Survival Food: Liquid Gold

Honey is liquid gold. It has simple sugars, B and C vitamins, and it has medicinal values too. Add this to cuts and burns to keep from infection, use it as a 'liquid bandage' in a pinch. It has antimicrobial properties. But the best is that this is one food that NEVER GOES BAD! It has many literal uses for it, that I am really surprised that this is not really mentioned for survival bags. Thought I would mention this.

You can read where I found this info on here: Bees online

Survival Gear: Bag Balm

Hey guys, got another good multi-use item that I would recommend. Bag Balm! Originally used for irritated cow udders, this lanolin and petroleum based product is great for other uses. Not only does it work on cows, but it also works well on human skin too. It is excellent for dry chapped hands, stops skin irritation, helps speed minor wound care healing. Here is a USA Today Article that tells a little bit more on the history and uses of this stuff. I did not know that they used this stuff on the pads of the cadaver dogs at the World Trade Center Site.

Personally I used this on my own hands. It is a little greasy, but it really worked making my hands soft. I would suggest putting this on at night and letting it soak into your skin, it only takes a little bit to work. It is a good addition to the med cabinet.

Survival Food: Drink Mixes

Just thought I would do a quick little article about some things that I am currently storing as an alternative to soda pop. Need to get off that caffeine, and some of these drinks are good to carry in an emergency vehicle bag.

Teas: Yes, I drink a lot of tea. Most of the time I make a lot of my own herbal mixes for different reasons. Most are made for medicine when I am sick or just for plain enjoyment. Some though I do buy from the store and many are good and not so good. The best ones that I like are Biglows Tea and Native American Tea Company teas. Those two I find consistently taste the best. There are several downsides to this choice for drinks. 1. Many teas contain caffeine, and if you are in an area where water is scarce, you do not want to be losing more water than you take in. Caffeine makes you pee a lot. This is a good thing to keep in mind. 2. A good base of knowledge in herbs really helps, ESPECIALLY if you grow/harvest/forage/purchase in bulk whole leaf teas. It is good to know the effects and side affects of plants and how they affect you! You have to be very careful and know what you are doing. Boxed teas are for the most part ok, but if you plan to harvest wild plants, learn all that you can about them. You cannot make a mistake with something like this. I say this because some poisonous plants look a lot like safe plants out in the wild. It is a good idea to do a lot of reading from resources like Peterson's Field Guide to Edible and Medicinal Plants, get good instructional training. For me studying plants is a lot of fun, I enjoy it. But if you feel this is not the route for you, don't do it. In a survival situation, you cant afford to make mistakes.

Dry Milk: This is good for a lot of stuff, just to drink and to cook with. At $7 a box it easily is a bargain to buy than the gallon stuff if you drink or use a lot of it. There are also some individually wrapped packets that can be put in backpacks for on the go. Which I think it would be a good idea as it does contain protein. The only downside of this is it does taste like skim milk, otherwise it is not bad cold.

Gatorade Dry Mix: Yep, I drink Gatorade quite a bit. I get the big cans of it from walmart for a pretty decent price. Also it comes in individually wrapped packets for those on the go, I have seen them at places like REI. If anyone else knows where I can get those, let me know. It is good for sodium and electrolytes as well as flavoring water.

Emergen-C Packets: Good for adding vitamins to your drink, but not so good as a stand alone. It does have a lot of C in it as well as B vitamins. I do suggest adding it in with something else like juice to make it more palatable. They are a little pricey too, but still ok. This is carried by a lot of grocery, health food and drug stores.

Hot Chocolate: Again it is another option for flavoring water. You can buy them in canisters and individual packets. I just recently got some from Honeyville Farms hot chocolate with marhmallows, though I have not tried it out yet as I am still finishing off a canister of Nestle's Quick that I bought 6 years ago. The powders I find never really go bad. It works well as a nice morale booster. What better way to end the day fighting the massive zombie hoard, or living through a cold winters day than a nice cup of hot chocolate? **/joking** Kids would like this. This you can get most anywhere.

Kool-Aid and other brand mixes: This is my last choice for a drink mix, only because of several things. 1. A lot of them have Aspartame so READ LABELS. 2. Other chemicals like dyes and stuff. I am really odd when it comes to those things. If anything else though, this is still AN option for flavoring water. Many come in individual packets and whole canisters. Kool-aid even came out with a tablet form of mix like that of Alkaseltzer, just drop in the tablet. No need to add sugar and each of the tablets is individually wrapped too, so they do not take up much space. Kids love this, but I am not too keen on having this. Again, this you can get most anywhere.

That is all I have for the basics in drink mixes, if any of you out there have any suggestions, just put them in the comments area. I would like to hear your ideas and findings.

Survival Gear: Carts!

I am not sure if anyone has talked about carts on here, but I thought I would mention it. Since I live in an apartment, I needed a way to haul groceries and other items from my car fairly quickly. I well I got one several years ago for Christmas. That thing has helped like you would not believe. I have used it for hauling my laundry down to the laundromat, bringing home groceries, to hauling out garbage. In fact it came in handy when the apartment elevator broke down and I needed to use the stairs. That cart saved me several trips if I had to do it by hand, so instead of making 3-4 trips, It only took me 1. This one is close to the one that I have, from the same company, except it does not have a metal plate. Also there is an extra thick rubber-ish hooded liner that you can put in it. I have taken this cart to many stores and have never gotten a complaint. Overall it is well made, folds up very flat so it saves room and I use it all the time.

Do any of you use carts, trailers or wagons?

Goodies in the Mail!

Yesterday I got some goodies that I will be doing reviews on. One is 'One Man's Wilderness' by Sam Keith and Richard Proenneke, the other is '98 degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive' by Cody Lundin. Both I got on Amazon, plus I have some stuff on the way that I will be testing out. Thought I would let you guys know.

Survival Media: Dual Survival

Morning guys, it is WAY early for me to be up, but I cant sleep due to my back is sore, and I am not going to waste time doing nothing. Plus on top of that, I will be very busy this weekend and will not have time to put up another blog post till next week. Now on to the topic, Dual Survival.

I am not sure how I found out about this show, though I know it was from somewhere on the internet. Dual Survival is about two survival experts who have had opposite types of training in survival. The famous Cody Lundin, (author of 98 degrees, and When All Hell Breaks Loose,) is an expert in primitive survival skills and believes in working with nature. Dave Canterbury is trained in the military ways of survival, believing that nature is against you. Both of these men are put together in typical dangerous survival situations, with tools that everyday people are likely to have with them. One situation was if your car dies in a desert area, what do you do? Would you think about taking out the reflectors in the car headlights to help start a fire? They show what can be used for tools and how to improvise for the things you need. That is pretty typical for every show, but it is interesting how they go around doing things. Dave tries to rely on hunting for meat more, whereas Cody checks areas for wild plants and insects as a food base. They go over the basics of food, shelter, fire, water and security, and show the multiple ways that those can be obtained. These two really know their stuff.

Now, I must admit, when I first heard about the synopsis of the show, I thought that this was going to be an out and out "reality show" kind of bitchfest. From what I remember there was a little amount of that in the first episode, but after Cody made that amazing shelter in the first episode, there was a huge amount of respect between the two men. Sure there still some times that they pick on each other, but all in all it is not that bad. I have to admit, this a bit of a refreshing change from other shows.

The one gripe that I have about this show are They always point out that Cody walks around barefoot, We really do not need to be reminded about that so much.

Overall it is entertaining to watch.

Survival Gear: Flour Sack Cloth

Thought I would mention this to you guys. I know that many folks recommend a sort of large cloth like a bandanna for an emergency bag or a Bug Out Bag. Here is an alternative to the bandanna, flour sack cloth. The white piece of material under the camo colored bandanna in the picture above is flour sacking. It is pretty good because most flour sacking is a little bit bigger than a bandanna and can be used for a lot of things. Good flour sacking is really thick and durable, can soak up a bit of water, yet it dries pretty quickly. It can serve as a hat, a shirt if you have more than one and I have even heard of this material being made in to dresses during the Depression era. It can act as a bag too. I personally have been using really good sack cloth for years as dish drying towels. I have some that were given to me. Even the white color can act as a contrasting flag to signal for help in an emergency. I keep an eye out for this when I can and recently I had bought some from wal-mart for under $5 and some a little pricier at hardware stores. I know that there are some dollar store ones that are thin and cheap, but quality is best.

If any of you out there know where to get some more real quality sack cloth, let me know.

Flour Sacks for Clothes Article

Survival Gear: The Army's Greatest Invention

No, it is not a gun, or a plane. It's a can opener. Yes a can opener. A P-38 Military Can Opener to be exact. Yes, unless you have been in the Army, though I dont think they use them anymore (if I am wrong please correct me in the comments area), you might have not seen the style of one of these before. Sure there are the commercial hand held openers, but many of our veterans have sworn by these. Years ago these used to come in C-rations for opening the canned goods that came with them. The actual can opener itself is a little bit smaller than what the picture shows, it is exactly 2 inches long and an inch and an 8th wide. It is steel, with a 3/4ths of an inch curved claw blade that can open almost any can, and be used for other purposes too, like cutting things that need cutting, or used as a mini screwdriver. It is small, light, compact, and to me seems pretty tough and the hole on the end makes it so it could be put on a necklace or keychain. I tried it out on a can of tuna for my lunch yesterday. This is a useful little tool.

BTW, I bought 15 of these for $7 total at amazon, though supposedly many have lasted a lifetime for our veterans.

Go here for more information on this little tool at Wikipedia. There is another link on that page to Georgia Outfitters where they have veterans stories on how this little tool was used too in the resources area.

Survival Gear: Field Testing Part 2

I am just quick making another post because there are also a few other things that I forgot to mention. It is a good idea to field test your gear for several good reasons.

1. It is good practice. Get comfortable actually using it, even if it is for mundane things. Good example is what I mentioned in my last post, I made my lunch with it. What good is your gear if you do not know how to use it or how it works? Testing in relatively safe conditions before you happen to get into trouble helps.

2. It shows where you can make improvements with your bag, and your personal skills. Are there things that you forgot to add? Or is there something that you did not think of, but found you could use later? For example, my bag could use a rag for cleaning things like dishes. Or maybe an extra pair of socks to keep your feet dry? If you do not have it, then you cant use it.

3. Testing shows how well your gear performs too. Maybe you bought or made something that was supposed to work, but didn't?

4. It gives you a chance to use up the perishable things in your bag so that way what you have does not go to waste. Waste not, want not.

These are all good things to keep in mind when you put together an emergency bag. Someday you may have to rely on it.

Survival Gear: Field Testing!

You know, sometimes it is good to field test your gear from time to time. It is good practice, and sometimes you get some surprising results. I wanted to get used to using my vehicle bag for basic stuff. What I decided to do was use it to make myself lunch, just a simple mountain house meal. I carry with me some sterno with a sterno stove and a magnesium firestarter as a part of my kit. Remember, I tested this setup once before at home, and it worked pretty well. But there was a difference, it was AT HOME and I used a glass jar. This time I went to a small park, used the same stove and my canteen cup and water that I had stored in my vehicle. This time, it took longer because I was outside and there was a bit of wind, and the water never really got to boiling, but it did get barely hot enough to use. This is something to keep in mind if I am going to use this setup again. In calm conditions it might be different. But hey, it helped start the baby steps to starting out in outdoor cooking, and it feels good to know that I can cook a basic meal anywhere... I hope to do more soon. This is a good example though to go out and practice some skills and get comfortable with using different tools.

Site Edit: Wolves love Birdies!

Just wanting to let you guys know, this old wolf is now on Twitter! Click the follow me button on the right side of the page to get den updates! The Wolf Den is now LIVE on Twitter!

Also, if you like any of my articles and want to share them, you can now click the 'Tweet THIS' button at the bottom of each post! Spread the word about this place!

Slight update!

Hey guys, I know it has been a month since I posted anything. I promise I should have some articles up by the end of this week. This past month I have been taking care of some things on the *ahem* cave front. Which is what survival is after all. Take care of your own home first, then the world.

Just thought I would put up a quick post first.

Survival Mentality: Quiz Question Reply

Answer: It is YOU! You are your greatest survival tool, both body and mind. It is yours and yours alone. What you do with it, how you feed it, take care of it, and teach it can possibly make the difference if you would make it out of a situation. How in shape is your body? Do you exercise, or do you lay on the couch all day (sorta guilty on that one...). Do you eat fruits and veggies? Or do you eat fast food? Do you teach yourself new skills, or was the last time you read a book back in high school? I think these are legitimate questions to ask yourself, and GET HONEST WITH YOURSELF! That is the best thing, getting honest.

I know I am guilty on not doing a lot of that stuff, like the exercising, and not eatin right, and I have only myself to blame on that one. But, I am going to fix that and start a small routine. I have some exercises that are pretty simple to do that will help me. As far as the food issue, I have been recently going to the farmers market on saturdays getting fresh stuff to eat, while supporting local farmers, and getting lots of exercise from the walking and lifting! The skills thing I am working on right now. I had bought several books that, while I am sitting on the couch, I am at least reading them, and gaining knowledge on what to do. So far I have Urban Survival Guide and Cody Lundin's book 'When All Hell Breaks Loose.' (Reviews are coming on those!) And soon I will be doing the lessons and ideas from those books. Also just recently I have been field testing a few items that I have bought and am actually working with. I bought a second small Sterno stove (Wow, say that five times fast) to use for just as a second stove here at home, or to have an extra for my vehicle bag. Also, keeping up this blog is a good thing too, because I am not only reminding myself what I have learned, but I am also helping you guys out there too. Practicing these things also helps to get the mindset, and helps not to let panic set in. I never knew the freedom of carrying a mini kitchen with me, and having the skills to make a meal whenever I wanted. It felt kind of nice. If you know what to do in hard situations, you are less likely to panic, and more likely to live. Even speaking is a good skill, as Bob mentioned in his comment on my last article, it might be able to get you out of trouble.

I am not sure what made me write this post. Maybe it was the show 'I shouldnt be alive'. Where a couple got lost in the jungle for several nights, and did what they could to survive, on hardly any water, an very little food. The sheer mentality got them through it. Or it maybe just a random thought or two.

To sum everything up... Your body and mind is the best survival tool you have, and everyone knows, if you neglect your tools, they wont work when you need them the most. So take care of it! Thanks to everyone who has responded, and sorry for the delay. Thanks again!

Survival Mentality: Quiz question!

Ok, I know that I have been doing a lot of product reviews and have not gone into the survival mentality too much since I started this blog. I thought I would just put a question out there that might get some folks gray matter going. I think most on here might get it right away, but here goes...

Question: What is your greatest survival tool?

Feel free to post your answers in the comments area.

(BTW, I will be posting the comments in a few days!)

Survival Gear: Cup and canteen

Water. Something we take for granted. For thousands of year the human populace has lived near sources of water. We need it, but for the longest time, we have been complacent about it. It used to be for some of us to take the bucket to the nearest water source daily, now it is just turn on the tap and hello WATER! Statistically we can live 3 weeks without food, but we cannot live three days without clean drinking water. It keeps us alive and healthy. Why am I talking about this? Well the situation in Massachusetts comes to mind. Seems that many would be willing to give their right or left (fill in body part here) for clean drinking water.

I am no expert on this, but boiling it does work. There are filters out there that do work too. M.D. Creekmore mentions of a water filter that you can make. There are commercial filters out there that you can purchase too. There are also ways of chemically treating it too. A combination of these methods is the best for removing impurities and bugs. Personally so far I have just bought bottled water for storage and rotate it when needed, will be working on my water skills when I can. I need to work on a lot of skills.

And of course, storing them in jugs and water specific containers is the best for storage. There are water specific conatiners out there, but my advice to you if you re-use containers... DO NOT USE MILK JUGS! Even the ones that you fill up at the store. I have known them to leak, and water leaks are no fun to clean up in a home. Get ones that are meant to hold water for long periods, and make sure that you clean them before putting clean water in them. Make sure you read up on how to store water, (I am doing that myself, I got Cody Lundin's book "When All Hell Breaks Loose". Might do a review on that in the future).

Also, get used to carrying some water with you, either in a backpack, vehicle, or purse. It is sometimes nice to have a drink of water on you, without having to pay too much for it. Since I travel a lot, I picked up a military G.I. metal cup, a 1 quart canteen and cover at Camping Survival. I want to add that, that online store is excellent! Speedy service. Two paws up! The whole canteen kit fits well on my backpack too. I wanted the metal cup so that way if I needed to boil water with it, I can (Yay for multipurpose!)

So, that is all that I can think of for now, sorry for the delay between posts, been doing a lot of stuff around here. If any of you want to add anything to this article, please put it in the comments area!

Survival Media: After Armageddon

Hey, back again with another review! This time I am giving a review on The History Channels documentary 'After Armageddon'. The premise of the documentary is what more than likely will happen after a huge catastrophe, and in this case they used a global pandemic. Which in reality, I could see that happen some what. Disease spreads really fast and can move with speed, especially if someone is a carrier, and do not know it. So I could see this as plausible but slightly far fetched.

What they try to show is what would possibly happen with an "average" family, what should be done to protect a family during a crisis like this and what might happen afterwords. They talk about what would happen in the cities as far as food, water, and basic sanitation services, if those fail due to the crisis. They talk about other things like human migration from the large populaces. And what I like most of all is that it talks about the human behavioral aspect before, during and after too, from what I can see. Mind you I am just a beginner (as in no formal training) in learning this stuff, but so far this looks like a very good documentary as a layman's common sense perspective. Just to mention where I got it, I downloaded it from Itunes, just to add it to my collection.

Survival Resource: The Survivalist Blog Resource list!

I just wanted to post that M.D. Creekmore came out with an excellent resource list that spans a huge list of skills and topics. Some good reference and resource materials. Check it out!

Survival Food: Honeyville Farms

Every once in a while I like to try out new companys, especially when they are recommended by others. Well about a week back The Survival Mom recommended the site Honeyville Farms as a good place to buy dried goods. So I did check out the site. To me they looked legit so I thought I would give them a chance, so I placed an order for 2 cans of their Freeze Dried Apples a week ago. I just got the small cans, not #10 size. What really pleased me is that this is one of the few businesses that does take Paypal as an ordering option. It makes things so much easier to pay for stuff online. Well, I just got my order today and tested one of the cans out. The product tastes really good! I was pretty impressed. I opened one can which I will use and the other went into my long term storage.

With good taste, good service, timely shipping as well as well packed, this is definitely worth a two paws up! Full Recommendation. If I get any other items from them, I will post about them on here.

Survival food: More Mountain House!

Yep! I taste tested some more Mountain House stuff! This time I did three different items from them. Two out of the three I liked. The two that I liked were their meals. I tried Chili Mac with Beef (shown above), which I did like as it was full of good beans, noodles and meat. Also had a pretty strong spicy flavor to my taste. I would suggest this for a good home meal, or a back packing meal. It was that good. Two paws up!

The second one was Lasagana with Beef, (unfortunately no picture). This one was pretty good, albeit slightly more bland than the chili mac. Had tomato sauce, lasagna noodles, cheese like stuff, and meat. Still though it was tasty and with the right spices I would make it better. I would have it for a vehicle bag or something for a hike. Both meals were very filling. Here a hesitant two paws up.



The third one I had was one of their desserts, their neapolitan ice cream. It was a bit of a different experience. It had a texture that felt like I was chewing on styrofoam that melted and tasted sweet in 3 different flavors. I am not sure if I would try this again, it was not bad... just not what I am used to. The jury is still out on this one, though not too enthuastic about it.

Have any of you tried other Mountain House products or other MREs? Please feel free to post your suggestions and opinions!

Survival Skill: Laundry Day!

Well, maybe not a survival skill per-se but, more of a home domestication skill. I know if you are in a survival situation water will be more valuable, but I think this would come in handy if electricity goes out for a few weeks or for a longer term solution, provided that you have a reliable source of water, if electricity is still out. Our great grandparents learned to clean their clothes long before there was a washing machine or electricity. To me during tough times, cleanliness is everything. You keep clean, and you keep relatively healthy. So, I think this skill might come in handy.

What I use is just a regular rubber dish basin (you can also use a clean bucket) and a toilet plunger. Why a toilet plunger? It is good for agitating the fabric, (as well as good exercise for your arms!) I got the basin for $6 at a grocery store and plunger for $3 at a huge box hardware store. BTW, I use that plunger for laundry ONLY, nothing else, hehehe. I have a seperate plunger for the toilet. What I use for cleaning materials is borax ($4 a box), Dr Bronner's Magic Castille Soap (the most expensive at $9.50, HOWEVER, I use very little per load), white vinegar ($1.25), and regular bleach ($4-ish). NOTE: I only use bleach for bed linens, and undergarments. Do not use bleach like Hi-lex on colored stuff, it will take out the dyes in color garments. Also, I don't touch bleach water with my bare hands. I heard it is not good to do that. So I use rubber gloves. Does anyone know if this is true? I also use Ivory bar soap for things that will stain. Add the clothes into the basin, work with the plunger for a while, rub out any clothes with stains, and then rinse your clothes really, really well.

For drying clothes, I just wring them out really well, and hang them up someplace that it is o.k. to let them drip dry. Clothes lines work well for most places, but for places like an apartment, I recommend an inexpensive folding clothes rack. That is what I use. Depending on the time of the year, clothes are usually dry within a day. If I need my stuff dry within few hours, I take and put the clothing rack in front of my box fan, since I have electricity.

Again, sorry for the long delay between posts, been busy with some stuff.