The well of life: Water finding & purifying

The well of life: Water finding & purifying

The need for water is one of the few things that can’t be over looked as water accounts for about 75% of our body weight. Without water we soon wither and die. Now let us enter into the study of where to obtain and how to purify this most precious of substances. Why do we need water? Water is needed for a number of reasons in the body from circulation to respiration and converting food to energy. At rest on average we need 2 liters of water per day to survive. When working out or performing a strenuous task we need up to 2 additional liters per hour. Without water our bodies quickly slow down. A lack of water causes dehydration which my result in lethargy, headaches, dizziness & confusion. We can only survive without water for 3 days. This is a very short amount of time making water one of the 1^st three things we most have to survive. Let’s look at the (Rule of 3s) we can survive

3 minutes without air

3 hours without shelter (In extreme temps/ environments)

3 days without water

3 weeks without food

It should be noted that thirst is no indication of how much water you need whereas dark urine is. You should drink small amounts as often as your water supply allows. If you do not have a good supply of water all movement should be limited to cool times of day or to night. Also you should stay in the shade as much as possible to reduce water loss. It is recommended that you not eat if you do not have water to drink with your food as it will deplete your body’s water stores more quickly. Also do not remove your clothes even in the hot sun as layers help to keep moisture close to the body. Lastly the beast place for you to carry water is in you if you can drink do you need the water more than your cantina does. When you do get purified water drink! Fill your containers before starting off again or build a shelter nearby the water supply and wait for rescue.

Now on to finding water> I have been looking at a lot of other wilderness pro’s pages to help me understand the best way to go about finding water and it seems they all agree on about the same thing: dig for it, collect it from the dew in the morning or use a solar still if a water source is not available. The solar still seems to be the least effective of all the ways to create water so use it only if the others are not working. To start with look for water sources that are close to you and visible from the surrounding land scape lakes, rivers or streams. If none of these are available you will be looking for low spots in the surrounding that have dark, heavy foliage areas and or dry river beds. These areas will have a good chance of having underground water supplies that you can tap into for survival. Another good way to get water is to gather it from the early morning dew. Also check depressions or the nooks in trees. Soak up the water from catches with a piece of cloth or some dried grasses wring it into a container, then filter and boil the fluid. If you do see and can identify foliage as non-poisonous you can place these plants in a plastic bag and by a process called transpiration the plant will shed water into the bag.

And now for the purification issue. It is pretty common knowledge that if you drink water that is from a stagnant pool or water that was to close too defecation you will have a good chance of getting sick. Some of these sicknesses can take up to 2 weeks or more to set in. We could go into great detail about the different harmful; stuff but we will for this article focus on how to keep from getting sick. Our 1^st way is the most used and known about: boiling and it is just like it sounds. Create a fire use an object to hold the water over the fire until it is boiling, then let the water cool and drink. There are a few different ideas on how long to boil for but the general consensus is that it should be brought to a boil for at least a few minutes. The 2^nd way to purify is filtering. This method can be done with a store bough filtering system or with one you create using multiple layers of sand, rock and charcoal allowing the water to filter though the different layers. The 3^rd and last method is chemicals you may add things like tincture of iodine 2%, chlorine or alcohol to your water as a way to kill harmful bacteria’s and pathogens. Also they make several water purification tablets for hikers now. The down side to this is that if you use too much you could harm yourself so please do the research on the recommended amounts before you use these.

With proper planning and a little foresight and some luck you should not need to use the methods described here. But in the event you find yourself in a life or death situation we hope that the information provided here can help to get you out safely.

As always thank you for your time and attention. You can follow us on facebook or our blog page. If you would like more information on the subject of wilderness survival check out our friends and pro survival groups at primitive ways, Indefinitely wild.   research for this article was obtained from primitive ways, Indefinitely wild and  the book Extreme Survival .

Fire

Fire

Our topic for today will continue with more wilderness survival.  Of all the items that you will need to survive in a wilderness or zombie apocalypse situation fire is going to be one of the most important. Without fire you can’t cook, sterilize, purify, heat, or create light. Now most people think that just having a lighter or matches will be enough for your survival. This is far from the truth as circumstances can change rapidly in a survival situation. For instance you could lose your matches or your lighter, you could get your matches wet, or the lighter might run out for any number of reasons. So what do you do for fire? There is no simple answer. One option is to rub sticks together so that the heat created from the friction creates a small ember that you will move to a tinder bundle. This is known as the fire by friction hand drill method.

 A few important notes about this… You will have to create the hearth board, the drill or spindle, and you need an ember pad to catch the ember as well as having a kindling bundle ready for the ember. As you look at your woods to make the spindle and the hearth board one expert recommends less dense woods work better for creating friction according to his research. He also went on to test the difference between the living wood and dead wood spindles concluding that dead wood is better. 

How to use this… to start you will be looking for a soft dead straight stick with an Ideal length from wrist to elbow for the spindle wood. If necessary whittle it down to straighten it. Note that the tip of the spindle should be flat so that there is a good amount of surface contact. 

 For the hearth board locate a dead branch about 1 to 2 inches in diameter of dead soft wood and whittle it flat like the picture. Now place the spindle on the hearth board at around the middle and mark around the spindle. This will be the spot that you notch for the spindle to rest in and create the ember. Once you have marked the area notch it out. Now that you have your notch you can do the initial burn in. This is simply a quick run of the spindle in the notch to smooth it out and get it ready to make fire. Now that you have your burn in complete it’s time to make the V shaped notch going from the edge of the hearth board back to the spindle notch. There you have it my friend one hearth board. 

Now you need to get the ember pad. This is just a smooth then flat surface to be place under the hearth board at the V notch to catch the ember that is created and then transfer it to the tinder bundle.

 On to the tinder bundle. This should be made of dry and fine fiber material and shaped like a birds nest. I have also seen long grass bent back on itself to make a u shape used. Once the ember was placed on the bundle it was covered and blown into or fanned. Now that we have all of the pieces that you need on to the fire making. 

Find a dry flat area clear away any debris that might be in your way and place the ember pad on the ground. Now place the hearth board over the ember pad. Now you need to decide if you want to kneel or sit as you begin to work on the fire. Sitting you will lose downward pressure but you will be more comfortable. Kneeling you will get more downward pressure and the ember will be created faster. Either way place a knee or foot on the hearth board to hold it in place. As you Place the spindle in the spindle notch of the hearth board begin rolling the spindle between the palms of your hand to just before the fingers with downward pressure making a U shaped motion as you work. Once you see smoke and a small orange glow you have it. Place the spindle on the ground, remove the hearth board, and pick up the ember pad very carefully. Move the ember to the tinder bundle and blow gently to ignite the bundle.  As soon as your tinder bundle is lit move it to a pre-made fire pit and kindling and stoke  until you have fire of your required size. Now enjoy the fruits of your labor. 

 It should be mentioned at this point that this is only one of many options for creating  fire. You could also create fire with friction bow, plow, or strap methods as well as with a soda can polished to a highly reflective surface or with a lens or battery and steel wool or with a car battery. these methods may be featured in future articles. 

 I truly hope that this has been informative and helpful for you. It has been an amazing fun project for us to work and learn from as we move toward being better able to thrive in any situation life throws our way. As always if you like this share it.  Follow us on face book at www.facebook.com/FIA-page or on our blog page at fiablognews.blogspot.com

5 Things you should have for the zombie apocalypse

5 Things you should have for the zombie apocalypse

1. Gun & ammo: You know you need a gun. Having a good supply of ammo helps

2. Knife or Hatchet: A good knife is always a plus like the k-bar or the bowie knife these serve more than one purpose so they are weapons, cutting and whittling tools as well as being a small hammer. The Hatchet is another good option as it cuts better and is a better hammer on the down side it is less useful as a whittling tool.  

3. Food & Water: In any survival situation you will need food and water. Try to get canned food as it will last longer and remember to avoid places like that everyone is trying to go for food like wal-mart, target, cvs or H.E.B. these will be high threat areas in a zombie apocalypse as everyone will want the goods in side. You should keep a small amount of food and water on head for emergency.

4. Transportation: In an apocalypse situation you should try your best to get as far from major cities as they will have the largest infected populations so transportation is a key to survival. Gas will be increasingly hard to get so something with good gas mileage so you can get out of the city from their animals will be a great resources for movement.    

5.  Attitude: If you don’t keep your head and a good attitude you will lose your hope and if that happens the game is over so remember that keeping a positive attitude in the face of over whelming adversity will be the main deference between living and dying.

I hope that you find this helpful. I know there is much that has been left out of this list please feel free to tell me your top five thing’s so that we can improve on the list. As always if you want more information on how to live a better and happier life no matter what life throws at you follow us on face book at https://www.facebook.com/FIA-page-984871744909760/

Or check out our blog at  http://fiablognews.blogspot.com/ . Thank you all and Strive to learning and growing till next time.  Good Bye.

Simple Shelter

Shelter

In the beginning we were only worried about food and shelter. So let’s look at that. If you are in the woods and you have nothing what would you do? Now I am no wilderness expert. But as i have found in my research you need food, but more important than that you need a place to set up shop and hold out till you can find a way to get out or be rescued.  It was once said that if you were lost, build a house. Then you are not lost, you are home.  I have seen many tv shows that seem to think water and food are more important than shelter but what happens when you spend all day looking for water & food and find nothing. Now it’s getting dark and you are scrambling to not sleep exposed naked to the element’s the predators.

 After we protect our self’s then we can move to water then food. We all have to watch out for predators and the best way to do that is to have a fortified area to fall back to. When you see the army move in they start with HQ or a base of operations, why should we be any different? Obviously the shelter must be made to suit the environment you are in. If it’s hot you need to stay cool, if it’s cool you need to stay warm. Insects are often an issue.  One thing to remember is that shelter does not mean a 4 bed room house if it’s small that is fine now if you have time or you plan to be there for a prolonged period of time you might make it smaller or larger based on what your Plans, environment, resources and personal survival style.

Now I want to give a couple of ideas about how to make the shelter. You will make it out of whatever is available but be sure to make it tight no holes. If you have to build it quick that’s fine but if it rains and water gets in you are going to be very unhappy a basic basket weave pattern should work fine if you have mud or clay you can use these to seal any openings or you could use a combination of ash and pine sap or any sap for that matter.