Dark Fox

Now we will be looking at water and how to make it drinkable or Potable as it is known

We will be looking at water in the body, why we need it, what happens to us when we don´t have enough, how to find it, how to make it potable, commercial Filters/Purifiers, and improvised methods.  This will be a long article so it will be in parts.

Our body is made of between 60% and 80% depending on various factors such as, Male or Female,

Age, climate, health, bodily exertion etc. so if you have for example 60% water this means that if you weigh 100kg Then 36 kilograms alone is water!  Your brain is about one third water, no wonder one of the symptoms of dehydration is headaches!!

Water is needed and used by the body in several ways but, the most important being to cool the body, cleanse the liver and digest food. For this last reason we set food after water in list of priorities.

Because water may be limited we must also look  at the amount and type of food the rules are quiet clear; foods which are high in Protein such as meat, eggs or fish requires large amounts of water to digest them. Carbohydrates like sugars and starch require a fraction in comparison. Also you should

Chew your food thoroughly because large portions un-chewed in the stomach needs more water to digest.

So if you are for example in a hot climate and you have less than 1 liter water a day you should not eat. With four liters a day you can eat carbohydrates like biscuits, sweets, sugars, etc.

If we ignore the information, we have then the body dehydrates and in the end we die.

The first symptoms between 1% and 5% loss of water are thirst, discomfort, Lethargy and sleeplessness your temperature can raise and you may feel nauseous, urine colour may change from pale yellow to orange. If no water is replaced then further symptoms occur between a 5% and 10% loss, headaches, dizziness, breathing can become difficult, your mouth and throat becomes very dry, fatigue sets in your limbs with a tingling sensation, the skin takes on a bluish tinge (cyanosis), speech becomes in distinct and walking becomes difficult.

At this stage the tongue swells up and there is an inability to swallow, the skin tingles and feels numb with twitching and begins  shrivel up, the senses lessen, deafness and dimness of vision sets in as well as delirium before collapsing and dying.

A quick test apart from looking at the colour of urine is to pinch the skin and release; it should spring back to normal position straight away, so if it slowly folds back you need water!

 Now we know the signs and symptoms of water loss we will now look at how we can conserve water already in our body.

Apart from food digestion, which we have looked at, we can safeguard several ways against water loss.

1. Travel only when necessary or restrict to times when the sun is not so hot, likely

Early morning or late afternoon.

• Stay in the shade build a shelter or improvise a shade, if possible in a place that provides a breeze
• Wipe your face, back of neck and brow with a piece of cloth soaked in seawater, urine, after a shave or rub with crushed succulent plants. (try rubbing the inside surface of a piece of cut cucumber to see how effective it is!)
• Avoid smoking as much as possible as this causes dehydration.
• Do not over exert yourself as this may make you short of breath, heavy breathing causes water loss. Breathe through your nose as much as possible.
• Keep your clothes on as much as possible even though you may feel uncomfortable as they minimize the evaporation of sweat (even in a cold climate perspiration could be a problem).

Furthermore, there are fluids we should avoid which may seem obvious but in a survival situation where water is rare may be drunken out of panic.

1. Seawater is extremely dangerous because it contains about 4% salt and takes roughly 2 liters of body fluid to get rid of 1 liter of seawater so you deplete your body of fluids and the thirst stays eventually driving you crazy before you die. Seawater must be treated before you can drink it.
2. The same applies to urine which contains about 2% and body wastes which can be harmful. Urine can also be treated to provide drinking water.
3. Alcohol should not be drunk because not only does it dehydrate the body but also clouds your judgement and in a survival situation you need a sharp mind!
4. Blood although a liquid is considered in this context a food and is salty and so requires body fluids to digest it also, there is a possibility of disease.

Other fluids to avoid are fuels like petrol, antifreeze and coolants. Do not drink water obtained from plants which taste salty, soapy, or if it is milky in colour (unless you know it to be safe like young coconut milk or from a dandelion).

This is the end of part 1, in the next article we will be looking at how to actually find water,

Collect and store it how much we need and why we need to treat it.

Generally I am going through different Training. However if some kit or such comes up I will make a NEWSFLASH and introduce such as todays post.

I am always on the lookout for Equipment and Rations
and I recently recieved a package from the German Company
Conserva. This company is also in the Swiss and until recently
you could order from UK. (I think that this has to do with
customs and prices since Brexit)

As you can see on the left it came really well packed

Not only stackable but also nicely
organised inside. At first I was supprised as I saw that the cans had ring pulls, which is a weak point in cans when looking at the Shelf life. However, I found that the material of the cans is much thicker than the material of cans
bought in the supermarket. In fact the canned products are
Guaranteed to have a minimum of 10 years shelflife which is a lot more
than in the supermarket !

The first thing I tried was the Rindergulasch my first supprise was that it was not only Gulasch but a complete meal with Noodles, a look at the tin said that too. (I guess reading is an advantage) So I heated it up and dug into it. As I said I did not expect a „full meal“ and it tasted really good. The only thing was that for me 400grams is not a big meal (for me!) however a) you could buy more
and b) hey if you need the meal then these are hard times/situation and we should be thankful.

Talking of heating there are various methods you could do this. I did the usual and threw into a pan and heated, in the field you could open the tin and heat the can on the burner. But there is an interesting tool in the catalogue which looks a bit like a slingshot without the sling,you clip it to the can you want to heat and cook at around 70°c for ca 15 minutes and done, there is a plus to this because in the Army we use to dent the can and throw it into the water when the dent came out it was ready, but the water could be kept because it was clean, (as in we
didnt open the can whilst cooking) we would then use the hot water for coffee or tea.

The next test was the Energy Bars with the pack came 12 these were in Peanut taste but there is also multivitimin.When you open the foil pouch there are two bars which are separately packed in plastic which could be overseen
if you are in a hurry to eat! Well I remember such bars in the military and they were called hard biscuits for a reason ! I was supprised that these
were quiet easy to bite and chew, and also they were reallytasty.
If you want a change you could do what we did in the Army and crush them in a bowel to a powder and add hot milk or water to make a kind of porrige, you could also add jamor such to add a bit of flavour (which in this case is not necassary!)

I found in the packet was also two cans of Bread. one was with Sunflower
seeds and the other was a bread with Oats.Both were nice and juicy
which I did not expect from canned bread

There was also a big can of Strawberry Jam to go on them, then I found
Pancakes, I would have use the Jam there but they were already covered
with a Nut Noguart creme!
There was also some things which were dried, one was tomatoe soup
which was a powder you put hot water in a pot and add the powder and
heat. I noticed it contained celery which I usually am not too keen of
but this did not stop this being a good soup. There was also a can of
Chicken cream pasta, again this was one where you have a powder
and add to hot water. All in all whatever I tried tasted good then I took
another look at the catalogue and was amazed at what they offered.
Not only full sized meals and packets for the week but all the basics you
need, there was spread from different sausage for bread, cheeses, cake and
biscuits, water and other drinks like coffee, sepperate stuff like sauces, Fried Patatoes and such to create your own meals. There are various mixes to be able
to make Vegitarian dishes such as vegi burgers in different flavourings which you mix with water and form then you fry them.

There is even international dishes ! Who said you had to survive and not enjoy yourrations. I tell you this place is for Gourmets ! They also do Tactical Rations (and I betthey taste just as good as the others)

That is not everything but I would suggest you look up their Website because there is a lot more.

All in all I found the products good, tasty and worth the money and of course a long shelf life. Check them out at: www.conserva.de
Enjoy

Ask any Fireman about fire and he´ll tell you you need the fire tri-angle

He´ll tell you that you need three things, Fuel, Heat, and Oxygen. Though for our purposes there is a fourth missing and that is method. We´ll take a look at what we need, what you can put in your kit and how to use it.

In order to make a fire we need the following: Tinder, This is the smallest and easiest to catch fire, this is where we will be putting our spark into. Tinder should be very thin (like a pencil lead) about the width of your hand. This can be from dead twigs, dried grass, Dryer lint, Cotton wool, etc.

Top to bottom L to R, Toilet roll middle filled with Dryer Lint, Wet fire commercial block for making fire, dried moss, Dryer Lint, Cat Tail/Bullrush, Cotton wool, Steel wool, Light my fire maya dust.

Next we need Kindling, look for dry dead branches about the thickness of your thumb and about the length of your fore arm. Finally we look for Fuel, larger wood about the thickness of your wrist and as long as your arm, it can be split from bigger pieces of wood. All this should be collected so that we don´t have to go searching when we start or the fire won´t catch and continue to burn.

also we have to prepare our fire place, to make sure we don´t cause a bigger fire then we intended!, Especially true in a wooded area. So clear the area of any grass, moss or shrubs, make sure it is not on a Torf area as this can be burning underground! You can also mak a ring of rocks to prevent sparks or such getting out.

Now to the fun part, Method and really there are such a lot. Lets look first at an old method

Here is a modern version of the Flint & steel

This would be carried in a pouch along with some Tinder to get things going. Flint also known as Chert which is a type of quartz .

Flint can be found offten around river beds and straeams beaches or where a variety of stones are
It has a glassy apperance inside and the outside is usually coated in a whitish cortex on the outside
If you break open a piece generally there will be razor sharp edges, which have made it so useful
in the past as a sharp tool or weapon. If Flint is then struck with steel it will produce our spark. In the middle ages natural Tinder was used such as Tree fungus or Open Bulbs from Cattail/Bullrush reeds

Here are some modern versions of Flint and Steel, Top Flint is screwed into a metal container until needed, on the container is a compass (would not trust it to be too accurate) and a metal piece to scrape a spark. Middle is a flint embedden in a block of magnesium, with a knife you can scrape the block to make a small pile of magnesium shavings which you put in the tinder and use the flint to cause a spark. Bottom Flint and steel from the “Friendly Swede” a well known and reputable brand.

This is a one-handed version, you put pressure on the sides and push the flat tip on the right which goes in the handle and causes a spark,

When you get a new flint you will find it has a kind of protective covering which has to be scratched away first before it will make sparks, also note that a piece of glass is used here to make the spark instead of metal, also instead of an expensive knife try an el-cheapo hand file from a DIY store, you don´t have to use all you can break a piece off.

Here are two lens which can be used to make fire, the suns rays are caught and manipulated till the optimal size & strength. You could also use a lens from from a pair of of binoculars or telescope. A watch can be used if convex by adding water till the complete convex shape is filled, the same with bottle bottoms if convex. Glasses are not really a convex lens shape so not really usefull. Even Ice has been used by forming a convex.

Here is something neat I found called a “Sun Case” its about the size of a lighter and folds open in the top a piece of tinder is held (cotton wool) and the device is moved till it catches the suns rays and directed to the tinder.

Survival is not a sport so there is no such thing as cheating, Lighters and Matches should be a part of your gear. Top is a Zippo however when the middle is removed you see it is an Arc or plasma type and at the bottom is a usb socket to charge it. bottom two simple cheap lighters, right is empty but still can be used to make fire, as you see the guard has been removed and carefully the wheel can be turned (without sparking) to shave the flint, the powder is caught in the tinder and when enough is caught you can use the spark from the lighter to ignite the pile, similar to the magnesium block.

As I have said its not cheating and here are several matches, Top is a container to keep matches dry, top right is a container of lifeboat matches wrpped in Duct Tape (always usefull to have some around) Middle left is a sealed pack of matches from a German Army ration pack, right a normal box of matches but try and get a box of Strike anywhere. Bottom is a book of matches from American MREs (supposidly works when damp) and Right matches from British Ration pack, these are all weather but burn quick.

Using a 9v Battery (or several 1.5v taped together) and steel wool you can easily make sparks by stroking it on the “wool” causing a short.

Potassim permanganate has several uses, if spread on snow in sos letters it seaps big into the snow making the letters visible over a long distance. Mixed with water it cna be used to cure fungus problems on your feet or be used to purify water. The tone of colour indicates its strength and use. Research this more to see the differences. And of course you can use it for making fire, it can be mixed either with sugar or with glycerine and produces a chemical reaction. Be aware that in training you should wear gloves (medical) because it will stain your hands !!! Unless you are trying for Hena!

At top is a Tea-Light useful to have in your kit, for light or keep a flame to transfer fire. Next hand file already mentioned, and next a blow pipe open and closed. This is like an antenna and when opened can be used to concentrate a breath in order to “blow” a spark into a flame. Cheap from Amazon.

Here some things to help. Ammunition Left Rifle right Shotgun can be carefully opened and the powder used with tinder. More difficult on their own a pack of flints, they could be inserted in a stick or such and used like a match to produce a spark. Bottom a Tampon can be cut open and used for wounds or for fire or even as primitve filter for water ( insert into bottle of water and wet, it swells and then the water can be filtered out NOTE this is only filtered from dirt it must be further treated to use as drinking water. Above open Tampon is a small pencil sharpener, it can be used with small dry twigs to make shavings for tinder. Finally a bottle of decinfectant, these are mainly flamable so also good to use as a fire starter.

I debated to show this but since you can find it elsewhere on the net I will talk about it (Delcaring though that anyone trying this does so on their own accord, I take no responsibility) First off if you have a cell phone or digital camera you find this kind of battery. It can be used similar to the 9v battery technique shown before, you can use a piece of alluminium foil as well to make the short. If this does not work you can you can puncture the battery with a knife or sharp object. Be aware that this not only ruins your battery but could explode! but at the least we hope it will set on fire, you could put some water on it too. Again a warning the gases released from the battery are toxic—- Ever here about cell phones going on fire when charged over night, this is probably due to a diffect battery and being open to the air causing the gasses to set off.

These are by no means all the methods you can use to make a fire there are still a lot more, you can used the polished base of a drink can, you can make a fire drill, bow drill, fire plough, Fire piston, Anti freeze (contains glycerine) and flower food (the little pouch you get when you buy a bunch of flowers) (this can contain Potassium Permanganate) Pool Chlorine and brake fluid, etc. etc.

As with all skills Research and Practise. I hope this will give you some idea of what to use and what you can carry. Remember as we said in close protection “Two is one and one is none” You should have more then one way of doing thing and what you have in your survival gear.

Enjoy

Now that we have taken a look at the mental side of preperation we shall now take a look at the smallest part of your equipment you should take on your mission, the survival kit.

Before we start to put together a survival kit we should look at some things to consider and above is a graphic which shows this. On the left we see size, your survival kit could be anything from an old film container to a rucksack you can make it as small or as large as you want but remember you have to carry it. Since this is a part of the evacuation bag we will make this small, so small in fact that you can put it in your pocket.

Over to the right are “Factors” these are things to consider when travelling, will it be on land or water, hot or cold. In the desert you might not need a fishing kit and decide to leave it out (however it might still be useful for other things) or will you make a genereal kit to cover all possibilities? Will your contents work in different climates?

Underneath we have contents, on the left is food (should you decide to put some in) Remember that if you put a bar of chocolate in then you might pour it out in a hot country! Believe or not M&Ms were developed by the U.S. army for this reason so troops could enjoy a chocy in the tropics!

Stuff like drink powder, tea, coffee, oxo cubes etc., are good moral boosters. As far as solid food goes it depends on your kit size but stuff like nuts energy/ corny bars (without chocolate) are good. Another thing to remember is like medications, purifying tablets or food is that they have a shelf life, write it somewhere on the container.

Below food we have signal because its not just a case of surviving we want to get rescued too! So a whistle or Heliograph for the sun is a simple solution. Fire is important and our first priority in protection. It can warm us, dry our clothes, keep animals at bay, signal and cook.

Next we have water our next priority after protection and probably the the minimum is to have some Puritabs or Micropur. We shall look later at other methods.

Fishing is obviously food so this is further down on our priorities in the picture above you see a safetypin has a hook, or with more bound on a stick you have a fishing spear, you can also have a fishing mini-kit, with hooks, lead weights, fishing line etc. with the fishing line you can make other things like a snare, primitive intruder detector , or for lashing things together as a shelter.

In Navigation there are several items we can use, a small button compass or you could take the sewing needles and magnatise them. Apart from our priorities there are numerous things we can put in to help us as tools this can be a pocket knife, multitool or aluminium foil for making a cooking pot or signalling.

Now we will look at the contents of one of my survival kits and in future we will look at some uses and methods before going to the Evacuation bag.

Here is a few containers I have used, film can, tobacco tin, purpose bought tin and recyclcled tin from military.

Here I have one kit with the contents layed out.

Here are some general Water purifying tablets, generally one tablet in one liter of water, leave for 30 minutes. More to these and other methods in future.

This was a hack-saw blade cut down and sharpened. on the grip is self-sticking grip tape. You can cut, turn over and saw, and you could put a lanyard on it so it won´t be lost

Here is a very small flashlite from the company “Nitecore” it is charged by USB and stores for a long time before recharging.

Just as useful a tea-light and small Bic lighter

This is a small Button compass from Suunto, a bit more expensive than other models but better.

Here are some sewing needles which you can use for repairs or even as a primitive compass. Here is also a “thread help” because in cold weather it will be very dificult and frustrating to thread a needle when shaking.

At the top some thin gardening wire which has various uses. Duct-tape has so manny uses it is unbelievable, talk another time on that and to the right is some Kevelar thread. This is really strong and lots of uses. As another alternative for your gear you could put in some tooth floss to use as sewing thread.

This is the Gerber Dime, and it is really a very small multi tool, I love for my tin.

This is a small saw, you can put the loops on your hands and saw, use a partner, or you could get a branch, make a bow and put the loops on the end to make a bow-saw.

There were some other things in the kit such as flint and steel fire lighter, storm matches, whistle etc. This was just a quick look at the tin and in future we shall look more into the gear and how they are used. See some other things like knives or flashlights, and what is good or not good and why.

Stay safe and come back again, Enjoy

In the last Article „Changing world” we can see how there is a definitive need for Emergency preparation, we will get into the details of gear/Equipment later sometime but in this one I want to go over survival Mentality  here are a few concepts that are very important to the Survivalist that are simple to understand but as I said important we use the KISS method, (Keep It Simple Stupid) in the military we said if it is simple, stupid, but works it is not stupid. (Army Humor).

OK, the first concept is the survival pyramid, at the base is the will, that is the will to survive, if that is not there, then you can forget the rest.

Also the attitude you have is meant here and can play a clear role in how things can turn out. You hear of sayings like “Never give up” which are actually helpful, I was very ill but said I can’t die, I have too much to do. To friends I said the time was “extreme survival training”.

One speaks of English Humor, which is also very important; it is a kind of psychological outlet to defuse very serious situations.

On the next level, we have knowledge; you gather information through books, films, workshops and so on to learn skills that can help you. Once we have our knowledge we have to put it into practice, a theoretical knowledge is nice but without the practice something is missing, you cannot measure if it works or not and what can you do differently to make it work.

At the top of the triangle is kit or Equipment, these are the tools that help you to survive. But make sure you use them or when the real time comes you will be clueless or they will not work and you missed the change to remove and put something else in your kit.

Now we look at what I call it the survival circle, at the top we have “Before” which means everything we can do before an event happens. This means we have training for emergencies, we have our survival kit, Evacuation bag, and we have gathered our information about threats in our area and elsewhere.

Next, we have “During” which means everything we do or how we behave during an event. What are our goals, do we have an alternative place to go (safe haven) bugout, do we stay bug-in or, go and come back (Evacuation).

The third point is “After” This is after the event, what are our plans then, and how was it, was the training enough? Did your equipment work as it should? Was the weight ok or too heavy? What can I do to improve it?

All these questions and more are there to help you improve your plans for next time.

In the middle it says “3’s” here it means the rule of three, this is a way to make clear what your priorities should be:

3 minutes without air

3 hours without shelter/protection

3 days without water

3 weeks without food

Most people cannot hold their breath for three minutes, but the brain can function without it for that long.

Protection can mean protection from the elements (you fall into cold water and can’t get out), it can mean protection from danger (you are in the jungle surrounded by lions), or (you are on the run from terrorists etc.)

The body needs water to perform the simplest functions like sweating (to cool down) or to digest food and many others so you can’t go that long without it.

Food is also an important thing but in order to digest food we need water, so it comes last and if we don’t have water we shouldn’t eat.

You can see how these “rules” make sense and should help you plan.

Next we will look at a survival kit, what is in it and how to use it.

Stay safe

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