Hello everyone,

I know that we've covered a lot of topics here on CathInfo about what is necessary to do to survive on less fuel (etc.etc.).  ChantCD, along with many others, have provided information on tools that could be used to reduce such consumption, and they (the solar oven in particular) were excellent choices in reducing energy usage.  The tools and devices are all intriguing, but I've become a bit curious about the less technological options.  Surely the Solar Oven (is that the official name?  I can't remember...) will function, but is it really something that we could produce in a more primitive setting?

For those of you who are into outdoors types of activities, I'm interested in what skills you can teach (or recommend books/websites).  In particular, I'm thinking about primitive methods that we can use to cook, purify water, etc.  When you take your children camping, do you want to haul a bunch of equipment with?  Perhaps it'd be best to learn to use the tools of the Earth to get the job done.  I recognise that we can't get everything as perfectly cleaned or 100% cooked as we're accustomed to within our highly purified environments, but I know that our ancestors did make it this far without most of the modern conveniences.

I wouldn't claim that I'm a part of the Back-to-the-Land movement (or part of any silly hippie group), but I do find some aspects of the simplistic lifestyle quite interesting.  For those of you who saw Mel Gibson's most recent film, was it not intriguing to see that these people could indeed survive off of some of the most basic elements in their environment?  Again, no, I'm not looking to live in the woods (half-naked), but learning a few woodsmen tricks and skills would be worth my time, I figure.

Any takers?  =P

Pinoy Monk

P.S.  I wasn't sure which section to put this thread under, so I'd appreciate the mod(s) moving it to the appropriate area if it is not currently already there.  Thanks!

As to the water, I have absolutely no idea how I'll go about purifying it.  Being that I don't have any particular plans to go out into the wilderness, none of this is of any immediate concern, but I figured everyone here would have some excellent ideas.

Obviously, carrying gallon upon gallon of water isn't going to be a genius idea if I want to hike or go any great distance into the woods.  Purification tablets are an option, but perhaps I should just stick to boiling and maybe filtering through some sort of sand/dirt/clay thing out in the woods?  I've seen sketches around for simple devices, but I don't know much about their effectiveness or their full purposes (to what extent they filter and/or WHAT precisely they dispose of).

Further ideas, Trinity (since you're the only one on this topic so far)?

Pinoy Monk

Have a good knife at hand.  And a hatchet wouldn't hurt either.

Learn how to start a fire.

Learn how to cook with fire.

Learn how to gut animals and prepare them for cookin'.

Learn how to clean water.

Learn how to survive in hot and cold environments.

I'm in Chicago, a bit far.  =P

Hmm, Pinoy do you watch Man vs Wild on The Learning Channel(TLC)?  YouTube probably has some of the episodes on it.

The host Bear Grylls is in the British Special Forces and the Foreign Legion.

They leave him somewhere with only the camera crew, and they can't help him unless he's in deep trouble.

Sometimes he'll have some equipment like a knife, or he'll use the parachute he dropped in or he'll have some other random object that people carry around.

But watching isn't enough.  Ya gotta try and practice til you get the hang of it.

If I lived nearby I'd help ya. :cheers:

I think we can use the Internet to our advantage -- it really works well as a huge library.

I found a great site on building nuclear bunkers (which happened to have many other interesting tidbits on survival) which was totally free and online.

It depends on what you are most interested in -- you should probably learn about many things, but it helps to start with something you're already a bit fascinated by.

I basically try to learn wherever I go -- learn from the wise man and experts! If there are none around you, then you can probably find plenty online.

I hope this helps.

But in short, if you can cut out TV, you'll have a good deal of time to learn/practice SOMETHING which will put you in a better position than you were before -- disaster or no disaster.

It never hurts to know first aid, how to purify water, how to grow vegetables, how to find one's way without a GPS system, etc.

To me, modern man is very SILLY (to say the least) to claim such superiority -- because we have search engines -- but then we personally are ignorant of all those things -- which 12 year olds knew in the 1800's.

Matthew

To purify water you boil it on your fire simple as that, the water sterilizing tablets I included above are only to be used if you can't start a fire for any reason.