Okay, so do to the general fucked-up-edness of the world, I feel I should be better prepared to, uh, basically drop everything, shed my possesions, and SURVIVE out in the woods, alone if need be, but more likely with my partner and the dogs. This is something we've talked about many times before, but only recently have come to the decision that we want a real plan to fall back on (as in, a place or direction we plan to go, the things we plan to take, to go on a one-way trip away from civilization.) Now, we have done our share of "primitive living" at Rainbow gatherings, seed camp, etc., but those occasions were neer completely without a little help and a few luxuries from the outside world. Neither of us has done it really away from babylon for an extended time. At this point, that's what I want to prepare for. I don't expect to be doing this anytime soon, but over the next year or so I want to prepare myself better for it by taking a few trips for "practice" so that we know better what to expect. As far as shelter and fire, that type of basic thing, goes, we are both quite proficient. However I'm not very experienced and don't know much of what I'm doing when it comes to finding/gathering edible foods. I've never hunted in my life (and for this reason don't eat meat) but I think I could stomach it when my life depended on it. Does anyone have any recommendations of websites, books, etc. to read in preparation for this lifestyle? And more specifically, any two books that you would recommend taking and keeping with us? I don't figure we'll be wanting to haul around a bunch of instructional literature, but I think two very well-rounded good books would be reasonable. I just don't know which are the best to buy and plan on keeping forever. I'm serious about this. Some of you might think I'm stupid and have a death wish to be making plans like this when I don't yet know what I'm doing, and some of you might think things aren't as bad as they seem to me, but it's a situation I want to be better prepared for, nontheless. Any help or advice or recommendations will be appreciated!
I forgot to mention the titles I'm looking into already! I really really want to get the Peterson's Field Guides - the one for edible wild plants and the one for medicinal wild herbs. I figure they make IDing plants easier. And for an all-around survival handbook, I was looking at "Participating in Nature: Thomas J. Elpel's Field Guide to Primitive Living Skills". It looks fairly well-rounded. The only thing that worries me is that it seems to cover so much material, I don't see how it could be very detailed in anything. If any of you have read these or have better ones to recommend please say so. And again, any websites for reading would be appreciated as well.
Northern Bush Craft,by Mors Kochanski.This book emphasizes early iron-age methods,the steel knife, saw and axe.I think there's now a third ed.Lone Pine Publ,414-10357-109 St,Edmonton AB T5J 1N3. Nothing beats experience.The Foxfire series is interesting/informative,but not allways practical (mountainman style of living). Newcombs guide to wildflowers maybe the easiest to use.
Head south sister, Living off the land with few possessions isn't very practical in the subarctic or much fun, you need expensive equipment to survive in the north such as guns, traps, etc....(Canada- Mors' book 'Bushcraft' deals with modern survival in the spruce forests of the Canadian subarctic), head to the desert and places where you can camp out every night, gather fruit, fish and collect seafood and seaweed in the warm seas, forage in the forests/jungles of the tropics and subtropics...Good luck!
Not exactly a survival guide but will help you survive, "Being Your Own Wilderness Doctor, - The Outdoorsman's Emergency Manual" by Dr. E. Russel Kodet & Bradford Angier. It's a good book, tells you how to deal with all types of medical problems.
ok, maybe I am naive, but is this even possible? I know its possible to survive out in the woods as our ancestors did but is there any land left that its ok to just go roaming on without having to worry about getting put in jail for trespassing? Where is the majority of this land?
Solareyna, when the pioneering spirit takes hold, you can rush headlong into new ventures,and on most occasions everything works out even better than you expected.You have to be something of a risk taker to get on the roller coaster and follow your hunches
The Petersons guides are very good. I have them both. Army issue survival books are very wourth while,they should be easy to find and cheap. Tom Browns guides get pretty specific on making bows and such.Really read all you can get your hands on.I always seem to find one had something to offer the othes didn't. Don't sweat the meat thing what so ever cause I figure you'll settle somewhere near a lake, river or stream.Fish,crawdads,snails, worms, leeches, minnows ,clams.....easy meat source! I'm behind you 100%. What you need to plan first is where? If your going to be in a cold climate you'll have to study on cold weather survivel.If your going to go farther south you won't have to worry about it of course. Are you planing on buying some land or disappearing into a national forrest.You really must make that dissicion,couse its the difference between being a roming hunter gather or a settled in one place,cabin on the lake type thing.The planning and knowledge of the two is totally different.Point here being your not going to stay in one place too long if you don't own it.
Yes, well, at the moment I'm still in the early planning of all this, and it's as much a survival thing as anything (if civilization completely collapses, I want to be able to do for myself). When we do manage to get out and live in the woods permanently, I'm not sure where/how we'll go about it. The reason I want to prepare for cold weather is because I don't see us getting off the continent (with the dogs and such) and far north is the best chance of getting far from civilization. If we can find a more southern place that looks promising it would obviously be preferable in a lot of ways. Another consideration is that I would love to be the hell out of this country. Alaska obviously doesn't fall under that category, but Canada and the Yukon do. More than anything, I want to be able to buy land and settle on it permanently, wherever I can. Unfortunately this step will have to wait some time, because we don't have dollar one saved just yet. Thank you all for the book recommendations, and keep em up! I'm writing these all on a list and will find them used, cheap, wherever I can. I'll read every word, take notes, all that jazz, and pick out my faves for taking along when the time comes.
Come on, if you are of nordic or slavik descent (among others) then it is in your blood to survive in in this climate. You don't need guns or expensive equipment. You can construct bows and spears or even use rocks to hunt and you have a lot less diseases and parasites to worry about. We are best suited for the environment that our racial ancestors lived in. Good luck actually surviving in the wild in a tropical or sub-tropical climate without modern medicine to keep malaria off your back if you are of european descent. Eddie http://www.alcazarmountain.com
I'd recommend you find a type of basic sustenence you can tolerate that is easily cooked, and stock up - rice, lentils, bulghur, etc. It's difficult for even an accomplished woodsman to live on foraging, the population density per unit of "virgin land" is much, much heavier than any aboriginal had to deal with. Find a method of decontaminating water that has a long life without the need for replacement filters/chemicals. I favor a plain tinned copper pot and a handkerchief to strain out the chunky stuff. For hunting, it's almost impossible to beat a cheap but accurate bolt-action or single shot .22 rimfire. Ammo is cheap and lightweight, so you can hoard a lot of it. Learn game anatomy in order to kill efficiently with the little .22, but most of what you'll encounter will be little stuff - squirrels, grouse, songbirds. I know very few people who can live off deer in our modern world, and I know quite a few consummate woodsmen. After all, I'm a hillbilly. I'd strongly recommend you find a book on Wilderness Medicine, and stock your medical kit accordingly. Along with that, find a way to stockpile medicines that are critical to your continued health (BP meds, antihistamines, antibiotics, etc). Expect some problems getting "permission" to lay in a stock of painkillers. The key is to find a like-minded doctor. The most important thing is to learn the necessary skills now instead of relying on books after the calamity. Take some trips, experiment at home, and find out what really works for you and yours.
Good points. But is it really primitive living then? The idea of primitive living is to not be dependant on those things provided to you by society. Stocking up on ammo, rice and medical supplies is all good. But stock will only last so long. And the gods forbid something happens to your hoarde of stock. What then? It isn't beyond us to be free of our dependance on these supplies, but like you said, it's something you have to learn now. I know where I live, you don't have to walk more than thirty meters in the forest to forage yourself a good meal and grouse and rabbits can be easily hunted with much more sustainable methods than a rifle. Check out "the traditional bowyers bible" for building bows to hunt with and "Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rocky Mountains" (it is good for a lot of north america, but I am sure there are better books than that for other areas) for foraging. As for everything else, you will learn alot more by just spending time in the wild and experimenting than reading any book. -- Eddie http://www.alcazarmountain.com
I recently ordered books on this to prepare myself to bug out before the need for it ever comes but I chose the books I did for the pictures rather than thoroughness. (Show me once and I've got it down pat, try to explain it and I'm lost, lol. Give me the basics and I tend to expand on my own before the next lesson can be delivered.) "Primitive Wilderness Living and Skills: Naked into the Wilderness" by John McPherson "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild and not so Wild Places" by Steve Brill They haven't come in yet, so I can't say more on them than reviewers have said. I have the Army Survival manual but prefer something without all the "Danger" overtones; I want to flourish, not fear. I spent my youth in the woods in New England and feel at home in them, even after watching bear. My grandmother introduced me to dandelion greens and friends to fiddleheads, have little bits and pieces like that. I have a small set of books geared toward gardeners I was handed down for some plant identification and The Complete Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. But I haven't eaten anything wild in years because everything in my present area of residence is polluted by exhaust from cars and trains or runoff from farmer's fields. This whole state just smells bad. I've read the opinion that it takes a year to become practiced at the basics but I've yet to get the experience to say how true that is, would depend on how much time one spends practicing and how quickly one becomes adept at things, I imagine. We can chew up and suck the juices out of even your average grasses, eat some barks, tea from pine needles for vitamin C, etc. to get by until we find more nutricious stuff. Or become a breatharian I think the hardest part is breaking through what's been put into our minds that leads us to believe we're so limited as is the Earth's provisions for us. For example: saw a show on a tribe in the jungle. Woman was complaining her kids were saying they were hungry and would starve because she has no husband. Pigs were running around all over her hut and she'd fed the last of her potatoes to the pigs so there were none left for her kids (the villagers eat only potatoes, the pigs are for special occassions as they're a sign of wealth). Meanwhile, neighboring tribes were flourishing on what the jungle provides. So, where one sees only starvation, others see a corniacopia Most things in life are only as difficult as we make them.
National forest land and government property are everywhere. Also, keep in mind the dooms day scenario that would precurse the trip into the wilderness. Laws would not be a concern at that point. OP- you will need at least two guns.
Well if you do have dogs you or your dogs will have to be able to provide meat for them. And if you're dealing with meat a good thing to have is a knowledge of hide tanning. A really great book to check out on this subject is Buckskin, the Ancient art of Braintanning by Steven Edholm & Tamara Wilder. It also has plans for a sling which would be a great primitive hunting weapon if you could figure it out and plans for clothing made out of deer hide. My partner and I were seriously going to undertake the primitive living experience before we had babies. It's definitely do able and you should at least try it, if it doesn't work out you can always head back to babble on, and perhaps learn from your mistakes and give it another go when you feel more prepared. Another good idea to keep the books down to a minimum is to go through and find out what information you really think you'll need out of em and print up your own version using all your books (condense it all) excepting maybe the plant guides~which you should definitly be checking out the medical as well as edible ones. Ummmm also in your plant guides make sure they have clear photographs and descriptions of how to prepare the plants to. Research research research! and scout out an area that provides natural abundance.. get far far away from civilization Maybe go out on some shorter term survival excursions (i.e. for like a month or something) and see how it all works out. Well good luck sister I really hope you go for it. I wish the whole world could just start regressing into primitive living.... ahhh......why couldn't y2k have gone a lil better?
