Survivalist Anthologies Volume 1

by George Shepherd

  December 28, 2012. Start your morning by sawing a large diameter trunk from a tree. When you set the trunk in your smithy, place the anvil on the trunk. Standing next to the anvil, allow your hands to dangle by your hips. Make a fist in your dominant hand. Your knuckles should rest on the top of the anvil if they don’t, adjust the height of the trunk until they do. This will place your work at the correct level, saving your back and leaving your metal smooth and without hammer marks. You now have a rudimentary smithy that is open for business.

  So far, between your tool kit and the smithy, you can make any tool you need to survive and rebuild. Your hammer will shape your metal on your anvil. You’ll be able to hold your hot metal to your anvil with your tongs. Precise bending can be made with your monkey wrench and locking grip pliers. The reason you want the cheap, Chinese-made tools for your locking grip pliers and monkey wrench is because the Chinese never got proper metal working and tempering right. Because you will be working hot metal with these tools, well made, well tempered tools would lose their tempering and be ruined. The files will put a fine finish and precise milling, notching, beveling and edging to your work. The wire brushes will clean your files and the scale from your metal. The cold chisel will act – temporarily - as a hot cut chisel to cut metal. The hole punch will act as a hot hole drill. The hacksaw will help get you started cutting scrap to length, and the tin snips will help you to collect and cut sheet metal.

  The tools you will find yourself forging will be those of basic survival at first, then tools useful in building and construction. Basic survival tools could include knives, tomahawks, axes, arrowheads, spearheads, gigs, awls and traps. Tools useful for building and construction could include adzes, draw knives, froes, wedges, mattocks, rakes, shovels, hoes, chisels, punches and many tools like hand drills, wrenches, screwdrivers, files or anything made of metal.

  January 15, 2013. Your family group has survived for a few weeks at your base camp. At the campfire you and your group discuss the particulars of your survival and draw up a list of items that will make the coming days easier. You have done well enough with your shelter, but when the Spring comes it will be time to build additional shelters to alleviate crowding and to plant gardens from the sealed cans of heirloom seeds you packed to your base camp with you. To work wood into shelters you will need some of the tools listed above. To garden you will need to break ground and do some rudimentary tilling. When the thaws come it will be time to scavenge for scrap metal to make these tools.

  Spring 2013. With the snows gone from the ground, you’ve made the trip from your base camp down to the railway. Following the railway you come across some wrecked and abandoned cars. This is a complete metal mine. Remove leaf and coil springs. These are 5160 steel. Their construction of .60 percent carbon, manganese and chromium make excellent steel for large knives, axes, adzes, froes, draw knives and traps. Tie rods will make excellent tomahawks, axes, adzes and froes. They will also make excellent hardy tools for your forge. A car’s metal body also renders sheet metal for scoops and chimney pipes. Switching bars found on the railway will be heated in the forge and flattened to make shovels, mattocks and hoes. They will also make excellent wedges for wood splitting and plank making. Crankshafts will also make shovels and hoes. With help from more of your group, you are able to carry the load back to your camp and make the tools necessary to improve your base camp into a small village.

  Early Summer 2014. After surviving two Winters, your group is ready to move back into the valleys. Toxins have been washed out with two years of rain, snow and floods and the land is ready to be re-inhabited. After coming into contact with other survivors with other skills, industry is beginning to support civilization again. The husbandman, blacksmith, farmer, candlestick maker, glass blower, wood worker and ceramics crafter are back in business and trade is flowing. Thanks to your skill in metallurgy you have survived and are in business in a new economy. Civilization has made a comeback. (Example Images on Next Page)

  Corcceigh Green is a long-time blacksmith, homesteader and survivalist. He has a lifetime of experience living and studying survival and self-reliance in various environments, including: desert and semi-arid sage land, temperate western coniferous forest, the Pacific Northwest rain forest and eastern deciduous forest. His survival and self-reliance writing has been featured in such publications as: Backwoods Home Magazine, American Survival Guide, and The Independent American.

  Treating Major and Minor Wounds in a Collapse Situation

  by Joseph Alton, M.D. (aka Dr. Bones)

  MINOR INJURIES

  A soft tissue injury is considered minor when it fails to penetrate the deep layer of the skin, called the “Dermis”. This would include cuts, scrapes and bruises.

  Simple Cuts and Scratches: These tears in the skin only penetrate the epidermis (superficial skin layer) and become infected on an infrequent basis.

  Abrasions or Scrapes: A portion of the epidermis has been scraped off. You probably have experienced plenty of these as a child.

  Bruises or Contusions: These result from blunt trauma and do not penetrate the skin at all. However, there is bleeding into the skin from blood vessels that have been disrupted by the impact.

  All of the above minor injuries can be treated by simply washing anywhere that the epidermis has been violated. The use of an antiseptic such as Betadine (Povidone-Iodine solution), honey, or triple antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin or Bactroban will also be helpful to prevent infection. Applying pressure wherever a bruise seems to be spreading will help decrease its spread. These injuries will heal over the next 7-10 days, dependent on the amount of skin area affected. The wound, if it broke the skin, should have a protective adhesive bandage (Band-Aid) to prevent infection.

  The Liquid Skin bandage is an excellent way to cover a minor injury with some advantages over a regular bandage. You apply it once to the cut or scrape; it dries within a minute or so and seals the wound. It also stops minor bleeding, and won’t fall out during baths. There are various brands, such as Band-Aid Liquid Bandage, New Skin, Curad, and 3M No Sting liquid bandage. Many come as a convenient spray.

  You don’t always have to travel the traditional road to treat many medical problems. If you have one of the minor injuries mentioned, why not consider natural remedies? Here’s an alternative process to deal with these issues:

  1) Evaluate seriousness of wound if minor, may continue with herbal treatment

  2) Stop minor bleeding with herbal hemostatics and compress gauze

  Essential oils- Geranium, Helichrysum, Lavender, Cypress, Myrrh or Hyssop- Any oil applied to compress gauze

  Medicinal Herbs- Cayenne pepper powder or cinnamon powder with direct application, Yarrow tincture soaked compress gauze

  3) After minor bleeding is stopped, Clean wound with antiseptic:

  Essential oils- lavender, tea tree, rosemary, eucalyptus, peppermint- mix few drops of oil with sterile water and wash out wound thoroughly

  4) Apply Antiseptic to wound using above essential oils “neat” or undiluted; if using peppermint in 50/50 mix with carrier oils such as olive or coconut oil.

  Other antiseptics are- garlic, honey, echinacea, which hazel, St. John’s Wort.

  5) If needed use pain reducing herbal remedy:

  Essential oils: Geranium, Helichrysum, Ginger, Rosemary,Oregano- apply 2-4 drops 50/50 dilution around wound edges

  6) Dress the wound using clean gauze. Do not wrap too tightly.

  7) Change dressing, reapply antiseptic, and observe for infection twice daily until healed

  HEMORRHAGIC AND MAJOR WOUNDS

  Cuts in the skin can be minor or catastrophic, superficial or deep, clean or infected. Most significant cuts (also called lacerations) penetrate both the dermis and epidermis and are associated with bleeding, sometimes major. Bleeding can be venous, which manifests as dark red blood, draining steadily from the wound. Bleeding can also be arterial, which is bright red and comes out in spurts that correspond to the pulse
of the patient. As the vein and artery run together, a serious cut can have both. The first course of action is to stop the hemorrhage.

  Oftentimes, direct pressure on the bleeding area might stop bleeding all by itself. The medic should always have nitrile gloves in his/her pack, to prevent the wound from contamination from a “dirty” hand. If there are no gloves, grab a bandanna or other barrier and press it into the wound. Additionally, pressing on the “pressure point” for the area injured will help slow bleeding.

  Pressure points are locations where major arteries come close enough to the skin to be compressed by pressure. Pressing on this area will slow down bleeding further down the track of the blood vessel. Therefore, we can make a “map” of specific areas to concentrate your efforts to decrease bleeding.

  For example, there is a large blood vessel behind each knee known as the Popliteal Artery. If you have a bleeding wound in the lower leg, say your calf, applying pressure on the back of the knee will help stop the hemorrhage.

  If this fails to stop the bleeding, it may be appropriate to use a tourniquet. The military uses a CAT tourniquet, which is simple to use and could be even be placed with one hand, if the injured person is the medic! It is important to note that the tourniquet, once placed, should be loosened every ten minutes or so, to allow blood flow to uninjured areas and to determine whether the bleeding has stopped. Tourniquets are painful if they are in place for too long, and prolonged use could actually cause your patient to lose a limb due to lack of circulation. As well, your body will build up toxins in the extremity that will be concentrated, and rush into your body core when you release the tourniquet. It takes less than an hour or two for a tourniquet to cause this problem. (CAT tourniquet pictured below)

  Once you are comfortable that major bleeding has abated, remove the tourniquet. Packing the wound with bandages is useful to apply pressure to the wound (the bandage is not just for sopping up the blood. Wet the cloth with clean water, if available, and wring it out until almost dry. More than one bandage may be required to keep the wound from bleeding further. It’s important to make sure that your bandage puts the most pressure where the bleeding is occurring in the wound. Again, keep pressure on the wound. Cover the whole area with a dry dressing for further protection. The Israeli army developed an excellent bandage which is easy to use and is found almost everywhere survival gear is sold. The advantage of the Israel battle dressing is that it applies pressure on the bleeding area for you. Don’t forget that bandages get dirty and should be changed often. Twice a day is a minimum until it become completely dry. (Israel battle dressing pictured below)

  The above process of stopping hemorrhage and dressing a wound will also work for traumatic injuries such as knife wounds and gunshot wounds. You have probably heard that you should not remove a knife because it can cause the hemorrhage to worsen. This will give you time to get the patient to the hospital, but what if there are no hospitals? You will have to transport your victim to your base camp and prepare to remove the knife. It can’t stay in there for months while you’re waiting for society to stabilize. Having substances that promote clotting will be useful here. In particularly heavy bleeding, the use of hemostatic powders such as Celox or Quik-Clot will help stop the hemorrhage. These products also come in “combat gauze”, which is a gauze dressing impregnated with the powder.

  Bullet wounds are the opposite, in that the bullet is usually removed if at all possible. In a collapse situation, you will want to avoid digging for the bullet as it can cause further contamination and bleeding. For a historical example, take the case of President James Garfield. In 1881, President Garfield was shot by an assassin. In their rush to remove the bullet, 12 different physicians placed their (ungloved) hands in the wound. The wound, which would not have been mortal in all probability, became infected; the President died after a month in agony. Think twice before removing a projectile that isn’t clearly visible and easily reached.

  Back to bandages: Wound dressings must be changed regularly (twice a day or whenever the bandage is saturated with blood, fluids, etc.) in order to give the best chance for quick healing. Whenever you change a dressing, it is important to clean the wound area with boiled water(cooled) or an antiseptic solution such as dilute Betadine (povidone-iodine). Use 1 part Betadine to 10 parts water. Remember the old saying, “The solution to pollution is dilution”! Using a bulb syringe will provide a little pressure to the flow of water (also called irrigation), and wash out old clots and dirt. Lightly scrub any wound that is open with diluted betadine. You may notice some bleeding restarting; apply pressure with a clean bandage until it stops.

  Any wound you close that is still accumulating blood or fluid will be best served by inserting a drain. A Penrose drain is the least expensive of these. Insert in a small opening in the wound and it will act as a wick to allow the fluid to drain; this will help prevent infection and speed healing. As time goes on, you might see some blackish material on the wound edges. This is non-viable material and should be removed. It might just scrub out, or you might need to take your scissors and trim off the dead tissue. This is called debridement and removes material that is no longer part of the healing process.

  Treating a wound appropriately is important not only at the moment of injury, but for weeks afterwards. Proper wound management will give you the best results in the shortest amount of time.

  Dr. Joseph Alton M.D. is a retired physician, surgeon and obstetrician with 25 years experience in patient care. Along with his wife, “Nurse Amy” Alton, he co-hosts the “Doom & Bloom Hour” on the Preparedness Radio Network. Their goal is to promote medical preparedness, and to identify strategies that will keep people healthy in a post-apocalyptic setting.

  Creating a Self-Reliance Library on a Budget

  by Jim Cobb, the frugal prepper

  When we consider prepping for potential end of the world scenarios, such as the various predictions surrounding 2012, it is important to realize the necessity of a self-reliance library. While we’d love to know all there is to know about growing our own food, facilitating repairs on various equipment, administering medical treatment to our families, and all manner of other specialized tasks, the truth is few of us could really pull it off without some help. Having a well-stocked library is essential.

  The problem with compiling such a library is; well, books can be expensive. Here are a few tips though on where to acquire reference materials at less than cover price.

  Library used book sales are an amazing resource, yet somewhat overlooked. Most libraries hold sales at least once a year to increase revenue. They sell books culled from their own shelves as well as volumes donated to them for this very purpose. In my experience, you can expect to pay a whopping dollar or two for hardcover books, less than a buck for paperbacks. One of the great things about these sales is you can often find detailed, well illustrated, guides to any number of subjects very inexpensively. While the worlds of science and technology are ever changing, there isn’t much you’ll find in a brand new book on gardening that you can’t find in a book that was published a decade or two ago. Contact your local libraries to find out when they run their sales. Some larger libraries have even started having ongoing sales in a small room or corner of the building. Many of these library sales are staffed by volunteers from their local Friends of the Library group. Often, you can join these groups for very little money and get a sneak peek at the sales before the public is invited to participate. One last note about these library sales – on occasion, they will run bag sales toward the end of the day. I’ve seen prices anywhere from a one to five dollars per bag. It is hard to beat spending just a couple dollars to get an entire grocery bag filled with books you’ve chosen.

  Used bookstores can be hit and miss. While the selection is often better than a library sale, you’re going to be paying a bit more per book. Most of the used bookstores I’ve visited charge half of the cover price on most books. One advantage over library sales is the staff at the used bookstore
s usually have a pretty good handle on what they have in stock. The larger stores, such as the Half-Price Books chain, are organized very well so you don’t end up spending hours combing the shelves, only to find they don’t have anything good on a particular topic. Then again, for a bibliophile like me, browsing is the key to finding new treasures.

  Another hit and miss resource is local rummage sales. In a way, these are kind of like gambling. You might hit twenty sales in a row and not find a darn thing but at that next sale you could hit the jackpot! The prices are usually pretty low, often paperbacks at 4/$1.00 or so. Don’t be afraid to ask what else they might have too. For example, if you find a couple of books on raising chickens, ask if they’d have related books on similar topics. You just might be surprised at what else they find and it costs you nothing extra to ask.

  I buy a fair amount of books on Amazon.com too. If you find a title you like there, be sure to check and see if there are used copies available from secondary sources. While they usually charge a standard $3.99 for shipping and handling, quite often you can find a seller offering the book for just a few pennies, making the total transaction worthwhile. Even if I’m not planning to buy a specific book through Amazon, I’ll usually check for reviews there. Doing so has probably saved me at least a few times from buying a dud.

  On occasion, you can find a good deal on ebay.com but they are getting fewer and fewer it seems. I used to do a fair amount of business there, both buying and selling books, but the fees just grew to be too much to make it worth my while. However, if you are looking for a specific book, it never hurts to check eBay.

  Of course, you can always visit a traditional bookstore too. However, this is where you are likely to pay the highest price on a currently published book. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for keeping bookstores in business. But, this is often the last place I’ll look for a specific book, outside of a mass-market paperback. When browsing though, don’t overlook the clearance racks and tables. These often hide some pretty nice treasures.