The Lost Art of Survival

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” - Oscar Wilde

Civilization is a fragile thing. We depend upon so many skills and talents of others. Consider driving a car. Could you replicate the rubber of the tires, the metal of the exterior, the electronics of the on board computers, the engineering of the engine, the production of oil and gasoline?  Recently I mentioned that ancient Rome used forks but this concept was lost with the Dark Ages. Also lost were heated baths, indoor plumbing, concrete, and many other technologies that made Roman cities famous.

A recent commuting lecture series on "Ancient Empires before Alexander the Great" described an empire in Mesopotamia that was a marvel of central planning with all labor and production organized by the Capitol. This lasted several decades but the next generation of rulers were not as skilled at planning; a drought and crop loss began a cascade of problems that unraveled the carefully made plans and the empire fell apart with food revolts.

Unfortunately the more advanced the civilization, the more dependent we become upon it, and ever less capable of surviving on our own. Most have lost the knowledge that comes from living "the simple life". How to grow food, build a home, make a fire from scratch, etc. I'm always amazed by the stories like "Little House on the Prairie" where a family builds a homestead from scratch.

The loss of basic life skills is not a recent phenomenon. In the late 1800's  Robert Baden-Powell, a Lieutenant General in the British Army, was appalled by the lack of nature skills with city boys drafted into the Army as Scouts. A Scout was required to spy on enemy positions and carry messages through dangerous territory. They needed to live off the land by hunting and gathering, build a fire and conceal it, know how to track others and how to hide. So Baden-Powell wrote a Scouting guide for the hapless soldiers. This book was published in England and became popular with young boys who wanted to play at being soldiers. Recognizing an opportunity, in 1908 Baden-Powell wrote a new book, Scouting for Boys, and began the Boy Scout organization that has spread around the world.

Bottom Line

Despite being a Cub Scout Leader, I would not fare well with outdoor survival. The only animal I've ever killed is fish (and I'm a terrible fisherman). If you want to learn survival skills check out http://www.survivalblog.com/ for daily ideas. A good starting point is Learning Traditional Skills covering the basics of Food, Water, Shelter and Fire.

The Return of the Rule of Threes

“We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”-Virginia Satir

This weekend my wife and I had an opportunity to train local Church Emergency Specialists. I chose as my topic the subject matter that started my blog almost two years ago,
The Rule of Threes.

The rule goes like this...

You may survive (on average)

Three minutes without air

Three hours without shelter
(i.e. protection from extreme heat or cold)

Three days without water

Three weeks without food

Three months without hope

The Rule of Threes explains some common survival errors:

1. By using a charcoal grill or power generator indoors during a power outage, you're trading shelter/heat for air and may die of asphyxiation.

2. By eating snow when thirsty you give up body heat and may die of hypothermia before you die of thirst.

3. Likewise don't sacrifice shelter when searching for water. Sunstroke kills faster than thirst.

4. By eating dried food like jerky when water is scarce you are speeding up your own dehydration and death.

Bottom Line

It's useful to keep the priorities in mind - we tend for focus on hunger pains and thirst and overlook core principles like air and body heat which are more subtle but silent killers.

My early blogs provide additional information on the topics of air, heat, cold, water, and food:

http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/07/carbon-monoxide-poisoning.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/hypothermia.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/hyperthermia.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/heat-exhaustion.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-much-water-is-enough.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/meals-ready-to-eat-and-other-options.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/survival-kitchen_12.html
http://perpetualpreparedness.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-much-food-is-enough.html

Jamestown

Their houses are all built in the shape of tents, with very high chimneys.- Christopher Columbus speaking of the Indians

After the failures of the Virginia Colony at Roanoke, King James of England granted proprietary land charters in 1606 to two competing branches of the Virginia Company, the Plymouth Company (New England) and the London Company (Virginia), in the hopes of establishing a permanent settlement. Immediately, the the Plymouth Company sent the ship, Richard, to the New World but it was captured by the Spanish near Florida. In 1607 the Plymouth Company tried again with two ships and 120 colonists. Called the Popham Colony, they settled the area of Phippsburg, Maine near the mouth of the Kennebec River. They lasted one year before sailing back to England.

In 1607 the London Company founded Jamestown, the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. It comprised three ships after a particularly long voyage of five months duration across the Atlantic. Many in the group were gentlemen unused to work, or their manservants, equally unaccustomed to the hard labor demanded for establishing a viable colony. Two-thirds of the settlers died before ships brought supplies and experts in 1608. In the "starving time" of 1609 - 1610, only 60 of the 500 colonists survived.

Jamestown’s relationship with neighboring Indians was a strained coexistence. Initially the Indians were friendly and we get the story of Pocahontas, the introduction of crops like corn and the origin of the Thanksgiving dinner. But after 15 years of mistreatment the Powhatan Confederacy attempted to eliminate the English colony in the Indian Massacre of 1622. The attack killed over 300 settlers, about a third of the English-speaking population.

The true miracle of Jamestown is that is survived at all. Between St. John’s in 1583 and Jamestown in 1607 there were no fewer than eighteen failed attempts at European colonization.

Despite a terrible beginning, Jamestown did survive and eventually Virgina would become the largest and most prominent of the 13 colonies; home to leading men like Washington and Jefferson. It’s also interesting to note that the territory claimed by the Virginia Colony was huge. It consisted of not just the Commonwealth of Virginia but also the entire states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, most of Ohio as well as disputed claims to the lands of Michigan and Wisconsin.

Bottom Line

In modern times we take survival for granted. Family members won’t die if the crop fails. We are not sickened by drinking the local water or by mosquitoes. Infant mortality is low and Indian attacks are rare.

We also take our tools for granted. Hammers, ovens, sewing machines, etc. Imagine a Robinson Carouse existence on a desert island when you have to get by with only what you can make yourself.

It’s hard for me to say if the early settlers were brave or ignorant or a little of both. Certainly courage was needed to move to the New World and endure the trials of the sea voyage and hunger. But there was also a lot of false optimism and failure to adequately plan and failure to anticipate the difficulties of building a settlement from scratch. When the second supply ship arrived in Jamestown, the company representives expressed anger that the colonists had not found gold or other means to pay for their supplies. The leader John Smith wrote back to the London Company,

"When you send againe I entreat you rather send but thirty Carpenters, husbandmen, gardiners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided; than a thousand of such awe have [gentlemen speculators]: for except wee be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be made good for anything."

It was the worst of times, but after Jamestown colonizers appear to have found the secret of successful colonization through trial and error.

1607 Jamestown, Virginia
1607 Sante Fe, New Mexico
1608 Quebec City, Canada
1610 Hampton, Virginia
1610 Kecoughtan, Virginia
1610 Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, Canada
1614 Albany, New York
1620 Plymouth, Massachusetts
1623 Portsmouth, New Hampshire
and so on with dozens more settlements in the early 1600’s.

Wild Plants

“Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." – naturalist Euell Gibbons

If it comes down to death by starvation or eating an unknown plant, I suspect most people will risk eating the plant. And the risk is high. Even “experts” make mistakes and die from eating poisonous mushrooms. Poison hemlock has killed people who mistook it for its relatives, wild carrots and wild parsnips.

Suppose you do find a “safe” plant species to eat. It’s still possible to make an unhealthy mistake. Keep the following in mind when harvesting from nature:

• Plants in public areas or alongside roads may have been sprayed with pesticides. Wash them completely.
• Plants growing near polluted water can become infected with Giardia lamblia and other parasites. Boil these plants to kills the parasites.
• Avoid any plant or fruit with signs of mold, mildew, fungus, or rot
• Avoid ALL wild mushrooms
• Cashew nuts are delicious when properly prepared but poisonous when picked from a tree as cashew apples. “Raw” cashews are coated in the same chemical that gives us a rash from poison ivy. Likewise some plants are safe when cooked but not when eaten raw.
• Just because one part of a plant is safe, does not mean the entire plant is edible. Leaves, stems, roots, buds, seeds and flowers should be treated separately. For instance, rhubarb stems are tasty but the leaf blades are poisonous. Apple seeds contain a low (very low) level of cyanide. Don’t eat tomato plant stems & vines or sprouts from potatoes.
• What’s safe for you may kill your pet. Chocolate, onions and garlic can be deadly to cats and dogs.

Bottom Line

Tasting even a small piece of the wrong plant can be the last thing you do in life. However, if you must experiment or die, here are some guidelines called the Universal Edibility Test [based on Wilderness-Survial.net]

1. Separate the plant into its basic parts of leaves, stems, roots, buds, seeds and flowers.
2. Test only one part of a plant at a time
3. Smell the food for strong or acid odors. Avoid anything with a strong almond smell (cyanide).
4. Before eating, test for contact poison by placing the plant part on the inside of your elbow or wrist for 15 minutes. You do NOT want to swallow a rash inducing plant like poison ivy.
5. Prepare the plant part (steam, boil, cook, or raw). Some awful tasting (bitter) plants like acorns are improved by mashing and boiling.
6. Put a pinch of the food on the outside of your lip for 3 minutes. If it creates a burning or itchy sensation, cross that plant part off your list and restart the test with a different plant part.
7. Place the food on your tongue for 15 minutes. DO NOT SWALLOW. Spit out any saliva. If there is any reaction or numbing then spit out the food and reject the plant part.
8. Assuming no reaction from the above tests, swallow the food and wait 8 hours to detect any after effects.
9. If you feel ill during the 8 hours, induce vomiting.
10. If no ill effects occur, each a ¼ cup of the food and wait another 8 hours.
11. If still no ill effect, the plant part, as prepared, is probably safe to eat.
12. Eating large portions of “safe” plant food on an empty stomach may cause diarrhea, nausea, or cramps; for example green apples and wild onions. Eat plants in moderation.

Home Remedies

“My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn't pay the bill he gave
me six months more.” - Walter Matthau

Check out the interesting list of home remedies at Home Remedies That Work. I'm not a doctor and can not vouch for the list but the ideas look reasonable and many I've read about elsewhere.

Here are some that I'd be willing to try:

• Milk of Magnesia to stop the itch from mosquito bites, poison ivy and poison oak
• Cover a cut with a dab of honey (anti-bacterial) and place a band-aid over it
• Coca-cola to remove rust
• Remove a small splinter with a dab of Elmer's glue. Let it try and pull off.

Bottom Line

During a crisis medicine could be hard to obtain. In addition to a well stocked first aid cabinet at home, a list like Home Remedies That Work can help when supplies are low and you need to be creative.

Springtime!

“Buttercups and daisies,
Oh, the pretty flowers;
Coming ere the Springtime,
To tell of sunny hours.”
- Mary Howitt

The snow is gone and we've experienced the lion roaring winds of March and the showers of April. I'm ready now for the May flowers. My wife & I do OK with indoor plants and herbs and outdoor flowers but we have had little success with outdoor crop gardening due to poor soil, too much shade and lack of skill.

This year we will try something new. My wife has been rereading the classic book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. We have some large planters and are buying soil, peat moss, manure and vermiculite to fill them with. We'll see how it goes.

A raised garden is a nice idea if you have poor soil or want a productive garden of modest size. You can build your own raised beds with some lumber or premade kits. You can use used tires or even an old kid's wading pool.

Bottom Line

The internet is full of advice for raised bed gardening, for example www.raisedbedgardeningtips.com/ But even better is to find a nearby neighbor who gardens and ask them about what works for your climate zone. What seeds grow best? What soil mix do they use and how much watering? What should you do about bugs and pesticides (natural or organic)? Will you need protection from deer (they ate our tulips) or rabbits (they ate our hostas) or birds (they ate our berries)? Good luck and get started soon.