Bushcraft and Survival Skills

This video goes over the basic pup tent set up for a 10'x 10' BCUSA tarp.

Survival Fishing with Flowers

In this 1st of a 4 part series Jack from The Survival Podcast
http://thesurvivalpodcast.com takes you survival fishing with a minimalist kit.
Jack's kit in this video consists of...

1. A small assortment of snelled hooks
2. A cheapo one dollar knife
3. A small spool of monofilament line
4. A small hank of parachute cord

In this first video Jack demonstrates how to quickly create a make shift fishing pole, insure you don't loose a fish if the rod breaks and how to turn a flower into a fishing lure.

Survival Shelter Three-Pole Tarp Tepee

If you have a tarp and three poles and the situation allows, make a survival tarp tepee. It is easy and takes very little time to make this survival tepee. It provides protection from the elements and can act as a signaling device by enhancing a small amount of light from a fire or candle. It is large enough to hold several people and their equipment and to allow sleeping, cooking, and storing firewood.

You can make this tepee, you need three poles 3.5 to 4.5 meters long and about 5 centimeters in diameter.

To make this tepee (See Figure Below)--

• Lay the poles on the ground and lash them together at one end.
• Stand the framework up and spread the poles to form a tripod.
• For more support, place additional poles against the tripod. Five or six additional poles work best, but do not lash them to the tripod.
• Determine the wind direction and locate the entrance 90 degrees or more from the mean wind direction.
• Lay out the tarp on the "backside" of the tripod
• Place the tarp over the top of a free-standing pole.
• Then place the pole back up against the tripod so that the tarp is at the same height as the lashing on the three poles.
• Wrap the tarp around one side of the tripod.
• The canopy should be of double thickness, as you are wrapping an entire tarp.
• You need only wrap half of the tripod, as the remainder of the tarp will encircle the tripod in the opposite direction.
• Construct the entrance by wrapping the folded edges of the tarp around two free-standing poles.
• You can then place the poles side by side to close the tepee's entrance.
• Place all extra tarp underneath the tepee poles and inside to create a floor for the shelter.
• Leave a 30- to 50-centimeter opening at the top for ventilation if you intend to have a fire inside the tepee.

Another center support survival shelter is a Ponch Tent A-Frame set outside but over the center of the tent (Below). Use two 90- to 120-centimeter-long sticks, one with a forked end, to form the A-frame. Tie the hood's drawstring to the A-frame to support the center of the tent.

When TSHTF, one of your top concerns will be finding enough food to sustain you until regular food distribution channels get back up and running. Here's where to find the food you need:

1. The food you have stored in your house.
2. The food you have stored in your car and other locations (ie: bug out shelter)
3. The food in your office.
4. The food in other offices in your building/neighborhood/city (bring a crowbar).
5. The food running around near your home (squirrel, possum, rabbits, etc).
6. The wild food you can gather (berries, cat tails, apples, nuts, etc).
7. The larger food in the forest (deer, elk, bear, etc).
8. Larger food on local ranches (pig, goat, cow, etc).
9. Food in water near your home (fish, shellfish, seaweed, etc).
10. Food on local farms (vegetables, grains, fruit, etc).
11. Food in grocery stores.
12. Food in warehouses/cold storage warehouses.
13. Food in institutions (ie: food banks, schools, hospitals, etc).
14. Food in local restaurants.
15. Food in vacation homes and homes where people have left.
16. Food in your yard (dandelions, vegetables and fruit you have grown, etc.).
17. Food on the way to its destination (shipping containers, refrigerated trucks, etc).
18. Food you can create (quick growing vegies and meat supplies).
19. Food provided by relief organizations.
20. Food that any other day you wouldn't consider food (rats, bugs, pigeon, etc).
21. Food you can have brought in (ie: a contact from an area not hit that could bring you supplies).
22. Food that others may overlook (honey from bees, maple syrup from trees, snakes, etc).
23. Food that takes concerted effort/materials/equipment to get (ie: whale, other deep sea fish, mountain goat, etc).
24. Food that freegans would love (search dumpsters, garbage cans, garbage dumps, etc).
25. Food that isn't people food (dog food, cat food, animal food stored in grain silos, etc).

Obviously most of these sources have drawbacks. Some sources may mean you need to break the law to get at it, some sources have a decided ick factor, and some sources mean you my end up fighting over it with others who are equally hungry. Also, once you acquire food from the aforementioned sources, you will need to hide it/guard it/protect it.

Source

This is a pretty neat trick. You trim back the plastic sleeve on the negative end of the battery on one side - not all the way around. You pry up the end of the battery slightly, and put one end of the bent staple (or paper clip, or wire, or whatever) in the gap, under the paper insulator. Then you use a piece of char cloth or high quality tinder to press the free end of the staple against the negative contact of the battery. If your tinder is good, it will produce enough heat to get a coal. Here is a link to the video: (I did not make this video, I found it) http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-su...staple-222300/ If you are in the woods you may likely have a camera or other device that requires batteries. I imagine that this could be done with AAA, C, or D batteries as well. If you do not have a staple, you are like to be able to come up with a usuable piece "wire-like" metal. The only drawback I can see, and it is a big one, is the necessity of having char cloth or extremely good tinder on hand.