Win Free Gear - The LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

Here’s your opportunity to win a free LifeStraw Personal Water Filter.  Stealth Survival is teaming up with my good friends at eartheasy.com to bring you a chance to win one very essential piece of survival gear.

It doesn’t matter if you’re out for a hike, doing a little traveling or simply want to be better prepared. Safe, clean drinking water is going to be a necessity. The LifeStraw Personal Water Filter is just the solution to this problem and is an extremely portable way of always having a good source of drinking water available.

So how do you win a free LifeStraw Personal Water Filter ?

It’s simple! Pick one of the following three categories and tell us in the comments section how you plan to use your free LifeStraw Personal Water Filter. List the different ways you think it could be useful to you or your family and tell us about your plans to use the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter if you’re a winner.

                                                                 

Here are the categories for you to choose from:

1. Hiking

2. Traveling

3. Preparedness

A winner with the best response will be chosen from each category. You can also post comments in more than one category for an even better chance to win. You might even win more than one.

The winner will then need to send their contact information to riverwalker_texas@yahoo.com  and your free LifeStraw Personal Water Filter will be shipped directly to you from eartheasy.com.

The winners will be announced on February 14th (Valentine’s Day). So hurry up and get your comments in and let us know how you plan to use this free gear if you’re a winner.

You can also stay in touch with my friends from  eartheasy.com at:  

https://www.facebook.com/lifestraw

For those of you who may not be familiar with this particular item, you can read my review of the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter here:

 Survival Gear Test - LifeStraw

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Survival Gear - Choosing Clothing for Survival - The Pocket

Clothing is often our first line of defense in a survival situation. It is quite simply shelter for our bodies. No matter how “thick-skinned” we think we are, the human body is quite fragile when compared with most of the creatures in nature. Although this may at first seem to be one of our weaknesses, it is actually one of our greatest strengths. Clothing gives us the ability to readily adapt to almost any type of environment.

Being able to adapt quickly to a changing environment is often overlooked as one of our most important abilities. We easily put on a heavy coat or jacket and brave the worst that winter can throw at us. We avoid the effects of a heavy downpour with a poncho or a rain slicker. Nature can do its worst and we can devise a solution that will protect our bodies against the harshest of conditions. Environmental conditions that might otherwise be fatal are easily handled with the proper clothing.

One important and very fascinating part of clothing is the pocket. Whether the pocket is on a shirt, a pair of pants or a jacket, it’s a simple feature of clothing that serves a multitude of purposes. A pocket is truly an amazing thing. In a winter coat, it is a shelter for our hands if we’ve lost our gloves. And what would a survival vest be without pockets? A pocket can also serve as a container for our daily survival gear. Many of those items which we pack in our pockets on an everyday basis would be a lot harder to carry without pockets.

In fact, the more pockets an item of clothing has will quite often determine its ultimate usability. All you need to do is look at all the pockets on a set of BDU’s to realize this simple fact. Not only is clothing ranked quite often by the number of pockets it has, it is also applied to many clothing accessories as well.

Probably one of the worst disasters you can face on an everyday basis is getting a hole in one of your pockets. Not only do you face the possibility of a sudden lost of important items but your ability to carry many needed items has been seriously diminished. In fact, a great many items have been designed directly as a result of the simple pocket and its ability to carry needed items in an extremely handy manner.

Many times items are specifically designed to fit in a pocket (i.e., pocket knifes, pocket books, etc.). Even if it wasn’t specifically designed to fit in a pocket, many times items will still wind up in someone’s pocket. If it needs to be kept handy, someone will figure out a way to get it in a pocket. One way or another it will eventually wind up in someone’s pocket. It’s simply one of the best and most versatile ways to carry “stuff”.

Pockets have even become a part of our daily ritual. Many times we can’t wait to get home and “empty” our pockets. We’ve survived another day and can rest easy now.

When choosing clothing for survival, you might want to count the number of pockets.

Got pockets? You betcha!

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Bushcraft - Central Texas Style - Using Bones for Survival

Deer Mandibles

Recycling was an everyday part of the lives of most Native Americans. They knew the value of their resources and seldom let anything go to waste. They quickly realized this importance and knew that resources could sometimes become limited. As a result, they always sought a beneficial use for everything in their environment. They also became extraordinarily skillful in using bones for survival.

When resources are limited, it was important to find a beneficial use everything. Bones are one such resource. Bones have always played an important role in survival and were used in many different ways. Bones became a regular part of everyday life and were vital for survival.

One of the primary survival uses for bones was to make tools. Handles, hoes, scrapers and many other various tools were fashioned from bones. This was especially true in areas where other tool making materials such as wood or stone were scarce or non-existent.

Many times the bones that were used as tools required very little modification. Deer mandibles (see the above picture) were often used to make bone sickles by merely attaching a wooden handle. They were then used to harvest crops or to gather grasses for thatched roofs. Many times they were used “as is” to scrape the kernels from ears of corn.

Bones were also used for protection as well. Many times the mandibles were used to make crude but effective tomahawks for defensive purposes. Quite often, portions of the mandibles were used to make handles for stone knives. This was considered an important and very valuable skill.

Bones also played a significant role in ceremonial rites and spiritual beliefs. Besides being used to fashion tools for everyday use, elaborate necklaces and other jewelry were often fashioned out of these same bones. Bones also played an important role in their spiritual beliefs. Many times jaw bones were hung in their lodgings because it was believed that the spirits of these creatures would bring similar living creatures into the path of hunters in the tribe. 

Currently, the most common modern day use for deer mandibles is as a game management tool. They are mainly used to help determine the age of deer by examining the condition and wear of the teeth. This is a skill that requires extensive knowledge and practice in order to become proficient because there are a wide variety of factors involved.

Using bones for survival is just one more way in which resources can be utilized to a greater extent. No bones about it!

Got bones for survival?

Riverwalker

Survival Mistakes - The Change in Plans

There’s no room for mistakes if we want to survive. Even a small mistake can have deadly consequences and place us in a dangerous situation. We may inadvertently be courting a disaster of our making when we make a simple change in plans.

The headlines are full of stories where people made a simple change in plans that had fatal or almost fatal consequences. Most days start out normal and usually end that way. Unfortunately, some days don’t end normally. If you fail to expect the unexpected, you may suddenly find yourself in a situation where your survival is at stake.

If something goes wrong, it’s a lot harder to find you or get help to you if nobody knows where you are. Most people don’t plan on having an accident, getting lost or being stranded. Even though it’s not part of the plan, accidents happen and people do get lost. When something of this nature happens, it can seriously ruin your day and may even affect your chances for survival.

You can avoid  “The Murphy Effect” by using using these simple tips in your plans.

1. Make your plans known to others.

2. Always include an alternate route in your plans.

3. Include departure, arrival and return times in your plans.

4. If you need to make additional changes, make it known to others.

5. Have more than one main emergency contact...just in case.

If nobody knows where you are going, how you are going to get there or when you’ll be back, you may just find yourself in a very bad situation because when things go bad, they go really bad in a hurry.

Got a change in plans?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

The Survival Trio - The Knife, the Stick, the Rock and One More

The right tools can create a solid foundation for your survival. They can be used for a variety of useful purposes and provide the basic elements to make your survival a lot easier. In fact, your survival may ultimately depend upon the tools you have available to make what is needed.

The Knife

The most basic and perhaps the most useful of any survival tool is a good knife. While there are basic items that can be used to fashion a cutting implement in a pinch, the presence of a good blade makes the entire process a lot simpler. There is a wide range of knives and cutting tools available but it’s important that you have it available for use when needed. If at all possible, a good blade of some form or type should be an absolute must for everyday carry. In essence, don’t leave home without it. A decent blade can also be used to give you an additional element of protection and will probably be used in more situations on a daily basis than any other type of tool.

The Stick

Not only is a stick a very useful tool, it can also be a building block to create shelter, a litter, a splint or numerous other items that may be needed in a survival situation. A good stick can be turned into a protection device by merely adding a point to one end or if it’s big enough it can be used as a club to provide an element of protection. The right type of stick can also be made into a bow or even a raft (if you have plenty of sticks available). A good stick is also extremely valuable in that it can offer assistance when walking or hiking. The right combination of sticks can also be used to make a fire.

The Rock

When you need to pound something and you don’t have a hammer, nothing beats the pure pounding ability of a good rock. If you got a bunch of rocks, things can be even better. They can be used to make a pot stand for your fire, an anchor for your tent or tarp, a wind shield for your fire or just about anything you can imagine. A small rock can even be used as a weight for your fishing line or ammo for a slingshot. A good rock can also make a very formidable weapon in the right circumstances.

One More

There is also one more item that should be considered an essential survival tool. That simple item is cordage. It can be used to bind a knife to your stick for hunting or protection, hold sticks together for a shelter or as an aid to building a raft.

While sticks, rocks and cordage are easily found in both an urban and a rural setting, a good knife or cutting tool may be a little more difficult to find in a wilderness setting. All of these simple items can afford you a wide variety of options to help you in your effort to survive.

Got tools for survival?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Riverwalker's Pics - Water's Edge

Water's Edge

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

The Sweet Smell of Success for Survival

Quite often survival is a simple process of utilizing all of your resources to provide solution to your problems. We can often fail to utilize everyday things that could make a big difference in whether or not we succeed or fail in that process. There are few things that will give you a more positive feeling about your chances for survival than the sweet smell of success.

One of the main things that may be required in a survival situation is the ability to start a fire. What we fail to sometimes realize is that we may be carrying exactly what we need to reach a successful goal. In simple terms, a fire will require fuel as a basic component and we may already be carrying a fuel source without even realizing it.

Perfume or aftershave has alcohol as a significant constituent of their ingredients. Alcohol also makes an excellent source of fuel when you need to start a fire. It only takes a few drops of aftershave or perfume to make your firestarting efforts a success even if you don’t have a significant amount of tinder available.

While most guys don’t carry aftershave in their pocket, it might not hurt to keep a small bottle in the glove compartment or console just in case. Most of the ladies almost always have a small bottle of perfume handy in their purses and most won’t leave home or go anywhere for that matter without some type of perfume.

In a survival situation, it is important to remember that everything will become a multi-use item, even a bottle of perfume or aftershave.

Got Old Spice?

Riverwalker