The-Atlantic-thefemalesurvivalist

It's been pretty warm here in North East Georgia, so no snow to play in so far. I'm from the north, and snow, ice and sub zero temps were the norm. I saw this really good clip about Extreme Survival on the Weather Channel. Several people gave their stories, among them a neat Japanese dude who says its way better than a round of golf. He loves it out there, near Mt. Rainier, bring it baby.

http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/chaser-describes-birmingham-storm-damage-25791#loc=62/436/25739
He used his socks to start his fire, then burned $6 in cash to start it.

The weather channel has a great site, though:
http://www.weather.com/weather/videos/news-41/top-stories-169/chaser-describes-birmingham-storm-damage-25791

This link tells the importance of layers, keeping those layers clean for maximum warmth:

http://dsc.discovery.com/adventure/extreme-cold-weather-survival-tips-2.html

This goes right along with keeping your sleeping bag clean. If you find its not doing the job anymore, try washing it before throwing it out.

I washed my Marmot 800 goose down bag after literally hundreds of nights/ thousands of trail miles. Its good as new...well, taking into account the tiny hole that's been stitched up, and some abrasion from AT shelter floors.

Anyways, my whole take away from this was: in a survival situation, what are the things, or thing I would want, most of all.
My list:

Fire tools, first and foremost, redundancy is fine, preferred, actually: matches, lighter, flint, cotton and petroleum firestarters. A candle would be nice. Take plenty and double bag for water protection. In a survival situation, those extra baggies can collect water or food.

A vapor barrier, large plastic bags, silnylon tarp, rain suit, plastic sheeting all fit in this category. Perfect for holding body warmth in, protection from the elements, allowing to sleep on dry surface, able to walk out.

Cutting tool, preferably a decent knife, razor blade, emergency saw.  I don't go for these multipurpose tools, but that would fit here too. These would be useful in many ways, cutting limbs for shelter, firewood, cordage. Really, its the last on the list cause a person can make due without a cutting implement.

Most importantly, this list does me no good unless its with me. I've got this stuff in my car. I need to carry it on my trails. Day hikers get lost, adventurers get turned around. Add some food, and its amazing.  One story told of a lady surviving 7 weeks on jerky and gorp when their vehicle became stranded in Nevada.

Every morning, especially in the summer, I get an early hike in. Before coffee, before breakfast, before it gets so hot.
Now that our trail cameras are showing a lot of bears with cubs, wild hogs with piglets, and god knows what else out here, I'm making myself bring
The Sling.

And since it has a built in ditty bag, I'm adding some survival stuff, just in case I get off on a bushwhack.

A firestarter, matches, and cigaretter lighter all fit into a tiny plastic bag. This is dropped into the sling. I've placed a large white plastic bag, a watch and a small jack knife into the built in pouch. These simple tools would come in very handy if I had to spend the night alone in the forest.


I made this sling myself from some silnylon. Its just a large ditty bag, measuring 5.5 inches x 9 inches tall. I included a smaller ditty bag whose cord encircles the strap on the sling.

The safety clip on the bear spray has an elastic cord around it. I added this so the clip would never get lost. A small burst when the wind is at your back and the attacker is in close range is sufficent.



Every once in awhile, I practice removing the spray from the sling, sliding the clip off and aiming. I have never needed to use it yet.

By keeping it simple, I know I actually will grab The Sling before I head out the door.
This morning I saw a wonderfully healthy looking black bear. He ran from me, and I thanked him.

We're still testing gear here. I did an initial review of the

Eureka Woman's Casper Sleeping Bag at http://brawnyview.blogspot.com/

Plan to take it this weekend for a trail- real trip event.Then we'll post photos here.

I'm all about hands on testing. Just thinking about stuff, reading, and book knowledge works for starters. Then, a person has to get out and try it. Like my hobo stove, hobo lamp, survival shelters, acorn and wild food experiments.

The horrible catastrophe which befell Japan, starting with the massive 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami is causing some people to look at survivalism again.

Who knew iodine tablets taken just before exposure could assist in preventing radiation poisoning?
Not like "they" are giving us real numbers. Sorta like getting your complete cholesterol profile done only to have the doctor say, "its fine, let us worry about the actual numbers". Anybody knows that's dangerous ground. A lipid profile can vary so much, the HDL and triglycerides telling much more than a LDL reading alone.

So, I went searching for real numbers.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=400+milliseverts+per+hour+Japan+radiation&ei=utf-8&fr=b1ie7

by putting 400 millisivents per hour Japan radiation into the yahoo search engine.
I had heard yesterday the term "400 millisievents" which put me onto real information. According to experts, the sun gives us just 3 millisivents Per Year. If we get a cat scan we get 8. I've been reading warnings about that, so the number 400 sure caught my attention.

Some experts claim we lay people can't understand the "numbers". We are computer literate. I take exception to that theory.

Not to be a fear monger here. Just wondering why we are told such pacifying things when in reality we should be thinking about our own survival kits at home. Our skills in water management, food storage while people in Japan go hungry for days on end should be sending us messages about preparedness.

Japan is the third largest economy in the world, an industrialized nation. A natural disaster has brought untold suffering. Time to look at our own readiness. If they are going hungry, it could happen here as well.