Using Windows 10? Microsoft Is Watching – C.M.
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UPDATE: Drone owner disputes shooter’s story; produces video he claims shows flight path – T.P.
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Garland gunman bought gun through Operation Fast and Furious – D.S.
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Heading Toward An EMP Catastrophe – B.B.
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Four Boys in South Carolina Medically Kidnapped When Parents Ask for Second Opinion – D.S.
“There is not a man in the country that can’t make a living for himself and family. But he can’t make a living for them and his government, too, the way his government is living. What the government has got to do is live as cheap as the people.” – Will Rogers
Today, we present another entry for Round 60 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 60 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
There have been many articles written about the folly of bugging out into the wilderness in a TEOTWAWKI event. However, if you want to see what it will be like to bug out alone in the wilderness to try to survive, then you need to watch the History Channel’s new show Alone. The concept of the show is to drop 10 survival experts off on Vancouver Island alone, with minimal supplies. The last man on the island wins $500,000. You can read the ten men’s bios and the list of the 10 survival items that each chose on the History Channel website http://www.history.com/shows/alone. Most of what I relate in this article has already been written about on countless blogs and in articles and books. I’ll just try to put them into the context of this survival experiment.
Remember that these ten men are trained survival experts. Many have faced serious danger as members of the armed forces. These are MEN. The fifth episode takes us through day eight, when there are only four men left. Five trained survival experts lasted from one night to four nights alone in the wilderness. The sixth survivalist left on the morning of day eight. How long do you think that you, the weekend survivalist, would last?
To be fair to these men, let me describe Vancouver Island. It is like a tropical rain forest. It rains all of the time, and everything is wet. The constant wetness causes several problems. First, making fire is difficult. All tinder and fire wood sources are wet. Fire brings comfort and confidence when you are alone in the woods. Fire can repel predators and is essential for purifying water. The four men who remain have solved that problem. The competitors have learned to process tinder by collecting and drying it. They store tinder and firewood in their shelters to keep it dry. One enterprising competitor made what he called char dust. It is made using the same method that is used to make char cloth, but his medium is cedar dust that is created by shaving a cedar stick. He used the metal tin that contained his fish hooks to char the dust in the fire. By using the char dust as tinder, he was able to get an ember with just one strike of his fire steel. Before, using tinder gathered in the forest, it would take 100+ strikes to ignite the damp tinder.
In addition, the island is home to 200 wolves, 7000 black bears, and 1000 cougars. It is a predator-dense island. Predators have been the reason that four of the six men left. Bears and cougars would walk right up to the men’s tents at night, and one was actually charged by a bear. A few of the men are armed with bows; most have axes, and all have knives and bear spray. That’s not how I want to face a bear or cougar!
The men who have tapped out so far are:
Josh (Day 1) – was dropped into an area with a heavy population of bears. He said that his camp was surrounded by bear trails.
Chris (Day 2) – heard wolves attacking and tearing at their prey just yards from his tent on the first night. Left the next morning.
Joe (Day 4) – after three days of not being able to make fire due to wet conditions, Joe moved his camp to the beach and succeeded in making fire and boiling water. He also succeeded in losing his ferro rod. He would have had to stay with his fire to keep it going, thus limiting his ability to find food or sleep. He tapped out due to the stress of surviving in the rain without fire for three days with the loss of the ferro rod being his tipping point. He tapped out on day four.
Wayne (Day 5). Wayne was charged by a bear on a trail. He also had one or more bears sniffing around his tent and camp most of the night. He tapped out in the early morning hours of day five. Wayne had been showing signs of stress before this, due to loneliness and the survival conditions.
Brant (Day 6) – After many days of looking for a water source, Brant finally locates water. Brant had not been able to make fire, so he tried to purify water by filtering it through moss. After have been without water for several days, he drank about 10 quarts of this “filtered” water. That night, he experienced severe stomach cramps and hallucinations. It turns out that he was drinking brackish water. Brackish water happens where sea water and fresh water mix. The water contains more sodium than freshwater but not as much as seawater. The sodium levels are extremely dangerous. He had to tap out because he was thirsty and didn’t investigate his water source carefully enough nor boil it. Even experts make mistakes when under duress.
Dustin (Day 7) – After surviving a day and night in his tent during a severe storm (winds up to 50 mph), Dustin tapped out. He said that it was scary being in a tent in the woods and hearing trees crashing down in the woods due to the 40-50 miles per hour winds. Dustin had also been showing signs of stress before this, but the storm and its inherent dangers were his tipping point.
Four men remain: Sam, Alan, Lucas, and Mitch. Each of these men, while suffering from extreme loneliness, have shown a stronger mental state. They have been less bothered by the rain, dealing with it as just another survival problem to solve. They may have been luckier in their drop sites than the other men, but they have all built adequate shelters, made fire, and found food. Alan frequently eats sea slugs and kelp, because they require little effort to catch. Mitch used his gill net to catch a large trout one day. He enjoyed a great meal, though a cougar checked out his camp that night, coming within ten feet of his fire. The smell of the trout may have attracted the cougar. Sam has dined on small crabs and kelp. I have not seen Lucas catch food, and he has expended a lot of calories, first trying to build a cabin and then on a canoe. He spent four or five days on the canoe but was successful. He can now fish in the bay or explore some of the rivers.
All four men frequently describe being very lonely and missing their families. Several have missed significant events, such as birthdays. Several have even let out their stress by crying. This seems to have helped with their stress levels, because they have then been able to push on. Last Thursday’s episode took us through day 14.
Mental Side of Surviving Alone
I’m not sure how you prepare for being alone except by heading out into the wilderness for a few weeks at a time with no books or entertainment to occupy your time. The stress of being alone has contributed significantly to most of the men tapping out. The stress of survival is bad enough, but add loneliness and seemingly survivable events become the tipping points that cause the men to tap out. My lesson is one that has been continuously preached: network and form a survival group. Your chances of surviving in the woods increases exponentially with other, trusted people. Imagine how much each man’s mental condition would improve if one man could stand watch while the other slept? Or how much better it would be to just have a companion for conversation instead of talking to the camera? Rare will be the lone wolf who can survive. I would have thought that all ten men had the survival mindset described in so many blogs, but it appears that only a few of them do.
I also watch other shows where people live in extreme conditions. Very few of them go it alone. Most who do have neighbors that live nearby who can drop in to help or at least provide some human contact and conversation.
Water
Several men struggled to find a source of fresh water. Going several days without fresh water, or without a fire to purify the water, caused much stress among the men. After several days without water, Brant didn’t investigate his source of fresh water and did not boil it to purify it. It turned out that he was drinking brackish water, which caused intestinal distress and hallucinations. Death could have followed had he not called for help. Mitch had to move his camp to find freshwater. Joe also moved his camp but more to find dry tinder and wood to be able to purify water. My lesson learned is to be careful in finding freshwater and never drink it without purifying it. If you choose to bug out, have multiple methods for purifying water. Also know several methods for collecting or finding water in the area that you plan to bug out to. Mitch collected rainwater from his tarp, while he searched for a freshwater source. This was just enough water to sustain him.
Fire
Fire brings comfort, protection from the elements and some predators, as well as is one method to purify water. Even though most of these men knew friction methods for making fire, Vancouver Island is a rain forest. Conditions were too wet to use that method. The men basically only had one method, a ferro rod, to make fire. One contestant recovered a jar from the beach that may have been used as a magnifying class to start a fire had he needed it. The men had to adapt to the conditions by learning to dry their tinder (or create tinder in the form of char dust) and fire materials. The lesson learned here was to know many methods for making fire and take many easy methods into the woods with you. Matches, lighters, fire steel, magnifying glasses (or your eye glasses) are just a few of the ways to start fires. In addition to taking tinder sources with you, know how to find dry tinder, even in wet conditions. I have seen many articles online on how to find tinder and build fires under wet conditions.
Predators
Be prepared to deal with predators, both four- and two-legged ones. You say, “I will have my trusty AR and several handguns with my stash of ammunition.” However, first, I wouldn’t want to face a bear with a .223. I’ve seen feral hogs run away after a solid hit with a .223. There aren’t any bears in your area? Good. Still, facing any predators alone has small odds for your survival. Cougars hunt at night where they have the advantage. Wolves hunt in packs, again to their advantage. The human predators are probably the ones that you have to fear the most in a TEOTWAWKI situation, and they also hunt in packs. The lesson learned is that a survival group is better suited to face predators. More people may keep a predator from even approaching your camp. You have someone to watch your back while getting water or looking for food. A survival group may also have a wider variety of weapons to use on larger predators. As a “lone wolf,” you may not be the apex predator in the woods.
I recommend watching all episodes several times to in order to glean as much information as you can. The History Channel site also has several interviews with some of the men who tapped out early. They describe the conditions and the impact on their mental state. You can learn much from these interviews. To put it bluntly, surviving alone is tough, even for survival experts. If you have been one who thought that all of those articles describing how “lone wolves” will not survive in the wilderness did not apply to you, then watch Alone. Six survival experts lasted less than a week, and four of them lasted less than four days. They had a satellite phone to call for rescue. In a TEOTWAWKI event, there will be no rescue.
Hugh,
I’m in agreement with pretty much everything in N.P’s excellent article; everything except his repeated reliance on a Bic lighter, especially in the sub-zero conditions he described. Butane lighters become useless below about 15°F, at which point butane won’t vaporize. A better choice would be the tried and true Zippo lighter, which will light at any temperature and is wind-resistant. The only downside to the Zippo is that the fuel in it will evaporate over time and will need to be periodically refilled, whether it’s used or not. If you find yourself in the conditions N.P. described and a butane lighter is all you have, be sure to carry it on your person as close to the body as possible to keep it warm. – P.H.
I don’t think I agree with the analysis, but it’s an interesting read on the breakup and reconstruction of the United States sent in by FEB
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Windows 10 is spying on almost everything you do – here’s how to opt out
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Windows 10: The first 5 things you need to do immediately after you install it – T.P.
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Kroger Executive Stands Firm Against Group’s Demand to Ban Guns from Store – PJP
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Messaging App Weaves Smartphones Into an Alternative Internet – G.G.
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“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15 (KJV)
August 1st is celebrated as Swiss Independence Day, in recognition of the signing of the Federal Charter of 1291, which united Switzerland’s first three cantons. As of 2015, Switzerland has been free and independent for 724 years. Having a well-armed populacehas assured that.
August 1st is also remembered as the election day in 1946 that sparked the Battle of Athens, Tennessee, when returning World War II veterans took up arms to oust a corrupt local government that was rigging an election.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 60 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 60 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
First Prize goes to PrepperDoc for “Protecting Both Tube and Transistor HF Communications Equipment From E1 EMP Pulse – Part 1” & “Part 2” which was posted on June 5th and 6th. He will receive the following prizes:
Second Prize goes to JEE for “Raising Meat Rabbits: Mistakes and Successes” which was posted on July 30th. He will receive the following prizes:
Third Prize goes to T.H. for “Don’t Forget To Prep Your Spice Chest” which was posted on June 11th. He will receive the following prizes:
Honorable Mention prizes ($30 Amazon.com gift certificates via e-mail) have been awarded to the writers of these fine articles:
Note to all Prize winners: Let us know your current e-mail address. We will also need the UPS and USPS addresses for each of the top three prize winners.
Round 59 ended on July 31st, but Round 60 has started, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. Those articles that we received for Round 59 but that did not get published in time will be automatically entered in Round 60.
Food? Check. Water? Check. Tools and other supplies? Check. Do you have the entire rest of the list? Check. You are prepared and ready for an economic collapse, a catastrophic natural disaster, a terrorist attack, martial law, and a host of other scenarios. In fact, you have even convinced your family and friends to get prepared and they have totally bought in. Then that day arrives, and the power is out. The banks are closed. Water and gasoline are being hoarded. There is no phone, no tv and no Internet. On the radio, there are only official broadcasts, but these don’t tell you much, and can you even trust them? You also notice that you haven’t seen your postman lately. That is because he is at home taking care of his own family, and so are the UPS and Fedex guys. It is then that you think, “I prepared and I had my loved ones prepare, but they are across town, in another city, or across the country.” You suddenly realize that you have no way of communicating with them. You wonder, “Are they okay? Are they sick? Are they even still alive?”
Now is the time to solve this often overlooked emotional and psychological land mine. Now is the time to put the structure in place for “The Cycle Express”.
First, here is a quick history lesson. During the civil war, there was a need to communicate with the western part of the United States in the most efficient way possible. Horses were the most accessible means of rapid transit available at the time; thus, the Pony Express was born. Over 200 riders were able to cover 250 miles a day each with the mission to deliver messages back and forth across the country.
Well, I daresay most of us don’t own a horse. Also, it may be that putting together a network of cowboys to traverse the width of North America is a bit ambitious. However, many Americans do own a bike, and for those of us with loved ones scattered 20, 40, 60, or even 2000 miles away, now is the time to assign outposts, waypoints, and riders or cyclists to relay messages.
This is a fairly simple task, but if it isn’t done ahead of time, before TEOTWAWKI, it becomes exponentially more difficult.
This is how to do it:
However, it is not impossible! If people in the 1800s could orchestrate a system to get messages across the U.S., then so can we. The key is to have the system in place NOW. Once communications go down it will be much more difficult to put the Cycle Express into place. If you find that when making your waypoints on your map, and enlisting your trusted people from your List 1, that you still can’t get to the people on List 2, you will then want to ask the person at your furthest waypoint who they trust and who might be on their List 1 that can help reach the geographical goal of your List 2. The Cycle Express is already a realized network, albeit just with my personal List 1 and List 2, and as mentioned, I am trying to establish a network to get from coast to coast, and I am not there yet.
Imagine a scenario where one of your loved ones lives 80 miles away and there is no more gasoline to be found. You get word through the Cycle Express that they were injured and that the wound is infected. They have a fever and there are no meds left. Meanwhile, you have a stockpile of antibiotics. Your friendly Cycle Express peddler can make sure to pass the medications along in time to reach your loved one.
This brings me to the issue of payment. Unless you are fortunate enough to have an entirely closed network of trusted friends and family in all of your waypoints between List 1 and List 2, it might be necessary to get a friend of a friend on board. Chances are that they will want to know what is in it for them, but in the coming new world as we will know it we will need ways of working and contributing to society in order to support our families. Being a cyclist in the Cycle Express could be a great line of work, and it could be one that will be much needed and respected. It not only brings a means of bartering, but it also will be a grassroots way to get a most valuable commodity—information.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus, I believe:
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:3-4)
He has given us everything we need for life, and that will hold true, regardless of what happens in this temporal world. He is calling us to participate in His divine nature, and one aspect of His nature is that of creativeness. He is our Creator, and being made in His likeness He invites us to co-labor with Him in being creative in solving challenges. He called Joseph to prepare for famine and gave him the knowledge, ability, and position to make a difference and succeed. All through scripture He prepared prophets and kings and priests to carry out His work on the Earth. Now is our time. He is calling us. Answer His call. The Cycle Express is just one tiny task that I can do to help solve a potential problem when the communication age comes to a screeching halt. I hope you will join me. May the God of all grace make your paths straight!
I have a special appreciation for the letter written and posted on July 25th by S. C. S. C. has mirrored my sentiments exactly. I have had several friends say to me, “When the SHTF I know where I am going, I am coming to YOUR house.” My reply, as I laugh hysterically, “You might want to rethink that one, cause you might get shot!” They do not realize just how serious prepping is. When I began prepping in earnest (I prepped somewhat half-heartedly for more than 20 years), I was very excited about it. I wanted to tell everyone I knew about my epiphany, my new-found knowledge, and my plan to save myself and my family from disasters and hard times.
Today, my feeling on OpSec is completely different than before. I regret ever having said anything at all to anyone about being a prepper. Additionally, I feel mounting pressure to move far from my current location. Partially to get away from those that know that I prep, and also to choose a better location with fewer people. This is a double-edged sword in that it also puts me in a position of being far from those who do currently give me support in my prepping endeavors. In other words, I would have to make new friends fast, and I know it. So I am merely validating how many people likely feel about their friends and neighbors in relation to prepping. It is a slippery slope. The Christian thing to do is to help those in need, but when you do that you may be risking yours and your family’s lives in the process. Also, when we give up those extravagant vacations, Saturday night movies, new clothes, and the like, in order to assign that income to our perceived long-term survival needs, do we really owe that to anyone else? My thought is that if you give to those in need, they will be back for more, and before long you have nothing to eat and nothing to give. What happens then? My family has and is doing without now so that they might be fed later. – PJP
JWR responds: As I’ve mentioned a few times in SurvivalBlog, I recommend that you make arrangements in advance to make charitable donations of food through your local church. Just brief your church elders, and get their solemn assurances that your name will never be mentioned.
This method has several advantages: First, it maintains your anonymity. Second, it keeps your charity food stocks separate from your home larder (which reduces the chances of your home being identified by miscreants). Thirdly, it encourages a godly, humble attitude. This is in accord with Matthew 6:3, which states:
“But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth”
11th Circuit: Law Barring Doctors From Asking About Guns Is Constitutional – JBG
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Police State “Ministry of Truth” Hits Spain; Man Fined for Calling Police “Slackers” on Facebook – P.S.
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Ministry of Education Worsens Actions against Christian Schools in Israel – C.S.
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Rochester General Hospital in NY Newborn Policy Includes Medical Kidnapping – C.W.
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From the nanny state of Australia: The letter that was sent to panicked parents at a primary school after a 10-year-old boy brought in a GUN for show and tell – A.S.