What If?

[Encycloatom]

The recent thread "What good is a big bad knife" go me thinking.
How prepared are we really? We spend all this money on different gadgets for various reasons, every thing from The "necessary" to the "just to make it easier". Most emergency/survival situations are going to happen when we least expect it, this means you won't be prepared for the events that transpire. I don't mean that mentally you wont be equiped, but that you may not have what you have trained and learned to use. On Ron's web page I noticed that he stresses the need for creativity and improvisation. I believe that this is the true key to survival in any situation. What keeps you alive is your creativness under stress, supplemented by the equipment you are carrying. I dont mean this as a bashing but rather to get the brain juces flowing. Lets see what we can come up with to supplememt what we carry in our survival kits.

 

[tknife]

This is why it's important to practice the skills regularly. It is also very helpful to take survival courses, and practice with others. Books and videos will show you how, then you take it to the dirt and try out the skills. I have found that seeing it done and doing it yourself are two VERY different things! Get out there and look around. Ask yourself what the useful plants are, look for animal tracks, where would you build a shelter, where is a water source? All these can be done on day hikes, and get your mind working.

 

[Brian Jones]

You're right on the money. The key to survival is knowledge and practice: making something from nothing, for use in attaining your survival goals. Tools are shortcuts to help, but without the knowledge of what to do, and when, no tool will help you.

Many backpackers and hunters have been found dead of exposure in the woods with packs of dry matches in their pockets, lying next to their loaded gun, knife, and axe. They died from not knowing, rather than not having.

Good post!

Best,

Brian.

 

[Josh Wilson]

Remember that game you played when you were a kid on a road trip with your parents. Where you found a license plate from every state or you worked through the alphabet using letters off of road signs.

Now go for a walk in the woods (or anywere for that matter) and make an effort to find useful items (for example find as many different kinds of fire starter as you can. If your not sure it will work, take it back to camp and try it). It may seem a little childish but after a while you will become more observent and it will give the ol' brain a little exercise.

There are other varriations of this 'game'. For example, make a trap with the stuff in you briefcase, or find a source for water in you back yard (dont cheat and use the hose ).

 

[Sender]

Now go for a walk in the woods (or anywere for that matter) and make an effort to find useful items (for example find as many different kinds of fire starter as you can. If your not sure it will work, take it back to camp and try it). It may seem a little childish but after a while you will become more observent and it will give the ol' brain a little exercise.

That's exactly what I've been teaching my sons to do I let my oldest have his way one time when he thought he had gathered 'enough' tinder. Now he looks for it on all out hikes.


For a great book on survival improv, try Steve Callahan's Adrift