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Posts Tagged ‘survival’

72 hour survival kits could make the difference between life and death of you and your family in an emergency. There are many types of disasters and emergencies: fires, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes, and tornadoes. The government action plan for a major disaster estimates three to seven days to begin providing workers to the zone. 72 hours is three days - it would be even better to plan on having a survival kit that would support you for ten to twelve days.

Instead of dismissing this kind of planning out of hand; remember the types of disasters that happened in the past 15 years. Imagine what one of these would be like if you had nothing with you but what you were wearing. Even worse, consider the elderly or children that are in your care and how they would cope. To ease your mind, start creating your survival bags immediately.

Before you start packing or purchasing anything, consider what the most likely situation is based on where you are. This will help you plan on what to do in the case of an emergency. For example, if your house is close by the coast and the most probable problem is a hurricane, then your plan should involve packing your vehicle with what you need and driving to a safe place. If you live in a city then it is most likely that you will be walking to a safe place either because you have no vehicle or the streets will be so jammed that walking is the only choice. If you live in a relatively protected area inland, then your plan will be to be safe in your home.

Even though you should get ready for the most likely event, you should also have a backup plan. There may come a time in your life when you have to get out of town as fast as possible, and you will be unsure as to what help and support you will get while on the way. That is when you need to have one of these kits ready to go.

Prepare 72 hour kits for every person in your family. Start by getting a rucksack that is a size and capacity that the person can carry all day. You do not have to buy the bag to start putting together the items of the kit, however. Set aside two complete sets of rugged clothes that you no longer wear, but would serve well in an emergency. Then plan on what you are going to need for food, water, and shelter, and get it. Pack light so you can take it all.

Start preparing immediately, and be ready for when disaster strikes.

Prepare survival kits for everyone in your family. Look at the list of what goes into 72 hour survival kits.

Reflect back across the last 10 years and about disasters that caused disruption of the fragile food supply chain that delivers all our food to the supermarkets. What if you were in the Gulf Coast vicinity when Hurricane Katrina rumbled through? What about within a few hundred miles of Mount Saint Helens and the ash fall zone? Then ask yourself if you are a place that could be affected by a natural disaster like an earthquake, hurricane, flooding or anything else that can disrupt the food supply chain.

Do you have people in your family that trust on you to provide for them? How would you feel if you are not able to take care of your family and children? Picture what it would be like day after day looking at your hungry and thirsty children and not being able to do anything about it. The time to keep something like that from taking place is right now.

Here are three guidelines to assist you to get started on making a plan.

Make sure you have a safe place that everybody knows to come to. For many people this will be their house, but it also could be a cabin up in the woods, or a relative’s house. It is best to have a place that is accessible and won’t have hordes of people that will take your supplies.

Have a source of water, a way to store it, and a way to get potable water. A good way to do this is to have a well drilled on your property. Another is to identify a river or pond close by and make sure you have water filtration equipment on hand.

Have a reserve of food on hand. You can start by picking up some cases of soup and spaghetti locally, but to do this properly you should plan out the correct amount that you would need based on the number of people that are dependent on you and how long you think food will be unavailable. Furthermore, make sure that food does not spoil by rotating it periodically or getting food designed for long-term storage.

The time to prepare for an emergency so you can ensure the survival of your family is before the disaster hits. Make a plan and take action now.

Find out more about disaster preparedness supplies so you can properly prepare your family for an emergency at http://disasterpreparednesssupplies.org

Before you purchase that bowie knife, you might have a few questions that you want answered. One of the most frequently asked questions about these knives is whether or not you need a permit to own one. Do you have to have a permit if you keep your bowie knife at home? Do you need a permit if you will use it on a hunting trip? These questions are vital, but the answers might be far from enlightening.

In Your Home - Do you need a permit to own bowie knives and keep them in your home? The short answer to this is “no”. You are legally allowed to possess these knives within your home and you can keep them wherever you see fit. You can display them, put one beside your bed, or hide them away for future needs. However, when carrying such a weapon outside your home, things become stickier.

How do you know if you can carry bowie knives in public? The Internet is your most powerful tool in this case. Every US state has its own website, where you will find listed the laws governing firearms and bladed weapons. These laws will give you a broad overview of your rights and responsibilities where bowie knives, balisongs, dirks and daggers are concerned. However, your state’s laws are not the only consideration that you will have to make. In some states, the laws of counties or cities supersede those of the state in some instances.

The question of taking your bowie knife on a hunting, camping or fishing trip is quite different from “carrying it in public”. As these knives are designed for outdoors use, most states do not prohibit you from using them or carrying them without a permit if you will be engaged in an activity for which the knife was designed (a legal activity, of course).

As you can see, while you don’t have to have a permit to own bowie knives, you do have to take care to ensure that you remain on the right side of the law when carrying and using these tools. A little research can go a long way here.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knives and glock grip extensions store.

Bowie knives are fantastically versatile, enabling you to accomplish numerous different tasks with a single knife. However, what exactly are all the features of the blade used for? This can be hard to understand, as you’ll find bowie knives with different features from another. Part of the confusion is simply due to the modern evolution of the knife, while other models try to remain historically accurate. Here are a few features that you might find and need to understand.

Clip Point - Your bowie knife has one defining feature; it has a clipped point. This is the end of the blade and it looks like someone cut a section out of the tip. This is an important feature and serves several purposes. First, it serves to narrow the point of the knife, giving you greater control during use. Second, it ensures that the bowie knife has better penetrative (stabbing) power. As you might imagine, these benefits come in quite handy.

Another element of bowie knife design is the clipped point. In fact, if a knife claims to be a bowie, but does not have this distinctive feature, it is not a bowie knife. The clipped point was one of the original innovations that helped to cement this knife’s reputation in the Western world. It allows immense control of the point during general use or during combat, and provides greater penetration when using the knife for stabbing. A sharpened false edge on the clipped point offers extra cutting power, as well.

Spanish Notch - The Spanish Notch is another sometime inclusion. You’ll find that this notch offers little in the way of enhanced usability, but it does provide you with a handy point to start sharpening the blade. The notch sits at the back edge of the blade, just before the ricasso. This might have originally been used to help skin branches, or have been used to work with nautical rigging or other rope forms, but today it has few uses and is rarely found except on historically accurate bowie knives.

Guard - The guard, or quillions, of the blade serve several purposes, as well. You’ll find that traditional blades have angled guards, with the upper guard angled forward toward the point and the lower guard angled back, toward the butt. These provide protection for the hand, as well as allowing the wielder to trap an opponent’s blade (the upper guard only). The guard also serves to keep your hand from running off the handle and onto the blade when stabbing with the knife.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knives and glock grip extensions store.

One of the most important questions when considering the purchase of a bowie knife is what it can cut. What can you use that new bowie knife to cut? What are the limitations? Will it cut equally well through skin as through cooked meat or raw vegetables? What about wood and underbrush? What uses can you put that new bowie knife to?

Why is there such a great disparity where the bowie knife is concerned? Actually, it boils down to the several different types of bowie knife out there. For instance, you will find smaller versions, as well as very large versions and everything in between.

As you might surmise, very large knives aren’t the ideal item to use when cutting something delicate - it’s a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack an eggshell. Conversely, using a small bowie knife to cut heavy, thick things is equally unwise, something like using a razorblade to chop firewood comes to mind.

So, what can you cut with a bowie knife? It all depends on your particular knife. While you most certainly can use that gigantic blade to gut a fish, chances are quite good that the blade will be so large that you’ll muck up the job. It’s quite difficult to make a precision cut when the blade is twice as long as the fish! Now, you can take that in the opposite direction as well. You might not have much luck using a six-inch bowie knife to cut through thick brush or cut kindling for your fire.

How do you know what your bowie knife can cut? The trick is to buy a knife that is suited to your purpose. Knife blades that run in the middle ground can be used to cut a wider variety of materials, but you’ll find that, while they are good “jacks-of-all-trades,” they’re not good for very specific tasks where a long or short blade should be used. So, the first trick is to buy a bowie knife that fits your needs. This will require that you know what those needs are. Of course, buying more than one knife to fill those needs is always an option, as well.

Dave is the owner of an online bowie knife and glock grip extensions store.

Fire starting has become somewhat of a lost art. Decades ago, it was an essential skill for survival, but modern technology has made it so simple that most people would be at a loss to start a fire if they were without a cigarette lighter or matches. However, anybody can learn to start fire without either matches or a lighter - rain or shine. Let’s look at the necessary ingredients for starting fire.

The three basic ingredients are fuel, oxygen and heat. We’re going to assume, for this discussion that the fuel is wood. Oxygen is a given as long as you’re alive, so let’s look at your heat source. You’ve got to have sufficient heat to ignite your fuel, or at least your tinder so that it can in turn ignite your fuel, or wood. Let’s consider how to get that heat source.

There are three basic sources for heat to start your fire - first is a flame which can come from a match or lighter. But what if you don’t have either of those on hand? There are really only two other heat sources for starting fires and that would be either a coal or a spark. Coals can be generated by creating friction between two wood objects. This can be achieved by a drill or bow and drill combination. Friction between the wood materials can actually create a coal which can then be used to ignite tinder. In a future article, we’ll explain just how to do this in detail. For now, suffice it to say that this involves a significant amount of work. For those who have learned to start a fire this way, the universal lesson taught is that it is prudent to have another more efficient method on hand. That’s where spark comes in.

The right kind of steel can be useful to create enough sparks to light tinder. It can be a very small piece making it convenient to carry with you, ready for use at any time. One real benefit in the use of a fire steel is that if it’s good quality, it will work even if it’s wet. There are all kinds of them on the market, it just depends upon your favorite style.

When it comes to tinder, there are numerous natural materials that work well. Dead moss, bark shavings and dead grass are just a few of the possibilities. Those that are really serious about fire starting might want to consider carrying some tinder with them, just to be prepared. Whatever method you use, practice makes perfect. Develop your skill enough so that you’ll be able to get the results you want under any circumstances.

This article was written by Griz Garzo, who is passionate about wilderness survival and primitive skills, including firestarting.

A dependable powerful light is very useful in situations where light is not readily available. Electricity has been considered one of the best discoveries for just that reason. This is why it is a great idea to have a portable and dependable device to provide light and power for electronic equipment. The best part is that the devices built for campers or emergency situations, like the Scout Explorer Kit, are light weight and easy to use. This specific kit comes with three different ways to power the device: by using the AC wall outlet, trying out the solar panels which are included, or by using a car adapter. Regardless of where a person goes, they are sure to have access to at least one of these means to power the kit.

The Escape Scout Explorer Kit includes a Scout 150 batter, Escape 30M solar briefcase, AC wall charger, 12V female and male cigarette adapters, 9′ cord as well as a patent-pending carabiner, and two light-a-life lights. The Light-a-Life light provides far more area coverage than a normal lamp does and lasts for much longer. This means that there is no time limit on the arrival of the party to camp and that camp can be easily set up regardless of how late and dark it has become.

This kit is energy efficient as it uses no more than necessary and green energy approved as it contains a solar panel, which means that, even away from an AC adapter or a car, the energy can still flow as long as there is sunlight in the area. In addition to being able to set up camp using solar power, it can save additional energy by switching to the solar power during the day.

No matter what kind of devices you have; laptops, cell phones, radios, DVD players, CPAP machines, phones and PDAs. There are three ways of discharging the Scout 150 battery which include 12V DC, AC and USB. The included charge controller helps in guarding against all kinds of voltage spikes while the temperature control systems along with the fuse systems help in smooth performance and safe long term use.

The solar panel comes in the form of a foldable briefcase that can be opened up anywhere and made into a fully operating solar panel for every trip. The pop out leg along with the locking mechanisms can be conveniently set up every where. This solar panel supports 12 Light- a- life lights that can be attached to chains and help in providing light to the entire campsite and moving around safely.

This kit can be used pretty much anywhere from a regular camping trip to a walk across the United States of America, as the solar panel is very useful for powering cell phones and laptops, to emergency activity in Haiti where the kits provided much needed light to those who were working on relief efforts. Not only is the Scout Explorer Kit useful for powering pretty much any low charge electronic, it is also light weight and easily moved from place to place. This is one energy source that will not hold a person back or make them wish they hadn’t decided to take that trip across the United States.

Have you considered the Goal 0 Scout Explorer? Jordan Eske can tell you that in emergencies these units will come in handy.

categories: scout explorer kit,solar briefcase,solar battery charger,battery chargers,portable power,camping,camping,travel,safety,survival

What do you call the creative use of natural things to provide for your survival? Bushcraft survival. The phrase has been made popular by TV survivalist Ray Mears and Les Hiddins (The bush Tucker Man). It involves using natural cordage, bushcraft knives, building natural shelters, eating wild edible plants, starting fires without matches or cigarette lighters, and obtaining and purifying water in primitive situations. Although early American mountain men and the Indians were masters of these skills, they have been pretty much forgotten these days.

But is there a practical use for these skills today? It turns out that interest is growing in bushcraft survival especially among outdoor enthusiasts such as backpackers, climbers and hunters. A variety of situations can arise in which it could mean the difference between life and death to know some basic wilderness survival skills.

However, in the new age of man made disaster scenarios, especially related to terrorism, these skills are not only useful for everyone, but they could mean the difference for an individual’s or even family’s ability to survive a catastrophic event.

There are a variety of ways to learn these skills, from books and videos. While many videos are available on youtube, there are also websites devoted to the development of bushcraft survival skills. But really, the bottom line is to try out the various techniques yourself after reading about them or watching them demonstrated in a video. It’s one thing to know about them, and quite another to know, by experience, how to do them. With practice, you can become very proficient in the art.

One of the best ways to learn Bushcraft survival is by doing it together as a family. Children enjoy developing these skills plus, it helps them to become more confident in problem solving using only what is at hand - a skill that could really pay off later in life. That’s all for now. We’ll have more to say later about specific survival skills and equipment that could make all the difference. See you then.

To find great resources onBushcraft Survival and read more of Griz Garzo’s articles, visit http://www.bushcraftsurvival.net.

A thoroughly prepared survival kit can save your life during a disaster or unexpected emergency such as a hurricane, flood, fire, or earthquake. Survival Kits can be found all over the internet or in stores but the fact is that many of these are substandard at best. Although you are able to purchase pre-made survival gear off the shelf, you may perhaps find it best to make the personal. No matter which method you choose it’s critical that you simply come across the proper survival kit to fit your desires.

Most survival kits are contained within a bag or backpack so that it is quickly transported. A disaster may displace you from your house, and a roadside emergency can happen any time, where outside help may not be handy for a long time. You don’t want to be unprepared, placing you or your loved ones at an increased risk.

Every survivor has their favorite products to have with them in a time of need. These things are typically tossed somewhere inside a back pack or inside trunk of a car or boat where they can be tough to locate or may be all but forgotten.

It is imperative that you carefully construct a complete list of items you will need to make it through circumstances you may face. It can be important to keep these survival items in an easy to access kit and know how to use them to their fullest.

Surviving an unexpected emergency is certainly not uncomplicated, but you possibly can ease the stress by being certain that basic human needs are met, for instance food, water and shelter. Your gear must consist of these as well as emergency lighting, a compass, GPS or map or fire starter of some sort, to name a few. Determining what your emergency survival requirements may well be and planning for them will save you lots of time, anxiousness and aggravation later on.

When it comes to preparing for an emergency, it’s easy to get lulled into a feeling of complacency. For lots of people it’s hard to face the reality that disaster could strike close to home even though we have witnessed the hardship that comes from disasters like the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, tornadoes and the 9-11terrorist attacks. The unfortunate reality is the fact that earthquake, fire, flood, and storms can cause injuries, death, and destruction.

Much of the unbearable agony and loss associated with disasters may be avoided or at the very least be made easier with the proper disaster survival equipment. Like an old friend, if you vigilantly maintain your kit, it will be ready and waiting for you when you have to have it most.

The reason lots of people are indecisive in preparing for emergencies is that it’s a hassle to put together your own disaster survival gear. The thought of having to go to several stores and pick up supplies makes it easy to put off, plus, there is the question of the shelf life of different items, particularly food and water. You may want to start off with a simple pre-made one person survival kit The reality is the fact that a correctly stocked and well kept Survival Kit is important in a time of disaster and you will probably be rewarded for putting in the time and effort to be certain you have one handy.

To learn more regarding what you will need to survive a disaster or emergency, go to Survival Camping World. They are experts in survival and dealers of the Guardian mini survival kit.

It is considered a responsible decision for families and singles to create a disaster checklist. Many know this is a good idea, but very rarely is it done. This is largely because it can be a bit overwhelming in trying to understand how to do this and what needs to be put in an emergency preparedness kit and checklist.

The first basic step is to put together what is often termed a survivalist supply kit. This kit should have items that would be necessary or beneficial to have on hand while an emergency is taking place. It is important that the item be easy to carry and portable. Some good suggestions might be a larger sized backpack or a container made from plastic with handles.

Once you have determined the nature of the container for your kit, you must then gather together the various items it needs. The first item you should have deals with information. Having a written list of your family’s basic information, such as your family doctor and contact numbers, is necessary as well. If there are any children in your family it is a good idea to have their names and ages included, as well.

First aid items and supplies are mandatory. Accidents can and do happen during emergencies, especially drastic ones such as floods, avalanches, or earthquakes. If you or a loved one is taking a prescribed medication, they should be included in the kit as well, along with any additional aid, such as glasses or hearing devices.

Water is a necessary part of life, and as such should be included in either your kit, or within easy reach of the pack. It is recommended you have one gallon for one person per day. Aside from nonperishable foods, like canned meats and granola or protein bars, it can also be a good idea that you have a hand operated can opener included, too.

Aside from rain gear and good footwear, extra or backup clothes need to be with your pack, too. Other items, like a flashlight, sleeping bag, blanket, and battery powered radio and extra batteries are important, as well. Two other items often overlooked in a emergency preparedness bag are duplicate car and house keys, as well as a moderate supply of money. Both these items need to be in your emergency kit. If young children or infants reside in the home, think about having their required necessities in the kit, as well.

An escape plan is very important, for a lot of the time an accident in a disaster will occur without them. In order to create this plan, just draw and map out the essential floor plan of your home, paying close attention to basic areas of interest. These can include doors, windows, and staircases.

Try to reference other appliances, too, that could become dangerous in a disaster, such as stoves or refrigerators. Your emergency kit must be noted in this escape plan, too. There also needs to be a minimum of two different escape routes from every room in your home. A meeting zone should also be established for all members of your household to meet at once they have safely existed the building.

Adhering to an survivalist checklist can be very advantageous for your family, and even possibly save their lives. No matter if you live alone or have a big family, it is very important that you follow the above suggestions so that you can be more prepared if a disaster occurs.

If you should ever find yourself in an emergency, you may have to depend on a survival gun or survival knife in order to make it through the emergency. That is why knowing how to choose one and using one is so important. Get these survival skills if you don’t already know them!