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