When you hike, you carry a survival kit that should cover the basic needs for yourself in a survival situation. When you hike with children you carry a bit bigger kit to help you care for your needs and the child’s. But what happens if you get separated from the child? Your best line of defense is a survival kit suited for your child’s needs and abilities.
The basic needs that you’ll need to meet are Shelter, Warmth, Signaling and First Aid. These are real needs for a child. If they have to spend the night hugging a tree until the survival crew gets there, if it gets cold, if she cuts herself or if he needs to signal to a helicopter or emergency crew then they will definitely need to have the means to do so in their kit and as importantly, know how to use them.
But that’s not the only thing you’ll be interested in. Psychology is just as important. To keep them from panicking and getting themselves in a worse situation you’ll want to give them things to keep them occupied. This can be a flashlight to keep the scary things away at night, candies to suck on, toys to play with or what have you. They will need to pass the time, be it 5 minute, one hour, or 1 day.
In the below video you’ll see the kit I put together for my 5 year old daughter and my reasoning for the things I included.
“I know the theory”… I chuckle when I hear that. Not because it isn’t true, but like anything, there are so many factors that you don’t see on paper. As much as understanding the concept, one has to consider the physical effort/coordination/will to survive that plays a part in successfully transferring theory into reality.
One of several iterations of my fire-bow set
For example, The first day I tried to start a fire with a firebow and drill all I got was a sore arm from the numerous tries, and a couple bruised and bleeding knuckles from the firebow punishing me for trying to record a DIY video without ever having actually done it before myself. Yes, I successfully got the coal burning, but it was a long, hard slog, and it took me a few days to get the materials, rhythm and everything else to work. So lets talk about what I’ve learned so far and what the “theory” is for starting a fire with what is considered one of these easiest methods of friction fire starting.
What you need:
Drill or spindle – A cylindrical piece of wood about 8-10 inches with a point at one end and flat/slightly tapered edge at the other.
Fire board / hearth board – a piece of dry, wood (same material as the spindle) around a foot long (30 cm) with at least 3 flat sides.
Both of the above should be made from dry softwood (evergreens).
Firebow – just like any bow a piece of wood that is slightly flexible and has a string tight enough to keep a good hold of the drill
Bearing block – A small object, preferable hardwood, stone, bone or shell that has a small hole for the point of the spindle,
catcher – bark, dry leaf, thin piece of wood or other surface to place under the board to catch any wood dust and powder.
Tinder Bundle – dry, finely shaved / shredded bark, dry wood, moss, cotton, etc. Used to ignite the coal created by the bow and drill.
Steps:
On the fireboard, cut a circular hole deep and wide enough to keep the drill in the same spot while drilling.
Place the drill in the bow so that the string wraps around the drill once.
Place the catcher underneath the fireboard, directly beneath the hole.
Place the flat end of the drill in the hole in the fireboard, and apply pressure to the bearing block
start a slow, consistent sawing motion with medium pressure on the bearing block. Continue until you see smoke.
Cut a V notch that intersects almost to the center of the hole in the fireboard.
Start to saw again applying enough pressure and speed to produce a pile of wood dust that is dark brown to black in color.
When you start to see smoke, continue sawing and apply a bit more speed and pressure.
When you have maintained a strong billow of smoke for 10 seconds or more, stop and tap the dust off the fireboard and onto the catcher.
If you can see a red coal in the pile, slowly and carefully transfer your coal to your tinder pile (take your time, fan it gentle with your hand so ensure good airflow before transferring it).
Close the tinder bundle around the coal
Blow gently and steadily into the bundle. (Make sure you hold the bundle out to one side so as not to allow sweat to drop on it).
Continue blowing until fire is produced… or you pass out from exhaustion. (ok, so don’t do that last part)
Tips:
Try putting a green leaf between the bearing block and the drill to reduce friction on the top end of the drill. This will focus the heat where it should be: on the fireboard.
If your drill dust is too light in color, you need to apply more pressure and/or drill more quickly. You want a rich, dark brown-black pile of dust that will take a coal.
use your lower leg to apply pressure on the arm that holds the bearing block. This takes the pressure off your arm and wastes less upper body strength.
In my search to turn old junk into DIY projects, I’ve come out with a new alcohol stove: The tomato burner. It’s a side burner stove made out of 2 small tomato paste cans. Technically that should mean it’s healthier :).
The benefit of the small size of the stove is that it is more efficient for smaller pots. So here’s the video walk through and how to:
“Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink.” So says the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I say that our friend forgot to pack his desalination still. I had been planning to make a still to purify and remove the salt from salt water for a while. A few days ago I finally pulled out some of the gear I take with me on every hike and tried making one. It worked!
As will most survival skills, the chances of you actually having to do this is slim, but knowing how to desalinate water is one of those skills that could just save your life if you do need it.
Obviously there are other ways to do this then the one I present below, but I tried to make this with only things that a regular backpacker/day hiker would carry with them.
One container to boil water
One container to catch water
One tube from a hydration pack
Tin foil
A means to cool down the tube
a means to boil water
That’s it! Take a look at the video below to see the process and how my setup turned out.
If you want to do this as a kids project, it is a condensed way of showing them the water cycle.
For the next little while I’m down in South America and I didn’t bring a sleeping bag. I don’t want to buy a new one down here if I don’t have to, so in typical DIY fashion I decided to work with what I have: A closed cell foam sleeping pad and an emergency blanket.
The biggest thing I was worried about was the fact that mylar blankets, being so light, tend to let the warm air out the gaps. Yes they insulate to 90%, but that’s if the are tucked in nice and snugly. I decided to take a hint from ultralight backpacking. To shave off a few more ounces, several companies make sleeping bags that are open on the back (because any part of the bag that you lie on doesn’t insulate very well anyway). They use the sleeping pad inside the quilt by using strings or thin fabric on the back of the “ultralight quilt” and voila! I decided to put that to work.
I tried it out at 10 500 feet where the temperature got down to 3 degrees C (40 degrees F). That was to cold, but down to 50 degrees F(10 C) it was quite comfy. 7 degrees Celsius is probably the limit. All told it weighed 2 oz for the blanket system and 7 oz for the mat.
Here’s the materials list:
One closed cell foam sleeping pad
1 roll of tuck or packing tape
10 feet of string cut into 18 inch lengths
1 emergency blanket
I decided to do it in video form to make it more entertaining.
Take a look at the video below to see the “making of” the emergency quilt sleep system.
Ask what you should do on a backpacking forum for potable drinking water and you’ll come up with a lot of answers. Some swear by chemical tablets, others are devoted to filters and or simple boiling. Most people are aware of the dangers of giardia and cryptosporidium and so it isn’t a question of whether or not, but rather of how to purify your water. I’m never one to want to dilly dally and not one to do a lot of work, so I came up with this DIY project to incorporate a backflushable 0.1 micron filter into my hydration bladder. With my bladder (Outdoor products) the filter from my sawyer water filter attaches perfectly to my hydration hose.
Warning: This probably voids the warranty on your hydration pack so DIY at YOR (your own risk)
Steps:
Determine where to cut. Based on your hydration pack and use, you will have to choose your ideal place for the filter. Things to keep in mind are:
Whether it will fit into your hydration pack with the filter connected or not.
Whether you will want to have it insulated (if you put the filter close to the bite valve you’re more likely to have a frozen filter in cold weather).
Cut the hydration hose leaving at least 4 inches of tube from the end connectors of the hose. This will make it easier for future adjustments and repairs.
Determine the flow direction of the filter. There is usually a flow indicator on the filter. Make sure to get it right. If there is no indicator, choose a direction, mark it permanently on your filter and use it only in that direction.
Connect the filter to the hydration tube. If it is too loose and allows air in or water out, you can try hose clamps (available in most hardware stores).
That’s it. I’ve used this method on several hikes and it’s great. Just scoop water out of a stream or lake and start drinking. Even better, you can disconnect your bite valve and hang your hydration bladder in a tree and drip filter for other people as well! If I don’t want to bring water to a full boil i’ll just fill a pot from my bladder and go from there!
I bought a sawyer water bottle with inline filter from Walmart that I pulled the filter out of for this project. If you’re looking to try this but still have a useable filter system that works, here’s the walmart link.
My Wife’s family is from South Africa and always had fond memories of Biltong. Biltong is a thicker, moister beef jerky with a secret ingredient: Coriander. It provides a nice change from beef jerky, it’s home made so it doesn’t have chemicals and preservatives and in my opinion it tastes far better. The only problem is having to share it on the trail!
Here’s the recipe that we use in our house and a video “how to” too.
DISCLAIMER: In our house my wife has to make two batches before a backpacking trip. 1 batch a week before as a distraction and then another one 3 days before to make up for the batch I’m finishing off :).
Biltong recipe
This recipe calls for the beef to be marinaded overnight.
Ingredients:
1 kg boneless beef roast
apple cider vinegar (about 1/4 cup or so, plus a bowlful for rinsing in step 5)
worchestshire sauce (about 1/4 cup or so)
1 Tblsp. rock salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 baking soda (to soften meat fibers)
coriander, roasted, ground (if can’t find roasted, plain ground coriander is ok – but not as flavorful. A coffee or spice grinder will grind roasted whole coriander – roasting them yourself is easy – 350 F on an ungreased cookie tray until aromatic – about 3 to 6 minutes)
Partially thaw meat until able to slice with very sharp knife – should still be quite frosted. This ensures clean, neat, uniform thickness slices. If you slice with the grain, the biltong will be chewier, if you slice against the grain, it will be easier to tear. Slice into 1/4 to 1/2 cm. thick slices. Cut slices into any size you want. Trim off excess fat – too much fat, and the biltong will go rancid more quickly.
Mix rock salt, brown sugar, pepper, soda.
Marinade meat in large baking pan (13 by 9 inch). On the bottom of the pan, sprinkle a little salt mixture. Lay on a single layer of meat, sprinkle with salt mixture, then vinegar and worcheshire sauce. You want just enough salt mixture and vinegar and worcheshire to get the salt mixture to fizz. Not too much! Not too little! Repeat layers, ending with the salt-vinegar-worcheshire on top. You want to layer it so that by the end, you’ve run out of the salt mixture. It’ll take practice!
Marinade 12 hours in the fridge. Not much longer than that – if you marinade too long, the meat dries out too much. If you marinade too little, the meat has not cured enough and will be flavourless and will spoil faster.
Quickly dip each piece of meat in a bowl of apple cider vinegar to get off excess salt – not all the salt, just the excess salt. Lay in dehydrator in single layers – no overlapping. Sprinkle with coriander. Dehydrate about 4 hours – the meat should be pliable but not gooshy and definitely not dry. If it’s gone stiff and hard while still warm, it’s dried too much. Once the pieces have cooled, they should be fairly stiff but still at least a little flexible. I always eat a piece or two to test. 🙂
Store in ziplock bags with a paper towel to absorb condensation in fridge or freezer – if you freeze for a long time, it tends to dry out a bit more. You don’t want the biltong to get warm and humid, as it will spoil very quickly.
I recommend you do a small batch (about 1 kg meat) to start, to get the feel of things and to adjust things to get the taste and texture you want. When I do a big batch, I sometimes do as much as 6 to 8 kg at once. 1 kg of fresh meat doesn’t make a lot of biltong! (Probably only about one small freezer bag worth). You don’t want to do too much at once, because then it doesn’t all fit on the dehydrator at once and the rest of the meat marinades too long and becomes too dry.
My sister-in-law added this piece of advice:
“One note, I actually take my meat to the butcher and ask them to slice it in to 1/2 inch slices so that I don’t need to freeze it and slice it. It makes it a whole lot easier for uniformity in the dehydrator. I just take the slices and make them into smaller strips. Super easy, and easier when short on time.”
There has been a lot of interested in our DIY neck cooler article. We’re leaving the directions here: DIY Neck Cooler, but but were wondering if anyone would be interested in purchasing ready made ones for a fair price? Please leave your comments below with suggestions of a fair price and I’ll see what we can do!
The Native Americans weren’t the typical wasters that the disposable society of today has created. They knew easy efficient ways of harvesting, preparing and cooking wild foods. A good example of this is how some groups used to fillet and cook trout. It’s a really simple technique that doesn’t rely on tinfoil or a cooking pot. You end up with more meat than a typical fillet and no bones… None at all.
Take a look at this video (excuse the background noise and laugh with the kids) of us preparing a trout and roasting it over a fire with sticks. Sorry we couldn’t save some for you!
Is this to complicated? Would you like to cook food on a rock? Take a look at this link
A while ago I linked to a video on using firesteels to start a fire. A good way to catch the spark is char cloth.
It doesn’t take much to make the char cloth and it is good to have on hand for emergency tinder.
All you need to do is burn the cloth in a container where very little oxygen can get access.
Take a look at the following video and give it a try. As always, be careful and know what you’re doing. I can’t take responsibility for personal injury (however unlikely).
Many people complain about the high efficiency wood backpacking stove, saying that it makes your pots too sooty. Check out this little adapter and let me know the results:
I’ve removed the side air intake for the inner can and expanded the air intake on the outer can. Also, to make it burn more cleanly I added a reflector that forces the unburnt fuel out next to the jets.
The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
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