Emergency Water for Survival

In any emergency survival situation, the most pressing need is water. Humans can survive without food for much longer than they can without water. Our bodies are about 60% water, and our brains are ¾ water. When we become just 10% dehydrated, we experience delirium and vision problems. If the number reaches 20%, we die.

How much water do we need per day for survival?

Most experts agree that one quart of water a day is needed for an average adult’s survival. The recommended amount, however, is one gallon of water per person per day. This amount includes water for bathing, cooking, and cleaning eating and cooking implements.

Be prepared!

When you know in advance that a bad storm or hurricane are headed your way, and that power and water outages are possible, store as much water as you can. Fill all the sinks, the tubs, and every container you can get your hands on. You can also collect rain water and get water from your hot water heater. Before draining your water heater, be sure to turn off the power of gas supply. Get every drop of water you can from your water pipes, too.

How to purify outdoor water

In dire emergencies, you might have to collect water from streams, rivers, lakes, or ponds. Such water probably isn’t safe to drink in its natural state. Before you can drink it or use it for cooking, brushing your teeth, washing your hands, washing your face, or washing eating and cooking utensils, the water needs to be purified. If the water contains sand or obvious particles, filter it first through paper towels or clean cloths. You might need to filter it more than once. After filtering the water, boil it for two minutes. This will kill any nasty bugs in the water. If your power is out, use your grill or outdoor fish cooker to boil the water. If this isn’t possible, use Unscented common household bleach to purify the water. Use the filtering process, then add eight drops of bleach per gallon of water and wait at least an hour before drinking. If the water is still cloudy, you’ll need to repeat the process.

In case of floods, never drink flood water! It most likely contains raw sewage.

Is swimming pool water safe to drink?

If you have a swimming pool, you have a great source of emergency water, as long as your pool has been properly maintained. The average home swimming pool holds 15,000 gallons of water. Even though the pool’s chlorine is probably sufficient to kill any harmful bugs, it’s still a good idea to boil the water for at least one minute before drinking.

Why You Need to Buy a Meat Grinder



homemade hamburgers



You might already have a meat grinder for making homemade hamburgers and homemade sausage. If you do, good for you. If you don’t already have a meat grinder, you need one. It can be a great tool for survival and living off the land. Food grinders can turn wild game and bits of other meats into perfectly good ground meat that you can use in a variety of ways. You can use the ground meat in meatloaves, bulk sausage, link sausages, and the already mentioned homemade hamburgers.

If you’re a hunter, grinders are a must! Those large pieces of flesh you get from your hunting take up lots of room in your freezer, while ground meat takes up a lot less space and is much easier to handle. Food grinders can be used for other foods besides meats, too. You can grind up vegetables and fruits for relishes, chutneys, salsas, and chowchow.

BBQ Cooking a Rabbit

My favorite cooking method for rabbit is BBQ cooking. Grilled rabbit or barbecued is great, and my favorite piece is the backstrap, or loin. If your rabbit is young, the meat will likely be pretty tender. If the rabbit is older, you might want to parboil it before grilling.

Just as there are several ways to dress a rabbit, there are lots of rabbit recipes for BBQ cooking. Some people like to soak the meat overnight in salted water. I usually prefer to use a wet rub on the meat, much the same as I would with pork or chicken. I use olive oil, cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, ground red pepper, onion powder, and garlic. Form the mixture into a paste and rub the rabbit all over. Place the meat in a bowl, cover it, and leave it in the fridge for several hours.

Preheat your grill to around 300 degrees, or use the indirect cooking method over charcoal. Make sure your grate is clean and oiled. After the rabbit has cooked for about 45 minutes, start brushing it with your favorite barbecue sauce. Rabbit should be done in about another 15 minutes. At this point, I like to dunk the pieces of meat in the bbq sauce and cook them over high heat for a couple of minutes to caramelize the sauce.

How to Skin and Dress a Rabbit

If you’ve been successful with rabbit hunting, or if you’re raising rabbits as part of your survival plan, you’re almost ready for a rabbit meal. You’ve heard that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, right? The same holds true for rabbits. When handling uncooked rabbit flesh, you need to wear rubber gloves. Rabbits sometimes carry tularemia, a relatively rare but potentially deadly disease for humans.

After killing the rabbit, some people cut the head off immediately to let the rabbit bleed out. I’ve never done this, but it’s an option. I’ve found the easiest way to dress a rabbit is to remove the fur first.

To remove the fur quickly, lift up the hide and skin at the rabbits back and make a cut in it with a sharp knife. Be careful not to stick the knife point in the meat. Stick the forefinger and the middle finger of both hands into the slit and pull, like you’re playing an accordion. With younger rabbits, the hide will come off pretty easily. With older animals, it might be more difficult. If you notice grub-like worms under the skin, don’t freak out. These are warbles – bot fly larvae – and they pose no danger to humans as long as the meat is cooked properly.

Once you have the hide down to the feet and neck, you’ll need a small, sharp hatchet. Chop off the feet below the lower leg joints, and chop off the head. This can also be done with a good hunting knife.

Now the innards have to be removed. To do so, cut a slit in the belly skin, making sure not to penetrate the internal organs. You can gently “shake out” most of the organs, but be careful not to rupture the bladder. You’ll probably have to reach in under the ribs with your finger to get the heart, esophagus, and lungs. Don’t worry about cutting around the anus – that area will be cut away with butchering.

Next, lay the rabbit on its back and spread out the hind legs. Cut the back legs off at an angle, as close as you can get to the spine while avoiding the anus. Do the same thing with the front legs.

What you should have left of the body now is a point at the neck and a point that includes the anus. Cut straight across at both points, leaving the loin section.

You should now have five sections of rabbit meat – two front legs, two hind legs, and the loins. Rinse the meat thoroughly in cool water, place in a plastic bag, and refrigerate. The meat should be kept at 35-40 degrees, unless you’re freezing it, of course.

My Experience with Survival

For several years of my life, I was in survival mode. I didn’t do this because I couldn’t afford to buy food at the grocery store. I did it because I could. I enjoyed growing my own food and taking advantage of gathering and harvesting nature’s bounty. It gave me a deep feeling of accomplishment and security whenever I saw all my home-canned goods lined up neatly on their shelves and knowing that my freezers were full of meats, game, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

We kept pigs, beef cattle, goats, turkeys, and chickens, so we always had meat and eggs available. We also hunted for deer, quail, woodcock, doves, ducks, geese, rabbits, raccoons, and wild pigs. We also fished, crabbed, and netted shrimp. Sometimes we picked our own oysters and dug our own clams, too.

We had some fruit trees, but I also took advantage of wild fruits, including blackberries, blueberries, and mayhaws. I also gathered nuts and put them in the freezer.

We had our own milk cows, so we had fresh milk and cream. Sometimes I made my own butter and whipped cream.

I don’t do most of these things now because I can’t. For one thing, my health won’t permit it, and for another, I no longer have the land I once did. I can still share my knowledge and experience with you. Actually, I’m still into survival – it’s just taken on a different form. Now I find deals and buy in bulk and store the foods and other items in the barn or in my survival closets.

What I grew in my huge garden

Acorn squash

Bell peppers (all colors)

Broccoli

Brussels sprouts

Butter beans

Butternut squash

Cabbage

Cantaloupe

Carrots

Cauliflower

Cherry tomatoes

Corn

Cream forty peas

Cucumbers (slicing and pickling varieties)

Eggplant

English peas

Field peas (several varieties)

Ford hooks

Green beans

Herbs

Hot peppers (several varieties)

Lettuce (several varieties)

Mustard greens

Okra

Onions

Pattypan squash

Peanuts

Plum tomatoes

Pole beans

Potatoes

Pumpkins

Strawberries

Sweet potatoes

Sunflowers

Tomatoes (numerous varieties)

Turnips

Watermelons

White acre peas

Yellow squash (two varieties)

Zipper peas

Zucchini

Frozen meats and poultry

Beef

Pork

Chicken

Goat

Turkey

Wild game

Frozen venison

Venison jerky

Frozen quail

Frozen doves

Frozen rabbit

Frozen duck

 Frozen fish and seafood

Shrimp

Crabmeat

Bass

Bream

Catfish

Flounder

Trout

Whiting

Redfish

Canned vegetables

Green beans

Tomatoes

Carrots

pumpkin

Frozen vegetables

Whole kernel corn

Creamed corn

 Corn-on-the-cob

Yellow squash

Tomatoes

Okra

Butter beans

Ford hooks

Garden peas

Field peas

Butter peas

Diced onions

 Diced bell peppers

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Winter squash

Frozen fruits

Blueberries

Blackberries

Strawberries

Peaches

Jams, jellies, and preserves

Apple jelly

Blueberry jam

Blackberry jelly

Peach jam

Pear preserves

Plum jelly

Mayhaw jelly

Pepper jelly

Scuppernong jelly

Strawberry jam

Watermelon rind preserves

Fig preserves

Pickles and relishes

Chow chow

Whole dill pickles

Dill pickle slices

Onion relish

Green tomato pickles

Bread and butter pickles

Cucumber lime pickles

Pickled okra

Pickled eggs

Pepper relish

Pickled peaches

Pear relish

Squash pickles

Watermelon rind pickles

Zucchini pickles

Other

We also grew our own sugar cane for syrup. The syrup making was done in the fall.

I froze bags of shelled pecans.

I froze bags of boiled peanuts.

I parched and fried peanuts for snacks.

I toasted sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

I usually grew a row of popcorn in my garden.

We kept honey bees.

We stored potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions.

I made my own sourdough bread.

Walking Up Rabbits

Hunting rabbits is a great survival strategy, and you don’t have to have rabbit dogs to be successful with rabbit hunting. With a little luck, you can bag a few cottontails all on your own, but you’ll need to be patient and alert. Before setting out on a rabbit hunt, it’s a good idea to scout a few areas to find out where the rabbits live and feed. Rabbits are usually out and about very early in the morning and late in the evening. These are the best times to observe rabbit activity from your automobile.

Once you’ve found where the rabbits are frequenting, decide on the gun you’ll use. For sport, a .22 rifle is a great choice, but if you’re hunting for survival and meat, use a shotgun loaded with #6 shot. I’ve always used a 12-gauge, but my old rabbit-hunting buddy always preferred a 16-gauge. An improved cylinder is best for short distances, like in heavy cover where you’ll likely be shooting.

Speaking of heavy cover, you’ll need to dress accordingly. Rabbits love thick, tight brush, and they seem to have an affinity for briars. If you’re planning on doing a lot of rabbit hunting, you might want to invest in a pair of hunting chaps or thorn-proof trousers. If not, wear the thickest pair of jeans you have. Rabbits are often found in swampy areas, so you’ll need a pair of waterproof boots, too. For safety reasons, wear a bright orange cap.

For rabbit hunting alone, use a walk-and-wait method. Take a few steps, then stop and remain motionless for a few seconds. Rabbits will often flush. If you have a sharp eye, you can sometimes spy a crouching bunny in dried grass or thickets. Forget about looking for the whole rabbit – their tawny fur blends in perfectly with dried vegetation. Instead, look for the small black marble that’s the rabbit’s eye.

If you get a good chance for a headshot, take it. If the rabbit is moving, you’ll need to lead it a little. You won’t usually have a lot of time to think about this, however, so always be on the ready.

Survival and Jerky

Jerky is great for survival. It’s high in protein, and it lasts a long time without refrigeration. All jerky isn’t equal, however, when it comes to its own survival. Beef jerky usually holds up the longest, especially if it’s made from lean beef. Jerky made from lean meat, in general, keeps for longer periods of time than jerky made from meats with a high fat content. Also, jerky that was made commercially almost always has a longer shelf life - up to a year - than homemade jerky. Another important point: jerky made from wild game won’t keep as long as jerky made from beef.

So, is it a big waste of time making your own venison jerky? Absolutely not! Making jerky from deer and other wild game animals is a great way to preserve some of the meat. Homemade jerky from deer, for example, will usually stay good for about three months at room temperature, when stored in a dark, cool, dry place. You can keep it a lot longer, however, if you store it in the freezer.

Freezing jerky is good for survival. Since most of the moisture has been removed in the drying process, jerky is a concentrated form of protein. It won’t take up nearly as much room in your freezer as the same amount of protein would in its normal state.