Secret Survival Tips

But not under the bag lol
a reply to: Nickn3

I like mushrooms fried in balsamic vinegar.
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

a reply to: bastion

World of difference between fear and foolhardiness.

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
I like mushrooms fried in balsamic vinegar.

One order of Death Caps coming right up...

rofl


i think portabellos are the best w vinegar
a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

One order of Death Caps coming right up...

I’m above average at foraging, but mushrooms still freak me out a bit. That’s why I stick to morels, only one thing looks similar but I can tell the difference.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
I’m above average at foraging, but mushrooms still freak me out a bit. That’s why I stick to morels, only one thing looks similar but I can tell the difference.

Hen of the Woods is another easy one.

originally posted by: Iscool

originally posted by: Lumenari

originally posted by: TrulyColorBlind

originally posted by: underwerks
You can make wine from dandelions.

Yes, how well I know! Here's my last batch of dandelion wine as it was fermenting:

I make 5 gallons of Dandelion wine every spring and use it as a tonic in the fall and winter.

Done correctly it has a delicate taste that is simply amazing.

My two "odd" wines that nobody can figure out are maple leaf wine and potato wine (Poteen).

The potato wine takes about 18 months to finish and everyone thinks it is a pear wine.

As for the topic, LEARN WHAT TO FORAGE IN YOUR AREA.

ETA... never underestimate the bartering power of alcohol.

5 gallons of tonic every fall...Sorry to hear of your poor health...

I never get sick, actually.

I DO have a rather large extended family though and I help.

Besides, it is a 20 point wine.

It has other rather obvious uses.

If you lose electricity for what ever reason you can light a room with a gallon of water and a flashlight.
Just fill the clear water jug and shine a flashlight thru it and the water will scatter the light and illuminate the whole room.
Not really a survival skill but handy to know none the less

originally posted by: Ahabstar
a reply to: bastion

World of difference between fear and foolhardiness.

Tru dat. I'm very much on the fool/adrenaline junkie side of things so have to constantly remind myself to be boring and not take uneccesarry risks when out in the sticks.

Does anyone know or have any experience of using charcoal or spent firewood to purify water? Always done it by boiling or pottasium permanganate (doubles as great anti-septic/anti-bacterial/mouthwash and fire starter in jungles due to highly volatile reaction with brake fluid) but it seems like a source of activated carbon and good re-use of otherwise spent material.

a reply to: bastion

I have to clear up something:

Activated charcoal is a fine black powder made from bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, coal, olive pits or sawdust.

The charcoal is activated by processing it at very high temperatures. The high temperatures change its internal structure, reducing the size of its pores and increasing its surface area.

This results in a charcoal that is more porous than regular charcoal.

Source

That said the charcoal from a fire is just that charcoal. And it can be used for filtering in conjunction with fine gravel and sand in layers, in a gravity filter bottle made with a two liter bottle. However, despite such filtration it is still recommended that you boil your water to kill bad bacteria. So why filter at all? Mud, silt, algae and yes heavy metals will not be removed by boiling alone. Sawyer and Lifestraw filters are good portable choices for sans boiled water. So is tapping a sycamore tree and won’t get you the trots like drinking maple sap as sycamore has significantly less sugar.

So why the repulsion to boiling? It makes water taste “flat” as what we really taste is the minerals and impurities within the water that makes it taste “good” Some of the best “wild water” I had was some 500’ below ground dripping from a cave ceiling beyond my flashlight beam. We of course joked that is was bats or an outhouse seeping among the rocks. But the steel barrel catching the drips seemed to be safe water as well.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: AutomateThis1

The herbal dip I use has Kudzu in it. It's remarkably similar to tobacco in texture and you can mix it with other herbs. Tea leaves are good for tobacco alternativesas well. You can also put coffee grounds into strips of coffee filters, twist up the ends and use it as a tobacco alternative. Both the coffee and tea will have the added stimulant benefits, but some people need to be reminded that if they are trying to conserve water they should be careful with it.

Very good point. One thing I read about Venezuela is that sin items were very good for bartering.
Booze, cigarettes, drugs, or even a persons body.

Note to self: stock up on booze!

I think you should stock up on bodies!!!

JK

One thing that really bothers me that I read on many survival sites is when people suggest to get to know edible plants in your area......and people don't. I went through my yard and identified most of my weeds. Almost every weed - I'd say 70% or better, common in many states, are edible. There is absolutely no reason to starve to death. Lawn and yard grasses are edible and safe as long as they aren't sprayed with chemicals.

If you gently pluck longer grasses and eat the tender ends, you not only get edibles but juice/fluid as well. I have plucked a large handfuls of common grass and chomped down on the tender ends, about an inch to an inch and a half and it is juicy and filling.

a reply to: Ahabstar

Activating charcoal is done by steam. The temperature is not higher than combustion. The steam is superheated gas tho. You can find it on YT for example on Cody's lab channel. It can be done "at home". However even activated charcoal is not very good at removing heavy metals unfortunately.
Some commercial filters can remove most of them. How do they do that IDK. Charcoal is best for organic material which charge is attracted to carbon.
Deionising resins are better.

I have one more trick for that. It's freeze-distillation. I let a plastic jug freeze from outside and after making a hole with a stream I spill out the dirty liquid in the middle. The ice is very clean and free of salts including metal ions. If the temperature is not low enough I continue in a freezer. It's energy efficient unlike hot distillation. I've got plenty of clean water this winter. It's always awesome.
If you let it freeze for too long the inside ice will be white and not translucent. Once defrosted the salts will form conglomerates. It cant be filtered but bigger chunks will settle down. Such water is second grade. The white flukes of calcium and who knows what tastes bad and it starts to dissolve back into solution. Timing is important. I like to go for 40% yield or less for highest purity. You can cook with it, water the plants... but this water should be consumed ice cold with some ice still floating in it for the best healing and cleaning mojo. I store it in glass when it's not cold anymore so that it doesnt dissolve the plastic.

a reply to: JAGStorm
Someone mentioned it earlier. Garbage bags. I prefer the black bags with a drawstring.

One on each leg one over the top. Not for a rain jacket, but just to hold in heat at night. You'd be surprised how much heat a garbage bag can hold in.

If you keep the garbage bags folded from the factory 5 or 6 take care of me being eighth of an inch.

Tea bags. They are extremely light oh, and can flavor almost any water that is drinkable but doesn't taste good.

I've also picked up four or five single burner Coleman white gas / gasoline stoves. It will actually burn just about anything. Plenty of heat for cooking keeping warm, or sterilizing. They're very small and put out a lot of heat. With a metal coffee can suspended maybe an inch above the flame they're almost invisible oh, and the can radiates the heat.

A small tube of Neosporin is a miracle salve. It really does kill tons of different bacteria, and keeps all my little cuts and scrapes from getting infected. Especially well on large burns.

As a rule most people don't eat crayfish Pacific Northwest. It is as soon as they're just not as prolific. Imho they just hide better here in a rocky aquatic environment. They're attracted to any type of meat nightcrawlers/bones/fish carcass etc.

Drop some meat in a rocky stream, come back within 15 minutes to an hour, and you have enough for a small meal. Breaking off the tail also works excellent for catfish, and larger trout / salmon / steelhead.

Another thing to mention. A snorkel mask and fins sound silly, but with a homemade spear in a warm lake, bass and panfish are an easy target. They will actually follow you as you swim, and are attracted to your kills. I've taken as many as 30-40 panfish and a limit of bass in less than an hour.

Not to mention the absolutely indescribable amount of things that people throw into a lake that would be useful in a survival situation.

A sharpened stick with a 2ft loop of surgical tubing makes for a very nice DIY Hawaiian sling (they're cheap enough to buy retail). The sling can also be used above water for anything that you can get within six feet of.

Kind of a disorganized post but I hope it helps.

A cup of tea.

This is a very old tip, and more towards if you get stranded in the Australian out back. Stop, sit and have a cup of tea. This will make you focus and think clear.

There are a lot of vegetables that can be grown in meadows.
i did this back in the 1970s and it worked great till the forest service found out and started removing our plants

a reply to: JAGStorm

I wanted to add a few more.

Eating garlic repels ticks
Smoking repels mosquitos

Learn how to sew now, and different ways to tie a knot.
Watch Youtube tutorials for anything like that you want to learn and then buy cheap books to reinforce the knowledge and as a backup.

Drying food is one of the oldest forms of food preservation

Learn how to make string/twine/rope from natural materials.