ManagingYour TopSurvival

Priorities

Rick Boone

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Inevitably, when I tell people that I teach Survival & Disaster Preparedness Skills

Courses, they always get a funny look on their face like they are not sure what to

ask next. Many of them reference the extreme survival television shows and say

something about the end of the world or zombies. Even though it’s not really a

laughing matter, I always chuckle along with them for a few moments and then I

say, “Well, no, not really… though the skills I teach can certainly help someone in

an END OF THE WORLD scenario or a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, I spend most of

my time focusing on survival and disaster scenarios that actually happen to

people all the time – things like natural disasters that threaten entire towns and

regions or sudden survival scenarios like being lost or stranded for a few days –

you know – the stuff you see on the 5 o’clock news every night.” By this time,

they aren’t chuckling any more (and neither am I).

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

I then ask them about their back up survival plans for their family in the event of a

large scale disaster – food & water storage? power? heat? survival priorities?

If you’ve been to any classes here at Willow Haven then you already know how

much time I spend on what I call “The CORE FOUR” or C4 for short.

It’s easy to get caught up in all of the different aspects of studying survival related

topics and lose sight of what is really important at the end of the day. So, for this

post, we are going to get back to the basics of survival – The Core Four.

Typically, your survival priorities will be in this order: SHELTER, WATER, FIRE &

FOOD. However, the details of a scenario ultimately dictate the nal order. This

order is loosely based on survival’s 3 rules of 3:

In extreme conditions…

1. You can live 3 hours without shelter.

2. You can live 3 days without water.

3. You can live 3 weeks without food.

Below is a brief visit back to the survival basics.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Our most basic of survival needs, SHELTER protects us from the elements and

over-exposure to extreme cold and heat. Shelter is not just about the physical

structure itself – it is just as much about the location choice. The best shelter in

the worst location can be a recipe for death. For example, setting up camp in a

flash flood area or beneath ‘widow-makers’ can be a deadly oversight.

Shelter becomes an immediate survival priority in extreme conditions – especially

cold. Hypothermia is the #1 Outdoor Killer in the United States and can develop

in temperatures as high as 50 degrees – especially when combined with moisture

and wind.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

God didn’t give us thick fur or feathers to stave off severe cold. Instead, He gave

us an advanced and innovative mind to think creatively and improvise shelter

solutions when we need them. Survival shelters, though, don’t need to be

complicated. Oftentimes, the best shelters are the simplest ones. Time, energy

and materials conservation are all important considerations when creating or

choosing a survival shelter. A survival shelter should:

Protect you from wind and precipitation

Insulate you from the ground

Be away from natural threats (i.e. ash oods, drainage areas, widow

makers, insect mounds, rock cliffs, etc…)

Be close to resources such as water, building materials, fire wood, etc…Be southward facing to capture as much sun as possible (in cold conditions)

When it comes to natural shelters, it’s funny how Mother nature works. She

typically provides you with what you need when you need it. For example, in the

fall and winter when you need insulation materials, there are typically plenty of

fallen leaves or dead grasses available. Or, in the summer when you just need an

overhead canopy, big green leaves are perfect for waterproofing roof-tops.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

There is a reason why streams, rivers, ponds and lakes are hot spots for animal

(and human) activity. Our lives revolve around access to water. There are 3

important aspects to consider when it comes to Survival Water.

Sometimes, water is easy to locate – such as in ponds, river or streams. Hopefully

we are all that lucky if ever faced with a survival scenario. You need to also know

how to locate water in it’s unlikely hiding places. Whether underground, within

plants and trees or in the form of dew, water can be an elusive resource. To the

trained eye, nding water involves studying the landscape. Knowing what to look

for is critical. Green vegetation is often a sign of water nearby. Animal activity

can also provide clues to water sources. Water travels down hill and often

collects in low spots and depressions. Water can also be extracted from plants

and trees through transpiration.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Some plants such as Thistle can be a source of water. At the right time of year,

Maple trees can be tapped for their drinkable sap (the source of Maple syrup).

Below is a photo from this past winter when I tapped a Maple while thirsty in the

woods. All I had on me was a little packet of granola. I ate the granola and used

the packet as my collection container. This big sugar maple lled that 8 oz.

package about every 15 minutes. With it’s natural sugar content, it was just the

energy drink I needed. Of course, you must be able to identify trees (with and

without leaves) to do this.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

The ability to nd and source water embodies a collection of critical survival

skills. Finding water, though, is only the rst step. Purifying water is often more

of a challenge. If you are in a survival scenario, you’d better be 100% certain

that your water is safe to drink – it is a LIFE & DEATH decision. Sickness from

contaminated water kills 100s of thousands of people in the world each year.

Overwhelming thirst can cloud even the best survivor’s judgement.

Boiling is the most obvious way to kill biological threats such as viruses, bacteria

and cysts. Boiling, however, requires your 3rd Core Survival Priority – FIRE.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

The list of functions that FIRE provides a survivor is literally endless. Obviously,

it can be used to boil and purify C2: WATER. It can also be used to signal for

rescue, provide warmth, create light, make tools and coal burned containers,

smoke and cook foods, stave off predators and make natural adhesives. The list

goes on and on…

Fire, though, doesn’t just happen. It must be planned, prepared, coaxed, labored,

fed and watched. The ability to make re in varied conditions with varied tools is

a critical survival skill and one that involves practice, trial, error, failure and

patience. From natural materials to modern tools, it is wise to be knowledgeable

in a variety of fire starting methods.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

As I always say, 90% of your re-crafting is done before a spark is even cast.

Gathering, collecting, preparing and arranging re building materials and re

tinder is critical to a successful 1st go at it. Rushing this process leads to failure –

almost always. When your life (and maybe those with you) depends on getting it

right the rst time, resist the temptation to rush – even if cold is getting the best

of you.

The best way I nd to practice my re starting skills is to start every re I make

using a different method with a variety of tinder materials.

Sometimes I’ll use modern ignition devices such as ferro rods and bic lighters,

other times I’ll get creative and use batteries and wire or even primitive methods

such as a bow drill set. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed but every time I

learn. Fire crafting skills only come with practice. It’s just one of those skill sets

that requires dirt time.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Food takes 4th place in the list because it’s not an immediate life-threatening

need. However, we have become accustomed to eating at the slightest hunger

pang. Whether we swing through the drive through, reach into our desk drawer

for a granola bar or pop some quarters into a vending machine, food is

AMAZINGLY EASY to get. It requires virtually no effort, thought, or energy to fill

our tummy quickly.

Our drowsiness, headaches and light-headedness are signs that WE NEED THAT

SUGAR! So…we take our dosage until the effects creep back upon us and then

we repeat the cycle.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

In a survival situation, this pattern quickly catches up to us – and the effects can

be quite disturbing. Primitive (and less spoiled) cultures don’t have these

dependencies and can therefore handle hunger and lack of food much better.

After a couple of days without sugar, carbs, calories and the like, our decision

making abilities can be down right dangerous. And, in a situation that might

require ALL of our BEST wits, one bad decision can be devastating. My point?

While food is the last CORE 4 – it is still very important.

Ultimately, nding food in a survival scenario comes down to hunting, shing,

gathering or scavenging.

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

HUNTING: Hunting involves killing something to eat – that can be any

variety of critters: frogs, squirrel, insects, snakes, and the list goes on and on.

FISHING: This one is pretty self explanatory.

GATHERING: Most people think of wild plant edibles when they think of

gathering – things such as berries, nuts, roots and greens. I would consider

shellfish and eggs to be a part of this category as well.

SCAVENGING: I’ll never forget when my Dad and I were in the woods one

day and heard a crying moan. As we ran toward the sound we jumped 2

coyote who had just killed a baby deer. This would have been an incredible

scavenged meal for 2 survivors. Scavenging also has it’s place in URBAN

SURVIVAL as well. The homeless community in cities use this category as

their PRIMARY method of getting food. It certainly has it’s place in survival.

Unless you are lucky, each method requires some practice. Traps, gigs, spears,

arrows, shing tools, nets – they all take practice to get right. The subtle nuances

that make primitive hunting tools effective to use can only be learned by trial and

error. Identifying wild edibles certainly takes time, practice and effort. I’ve spent

100s of hours studying eld guides – cross referencing them with plants and I

still get stumped from time to time. Fishing is an art all of it’s own. The

preparation of this food to eat is a whole other sector of learning.

When’s the last time you ate something that you hunted, gathered, shed or

scavenged?

Remember, it’s not IF but WHEN,

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities

Managing Your Top Survival Priorities