Good Skills To Know

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Vivi

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I'm looking for suggestions here. Thanks to these forums, I've gotten interested in learning survival skill types of things. I've got firemaking down fairly good, just working on all the oldschool methods (Friction, bow and such). I've taken a liking to whittling, which is useful for making wood shavings, fuzz-sticks, spears and whatever else you need to fashion out of some wood. I've been playing around with making my own bows, though I haven't made much progress there. I'd really like to learn more about hunting, but I figure a local organization might be better than me just going out and trying to club squirrels and rabbits with sticks and rocks. Give me more information at least.

What are some things I could be learning / practicing right now though? Rainy summer in Ohio on a very restrictive budget and not exactly much wilderness in walking distance (In the middle of suburbia =/ ). I've been doing a little work with making shelters and was considering traps, but I don't know how to clean and consume game. Looking at online material it seems I'd take the kill, split it's hide from groin area up towards the neck, peel off the hide and start getting the meat seperated and ready to cook. I don't know, just throw out any ideas you have for me.

EDIT: I know one thing in particular that I was curious about was how to avoid bugs, mainly mosquitos. I generally just wear pants and bring a long sleeve shirt with me, but they swarm my face and neck, sometimes getting up in my nose and trying to get in my ears. I don't like bug spray and I'm trying to learn skills to combat these things, not use a product to get myself out of it. Something I could apply if I was without bug spray, you know?
 
The classic response to 'skeeters is the "smudge" - smoke.

Also, breeze keeps them away.
Dark clothing seems to sttract them.

Don't camp next to a swamp.


Signaling: You can practice signaling with a mirror at the park. Learning the international ground/air signals is book work.

Fire: use of the magnifying glass, fire steel ("metal match"), and flint and steel can all be practiced "in the city."

Improvising is a way of looking "outside the box." See what you can find in the gutter that could be mad einto a cutting tool.
 
Interesting skinning method. I think I could do that part well enough. After that, is there anything special to be done to the meat, or just seperate it and cook it?

Linton: Unfortunately the biggest wooded area near my house is swampy as hell. The only other places in walking distance are local parks, so that swampy area is my only place to go and be alone to practice these things without driving somewhere. I've been trying to keep from sweating, as well as covering up as much skin as possible. That and keep food odors off me too.

I plan to buy a firesteel soon, I've been wanting to for a while. Are there natural rocks and materials I could look for in Ohio that would also produce spark?

My minimal / natural materials nature has made me think about knives and how I'd go about fashioning one from earthly materials. Got me to wondering how hard a makeshift forge would be to create, and where I'd get the steel in the first place.

Thanks for the ideas. Keep em comin.
 
The time to learn to clean and cook game is BEFORE you go hunting or trapping. Buy a cornish game hen at the grocery store and thaw it, then look at how it was prepared, cook over a fire in your backyard (a bbq grill if neighbors don't like a small campfire). You can always buy a domestic raised meat rabbit to butcher for practice at home. Cook it on a spit on a backyard campfire. It really is not as daunting as it seems once you have tried it. I was eating fresh rabbit and squirrel, dove, fish and other small game in the field on solo outings by the time I was eight. Just remember to keep it clean and cook it soon. And fur and feathers taste bad, so keep them off the meat! Same for the viscera (guts). When you are skinning, don't puncture the abdominal cavity until the hide is off.

In most areas there are natural plants you can rub on as an insect repellant. Here I use members of the mint family, or sassafrass.

Codger
 
Vivi said:
I'm looking for suggestions here. Thanks to these forums, I've gotten interested in learning survival skill types of things. Give me more information at least.

What are some things I could be learning / practicing right now though? Rainy summer in Ohio on a very restrictive budget and not exactly much wilderness in walking distance (In the middle of suburbia =/ ). . I don't know, just throw out any ideas you have for me.

EDIT: I know one thing in particular that I was curious about was how to avoid bugs, mainly mosquitos. I generally just wear pants and bring a long sleeve shirt with me, but they swarm my face and neck, sometimes getting up in my nose and trying to get in my ears. I don't like bug spray and I'm trying to learn skills to combat these things, not use a product to get myself out of it. Something I could apply if I was without bug spray, you know?
Click to expand...

Cordage making is a very important skill - cordage is used for tying shelters together, making bow strings, making slings, making traps and snares, making nets.......etc., etc., etc. You can learn cordage making without even gathering native materials such as Indian Hemp, Milkweed, etc., by using any kind of fibre. You can even cut paper towels, plastic bags, etc., into strips and 'cord' them. Then, when you have access to native materials, you will have the technique mastered.

Basket making, containers are very important in a survival situation, and it doesn't have to be wicker style baskets - bark baskets are very fast to make.

Learn primitive navigation techniques. Books and such available on line and at the local library.

Learn how to make and use primitive weapons - throwing sticks, slings, atlatls.

I mentioned cordage earlier - a companion skill is netmaking. Netting techniques are a very material efficient way to make bags, belts, straps, etc., not to mention fish, critter and bird traps.

This should keep you busy for awhile. :) You also asked about avoiding bugs - someone mentioned a smudge. Some materials that can be used as smudges are smouldering Cattail flower heads, smoulder fungus, true and false. Another thing that can be effective - if you're body is pretty well protected but they are getting in around your face, and maybe you're portaging a canoe or something, a leafy branch stuck under your hat and extending in front of your face. The bouncing leaves can keep them away from you. I know this sounds funny, but it works.

Anyway, let us know how you get on.

Doc
 
Or, (for the bugs), try a portable smudge... A cigar or pipe. And if you don't like the smell of straight tobacco, some aromatic blends smell out of this world. If you wanted to avoid drawing the smoke into your mouth, you could just puff out through the cigar. Probably wouldn't work so well with a pipe though, lol.

Just a thought.

Pine needles smell good smouldering also. But don't burn dried mountain mint, it smells like Cheech and Chong's van...

Take care.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I wasn't too keen on killing animals and wasting the meat trying to learn how to cook them, so I'd feel better about doing it on things that are already dead. Also, I can make campfires in my backyard, that's not a problem. Not too keen on tobacco, only things I smoke are smoked in small amounts. I'll try the dangling leaves idea, does sound pretty funny. I think I'll be going to the library tomorrow. :)
 
I don't know your location, but you might burn a twist of sage and sweetgrass. Quite soothing and make a very good smudge for insects. As far as cooking, heck, start with a fish from the store! You can buy them whole,scaled and cleaned!

Codger
 
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Learn how to make and use primitive weapons - throwing sticks, slings, atlatls.
Click to expand...

Do you have any links for any of these? The only thing I could find on slings was a complicated braiding method to make it, and the atlatl making instructions were very vague, a site with pictures and step by step instructions would be nice. What is a throwing stick?

I spend a lot of time at work sitting around with nothing to do, I've been learning to throw knives by throwing my cheap folder into a foam block that washed up, and I'd like to practice with some primitive weapons if I can figure out how to make them.
 
Vivi said:
Are there natural rocks and materials I could look for in Ohio that would also produce spark?
Click to expand...

Not sure about Ohio, but in Illinois it was fairly easy to find pieces chert, which is a flint-like stone. I think it's often associated with limestone, but I may be off on that. I would usually see them among the stones on a gravelled road. Sort of pale grey or tan, the identifying mark is that it breaks in a choincodal (sp?) pattern, like glass. Struck against a steel (as in the old flint and steel method), it will produce sparks that can be caught in charred cloth, etc.
 
saturnine138 said:
Do you have any links for any of these? The only thing I could find on slings was a complicated braiding method to make it, and the atlatl making instructions were very vague, a site with pictures and step by step instructions would be nice. What is a throwing stick?

I spend a lot of time at work sitting around with nothing to do, I've been learning to throw knives by throwing my cheap folder into a foam block that washed up, and I'd like to practice with some primitive weapons if I can figure out how to make them.
Click to expand...

As far as links go, here's a couple to get you started:

http://www.primitiveways.com/#anchor687262

http://www.slinging.org/links.html

http://www.pipeline.com/~jburdine/

http://www.aircav.com/survival/asch12/asch12p03.html

From akabu's post: http://p081.ezboard.com/bpaleoplanet69529 There is a ton of atlatl information here. There is one whole forum dedicated to just the atlatl.

A throwing stick is just like it sounds, a stick you throw. There are, however, modifications to make them fly better. There are a ton of sites out there that can be found by Google et al.

Vivi mentioned a very restricted budget, something I am all too aware of. That's the beauty of primitive skills - everything can be made from nature's gifts, or you can cheat a little bit:
Coyossling2.jpg

A picture of a sling I made from dollar store jute (maybe 30 cents worth of material there.)

Hope that helps,

Doc
 
Thanks for all the links. Really, I'd have it no other way when it comes to my budget. I see it as more motivation to follow my natural inclination to use as much natural, foragable materials as I can. I have no problems practicing netting skills with store bought rope, but all these skills I learn I want to be able to apply to the "Entering the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on my back" scenario. If I have to rely on a store-bought product, that is no good to me. I'm sure others here can understand my feelings. :D
 
Vivi said:
I know one thing in particular that I was curious about was how to avoid bugs, mainly mosquitos. I generally just wear pants and bring a long sleeve shirt with me, but they swarm my face and neck, sometimes getting up in my nose and trying to get in my ears. I don't like bug spray and I'm trying to learn skills to combat these things, not use a product to get myself out of it. Something I could apply if I was without bug spray, you know?
Click to expand...

One option, employed by many animals, is to coat your skin with mud. Of course if you walk around covered in mud, folks might think you've gone a little too primitive!! :rolleyes:

A diet high in raw garlic does seem to help. Eating several cloves a day (raw, uncooked) will eventually enable you to smell unpleasant to mosquitoes. It's also healthy. It's not a hundred-percent method, but it will help help to ward them off. Also, reducing the amount of meat you eat will help to make you smell less attractive to mosquitoes.

From Wiki:

Mosquito repellents generally contain one of the following active ingredients: DEET, Catnip oil extract, nepetalactone, citronella, or eucalyptus oil extract. Often the best "repellent" is a fan or gentle breeze as mosquitoes do not like moving air.

Other popular methods of household mosquito control include use of small electrical mats, mosquito repellent vapour, and mosquito coil, all containing a form of the chemical allethrin. Mosquito repellent candles containing Citronella oil is another method to keep mosquitoes at bay. Some lesser known methods use the cultivation of plants like wormwood or sagewort, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon thyme and the mosquito plant (Pelargonium) which act against mosquitoes. However scientists have determined that these plants are effective only when the leaves are crushed and used.

There are several widespread theories about mosquito control such as the assertion that Vitamin B, in particular B1 Thiamine, garlic, ultrasonic devices, incense, bats, purple martins and bug zappers can be used to repel or control mosquitoes

I once met a Canadian that lived way out in the woods who recommended the most simple method of dealing with mosquitoes - don't kill the mosquito and don't scratch the bite. I tried his method on a camping trip in northern Minnesota where the swarms were just too much to ward off and it worked. It takes a bit of mental resolve but just letting the mosquitoes bite and not bothering them actually works. You don't get an itchy bump.
 
Mosquitos and biting insects don't like citrus, because of that if you eat oranges it helps ward off these biting bugs. They also say to avoid eatting bananas. I tried that and it seems to help. But like anything, it has limits and I never go anywhere without a can of deet based bug spray. Muskol seems to work the best.
 
If I recall correctly, mosquitos actually hunt by smelling carbon dioxide... and that most diet changes (bananas, oranges, etc.) are more placebo than anything, as they don't mask the smell.

I've also heard that bananas are the way to go, but in terms of efficiency, nothing beats a topical repellent. It's faster, cheaper, and easier among any internal method.

By topical repellent, this does include everything from DEET, to mud, to wild onion, etc., applied to the skin.
 
Hey Vivi....


Vivi said:
I plan to buy a firesteel soon, I've been wanting to for a while. Are there natural rocks and materials I could look for in Ohio that would also produce spark?
Click to expand...

If you are looking for a good firesteel,, have a look here

www.magfireusa.com

Get the Magfire Pro. It's what I use...

As far as what to look for to produce spark ??

Get an old file, and start picking up rocks..
Most any rock struck with a file will produce sparks..

In Ohio you should also be able to find Chert <SP?>
This can be Very useful for a number of things...

ttyle

Eric...

ttyle

Eric.
 
akennedy73 said:
Citronella oil is another method to keep mosquitoes at bay.

I once met a Canadian that lived way out in the woods who recommended the most simple method of dealing with mosquitoes - don't kill the mosquito and don't scratch the bite. I tried his method on a camping trip in northern Minnesota where the swarms were just too much to ward off and it worked. It takes a bit of mental resolve but just letting the mosquitoes bite and not bothering them actually works. You don't get an itchy bump.
Click to expand...

I read something lately that citronella can attract bears. Not applicable if bears not in your area.

As far as the 'let them bite you, and after awhile they won't bother you' method, it does work. I used to do it years ago, but that was before West Nile Virus. According to a research entomologist ,years ago,(IIRC) you go through 4 stages in your relationship with mosquitoes. The first few times in your life, you were bit, there was no reaction - no swelling, no itching. The next few thousand times, you'd get bit, you'd itch for 15 minutes or so, then it would go away till the next day and then you'd itch like crazy. The 3rd stage is that you'd get bit, you'd itch for 15 minutes or so, and that would be it. The 4th and final stage, you'd get bit and no reaction. What he neglected to say, is that you have to go through stages 2-4 anew every season.

Doc
 
For what it's worth, I've always had much better luck with an improvised bow and arrows than with an improvised atlatl and atlatl darts/javelins--and I have had a fair bit of practice with both, and have made a few of each, from different materials. I do find atlatls interesting, and to the above-referenced internet resources on them, I'd add Larry Dean Olsen's book _Outdoor Survival Skills_, which has some good instruction on how to make not only atlatls but bows, arrows, throwing sticks, digging sticks, how to tan hides, how to carry coals so as to preserve fire on a trip, etc., etc.--lots of aboriginal-living-level survival stuff.

To me, the dispositive thing in the atlatl-versus-bow-and-arrow matter is that, at least in my limited knowledge, when people have had the chance to use either atlatls or bows and arrows, they seem to choose the latter. I could be wrong, but my suspicion is that the bow and arrow is much simpler to make work with less practice, and, with lots of practice, to get extremely good at making and using, than the atlatl.

I'm open to correction or additional ideas on this subject--but that's my two cents.
 
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