preparedness

7 Bushcraft Skills You Must Have To Survive In The Wild

Going into the wild with only the clothes on your back and surviving for any extended period of time is not nearly as easy as Hollywood makes it out to be. In fact, it is extraordinarily difficult, and most people would die from exposure to the elements, dehydration, or any number of other causes in a matter of days.

Just because surviving in the wild is extremely difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible – you just have to have the right skills. Below, we’ll cover seven bushcraft skills that are absolutely necessary if you want to survive in the wild. These are skills that can help you survive in the wilderness and a wide range of other scenarios.

1. Starting a Fire

Getting fire going is quite easy – so long as you have the right tools and the right conditions. Without any type of fire starter such as a lighter, though, starting a fire is very difficult. Likewise, if it’s raining or your wood is all damp, getting a fire started can be difficult, even if you do have a tool to start it with.

Using friction to create heat and start a fire is possible, but it’s not nearly as easy as the highly edited clips on survival shows make it look. If you want to be able to reliably get a fire going without any supplies, you’ll need to know how to fashion a bow drill out of sticks, and you’ll need to practice using it – a lot.

Even with tons of practice, starting a fire with a bow drill isn’t going to be easy, especially if the conditions are less than ideal. However, since fire is such a necessity for survival in the wild, you should know how to start one using the bare minimum number of tools. If you can reliably start a fire with a bow drill, starting one with a flint striker, lighter, or anything else you might have available will be no problem.

To learn how to start a fire using a bow drill, check out this video.

2. Navigation

By far the most common scenario where you might be forced to survive in the wild is getting lost in the wilderness. Therefore, one of the best wilderness survival skills that you can have is knowing how to find your way out.

Of course, having advanced knowledge of the area as well as tools such as maps, a compass, or even a GPS is ideal. But what if you don’t have these things? If you somehow end up in the woods with no idea of where you are and no tools for navigation, you’ll have to rely on much more primitive navigation techniques.

You can use celestial bodies such as the sun and north star to orient yourself without a compass and figure out the direction you are heading. If you aren’t sure which direction you need to be heading, though, your best bet is to head downhill until you find a creek or river and follow it.

If you aren’t lucky enough to find a river, you’ll need to know how to spot and follow game trails, since these trails will likely lead to a river if there’s one around.

Learn how to use navigation tools such as a compass and learn how to navigate without them as well so you’ll be able to find your way out of the wilderness no matter what knowledge of the area or tools you have available.

For more information on navigating without any tools, check out this article.

Wilderness Navigation

3. Shelter Building

Exposure to the elements can kill you just as quickly as anything else in the wilderness – whether it’s wind and rain that causes hypothermia or blistering sunshine and heat that causes a heatstroke.

Human beings just weren’t made to live outside of shelters, and if you want to survive in the wilderness, you’ll need to know how to build one. Depending on where you are located and the materials you have available, building a shelter may take a number of different forms.

If you’re in the frozen tundra, an igloo might be your best bet. In the woods, you’ll want to build a makeshift lean-to out of tree limbs, and in the desert, your best shelter is probably going to be one you find rather than one you build such as a cave or an animal burrow that you widen out.

Whatever the situation demands, though, you’ll certainly want to know how to build a shelter that can protect you from the elements if you hope to survive for an extended period of time.

To learn how to build nine different types of survival shelters, check out this article.

Bushcraft Shelter

4. Finding Edible Plants

It may sound counterintuitive, but food typically isn’t the first concern for someone trying to survive in the wilderness. Most people can survive about three weeks without food, but you’ll only be able to survive a few days without water and even less time than that without fire and/or shelter if the conditions are too extreme.

With all of that said, food is still incredibly important for one huge reason: energy. You may be able to go three weeks without food before you die from starvation, but just a few days without food will likely leave you too weak perform any of the other tasks necessary for your survival.

To find food in the wilderness, one of the best skills you can have is the ability to identify edible plants. There may be quite a few edible plants available depending on where you are located, but since many plants are poisonous and many others offer no nutritional value, it is essential that you have an in-depth knowledge of the plants in your area if you hope to survive off of them in the wilderness.

For a list of eleven different edible plants that can be commonly found in wildernesses across the United States, check out this article.

Wild Cattails

5. Fishing

Aside from finding edible plants and perhaps edible bugs such as grasshoppers, the only other realistic shot you’ll have at getting food in the wilderness is fishing. Hunting for even small game is just too difficult without any type of projectile weapon.

Trapping game is a possibility if you are able to find a well-used game trail and can place a covered pit in the middle of it. Even if you do find a game trail, though, trapping is a matter of luck and will take quite a bit of time and effort. Without a game trail and without any kind of bait, you’ll just be wasting your energy.

If you find a water source, though, fishing is much more doable. There are several methods you can use to catch fish without any gear or supplies, and you’ll want to be adept at all of them since the best one to use will depend on where you are and the type of fish you are going after.

If the water is shallow and the fish are abundant, you can spearfish using a stick that you carve to a point. For less shallow or less abundant waters, craft a makeshift fishing line using whatever you have available such as paracord or even fabric from your clothing, as well as a makeshift hook using a bit of wire, a piece of bone, or whatever you can construct into a J shape and sharpen to a point.

Once you have these two things, you can use insects as bait and tie your lines to trees and bushes near the water. Or, if you have the time, you can make a pole out of a tree limb and use it to fish with in order to decrease the chances of a fish getting loose before you have a chance to check your lines.

To learn more about fishing for survival without any gear or supplies, check out this article.

Salmon Jumping Waterfall

6. Finding and Purifying Water

This is one of the most important skills. You can only survive a few days without water, and possibly less if it’s hot outside and you’re sweating a lot of you hike your way through the wilderness or work hard building fires and shelters.

The trouble you have finding water will depend a lot on the climate. If you’re in the desert, water will be very hard to find, but not impossible. In other places, you might have trouble taking two steps without getting your feet wet.

Even if you do find water, you have to be careful to purify it before you drink it. Contaminated water could make you sick, causing you to become even more dehydrated. If you have a fire and a metal container, you can boil it. You could also try distillation, sedimentation, solar stills, evaporation traps, and a number of other methods.

To learn how to find water in the wilderness, check out this article. To learn how to purify water in the wilderness, check out this article.

Wilderness Waterfall

7. First Aid

If you’re trying to survive in the wilderness, it’s a matter of “when” you get injured, not “if”. Minor cuts and bruises are guaranteed, while more serious injuries such as sprains or even broken bones are concerningly likely. You’ll need to know how to properly treat each one in a makeshift manner using the supplies you have available if you want to keep these injuries from holding you back or potentially even killing you.

This entails knowing things such as how to craft a splint using tree limbs, how to make a tourniquet out of your belt or clothing, how to bandage a wound using strips of clothing, and more.

For more information on the various wilderness first aid skills that you will want to learn, check out this article.

This article first appeared on urbansurvivalsite.com See it here

preparedness

4 No Cook Meals For Surviving The Pandemic And Food Supply Shortages

When it comes to your food supply, you just can’t risk not having enough. These no cook meals will be a great addition to your food supply planning. Check out the recipes below!

No Cook Meals to Help You Through the Pandemic

As of the writing of this article, there are 20 meat processing plants that have been shut down due to COVID-19 infections. We have been worrying about these types of effects on our food supply for months now, and this is the first real sign of how infections can affect the food supply.

When you walk into a supermarket, you might not see all the choices you had in the past. An empty meat case is a humbling thing for your eyes to fall upon. It’s the shocking realization that the seemingly infinite supply of chickens, pigs, and cows that are butchered for us has begun to run dry!

To deal with this issue, we are going to present four no cook meals that will help you create dinners at home that will feed your family without worrying so much about what’s available, or unavailable, in the meat case.

1. Smashed White Bean, Avocado and Salted Pork Sandwiches

Smashed White Bean, Avocado and Salted Pork Sandwiches | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

As preppers we get beans. There are a bunch of ways to use beans and this a great example of how you can pack a sandwich with great nutrition and protein.

Serving: Makes 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

Can of White Beans
Olive Oil
1 Avocado
8 Slices of Whole Grain Bread
8 Slices of Salted Pork (Prosciutto, Ham, Virginia Ham)

Instructions:

Begin by draining your beans in a colander then smashing them up in a bowl add a few glugs of olive oil, salt, pepper. This little mix is delicious. If you add some minced rosemary, you can even turn this into a delicious dip.
Pit your avocado and cut it in half and then quarters lengthwise. Leave the skin on.
Lay the bread out on a clean work surface for assembling the sandwiches.
Spread your mashed bean mix onto one side of the bread.
Peel your avocados and slice 1 quarter for each sandwich. Spread slices over the bean spread.
Add a few slices of your pork to over the top of the avocado.
You can finish this sandwich with some lettuces, fresh sprouts, or just eat it as is.

2. Delicious Crab Salad

Canned crab is a protein option that will likely be around through much of this meat crisis. It does have to be kept in refrigeration, but it’s delicious and this chipotle mayo salad is great in the spring and summer.

Ingredients:

1 Can of Crab Meat
1 Bunch of Asparagus
Chipotle Mayo
1 Bunch of Green Onions
1 Bunch of Cilantro

Instructions:

Drain your crab in a colander and set it in the sink.
Slice your asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Throw them into a bowl.
Thinly slice your onions and your cilantro and throw that into the bowl, as well.
Gently toss in the crab meat.
Squirt on enough Chipotle mayo to coat everything and toss gently not to break up the crab meat.
Chill in the fridge and serve.

3. Simple Greek Salad

Simple Greek Salad | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

The combination of simple summer ingredients makes for an incredible quick salad that you could add other proteins, too, if you wanted. These could be canned meats.

Ingredients:

2 Large Tomatoes
1 Cucumber
1 Red Onion
¼ Cup of Feta Cheese
A Few Sprigs of Fresh Mint
½ Cup of Kalamata Olives
Balsamic Dressing

Instructions:

I like to cut the tomatoes in large chunks and have them kind of be the main course in this salad. Peel and slice your cucumber in half. Remove the seeds and either dice or slice in half-moons.
Peel and slice your red onion in half. Julienne your, or thinly slice, your half onion.
Add all these ingredients to a bowl. Finely slice your mint.
Add your olives, crumbled feta, and mint to the bowl and add enough dressing to coat everything.
Stir it up and allow this to chill for at least an hour for the flavors to really blend.

4. Mediterranean Tuna Lettuce Wraps

Mediterranean Tuna Lettuce Wraps | No Cook Meals for Surviving the Pandemic and Food Supply Shortages

Using some similar ingredients and adding a protein like tuna, you can create some delicious lettuce wraps. The key to a good lettuce wrap is to have most of the items around the same size. So, consider that when you are preparing this dish.

Ingredients:

Iceberg or Butter Lettuce
Canned Artichokes
Canned roasted Red peppers
Fresh Cucumber
Feta Cheese
Minced Olives ¼ Cup
2 Cans of Tuna
Green Onions
Basil

Instructions:

Start by peeling all the full leaves from your lettuce. Set them on a plate either cover them with a wet paper towel or put them back into the fridge.
Dice the peppers, artichokes, and cucumbers into cubes. Go no larger than ½ an inch.
Thinly slice your green onions and basil and add them to a bowl with your diced vegetables. Add your loves to this bowl and mix them thoroughly.
Crumble your feta cheese over the mixture.
Drain your tuna thoroughly and then add that to the bowl, as well.
Gently toss this mixture. Try not to break up the tuna and the cheese too much but incorporate it thoroughly.
If you want, you can add some olive oil to the mix or a few glugs of balsamic vinegar. It’s also delicious just how it is.
Scoop a few tablespoons into a lettuce leaf, wrap it up and eat up!

These no cook meals should help lessen the stress you feel when thinking of what to feed your family. If you don’t have the specific ingredients, use your creativity, and use what you have. You might discover a new recipe while you’re at it!

What’s your favorite no cook meal recipe? Please share it with us in the comments section!

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This Article Was First Found at survivallife.com Read The Original Article Here

preparedness

Billionaire Whistle Blower: Wuhan Coronavirus Death Toll Is Over 50,000

Exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui recently revealed leaks from Wuhan crematoriums. He claims based on the number of bodies their furnaces are burning, the death toll could be as high as 50,000.

A Chinese billionaire and whistleblower who lives in U.S. exile says Wuhan crematoriums have burned 50,000 coronavirus victims. | Credit: Chinatopix via AP

The official coronavirus death toll in China is a little over 800. But an exiled Chinese businessman says crematoriums are leaking the real figure.
A billionaire whistleblower alleges Wuhan has crematoriums working 24/7. He claims they’ve cremated some 50,000 coronavirus victims.
Guo Wengui is a Chinese billionaire living in exile in the United States.

The official coronavirus death toll is some 800 people in China. The current official death toll worldwide, outside of China, is 774. But a Chinese billionaire with a history of blowing the whistle on his former government says the real figure is much higher.

Exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui recently revealed leaks from Wuhan crematoriums. He claims based on the number of bodies their furnaces are burning, the death toll could be as high as 50,000. Wengui made the bombshell allegations in an interview with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Whistleblower: 1.5 Million Coronavirus Cases In China, 50,000 Coronavirus Deaths In Wuhan

He also claims to have inside information that there are 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases in China. Wengui is emphatic that these are not merely quarantined or “under observation” but confirmed cases of coronavirus infection:

China has struggled to contain the coronavirus. But it has also struggled to contain public outcry against censorship and tight control of information. Dr. Li Wenliang, who sounded the alarm about the disease, succumbed to an infection and died this week. The Chinese government arrested him for blowing the whistle.

Then officials tried to suppress news of his death. Afterwards, millions of Chinese citizens saw the hashtag #IWantFreedomOfSpeech on Mandarin language social media. But the Chinese government censored that too.

Are Wengui’s Crematorium Claims Credible?

Watch VICE’s 2017 profile on Guo Wengui. At the time, he published bombshell documents alleging corruption in the Chinese government. He got the attention of the media and reportedly the U.S. State Department.

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