Book Review: The Survival Handbook

I finally finished reading The Survival Handbook by Colin Towell. Overall it was a pretty good read.

One thing there is no shortage of in this book is information. It's crammed full of helpful skills from somewhat luxurious wilderness living with all the latest technology and equipment  to showing you more primitive skills. There is a wide variety of survival skills covered in detail throughout the entire book.

Over the last couple of years I have used this book as a reference to accomplish many tasks in the outdoors with great success. I have learned so much from using the techniques illustrated in the handbook. The details concerning each particular skill given are pretty amazing considering all the information  covered and the illustrations are excellent.

There are a few small complaints however. I found that there were just too many boxes, bubbles, and sidebars on almost every page. If you were just using it as a reference this wouldn't be problem, but if you are reading through the entire book it can be a distraction and makes it a pain to read. It's not a book you would probably pick up to read for just a few minutes. I eventually had to make it a discipline to sit down and read a couple pages a day.

Overall this would make a fantastic addition to your library. It is an excellent reference and one I would highly recommend.

Tracks!

This is a picture I took yesterday while on a hike of some of the many deer tracks I saw. I don't know for sure but I think they are whitetail.

Lessons From a Day of Survival

Several weeks ago, while I was on vacation, I had the chance to go out for a day with a few essential pieces of kit and put to the test some of the bushcraft and wilderness survival skills I've learned. The exercise consisted of simulating a mock survival situation and then addressing the Priorities of Survival, which are protection, location (systems of rescue), water and food. I encountered quite a few surprises throughout the day.


Shelter was easy to find as there were many large boulders in the area that provided an excellent source of natural protection from the elements. Because the weather was clear, I decided to put off lighting a fire until after I'd scouted around on the lookout for food. Water wasn't really a concern because I was on a fresh water lake with many nearby streams flowing into it.

Food was surprisingly easy to procure. There were frogs in the area that were abundant and easy to catch. (No I didn't eat them raw. I roasted them over the fire and then boiled to make sure that all bacteria was dead. Eating them raw is really an unnecessary risk and just plain weird!) This was very much a surprise to me. With my limited knowledge of wild edibles I had expected to go hungry, but instead I found the task of finding food much easier than more familiar tasks.

Lighting a fire turned out to be the most difficult and frustrating time of  the day. Even though there was an abundance of great materials and the weather was absolutely perfect, it had rained the entire day before, which resulted in everything being soaked. I tried using waterproof matches, which were damp from a hike the previous day, but the dampness made the heads crumble, rendering them useless. Thankfully I had brought along my firesteel, which ended up being my ticket to success. Finding dry tinder was another time consuming problem I ran into. I gave cattails and cedar bark a try, but had no success because of the dampness. I eventually found some relatively dry lichen up in some nearby tree, which took a spark along with birch bark. All this took well over an hour but was well worth the effort.

Although I didn't continue the exercise for more than just that day, I came away having learned a few interesting things pertaining to bushcraft and wilderness survival. I learned that the key to overcoming challenges in the wild is persevering until you reach success and never give up. Something else that stood out to me throughout the day was just how essential it is to perfect your skills in firecraft. Fire plays into all the priorities of survival. It is a critical part of protection because it keeps you warm. With location it helps you to signal for rescue. It also purifys water and cooks your food. Knowing how to turn an ember into a flame is a foundational part of wilderness skills. Always include multiple methods of lighting a fire in your kit.

That wraps up the stand out experiences of the day. It was a very enjoyable time and I would love to know what your experiences have been in similar times of testing your skills.

Ray Mears / Sharpening a Knife at Camp_Part 1/2

Ray Mears / Sharpening a Knife at Camp_Part 2/2

Ray Mears-Rucksack repair and Navigation

Morel Mushrooms

It's the time of year when the Morel mushrooms start popping all over the woods. Over the last couple of weeks I've found quite a few of both the yellow (morchella esculenta) and the black (morchella elata) morels.

All the pictures shown are of the yellow morel.
Just to give you an idea of the size,
here is a picture of one of the mushrooms
with the mora 510.

Success!!!

Hello everyone!

I think spring has finally decided to stick around for a while and that means it's time for me to start working on my summer goals.

After reading Paul Kirtley's excellent article on how to succeed with the bow and drill, I was determined that I would work with it until I got success. Well, after using the tips from the article I finally achieved my goal today. I finally produced a decent ember from materials I gathered around the woods. (Sorry I didn't get any quality pictures. My photographer is out of town this weekend so I was on my own.) If you haven't read Paul's article yet I would highly recommend you do so. I found it very helpful.

Ray Mears - Bow Drill Fire Lighting

Building a Snow Trench

Hey everyone!

I finally found the time to get outdoors and use all this snow to work on the outdoor skills.

I've wanted to build a snow trench for quite some time but never had enough snow to build one. Now I finally have enough to build one.

I started off by measuring my approximate

height so I would know about how long to build

my trench. You will want it to actually be a

little longer, which I learned the hard way.

Once you've measured the length, start digging the

trench. Using a stick helps considerably and saves on the hands.

After the trench is finished, start laying sticks
perpendicularly to the trench. You will want to
lay them very close together.

Once you've finished with the first layer, lay another
layer in the opposite direction. Again lay them very close together.
The idea is to keep them tightly together so the snow won't
all fall through when you put it on.
You will want to do about four alternating layers
of sticks.

When you're done it should look something like

this.

When you are done laying the sticks, start piling loads

of snow on top of the sticks. You will want it

pretty thick, so be generous with the snow.

This is what the finished product should look like.

It's not very roomy or comfortable but it could save

your life in a survival situation.

Ray Mears-Shelter and foraging

Shelter: Forest A-Frame

The A-Frame shelter is one of the most basic shelters out there. Instructions on how to build one can be found in almost any book on bushcraft or survival manual, so I'm not going to give instructions on how to build one. I will say that although it is easy to construct it's also time consuming. It took me about two hours to build the one shown in the pictures, but the outcome was well worth the effort. Experience has taught me that giving your shelter a little more attention gives you a much better nights sleep.