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Les Stroud SK Mountain Ultimate Survival Knife Review

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Randw

My recent gift/purchase of a Les Stroud SK Mountain, Ultimate Survival Knife by Camillus, gave me an opportunity to do a review on a product that at first glance seems rather contrived and panders to the “Survival/Prepper community” by its very design and nature. These types of fluff/specialty items usually leave me feeling exploited and preyed upon by the “Sax Fifth Ave” types who come up with various marketing tools to separate us from our hard-earned money through slick marketing and gimmickry that seldom leaves us feeling good about a potential purchase.

Check Latest Prices: Amazon.com | BladeHQ

Since I had been given a gift coupon to a big box hardware store during the recent Christmas Holiday I was feeling rather adventurous and wanted to see what was available in their knife selection. I was somewhat in need as a few years back my favorite survival knife and I had said “good-bye” as someone was in need of the knife a whole lot more than me, but I digress.

Can you really have too many good knives? After all, they are always “loaded”, and fit nicely in the palm of your hand.

I had intended to go with a Gerber, Buck, or other easily recognized quality American made knife or hatchet but was compelled to see what was available in the “survival expert Arena” (Bear Gilas, Less Stroud, Dual Survival, Cody Lundeen, etc.).

Since I am a strong advocate of “two is one and one is None” when it comes to bugout or survival gear, I knew I needed a back-up to my 8-inch “Dive knife” perched atop my BOB in the storage area of our home. I was not certain what I was searching for but had not bought a good mid length, fixed blade knife in a long time and was certainly in the market for a backup, survival tools, and am always searching out other items to augment my outdoor gear when shopping in outdoor or sporting goods section at any retail market.

While browsing in the knife section I was first attracted to Gerber and Bear Grylls knives as well as Buck and Camillus. As I was looking at the fixed blade knives, I noticed there was a survival knife in my price range ($40-$60.00) with a large plastic sheath and tons of advertising that Camillus put on their packaging of this Les Stroud SK style knife. I was kind of mildly impressed by its versatility and the sheath’s “survival tool” integration, as well as the bladed weapon, they offered in this obviously contrived yet cleverly engineered product.

At first glance it is quite obvious that the knife is effective in design although not as robust as many Hunting/bush-craft or other survival knives I have looked at (blade is too thin on the front inch of the shank and needs additional spline reinforcing as well as spin thickness, in this area, as Buck and other premium Knife builders use)”. This cutting tool would certainly offer many utilitarian as well as self- defense options for the end user.

The cutting edge of the knife itself includes a rather wide 1.5 inch by 5 inch blade with a Titanium coating that is proprietary to Camillus but has a similar coated appearance to the black (anodized) coatings put on the Buck, first generation, Knight hawk 6.5” black, anodized stainless steel blade, tactical knife I owned and carried for years. In addition, the sheath-knife has as its core, a super sharp, black tungsten treated, stainless steel blade, a with a 1-inch serration for cutting bone or wire, and an integrated striking notch for starting fires using the flint, cut into the knife spine/back.

I knew in my heart that it would be very hard to replace the Buck, Night Hawk tactical knife I carried for years that I generously gave away as a token of appreciation. The Buck and is now residing in the hands of an amazing man of God in the Himalayan Mountains of NE India, but that is another story, (I sort of still miss that knife but I know it was the right thing to do in giving it away).

In addition to this rather utilitarian, SK knife, I really was drawn to the innovation/redundancy that was offered in the sheath of this “survival” tool. The assortment of survival trinkets incorporated in the sheath, include: integrated signal whistle, LED flashlight, signal mirror, blade sharpener, flint striker and para-cord, like, cordage found on the knife’s sheath. This combination of survival gear fit nicely into my duplication principle mentioned earlier (two is one…).

I currently and have for the last 3 years, incorporated all of the sheath mounted items (signal mirror, whistle, fire steel, flashlight, and para-cord) in my BOB but was intrigued by the fact that I was able to double dip on my preps in one single purchase, of a knife I would be carrying anyway.

One minor detail about the use of materials on the handle and the sheath that could be a potential drawback is the plastic construction of the sheath housing and accessories, as they are made of plastic and should not be kept too close to a campfire or heat source of any kind for fear of a melting event, but if you have most any modern knife or sheath with plastic components, being left too close to a fire there would probably result in adverse consequences.

As an additional plus for those living in a nanny state like I do anything over 6 inches in a fixed blade and 3.5 inches in a folding knife is illegal. The blade of this SN knife is about five inches long and is therefore legal to carry openly.

In a grid down situation, to me, this would not be an issue (WROL SITUATION) but if I am pulled over tomorrow and the knife is laying on the seat beside me I would not be face scrutiny or worse for carrying a “scary” if not illegal, weapon.

While I have not had time to fields test every aspect of the props integrated into the knife sheath, I can tell you the whistle works with some practice and would be better that yelling for help for an extended period of time (intended purpose of any whistle),

The mirror is tiny; about 1.25 x 2.25 inches with a burnished rather than truly reflective surface like a mirror, but it might work in a pinch to check on a facial wound or to shave by. It would certainly be able to reflect light to signal an aerial spotter and there is an incidental hole at the blade sharpening port found below the mirror that would allow a person to align the mirror with the sun in order to achieve the correct angles for optimal, signaling using the sun reflection.

The flashlight would work for up-close, detail work or reading a map in a low/no light situation, but would not offer a lot of illumination or security if you would need lighting for walking a trail on a cloudy night since it is a single LED bulb.

The flint/striker is only about 1.5 inches long but once the black paint/coating is scraped off, will create ample spark to ignite dry tinder or a prepared “fire wick” of some kind.

The integrated edge/blade sharpener is underpowered at best but in a wooded setting with no other stones to use as a blade, sharpener, it is good to know you have it available as a failsafe.

The so-called “Paracord” is about ½ the diameter of normal para cord but looks to be of similar construction to the real thing. This 10 ft. cord would be a good place to start if all you had was shoelaces and not much more for cordage but would not be enough to hang a large shelter, tarp from.

There is also a small flip-up compartment housed in the sheath under the mirror that could store a small fishing line or some strike anywhere or waterproof matches but it is not truly water prof so additional packaging with a baggie/plastic wrap would be in order if used for a match safe.

The sheath has a good retention system for the knife, using a plastic clip that engages the knife at the hilt (there is a corresponding indention on the handle where the latch engages) and a Velcro strap is integrated in the top of the sheath to secure the upper portion of the handle when sheathed. In addition to the black rubber grip materials on the knifes handle there is a knuckle contour for the index finger (this increases purchase and control when the blade is forced away from the user in skinning or whittling of shavings or tinder making).

This black rubber overlay embedded in the handle may not bear up to excessive use or abuse but should hold up for light to medium abuse as a back-up “zombie poker”. The head of the handle of this sheath knife contains an anvil/metal cap that would lend itself to cracking hard nut shells, tapping small tent stakes into the ground or in a pinch could be used as a club to fight off the occasional squirrel if the need should arise.

On the back of the plastic sheath, a portion of nylon webbing covers the case and extends along the length of the entire blade for a length of around 10 inches. At the back of the nylon webbing is 3-inch webbing, belt loop about ¾ inch wide so a person can run a belt through the sheath and carry the knife on the waistband or their pants.

The relatively thin spine of the knife would probably hold up to moderate use such as splitting pine or less dense wood, if using a mallet or baton to help drive the blade, and is certainly sharp enough to skin small or even large game if need be, and to filet a fish.

In the configuration of the blade, this knife would certainly act as a deterrent to a marauder or two, but, is at best a compromise or backup Bush-craft tool when stack against a Bouie knife machete, or hatchet. But then again most medium sheath knives would have the same or similar drawbacks for heavy outdoor use.

The Camillus (Les Stroud) SK knife would meet most camp outing needs, most of the time and has a lot going for it with the added trinkets found on the sheath. While a compass is very sensitive to metallic objects in close proximity, an integrated compass might have been a welcome addition to the arsenal already included in the sheath.

The small net pouch on the back of the sheath is more of a gimmick and is rather smallish for a topo map (advertised use) but could carry a book of matches or handkerchief or ½ bandana section in a pinch, in order to retain usefulness.

One additional option that has been included on the sheath that might prove useful is the two eyelets/grommets, one at each corner of the flared top, nylon portion of the knife sheath. These could be used to secure a thigh lanyard for extra securing or even be used as a neck lanyard to carry this tool over the shoulder or at the chest should one feel so inclined.

The Les Strand SK knife can be purchased separately with only a nylon sheath, from Camillus for around $50.00, but for the additional $10.00 or so for the survival equipped sheath (whistle, flashlight, cordage, mirror etc.) makes an affordable American knife an even greater barging, as a companion tool for those who are venturing out in the wilds for recreation or possible survival.

Would I recommend this purchase to a friend? Yes if they were going to use it as an addition to a fully equipped (Bug out bag) BOB, since I believe the sheath, integrated items are not robust enough for a total long-term, grid down, situation I would recommend this as a standalone tool.

For the money, I believe anyone purchasing this item, as intended, for bugging out bag, would be well served in a short-term survival situation. Would I rely on the small integral tools in the sheath for my sole preps in a long-term, Grid down, Mad Max situation? Probably not but would this knife and sheath come in handy in an emergent, evacuation, “you bet” and for the Money (around $60.00) one would have to look long and hard to come up with a better compromise package that meets most of the basic requirements of a BOB, survival knife than this product.

Pound for Pound strapped to your waist or fastened to your BOB I do believe this tool would be worth its weight in usefulness. I do not regret the initial purchase of this tool and feel confident that even with the contrived design and miniaturized versions incorporated in the sheath, this tool would make life more bearable in a “Lost and Alone In the woods situation” that hikers, outdoorsmen and weekend survivors might find themselves in during a recreational outing or heaven forbid a SHTF event.

How to Drive On The Interstate And Survive (Maybe)!

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by BCtruck – YouTube

Hi folks, I’m going to give writing an article, another try. While reading the rules for the writing contest I noticed where MD was encouraging people to submit articles, the words “we all have something to offer” struck a chord with me. I spent the largest part of my life driving an 18 wheeler long-haul (over the road). I started in 1977 when I joined the army and I’ve driven one till just recently when I decided to hang it up. Consequently, I’ve learned a thing or two about surviving, driving.

The first thing I will do is break the dangers down that we all face while driving. Those are:

Weather
speed
Impatience
egos
drunk/drugged drivers
inattentiveness
sudden equipment failure
Construction
Complacency

First, If you don’t mind, I would like to toot my horn just a little in the hopes that I can convey to you, what I think qualifies me to give advice on a subject that is often a matter of life and death. From 1980 until 1990, I drove about 120,000 miles a year for a total of 1.2 million miles.

From 1990 until 2010, I drove with my wife sharing the driving duties. In those 20 years, my wife and I put over 4 million miles on several different trucks. One truck we put 1.6 million miles on before we sold it. In all those miles I only had a couple of speeding tickets, no accidents or wrecks of any kind, no log book violations.

My wife had one speeding ticket (57 in a 55 in Littlerock) One incident with a deer in Jackson Mississippi and no logbook violations. I’m proud of my driving record and I’m proud of how well I maintained my equipment.OK, thanks for indulging me. Now let’s get after it!

Weather:

We can’t control it so we have two options. Don’t drive in it, or drive in a fashion that is commensurate to the danger presented by the weather. For instance, rain requires less concern than snow, and snow less than ice. However, I’ve been on roads that had been rained on all day and as the sun went down the road surface froze making it not just a possibility, but a likelihood that a skid off would occur.

My solution to ice, was never ever drive on it unless it turned to ice while i was driving, and then I drove only long enough to find a safe place to park to wait for warmer temps or salt trucks to work their magic.No destination, no type of freight was so important that i would risk the lives of other folks, my equipment, or my own life. You can’t drive safe on the ice. It can’t be done without risk that is greater than the need.

Snow:

There are different types of snow. Snow that is wet and heavy is actually fairly easy to drive safely on, provided you use good judgement when choosing a speed and being prepared to adjust that speed as conditions change. Also, planning your lane changes and exits from the highway well in advance and in such a fashion that your need for lane changes doesnt affect the speed or direction of travel of other motorists.

Maintaining your own safe speed and planning your moves in advance is equally as important as not forcing others to make sudden changes in lane or speed. Snow that is very dry is much easier to lose traction on. My philosophy about snow was, if I can drive without endangering others or my equipment, ill drive.

If it was bad enough for chains, I didn’t drive unless it was to cross a mountain pass like Donner, or get to a safe place and wait for conditions to improve. There is an old truckers adage that goes like this,” you can to slow as often as you like, but you can only go to fast once”. I lived by that.

Speed:

We all get in a hurry. We all have had things that happened to make us late for appointments. The problem with speed is, no one else knows about, or for that matter really cares what problem you had that made you need to speed, and speeding actually does very little to negate the problems you had that you feel necessitate the need for speed.

My advice to those that are in front of an angry late person who wants to go faster than you, is move over and let them go. Passivity on the highway goes a long way in making a problem driver go away and perhaps save you from being a victim of road rage.

I’ll tell a short story about speeders. For the last 11 years of my driving career, my wife and i ran a grueling 6800 mile a week route over and over on the same highways at the same times. We found the same people passing us over and over throughout the day and we almost always ended up at the same stops, at the same time. slow and steady saves fuel, stress, and wins the race.

Impatience: Again, most of us have had things that make us late, but there are people out there that completely fall apart mentally when they are under the stress of facing a boss who will want to know why, or a potential client that will be getting a bad first impression based lateness. I’ve seen first hand, impatience make people do absolutely unbelievable things on the highway. Ive also seen a lot of death caused by impatient folks who made driving decisions based on anger. My advice is the same with angry speeders, move over, don’t make eye contact. That is a challenge to some people. It’s about arriving in one peace, not about saving face or fighting back.

Egos:

All those years of driving taught me one thing that is incontravertible: you can find out anything you ever wanted to know about persons psyche, by watching them drive. There is something about the anonymity of a car and the power of a steering wheel, that brings out people’s truest, most inner character that they might otherwise try to keep hidden.

Driving allows Out of control egos, people who are otherwise constrained by society and its basic need for politeness, to let out their inner demon. these people are to be avoided at all costs and ive actually seen first hand one out of control ego meet another out of control ego, at 80 miles an hour. Its never pretty.

Be safe, don’t fall victim to the “by God, I know my rights” mentality. It will get you killed by those who couldn’t care less about your rights, life, or anyone else on the highway. If they don’t care about their own life, they certainly don’t care about yours.

Drunk/drugged drivers:

In this modern society, with a pill for everything and alcohol in convenient containers. Drunks and druggies are driving amongst us every mile of any highway we are on. Some of these drugs are prescribed by doctors so people who have mental disorders can function in a society that recognizes immediately if someone “aint quite right”. Unfortunately, these drugs that might help some folks, are easily and often abused and consumed with alcohol.

Over the years I developed a keen eye for picking out drivers who were clearly under the influence of something that altered their behavior and judgement. Sudden lane changes for no reason, extreme speed fluctuations.

I even noticed that people who drove cars that were in obvious states of disrepair, were more often the ones that would be under the influence of something. I’m not saying having an older, payed for car means you’re a druggy or drunk, but it is one of the things I used to determine the likely hood of impairment and I was correct, more often than wrong.

Someone who gets on the interstate with broken shocks, cracked windshield and lights not working, are often spending their money on drugs or booze and not car repairs or for that matter, INSURANCE! Be very wary of them. They have nothing to lose and could not care less about damaging your car or leaving you with enormous hospital bills.

Inattentiveness:

If you have a phone, I will call you a liar if you say you’ve never made a call or accepted a call while rolling down the road……. ok , just me? The fact is, as the world changes, we have to adapt to those changes by being extra alert and vigilant. Texting, talking on the phone, messing with complicated stereos and navigation equipment, takes attention from the most important thing you are doing.

I think we’ve all realized this and maybe some of us have even made efforts to try to make ourselves safer from the inattentiveness that goes with technology by looking closely at people in our mirrors and glancing at them when they pass. You can do a lot to enhance your safety, just by recognizing those who aren’t paying attention to their driving and may have a cell phone stuck to their ear.

Increase following distance if your behind them, slow down to a point where they just have to pass you if you are in front of them and don’t be beside them when they realize they are in the left lane and want to turn into the walmart on their right.

Equipment failure: It happens to every machine eventually. Its just the nature of machinery to occasionally fail. For instance, you are driving over a two lane bridge with no emergency lane and suddenly your car stalls. There you are, can’t go forward, rolling backward will make it even worse.

What do you do? Fist and foremost is get your family out and in front of your vehicle by a couple hundred feet. Then do what ever it takes to get the attention of cars coming up behind you to recognize that there is a problem (of course you’ve already put your emergency flashers on). When you are certain that folks coming up behind you, see your car is disabled, then you can make repairs or call the police to direct traffic until a tow truck gets there.

This reminds me of something that non truckers might not realize. Tires on 18 wheelers are prone to Throwing their caps off, while going down the road. I hated caps and never ever used them. It was quite a bit more expensive, but i alway bought new tires.

Sadly, recapped tires are a fact of life and what you don’t know can kill you. I drive on the highway in my pickup and i never “hangout” near an 18 wheeler. I either pass quickly, or if i cant pass, i wait for traffic to clear beside him and pass only when I can get all the way around him. Those caps coming off will go clean through a windshield and do major damage to a vehicle.

Don’t follow an 18 wheeler any closer than you feel you can react if one comes off. Trucks see a lot of miles everyday and the profit margin is so slim that there are a lot of drivers who choose cash in their pocket over properly maintaining their equipment. It’s just human nature I suppose.

There aren’t many who get away with bad maintenance for very long before they are caught by the DOT, but in between those time, a lot can happen. Dont ever be afraid to call the state police and report a truck that has obvious defects that could hurt folks. Other truckers do it, and we all want to be safe on the road.

Construction: Its everywhere! Its everywhere!! You have two types of people whenever you lose a lane or come up on sudden construction. You have those that immediately recognize the need for a decrease in speed and enhanced attentiveness, and you have those who see an easy opening to get ahead of a whole bunch of people who care about others. Don’t fight them. Don’t react to them. let them pass and just keep doing what you know is right. You can’t change the world, its evilness or right a wrong, with your car.

Complacency: When you do something over and over, a part of your brain that manages redundant tasks, takes over the mundane repetitive act of driving and allows the rest of your brain get up and roam about the cabin. DON’T DO IT!!! Truckers fall prey to the natural way the brain works frequently.

When (not if) you find yourself falling victim to complacency, you lose your edge, your attention to what lays around the next bend or a car on the side of the road that just had its hood closed and the driver door shut. Always Always, look as far down the road as your eyes can see and never-never never fall into complacency.

Thanks for reading folks. I think I’ll do an article about staying safe from bipedal predators while on the road at a later date and if its something you might like to hear about. peace love and groovy, BC.

You can find my YouTube Channel Here.

We Are All Going To Die! Here Is How To Prepare For It.

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Lake Lili

None of us really ever want to believe that our lives will end. We prep so that we have covered our bases for our survival and that of our loved ones. Most of us hope that we have put things right with our families and right with Our Heavenly Father before our time comes. Sometimes it is not possible to do, and sometimes we are forced to rely on the decision making of others, at a time when we most want control of those decisions.

As you age, who do you want making your decisions for you? Think about it hard. Sit down with a pad and pen and do some planning. Do you have your will put together? Who is inheriting all your preps? Do you want to live on a respirator?

Have surgery for cancer at the age of 95? Do you have one child who will let you go and another who wants you to live through every heroic measure? Time to think it through… Time to do some communicating…

Look at this as another form of prepping.

Make an appointment with your doctor and get a baseline on your health. Make sure that your doctor knows your family history and that you follow-up on all the tests the doctor wants done. Then stop fooling yourself and accept the hand you are dealt.
Work with your doctor to make yourself as healthy as possible and start doing the things that you know you need to be doing anyways – eat right, quit smoking, lower your alcohol consumption, and exercise regularly – and no fooling yourself into thinking that walking the dog down to the end of the block and back is exercise. It’s not. It doesn’t count.

So when you have got all of those basics under control the next conversation you need to have with your doctor is about the laws in your province or state regarding medical powers of attorney and living wills. In Newfoundland where I live you need to have an Advance Health Care Directive (AHCD) written that names your Substitute Decision Maker (SDM), and a back-up.

In it you need to address issues like blood transfusions, organ donations, surgical interventions, long-term care options and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. DNRs, however, do require a separately completed form, which you can get from your doctor. The AHCD will not apply in the event of an emergency (car accident) or if you are involuntarily committed for psychiatric care.

If your SDM declines the role at the time, then the Province will appoint your doctor as your SDM. So, all the more reason for you to have a good relationship with your doctor and for him to know what you want. In Newfoundland, Living Wills & Powers of Attorney do not apply to medical issues. Newfoundland will recognize the legality of the paperwork completed in other Provinces if you are visiting, but if you live here for longer than 6-months then you need to get the proper paperwork completed.

In Ontario, you need to have a Power of Attorney for Personal Care (POAPC) that covers your personal decisions, such as housing and healthcare. However, you will require a living will to communicate your wishes should you become sick and unable to communicate your wishes.

Most often people write a living will saying that they do not want to be kept alive by artificial means should they have no hope of recovery. Technically this makes the living will an “advance directive”. Even with an advance directive, Ontario still requires the completion of a DNR form.

When the Power of Attorney and an advance directive living will are combined it is called a Proxy Directive. All of which tells you that when it comes to healthcare and possible end of life scenarios, governments will make it as complicated as possible so as to ensure that they cannot be held liable by your heirs.

In Tennessee, the laws allow for advance directives for health care decision making. The directives can be called the “Living Will” or “Advance Care Plan” and the “Medical Power of Attorney” or “Appointment of Health Care Agent”. The forms that need to be completed are here: https://health.state.tn.us/AdvanceDirectives/

We are a transient society and laws seem to change and evolve quickly in this area, so check your paperwork and ensure that it still meets your provincial or state laws. They are all different too. So if you live in Tennessee but spend large amounts of time in Florida or Arizona, then you need to make sure the correct forms are completed for those locations too.

You may also need to check and ensure that the medical coverage you are denying in your AHCD will not invalidate your health care coverage. It may be in writing somewhere in the fine print but talk to your medical insurer and get it in writing.

Once all of that is done sit down with the family member you want to designate your substitute decision maker. If they agree make sure that they understand your reasoning and that your request will not conflict with their personal or religious beliefs. Have them sign-off on all the paperwork, so that it is understood that you have reviewed these directives with them and that they are understood.

Now it’s time to go talk to the rest of the family. Some will be offended but most will understand and be relieved that they will not be required to make end of life decisions. But now is the time to find out if someone is going to make a fuss about your directives and get it ironed out.

So you have been to the doctor, you are working to get healthy, you’ve talked to all the family, and you have all your paperwork completed. There are a couple of things you now need to do with that paperwork.

File a copy with your lawyers so they have it with your will (and get one of those if you don’t have it. After all you have worked so hard on your preps, make sure they will go to a good home)
Give your SDMa copy for their records.
Make sure you talk with your family and friends so that they know who you have designated as your SDM. Also, tell them about your medical decisions – again argue it out now so that are not fighting you SDM.
Give a copy to your doctor so that it is in your medical file.
Contact your health insurer and give them a copy.
If you have a file at a local hospital, walk into their admissions area and ask them to add a copy of the paperwork to your file.
In Canada, our passports have a scan feature that can hold files. My sons contains his custody paperwork. Mine contains the custody paperwork and my AHCD. The Passport office was quite obliging about adding it onto the file when I renewed my passport.

In other words, cover all your bases so that the medical decisions you make, and the person you have chosen to ensure they are implemented, are recognized and taken into account. Do it now before you are diagnosed with something that could legally incapacitate your decision-making abilities. None of us want to end up like Casey Kasem.

How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Marc White

All hell has broken loose. Society has crumbled. Your front lawn is filled with zombies. You might be wondering how this happened. That’s not the point. The zombie apocalypse is here and unless you plan on getting eaten alive, you are going to need to know how to survive. Don’t panic. I’m going to teach you everything that you need to know.

I’m Marc White, the founder of Zombie Gear Dude where I teach people how to survive the zombie apocalypse and what zombie weapons and gear work best.

Zombie Outbreak Survival Tips For The Unprepared

To survive a zombie apocalypse, you need to be in great shape. If you get winded running a mile, you’re probably going to be eaten. Build up your cardio since the majority of your day will be spent running from zombies. Train in parkour, which can help you navigate a hazardous or obstacle-ridden environment.

Have an escape route for your home when the zombies inevitably break in. You will need two separate meeting locations for your family if you get separated in the chaos. You should also have an emergency contact who is out of state to keep your family updated on your status, assuming all technology hasn’t been destroyed.

Stick together. You’ll find strength in numbers and a good team can help you gather supplies and fight off zombies. If everyone goes back to back, you’re going to have 360 degrees of vision. Never let the zombies get out of sight.

You shouldn’t trust strangers. People who are unprepared to deal with the zombie apocalypse are prone to freak out and act irrationally. You want your team to be all die-hard survivalists. No cheerleaders.

You’re also going to need a survival kit: clean drinking water, 1 gallon per day; food, either canned or non-perishable; a first-aid kit with bandages, rubbing alcohol and any prescription medication that you might need; and utility items like a knife, duct tape, a flashlight with extra batteries, and a radio.

But even the most extensive survival kit will run out eventually. How do you find new supplies? In an urban environment, the best places to look are abandoned homes, gas stations, military surplus outlets, and outdoor stores. After you have confirmed that the room is clear of zombies, bring a large backpack or duffle bag and raid the place.

You can also find supplies in a forest. You might stumble upon an abandoned campsite with plenty of supplies. But before you wander too far into the woods, mark the trail with spray paint or duct tape. Be careful with any berries or vegetation that you find. Unless you know for sure they’re not poisonous, don’t eat anything.

The human body can only go a few days without water. The easiest way to get water in a zombie apocalypse is from sealed water bottles. But if you can’t find those, catch rainwater in an empty bottle. You don’t even need to purify it before you drink it. In a cold climate, note that snow or ice works great too. Are you somewhere that doesn’t get any rain? Raid hot water tanks and water from toilet basins. And please remember that it’s the top part of the toilet, not the bottom part.

But before you drink that water, you’re going to need to purify it. Bring the water to a boil for a minute and it should be safe to drink. If you don’t have access to fire, find some clean chlorine bleach and mix in 8 drops per gallon of water. Stir, and let it sit for 30 minutes. You’ve got yourself clean drinkable water, yum!

With zombies everywhere, you’re going to need to secure a base camp. The ideal shelter is made of a sturdy material like a brick with few windows that can potentially serve as entry points.

Dams, power plants, water treatment facilities, or any government buildings serve nicely. But don’t venture too far or spend too much time looking for the perfect spot. The more you’re out in the open, the more vulnerable you’re to a zombie attack.

You might think you should hold up in a mall or a big box retail store to be near supplies. But according to Zombie Research Society founder, Matt Mogk, that’s a terrible idea. Stores are the first place most people will go, and the more people there are in a contained area, the quicker and easier it is to spread the virus or disease that caused the zombie outbreak in the first place.

If you are in a pinch, can’t find any secure buildings, you can always try a boat. While the topic is hotly debated by Zombie fans, science says that zombies would lack the motor functions necessary to swim. This means that a boat would keep you safe from an attack unless you are in shallow water.

Get some protective gear! A strong leather jacket or Kevlar motorcycle gear is ideal. Zombies are going to have a tough time biting through something that thick. Ditch your car! You are not going to fuel your gas tank in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

Not to mention the fact that a loud engine would tip any nearby zombies off to your location. Find a bike instead. It’s a much more versatile and effective means of transportation in the new zombie infested world. Plus it’s better for the environment. In case we ever manage to rebuild society.

No matter how prepared you are, eventually, you are going to come face to face with zombies.

So, what’s the best way to deal with these murder machines?

Don’t fight, just run, fast! You have all heard the saying that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Well, this is a sprint. So do your best and get the hell out of there!

If you can’t outrun the zombies, though, you still have a couple more options. Neuroscientist Bradley Voytek created a model of what a zombie’s brain would look like and found that damage to the zombie’s central corpus would give them terrible short term memory. This means that you can easily hide. Loss of the posterior parietal cortices means that zombies have trouble visually focusing on more than one object at a time, meaning that they are easily distracted.

Another option is to act like a zombie. Voytek speculates that zombies suffer from a form of illusion which means that they have trouble knowing whether a person is a human or a zombie. Don’t feel bad for them, just take advantage of it.

But if all else fails, you’re going to need to fight the zombies. This is the last resort as the only way to kill a zombie is to destroy its brain.

But what’s the best weapon to do that?

The answer is simple. Take a blunt or sharp object and hit them in the head. The best part is, these weapons are basically silent and won’t attract attention from any other nearby dead-ites or zombies.

Here is another thing to consider: don’t think that you’re used to playing video games, and it will help you score headshots when it comes to killing zombies. Studies have shown that in life situations, trained police officers have a shooting accuracy of just 25%.

Alright, you’re now in good shape to stay alive in a zombie apocalypse. Now just follow my advice for the rest of your life and you’ll be good to go.

Send me more suggestions in the comments down below. And until the next time, I am Marc White, wishing you a safe zombie killing adventure.

Top 10 Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips

And don’t forget to check out the CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tips

M.D. Creekmore adds: No we don’t believe that there is going to be an actual walking dead zombie outbreak – this article is written in a “fun way” and published here to make it more interesting for readers.

How to Prepare Your Dog for Survival

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Millie in K

In the rush of prepping for your family, don’t forget the canine members (and other pets) of your family! I will be writing about dogs, much of this same information will apply to cats and other pets. I have owned and cared for dogs all my life, owned a boarding kennel, taught obedience classes and trained service dogs, I was a retail sales clerk in a pet department and was a groomer. I will try to cover things in a practical manner for you.

The first thing to consider is food. There are a couple of ways to approach this. You can buy and save commercial dog food for your dog. Or they can eat what you eat, in which case you want to make sure you buy for “another person”.

Dog food is processed and packaged to last 18-24 months. There is a date, somewhere on the bag that will indicate when the food expires. The little secret the dog food companies don’t tell you is that it will be good for at least a year afterward if the packaging is intact and you have not gotten bugs in it or mice.

So buy the food with the furthest expiration date you can and rotate, rotate, rotate! When SHTF you should not worry that Fido has the super-premium, all organic, all meat formula. Buy what you can NOW to meet his needs. If the super-premium food costs $60 a bag or the average food costs $40 a bag, save yourself some money and get extra food from the $20 you will save.

Most of the mid-priced foods are very nutritious, especially if you can find a brand that is not so nationally advertised. For example, you can buy Blue Buffalo which is a good food in so many ways but costs $50-60 for a 28 lb. bag.

Or you can buy Premium Edge (manufactured by Diamond) for about $40 a 35 lb bag. There isn’t really a whole lot of difference, nutritionally, the difference in the price is the heavy advertising that Blue Buffalo does.

If you buy your food, check the expiration date. If it is getting within about 6 months of expiring, find someone and ask for a big discount for you to take that food off their hands. You know it will last longer and you can use that food now, setting back food with a longer date for later use. They don’t want this food around because if it expires, they will have to throw it out.

This gets more complicated if your pet has a medical problem or allergies. In that case, you may want to think about feeding them what the family eats. Family dogs have eaten scraps for years, so long as you don’t overdo it on the fat, they will be fine. You can experiment now with two sources of nutrition.

One will be a protein source, one will be a carbohydrate source. Most of the allergens that dogs react to are the grains, second is the meat source. If they are on a trout and sweet potato based food, you can start with that. Find a fish that the dog can tolerate. You can stock a pond, if you have it, for fresh fish for everyone.

You can buy cans of fish for them for storage until you can figure out something else to do. You can fish for the dog every few days. Sweet potatoes can be grown in the garden and stored easily. Try and find other things your dog can eat in this case. Experiment by adding a singular kind of food to the regular diet for two weeks.

If no reaction, you probably have found something else they can have. This needs to be done NOW so you can be ready for the future and know what they can have.

How much to buy? My dogs on average, eat about a cup of food a day. Sometimes the bag will indicate how many cups are in the bag. Sometimes you have to weigh a cup of food, divide the pounds in the bag by that weight to get the number of cups.

Or you can take the kilocalories in the entire bag (don’t ask me why they put this on the bag) and divide that by the kilocalories found in a cup which will also be on the side of the bag. This will give you the number of cups in a bag.

One thing to keep in mind is that most dogs are somewhat overweight. Dog food takes up room. So figure out how much food every day that Fido can have and then buy appropriately. Go ahead and get him slimmed down to what he needs to be. Then you won’t be wasting prep room for an overweight dog that is certainly going to be developing some kinds of health problems over time.

I have bought enough food for my pack for a year. I figure by that time, I may be sharing the food we have with them, or we will have figured out what will work for us. I worked out how much oatmeal I would need for each dog and it was an enormous amount.

Oatmeal is a great thing to feed because it is one of the most nutrient dense grains there is. Corn, wheat or soy which often causes food sensitivities in dogs over time are not good choices, but rice is a good choice for most dogs, as is bread or macaroni. You can also explore other grains such as amaranth or milo.

When storing the food, it doesn’t matter so much if it gets cold. But it should not get hot. Most dog food is “extruded” meaning it is cooked, then made into a gooey mass and then extruded into nice little kibbles, which are then heated to “bake” them and sprayed with flavored oils to make them more appetizing for your pet. That oil can go rancid if the food is in a place where it is warm. Your dog will not eat it and nothing will make your pet eat that food if it smells bad to him.

Canned food should be kept from freezing, as any canned goods should, as well as not getting hot. If you have it in a pile with your supplies, be sure you have some sort of rodent protection around it. Mousetraps or poison (make sure Fido does not go in that area!) or mothballs work.

Dogs will eat mothballs and they are poisonous. They taste sweet to them. A better alternative is cedar oil or peppermint oil or dried leaves. Put the oil on cotton balls and refresh them every month, tuck them around the bags.

Plant a package of mint somewhere on your land. It can be very invasive so keep it away from your gardens or it will take over. It will reseed itself every year in that same patch; while you are about it, throw down a package of catnip for Kitty. She will appreciate the fun she can have with a fresh branch every day and you can dry it for winter fun or even tea for yourself if you desire.

When you run out of commercial food, Fido will have to rely on scraps, crows and other birds I can shoot, road kill and/or predator meat. If I shoot a coyote, I will put it to use. I probably won’t want to eat it but the dogs could. Any varmints, such as possums, groundhogs, foxes, feral cats, all could be useful for this. I am also working on a better chicken house so that my chickens are not being picked off by hawks, a cup of oatmeal and a fresh egg or two would make a fine meal for most dogs.

When hunting after SHTF don’t forget to save the bones for the dogs. Raw, uncooked bones will keep their teeth cleaner and provide some nutrition as there will be meat on the bones. If you still have electricity and can freeze them, they can be kept that way for a while, they can also be smoked.

Be aware that all bones can splinter and cause awful problems, especially the cooked ones, so look for the sturdier leg bones for them. Take them away after most of the meat has been removed, throw them on the roof to dry out better, pulverize them in the spring to put calcium in your garden. Bones of smaller animals should not be given.

However, if you decide to cook a whole rabbit or a chicken (or birds that have been shot for this purpose) in a pot of water, cook it covered on low (a la crockpot style of cooking) for 24 hours.

Take a potato masher and mash it all up. The bones will be fragile and disintegrate. I cook chicken this way all the time for my dogs in the crockpot. Remove the skin on the chicken and the rabbit. Dogs can also have tongues, brains, liver, heart, etc. of whatever you hunt. You can also teach your dog to help hunt. Right now my barns are filled with mice and I’m going to be taking one down every day and letting them learn the joy of catching and eating a mouse.

Make sure you have a water bowl and a food bowl in your BOB, with food, a sturdy leash, and collar for your pet. The water bowl can double as a food bowl if necessary and to save on weight. Kitties should always have a small crate; they get frightened and take off if you let them out. Some kind of litter box would be helpful and you can use just plain dirt for litter if necessary.

Water: A dog will need about 8 oz. of water (one cup) for every 5 lbs. of body weight. They will need a little more in hot weather. Dogs can and do drink some really scummy water and don’t seem to mind but some can be more particular. Mine really like the algae water that is in their swimming pool on a hot day, warm, green, very yummy apparently.

They do have a shorter digestion system, so many of the things that would affect us can pass through their guts quickly and without problems. But you cannot count on that; giardia comes to mind and coccidia. Those will cause digestive upsets and especially diarrhea. Make sure your water filter can make enough water for your pets, too.

Medicine, wormers and flea control: Please verify what I am telling you. I am not a vet nor do I play one on TV. Double check the dosages of anything you might need to give to your dog. Also be aware that many things that work well in humans and dogs will kill a cat, such as aspirin. Never give a dog Ibuprophen. Do some research on what you put in the kit for use in animals.

Also, NOW is a good time to be sure your pets are up to date on vaccinations and wormings. Get this on your to-do list now and keep an eye on the timing for this. There won’t be vaccinations for animals when SHTF. Rabies is particularly important, no one wants to see a redux of Old Yeller with their beloved family pet.

Make sure there are things in your medical kit that will help Fido, should he need it. Benadryl for insect bites, particularly bees and wasps, is helpful. 1 mg. per pound is the dosage. A couple of different antibiotics for fish is a good idea, tetracycline is not as effective for most things but amoxicillin and cephalexin are a good choice and easily obtained as fish medicine. Make sure you look up the right dosage for your pet’s weight.

You can buy tapeworm medicine made for fish, too, check the dosage and make sure it is written down. They will get tapeworms from fleas, they nibble the fleas and the fleas are ingested and then you have tapeworms. People can get tapeworms so it’s a good idea to keep on top of this.

You can keep flea preventative on hand, I’ve not seen expiration dates on the spot on type. You can also make a tea out of mint and spray that on your dog, it will repel the fleas at least. Diatomaceous earth can be rubbed into the coat and put in the dog’s bedding, it supposedly cuts the flea larva up and dries out the adult fleas. Pennyroyal is also good for repelling fleas but should not be used on pregnant dogs.

If you are in an area with heartworms (carried by mosquitoes) you will want to be sure you have preventative on hand. You can buy cattle Ivermectin, the 1% injectable kind. The recommended dosage of cattle Ivermectin for dogs to prevent heartworm is .0015 milligrams to .003 milligrams per pound of body weight once a month. Figure the dosage very carefully and measure out with an insulin syringe, be sure you know what you are doing.

This will be given ORALLY, not injected, once per month. Put it in something tasty to get it down your dog. You use the insulin syringe to get a more exact reading. Cattle Ivermectin is good for longer than the expiration date on the bottle. Never give Ivermectin to dogs that are of “collie” origin, collies, border collies, Australian shepherds, or mixes thereof. The measurements on an insulin syringe are in units.

There are 100 units to 1 cc or 1 milligram. The 40 unit syringes are easiest to work with and you can reuse them for this purpose only. Do not think you can make a mistake on this; Ivermectin poisoning can kill your dog. Do some research to be sure you know what you are doing.

Training: You may need to train your dog for various duties when SHTF. One may be that you want the dog to raise Cain and bark its head off any time it sees a stranger or something unusual. Barking vigorously gives the impression that the dog means business, even if it is a small dog.

Most people cannot read a dog’s body language and assume the dog means to bite if the dog can get to them and will give a wide clearance. Conversely, you may wish the dog to be silent. It may be best not to draw attention to what appears to be an abandoned house where you may be.

Training to bark is easier than training not to bark. You may need to have some help bringing in cattle or sheep. Be sure your dog has some instinct in this area, you aren’t going to be able to bring in cattle with a Maltese, but you can train a poodle to retrieve ducks, it’s what they were bred for.

Toys: At some time, there will be worn out toys and we all like our dogs to have some fun. Old socks, knotted together make a fine tug toy as does an old rope. The lid from a 5-gallon bucket makes a pretty fair Frisbee. Bones are always amusing. And it’s probably not a bad idea to lay in a small supply of tennis balls for the dogs who love those to play with, we never know when we may run across another tennis ball!

Wildfire Survival Tips To Keep Your Homestead Safe

October 13, 2018 M.D. Creekmore

by Ron Melchiore

I had another post in mind to submit to you folks but forest fires are a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I’ve recently become aware of the fires burning in various areas particularly in the Southeastern United States. In fact, it finally made the National news tonight. I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail many years ago and I can’t imagine the number of fires or amount of territory now burning through those areas.

As some of you know, we’ve had our share of forest fires out here. They’ve literally had us running for our lives. I can’t think of too many things that demand immediate attention more than walking out the door and seeing a billowing curtain of gray/black smoke rising skyward in the nearby forest.

The following paragraph is an excerpt from my book Off-Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness.

“It was like being in a movie theater, the big screen showing a large-as-life fire burning right in front of us, with black smoke billowing upward and a dense veil of white-gray smoke hugging the ground so thickly that the bright orange flames were visible only when they leaped skyward above the fracas.

A slight diminution in the smoke allowed just enough visibility to see an orange-red glow, much like opening the door to a furnace allows a view of the orange-red coals. And, like the furnace hungrily consuming its fuel, the intensity of the forest fire’s heat incinerated everything in its path. “

I have a full chapter devoted to our fire experiences. I am not a fire expert. Rather I’m a guy who has dealt with at least 4 different fires in our 17 years of wilderness living in northern Canada. Two of those fires have gotten to within 90 feet of our homestead. All totaled those fires burned at least ¾ million acres around us.

Here are some general tips anyone can do to prepare well ahead of time. They are not things to contemplate when the fire is ¼ mile away and working towards you. Have an escape plan having multiple paths of egress. If this road is blocked, where to now? Is there a lake to head to as a last resort? Is the vehicle fueled up? Is it pointed in the right direction?

The last thing you want to be doing is packing in a panic! Consider what items are of greatest importance. Purse/wallet, identification, important documents, medications, backup laptop computer, hard drive or USB with essential financial or other data? What is deemed essential will vary from person to person.

In our case, in spring, since we are only one lightning strike away from disaster, we have a survival bag by the door as well as our survival suits. We have smoke masks and goggles. We pack some food and water in the boat and have the water pump and boat fully fueled and ready to roll. Remember, we have the added factor we are alone out here so we plan accordingly.

Rake all combustibles such as leaves and debris far from buildings. Be aware fires will create their own winds so those leaves you raked to the perimeter will be blown around again. If I had a chipper, tiller or some device to reduce and shred and /or bury leaves, I would use it.

If you are in an evergreen forest, I would consider removing trees near buildings. At the very least, remove all lower branches in nearby trees which act as ladder fuels. (fuels that allow a ground fire to start climbing the trees)

The above are routine things we do every year to be prepared. Since we live on a lake, we have a sprinkler system set up preemptively. Forget trying to put the fire out. That’s not going to happen. All you can do is try to get combustibles away from any structures and take measures to bounce the fire around your property.

When we moved out here, we bought a water pump, fire hoses, garden sprinklers and garden hoses (which serve as sprinkler supply lines). Higher quality sprinklers and supply hoses are available and if I had to do it over again I would opt for those. Our spring ritual is to set up all our equipment long before the first thunder and lightning appear. By doing so, at the first sign of trouble, we’re ready.

wildfire survival tips — Sprinklers on the roof

The first step is to set up the fire pump on our beach. By means of a quick coupler, a 2.5 inch PVC suction line is connected to the pump and extends about 12 feet out into the lake. On the end of the pipe that is in the water, I have a foot valve which allows water to flow one way to the pump but prevents water from draining back into the lake.

That’s important because you don’t want the water pump to drain of water and thereby lose its prime. The foot valve rests on a rock about 8 inches off the lake bottom so that sand and other debris isn’t sucked into the system.

On the output side of the water pump, there is a threaded coupler which ultimately connects to a standard 1.5-inch fire hose. Several 100-foot sections of hose are connected together to make the run up the hill to the house.

Mounted on a porch post is a manifold which takes the high-pressure water from the pump and redirects it out to smaller feed lines, the garden hoses I mentioned earlier. We have 5 outlets on this manifold which we can control via individual valves.

We can shut off or engage each sprinkler with the turn of a valve. Sprinklers can be mounted singly or in series, so there are some instances where one valve may control two sprinkler heads.

Our manifold also has an adapter and valve that allows us to continue a run of standard firehose out to our homestead’s perimeter to tackle any smoldering areas and hot spots. We have two nozzles that can be attached to the end of this fire hose.

The first is an adjustable spray nozzle capable of spraying water in a short, wide pattern or a jet of water that can shoot out one hundred feet if need be. Our second nozzle has a narrow opening that delivers a high-pressure jet of water capable of pulverizing the ground to reach fire that is smoldering in roots and moss.

Our home and outbuildings are top priority to protect so I head up to the roof of our two-story home and mount a sprinkler on a short pole at each end of the roof. A short hose connects them in series and then the feed line drops from the roof to the nearby manifold. Our house and outbuildings are now protected.

Forgive me for the cuts from the book but time is of the essence and I want to get this information out. The following is another excerpt from my book Off-Grid and Free: My Path to the Wilderness and has more specific information.

What has saved our home twice?

Sprinklers! Both our own system and those of the provincial fire crews. Part of my spring ritual is to head to the house roof and install two sprinklers, one at each end. I also have full-length trees cut, approximately 20- to 25 feet long, and have a sprinkler head attached to the top of each of those trees.

We pick locations around our house site where we can stand these trees back up, like big flag poles, and either wire each one to another smaller tree or attach a set of tripod legs to the pole, so that it can be free-standing. The higher these “flag poles,” the more coverage and the better the protection.

The Honda water pump with a 1 1⁄2 ” firehose delivers pressurized water from our lake to the input side of a manifold and all the sprinkler feed hoses come off the output of the manifold.

Once a fire gets into the crown of the trees, it’s hard to stop. So how do sprinklers prevent the property from being incinerated?

The basic premise of sprinklers is to bring up the humidity in the protected area as high as possible before a fire arrives. The dome of humidity has a tendency to bounce the fire around it, allowing the fire to bypass the protected areas. They most certainly will not extinguish a wildfire!

For anyone living in fire-prone areas, this concept will work for you as long as you have a reliable water source. A swimming pool, pond, stream, or even household tap gives you a chance at saving your home. At a minimum, a couple of sprinklers, proper water lines, and a water pump are all that is needed for some cheap insurance.”

Be Ready: Wildfires Infographic from CDC

When we first moved out here to build our homestead, we knew we would eventually have to deal with a forest fire. But we had no idea the scope and intensity a conflagration could possess. During construction, we flew in metal siding and roofing for our home’s exterior. It gives a great deal of fire resistance.

For anybody doing new construction, especially in fire-prone areas, consider metal or masonry exterior. And finally, never underestimate a fire. I have personally seen forest fires run 5 to 10 miles in a day! They will lob embers far in advance of themselves to start new fires. Good luck!

Bio: Ron and his wife currently live 100 miles in the Canadian wilderness on a remote lake. As part of the back to the land movement that originated in the 70’s, they have spent their adult years living the homestead dream. You can follow and contact Ron at https://www.facebook.com/offgridandfree.mypathtothewilderness or http://www.inthewilderness.net/