Books and survival "short term VS long term" [Archive]

Honu

10-24-09, 18:40

I have to dig up some of my old books and check out some new books

the thread about strouds book made me think about this long term vs short term thing

I used to have some books have to find them again :) that were about homesteading I think there was 3 of them and they were from the 1930s or maybe earlier ? but were aimed at building a homestead and small acre type farming raising animals butchering and preserving foods without refrigeration getting water making furniture and rendering fat to make soap and light what basic tools needed etc...
so in a SHTF survival they would be very good to have for longer term stuff with a family and not have to worry about power etc..

other books I had were about short term survival like being lost etc...
but I had some good long term books

I have always thought a good balance of the two types depending on location and your property etc...

curious what other long term living homesteading type books others have read that they enjoy

Von Rheydt

01-03-10, 08:03

Bushcraft mate.

Like I keep telling people bushcraft is not about hugging tree's. It is about being able to live in a condition better than just surviving if you ever find yourself in a SHTF situation.

Think about it: Elastictrickery is a relatively new invention having only popped up in the last 120 years or so. All the gadgets and gizmo's that you now rely on in the average house did not exist before the advent of electricity. And, people have not only been around since electricity came along. People were around for many thousands of years doing what they do and doing it pretty damn well.

Great grandma and great grandpa used to get on pretty good with no fridge, electric oven or microwave ........ they did not even have Wally World to do their grocery shopping in. Progress is good but at a basic level it has made us lazy and we have forgotten how to do many things that were basic skills a hundred years ago.

Bushcraft is about learning and using basic skills. How to trap, prepare and store food. How to light fires in the cold and wet using the available seemingly wet timber - impossible? Nah, our ancestors did it so can you. Did you know the ancient egyptians were using fire bows. How to field purify water to help eliminate Giardiasis and Cryptosporidium, both potentially lethal - an important skill when you know that the World Health Organisation states that 70% of water on the planet is contaminated. With bushcraft comes knife skills for cutting and carving, shelter building skills, and a general comfortableness with the environment that you find yourself in so you are always above the survivor level.

Now then, I did some basic survival types courses in the military and I have always been an outdoors person and I thought "yeah, I can get by". Then I went on a fire bow course. The guy spent half a day teaching tree identification and uses, why? Because if you use the wrong wood for a fire bow it is never gonna work, full stop. As a by product of going on the fire bow course I learnt how to make cordgae from twigs, which trees can help a few illnesses and importantly how to make a fire if I am buck naked with nothing on me. And to reiterate, don't matter if the wood appears wet.......it'll still burn, you just need to know how.

Books are good to lay foundations and to help point you in the right direction. But the only way to learn is by doing, failing and then succeeding.

Suggested reading:

Anything by Ray Mears
Anything by Mors Kochanski
Tree identification books
Mushroom identification books
The official Field manuals for survival ........ limited value but some decent basics
Homesteading books, I love them practical and full of useful information.

Just to reiterate, bushcraft is not a wuss, jessy, tree hugger thing. I meet just as many ex-SF and airborne types doing bushcraft as I do skydiving.