Tomorrow is never certain.  We never know when there might be a dissonance which can disrupt the comfortable nature we are used to on a daily basis. There are many different emergency events which some people prepare for but, unfortunately, most of us tend to ignore. At some point in our lives, we will have to deal with some form of natural calamity, and that is exactly why we put together this post.  In the following article, we’ll highlight some of our favorite survival skills for natural calamities for you to learn from.

Survival Skills

1. Making Shelter

You should consider your situation before planning or building any survival structure. Your shelter must be able to provide protection from excessive wind, sun, rain, snow or any kind of weather. A shelter is mostly for comfort and protection. It should protect you against animals, weather or from insects. Likewise, it must be relatively comfortable since you will have to sleep in it.

A shelter may have many different forms:

• Natural shelters include caves or fallen thick-foliaged trees
• Intermediate shelters include a ditch dug next to a tree log and covered with leafs, debris shelter, or snow caves
• Completely man-made structures which may include houses, tents or tarps

2. Gathering & Filtering Water

Human beings are able to survive for an average of 3 to 4 days without water intake. Water is highly needed in hotter temperatures. The need of water also may increase with exercise. A normal person may lose between 2 and 4 liters of water in a day under the normal condition – more in extreme weather conditions. It is suggested that you consume between 3 and 6 liters of water per day to stave off dehydration.

In survival situations where running water is not available, you need to have an adequate water supply or a way to consistently produce clean water. Without clean water, you won’t survive a prolonged calamity and therefore, you need a source that will not only provide clean water but also easily accessible every time without going long distance. Other sources of water may include; having secrete water reserves, rainwater harvesting, or storing the large quantity of clean water.  There are numerous ways to generate clean water from questionable sources filtering, purifying and boiling.

3. Creating Fire

Fire have been recognized to significantly increase an ability to survive from both the mental and physical states. It can help you warm your body, boil water, cook food, or dry your clothes. In addition, fire can also provide a psychological support by creating a sense of the safety and security.

Lighting fire without matches or lighters is a common subject in survival books and courses. You should, therefore, practice the fire making tactics before venturing to wilderness. Making the fire in adverse conditions have been made easier by introductions of fire equipment such as fire piston and solar spark lighters.

4. Food Storage

You might be surprised seeing food being low on a survival skills list. We can survive without food for much longer compared with other basic needs. According to the rule of three, a typical person can survive for up to three weeks without food.  That being said, surviving and being somewhat comfortable can be two very different things.

Having food stores in place prior to a calamity is the best way to ensure you don’t go hungry during a natural disaster.  In the off chance you’ve run out of everything, you can resort to the following means of food acquisition:

• Hunting
• Foraging
• Trading

Please make sure you can properly identify edible plants if you intend to forage.

5. Improve Your Outdoor Skills

The more you understand the nature, the better you will be able to survive. For instance, to effectively locate wild animals you will need highly tuned wildlife tracking skills.The best way to acquire basic natural knowledge is to read about plants and animals in your area and then get outside and tune your knowledge. This approach will allow you identify means of survival in the outdoors in good times or bad.

6. Improve Your Attitude

Attitude is very important in survival skills. It can even determine whether you are going to make it out of a situation alive. Your attitude will help you plan for your situation and, by doing so, you will keep your body and mind active. A positive attitude is also contagious.  If you are in a group of folks who are in dire straits, a positive attitude may help bring people together and allow them to get to safety.

7. Build Your Relationships

Solid relationships with other community members is an essential aspect of survival and readiness. One individual can’t do as much as two can do. If you involved your friend or a neighbor about it, they might agree and create a readiness plan for the entire community. Solid relationships will add an extra reliability which will help you prepared for anything.

8. Communication Is King

Communication is one of the most critical survival skills to keep up to date with.  Ensure that you have backup forms of communication such as radios, radio phones, auxiliary phone chargers or satellite phones. All these are a flexible and viable form of communication.

Moreover, have a communication plan and make sure that you practice in calm times to make sure that your plan works when things go sideways.

9. Have An Escape Plan

Having a plan to escape from different situations is key in a survival situation.  Your plans should start with your central location – do you have an escape plan for your house if it’s on fire – and build outwards.  Where do you go from work if there’s a disaster? Where do your kids go if they are at school? Where do you go if your primary escape route is blocked? Do you have a tertiary escape route?

10. First Aid Knowledge

Don’t let its ranking fool you – first aid knowledge is one of the most critical of the survival skills that you should develop. Build up your first aid kits both in your homes and in your vehicles and, above all else, build up your knowledge to treat everything from simple to severe situations. You can enroll in basic first aid classes and other natural survival tactics at some of the institutions such as Red Cross. Additionally, you can read more books that provide first aid information. Once you’ve developed your basic first aid skills, you may want to develop a knowledge of medicinal herbs and remedies.

Conclusion

Natural calamities come at the most unanticipated times.  Only developing proper survival skills will allow you to make it through these situations as unscathed as possible.

What do you think of these tens tips? Let us know in the comments below.

Bushcraft survival is something that a lot of folks in the prepping community have an interest in.  Most of us spend some time outdoors away from our homesteads.  Knowing how to survive if SHTF in those situations is quite important.  In his book The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook, Anthonio Akkermans walks you through the different ways to construct shelters and how each can be used appropriately given your situation.

Book Set-Up

The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook is written in a chronological manner.  That means that it starts with talking about the fundamentals of shelters and then progresses through shelters from natural materials, shelters from modern material and then store-bought shelters.  Finally, the book sums up the shelter process with a chapter on mental preparedness.  The chapters are:

Chapter 1 – Shelter Fundamentals

Shelter fundamentals is an important base of knowledge to know before you go headlong into building shelters.  This chapter is full of information on shelter knowledge – starting with clothing (your first line shelter), move onto to sleeping equipment and finishing up with information on where to build a shelter and what materials to use.  There are two “bonus” sections on how to make cord and a hammer from elements found in the backwoods.

Chapter 2 – Making Debris Shelters With Your Bare Hands

This chapter gets into the fundamentals of what it takes to use natural (backwoods) material to build shelters.  As you might imagine, different areas of the country and different seasons dictate the use of different shelters.  For that reason, the author has provided how-to knowledge on the following types of shelters:

• Natural Shelter
• Rock Shelter
• Debris Hut
• Lean-To
• Stacked Debris Wall
• Round Debris Wall Shelter
• Bent Sapling Shelter
• Subterranean Shelter
• Snow Shelter

Additional information is provided on improvements and furnishing such as fireplaces, shelving, and bedding.

Chapter 3 – DIY And Modern Material Shelters

Anthonio moves into more modern shelters which involved man-made materials.  The topics covered in this chapter include shelter bags, emergency foil blankets, bansha/tarp shelters, Scandinavian Lavvu and a ger or yurt type shelter.  Essentially, this chapter starts with “cowboy camping” situations and finishes with more permanent structures that are built to last more than a night or two.  I was most interested in this chapter due to the breadth of knowledge represented here.  My interest was probably also due to the fact that living in a permanent structure for a long duration interests me greatly.

Chapter 4 – Modern Store-Bought Shelters

All you campers will like this chapter.  In it, Anthonio talks about your basic camping gear including standard hiking tents, hammocks, bivvy bags and bell tents.  The pros and cons of each option are discussed.  In addition, there is a good amount of time spent talking about the best way to use each and how to set each up properly.  I’m an avid camper and try to spend a good amount of time sleeping outdoors.  I agreed with a lot of what was written here but did disagree with a few minor points.  In all honesty, though, my disagreements were so minuscule that they are not worth discussing.  They were more personal preference than technical disagreements.

Chapter 5 – Mental Preparedness

Anthonio wraps up The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook with a smart talk about mental preparedness when it comes to shelter.  He talks about how you should drill (or practice) any shelters you may use as trying to build them under stressful situations is nearly impossible.  In addition, he talks about ways to handle the stress involved with surviving in a shelter and how to gain confidence as you go.  Adopting the right mental attitude is key to surviving in a shelter.

Why I Liked The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook

Anthonio Akkermans takes a very large topic and boils it down to a simple presentation.  The way he systematically approaches shelter building and living is intelligent and easily digestible.  One chapter builds on the next.

The other great part about this book are the pictures.  The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook is picture heavy which makes understanding the topics presented much easier.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

What I Didn’t Like

There were two things about this book I didn’t like.  

First, as odd as it may sound given the section above, is the pictures.  While they are plentiful, the pictures are all black and white.  Most are also quite washed out meaning they don’t have good contrast.  This fact makes them hard to read and sometimes lacking in information.  I understand that color pictures cost more during printing, but it would definitely help to better convey the quality information provided in this book.

The second thing I didn’t like about The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook was the writing.  The knowledge presented in this book was top-notch but it often read like a textbook.  That fact alone made getting through this book difficult at times.  A writing approach that was a bit lighter and more story-telling might help make this an easier read.

Overall Thoughts On The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook

I think The Complete Survival Shelters Handbook by Anthonio Akkermans is an overall interesting read.  The knowledge base is top notch and the information presented may help save your life one day.  It’s presentation, while dry at times, is successive in its presentation meaning one part builds on the previous.  While I do not necessarily think this book is a “must have” for a prepping library, I would definitely put it in the “nice to have” category.  It lends itself more to the bushcraft crowd and, for them, I would lean more towards the “must have” category.  

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and think you would too if you have any interest in being in the woods for any reason.