If your in a wilderness survival situation, keep in mind that everything in the world needs water. So if you come across a creek, stream, pool of water, pond, lake or river, chances are your gonna be able to find some kind of food source.
immature muscadine grape
A couple of days ago my kids and I (Kevin) went on a fishing trip on local creek. While we were there I noticed some Muscadine grapes hanging over the creek. Its been awhile since I have seen these grapes – I see the vines all the time but you have to catch the grapes at just the right time of year. When the grapes are ready to eat they will turn a bright purple color.
When the grape is a bright green colors, its no ready to eat and will have an unpleasant bitter taste to eat. As the grape turns a purple color, the bitterness will slowly go away. So if the grape is mostly purple and a little green, the bitter taste will not be too bad. But its best to eat the grapes when they are a deep purple color.
Warning about eating food you find in the wilderness: Unless you are 100% sure what it is – DO NOT EAT IT! There is no need in risking your health or even your life on eating something. Some plants are poisonous and can make you very sick. So ff there is any doubt of what it is – DO NOT EAT IT! Its not worth it.
The only reason why I ate the grapes in the video, is because I was raised in the area and have known what Muscadine grapes are since I was a child.
From the very first moment I handled the versipack I was impressed. Its the attention to detail that makes this a quality product. Its as if no short cuts were taken and some real thought was put into the design of the pack. Its the simple things such as YKK zippers, triple polyurethane coated for water resistance, internal seams taped and finished, paracord zipper pulls, double stitched Stress points – all of these add up to make a high quality product.
In the following video I have 2 – 1 quart military canteens attached to the pack. I found out later that the attachment points are designed for MOLLE equipment and not ALICE clips. But that is ok, the ALICE gear still attaches just fine, its just a little tight.
With the canteens on the pack, its gets a little heavy. This makes the waist belt a little difficult to adjust. So what I did, I had someone stand behind me, pick the pack up with the built in grab handle, then adjust the belt. To do this by yourself, just back up against a tree and let it hold the pack in place when you adjust the belt. Without the canteens it would not have been any big deal.
Over the past couple of decades there has been a disturbing trend that is becoming more and more visible. And that is families that are not able to prepare for a disaster. Its not because they do not want to, its because most people can not afford to purchase the basic essentials.
In the 1970s, 1980s and even into the 1990s most families could scrap by on one income. Starting in the 1990s – and the introduction of massive free trade – million of US jobs have been shipped overseas in favor of cheap labor. Unemployment has gone up, cost of housing, fuel and everything else has gone up. despite promises that free trade would drive prices down (that was a lie). So what can a family do?
This should be a pretty simple question, even for a 5 year old. This picture and the video was filmed on a rock flat where the overflow from a stream goes. Meaning, when the stream overflows, the water runs over this rock flat. When the water recedes there are these pools of water.
Inside one of these pools of water are some things that were swimming around. They were about 1/2 inch long, had a head and a tail. For the most part they were just sitting still, but when I moved around, they started swimming. Maybe I scared them?
To help out, here is some geographical information.
Location: East Texas
Date: July 18, 2009
What are the things in the water, what can you do with them, are they edible,,, just post whatever you want in the forums.
Sometime around 1994 or 1995 a couple of my buddies and I went on a camping trip in the bayous of Orangefield, which is just north or Bridge City, Texas. It was like any of the other dozens of trips we had been on, expect for the amount of snakes we saw on that trip.
We pulled the 14 foot aluminum boat up to the bank. The first guy stepped out, walked about 15 feet, and stepped over an armadillo hole. Sticking out of the hole was the tail of a rather large water moccasin. That was the first snake we had to deal with.
That evening, after the sun had gone down, we decided to go walking around the woods just outside the camp site. The three of us came up to a slew – which was like a mud flat. As we moved the beam of the flashlights across the bank and the mud, my buddies and I could see the water moccasins coiled up waiting on frogs. It was a rather eerie sight to say the least.
How do I prepare for a plague? That question has been on a lot of peoples minds over the past few years. With the recent release of the swine flu, and the past talk of the bird flu people seem to be getting a little more serious about plague survival.
Because there is more and more discussion on the topic, I thought its about time to share with everyone what I am doing to prepare for a plague.
Knowledge – the first thing to do is understand the effects that plagues have a society. And this is done by reading history books, and several of them. Through past examples we can learn the mistakes of our forefathers. What worked, what didn’t and what caused tens of thousands of people to die in a matter of months.
One of the books that has been added to my library is The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death by John Kelly. This book gives a true and histrionically accurate of the Black Death written by the people that saw it first hand. Some of the accounts, such as entire towns and communities dying off are almost unbelievable. Its reads more like a science fiction book then a real life – first person account – of what happened during the plagues that killed millions.
Overall this was an enjoyable book. In some parts of the book, I would have never thought that humanity would have sank so low. But when multiple accounts were recorded of thousands of people dying every day, stories of graveyards filling up, stories of thousands of people starving to death, what can you really say about it?
We can say that we will learn by their examples and not repeat the same mistakes.
The question is, how do you find water in the wilderness? In the following video example there is a dried up creek bed with evidence that water had been there – such as small pools and discolored sand.
The video was taken in East Texas, just north of Jasper. Over the past month the lack of rain fall has pushed the area into drought conditions. Creeks and streams that normally flow all year long have dried up. Hikers and campers that were depending on those creeks as a water source are going to be sorely surprised to find them dried up.
Post your comments in the finding water in dried up creek beds thread of the survivalist forum.
Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are serious conditions that should not be taken lightly. When you or a member of your party starts showing signs of being over heated, take action at once. The solution is to get the person cooled off, but when its 100 degrees in the shade, and 105 – 110 in direct sunlight, and your 5 miles away from the nearest house – what do you do?
This past Saturday (July 11), my wife dropped my son, my nephew and I of at the usual hiking location. We start 4.5 miles – in a straight line from our destination and then hike back to the camp. On average its more like an 8 mile hike.
The trip started out as usual, we went to the bottom of a hill, turned right and followed a creek. From the very start I knew that this was going to be a rough trip – because the creek was dry. This stream usually has water in it year round. But the serious lack of rain fall in east texas has pushed us into drought conditions.
The first swimming hole the kids and I came to was 2 feet below normal. The water was not even flowing and the small water fall had dried up.
From the time we left that water hole, it was about 4 hours before we found running water that we could filter. By that time we were all on the verge of heat exhaustion. The creeks were either dry, or the water was a brown stagnated color.
Heat exhaustion had set in and I felt that I was about to go into heat stroke. Confusion had set set in, the first drink of water I took was vomited back up within seconds. To cool down I stripped down to my underwear and jumped into the swimming hole with the kids. About 45 minutes later I was finally able to eat a little something and keep water down.
Water, water everywhere and nar a drop to drink – is a classic statement from the rhyme of the ancient mariner. But in the case of urban survival, there is no water and there is nothing to drink.
Most urbanites depend on water supplied by the city – through the cities water system. However, this is also a weak point in disaster planning. Most cities and towns have prohibited their citizens from digging private wells. If that is the case in your area, its time to get the laws changed. Not being able to have your own water supply makes you and your family a slave to city. Free people do not ask permission to use something that is on their own property – or in the case of ground water, under their property. Slaves ask permission, freemen use what is theirs as they see fit.
Depending on the area where you live, that will define how deep the well has to be. If you are planning on installing a water pump, go ahead and set it up for an electric water pump as well as a hand powered pump. This would include a housing for the pump to go in, ground rod and maybe electrical wiring.
Instead of a hand powered pump, a solar powered unit could be installed and the solar cells could be placed on top of the pump house. But in this article, we will just be discussing hand powered pumps.
While planning for a disaster, an important consideration should be to write your plans down, make copies and then send those copies to your friends and family members. The plans should include destination during the evacuations, contact phone number, routes you plan on taking during the evacuation and backup phone numbers – plus your usual stuff.
Destinations: This is your predefined “bug out location”. If you have to evacuate, where are you going? This should be planned out ahead of time, driven, and this information shared with your friends and family members.
Contact phone numbers: Pick a family member or friend that is several hundred miles from your location. Contact them and see if they will agree to be the messenger service. Before, during and after a disaster there is a good chance that phone lines will be overloaded. Use someone outside the area to relay messages between the affected parties.
