Lessons on Prepping From an Afghanistan Deployment, by A.K. – Part 1

My experiences as a Sergeant in a Marine Infantry battalion have ultimately changed my philosophy towards prepping. Living in a remote region of Afghanistan, Marjeh district, was very much like living in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. There were no roads, other than small cart paths, used by civilian and Taliban alike. There was no running water and no electricity. Locals pumped water from wells, if lucky, or drank from the canals. Electricity was a luxury and power came from a generator. Many of the locals were so poor they had never owned a single piece of any currency; barter was a way of life. Those lucky enough grew their own food, and villages took care of their own. There was no law other than their god’s law and no one to enforce it, no medical facilities, and no antibiotics; yet people survived.

Motor Bikes

The most popular method of travel was small motor bike, as they could handle the rough terrain and were relatively easy to fix. Most were Honda copies, which were made in Korea, along with the occasional Kawasaki. The locals chose the small variants– 200cc and under– for their superior fuel economy and light weight, which made it easy to maneuver. They could be picked up by two adult males and moved over terrain that is impossible to pass or loaded into the bed of one of the few Toyota pickups that combed the area. Parts for the Japanese variant of motorcycle, under 250cc, are virtually interchangeable among all the bikes. It was not uncommon to see a bike that was clearly built from the scrap of several other bikes. I even encountered a local that had built a small still. I found this unusual, as Muslim people do not consume alcohol. When asked what he was doing, and being a bit suspicious due to the IEDs manufactured in the area, the man replied it was to power his bike. He was distilling alcohol from fruit and plant scraps; then he mixed it 50/50 with gasoline, even selling the mixture or using it as barter.

Another time, at a road side check point, I came across two males on a bike with strange red wiring hanging out the side. Again my first thought was VBIED (vehicle born IED), but it turned out that they had rigged a battery charger to the stator output and were charging batteries as they rode, instead of powering the head lamp during day light hours. The man showed me a crude toggle switch he used to switch from the charger to the lamp. I am pretty sure it was a wall switch he had cut down and electrical taped together, but it appeared to be working. They used these bikes to transport goods as well as themselves, and it was not uncommon to see three adult males all riding on a 250cc. I once saw a family– Mom and Dad with a newborn baby– and a goat all go by. The man was driving with the goat across his lap with the woman on the back holding the baby in a blanket. A good motorcycle will provide transportation in TEOTWAWKI, both on and off road. I am in the process of saving for a Zero all-electric bike with solar charger, similar to the ones our Special Forces used in Afghanistan.

A 9mm Won’t Stop a Determined Threat

Another time while on post and observing an EOD team clearing a nearby road for IEDs, I witnessed a man on a bicycle get shot by a 9mm Beretta. The EOD guys had set up a serpentine or “S” shaped barricade to slow down approaching vehicles and prevent VBIEDs from killing them while they cleared the road of IEDs. I watched through my binoculars and was in contact via radio with the unit assigned to protect the EOD guys. I radioed them that they had a man on a bicycle approaching from the west. He entered the serpentine and was immediately told to stop, via interpreter, at the first curve. When he ignored the hand and arm signals by the Marines at the check point, they stepped up the EOF (escalation of force) and fired a pen flare over his head. He kept coming, and at the third curve one of the Marines– a Staff Sergeant I knew– fired a warning shot at the man with his M9. The round hit the ground right in front of him, but it seemed as though he started to pedal harder. I noticed now that he had something on his back wrapped in a blanket. When he did not stop after the warning shot was fired, that same Staff Sergeant began unloading the entire magazine of standard 9mm ball ammunition carried by NATO forces. I remember thinking, “Wow, this guy can’t hit shit” because it appeared that the man on the bike wasn’t getting hit. I expected him to be thrown from the bike with the first shot.

After the first few shots were fired, the man changed directions and went around a large dirt mound to his right and out of view from the Marines at the checkpoint. I watched as the Staff Sergeant changed mags in his pistol and rounded up two other marines armed with rifles to go and check on the man. Fifteen minutes later, the Marines brought the guy who had been riding the bike on a stretcher to the FOB where I was on post. I immediately searched the man, as was SOP, and noticed his torso covered in blood. I counted at least nine bullet wounds and radioed the corpsman to come to the gate. When the corpsman arrived, the man was pronounced dead; I was later told it was from blood loss. The point here is that a man on a bike was shot at least nine times at close range by 9mm ball and still managed to pedal a bike 75 meters. Where is the stopping power in that? It is incidents like this that have prompted the Corps to adopt the 1911 Colt as their primary side arm, going back to a gun it used 70 years ago.

I am still not sure what prompted the man to run through the checkpoint on that bicycle. It turned out he only had two small melons and a bag of rice on his back. It’s just another example of the collateral damages caused by war. I heard a rumor that he had a Syrian ID card, but that was never confirmed and above my pay grade. My gun of choice has always been a 1911. I carry a Kimber Custom Covert II with tritium night sights and a crimson trace laser. I bought it shortly after that deployment with this incident in mind.

Washing Clothes

Let me start by explaining that the conditions we lived in were primitive. It was only a few months after the 6th Marines had landed in helos in the fields of Marjeh and set up a FOB and scattered patrol bases. We lived in tents surrounded by walls of dirt, moved by a bull dozer, with razor wire strung across the top. The inner perimeter and our outer posts were made from HESCO barriers. All of our food and ammo was dropped by air and often delayed. We used bottled water and had a crude water filtration unit that pumped water from a nearby canal. However, Intel had suggested that the Taliban were actively poisoning the water, and we were advised to use it only for hygiene. We were limited to the amount of water we could use, so most just washed with baby wipes and a wet t-shirt, at least for the first few months. Some of the guys had begun washing their cammies in an MRE box lined with a trash bag. They used small river rocks smoothed by the current to rub the dirt out of their clothes and gear. Before we discovered the local bazaar to be selling soap, some would pour a few tablespoons of JP8 or diesel fuel into the water. Apparently this was a common practice by GI’s in the Second World War, as the JP8 acted as a disinfectant. It did, however, make you smell like fuel. We now know all petroleum fuels to be carcinogens, so I refrained from this practice, opting only to use water and a small supply of dish soap I bartered from the mess hall. This brings me to my next topic.

Barter

Before leaving the States, I was talking to an old family friend that had served in Vietnam. He advised me to bring cartons of cigarettes for barter, even though I was not a smoker. At first thought, I discarded the idea as out-dated from an era where we didn’t have the technologies of today, but later I decided to give it a try. At very least, the smokers would get desperate, and I could double my money. I bought four cartons of American Spirits, as I am against the large cigarette companies that poison the tobacco they use, causing millions of dollars of health issues in the United States annually. A month into the deployment, we hadn’t had an opportunity to resupply from a PX. Most of the smokers were running low or completely out. Some had turned to the ANA (Afghan National Army) that lived with us. They were smoking awful cigarettes that smelled like talcum powder and ass. One day, while in the chow line, I ran into a cook from my first deployment in Iraq. We got to talking, and he mentioned the cigarette situation. I still hadn’t torn into my stash and had even forgot about it, amidst the chaos and sleep deprivation we all were experiencing. The Mess Hall was a tent that served platoon-sized MRE’s one meal a day, for dinner. Occasionally, they had Gatorade and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins or Poptarts. I worked a deal for a bottle of dish soap for two packs of Spirits and that night met my friend and made the exchange. Needless to say, my squad and I had the cleanest cammies on the FOB for the time being.

The 40mm grenades for our M203s became scarce, as they were the best weapon to repel an enemy assault, and patrols that came under fire used the grenade launchers to repel much larger enemy forces until air supports could arrive. The success of the 40mm made it scarce, as we sent much of our supply to patrol bases of squad-sized units that more regularly came under attack and needed the ammo more than we did on the FOB. One day before a patrol, my 203 gunner came to me saying he only had two rounds of HE for the patrol and that the ASP (ammo supply point) guys were being jerks and wouldn’t give him any. It cost me six packs of Spirits, but I managed to get 12 rounds of HE and HE/DP assorted. I did the same thing for hand grenades on a later patrol.

On one patrol we came across an outpost manned by five Marines and four ANA soldiers. It was little more than a liberated house with sand bag bunkers on the roof and some razor wire on the perimeter. It looked in rough shape; you could see the impacts from the RPG fire, and the walls were littered with holes. The senior Marine– a Corporal– inside asked my LT if we had any claymores they could have. He explained that the Hajis liked to sneak up at night and attack them with RPGs and recoilless rifles. They used the claymores to cover some avenues of approach they couldn’t, due to the terrain. Initially my LT said no, even though I knew he had several in his pack that we would most likely not need. However, when the ANA inside offered some goat kabobs fresh off the BBQ, the LT complied. This is proof that, when food is scarce, people will trade next to anything for a good meal, even of superior value. A hungry man will trade a beautiful firearm to feed his family for a night.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue this article with topics that include food, determining friend or foe, using animals for detection and security, and more.

Letter Re: Prepper Digital Security

Mr. Latimer,

I read the article “Prepper Digital Security“, by A.B. and would like to offer a couple of comments.

The article mentions the use of TrueCrypt. I was a serious user of this software package until June of this year after Microsoft ceased support of Windows XP.

When that happened, the development of TrueCrypt was ended with very little explanation. I run Ubuntu Linux and used TrueCrypt. Now that development has stopped, I cannot get updates so am no longer protected if NSA finds another exploit.

The website has the following to say:

WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues.

This page exists only to help migrate existing data encrypted by TrueCrypt.

The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP. Windows 8/7/Vista and later offer integrated support for encrypted disks and virtual disk images. Such integrated support is also available on other platforms (click here for more information). You should migrate any data encrypted by TrueCrypt to encrypted disks or virtual disk images supported on your platform.

?A more exhaustive analysis of the termination of support is found online.

?So, what to do? As a computer software engineer with many years of experience in systems development, I have concluded that nothing is secure. If the government wants your data, it will get your data using whatever backdoor function it can gin up, not legally, and with or without force, torture, or financial ruin.

This is especially true in this day and age when we have “nation states” writing cyberwarfare applications, like Stuxnet.

I’ll leave it at that. I won’t make an effort to suggest any specific solution, since any I suggest could be circumvented by our government. – J.H.

Economics and Investing:

Why You Should Be Prepared for Both Inflation and Deflation

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From the desk of SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large, Mike Williamson: Corn ethanol is of no economic use

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Items from Mr. Econocobas:

Russia Says Ruble Crisis Over as Reserves Dive, Inflation Climbs

Japan Struggles to Escape Recession as Production Drops

U.S. Bond Sentiment Is Worst Since Disastrous ’09 – It is my opinion that the Fed won’t ever raise rates but will always pretend or let the markets believe they will, and use just use the excuse du’ jour to put it off. Perhaps I will be wrong…

Special Year-End Note on Charitable Giving

Living in our over-taxed society (now with a top marginal Federal income tax rate of 39.6%), it is important to remember that December 31st is the last day to make charitable contributions for Tax Year 2014. Please give generously to the worthy charities of your choice. We may be biased, but we have some suggested charities linked at our Charity static page. Thanks, and May God Bless You, in the New Year. – The SurvivalBlog Staff.

Notes for Wednesday – December 31, 2014

Yesterday (December 30, 2014) was Book Bomb Day for Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own. Because of the strong ordering on Amazon.com yesterday and today, it pushed the price of the book down to just $11.84 USD (a 34% discount), even for folks who pre-ordered. When I last checked, the book was ranked at #64 overall on Amazon.com! (Getting into Amazon’s Top 100 in overall book sales is difficult for a non-fiction book, because it competes with the many popular fiction titles.) Thanks for making the book launch such a great success. If you want to order a copy, I recommend that you do so soon–before the price reverts to somewhere above $12.50 per copy. For any of you who have already read it, your brief honest reviews on Amazon would be greatly appreciated. (There have been two 1-star reviews by trolls who obviously hadn’t read the book.)

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December 31st is the birthday of Dr. Cynthia Koelker, SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor. It is also the birthday of Frederick Selous (born 1851, died 4 January 1917.)

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Today, we present another entry for Round 56 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel which can be assembled in less then one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  4. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 30 DPMS AR-15 .223/5.56 30 Round Gray Mil Spec w/ Magpul Follower Magazines (a value of $448.95) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt. An equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions.
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  7. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  8. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  9. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate, and
  12. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate– a $325 retail value,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. Twenty Five books, of the winners choice, of any books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate,
  9. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate, and
  10. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  6. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a Locking Rifle Rack (a $379 value).

Round 56 ends on January 31st, 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.

Prepper Digital Security, by A.B.

In this day and age of digital information, our communications and data are open to a world of invasive agencies. Some of these agencies may be your nosy neighbor out to see what you are up to or an activist group gathering unguarded data to send to agencies of various domestic and foreign governments. Many of us in the prepper community have taken some measures of security to safeguard our data. Some people avoid the digital world altogether to dodge this issue, though not all of us are willing to go to that level of abandonment of technology. There are many benefits to using digital technology to assist in preparing for the future. I am not going to go into heavy technical detail about every aspect of digital security. However, I am going to describe what is called defense in depth, which is both a military term and a cyber security term, and then touch upon a way to utilize a key generator. If there is enough interest, I can definitely write up instructions on how to install /setup the programs and procedures I will be discussing.

Many of us have taken the threat of our email being read in transit seriously. With agencies, such as the NSA and foreign intelligence, trying to track and read everything we do, simple measures no longer can be counted upon. Another circumstance to consider is what happens if one day someone was to simply confiscate your computer to see what you have been up to. How many of your personal systems have no protection whatsoever, if someone simply sits down at the system?

According to Wikipedia.org:

Defense in Depth (also known as Castle Approach) is an information assurance (IA) concept in which multiple layers of security controls (defense) are placed throughout an information technology (IT) system. Its intent is to provide redundancy in the event a security control fails or a vulnerability is exploited that can cover aspects of personnel, procedural, technical and physical for the duration of the system’s life cycle.

The idea behind the defense in depth approach is to defend a system against any particular attack using several independent methods. It is a layering tactic, conceived by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a comprehensive approach to information and electronic security.

Defense in depth is originally a military strategy that seeks to delay, rather than prevent, the advance of an attacker by yielding space in order to buy time. The placement of protection mechanisms, procedures, and policies is intended to increase the dependability of an IT system where multiple layers of defense prevent espionage and direct attacks against critical systems. In terms of computer network defense, defense in depth measures should not only prevent security breaches but also buy an organization time to detect and respond to an attack, thereby reducing and mitigating the consequences of a breach.

What we are going to talk about is beyond simply using TOR as a browser or PGP for email encryption. What I propose is: utilizing VMs (virtual machines) running on encrypted virtual hard drives contained on removable media that is itself encrypted.

In layman’s terms, we are going to have a computer within a computer that is stored on a secure USB (or other) device. Basically, you will be using a virtual computer system to do your data storage, prepper browsing, and/or secure emails.

Disadvantages:

  • The machine will be slower (unless you have a really powerful computer system),
  • You must remember passwords. (Key note: Remember, do not write them down everywhere),
  • You also need some degree of technical aptitude for the setup, and
  • You must secure your device when not in use.

Advantages:

By walking you through the following scenario, the advantages will be clearer than if I just list them.

X Agency comes to your house and seizes your personal computer to use as evidence. Their claim is that you have been distributing banned reading materials.

  1. Any initial password to gain entry to a system is easy to bypass. (It’s a government agency, so they can get the manufacturer of the machine to give them the backdoor access. Sorry; it is just the way it is.)
  2. Once in your system, they will first make a backup of the hard drive(s), so they can work on the copy rather than the original.
  3. They perform their initial scans of the system and are unable to find anything located on the local hard drives. (Defense layer 1)
  4. One of the X Agency techs notices that you have virtual machine software installed (Oracle Virtual Box, in this case). He runs the software and sees you have VMs setup, but they are not located on the local hard drive. (Defense layer 2)
  5. After many days, weeks, months, or years, maybe, they finally locate your USB flash drive that you had been using to hold your VMs. (Defense layer 2.5)
  6. Once the drive is in place, they attempt to access the files, only to be asked for an encryption key for access. Since you had used the highest level of security that the program used (True Crypt, in this case), it could take years in real time to break the encryption. (Defense layer 3)
  7. Let’s say they got lucky and broke it in a matter of weeks and now can access the USB Drive. They start the VM up all happy to see they have finally got you. Only, the VM is encrypted (True Crypt again) and requests a password to start the virtual machine. (Defense layer 4) Again, they get lucky and break the encryption, and finally are able to search your VM to their heart’s content.
  8. Only there is nothing there to incriminate you, since you had keyed True Crypt to use a shadow operating system. (Defense layer 5) I could go on and describe other layers past what we already have done. One thing you need to understand is that they will be able to get to the information, but it will take time. How much time, you ask? I refer you to the following article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brute-force_attack So what is the main advantage for DiD (Defense in Depth)? It’s time– the time it will take someone to break into the system is your protection. Be glad we do not live in Great Britain, which has a law on the books to force you to give them any and all passwords to your systems. Even in a situation like that, storing the device and holding the VMs separately from the actual PC, will buy you time. Remember, all the security in the world is useless if you violate your own rules.
    1. Plan the system you will use.
    2. Implement the plan.
    3. Document the plan. (This doesn’t mean write down where your USB drive is, or write down your password!)
    4. Refine and update the system, and plan over time.

      (Another good note to remember: Do not use the same password for each level of the encryption; that will drop the time to break the code astronomically. Once they have one, they have them all in that case.)

      There is yet another use for encrypted removable media. It can be used to move data between groups or individuals in a more secured manner. There is a way of developing a code system for generating the keys used by the software. I’m going to give an example of one of these methods for key generation and sharing. Some one of you will remember from history about code words being used by the Allies in radio transmissions and how random words would have a meaning. What if we could use that method of hiding a key generator in plain sight?

      This will depend on everyone having the same reference point they are using to encrypt/decrypt from. In our case let’s go with the Bill of Rights, which is something most of us have in some form or another. I’m going to keep it easy here; let’s make a key for a wireless router running wpa2. We need a 13-character key to implement the security properly. So on our friendly broadcast, the announcer reads off the 5th amendment of the Bill of Rights. You know from prior planning that the amendment number (5 in this case) +1 is how many characters you count over in the text of the amendment. So in this case that’s every 6th character until the end of the text and then loop back around to the beginning until you have the amount of characters you need (13 in this case). Look at the example below. I have counted out the characters and bolded the ones we need. (Yes, you count punctuation and spaces; however use _ instead of a space. At the end of a line, keep count on the next line.)

      Amendment V:

      No person shall be held_to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

      So in this case our key code would be “rhe_soa,tsaru”.It’s completely random and contains no dictionary words. Yet anyone with the knowledge of the key process could unlock this router. Another candidate could be the King James Bible, where the chapter and verse are the text, and the month could be how many characters you count over. Make it even more interesting, you could plan your generator so that even months count from the start of the verse while odd months count from the end of the verse. The ways of doing this are endless.

Letter Re: New Kind of Bucket List

HJL,

I would like to add to the article of the “New Kind of Bucket List“. When stacking buckets I use 1/4″ thick plywood squares a little bit bigger than a 5 gal. bucket about 13″x13”, this way any size bucket can stack. It helps prevent cracking on the inner part of a llid. I also being older and having weenie upper body strength, have been sealing dry goods in smaller sizes and placing in smaller buckets. One little bucket can have a variety of 1,2, or 3 pound bags of food rather than a 40 pound of only one thing in a larger bucket. – DCN

Notes for Tuesday – December 30, 2014

Today (December 30, 2014) is Book Bomb Day for Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own

For those of you who have been waiting, please go ahead and order your copies today. Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own. This paperback book is a guide to the selection, use, and care of tools. It is already also available as an e-book and audiobook. The paperbacks are packaged in cases of 16 copies by the publisher, for those who want to order in bulk.

When I last checked, the book was ranked at #64 overall on Amazon.com. I’m hoping that even though it is a nonfiction title, it will make it into their Top 50. -JWR

ToolsforSurvival_392

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December 30, 1865 was the birthday of Rudyard Kipling. I should mention that his writings about Afghanistan have sparked a modern-day revival of interest in Kipling among British, Australian, and American officers and NCOs deployed to Afghanistan.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 56 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  3. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel which can be assembled in less then one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  4. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 30 DPMS AR-15 .223/5.56 30 Round Gray Mil Spec w/ Magpul Follower Magazines (a value of $448.95) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt. An equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions.
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  7. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  8. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  9. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate, and
  12. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,

“Wild” Gifts For Children’s Survival, by Linda Runyon

Childhood these days is a lot different experience than when I was that young. I have photographs of me, as a baby, sitting on a blanket outside our home and looking at the weeds and grass around me. Even then I was fascinated with wild growing plants, and that was the foundation of my lifelong affinity for wild food survival. These days it seems that childhood is an ongoing assault on the senses, from TV to constant, loud music to vaccination needles that contain mercury, and on into school, where there’s the confusion of ill-advised curricula that discourages actual learning.

It’s no wonder that an ever-increasing number of conscientious parents are opting out of that. The number of parents who choose to homeschool their children has been steadily increasing over the last 13 years, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association– an organization dedicated to helping homeschooling parents deal with an intrusive government. The primary reason that parents choose that route is because they know that every child is an individual and therefore has distinct needs, aspirations, desires, and skills. Also, a homeschool environment allows the parent to choose and implement with their children’s basic survival skills that will be valuable to them throughout their lives. Knowledge of wild food is, in my opinion, one of those essential skills.

I say this because of my many years of homesteading in the wilderness, where a knowledge of which wild plants (naturally growing weeds and trees) kept me and my family from starvation countless times. The years I spent in the wilderness gave me a unique perspective on survival during very difficult times, and after I returned to civilization I became intent on sharing that information through wild survival classes, books, and so forth. However, that brings me to the point of this article– the fact that my most appreciative audiences were always the children. For all the years that I taught wild food classes and hosted wild food identification walks, the delight and wonder in a child’s eyes at holding up a clover blossom or a wild rose leaf and realizing each is edible just charmed me and their parents. Additionally, we knew that child would never go hungry.

One of my most successful activities for children centered around the red clover, since that blossom is so distinctive, as it has the white “V” pattern on the leaf. Often red clover and white clover are among the first wild edibles to come up in spring and will flourish all throughout the growing season. No matter how often a field is mowed, those pretty clover plants grow right back! Children quickly learn to identify red clover, and they love being handed their own “Clover Plate”– a paper plate that has been clearly marked into four equal sections. (This is also a great excuse for teaching fractions!) I would point out to them the four edible parts of the clover plant– the red blossom, the leaves with that “V” mark, the stem, and what I call “nectar pieces”, which are the separated individual blossom bits. Kids love games, and so they had fun running around and filling up their Clover Plate with those four edible parts. When everyone had plenty of each part, we went back home and ate our bounty. There is an entire wild food recipe section in my book– The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide, and one clover meal we made was clover soup. A particularly unusual appetizer and party-pleaser was battered and fried clover blossoms. Nobody had seen or tasted anything like them before! Plus, I never had any problem students while teaching them wild food survival skills.

A variation of the clover plate game is to locate an area where you can identify four different edible wild foods, and use one section of the plate per plant. For example, if you can spot dandelion, wild violets, chicory, and wood sorrel, you could have your students collect the flowers from each, bring them home, wash them thoroughly, and decorate a cake or pastry with them. Alternatively, you could include colorful bits of those flowers in popsicles for a decorative and nutritious summer treat. Very young children could be given a cup and shown the bright yellow dandelion flower to pick, so they can be included in the hunt as well. As the child gets bigger, give him or her a larger cup or bag, and tell them how many dandelion flowers they should pick, thus combining arithmetic with their outdoor adventure. It’s just never too early to start an interest in wild food and as young people add to their store of wild food survival knowledge. You will find them coming up with any number of entertaining, interesting, tasty, and useful ways to include wild food in their meals, snacks, and crafts. One decorative use of wild food is to have the children collect a number of wild leaves and flowers that appeal to their artistic sense and paste them to their “Wild Bag”– a large paper shopping bag with handles that they can carry their wild food bounty in.

There is an increasing number of highly skilled artists who create intricate patterns and designs using only wild plant pieces to make effective and pleasing framed art work or real life note cards, for example. Once a parent starts a child on the wild food path, there’s no telling how creative they can become with it, not to mention the survival benefit of harvesting and preparing their own wild food, to the betterment of their health and well-being.

I have found that teenagers have a particular affinity for the cattail plant, which is so much fun to harvest. On my cattail foraging trips I learned to bring with me shears, long boots, a plastic garbage bag, and a 4-foot board that would hold my weight, plus a towel, in case I fell in the boggy mud. The board was so I could surf the cattail mats and travel easily from one patch to the other, harvesting all the way. (I recommend that kids be supervised while harvesting cattails!) Inside the cattail stem is a whitish pith, and it’s a lot like a cucumber. At the height of summer those stems will be from ½ to 1 inch in diameter. You can peel the pith out, wash thoroughly, slice into 6-inch pieces and pickle them by adding hot cider vinegar and some pickling spices. My son loved them, and would eat them by the jar full.

Once I found out how much nutrition is in the cattail, I was grateful that my son found those pickles so flavorful. I was astonished to learn how much nutrition is in Nature’s free wild food, and so I have included a nutrition chart in The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide for everyone’s reference. (Much appreciation goes to Dr. James Duke, who compiled the original data.) The cattail is nicknamed the “supermarket of the swamp” because all parts of it are useful. The early cattail shoots can be eaten raw in salads; the early green heads can be eaten raw, or cooked and eaten like corn on the cob; the pollen can be included as a nutrient additive in baking; the roots can be dried and then ground into flour; and the leaves can be used for basket weaving and other crafts. Plus the stems make excellent popsicle sticks. (Of course, active children will find other uses for the stems, too!)

There are edible trees as well as the many edible plants that grow freely around us. I found so many food uses for six common ones– pine, birch, balsam, willow, maple, and beech. I collected so much useful information about them that we now have a tree book so others have access to that information too. In addition to the nutritional aspects of trees, such as the inner bark of pines and birch that can be harvested and ground into flour for baking, I also discovered a good use for the natural pine and balsam Christmas tree needles that can seem such a trial after the holiday is done. Here’s what you do: After all the lights and decorations have been removed from the tree, place a sheet completely around the base of the tree so that all the needles can fall or be knocked onto it. Any twigs or branches that fall into the sheet will need to be removed and this the children can do for you later, so that what you store in paper bags are just the needles and nothing else. Realize that those needles that you would have discarded along with the tree actually are a free nutrition source (vitamin C, to name one) for your family, and that along with hot pine tree tea during the coming winter months you are also teaching your children survival and sustainability.

Of course the maple is a favorite tree, not just because of its delicious syrup and those gorgeous fall leaves, but also because of the maple tree “helicopters”. Maple seeds are encased in the two balls in the middle of two “wings”, and to me that whole seed/wing form resembles a small helicopter. The reason for the wings is so that when the helicopter falls from the tree, the wings can get caught in the wind, which carries the seeds far enough away from the parent tree that a new maple will have enough room to grow up. I learned that those maple seeds can be collected up and made into really good seed cakes. I guess I’ve harvested thousands of those seeds in a season so I could make my seed cakes. What you do is once you separate the “brown and down” (on the ground) seeds from the wing, you next need to separate the seed from its little case. Children have a great time pinching on the seed case so the seed shoots out. They will happily collect a little mountain of the seeds so you all can make the seed cakes. My recipe was to take two cups of maple seeds and pound them until squishy. (You can delegate this job if you wish.) With clean hands, I made thin patties and then fried them up in some olive oil until browned on both sides. Then I would serve them with maple syrup on top. What a nice treat that was for everybody who pitched in to help. Or, you could just take the seeds and roast them for a healthy snack for the kids to have with them for nourishment on an outing.

I derived so much personal benefit and joy from teaching children, that even in my older years I spent many rewarding hours in the summer teaching wild food to children and adults at a camp near where I lived at the time. Each of the plants we studied in those classes was in its own pot, which made it easy to bring them out every summer to have on hand. We had everything right there so everyone could learn their plant identification up close. Then we could store them in a safe place during the rest of the year. Previously I had taught folks how to benefit from potted wild food even while living in small apartments, so it was easy for me to create the potted wild edibles for those summer classes. Then, of course, the class attendees would go out to a wild area and identify and harvest the free wild food they had learned about in class, or they would go home and create their own area in their yard for wild food. The opportunities for fun and finding free wild food in the dirt are limitless.

I recently received a note, from a 14-year old homeschooled girl, who wrote, “When I say wild foods I basically mean plants that are edible. Most people would consider these plants weeds. You can find wild foods in fields, woods, gardens, pots, and any space where a weed can grow. Why do I do wild foods? Well, there are lots of reasons. The top three are probably health, exercise, and independence. The grocery stores are selling fruits and vegetables, but they are usually shipped from far away, genetically modified, and sprayed with bug poison. All of these things are not good for our bodies! But with wild foods, we know where our food is coming from, we know that they are fresh, we know that they are not genetically modified, and, if we are careful of where we harvest, we know that they are not sprayed with harmful things. Another reason I enjoy wild foods is the exercise. Exercise is important, and when you are digging up all different kinds of roots, you are definitely getting some good exercise! The last main reason is independence. Wild foods are even more sustainable than gardening. So, if there was to be some kind of disaster, I know that my family would not starve. I love to touch things, taste things, and smell things. This is a perfect hobby for me, because I can touch the fluffy milkweed seeds, I can taste the fragrant peppermint leaves, and smell the sweet milkweed blossoms. The last reason I love it is that I just love being outside. I love the sunshine and fresh air. It is a great way to get my energy out. Wild foods are important to me, and I hope that I have shared why. And I also hope that other people will be inspired to pursue wild foods.”

This girl, obviously very well educated at home, learned her wild food lessons from a woman who is a very good friend of mine, and I cannot put into words how important the communication from this girl is to me. It reaffirms my belief that everyone, and most especially the children, delight in becoming proficient in wild food identification. My years in the wilderness, and the subsequent many years of teaching, both in New England and in the warm desert area of Phoenix, Arizona, gave me a formidable amount of wild food information, adventures, and experiences with all ages of interested folks. As a result, I have been able to contribute a worthwhile quantity of bona fide wild food materials because I lived it all for many years and then shared what I’d learned– the good, the not-so-good, and the downright hilarious.

Only recently did I produce enough breadth to my wild food informational output to be able to put together a comprehensive selection of materials for homeschool parents. This is my “Wild Food Homeschool Package”, available at my website, OfTheField.com. Items in that package include the coloring book I created titled “Wild Foods and Animals”, and I have photographs of younger children entertaining themselves with that coloring book while learning about wild food. I know they love having their art work posted where others can see and appreciate it. Children (and adults) can play just about any card game they can imagine using our “Wild Cards” card deck, while learning about a different wild plant that is pictured on the picture side of every card. In Homestead Memories there are my hard-to-believe adventures with wild food (and bears, and beavers, and coy dogs, and very cold winters, and more), and I include some key wild plant medicinal information as well. A number of parents have written to me to say how much their children love hearing those wild stories at bedtime!

In my book Create Wild Food Certainty through Plant Identification Walks, children can find out how to build their own small (or large, if they are so inclined) wild food walk, where they can put identification markers beside each wild edible they have planted (or that grows there naturally), and teach other kids about wild food. It’s quite something when a child educated in wild food identification goes into a back yard or park area and sees growing wild the very plant they’ve been studying. The light goes on that yes, free food really is everywhere, and yes, they are never going to starve no matter what happens with the regular food that is sold in stores. It is empowering to them.

I do believe that the future of this planet depends on how truly well-informed our children become and how responsible they feel towards their stewardship of the Earth. Getting to the truth is often a tricky proposition in this era of mass media, but Mother Nature does not lie, and she has provided us generously with an incredible variety of interesting, nutritional, and free edible plants and trees. And yes, it is fine to take the time to stop and smell (and forage on) the beautiful and naturally growing roses along the way.

About The Author:

Linda Runyon is the editor of the “OfTheField.com” website and the author of many wild plant books and instructional materials. She extends a special discount for Survival Blog readers using coupon code “redoubt”, good for a limited time.

THE RULES OF FORAGING

These rules are for your own protection when investigating plants that are new to you. If followed closely, they will protect you in the field.

  1. DO NOT collect plants closer than 200 feet from a car path or contaminated area.
  2. NEVER collect from areas sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals.
  3. DO NOT collect plants with RED STEMS, or red striations or stripes.
  4. ALWAYS BE FAMILIAR with all dangerous plants in YOUR area of collection.
  5. POSITIVELY IDENTIFY all plants you intend to use for food.
  6. Take a piece off the plant and roll between your fingers. SNIFF CAREFULLY. Does it smell like something you would eat? If it doesn’t, DISCARD IMMEDIATELY. If it does, go to rule 7.
  7. Take another piece off the plant and roll until juicy. RUB the tiny piece on your gum above your teeth.
  8. WAIT 20 minutes.
  9. DOES YOUR GUM ITCH, BURN, TINGLE, SWELL OR STING? If no reaction occurs, go on to rule 10.
  10. Take another piece of the plant and put in a teacup. Add boiling water and steep for 5 minutes. SIP SLOWLY for 20 more minutes. WATCH FOR NAUSEA, BURNING, DISCOMFORT. If no reaction occurs, you may ingest a small amount.
  11. WAIT ANOTHER 20 MINUTES and watch for any reaction.
  12. Keep all samples AWAY from children or pets.
  13. Store all seeds and bulbs AWAY from children and pets.
  14. Teach children to keep all plants AWAY from their mouths and DO NOT ALLOW children chew or suck nectar from any unknown plants.
  15. AVOID smoke from burning plants. Smoke may irritate the eyes or cause allergic reactions QUICKLY.
  16. BE AWARE of your neighbor’s habits with chemicals, pesticides and herbicides.
  17. BEWARE: heating or boiling doesn’t always destroy toxicity.

DISCLAIMER: This is information about wild food. The editors of SurvivalBlog nor the author make no claims as to the correctness, safety, or usability of the data.

The information contained herein is intended to be an educational tool for gathering and using wild plants. The information presented is for use as a supplement to a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle. The nutritional requirements of individuals may vary greatly; therefore, the author and publisher take no responsibility for an individual using and ingesting wild plants.

All data is to be used at your own risk. Using the Rules of Foraging greatly helps to reduce that risk, but even they are not foolproof.