A city boy's rural survival practice.

[Joey_Numbers]

Hello all.

I can't always head into the wilderness to practice our survival skills, so I try to practice as often as possible. Before work today I had some free time so I took a walk around. It’s a small community still being built surrounded by cow pastures and wide open fields. I decided see if I could survive here. I don’t have much real survival experience, mostly books and videos, so I considered it good practice.

I started on this sidewalk, it’s about a mile long and down the whole way there are maple trees on the right and oak trees on the left. The oaks are already sprouting acorns, found decent food stuff already because I know how to prepare acorns. The maple trees aren’t in season, but when they are they would be a good source of liquids and sugars from the sap.




A bit further down is a bridge that goes over a creek/canal. Those are swallow nests, also not the right time of year but a source of meat and eggs when it is. Just need some high rubber boots to get to them, and maybe headgear, swallows are mean.


On the other side of the bridge there is a shallow pool area home to frogs and small fish. They are pretty much stuck in this pool, so relatively easy pickings. The creek is right next to a cow pasture……don’t know if I would eat or drink anything that lives in here unless needed.


To the left of the pool are some thistles, also not in season but at the base of the dead plants there are these big green leaves, not sure if they are thistle leaves or edible yet.



This nice collection of clovers was around…….also not in season.


OOOOO Cattails, the grocery store of nature. I found edible young shoots, root rhizomes, red wing blackbird nests (no eggs yet), frogs, and little minnows.


Just down the creek there is a drainage ditch full of more cattails……don’t know if I would eat them either. Among the garbage you see the green stuff covering the water. That is duckweed, also edible if you’re desperate.


Opposite the drainage ditch in a corner of the field I found some animal tracks, coyote and rabbit. Both shown here.


Look! Even more food! Hehe


Oh hey! Emergency shelter!


It’s not the middle of nowhere, but it still has some of the essentials. With some practice I could make a workable shelter. The water will need triple filtering, and boiling (maybe even distilling!). There are some wild edibles and a few animals that may take a bit of skill to catch. Could I survive with the things around here, yes. I think I'd rather actually get lost in the wild before eating anything from that water though.

Imagine waking up in the morning, going to get the paper and seeing me cooking a rabbit! It’s also right next to a road and houses full of people, so it wouldn’t be hard to find my way back to civilization, haha.

I enjoyed it, felt like I learned a bit more. I know where to look for things; I know what they look like. Feel free to correct me where needed, I’m still learning. Thanks for reading.

[bonanacrom]

Welcome, and don't tap a tree that young or ya will likely kill it.

[Blacksmith]

You had me until

Look! Even more food! Hehe

and

Oh hey! Emergency shelter!

Unless you are planning on buying the cows and renting the shelter you are stealing and trespassing. In which case you need to go visit this forum instead http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/forumd ... e=-1&f=232. They will be happy to discuss it with you.

[Joey_Numbers]

Unless you are planning on buying the cows and renting the shelter you are stealing and trespassing. In which case you need to go visit this forum instead http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/forumd ... e=-1&f=232. They will be happy to discuss it with you.

Well that was a little serious, those last two were meant more as a joke. I don't need to actually survive in a rural community, ya see, so I wouldn't need to shelter inside the building or butcher and eat a whole cow. Try and relax a little bit.

[SwampRat]

I was actually reading this post thinking to my self "I hope he lists the cattle as a source of food" . Obviously it's illegal in the present day. But it's also a very bad idea I'd imagine in the PAW. Going on with a few assumptions about your AO, I imagine that if the shit really hit the fan the suburbanites would bug out, but I imagine the ranchers would be the bug in type. I don't imagine Mr. Rancher would take to kindly to you poaching the cattle then either lol. Do the ranchers live nearby? Might not be a bad idea to introduce your self if you could find out who they where. Maybe your kids go to school together or something. The person that owns the land all around you in a SHTF scenario could be a powerful ally. Nice work on the wild edibles. I reccomend this guy to every body Green Deane. Keep up the good work

[Joey_Numbers]

I reccomend this guy to every body Green Deane. Keep up the good work

Thanks for the support! Green Deane has a great YouTube channel, I think he updates new videos every week. Bit of a weird fellow but most geniuses are, haha.

[Blast]

Those milk thistles are quite good and very good for you. The white clover makes a tasty tea and the leaves are high in protein. The inner bark of http://houstonwildedibles.blogspot.com/2008/08/maple.html maples is a good source of emergency calories. Maple seeds and young maple leaves are also quite good food.

There's food everywhere.
-Blast

[Joey_Numbers]

The inner bark of http://houstonwildedibles.blogspot.com/2008/08/maple.html maples is a good source of emergency calories. Maple seeds and young maple leaves are also quite good food.
-Blast

Maple seeds? The little helicopter thingies? I didn't know you could eat those too! I really should use this "internet" thing more often. I want to try harvesting maple sap but I don't think it gets cold enough here in California. I wont do the little saplings of course, I have a big maple in my front yard.

I also have plans to harvest some birch sap next March/April, still waiting on land owner permission though.

Gotta practice whenever possible. Thanks!

[Blast]

Peel the seeds from the "helicopter" then roast them like pumpkin seeds. They are a good source of protein. You can also grind them then boil them into a gruel.

Getting sap for syrup there in California would be a little tricky. That sugary sap starts flowing about a month before the leaves appear as the sugar is the building blocks for the leaves. Up north the traditional time to tap maples is when nights are still below freezing but the daytime highs are in the mid-40s. What you might be able to do is tap your maple with a small tube on New Year's Day and wait to see when it starts dripping. At that point add a regular "spile" or two to collect the sap.

You know, I'm thinking I need to do a separate thread on the details of maple syrup over in the eats and drinks forum. Heading over right now.

-Blast

[Maeklos]

Just wanted to point out one thing: while rustling someone's cattle is bad form (unless you like getting shot...) most folks won't mind if you ask 'em to collect dried cow patties. They're great for burning, and keep relatively easily. Plus, I always found burning cow patties to be relatively stink-free...smells kinda like roasting hay/grass/whatever they've been eating.

[doctor patches]

Just wanted to point out one thing: while rustling someone's cattle is bad form (unless you like getting shot...) most folks won't mind if you ask 'em to collect dried cow patties. They're great for burning, and keep relatively easily. Plus, I always found burning cow patties to be relatively stink-free...smells kinda like roasting hay/grass/whatever they've been eating.

they smolder well. if you plan on leaving camp, throw one on the fire, and bury it in the remaining ash from your previous fire, and when you return you can apply tinder and blow into a flame pretty quickly. also, if thrown on a full fire the smoke will help ward away biting insects.