When it comes to survival, the more you know, the better. While you can’t possibly prepare for every single thing that is out there, you can try your best to be as aware of as many of them as you can.
A combination of fresh pine and spruce leaves produces a lot of smoke, which is what you want with the signal. Start out by building a small fire using dry leaves, twigs, or other tinder. Collect the fresh pine and spruce leaves and compile them into a bow. When the fire is up and smoking, put the leaves over the fire, making sure to cover it completely. This will cause the branches to burn intensely, producing even more smoke.
This may not be the best-smelling solution to preventing heatstroke when you’re out in the scorching desert, but it works. Take a piece of cloth like a bandana and soak it in urine. Wrap it around your head and it will keep your head from feeling the wrath of the sun. Heatstroke is the second leading cause of death in the desert, next to dehydration.
If you need the help of a compass but you don’t have one, you can use an analog watch to do that. Point the hour (short) hand at the sun and draw two imaginary lines between it and the 12 o’clock point. You will create an angle between the two lines. Draw an imaginary straight line bisecting the angle. The line point away from the sun is north because the sun always goes to set in the west direction.
Disclaimer: telling time by the sun doesn’t work as effectively when you are too far up north or south.
Don’t worry. As long as you know what time it is, you can still tell where north is. Simply draw an analog representation of the time on the ground and draw the lines from there. Cellphones are particularly useful in telling the actual time regardless of where you are because mobile tech nowadays uses GPS to be able to tell the time of the day regardless of location. Of course, it’s always advised that a survivalist have a watch with them at all times.
Take any small piece of cloth and place it inside a metal container. Make sure that the container has a cover. Burn the container (with the cloth inside it) for a couple of minutes. You know you’re doing it right if the cloth remains intact but is dark from all the burning. Char cloth is really great for starting fires because it catches fire with just a small spark.
Tip: Try cutting or ripping a large cloth into really small pieces and neatly roll them inside a tuna can. You’ll have yourself an entire pack of char cloth!
Hand sanitizers may look like they’re only useful for cleaning your hands, but they’re also good for starting fires. This is because they contain alcohol, which is flammable. Simply use some of the stuff on a char cloth or some leaves or other tinder and they’ll easily catch fire from a spark. Always keep a small bottle in your pocket.
The resins from pine trees are very useful if you reduce them into tiny shavings. They easily catch fire and can therefore be used as an easy-to-find ingredient for starting fires because they can be found practically everywhere. But what makes them special is that the smoke that’s produced from burning the shaved fat wood makes effective mosquito repellents.
This is a lifesaver in many situations where you’re caught in really cold weather and you’ve got no means of starting a fire. Simply stuff newspaper, dry grass, and leaves under your clothes and you’ll be retaining significant amounts of body heat when you need it the most. You can do this to almost all of your clothing, from head to toe.
This works on any tree, but it works better on trees with leaves that are directly exposed to the sun. Wrap a plastic bag around the leaves. When the sun forces the water inside the leaves to evaporate, the water will be trapped inside the plastic bag and settle into the plastic bag. With proper positioning, the water will be trapped in a way that you can simply poke a hole through the bag so that the water flows through. You can then keep the water in a container.
Note: Make sure your plastic bags are clean.
This is a well-known home remedy for burns and some wounds, but few people know that their toothpaste can help treat bug bites as well. This is because they have properties that will help soothe any itchiness or pain that most bug bites cause. They will also help reduce any swelling that might result from the bites.
Tampons are very effective in dealing with deep wounds because they were designed to absorb lots of moisture. They also gradually take the shape of the wound as they swell over time. You can bring lots of them because they’re small, lightweight, can be bought almost anywhere, and are pretty inexpensive.
If your Zippo or flintlock lighters have run out, keep them because you can still use them to make fire. There’s usually cotton inside these types of lighters. Take them out and use the flint to create a spark. The cotton is usually so dry it will catch fire easily. Alternatively, you can keep using the lighter to create sparks that could help you start a fire with other types of tinder-like char cloth.
While you’ll always have this in your survival food kit to store your food, keep a separate sheet in your bag to always have a dry surface. This can come in handy as a dry surface to start fires on, especially when it just rained and the soil is too damp for you to be able to start a fire. Use this with your char cloth and other tinder you have with you and you’ll be able to start a campfire even when it’s wet outside.
Aluminum foil can also be used as a makeshift bowl. Simply place a rock on top of the foil and wrap it around, using the rock as a mold. Tinfoil can also be used as a reflector around a campfire to maximize the heat. The uses of aluminum foil are endless.
Having too much light from your flashlight could be dangerous at night depending on your situation. Placing masking tape over the light will lessen the amount of light enough to give you a low profile while giving you plenty of light to work with.
The North Star always points to true north, which is great for when you don’t have a compass at night or when you want to check the accuracy of the compass you have. Try looking for the big dipper first, which is easy to find if you know your constellations. Then draw an imaginary straight line through the edges of the big dipper and this will lead you to the tail of the little dipper. This is the North Star.
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