Instant Vegetables

Previously we had a dehydrator but sold it away because we found it was not cost saving. The electricity used to dehydrate those food had eaten into our utility bills. You can read HERE on our Dehydrated Food. 

We found off the shelf dehydrated vegetables, they are cheaper compare we do it ourselves. This will allow us to carry light weight vegetables if we are hiking and they cook pretty  fast. Below are two packs of dehydrated vegetables, high mountain cabbage and seaweed. I can't remember how much the seaweed cost but the high mountain cabbage cost below NT100. 

Firesteel Modification

Here are some examples you can modified the Fire-Steel to more practical use.

Commando Wire Saw

I have the BCB version for many years and found it was effective. There are many types of wire saw but I wanted to get the same as the BCB. Found a supplier and order a few to try it out. Below are some info how to improve the wire saw and a demo I put on YouTube.

P-38 Can Opener 開罐器

It survives World War II, sees action in Korean and Vietnam War today it still serves the Army. The US Army P-38 can opener is every Marine survival tool. Those days, most of the combat ration comes in can and without this little tool, it will prove a hard time opening the cans. It is called P-38 for 2 reasons, the size of the can opener is 38mm and it takes 38 times to open the can. 

Dog Tag SOS Signal Mirror

Signal Mirror was first introduced to me when I attended a course Survival At Sea that thought us the importance of a Signal Mirror. Surprisingly the only place you can find Signal Mirror on a Ship is in the Rescue Life Raft. 

Duct Tape Usage

Duct Tapes are one of the essential item in any outdoor sports and Survival Kit. We carry our duct tape when cycling, motorcycling, car, hiking, basically every outdoor sports. They are so strong that you can use it to tie a person up. They are also waterproof thus you can use for First Aid, emergency repair and waterproofing. This is one of the most used items in our Survival Kit. 

安全飲用水 Safe Drinking Water

Water is our main source of life line, without water for 72 hour you would probably die of dehydration. There is no such thing as safe drinking water in the wilderness even it comes from the mountain. Here we will discuss few methods of obtaining safe drinking water for Survival. The last method SODIS is rather interesting

水是人不可或缺的主要來源，若72小時中沒有攝取一滴水，就可能會死於脫水。我們都認為山上流下來的泉水可生飲，但事實上戶外沒有所謂乾淨可喝的水。在這裡，我們將討論一些可獲得安全飲用水的方法。最後一個方法SODIS是相當有趣。

求生起火的工具 Survival Fire Starting Tool

In the market, there are various types of fire starting tools available, from windproof lighters, waterproof matches, magnesium flint, fire steel etc. I like to share my views on which is the best fire kit to have in a survival kit.

在市場上有各種起火的工具，從防風打火機、防水火柴、打火石、鎂火石...等等。在此分享於急難求生時我認為最好的起火工具。

黃金時間72小時 72 Hour Bug Out

photo by Japanese Red Cross

Disaster can happen anytime, if you are the lucky and have time to escape, you should pack along some important stuff with you. Do not panic but focus, you must be physically and mentally prepared. Help yourself before you help others.
災難隨時都可能發生，如果您幸運的話能抓住一點時間逃跑。在事情發生時不要恐慌並保持鎮定！在事前您就應該準備一些重要的東西來幫助您，您必須先讓自己的身理和心理都有準備，才能幫助自己且幫助別人。

Compass

Everyone knows what is a compass, but do you know that the compass is not pointing the True North, instead it is pointing the Magnetic North which is constantly changing. Here is an article by by NGO indicating the the magnetic north is moving toward Russia. 

Survival Blanket

So another freak weather, it is good that you are reading this blog in the comfort of your home. How about those got stranded in railway station or airport under heavy snow. Last Christmas you might seen the news how the passengers got stranded in London, Heathrow Airport. The winter was so bad that the airport had to be closed and passenger getting nowhere. The weather was colder than anyone expected and what are you going to do? 

Backpacking Knives

This is one of an essential items, a must have item for any outdoor activities even when travelling oversea. Do you carry one with you? Well if you don't, you should. So which kind of knife is better? It all depends where and how you are going to use it. I am no knives expert but I will share further on types of knife and their usage base on my experience. 

Paracord

Those days when we were young campers, before we can rig up the tent, the first thing that taught us was tying knots. Today's young campers, they do not know all these basic because camping equipment have improve and made life easier. I like to discuss this topic on Paracord and maybe you will learn a trick or two and pass it on to your children, something to learn and do during camping besides sitting and watching cartoons on the laptop. To go camping is learning to survive outdoor. To survive outdoor, you must know camp basic.

Alcohol Stove 酒精火炉

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It has been years since I made an Alcohol Stove. Last month I promised a Shop Manger from a Mitsubishi workshop when he requested if I could make him one. He was interested in such stove because of light weight and fuel efficient. Base on my calculation, the estimated fuel cost to boil 500ml of water for 10 mins would cost NT3.  

Urban Survival Pack

I am writing this article in hope that I can provide some guidance to people living in near disaster area on how to prepare themselves. We never know when disaster will strike us but when it does, sometimes we are too late to gather our much needed stuff or we spend to much time gathering all the necessary stuff before evacuation. If we had prepare ourselves well in advance, we could have save precious time and gives us more time to escape.

FM 21-76 US Army Survival Manual

This is a doctrine adopted by the US Army, Marine Crops, Navy and Air Force. The current manual is selling in Amazon for US12.95. However you can download this manual for free (see below link). The download version is June 1999 and is under pdf format. The current latest version is 2006 which I think there is not much difference in the content. But if you want to know more on the latest version, you can view it here.

Basically the manual covers on Survival, Evasion and Recovery. The later part might not be practical for our outdoor activities but it still covers a good part on Survival.

Taiwan Beer Wood Gas Stove

After viewing some article on an inexpensive and rather easy to make stove. I decided to give it a try while camping in Kenting.

This stove will come in handy during survival situation only if you can get yourself an empty beer or soda can.

What so special about this stove is that it burns completely and leaves only white ashes. In technical terms we called it "complete combustion" thus making this a very efficient stove. Here are the simple steps to follow.

SAS Survival Guide Handbook

Just the other day after posting about my SAS Survival Handbook, I did a search on the internet and was surprise to find the mini version. I wanted to know if the content is the same as the Handbook which I have left back home in Singapore. When I saw the price that was sold on Amazon.com, I was utterly shock. The mini Guide book was selling for US7.99!!! Without hesitation I placed an order and it took about 3 weeks to arrive.

Why did I get this? I have always wanted to carry such book outdoor. My previous handbook is way too big to carry around unlike this guide book, it is handy and you can carry around like a bible. Honestly I can't remember everything that I had read from my previous handbook and this pocket size is just way to perfect. It will help me to identify fungi and plants which I have very poor recollection and is a great camp book to read at night.

After examining the guide book, I believed it is identical to the handbook except for an article on nuclear disaster that is not mentioned if I remembered correctly.The topic on first aid is enough to cover on daily aspect of life if you examine the content below. Overall I highly recommend to anyone who has interest about survival skills. It will probably safe you or your loved ones when the day comes.

Tactical Lightings for Night Vision

pictures from Woods Monkey

Ever wonder when you buy a headlamp or handheld torch, they come with different colored filters. Some of you might think that the colored filters look cool and you just buy it without truly understand the usage. 

These colored filters are tactical light, they come mostly in Green, Blue, Red and they are to help you preserve your night vision. However these colored lights do not have far range beam and normally used in close up  condition.

Below is a detailed article taken from ezinearticles.com by Ben Anton where he clearly explains the usage. 

SAS Survival Secrets

I found this vids by chance, there are total 93 vids on SAS Survival Secrets by Bear Grylls. He is the guy behind the Discovery Channel "MAN vs WILD". No doubt it is all about military survival skills but I think it might be helpful to learn something from it. Here is a series of Episode 1/7 part 1/6. Follow this link if you are interested in the whole series.