Urbancraft Part II - Situational Awareness & Gathering Materials

i think its pretty cool that you are doing all this stuff, i think a lot of people(myself being one) dont realize that if a survival situation were to occur the majority of us live in cities and would not get the opportunity to leave to the woods
 
Calebklyne said:
i think its pretty cool that you are doing all this stuff, i think a lot of people(myself being one) dont realize that if a survival situation were to occur the majority of us live in cities and would not get the opportunity to leave to the woods
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Thanks man.

Even if you do...you may still have things that need doing in the city first...I don't know about everyone else, but my family is only all in one spot in the late evenings and at night...and with a teenage daughter...not always then.
 
I dig the hell right out of these things, MW.

I recently started walking about (when I get time!) and just eyeballing in general, playing a mental game, figuring out three uses for any object I look at.

Anymore I hardly see trash, it kind of all starts to become "tools of opportunity". After awhile you start to size up everything you look at and it becomes second nature.

The wife just won't let me bring it home to experiment!
 
KEmSAT-Survival said:
I dig the hell right out of these things, MW.

I recently started walking about (when I get time!) and just eyeballing in general, playing a mental game, figuring out three uses for any object I look at.

Anymore I hardly see trash, it kind of all starts to become "tools of opportunity". After awhile you start to size up everything you look at and it becomes second nature.

The wife just won't let me bring it home to experiment!
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Thanks KS, it happens over time when you actually pay attention to your environment...which is really hard to do from a vehicle, especially if you're driving. 12 years ago after an accident

I'm lucky, a lot of my stuff comes from my construction projects, that roll up door for instance was going to go in a dumpster after i took it down, so for the most part Lisa doesn't know the difference between what I salvage from work and the few random items I pick up here and there. Besides, we have an understanding...I don't interfere with her studies as long as it doesn't cause me any problems personally and she does the same for me.
 
One of the cabins I built when I was homeless was constructed from discarded shipping pallets. Put together with rebar tie wire and nails. Wrapped and roofed with concrete curing blankets (discarded and taken with permission). Insulated with scraps of foam insulation from a couple construction sites. I heated it with a WWII tent heater stove that I was given by someone who read about me in the newspaper. Everything except the hammer used to drive the nails was free or discarded.
 
wildmike said:
One of the cabins I built when I was homeless was constructed from discarded shipping pallets. Put together with rebar tie wire and nails. Wrapped and roofed with concrete curing blankets (discarded and taken with permission). Insulated with scraps of foam insulation from a couple construction sites. I heated it with a WWII tent heater stove that I was given by someone who read about me in the newspaper. Everything except the hammer used to drive the nails was free or discarded.
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I sometimes wonder how much easier some things might be if something similar happened to me now as an adult. Being a minor a thousand miles from "home" and trying to avoid landing in an orphanage made things really interesting the last time. At least now I could actually apply for jobs and ask for assistance instead of finding under-the-table work and always having to run from the cops and dealing with the predators. Man, that was a long four years.
 
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Yeah Mistwalker I was lucky. I had become hooked on wilderness survival when I was 11 years old. Did my first solo's when I was 13. Then BSA and the USMC. So when I wound up with the bottom dropping out I had some very well developed skills to fall back on. My eyes and hands were already trained ya might say.

Still it was a very difficult period. Especialy dealing with the camp thieves and dopped up idiots who would attempt to assault me etc. One problem is how time compresses, years fly by and you don't notice. Makes it hard for me to determine if it was 5 or 6 years. Either way it was long enough.
 
wildmike said:
Yeah Mistwalker I was lucky. I had become hooked on wilderness survival when I was 11 years old. Did my first solo's when I was 13. Then BSA and the USMC. So when I wound up with the bottom dropping out I had some very well developed skills to fall back on. My eyes and hands were already trained ya might say.

Still it was a very difficult period. Especialy dealing with the camp thieves and dopped up idiots who would attempt to assault me etc. One problem is how time compresses, years fly by and you don't notice. Makes it hard for me to determine if it was 5 or 6 years. Either way it was long enough.
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Yeah, time does compress and just fly by doesn't it...I fell into it so deep that I was nearly 19 and had been and had been an adult for almost eight months before I realized I had completely different options and got the hell out of there.
 
Thanks for these threads Mist, I appreciate all the time and effort you put into em, they certainly make for some good reading, and I don't feel like I'm just "wasting time" on the internet:P


Thanks for your posts as well wildmike. As unfortunate as your situation was, it's cool and educational to read from someone who has some first hand insight(both you and Mist) into the topic.
 
Nice thread, but isn't your In general people don't deal well with the "out-of-the-ordinary". really just THEIR "situational awareness"??
 
I think one of the greatest advantages of survival and preparedness training is that you get used to thinking in unconventional ways, looking at problems and challenges from different angles and are thus more flexible and open mentaly to finding unorthodox solutions. Everyday life and living even conventional education produce a channelized thought pattern which it is hard to break out of. Then in the case of an emergency that inflexibility combined with the emotional shock of displacement etc. floors most folks.

The more an individual trains themselves to look for unusual solutions and opportunities; the more improvisation minded they are. The more self sufficient and independent they become. Easily 90% of preparedness is mental not physical. But the lack of that 10% can kill ya.
 
Excellent threads, there great information and eye openers. Please keep the great info coming.
 
wildmike said:
I think one of the greatest advantages of survival and preparedness training is that you get used to thinking in unconventional ways, looking at problems and challenges from different angles and are thus more flexible and open mentaly to finding unorthodox solutions. Everyday life and living even conventional education produce a channelized thought pattern which it is hard to break out of. Then in the case of an emergency that inflexibility combined with the emotional shock of displacement etc. floors most folks.

The more an individual trains themselves to look for unusual solutions and opportunities; the more improvisation minded they are. The more self sufficient and independent they become. Easily 90% of preparedness is mental not physical. But the lack of that 10% can kill ya.
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We tend to get conditioned to our environments and used to things being a certain way. The longer one is in one specific environment the deeper the conditioning, and the bigger the shock of sudden changes. I still remember how much of a shock it was for me just walking through the streets of St. Louis the first night. Seeing all the eyes peering out at me from doorways and alleys and then the sudden realization of what would happen if I went to the authorities for help. Training, experimenting, and even just observing that which is outside our normal environments helps to condition the mind to think outside its usual box...gives you mental tools to help adapt and overcome which is required in any survival situation no matter what the environment is.


thwolf said:
Excellent threads, there great information and eye openers. Please keep the great info coming.
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Thanks man, glad you like them.
 
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