It was a perfect setting for a tailgate party: We were parked next to the Lochsa River in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest. My brother Michael Pantenburg, hunting buddy Phil Walker, and I had just emerged from a several-day backpack elk hunt in the backcountry, and everybody was hungry.

This Dutch oven, and a source of heat, is all you need to make "High Speed Venison."

by Leon Pantenburg

We were somewhere between the “Food is Fuel” and “Use the Dutch Oven to Cook Something Wonderful” philosophies of wilderness campfire cooking.

So this recipe,  named “High Speed Venison”  was chosen.  Mike set up the stove and Dutch oven on the tailgate of my pickup; Phil sliced up some backstrap from a deer he’d killed, and I sliced onions. All this preparation took less than five minutes.

Ingredients for this dish go on every hunt. All you have to do is add venison, and you have a great, tasty meal that doesn’t require a lot of preparation. We’ve cooked this same dish in the parking lot of the motel in Orofino, Idaho; outside of a motel room in Lowell, Idaho, and at home, when a quick meal was in order.

A great, easy side dish is to slice potatoes and onions, add butter, and wrap everything in foil. Toss this package in the coals, turn occasionally and cook until done.

While the other two went down to the river to swim and clean up, I watched the food. Phil came back up to the truck, so I could go take a swim.  By the time everyone was cleaned up, we were ready to eat.

2-3 lbs venison steaks

1 pkg beefy onion soup mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Check Out Our Affiliate Blogs!

2 beef bouillon cubes

2 onions, sliced

3/4 C milk

salt and pepper

Trim fat off steaks and brown in skillet or cast iron Dutch oven. Mix together the mushroom soup, beefy onion soup mix and milk. Pour over steaks. Add onions and bouillon. Simmer one hour. Serve over rice.

 

 

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Jerky is the original high energy survival/snack food, and maybe you’re thinking about making your own. Here’s some expert advice about a quick, easy method that uses meat from the grocery store, items you already have in your kitchen, and an oven.

Preserving the meat of a big game animal can be a vital survival skill. (Photo by Bob Patterson)

by Leon Pantenburg

Maybe you had a successful hunting season, and ended up with lots of meat to experiment on. Or possibly, the idea is to learn another do-it-yourself skill, so you can make a healthy snack for the kids’ lunches.

Regardless of your motivation, preppers, survivalists and folks looking for a way to preserve meat for long term storage should learn how to make jerky. Like any survival technique, it may be one of those skills that could prove to be vital sometime down the road.

But making jerky can be expensive. First, there is the cost of the meat. (As a hunter, I can attest to this fact: There is no cheap meat!) Then, there is the investment in a smoker or food dehydrator, and the cost of commercial jerky seasonings. When the math is done, it may appear that it’s cheaper to just buy jerky.

This is some very good organic elk meat that has been cut into strips to make jerky. Talk about expensive ingredients!

But you can produce top quality jerky fairly inexpensively, according to one expert, using meat from the local grocery store. All you need to do is watch your grocery store ads for sales, and for equipment, you need  an oven with some sort of wire rack.

“Jerky is just dried meat, and you can make it out of any kind of meat, and many kinds of fish,” says Clem Stechelin, 79, of La Pine, OR. “People have been making jerky forever, and the process isn’t complicated.”

Stechelin is a retired meatcutter, owner of “Clem’s Oregon Trail Seasonings,” and has been making jerky and sausage for decades. He says jerky can be simple to make, inexpensive and doesn’t require an elaborate smoker or dehydrator system. Originally, Stechelin said, primitive hunters who killed a large animal dried meat by solar power.

“They probably hung strips of meat over a bush or on some sort of rack in the sun,” he said. “Some of the different flavorings, like sage, might have started out when they realized meat dried on a sage bush tasted better.”

Later, these hunters figured out they could dry meat faster if they hung it over a smoky fire, Stechelin said, and people acquired a taste for smoked, seasoned meat. Primitive hunters probably smoked and dried whatever meat they had to use, he said, and some of it probably tasted pretty bad.

Today, great-tasting jerky starts with a quality cut of meat.

From start to finish, this jerky took about three hours to make.

“It’s like a computer analogy: Junk in, junk out. If you start with a piece of tough meat with gristle, it will end up as jerky that is tough and hard to chew.” Stechelin said. “You shouldn’t use an inexpensive piece of meat, and expect the jerky to turn out well.”

Some of the cheaper roasts have lots of fat and gristle, he said, which needs to be trimmed off before baking.

“By the time you’re done, there won’t be much usable meat,” he said. “You would have been better buying some London broil to start with.”<

Stechelin recommends watching store ads for meat sales. London broil and top round are on sale for about $1.98 per pound “at least once a month,” he said, and those cuts make excellent jerky. Other, more expensive meat cuts that work well for jerky are top round, bottom round and sirloin tip.

“Probably the best cut for jerky is flank steak, but it is usually pretty expensive,” he said. “When you cut it across the grain and make jerky, it ends up tender, is easy to chew and has great flavor.”

Most of Stechelin’s seasoning customers buy beef to make jerky, and use the oven method. (The jerky seasoning feature all natural ingredients, with no nitrates.) It is the quickest, simplest technique, he claims, and anyone can use it to produce healthy, tasty energy snacks.
Here is what you do:

*Cut the meat, across the grain, into uniform slices between one-quarter and one-half in thick. Rub whatever seasonings you choose into the meat.

* Put the meat on a wire pizza rack or cooling rack for bread. (I tried the polypropylene racks that come with one of Clem’s jerky making kits. You clean them in the dishwasher, and the finished meat, fish or fruit comes right off, with no sticking.)

* Set the oven between 200 and 220 degrees. (Individual ovens vary, so some experimentation may have to be done.) Place the loaded racks in the oven, and put a piece of foil or cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch any drippings.

Clem Stechelin has been making jerky and sausage for more than 50 years.

* Prop open the oven door with a towel, so the moisture escapes. If you forget this step, Stechelin said, the batch of jerky will bake instead of drying, and the result won’t be good.

* Cook the jerky for about two and one-half hours, or until it looks done.

“Take the meat out when you can still bend it. The meat will still dry a little more after it’s out of the oven,” Stechelin said. “Don’t leave it in the oven until it’s crisp, or it will end up being too hard and tough.”

All that’s left to do then, is let the jerky cool completely and store it. If you’re going to put the jerky in plastic bags, put it in the freezer, Stechelin advises. Otherwise, put the finished jerky in a cloth or paper bag so any moisture completely evaporates. Then hide some for outdoor excursions.

Home-made jerky is a great after-school snack, but be careful if there are teenagers in your house. Snacking on jerky is addictive, and the kids and their friends may wipe out the entire supply before you know it!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

The older couple at the Swampy Lakes trailhead, a few miles outside Bend, Oregon,  didn’t have any maps or survival gear at all, were unsure how to put on their snowshoes and were reluctant to take the firestarter and matches I offered them. From their inadequate clothing and  lack of preparation, it was obvious they were tourists visiting Central Oregon and had no clue of the potential danger.

In 2006, less than six miles from where they stood, a veteran snowmobiler had died when an unexpected blizzard had blown in.

Click here to visit Peter Kummerfeldt's website!

“We’re not going to do any of that survival stuff,” the woman said. “We’re only going out for a little while.”  – Leon

by Peter Kummerfeldt

Many things get people in trouble when they venture into the outdoors, including lack of preparedness, not paying attention to the weather, accidents etc. More commonly, it is the  attitude toward our safety that is the precursor to a life threatening event occurring.

How many times have you said to yourself or have heard others say, I am just, as in I am just going to walk up the ridge and see if I can see a deer, or I am just going to be out for fifteen minutes,” or perhaps “I am just going to run down to the store.”

I believe these three little words I am just get more people into trouble than any other three little words I can think of!

Most commonly you don’t verbalize these words out loud, but say them to yourself, silently ─ which is even more dangerous. Many times you are not even conscious of your decision to leave your gear behind. Unconsciously you already have made the decision to leave it because I am just…  When spoken out loud there always is the chance that someone, upon hearing you say, I am just will step in and remind you of the importance of always taking your emergency clothing and equipment with you ─ even though the possibility of having to spend an unplanned night out is remote.

When nothing looks familiar, and every direction seems to be the same, STOP and think about what to do next!

 It is easy to convince yourself that nothing life threatening will happen ─ after all you are “just…”   When you use the word “just,” you are convincing yourself that the weather will remain pleasant, that no accident will happen, that you will not get lost, or that you will be able to get back before dark!

You are saying to yourself that you don’t need to carry your daypack with your emergency gear and warm clothing because you won’t need it ─ you are “just…”

It also is easy to rationalize away the need to always carry your backup clothing and emergency equipment. As the years ago by, one hunting season follows another, and you have yet to spend that unplanned night out, the temptation to reduce the weight of the daypack you are carrying by leaving your survival kit at home, can be very attractive.

As you look to the mountains in anticipation of having to ascend on foot and hunt at higher altitudes, it is natural to want to lighten your load and leave behind those pieces of equipment that you have seldom, if ever, used.  Sometimes it is “space” or the lack of it, which causes you to decide to leave items behind that you should take.

Most often, it’s the short trips that get you in trouble!  After all, I was just…  You get complacent.  Nothing life threatening ever has happened in the past and so it is easy to  convince yourself that it won’t happen in the future and if it does you can handle it ─ whatever “it” is!   Ignoring the possibility of finding yourself in a survival situation is like playing Russian roulette.  Falling victim to the I am just… syndrome is like playing Russian roulette with five out of six chambers loaded!

 History is replete with examples of those finding themselves in trouble who, after being rescued from some horrendous situation, said I was just…

This trash can liner can provide a quick emergency shelter. (Peter Kummerfeldt photo)

Several years ago in Oregon an older man left his camp one evening ─ he was just going to walk down to the end of the ridge and see if he could spot an elk.  The following morning was the opening day of elk season.  He never returned and despite an extensive search he was not found alive.

Ten days later his body, partially buried under snow, was discovered by other hunters.  His emergency gear consisted of a .357 Magnum pistol and thirty seven rounds of ammunition, which he had used to try to signal his hunting partners.

Thirty-six of the thirty-seven cartridges had been fired, but were never heard by either his partners or those that searched for him.  He had tried to shelter himself by drawing two log ends together and laying slabs of bark on top of the logs to provide a crude roof.  His clothing, a mixture of cotton and wool, failed to provide the protection he needed from the environmental conditions he encountered.

Physiologically he died from hypothermia, but it also could be said that he died because he had rationalized away the need to carry any additional emergency gear.

Equipment that might have prevented the situation from developing in the first place – a map, compass or a GPS Receiver.  Equipment that he could have used to increase his protection from cold temperatures, precipitation and wind-chill.  Equipment that he could have used to attract the attention of the rescuers that were looking for him – a mirror, whistle, survival radio or 406 MHz emergency beacon.

He was “just going to walk to the end of the ridge, look for an elk and then return to camp!

The words “I am just” when spoken out loud or silently should be considered a red flag warning!

When you say them yourself or hear others say them ─ STOP!  The trap is being set! Continuing on only will spring the trap and once you are in it, there may be no escape.   Without adequate clothing, without basic survival equipment (reliable fire starting devices, waterproof, windproof sheltering materials, a signal mirror and whistle), without the ability to build a fire or signal to others, survival depends on an individuals tenacity to live, their ability to improvise what they need and luck – sometimes that’s not enough!

As you contemplate what you should have with you as you begin a trip – even a short one, don’t use the words I am just…

Peter Kummerfeldt has walked the talk in the wilderness survival field for decades. Peter grew up in Kenya, East Africa and came to America in 1965 and joined the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of the Air Force Survival Instructor Training School and has served as an instructor at the Basic Survival School, Spokane, Washington; the Arctic Survival

Peter Kummerfeldt has taught wilderness survival for more than 40 years, all over the world in different environments.

School, Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, Republic of the Philippines.

For twelve years, Peter was the Survival Training Director at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He retired from the Air Force in 1995 after 30 years of service.

In 1992, concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring in the outdoors annually and the number of tourists traveling overseas who were involved in unpleasant and sometimes life-threatening incidents Peter created OutdoorSafe.com

He is the author of Surviving a Wilderness Emergency and has addressed over 20,000 people as the featured speaker at numerous seminars, conferences and national conventions.

Check out Peter’s blog at: OutdoorSafe.blogspot.com

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

by Leon Pantenburg

I Sit and Stay: A Survival Guide for Kids (and parents, too!) by Leah L. Waarvik

It didn’t take but an instant for our family backpacking trip to turn into my worst nightmare. One moment, my son

"I Sit and I Stay" is a practical book about how to keep your children safe in the event they get lost in the outdoors.

Dan, 16 months old at the time, was playing as we set up camp. The next, despite the close supervision of four adults, he had vanished.

We immediately split up to look for him. Out of the corner of her eye, my wife Debbie caught a flash of Dan’s bright red jacket as he vanished over a small hill. She collared him before he could get any further. Dan thought the chase was part of the game.

Kids need to be outside. They need to be taking advantage of our great outdoors as opposed to vegetating in front of computer or TV screens. Hiking, biking and enjoying our parks and wilderness areas are natural cures for the childhood obesity epidemic. And if the kids aren’t taught to appreciate the outdoors at a young age, who will take care of the parks and wilderness areas in a few years?

But anyone who goes into wilderness areas needs to be safe, and  “I Sit and Stay” teaches your children to be safe if they get lost.

Author Leah Waarvik is a search-and-rescue professional who works as part of a canine team to find missing people in the wilderness. She wrote “I Sit and Stay” after hearing stories of children who were lost and unprepared. The book is intended to initiate a discussion between adults and children about the main teaching points. The title says it all: Teach your lost children to stay in one place and await rescue.

Written in interesting, easy-to-understand terms, the lesson of staying-put is taught through the characters of Emma and Koa, two wilderness search-and-rescue dogs. The book also mentions and discusses three simple tools that every child (I say every person, regardless of age!) should be taught to use and carry on every outdoor excursion:

• Whistle: Always carry one on a string around your neck when hiking or camping. The child should be taught that if they get lost, they sit and blow. Rescue Howler Whistle by Adventure Medical Kits
• A pocket-sized mirror: Use this to signal search aircraft or other people. Ultimate Survival Technologies 2×3 StarFlash Emergency Signal Mirror
• A large garbage bag: With training this is to be used as a shelter. (My two cents worth is that the bag should
  

  This adult is using a 55-gallon trash can liner for an emergency shelter. With training, a child can do likewise. (Peter Kummerfeldt photo)

  be bright yellow or orange to aid in being found. Before doing wilderness survival training for kids, I go in to the local Les Schwab tire store and get donations of their bright yellow plastic tire bags. The store will give a tire bag to anyone who asks, and there is no excuse for a child being without one. You can probably find a similar situation in your area!)

After being taught on how to use these items, the child should also be trained to carry these survival tools in their pockets or pack. Pockets are probably the best, since a child will probably lose their backpack before their pants! Survival Kit for I Sit and Stay A Survival Guide for Kids and Parents Too!

Then, prepared with this training and survival tools, the kids are taught a simple rhyme:

If I’m lost and can’t find my way,

I sit and stay. I don’t run away.

Emma and Koa are on their way.

Here’s some additional tips from the Deschutes County (Oregon) Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue for keeping kids safe outdoors:

• Everybody stays together.
• Teach the children that if they get lost or separated, to sit down, stay put, drink water and eat their snacks.
• Look bigger for searchers: Your waiting space, if possible, should be near an open space. Blow your whistle if you hear or see anybody!
• Don’t lie down on bare ground.
• Stay away from large rivers and lakes.

I used some of Waarvik’s suggestions on Memorial Day weekend to help teach about 50 kids wilderness survival at the third annual Central Oregon Shooting Association Youth Safari. Ranging in age from kindergarten to early teen, these kids readily absorbed Waarik’s common sense survival tips.

Afterward, parents commented  that the lesson was clear and valuable, and wondered where to get a copy of  Waarvik’s publication.

The book is an easy read, and well-illustrated with great drawing and photographs. It would make a great bedtime book, particularly before an outing or at camp.

And what if the unthinkable happens, and you end up at the incident command post waiting for your child to be found? It may be comforting to know the youngster has been trained, has the correct tools, and is somewhere, patiently waiting for Emma and Koa!

For more survival book reviews, click here!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

SurvivalCommonSense.com was featured on the Survival Mom Radio show on Thursday, July 14.

The g uests were Leon Pantenburg and Linda Dixon.  Leon shared ideas for easy and safe outdoor/campsite cooking using foil.

All you need to make a foil dinner is aluminum foil, food and a heat source.

Linda is the author of “Just Dutch It!” and discussed using a Dutch oven to make all types of delicious foods.

Click here to hear the Survival Mom Show interviews!

Here are the posts that Leon referred to during the discussion:

How to cook with foil wraps over a campfire

How to cook trout (or other fish) in foil over a campfire

How to make a Dutch oven survival kit

To see more off-grid survival recipes, click here.

Click here to check out these survival recipes that use storage food!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Ahead of the amphibious assault soldiers lay “Fortress Europe.”  Behind them was the rising sea. At stake, was the final outcome of World War II. Here is the story of an American hero.

Soldiers head for Omaha Beach from the Higgins Landing Craft.

by Leon Pantenburg

June 6, 2011 marks the 67th anniversary of D-Day. Today,  I hope to honor my friend, Bob Shotwell, 87, of La Pine, Oregon, by posting his recollections.

As a member of the 149th Amphibious Combat Engineers, Private Shotwell landed in the first wave of the Dog Red section of Omaha Beach.

I was privileged to interview 12 Central Oregon World War II veterans for a Bend Bulletin Special Section “Vanishing Heroes,” which was published on Veterans Day, 2007.

Here is an excerpt from Private Shotwell’s story as he heads toward Omaha Beach at dawn in a Higgins landing craft.

“The noise was deafening. Big guns fired, engines on vehicles roared, men shouted and geysers of water erupted around our craft. It seemed like mass confusion.”

Still, Shotwell said he wasn’t really scared.

“I felt excited, probably because I had no combat experience at all,” he said. “Like most kids, I had this feeling of invincibility and I though nothing could happen to me.”

Images of Omaha Beach

That feeling “evaporated” as the boat stopped and the front ramp went down. The Germans had every inch of the beach presighted for accurate firing of mortars, machine guns, and 88mm cannons.

The slaughter started before the soldiers disembarked, and the first wave was almost decimated.

“The guy in front of me had his head blown off by an 88 before we even got off the boat,” Shotwell said. “We started running for shore as soon as the gate flopped down.”

The survivors waded about 20 yards through waist-deep water, and ran and crawled about 200 yards inland and took cover behind a “shingle,” a one-to-three foot tall bank of small, rounded stones. The shingle was covered with concertina wire and offered protections from machine gun and small arms fire, but not from mortars.

“We were supposed to secure the beach and take out the mines,” Shotwell said. “But to lift your head above the shingle was almost certain death from a machine gun or sniper bullet.”

A few soldiers who tried to advance were killed immediately.

“We were desperate to move forward, because then the guns on the cliffs couldn’t be depressed enough to fire on us,” Shotwell said. “But until we got re-enforcements with Bangalore torpedoes to blow the wire, all we could do was stay put.”

Shotwell’s images of that part of D Day are fuzzy.

“Bits and pieces pop into focus…a hand. An arm with no body around it. A foot. A helmet with a head still in it,” Shotwell said. “I wondered if the next shell would be mine.”

By late afternoon, enough equipment had come ashore that the engineers could start clearing the wire. In the face of heavy fire, Shotwell and other engineers blew holes in the wire and advanced to the bluffs.

They stopped at nightfall, and Shotwell, exhausted, “slept fitfully” about halfway up the cliff.

By nightfall of  June 6, about 175,00 Allied military personnel were ashore in France. But the cost had been very high – some 4,900 died on the beaches and  in the battle further inland that day.

Of the 40 combat engineers who landed at Dog Red in the first wave, only four were alive at the end of the day. The next morning, Shotwell reached the top of the cliffs.

He looked out to sea, over the armada of 5,00o anchored ships, with a sense of disbelief, and surprise that he was still alive.

The day after the battle, Shotwell looked out over the Allied armada from the cliffs over Omaha Beach. He still couldn't grasp the enormity of what he had been part of.

“So this is France, I thought,” he said. “I had no idea of what I had just been a part of.”

Shotwell went on to fight in four major combat actions before the war was over. He was recommended for the Silver Star for his part in the crossing of the Rhine River in Germany.

Like many veterans, Shotwell rarely mentions his service, and initially, was reluctant to let me interview him for the “Vanishing Heroes” project.

His memories have “thankfully softened,” he said.

“War memories are best held in limbo,” he said. “They take on a softer glow that way. Most of my memories of World War II are of the pleasant things. I try to forget the bad things.”

But Shotwell does remember an attitude which helped him and his buddies get through the hell of Omaha Beach.

“We didn’t want to make a D Day type landing on some American beach, and we didn’t want to make a combat crossing of the Mississippi, and we didn’t want that kind of fighting going on in some small town in America,” Shotwell said. “We were thankful we could be the line of defense between our enemies and our homes.”

We can’t thank these WWII servicemembers enough, so let’s allow that respect to include  ALL veterans of ALL American wars: Thanks, and God bless you!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

I was the guest on Susan Labbee’s new BlogTalk Radio Show “Let’s Talk Preparedness” yesterday.

The discussion was about off-grid cooking, tornado preparedness and general survival common sense tips!

To listen to the show, click on the icon below!

Listen to internet radio with Preparedness Radio on Blog Talk Radio

For more information on making a survival kit, click here

To learn more about survival recipes and off-grid cooking, click here

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Inevitably, at every firemaking seminar I teach, somebody suggests using dryer lint as firestarter. According to some folks, you should carry dryer lint and a flint stick in your survival kit. My response is that I have tested and tried dryer lint, don’t carry it, and recommend you don’t either.

by Leon Pantenburg

You stake your life on your firemaking kit components. Let’s apply the common sense filter to this dryer lint firestarter idea.

This dryer lint ignited, then for no apparent reason, just went out. Dryer lint is unreliable as a firestarter.

Here’s some related information: According to a 1999 report (the last information available) developed by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 14,500 dryers catch fire every year, killing 10 people. Two years ago, a dryer fire at an Alabama day care center claimed several children. (How many millions of dryers are used every day?)

Experts cite “failure to clean” as the reason for 70% of dryer fire operational contributing factors. And a standard construction practice is to run the exhaust pipe through the drywall with a 90-degree elbow. This can cause the lint to accumulate at that angle, next to the hot dryer.

So the question might be, based on the evidence from the house fires: Is dryer lint really that flammable? Or is it the combination of heat, improper venting and an accumulation of dry lint next to a hot dryer that causes house fires?

Our concern is survival firemaking though, so let’s consider the pros and cons of dryer lint as it could be used as a survival situation firestarter.

Proponents of dryer lint firestarter claim:

• Dryer lint is easily ignited with a match, lighter and/or flint stick.
• Dryer lint is  compact and easy to carry.
• Dryer lint is free for the taking, compact and easy to carry and apparently flammable. There are multiple internet postings showing the material being ignited, along with directions for making lint-based fire starters.

My first concern about dryer lint has to do with reliability. In 2002, as part of a project for Boy Scout Troop 18 in Bend, Oregon, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to find the ultimate, practical fire ignition method that would work for the average person.

We also tested practical firestarters. Dryer lint was one of the initial items tested and it never made the first cut.
The material used for the field trials came from my dryer, and I tested the lint from virtually every load of clothes for week or more. That ended up being a lot of testing! At the time there were three active teenagers and a Lab in the house, along with all the clothes drying associated with skiing, hunting, snowboarding, winter sports and school athletics.

Cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly and a flint stick are effective firemaking tools.

The testing method was to take whatever handful of lint was in the filter, go out into the garage and ignite it with a flint stick. This is where the reliability issue surfaced. (Dog hair was a constant in all the test samples!)

Some lint, such as that from a load of  cotton jeans, ignited readily. Lighting lint from a mixed load of natural fabrics and wool and microfibers was iffy, and sometimes the flame went out before burning up the lint completely. And several times, the lint from a load of polypropylene, wool and various synthetic microfibers didn’t ignite.

My recommendation is to substitute cotton balls in any application where you might currently be using dryer lint.

Here’s why:

• While dryer lint is free, a jumbo 100 percent cotton ball will cost less than a penny. The cost of filling a 35-mm film container with five cotton balls is less than a nickel!
• Cotton balls start out as a sterile medical item and can also be used for first aid needs, such bandaging or cleaning a wound or abrasion. Among the particles in dryer lint is dirt, dust, allergens and all sorts of airborne spores and microbes.
• Both cotton balls and dryer lint can absorb moisture from the air. The difference is that cotton has long fibers which can be dried easier than lint, which is composed of small particles, pet and human hair, pieces of plastic and other, unknown materials.
• Dryer lint mats and compacts more than cotton, making it harder to light. It’s more difficult  to fluff up to light.
• I carry cotton balls infused with petroleum jelly as one of the firestarters in my survival kit. If I start
  to feel a hot spot or blister rising from a boot chaffing, I rub the area with the cotton ball and petroleum jelly. In a pinch, a petroleum jelly and cotton ball, along with duct tape, has been used to create a makeshift band aide. Never rub any skin abrasion, or try to stop a blood flow, with lint!

Grenfell’s and my conclusion was that there is nothing dryer lint can do that a cotton ball can’t do better. The advantages of cotton balls over lint easily make up the cost difference.
If dryer lint is still in your survival kit, please test before trusting it! Personally, I’ll spend an extra few cents and use cotton balls. My life is worth that to me!

For more info on making survival kits, click here!

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

A 68-year-old man died in a sleeping bag in his truck after he got stuck in the snow while camping in February and kept a log of nearly 70 days spent apparently stranded in east Linn County’s high country, authorities said today. To read the complete story, click here.

Let’s hope we can all learn from tragedies.

In this case, apparently nobody knew the victim was missing. Here’s a video about leaving a note before you go anywhere to make sure something like this doesn’t happen to you!

For more related SurvivalCommonSense.com tips and stories, click on the highlighted words:

• STOP: Use this exercise to reduce stress and focus your thoughts.
• Take your Ten Essentials on every outing.
• Dress with the right fabrics.
• Have a plan to make a tarp shelter.
• Carry lightweight, compact firestarter.
• Find the most effective fire ignition system.
• How to make charcloth, a material that can catch a spark from any source.
• Use charcloth as an effective method of catching a spark to make a fire.
• It can kill you: Hypothermia
• Hardtack: A great emergency food
• About Leon Pantenburg

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com

Currently, the rage among some survival schools is the Mora, a small, inexpensive Scandinavian-style sheath knife with a four-inch blade and a large, easy-to-hold handle.

The Cold Steel SRK (top) and the J. Martinni Mora-style knives are good choices for all around use. Combined with a Swiss Army Classic, they can provide a good survival tool kit.

by Leon Pantenburg

Personally, I think they’re great, and I generally have a Mora close at hand.

It’s all because newspaper guys, like me, research stuff. Sometimes we gather information, statistics and data for no apparent reason, and with a vague idea of what the info might be someday be used for.

That was the case several years ago when I bought my first Mora knife.

While I will never give up my folders, I was looking for a small, inexpensive sheath knife that could be recommended to Boy Scouts.

The knife had to be an all-around, do-everything tool. It would be used for a variety of tasks, which could include whittling, cleaning fish and small game, meat-cutting and peeling potatoes. It needed to be lightweight and small enough to be carried conveniently.

Practicality was paramount: A fighting knife was not in the running. I didn’t anticipate the do-everything knife would ever be thrown, used in a “tactical” application, as a prybar or as a weapon for stabbing bears.

Because you can get excellent Frost brand Moro knives for prices ranging from $10 to $15, I bought several versions and put them through their paces.

I got this background info on Mora knives from Ragnar’s Ragweed Forge:

The town of Mora, Sweden has been a knife-making center for centuries. Smiths in Mora developed a basic, functional style that became known as the “Mora Knife.” Until recently there were two remaining large companies in Mora, K.J. Eriksson and Frosts of Mora. They have merged into “Mora of Sweden.”

Mora knives place function before style. They have the flat Scandinavian grind that goes cleanly to the edge, and come from the factory very sharp.

A Mora specialty is the laminated carbon blade. This is a three-part sandwich, with a core of high carbon steel protected by sides of tough lower carbon steel.

Normally, my knife testing takes a while, and I focus on practical tasks the knife might be used for. Several different

This Mora knife was used to clean these trout, and the blade was still shaving-sharp at the end of the task.

Mora variations were put  through these tests:

• Paper cutting:  An everyday carry knife is used for whatever task is at hand. For me, that might involve opening mail! I cut a bunch of paper up to make notebooks with a Mora, and after about half an hour of constant cutting, the edge was still reasonably sharp.
• Meat Cutting: The Moras worked well for boning and trimming the meat of several elk and a couple of deer. The blades held an edge well, and were easy to re-sharpen with a whetstone and my grandfather’s butchering steel.
• Cleaning fish: For panfish or other small, eating-sized fish, I usually cut off the heads and gut them. Then the fish are frozen in water. A Frost Mora easily got through a limit of eight medium-sized trout last summer, while maintaining a shaving-sharp edge. The soft, smushy handle never got too slippery to use.
• Cleaning upland and small game: The Mora style is superb for taking care of a limit of chukers, pheasants, rabbits and squirrels. The three-to-four inch blade, and easy-to-hold handle work just right.
• Whittling wiener sticks:  The first practical wood carving most of us do is probably a stick to roast wieners, brats or marsh mellows over a campfire. The Mora works fantastically well for this, and is a good knife to loan the kids for that project. You don’t have to worry about a beginner folding the blade over on a finger!
• Spreading peanut butter or cutting up apples: On my 1980 Mississippi River canoe trip, these proved to be the most common tasks my Buck folder was used for. Any practical survival knife must also be able to handle the less-glamorous tasks!
• Kitchen Use: I’ll generally keep the knife being tested on the magnetic knife rack in my kitchen and use it for awhile. This everyday use will quickly point out features you do and don’t like. The Mora is incredibly useful for just about any kitchen task.
• Ease of Carry: While I generally carry my knife in my daypack, it must also be comfortable to carry on a belt. The traditional Scandinavian sheath, which dangles from a belt loop, is incredibly comfortable to carry. The “clipper” plastic sheaths, which clip on a belt, are not so comfortable.

After cleaning an eight-trout limit the handle on this Mora-style carbon clipper utility knife was still easy to grasp and use safely.

While a  Mora can do many things well, my first choice for gutting a deer or elk is still my much-used Cold Steel SRK.

And a Mora doesn’t have the tweezers, scissors, and toothpick of my beloved Swiss Army Classic!

While you could split kindling or baton a Mora to cut  firewood, it isn’t the best choice. An axe is!

And I wouldn’t want to have to dig a very big hole with a Mora, or any other knife, for that matter!

The Mora’s low price is a major attraction. You can get a superb knife for under $20, making a Moro a great choice for inclusion in survival caches, Bug Out Bags or other survivalist and prepper stashes. And several Moras would make a great investment now, for bartering later.

A Mora can do about 90 percent of what I need an outdoor knife to do. And while I’ve yet to find the ultimate, do-everything wilderness survival knife, a Mora can come really close!

(Check out the SurvivalCommonSense.com “The Best Survival Knife?”  blog by clicking here!)

http://www.survivalcommonsense.com