit the impact of high costs and bare shelves, Mr Heath
warned.
He said: ‘with an increasing population, increasing demand
not just in this country but across the
World, we are going to have to increase food production. We
made a huge mistake a few years ago when the idea got around that we didn't
need to produce in the agricultural sector any more, that we would be able to
buy our way through whatever was necessary to feed the country.
Once we used to “dig for victory”. There may come a time
soon when we need to “dig for survival”.’
New inflation figures published today show how food prices
have impacted on the cost of living.
While the headline Consumer Prices Index figure remained
unchanged on 2.8 per cent, a detailed breakdown showed how food costs have
leapt in the last year.
Bread and cereals have risen by 3.6 per cent, meat 2.4 per
cent and items like sugar, jam and chocolate were 4.1 per cent year-on-year.
Mr Heath told the Daily Telegraph that that the idea of the
public ‘digging for survival’ was ‘not overstating it by a lot’.
He added: ‘We need to be able to produce enough to deal with
the requirements in this country. Food security is going to be an issue of
increasing relevance.
‘There is nothing that provides more classical insecurity
across the world than not being able to feed populations adequately so we need
to be aware of that and we need to respond to it.’
He suggested that the use of genetically modified crops
could be significant in securing food supplies in the future.
Well Mr Heath there you are wrong as nobody wants
scientifically designed and mucked about food. But we have and we will provide
for our families not because you say so, but because it is the right thing to
do.
Urban Survival Preparation– Testing the Bug Out Plan
The Urban Survivalist in Planning and having completed his
basic Survival Bug Out Bag, needs to develop the when the shit Hits The Fan”,
known by its acronym of SHTF, Bug Out plan.
The Urban Survivor will have to develop or otherwise have an
idea on when it is he needs to leave his urban environment for his safe haven
or BOL.
Human nature being what it is, that is hoping and expecting
things to get better – hoping that the government will fix things, may hold the
Urban Survivor back from leaving or delaying the departure to a point when it
becomes riskier.
Without stocks of food, the ability to provide security and
defence and a source of water, the Urban Survivor cannot afford to wait.
The Bug Out will need
to be put to the test.
This testing is a process of “what if’ing” the plan. It is
used to determine the problems and develop solutions.
For example:
Time to put the Bug Out Plan into action, you will need a
full tank of fuel to get from the house to the safe haven.
Problem: What if I
only have a half tank and the ability to get commercial fuel is no longer an
option?
Solution: At an appropriate time when things are getting
worse, you would need to ensure that you stock fuel at your house which will
require fuel storage tanks such as 2, 3 or 5 gallon containers available at
garages or motor accessary shops.
Problem: Fuel stored for a long time will go bad.
Solution: Routinely replace the stored fuel.
Problem: The vehicle has a mechanical problem during the
movement from your house to the safe haven.
Solution: Carry parts and tools for common problems that are
within your ability to fix such as a broken belt or flat tire. In fact, having two
full spare tires complete with rims are a good idea,or you could take a basic
mechanics course.
Problem: The primary route from the house to the safe haven
becomes clogged with traffic or otherwise too dangerous to drive.
Solution: Plan Alternate and Emergency routes on less
travelled roads.
Problem: You may have to stop and hide the vehicle during
darkness as driving during the night with lights on is a very bad idea.
Solution: You need a large canvas or earth tone tarp to
cover the windshield and a camouflage net to drape over the vehicle. You will
also need green or brown duct tape to cover exposed shiny parts of the car.
Problem: Your route becomes impassable and there is no
option to take another and/or the vehicle becomes disabled.
Solution: Plan to walk overland to the safe haven. You will
probably needs maps and have areas selected along this foot route that would be
tentative safe areas to hole up in for a day or two. If you need maps, you
probably need some map reading and land navigation training.
Can you carry enough food, water (water is more important)
in your Bug Out Bag to make the trip on foot? If you are initially traveling in
a vehicle, you should drink and eat stocks placed in your vehicle rather than
use it from your Bug Out Bag.
Remember your
Survival Bug Out Bag is your last ditch option for when you are on foot or on
the run.
If you carry this testing through to arrival at your safe
haven, you would need to plan how you are going to approach and identify
yourselves to people at the safe haven.
You may even have the forethought to pre-place supplies and
material at the safe haven, either stored openly at a safe haven that is full
time occupied or cached.
A cache is a hidden store or equipment, supplies or
material. Sit down and think about your trek from your house to your safe haven
and imagine what can go wrong. This will identify what contingencies you need
to plan for. Remember Murphy’s Law,…….What can go wrong, will go wrong.
Further Companies to
Support
Uses natural fuel
EDC steel tools
Highlander Trojan Hydration Pack – Multicam
CUDEMAN HEAVY DUTY OLIVE WOOD BUSHCRAFT KNIFE - 111L
Alum Crystal and natural spa products
Tool logic Survival 11 Credit Card
BackHawk Web duty Belt
Guppie Multi=tool
Go Survival Pack
Beautiful Handmade Catapults
1 Person BASIC Backpack Survival Kit, the back pack that
does it all
DD Hammock –The ultimate in Travel Hammocks
Elzetta ZFL-M60 Tactical Weapon-Grade LED Torch
Ultimate Adventurer Survival Kit everything in one kit
Adjustable Knife Lanyard Review
Handmade knives by James D. Sanders
Mini alarm Device with an Ultra bright White LED
You are listening to
the UK preppers Radio Network on KPRNDB-UK I’m your host Tom Linden.
SO, You Are Going to Bug-Out
If worse came to worse and the world was in chaos, where
would you go?
Many people already have determined where they would go – a
bug out location – a spot where they could lay low and live for a while if
things got pretty bad. If you haven’t decided where you’d go during an
emergency, or you already have an idea, here are a few points to consider.
How far away?
How far away is your bug out location going to be from your
home? With some disasters it doesn’t need to be very far away. For example, a
flood zone might only take up a few miles and you might be able to walk to your
bug out location. Other disasters, like an economic disaster or nuclear one,
might require you to get a little further away from your home.
What kind of shelter?
Once you get to your bug out location, what kind of shelter
are you going to live in? Is there a house on the property? Are you going to be
staying in a tent? The type of shelter that you have might affect how long you
are able to stay in the location.
If you have to go to your bug out location in the dead of
winter, you might be moving if you’re only living in a tent.
Many people even considering purchasing land in a more
remote location so they don’t have to worry about living on someone else’s
property. This would allow you to build a home and place supplies there.
Do you have an
emergency bag?
We’ve talked previously about what kind of items you’d want
in an emergency bug out bag or 72-hour kit. Depending on what area you’re in,
your emergency items might differ. For example, if your bug out location is
right next to a river, you might want a water filter instead of large water
containers.
Water
Speaking of water, it’s important to know where you will
have access to water during an emergency. If man-made water sources aren’t
working, you might need to choose a location that has its own natural water
source. You might want to choose a location close to a lake, river, stream or
natural well.
Mind you, if man-made water systems are out of service, a
lot of people are going to be looking for water in these locations. You’ll also
need to consider how susceptible those sources are to contamination.
Nearby food
Depending on how long you plan on staying at your bug out
location, food might be a major consideration. Are you going to have enough
animal or plant life around you that you can just live off the land? Are you
going to be packing in all your food? Is the ground suitable for planting?
Popular for other
people
If you think you’ve found the perfect place for you, there
might be others that think the same. While at times, preparing to defend
yourself is necessary, you might have a leg up if you know how to barter and
maintain a good relationship with other people who are also bugging out in the
same location.
How are you going to
get there?
Like we mentioned above, this really depends on how far away
your location is from your home. If it’s close to your home, you might consider
walking or riding a bike. If it’s far away, are you going to be driving? This
also has an impact on your ability to prepare with food and water. If you are
going to be packing in a lot of water and food, how far you have to travel
might be a big decision.
How many people are
you planning for?
Is it just going to be you? Your spouse? Your children?
Friends? Extended family? Many times, people will join with a family friend to
buy property and build a home on their bug out location. This is probably one
of the first things you’ll need to determine because it has a huge effect on
your food storage, water storage and other emergency supplies.
Communication
How are you going to get in contact with others? Going to
bug out location doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t need to communicate.
Are you going to be too far away that you don’t get mobile phone coverage? Are
you going to get radio and/or TV coverage? Staying in contact with people will
help you know what is going on and help you stay prepared.
Medical Care
Are you going to have the right supplies at your bug out
location? While you might have enough food and water, what if you have a large
cut and can’t heal yourself? You might consider a bug out location that is
close enough to civilization that you can go to a hospital or find the right
drugs that you need but is also far enough away that you can escape if you need
to.
What else?
What do you think? What other considerations did you take
into account when you were determining your bug out location?
What to do if a Nuclear Disaster is Imminent
This guide is for families preparing for imminent terrorist
or strategic nuclear attacks with expected severe destruction and widespread
radioactive fallout.
IF ONLY A 'Dirty Bomb' Attack was to happen and not the
vastly more devastating nuclear weapon blasts I will discuss in a minute.
You can expect localized and downwind contamination from the
explosion and dispersed radioactive materials. If you are near enough to see or
hear any local bomb blast, assume that it includes radiological or chemical
agents.
You should move away
from the blast area as quickly as possible.
If the wind is blowing toward you from the direction of the
blast, travel in a direction that keeps the wind to your left or right as you
move away from the blast area. If possible cover your face with a dust mask or
cloth to avoid inhaling potentially radioactive dust.
Upon reaching a safe location, remove your outer clothing
outside and shower as soon as possible. Refer to local news sources for
additional instructions about sheltering or evacuation. The government is
better prepared to direct and assist the public in a 'dirty bomb' incident,
unlike an actual nuclear weapon attack.
IN EVENT OF NUCLEAR
WEAPON ATTACK!
In a national crisis of imminent nuclear weapon attacks,
read all the way through this guide first.
(It will be on my website for all to see)
THEN TAKE EFFECTIVE PROTECTIVE ACTION WITH CONFIDENCE...
FAST!
Should you stay or
go?
You must decide FIRST if you need to prepare where you are,
or attempt evacuation. The nature of the threat, your prior preparations, and
your confidence in your sources of information should direct your decision.
If you are considering evacuation, your decision requires a
very high confidence that it is worth the risk. You do not want to get stuck
between your current location and you’re hoped for destination, as there will
probably be no easy getting back.
If you fail to get to your destination, you may be exposed
without shelter, in a dangerous situation with little effective law
enforcement, perhaps among panicked hordes of refugees.
Whatever supplies you
have may be limited then to what you can carry on foot.
IF you are in a big city or near a military target, AND you
have relatives or friends in the country that you know are awaiting you, AND
the roads between you and them are clear, AND the authorities are not yet
restricting traffic, AND you have the means and fuel, evacuation may be a
viable option for a limited time. DO NOT attempt evacuation if all of the above
is not clearly known, or if the situation is deteriorating too quickly to make
the complete trip.
You do not want to get stuck and/or become a refugee being
herded along with panicked masses. If evacuation is truly a viable option, do
not wait - GO NOW!
Do so with as many of the supplies as possible. Better to be
two days too early in arriving than two hours too late and getting snagged
mid-way, potentially exposing your family to a worse fate than having stayed
where you were. Because of the very real danger of getting caught in an
evacuation stampede that stalls, I think almost all families will be better off
making the best of it wherever they currently are.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
FIRST
Because time is of the essence, you need to first delegate
and assign to different adult family members specific tasks so they can all be
accomplished at the same time. Your first priorities to assure your family
survival are Shelter, Water, and Food/Supplies. While some are working on the
water storage and shelter at home, others need to be acquiring, as much as
possible, the food and supplies.
FOOD/SUPPLIES
Because much of the food and supplies required may quickly
become unavailable, quantities restricted, and/or the streets and stores may
become un-safe soon, you need to assign someone NOW to immediately go to the
stores with that list! Get cash from the bank and ATM's first, but try and use
credit cards at the stores, if at all possible, to preserve your cash.
WATER
With one or more adults now heading to the stores with the
list, those remaining need to begin storing water IMMEDIATELY! Lack of clean
water will devastate your family much more quickly and more severely than any
lack of food.
Without water for both drinking and continued good sanitary
practices in food preparation and for bathroom excursions (which will
inevitably be much less sanitary than normal), debilitating sickness could
rampage through your household with little hope of prompt medical attention.
That is a highly
likely but an avoidable, disaster, ONLY IF you have enough water.
Every possible container needs to be filled with water RIGHT
NOW! It will be very hard to have stored too much water. When the
electricity/pumps go down or everybody in your community is doing the same
thing, thus dropping the water pressure, that's it, what you've got is all you
might be getting for a very long time.
Empty pop bottles (1-3 litre) are ideal for water storage,
also filling up the bathtub and washing machine. (Remember, later you'll have
some in your hot water tank.) If you have any kiddie pools or old water beds,
pull them out and fill them up, too. Anything and everything that'll hold water
needs to be filled up quickly RIGHT NOW!!
One of the shopping items should be rubbish bins and liner
bags which you'll also use for storing water. If you can't get any more new
bins, you could clean out an existing rubbish bin and scrub it throughout with
bleach, then put in a new rubbish bag liner and fill it with water.
Choose well where you fill up your rubbish bins with water
because they won't easily be moved once full and many of them together could be
too heavy for some upper floor locations. Ideally, they need to be very near
where your shelter will be constructed and can actually add to its shielding
properties, as you'll see below. BE ASSURED, YOU CANNOT STORE AND HAVE TOO MUCH
WATER! Do not hesitate; fill up every possible container, RIGHT NOW!
SHELTER
The principles of radiation protection are simple - with
many options and resources families can use to prepare or improvise a very
effective shelter. You must throw off the self-defeating myths of nuclear
un-survivability that may needlessly seal the fate of less informed families.
Radioactive fallout is the particulate matter (dust)
produced by a nuclear explosion and carried high up into the air by the
mushroom cloud. It drifts on the wind and most of it settles back to earth
downwind of the explosion. The heaviest, most dangerous, and most noticeable
fallout, will 'fall out' first close to ground zero. It may begin arriving
minutes after an explosion.
While the smaller and lighter dust-like particles will
typically be arriving hours later, as they drift much farther downwind, often
for hundreds of miles. As it settles, whether you can see it or not, fallout
will accumulate and blow around everywhere just like dust or light snow does on
the ground and roofs. Wind and rain can concentrate the fallout into localized
'hot spots' of much more intense radiation with no visible indication of its
presence.
This radioactive fallout 'dust' is dangerous because it is
emitting penetrating radiation energy (similar to x-ray's). This radiation (not
the fallout dust) can go right through walls, roofs and protective clothing.
Even if you manage not to inhale or ingest the dust, and
keep it off your skin, hair, and clothes, and even if none gets inside your
house, the radiation penetrating your home is still extremely dangerous, and
can injure or kill you inside.
Radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion, though very
dangerous initially, loses its intensity quickly because it is giving off so
much energy. For example, fallout emitting gamma ray radiation at a rate of 500
R/hr (fatal with one hour of exposure) shortly after an explosion, weakens to
only 1/10th as strong 7 hours later. Three days later, it's only 1/100th as
strong, or as deadly, as it was initially.
That is really very good news, because families can readily
survive it IF we get them into a proper shelter to safely wait it out as it
becomes less dangerous with every passing hour.
What stops radiation, and thus shields your family, is
simply putting mass between them and the radiation source. Like police body
armour stopping bullets, mass stops (absorbs) radiation. The thicker the mass,
the more radiation it stops. Also, the denser (heavier) the mass used, the more
effective it is with every inch more you add to your fallout shelter. The
thickness in inches needed to cut the radiation down to only 1/10th of its
initial intensity for different common materials is: Steel 3.3", concrete
11", earth 16", water 24", wood 38", etc. The thickness
required to stop 99% of the radiation is: 5" of steel, 16" of solid
brick or hollow concrete blocks filled with mortar or sand, 2 feet of packed
earth or 3 feet if loose, 3 feet of water.
You may not have enough steel available, but anything you do
have will have mass and can be used to add to your shielding - it just takes
more thickness of lighter wood, for example, than heavier earth, to absorb and
stop the same amount of radiation. Increasing the distance between your family
and the radiation outside also reduces the radiation intensity.
The goals of your
family fallout shelter are:
To maximize the distance away from the fallout 'dusting'
outside on the ground and roof
To place sufficient mass between your family and the fallout
to absorb the deadly radiation
To make the shelter tolerable to stay in while the radiation
subsides with every passing hour.
While a fallout shelter can be built anywhere, you should
see what your best options are at home or nearby. Some structures already
provide significant shielding or partial shielding that can be enhanced for
adequate protection.
If you do not have a basement available, you can still use
the following techniques in any above ground structure, but you'll need to use
more mass to achieve the same level of shielding. You may consider using other
solid structures nearby, especially those with below ground spaces, such as
commercial buildings, schools, churches, below ground parking garages, large
and long culverts, tunnels, etc..
Some of these may require permissions and/or the acquiring
of additional materials to minimize any fallout drifting or blowing into them,
if open ended.
Buildings with a half-dozen or more floors, where there is
not a concern of blast damage, may provide good radiation protection in the
centre of the middle floors. This is because of both the distance and the shielding
the multiple floors provide from the fallout on the ground and roof.
Bottom Line: choose a structure nearby with both the
greatest mass and distance already in place between the outside, where the
fallout would settle, and the shelter inside.
If you have a basement in your home, or at a nearby
relatives' or friends' house that you can use, your best option is probably to
fortify and use it, unless you have ready access to a better/deeper structure
nearby.
For an expedient last-minute basement shelter, push a heavy
table that you can get under into the corner that has the soil highest on the
outside. The ground level outside ideally needs to be above the top of the
inside shelter. If no heavy table is available, you can take internal doors off
their hinges and lay them on supports to create your 'table'.
Then pile any available mass on and around it such as books,
wood, cordwood, bricks, sandbags, heavy furniture, full file cabinets, full
water containers, your food stocks, and boxes and pillow cases full of anything
heavy, like earth. Everything you could pile up and around it has mass that
will help absorb and stop more radiation from penetrating inside - the heavier
the better. However, be sure to reinforce your table and supports so you do not
overload it and risk collapse.
Leave a small crawl-through entrance and more mass there
that can be easily pulled in after you to seal it up. Have at least two gaps or
4-6" square air spaces, one high at one end and one low at the other.
Use more if crowded
and/or hotter climate.
A small piece of cardboard can help fan fresh air in if the
natural rising warmer air convection current needs an assist moving the air
along. This incoming air won't need to be filtered if the basement has been
reasonably sealed up, however any windows or other openings will require some
solid mass coverage to assure they stay sealed and to provide additional
shielding protection for the basement.
With more time, materials, and carpentry or masonry skills,
you could even construct a more formal fallout shelter, such as the lean-to
shown to the right, but you should pile up much more mass than what little is
shown here.
An effective fallout shelter constructed in a basement may
reduce your radiation exposure 100-200 fold. Thus, if the initial radiation
intensity outside was 500 R/hr (fatal in one hour), the basement shelter
occupants might only experience 5 R/hr or even less, which is survivable, as
the radiation intensity will be decreasing with every passing hour.
Next time I will look
at further home shelters and suggested supply lists.
Here is a Great Offer From the Wilderness Gathering
Roger and Dom who own and run the Wilderness gathering have
decided to offer the chance of winning a Wilderness Gathering Knife to everybody
who books in advance for this year’s Wilderness Gathering
You can book here at www.wildernessgathering.co.uk
All you have to do is simply book in advance and you'll
automatically be entered into the prize draw. Existing bookings are
automatically included.
This year’s WG knife will be similar in profile to the 10th
anniversary models offered last year in the “bushtool” type profile.
Roger says they will be made in O1 high carbon tool steel.
I'm looking into handle material choices at present; I aim to make them all the
same and am open to suggestions as per the handle material. Post on the
Wilderness Gathering Facebook pages with any thoughts.
Rogers two sites are www.bisonbushcraft.co.uk and www.wildernessgathering.co.uk
or call his office on 0845 8387062 you really won’t regret it.
Basic Survival Skills
You might be asking, “What is the best way to approach basic
survival skills,” especially since there is so much information available. Here
are 6 primary components of wilderness survival to help you thrive in any
situation:
More than any other skill, your attitude determines how
successful you are in a survival situation. This first of the basic survival
skills might even determine whether you live or die!
To start, consider “The Rule of Threes.” A human can survive
for:
- 3 minutes without air
- 3 hours without a regulated body temperature (shelter)
- 3 days without water
- 3 weeks without food
The “Rule of Threes” provides a guideline of how to
prioritize basic survival skills: first shelter, then water, and lastly food.
Surviving a difficult wilderness situation also requires
meeting many challenges while avoiding panic.
When faced with a
potential survival situation, remember to use a "SPEAR":
Stop
Plan
Execute
Assess &
Re-evaluate
By systematically assessing, planning, and executing your
basic survival skills, you will help keep your mind and body actively engaged
in addressing your situation. This will greatly aid in avoiding panic and other
negative states of mind. By upholding an upright attitude, your chances of
survival are greatly improved!
Many people who are forced into survival situations often
get into serious trouble because of direct exposure to the elements. Most
people in survival situations die of hypothermia, which can be easily avoided
with basic survival skills.
Being able to build a shelter is of paramount importance in
a survival situation. It is extremely important to prevent or minimize heat
loss, or if in a desert environment, to minimize water loss.
Here are some things
to think about when planning to build a shelter:
- Location (away from hazards, near materials)
- Insulation (from ground, rain, wind, air)
- Heat Source (body heat or fire-heated)
- Personal or Group Shelter
There are many types of shelters to consider including
natural shelters such as caves, hollow stumps and logs, as well as building
shelters such as a debris hut, lean-to, debris tipi, or snow shelter. Of the
shelters listed, the debris hut is often the most practical to construct in
almost any environment. Learn how to construct a debris hut.
Since the human body is composed of 78.2% water, it should
be no surprise that water is higher on the list than fire or food. Ideally, a
person should drink about a gallon of water per day.
Many lost persons perish due to dehydration, and or the
debilitating effects of water-borne pathogens from untreated water. In addition
to water-borne pathogens, minerals and metals can be found in waters downstream
from industrial and agricultural operations.
The best sources for clean drinking water in a wilderness
setting are springs, head-water streams, and collecting morning dew.
Popular modern methods for purifying and treating water
include filtering pumps and chemical treatments, such as iodine. These can be
efficient and effective solutions if you have access to these items in a
survival situation.
The most widely used and proven method for safely purifying
water is boiling. Bringing water to a boil and allowing it to continue to boil
for 2-3 minutes will kill bacteria and viruses.
By maintaining a level attitude, creating a shelter, and
obtaining clean water, a person can successfully survive for many weeks.
Even though it is not directly a survival need, fire is one
of the most useful basic survival skills. It can help warm your body or your
shelter, dry your clothes, boil your water, and cook your food.
Also, fire can provide psychological support in a survival
situation, creating a sense of security and safety.
Ideally, when traveling in the wilderness, it is best to
carry multiple fire-starting tools, such as a lighter, matches, flint and
steel, etc… Even with these implements starting a fire can be challenging in
inclement weather. We highly recommend practicing fire starting in different
weather conditions within different habitats.
Good fire-making skills are invaluable. If you were to find
yourself in a situation without a modern fire-making implement, fire by
friction is the most effective primitive technique. Popular friction
fire-making methods include bow drill, hand drill, fire plow, and fire saw.
Learn how to build a
fire using the technique that works for you and practice it.
You might be surprised to see food so low on the basic
survival skills priorities list, though we can survive for much longer without
it as compared with shelter and water.
Remember “The Rule of Threes”: humans can survive without
food for roughly 3 weeks (though I'm sure you would not want to go that long
without food!).
Thankfully, most
natural environments are filled with a variety of items that can meet our
nutritional needs.
Wild plants often provide the most readily available foods, though
insects and small wild game can also support our dietary needs in a survival
situation.
Be sure that you properly identify any plant you plan on
consuming (using field guides and or the guidance of an experienced expert).
Many plants can be difficult to identify and some edible plants have poisonous
look-a-likes. If you cannot identify the plant, do not eat it.
The more you know about nature, the better you will be able
to survive in the outdoors. To be great at wilderness survival, beyond the
basic survival skills, requires an in-depth understanding of a variety of
nature skills.
For example, wildlife tracking skills allow one to
effectively locate wild game for food, and knowledge of herbal medicine allows
one to heal illnesses with wild plants. Especially for the situation where you
may choose to purposefully practice survival living for a lengthened period of
time, naturalist knowledge is absolutely invaluable.
All of our hunter–gatherer ancestors had classification
systems for living organisms, knew their names, understood their uses,
recognized how they inter-related to each other, and were aware of exactly how
to utilize those resources in a sustainable fashion.
This knowledge was at
the foundation of their ability to thrive within the natural environment.
For even the recreational wilderness skills practitioner, a
basic knowledge of the natural sciences (such as botany, ecology, geology,
etc…) can be very useful and enriching.
A great place to start is by purchasing the relevant plant
and animal field guides for your region. These resources can help you begin to
identify species and understand how they relate.
Now, with these keys
to basic survival skills, you are well on your way to thriving in the outdoors!
Can We Catch Parasites from Foraged Foods?
Foraging for food in the wild is in. Let’s be honest; it’s
never really been out. Nothing tastes more exotic than a tender spring
fiddlehead cut by the river and steamed right away. Who wouldn’t reach for a
plump ripe blackberry at the edge of the trail, or a low-hanging apple in the
autumn?
I suppose you could say that recent interest in edible wild
plants and wild meat has, however, made foraging fashionable.
Is foraging safe? Articles about foraging often focus on
identification of wild plants, when to pick them, and what species to avoid.
It’s true that whether or not a mushroom or green is poisonous is of more
immediate concern than whether it might transmit a parasitic disease, but
organisms like parasites rank high in food safety issues too.
So can We Catch
Parasites From Foraged Foods?
Think back to the days before plant and animal
domestication; our distant forebears were hunter-gatherers. They foraged for
everything, and this was how they acquired most of their parasites (those that
they weren’t sharing directly person to person, such as lice).
Picking up parasites from contact with soil, drinking water,
and the wild foods that they ate was the norm. Make no mistake, those parasites
haven’t gone away; so far as I know science does not record any instance of a
parasite infectious to humans going extinct.
If anything, we have made things worse. Domesticating crops
and animals has given a lot of parasites unprecedented opportunities, but dense
human populations, large numbers of domestic animals, and our environmental
impact have changed things in the wild as well. For example:
All surface waters, everywhere, should now be considered
contaminated by intestinal protozoa of humans and cattle.
Human communities in North America support unusually high
populations of raccoons, carriers of a deadly roundworm.
Roaming and feral house cats have contaminated soils
worldwide with the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii.
Migrating humans have spread lots of parasites to places
where they were formerly not found.
Where droppings from grazing animals wash into streams,
liver fluke larvae infest watercress.
Foraged Food and the
Risk of Parasitic Diseases
While studies of the risk of parasitic disease faced by
foragers as a group may be lacking, mountains of literature document the risks
of eating and drinking, and even walking, in the wild.
The risk you face while foraging for wild food depends a lot
on what you’re looking for, and where you’re looking for it. Eating wild
animals can be the source of diseases such as trichinosis, toxoplasmosis, and
intestinal flukes and tapeworms.
Plants may be contaminated with human or animal faeces, or
they may harbour larval forms of parasites. In some places, picking up a
zoonosis – a disease of animals – is the major worry; in others, parasites of
humans are more common.
In tropical developing countries, sanitation is often poor
and faecal contamination of the environment intense, let’s be honest outside
toilets are merely one of the places where we accidentally sow the seeds of
wild plants that we eat.
These outside toilets
are also good places to pick up parasitic infections; forage there at your
peril.
In industrialized countries, wild plants are relatively safe
as long as they are not contaminated with animal droppings (although, here too,
aquatic plants such as watercress may transmit liver fluke) as I have
mentioned.
Pick with clean hands, leave anything questionable, and wash
thoroughly. If you want to eat anything raw, wash it with running potable
water.
Thorough cooking will kill just about everything, but be
careful to clean surfaces that have come in contact with the uncooked food.
Wild animals can carry nasty parasites in both meat and faeces so, again, cook
well and clean thoroughly (and don’t feed raw trimmings to the family dog).
Foraging for
Parasites
No discussion of foraging and parasites is complete without
noting that, in many cultures, people deliberately forage for parasites.
Some fish, and shellfish such as oysters, are particularly
tasty when infested with certain parasites; pea crabs, parasites of oysters are
eaten as gourmet foods in North America. Robin Overstreet describes tasty
caterpillars, nut-like botfly and warble fly larvae, fried “sweet meat” (liver
flukes) from deer, and both fish and mammal tapeworms eaten raw, among other
things.
Thus, in the true spirit of foraging in the wild, when we
come across a parasite, the first question is “will it hurt me?” and the second
is “can I eat it?”
When the Trucks Stop the UK Stops
OK so you are not a prepper and you think that preppers are
a few cards short of a full deck? you assume that anyone that is
"preparing for doomsday" does not have their elevator going all the
way to the top floor?
Well, you might want to listen to me first before you make a
final decision that all preppers are crazy.
The information that you are about to hear I hope will shock
you. To be honest, you have no idea how
incredibly vulnerable our economic system is to a transportation
disruption. I am continually getting
emails and comments on my websites asking "how to prepare" for what
is coming, so when I came across this information I knew that I had to share it
with all of you.
Hopefully what you are about to hear will motivate you to
prepare like never before, and hopefully you will share this information with
others.
Originally, I was going to write an article about the rising
unemployment in Europe today. Did you
know that unemployment in the Eurozone is now at a 15 year high? It has risen for 10 months in a row with no
end in sight.
But I have written a few articles about the economic crisis
in Europe before. So before starting on
this article I started thinking of all the "preparation" questions I
have been getting lately and I went surfing for further information.
The truth is that our "just in time" inventory and
delivery systems leave us incredibly vulnerable to a nationwide disaster.
You see, it is very expensive to hold and store goods, so
most manufacturers and retailers rely on a continual flow of deliveries that
are scheduled to arrive "just in time", and this significantly
reduces their operating expenses.
This is considered to be good business practice for
manufacturers and retailers, but it also means that if there was a major
nationwide transportation disruption that our economic system would grind to a
halt almost immediately.
Once store shelves are picked clean, they would not be able
to be replenished until trucks could get back on the road. In the event of a major nationwide disaster,
that could be quite a while.
So what could potentially cause a nationwide transportation
shutdown?
Well, it is easy to imagine a lot of potential scenarios - a
volcanic eruption, a historic earthquake, an EMP attack, a solar megastorm, a
war, a major terror attack, an asteroid strike, a killer pandemic, mass rioting
in UK cities, or even martial law. If something caused the trucks to stop
running, life in the UK would immediately start changing.
So exactly what would that look like?
A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries
Following a Truck Stoppage
The first 24 hours
Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will
cease.
Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes
and catheters within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and become
unusable.
Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.
Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop
component shortages.
UK mail and other package delivery will cease.
Within one day
Food shortages will begin to develop.
Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle,
leading to skyrocketing prices and long lines at the petrol stations.
Without manufacturing components and trucks for product
delivery, assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.
Within two to three
days
Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of
hoarding and consumer panic.
Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk,
and canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.
ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to
process transactions.
Service stations will completely run out of fuel.
Domestic rubbish will start piling up in urban and suburban
areas.
Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport
will be disrupted, eventually coming to a standstill.
Within a week
Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel.
Without autos and busses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for
groceries, or access medical care.
Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.
Within two weeks
The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.
Within four weeks
The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water
will be safe for drinking only after boiling. As a result gastrointestinal
illnesses will increase, further taxing an already weakened health care system.
This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze
on truck travel. Secondary effects must be considered as well, such as
inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law enforcement,
increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher death rates, and likely,
civil unrest.
All this would happen almost immediately if there was an EMP
attack or a CME event, I suggest that if you are not a prepper that you
seriously consider becoming one and if you are a prepper heed my words please.
So you don’t think a
Pandemic could happen well these stories will prove you wrong
Chinese Researchers Created Flu Virus Strains
Scientists slam 'appalling irresponsibility' of researchers
in China who deliberately created new strains of killer flu virus
Former government chief scientist Lord May accused Chinese
team of 'blind ambition'
Researchers created strains in a bid to develop vaccines
Comes as experts warn new flu strain that has killed 27 in
China could spread to Europe
One of Britain's leading scientists has hit out at Chinese
researchers who created new strains of a killer flu virus in a bid to develop
vaccines.
They claim the 'hybrid' flu, which mixes bird flu virus with
human flu, could escape the lab and lead to a global health crisis pandemic
killing millions of people.
It comes amid rising fears of a flu epidemic as China
struggles to contain an outbreak of the virus.
The Bird Flu Virus up close: researchers fear an
experimental strain of he killer virus could escape from the Chinese lab that
created it
The Bird Flu Virus up close: researchers fear an
experimental strain of the killer virus could escape from the Chinese lab that
created it
Fears over hybrid flu escaping led to scientists imposing a
voluntary moratorium on their H5N1 research, banning transmission studies using
ferrets.
However, researchers decided to lift the ban earlier this
year, arguing that they have now consulted widely with health organisations and
the public over safety concerns.
However, some scientists still oppose the work, saying any
work is too dangerous and experimental strains could escape the lab.
Professor Hualan Chen, director of China’s National Avian
Influenza Reference Laboratory at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute,
deliberately mixed the H5N1 bird-flu virus, which is highly lethal but not
easily transmitted between people, with a 2009 strain of H1N1 flu virus, which
is very infectious to humans.
GPs advised how to
spot bird flu as virus continues to mutate at an alarming rate
The researchers claim the work could help develop a vaccine.
The work of Zhang and colleagues provides a framework for
further studies examining how the structure of the avian flu virus influences
how readily it could transition to being a pathogen with human pandemic
potential,' Science Express, the journal which published the research, said.
The study, which was carried out in a laboratory with the
second highest security level to prevent accidental escape, resulted in 127
different viral hybrids between H5N1 and H1N1, five of which were able to pass
by airborne transmission between laboratory guinea pigs.
However, it is feared
the mutated viruses could escape, sparking a global pandemic.
They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and
such like,' Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past
president of the Royal Society, told The Independent.
In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind
ambition with no common sense whatsoever, and the record of containment in labs
like this is not reassuring.
They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human
transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,' he
said.
It comes as experts warn human cases of a deadly new strain
of bird flu that has killed 27 people in China are likely to crop up in Europe
and around the world.
Quarantine activities at a bay in Hwaseong City, South
Korea. Lord May, a former Government science advisor, warned the 'hybrid' flu,
which mixes bird flu virus with human flu, could escape the lab and kill
millions
In his first media interview since returning from an
international scientific mission to China last week, Professor Angus Nicoll,
the head of the influenza and respiratory viruses programme at the European
Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), said the H7N9 flu outbreak in
humans was one that should be taken extremely seriously and watched closely.
We are at the start
of a very long haul with H7N9,' Nicoll told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said there were many scientific questions to be answered
about the new flu strain, which was first detected in patients in China in
March having been previously unknown in humans.
The flu has so far infected at least 127 people in China and
killed 27 of them, according to latest data from Chinese health authorities and
the World Health Organization.
Scientific studies of the virus have established it is being
transmitted from birds - probably mostly chickens - to people, making it a
so-called zoonotic disease that humans catch from animals rather than from
other humans.
Nicoll, who visited Beijing and Shanghai last week with a
team of international scientific experts, confirmed what the WHO has repeatedly
said - that there is no evidence yet of the virus efficiently passing from
person to person - a factor that would make H7N9 a serious pandemic flu threat
if it were to evolve.
A worker sprays disinfectant in a live poultry market in
Banchiao, New Taipei City, ahead of a sweeping ban on live poultry slaughter in
markets that will take effect across Taiwan in two weeks
Nicoll said the 'most pressing public health question' for
now was to identify the source of the circulating virus - the so-called
'reservoir' - that is leading to chickens contracting it and sporadically
passing it on to humans.
This is likely to take time, with any results unlikely for
several months.
He said the ECDC, which monitors disease in the European
Union, and health authorities around the world should expect that 'imported
cases' of H7N9 flu may well begin to crop up elsewhere.
Flu experts speaking at a briefing in London on Wednesday
said those mutations, together with evidence that H7N9 is still mutating
rapidly and probably spreading almost invisibly among birds because it does not
make them obviously sick, meant this new flu was a 'serious threat' to world
health.
You can never predict anything about flu, but it is
concerning to see those mutations there, Nicoll said. 'That's why it's
important Europe should take this very seriously.'
Nicoll added that he thought the Chinese were doing an
'impressive job' handling, reporting, investigating and seeking to contain the
outbreak.
Outbreak Of New SARS-Like Virus Kills 5 In Saudi Arabia
With a new bird flu in China, it's easy to forget that
there's another worrisome virus emerging in the Middle East.
Today we got a rude reminder of its presence.
Five more people have died from a new SARS-like virus on the
Arabian Peninsula, the World Health Organization Thursday. Two others are being
treated in intensive care.
That brings the total cases to 24, including 16 deaths.
Since the virus in April 2012, it has been detected in
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the U.K.
There's very little information about the seven new cases,
except that they were all reported at the same hospital in Al-Hasa — a region
on the eastern edge of Saudi Arabia, bordering the Persian Gulf.
Virologists discovered the new coronavirus after it killed a
Saudi Arabian man last summer.
Coronaviruses can cause a mild cold or severe pneumonia-like
symptoms.
Bats harbor many types of coronaviruses and were probably
the original source of the new coronavirus that appeared in the Middle East.
We have not found any cases anywhere else in the eastern
region, Dr. Ziad Memish, from the Saudi Ministry of Health, The National.
The virus is a cousin of SARS, which killed more than 750
people in 2003. Like SARS, nCoV causes severe pneumonia, but it doesn't spread
easily between people.
In February, two family members in Britain the virus from a
relative who had been traveling through Saudi Arabia. But otherwise, there has
been little evidence of person-to-person transmission.
Genetic sequencing shows that nCoV is most closely to a bat
virus. But health workers still don't know where the virus comes from.
That's the million-dollar question, virologist of the U.K.
Health Protection Agency told Shots a few weeks ago. "We don't really know
how any of these patients have caught the virus, except for the two families in
the U.K.," Bermingham said, referring to the first 17 cases.
We don't have a good handle on what's happening on the
Arabian Peninsula or elsewhere," she added. "But we're hopeful that
authorities there are actively investigating their severe respiratory
illnesses.
Viruses are one of those things that pop up every now and
then. You just don't know when they're going to cause human infections,"
she said.
And Another Super Bug
Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported sexually
transmitted disease in the U.S.
A growing number of cases are being reported globally of an
antibiotic-resistant strain known as HO41
It has been listed as a superbug and doctor are warning it
has the potential to become very dangerous very quickly
Gonorrhea is especially common amongst young people aged
15-24
Doctors are warning that an antibiotic-resistant strain of
gonorrhoea, now considered a superbug, has the potential to be as deadly as the
AIDS virus.
This particular strain of gonorrhea, known as HO41, was
discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker who had
been screened in 2009. The bacteria has since been found in Hawaii, California
and Norway.
In a bid to avoid contracting gonorrhea, in particular the
HO41 strain, people are encouraged to practice safe sex
HO41 has so far proved resistant to current antibiotic
treatment and so it has been placed in the superbug category.
This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because
the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,’ Alan
Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine told CNBC.
Nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS related causes
worldwide, but Christianson believes the effect of the gonorrhea bacteria is more
direct.
Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into
septic shock and death in a matter of days,’ Christianson said. ‘This is very
dangerous.’
In a briefing on Capitol Hill last week, William Smith,
executive director of the National Coalition for STD Directors, urged Congress
to target nearly $54 million in immediate funding to help find an antibiotic
for HO41 and to conduct an education and public awareness campaign.
A Terrifying holiday bug that can burst your blood vessels
All it takes is an insect bite and you could even fall
victim on a trip to France. The growing danger of deadly dengue fever
James Bradley had planned a romantic holiday to Bali as a
surprise for his wife. But a few days into their trip, the 33-year-old
developed what he thought was flu.
It was, in fact, a tropical disease, and he deteriorated so
rapidly his wife Katie feared the worst.
He had contracted dengue fever, a disease spread by infected
mosquitoes. While it usually produces only flu-like symptoms, James went on to
develop a severe form, which causes internal bleeding and can prove fatal.
Worldwide, 20,000 people die from it every year.
With no cure or vaccination, dengue is endemic in more than
100 countries (compared with nine in 1970), and there are 100 million
infections every year.
Though it’s a tropical disease, cases have been reported in
France and Croatia. After it struck the island of Madeira last year, the World
Health Organisation warned of a future European outbreak.
Though it cannot be passed from human to human, a
non-infected mosquito that bites someone with dengue then becomes a carrier,
passing the disease to the next person it bites.
Infected travellers can also inadvertently bring home the
disease to their native country.
Dengue incubates for several days — after the initial bite,
the disease multiplies in the lymph glands.
By morning, the fever had hit 40c. I was also being sick and
suffering terrible diarrhoea. The hotel called a doctor, who diagnosed
gastroenteritis.’
By the next day,
James could barely walk.
Not only was James showing the characteristic symptoms —
fever, aches and vomiting — but blood tests showed his platelet count was
plummeting.
Platelets are the tiny cells that are vital for blood
clotting. A healthy person usually has 200,000 to 400,000 platelets per cubic
millimetre of blood. James’s had fallen to just over 100,000 — a common level
in dengue sufferers. A count of 50,000 can prove fatal.
Here are two great
Bushcraft shows for you to attend this year
The Bushcraft Show
It’s a jam-packed, three-day event filled will amazing
bushcraft activities that will take you, your friends and family on a bushcraft
and survival adventure that you’ll never forget. Whether you come for the day
or stay for the weekend, you can try your hand at woodland crafts, fire
lighting, shelter building, tracking, foraging, woodland games and so much
more. Click onto their site to learn more http://www.thebushcraftshow.co.uk See
YOU there between the 25 and the 27th of May
THE ELEVENTH WILDERNESS GATHERING 2013 15th to 18th August
The Wilderness Gathering has over the years become a firm
date in the diaries of those who enjoy bushcraft, nature and wilderness
survival skills. The previous ten years have seen this event grow from a small
event in one field with some traders and schools sharing bushcraft skills and
knowledge to a festival of wilderness living skills encompassing
bushcraft/survival and woodland crafts.
The show has grown into an event with something for all the
family with stories and music by the campfire in the evenings and skills
workshops and activities throughout the three whole days of the festival.
The Wilderness Gathering has without a doubt become the
premier family event for all those interested in bush crafts and the great
outdoors.
The show has bushcraft clubs for all age groups of children
to get involved in plus more activities for all including den building and
wilderness skills classes for all.
There are hands on demonstrations of game preparation, knife
sharpening, basha boat building, bow making, greenwood working, archery and axe
throwing and primitive fire lighting to name just a few. There are talks on
survival phycology, classes on falconry and wilderness survival fishing. All of
these skills are there for everybody and anybody to participate in.
You can probably pick up information on nearly all the
skills needed to live in the wilderness and prosper at The Wilderness
Gathering.
There is a wealth of good quality trade stands that are
carefully selected to be in theme for the show selling everything from custom
knives to tipis and outdoor clothing to primitive tools. The organisers have
even laid on a free service bring and buy stall where you can bring along your
used and unwanted kit and they’ll sell it for you.
There are local scout and explorer groups onsite promoting
the World Wide Scouting Movement as well helping out with some of the classes
and site logistics.
The catering is within the theme of the event with venison
and game featuring on the menus plus organic cakes and drinks. The woodland and
open field camping facilities (with hot showers) giving you the option to visit
for the whole weekend or just to attend as a day visitor.
Check out www.wildernessgathering.co.uk
or call 0845 8387062 you really won’t regret it.
