UrbanSurvivalSkills received the following Anonymous comment: "Thanks for the great site. I have learned many thing. Where can I get a book on military tactics like defenses and such?" - (from) Stuck in the City
UrbanMan reply:
Stuck in the City (I hope not literally). It is a good idea to maintain several military reference books in your Survival library. Great resources with lots of pictures of diagrams to explain concepts,...probably not as many pictures as Marine Corps manuals, and the Army one's don't let you use crayons in them....just kidding you former Marines.
Military reference books, the most common one being Field Manuals, are available at military surplus stores, on line sources and gun shows. I would recommend the following books on tactics and field craft skills,.....not all are Army Manuals, but sometimes better information is available from non Army sources.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Urban Survival – A Primer for Raising Chickens
There are more Urban Dwellers raising Chickens now more than ever before. Can’t tell if this is in response to the bad economy; or, people wanting fresh organic eggs; or, people just practicing for when only what they grow or raise is only what they eat.
Chickens are easy and inexpensive to raise compared to other livestock such as goats, sheep or cows. With a small Chicken coop, they take up very little room, maybe even as small as 12 square feet for a flock of four.
Fresh eggs would be not only good food, but a great barter item. With a Rooster you can breed hens for more chicks or for a barter item. We think much of our Survival suppers will be eggs and rice, squash and eggs, etc.
On the average, 4 hens will give you 2, maybe 3 eggs a day. Most hens start to lay around 4-6 months of age, however for many reasons, mainly time of year and temperature), they may stop laying eggs until warmer weather come
You’ll need a Chicken Coop. You can build your own or can visit our friends at the Chicken Coop Source for many different models depending upon what you want and how much you can spend. Consider about 3 square feet per Chicken.
We have one inner city co-worker who raises six Chickens, and it seems like he always has eggs, and he has nothing but a small, patio rock backyard. It can be done.
You’ll need an easy way to clean. One common method is to move the chicken coop to a new area in order to fertilize new areas every week or two. You can also use pine shavings, pine needles, crushed up bark and the alike.
The easiest and best feed is complete feeds which provide all the protein, carbs and fats (energy) as well as vitamins and minerals necessary for proper growth, egg production, and health of the birds. The Chickens will need fresh water as well.
Other foods could be bugs, worms, vegetables, corn, wheat, cereal, oats, cut grass, coarse ground seeds and bread.
Common commercial foods are Purina Flock Raiser, Blue Seal Chick n’ Game Bird Feed, Grower Crumbles or Bird Starter,
A 50 lbs bag of feed will last four Chickens about 3 months, maybe longer if you supplement their diet with other feeds.
We think a regular sized Urban back yard is an easy fit for several Chickens and the Urban Survivalist should consider adding the procurement of Chickens and a Chicken Coop, if not immediately, then on your Survival tasks list as indicators build towards a collapse.
Chickens are easy and inexpensive to raise compared to other livestock such as goats, sheep or cows. With a small Chicken coop, they take up very little room, maybe even as small as 12 square feet for a flock of four.
Fresh eggs would be not only good food, but a great barter item. With a Rooster you can breed hens for more chicks or for a barter item. We think much of our Survival suppers will be eggs and rice, squash and eggs, etc.
On the average, 4 hens will give you 2, maybe 3 eggs a day. Most hens start to lay around 4-6 months of age, however for many reasons, mainly time of year and temperature), they may stop laying eggs until warmer weather come
You’ll need a Chicken Coop. You can build your own or can visit our friends at the Chicken Coop Source for many different models depending upon what you want and how much you can spend. Consider about 3 square feet per Chicken.
We have one inner city co-worker who raises six Chickens, and it seems like he always has eggs, and he has nothing but a small, patio rock backyard. It can be done.
You’ll need an easy way to clean. One common method is to move the chicken coop to a new area in order to fertilize new areas every week or two. You can also use pine shavings, pine needles, crushed up bark and the alike.
The easiest and best feed is complete feeds which provide all the protein, carbs and fats (energy) as well as vitamins and minerals necessary for proper growth, egg production, and health of the birds. The Chickens will need fresh water as well.
Other foods could be bugs, worms, vegetables, corn, wheat, cereal, oats, cut grass, coarse ground seeds and bread.
Common commercial foods are Purina Flock Raiser, Blue Seal Chick n’ Game Bird Feed, Grower Crumbles or Bird Starter,
A 50 lbs bag of feed will last four Chickens about 3 months, maybe longer if you supplement their diet with other feeds.
We think a regular sized Urban back yard is an easy fit for several Chickens and the Urban Survivalist should consider adding the procurement of Chickens and a Chicken Coop, if not immediately, then on your Survival tasks list as indicators build towards a collapse.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Urban Survival - The Goal is not Literally Surviving, it's Surviving with Quality
One of our buddies reported having a recent conversation with a older gent the other night. They were discussing Urban Survival versus Wilderness Survival, the main difference being having a permanent shelter, or not. Yes, you could be surviving in a remote part of the country in a log cabin or barn and that would be different from literally Wilderness Survival. By Wilderness Survival, we mean bare bones survival,…procuring all your foods from animals or edible plants, living in a dug out or lean to, having no survival aids but want you can carry with you.
This may be survival but it certainly is literally survival and not decent living – although the first rule IS to stay alive. The whole reason to prepare with Survival Food, Material, Gear and Equipment, not to mention a re-location or Bug Out Plan to a safer location, is to ensure that we can maintain life under some level of quality.
Almost all Urban Locations will require a Bug Out plan to a safe location, as Urban locations are dependant upon city/county water supplies which will dry up once the infrastructure collapses. Water is your number one concern. However you won’t be able to drink the water that you stockpile if you can defend yourself,…….this takes a rifle,…nor if you starve to death. Long term stay in Urban locations would require a teamwork approach and a water supply – community pond or lake, several swimming pools, etc. This would eventually dry up and again we’re looking at a re-location to a Safe Location.
Urban locations because of the density of structures, lack of usable open land for growing food and bigger population will be problematic for Urban based Survival. You’ll have a hard time seeing threats coming unless your neighborhood is organized (a la “Lights Out”) as well as feeding all of the unprepared families. “What are you gonna do when the neighbor comes over begging for food for his children?” We think personalities, standards of conduct, work ethic, maybe even religious beliefs will be so diverse that long term Urban Survival will be simply too difficult to maintain in a an Urban environment.
There is the chance of a large segment of the population in your Urban environment would move on, leaving a smaller percentage of the population and therefore a better chance of organization for the better good of all. This may well open other resources such as water,……think water heaters, swimming pools and polluted sources of water that you can purify. Even then unless you have a full time water source and ability to grow food for yourself, and, maintain security this will be iffy.
So back to the conversation between my buddy and the older guy. They discuss the older gent’s plan to move to an unpopulated stretch of river were he would have a water source and where he could hunt and fish for food. This will rapidly turn into literal survival scenario,…..scratching an existence out of nothing, as opposed to decent living. A camper, six months or more of stored food, seeds and a small group of alike minded and supplied people would make this much more viable.
This all boils down to preparation. Everybody be safe and prepare well.
This may be survival but it certainly is literally survival and not decent living – although the first rule IS to stay alive. The whole reason to prepare with Survival Food, Material, Gear and Equipment, not to mention a re-location or Bug Out Plan to a safer location, is to ensure that we can maintain life under some level of quality.
Almost all Urban Locations will require a Bug Out plan to a safe location, as Urban locations are dependant upon city/county water supplies which will dry up once the infrastructure collapses. Water is your number one concern. However you won’t be able to drink the water that you stockpile if you can defend yourself,…….this takes a rifle,…nor if you starve to death. Long term stay in Urban locations would require a teamwork approach and a water supply – community pond or lake, several swimming pools, etc. This would eventually dry up and again we’re looking at a re-location to a Safe Location.
Urban locations because of the density of structures, lack of usable open land for growing food and bigger population will be problematic for Urban based Survival. You’ll have a hard time seeing threats coming unless your neighborhood is organized (a la “Lights Out”) as well as feeding all of the unprepared families. “What are you gonna do when the neighbor comes over begging for food for his children?” We think personalities, standards of conduct, work ethic, maybe even religious beliefs will be so diverse that long term Urban Survival will be simply too difficult to maintain in a an Urban environment.
There is the chance of a large segment of the population in your Urban environment would move on, leaving a smaller percentage of the population and therefore a better chance of organization for the better good of all. This may well open other resources such as water,……think water heaters, swimming pools and polluted sources of water that you can purify. Even then unless you have a full time water source and ability to grow food for yourself, and, maintain security this will be iffy.
So back to the conversation between my buddy and the older guy. They discuss the older gent’s plan to move to an unpopulated stretch of river were he would have a water source and where he could hunt and fish for food. This will rapidly turn into literal survival scenario,…..scratching an existence out of nothing, as opposed to decent living. A camper, six months or more of stored food, seeds and a small group of alike minded and supplied people would make this much more viable.
This all boils down to preparation. Everybody be safe and prepare well.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Urban Survival Gear - 5.11 Tactical Pants
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a comment from T. Jenkins asking for some ideas on what clothing items he and his group can wear, besides jeans, in the urban environment and not stand out but still be useable in the forests.
UrbanMan’s comments:
Jeans are good urban wear, my choice in jeans are Wranglers, and they come in different colors. Tan and Brown would be good colors for urban environments. The disadvantages with jeans are that they are limited in their pockets and are more or less designed for skinny Cowboys.
A great uniform that would not standout in urban or suburban environments would be the 5.11 Tactical Pants. These come in nine different colors: charcoal, black, grey, khaki, coyote brown, olive drab green, tundra (?), fire navy, sage and walnut. You are going to have to visit their site (link to the left) or at the bottom of this post, in order to see the colors. Wearing a common color of 5.11 pants would help attain what you may be looking for in a common survival group uniform item. Shown below are the Black 5.11 Tactical pants, faded from repeated washings.
These are great pants for urban survival wear. Made out of tough and durable 8.5 ounce cotton canvas, they have double thick seat and knees and are knee pad ready, and have 7 pockets. The rear pockets are huge and the leg cargo pockets are well sized. These are the choice of many Federal Law Enforcement agencies as a causal or training uniform.
5.11 also offers a Tactical Duty Uniform (TDU) pants made from 65% polyester and 35% cotton ripstop. We don’t like these pants near as well as the 5.11 Tactical Pants.
5.11 also offers a Tactical Vest called their VTAC (for Viking Tactics) Load Bearing Vest (LBE) Tactical Vest which is a Molle compatible vest that comes in 3 colors: black, flat dark earth and olive drab green. Our choice is the flat dark earth which is an earth brown color. They offer a wide range of pouches as well, from pistol and rifle magazine pouches to first aid kit pouches, to handgun holsters and many more, all which can be configured onto the VTAC LBE Tactical Vest using the Molle system. These are as high as quality a product as you can find, otherwise Viking Tactics would not have put their name on it. If we didn’t have our current decade old tactical rigs, we would be buying several of these.
Additionally, 5.11 offers a TacLite Pro Vest which is a 17 pocket photo journalist style vest, made from 65% poly 35% cotton ripstop that accommodates all sorts of gear like water bottles, binoculars, rifle magazines, etc. This TacLite pro Vest is cut long to conceal a handgun holster to your belt. Most of the members of our survival group have this vest or a similar vest in order to carry equipment in an urban environment without appearing to some militia group.
Visit the 5.11 website, click here, you’ll probably be surprised at the breadth of 5.11 products.
UrbanMan’s comments:
Jeans are good urban wear, my choice in jeans are Wranglers, and they come in different colors. Tan and Brown would be good colors for urban environments. The disadvantages with jeans are that they are limited in their pockets and are more or less designed for skinny Cowboys.
A great uniform that would not standout in urban or suburban environments would be the 5.11 Tactical Pants. These come in nine different colors: charcoal, black, grey, khaki, coyote brown, olive drab green, tundra (?), fire navy, sage and walnut. You are going to have to visit their site (link to the left) or at the bottom of this post, in order to see the colors. Wearing a common color of 5.11 pants would help attain what you may be looking for in a common survival group uniform item. Shown below are the Black 5.11 Tactical pants, faded from repeated washings.
These are great pants for urban survival wear. Made out of tough and durable 8.5 ounce cotton canvas, they have double thick seat and knees and are knee pad ready, and have 7 pockets. The rear pockets are huge and the leg cargo pockets are well sized. These are the choice of many Federal Law Enforcement agencies as a causal or training uniform.
5.11 also offers a Tactical Duty Uniform (TDU) pants made from 65% polyester and 35% cotton ripstop. We don’t like these pants near as well as the 5.11 Tactical Pants.
5.11 also offers a Tactical Vest called their VTAC (for Viking Tactics) Load Bearing Vest (LBE) Tactical Vest which is a Molle compatible vest that comes in 3 colors: black, flat dark earth and olive drab green. Our choice is the flat dark earth which is an earth brown color. They offer a wide range of pouches as well, from pistol and rifle magazine pouches to first aid kit pouches, to handgun holsters and many more, all which can be configured onto the VTAC LBE Tactical Vest using the Molle system. These are as high as quality a product as you can find, otherwise Viking Tactics would not have put their name on it. If we didn’t have our current decade old tactical rigs, we would be buying several of these.
Additionally, 5.11 offers a TacLite Pro Vest which is a 17 pocket photo journalist style vest, made from 65% poly 35% cotton ripstop that accommodates all sorts of gear like water bottles, binoculars, rifle magazines, etc. This TacLite pro Vest is cut long to conceal a handgun holster to your belt. Most of the members of our survival group have this vest or a similar vest in order to carry equipment in an urban environment without appearing to some militia group.
Visit the 5.11 website, click here, you’ll probably be surprised at the breadth of 5.11 products.
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