| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Treacodactyl |
What can you find to help you survive?The survival kit thread has made me think what can you readily find to help you survive so you don't need to pack it, apart from food and water, what else can you find from nature?For example, I believe sphagnum moss can be used as a dressing and is even meant to help the healing process. At the weekend we saw about a dozen different materials being used for rope and the nettle cord seemed surprisingly strong and supple. Pine trees provide an abundance of resin that will help get the fire going and also make a useable glue & waterproofer. Any other ideas? |
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
smallest boy went to an enviromental centre last week to learn about how bears survive in the woods so based on his work there I'm hoping he can show me how to make a shelter! | ||||
| Res |
oh yes, building bivawacs in the woods with the scouts. That brings back some cold wet memories 
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| Res |
yes, MOSTLY cold and wet! 
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| Res |
Wire wool and a 9v battery! 
What else can you use for fire lighting in this country? |
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| Blue Peter |
Re: What can you find to help you survive?
How do you get the resin out of the pine? Peter. |
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| sean |
Given the amount of weaponry in some of the replies, I reckon taking over an allotment site/smallholding and fortifying it may be the way to go. | ||||
| Marts |
-Birch polypore for plasters
-Horse Hoof fungus for transporting embers -Willow bark for cordage -Birch bark for containers -clay for containers or mixed with fibrous matter for wind/water proofing shelters -Ash or Wych elm for bows -hide for cordage and clothing -hazel (or other) saplings for withies and most things - from pegs to fences -Flint for cutting implements and fire lighting -antler for fish hooks, needles etc. -plants and herbs for medicinal remedies -Ash bark for containers (in fact a number of barks) -sphagnum moss also for water transportation, cleaning pots and pans etc. -Hawthorns barbs for fishhooks -soap from oil and wood ash -Pine or birch roots for cordage -Anything you fancy making form bone and antler - from combs to whistles to...oh a thousand things! That'll do for starters. We can get everything we need from natural resources. And that makes me very
Oh and pine resin seeps out of the tree at wound sites - you just pick it off and add some charcoal to stop it being too brittle. Pine knots are a traditional tool of the fire - they are full of resin and burn brightly - good for dark nights when you want to do a bit of sewing or carving by the fire. You can also take a couple of foot section of a dead pine tree, cut a cross in it about 6 inches down, stuff it with tinder - stand back and light the tinder and it will burn on its own - great for an instant stove. 
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| karl |
weaponrynot really surprised people are thinking of protecting themselves, living in the city of nottingham which has rather a lot of gun crime at the moment with law and order being intact, I can only imagine what it would be like if things broke down. I think New Orleans gave us a taster, especially when you find out that they have recovered a surprising amount of bodies with gunshot wounds.http://journalstar.com/articles/2005/09/26/local/doc4337209e961f8160575422.txt Though I still hold to the hope that the larger majority of people are descent and would help each other as opposed to help themselves. |
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| cab |
It depends on the situation.
I wont repeat suggestions others have made already, but I'll expand on a few and offer some more. Nettles make superb cord and string, relatively easy to make but to make the best out of them you need to rot them in water for a while. For tying bundles and bunches of things for a short while, there's a lot to be said for goosegrass. For fires, lots of things can be good tinder, if its dry, organic and powdery it'll go. Various bracket fungi go like that. For medecines and suchlike, some things wild are very handy. Salicilic acid is there in meadowsweet, yarrow is handy for binding wounds, coltsfoot is a surprisingly effective anti-tussive. But some of the more complex and useful medecines are hard to make yourself; antibiotics are everywhere in nature (every grain of good soil has something that can make antibiotics growing on it) but actually making antibiotics is hard. Some serious medecines are there in wild plants, but whether they're useful in a survuval situation, I rather doubt. |
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| Moira |
that's a very sad article, karl. let's see if anyone comes up with natural systems of defense. I suppose bow and arrow is the most obvious. | ||||
| ele |
Yes bow and arrow much better, though bullets would all be run out before too long. | ||||
| Lozzie |
If you find yourself in a survival situation in a beautifully manicured urban back garden, you may be unable to find nettles to rot for cordage. Try honeysuckle instead - teh bark of the green wood is amazingly tough stuff, believe it or not.
Young sprouts of the dreaded Japanese Knotweed are edible. Pine needles make a refreshing tea (but I didn't really like it). Yukka plant leaves can be mashed with water as a kind of soap. Willow can be used for billions of things from baskets to ... er... cricket bats. Tell Tahir - he'd need one of those if he ever discovered himself at the End Of The World. (In case you're wondering about my source material - Anna Lewington has written a smashing book called "Plants For People" - my copy was published by the Natural History Museum, WWF and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, but it is available through Amazon. Oh dear you're going to ask me to review it now.) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1903919088/qid=1127929395/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-6606739-1738049[/url] |
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| Marts |
Horse chestnut and birch leaves for soap | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Re: What can you find to help you survive?
As has been mentioned, wounds in the trunks, damaged branches, stumps after pine has been felled. You can find large clumps of the stuff and you're there are often pines about. Isn't resin also an antiseptic? |
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| Bugs |
To add a flippant note, I have always very much fancied a bow and arrow...they're more complicated than they look though. My most memorably successful day as an au pair (yep - voluntarily taking sole care of children - me?!) was when I took the girls for a walk in the woods and made them bows and arrows (non-pointy of course) from a bit of string and the fallen branches we found. Possibly I enjoyed it as much as they did
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| @Calli |
Might just print this thread  Just in case......as you do??
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| Treacodactyl |
Better to rummage about for a second hand or new Ray Mears book or similar. I picked up an SAS survival handbook for a couple of pounds and, despite the name, has a large amount of basuc useful info. Anything from tying knots, water, wild food etc. |