Dealing with Authority after Disaster

Addendum: Shortly after posting this blog entry online I received a sharp rebuke from a friend in law enforcement. He is correct.

I overstated/misstated my point. I want to emprise that in the following diatribe when I refer to "the authorities" I'm not talking about LEO's (Law Enforcement Officers), fire or EMS, but rather the upper echelons who make the decisions as to whether or not you'll be allowed to evacuate along this road or that; whether or not you'll be allowed to bring your pets into or out of a public shelter; whether or not you'll be able to keep your possessions and where you'll be allowed to go.

LEO's (Law Enforcement Officers) don't make those decisions. They just follow orders to block of this route or that, to allow this or that into the public shelter or even whether or not you'll be allowed to leave the public shelter. So don't mistake the following tirade as an indictment of First Responders, they're doing their jobs.

The purpose of this oration is to inspire you to stock up on food and water so you can sit out the disaster at home and not end up like "those people".

How much food and water do you have on hand? The minimum federally recommended three days? But is that enough?

After a disaster authorities are more concerned with maintaining control than your personal comfort and wellbeing. Keeping you fed in a shelter has more to do with reducing/controlling your desire to get out than concern for your comfort and wellbeing.

Your personal safety is secondary to maintaining control to prevent (or at least control) chaos.

Until the disaster is declared officially over, I expect you'll find it a whole lot harder to get out of a public shelter than it was to get into it. Also, you will be disarmed going into a public shelter. Don't expect to get those guns back.

Therefore, if at all possible, staying out of a public shelter should be one of your top priorities. Having sufficient food and water on hand to ride out the storm will be paramount in that case.

Three days worth of food and water? Why not three weeks?

(Note, the events below are not a race problem; half of the police officers involved were black.)

NEW ORLEANS, (CBS/AP) It's one of the more horrific stories to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster - two unarmed men gunned down, four others wounded, allegedly at the hands of police officers.

Now four New Orleans police officers stand charged with multiple criminal counts including the murder of 17-year-old James Brisette.

The Danziger Bridge shootings happened Sept. 4, 2005; just six days after Hurricane Katrina tore across the south, overwhelming New Orleans' famous levies and drowning the city in water.

--snip--

Seven heavily armed New Orleans police officers stormed Danziger Bridge.
Prosecutors said they shot at the first people they saw, people prosecutors say were crossing the bridge to find food.

--snip--

The indictment claims Faulcon shot mentally disabled Ronald Madison, 40, in the back as he ran away on the west side of the bridge. Bowen is charged with stomping and kicking Madison while he was lying on the ground, wounded but still alive.

Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso also are accused of shooting at an unarmed family on the east side of the bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others.

--snip--

Update

Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Carter says police had no justification for shooting unarmed, defenseless people on the Danziger Bridge, then plotting to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports.

But a defense attorney urged jurors to consider the "disorder, chaos and lawlessness" that gripped the flooded city after Katrina when they decide whether the officers acted reasonably in using deadly force.

Second update
(Various sources)

Lance Madison was on the bridge the day of the shooting. He was thrown behind bars for false accusations that he shot at police. His mentally disabled brother, Ronald Madison, was shot and killed.

"Without the support and hard work of my family, I might still be in prison for false charges and the truth about what happened on the Danziger Bridge might have never been known," said Lance Madison.

"These defendants will be facing very, very long sentences," said legal analyst Dane Ciolino. It was a far cry from three years ago when the officers involved in the shooting were given a hero's sendoff when they surrendered on state charges in the same case.

Note that it took federal intervention to bring these guys to justice and that no matter what sentences are handed down it won't bring the dead back.

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

100 year old canned food can be eaten safely. "Among the canned food items retrieved from the Bertrand in 1968 were brandied peaches, oysters, plum tomatoes, honey, and mixed vegetables. In 1974, chemists at the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) analyzed the products for bacterial contamination and nutrient value. Although the food had lost its fresh smell and appearance, the NFPA chemists detected no microbial growth and determined that the foods were as safe to eat as they had been when canned more than 100 years earlier. The nutrient values varied depending upon the product and nutrient. NFPA chemists Janet Dudek and Edgar Elkins report that significant amounts of vitamins C and A were lost. But protein levels remained high, and all calcium values 'were comparable to today's products.'"

Hormel Foods also has some information on the storage of their products.

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Working the Border

I'm reading a book I bought at Costco which outlines the life's work of Texas Ranger Doyle Holdridge who worked Texas's unsecured southern border, in various law enforcement capacities, for nearly four decades.

The book is a series of short stories (reports actually) each encompassing a criminal case Doyle worked. They are fascinating, easy to read and informative! In many of the cases I see lessons for preppers and survivalists that could arm them with knowledge that could help them survive in a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) or WTSHTF (When The $#!t Hits The Fan) situation. Here are a few:

Lessons learned from a Backpacking Poacher
In the tale of the "Backpacking Poacher" Doyle recounts how a locally famous deer poacher would have an accomplice drop him off at night near a ranch known to have bucks with big racks (antlers) and hunt for several days. This tactic insured no one would find his vehicle *** and know the poacher was operating in the area.

Carrying only food, water, sleeping bag and a rifle the poacher would "cold camp" (no campfire) returning to a predetermined spot to be picked up with his ill gotten gains at a prearranged time. Never caught, he was a ghost coming and going without a trace.

Doyle doesn't say if the poacher wore camouflage clothing, but it would have helped him elude detection not withstanding that stillness is great camouflage too.

If you need to move across contested ground to or from your Bug Out Location the poacher's lesson has something to teach you.
- - - - - - - - - - -

Tommy's (El Cheapo) Burglar Alarm for Light Sleepers

A guy named Tommy who lived along one of Doyle's beats had a simple, but very effective homemade burglar alarm consisting of a microphone in his rural gas station with a wire running to a speaker in his nearby home. Dishonest travelers thinking to make an easy late night score on a closed gas station soon found themselves staring down the barrel of a 12 gauge shotgun.

Probably only good for inside buildings, the microphone/speaker setup can guard several nearby locations at once if each mike is attached to a different speaker.

One of the advantages of this setup is that the intruder doesn't know he's alerted the owner(s) and may more easily be taken by surprise.

One disadvantage (aside from heavy sleepers) is that the system is constantly "on" and transmitting thus using power which could be a problem if the electricity is out.
- - - - - - - - - - -

While working the Texas Governor's security detail Ranger Holdridge learned, via several personal experiences, that anti-gun governor Ann Richards was a Bitch. I could have told him that.
- - - - - - - - - - -

(If At First You Don't Secede this next tale takes a bit of enplaning to get all the groups involved (or not) identified. The original "Republic of Texas" (1836 to 1846) had nothing to do with these modern day whackos other than that the idiots appropriated the name. Three groups all claim or claimed to be the "The Republic of Texas" but couldn't get along even with each other hence the three splinter groups of stooges. There is also a "The Republic of Texas" ROT biker rally held every year which may/may not have anything to do with any of the aforementioned groups. To from your own "Republic of Texas" please form a line on the right.)

Lessons learned from a Bunch of Idiots
In 1997 one of these groups of idiots who'd organized themselves into outfits they called "The Republic of Texas" (not to be confused with the original Republic of Texas) kidnapped two people attracting the attention of law enforcement:
Another incident occurred in Fort Davis, Texas a year later in March 1997 when a faction of the self-styled "Republic of Texas" militia group seized hostages. The Republic of Texas group believed that the annexation of Texas as a state in 1845 was illegal, that Texas should remain an independent nation, and that the legitimate government of Texas was the group's leadership.[12] Joe and Margaret Ann Rowe were taken at gunpoint in retaliation for the arrest of member Robert J. Scheidt, who had been arrested on weapons charges. Leader Richard McLaren then declared that the group was in a state of war with the federal government.[13] The property was then surrounded by the entire Jeff Davis County sheriff's department, state troopers, Texas Rangers, and agents of the FBI.[12] McLaren's wife, Evelyn, convinced him to surrender peacefully after a week-long standoff. The McLarens and four other Republic of Texas members were sent to prison.[13]

Ranger Holdridge was one of the Texas Rangers sent to quell the "rebellion" by the half dozen or so rebels. Using standard police procedures the assembled Law Enforcement Officers (LEO's) negotiated with the splinter group until the hostages were released and all but two of the kidnappers surrendered. The remaining two took to the hills and the chase was on.

One rebel took a stand on a mountainside shooting it out with a police helicopter and dozens of LEO's in a deadly firefight which he lost.

The second runner escaped temporarily; hiding out with other militia groups who found him too crazy even for them and was captured as he was being kicked (literally) out of a car that was supposed to be taking him to a new safe house. He's got about 90 years left to serve on his sentence.

The first lesson to be learned from all of this is that when local law enforcement outnumbers your group by hundreds to one committing major felonies and then publicly proclaiming your position (both ideologically and geographically) is not a good group survival tactic.

Secondly, it would have been helpful (to the two runners) if they'd done their bugging out in the middle of the night so as to reduce the chances of being seen and chased.

Thirdly, once again stillness helped a person elude dozens of pursuers on the ground and in the air.

Fourth, when many of the people chasing you think you're dead and have given up searching for you; don't call a newspaper reporter to remove all doubt about your breathing rate and promise revenge.

And the last lesson to be learned from these idiots: as far as I could ascertain all of the members of the "Republic of Texas" group that were involved in the hostage stunt went to prison. So the third thing we can learn from this is don't hang out with people who advocate breaking the law, and especially don't hang out with people who are committing felonies!

Also, a midnight break-in at the supermarket because Herald Camping has convinced you that tomorrow is "TEOTWAWKI Tuesday" will likely land you in jail which is definitely not where you want to be if it turns out you were a week early.

****************************************
***
Reading this report, JRG wrote to say:

"One of my acquaintances occasionally trespasses on large ranches to go arrowhead hunting. What he does is park adjacent to a construction road crew, then cross the road and fence on the other side. The road crew figures it’s the rancher, the rancher thinks the vehicle belongs to someone on road crew, no one suspects a thing."

Thanks JRG!

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

Lessons learned from a Sporting Goods Store Burglary
Responding with a friend to an alarm at the friend's store they and the cops quickly determined the perpetrator had fled the scene. Too quickly as it turned out because as Doyle looked behind a hot water cooler in the back of the store he found himself nose to nose with the burglar.

I'll quote Ranger Holdridge for the lesson on this one: "A man needs to stay on his toes all the time." In a situation like that you "Never let your guard down. You just never know what's going to happen."

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Castles

Your home is your castle right? This precept of English Common Law came over on the Mayflower and is firmly ensconced in American Jurisprudence. But would it have any relevance in the aftermath of TEOTWAWKI?

Let's face it, the lack of law and order is an integral part of the definition of The End Of The World As We Know It).

In modern America we depend upon the police to defend our homes. You don't see high walls topped with broken glass and barbed wire surrounding inner courtyards in your neighborhood. There are no heavy wood or metal gates barring access to your front door.

Esthetics and cost, not strength and armor plating, likely played a major part in the selection of your front door. So how would your castle fare in the absence of law and order?

Got moat?

Castles in the Middle Ages had loopholes and cleared fields of fire.

Thanks to the greed and avarice of the developer that built your home (or maybe your unwillingness to pay a king's ransom for a five acre spread) there's probably a gap of just a few feet between your castle and the castle next door. Local zoning laws likely determined the limits of your castle's field of fire long before you bought the place.

More to the point, because your castle lacks projecting towers at the corners, once an attacker gets up against the wall of your house it's next to impossible to dislodge him without sticking your own neck (or arm) out a window to get a clear shot at him. If the attacker's accomplice is covering the windows of your wall dislodging the wall hanger becomes dangerous indeed.

Then there's the minor little problem of simultaneous attacks from several sides. How's the modern castle dweller to cope when there are barbarians at the gate in a post TEOTWAWKI world?

First off, keep in mind that the attack will likely develop from a foraging foray by a lone looter or small gang of looters rather than a planned raid by a SWAT team or combat infantry squad.

A looter looking for food, medicine and other valuables will likely stumble upon your stay at home Bug-In-Location by chance. Greed being what it is he probably won't call to his comrades until he's checked things out (and stuffed his pockets) for himself.

He'll consider a locked door a signal that treasure awaits inside. Yet leaving your front door open merely invites surprise attack. You want it plain that the front door is unlocked but not gotten through without a bit of (noisy) effort.

I say "front door" because looters going through a neighborhood will most likely take the route of least resistance. Scaling back alley walls or climbing fences between yards takes a lot more effort than walking up the street checking/kicking in front doors.

Let's do a little channeling. No, I don't mean attempting to contact your long dead great-great-grandmother. In the days when castles were more than tourist attractions castle builders went to great lengths to channel attackers into what we today would call kill zones via exterior constructions called barbicans.

"The Barbican passage contained Murder Holes in the ceiling and arrow slits on either side of the barbican passage. The barbican is also referred to as the Death Trap."

You can build your own interior barbican with little or no effort. In fact you probably already have one. It's called the foyer or vestibule.

If you already have burglar bars on all the windows (you should) and security gates on the side & back door(s) you've likely done a lot more channeling than most of your neighbors.

Now for the barbican.

Remember we're talking about the end of the world as we know it when your life and your family's lives are on the line, not some WTSHTF (When The $#!t Hits The Fan) interlude after a tornado, hurricane or earthquake when law and order will soon be restored because in some jurisdictions under some conditions this could be considered luring the looter.

If your front door is partially open held loosely in place only by one of those stupid chain door guards you've got your noise maker in place. Simply throw a box of books, an easy chair or some other heavy object directly behind the door on the hinge side so that whoever shoulders past the chain guard will find himself further delayed by the door not opening fully.

Filling the foyer or hallway with fluffy stuff (large and medium empty corrugated cardboard boxes, metal buckets, five gallon paint pails, floor and table lamps with shades anything that forces the intruder to pick and choose his steps will further delay him while whoever is on guard takes aim from the other end of the hallway.

Challenge or shoot!
At this point whether you challenge or shoot the intruder will depend on you and your situation. Obviously in a WTSHTF situation you'd want to avoid bloodshed if at all possible. After Armageddon you might have no choice.

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

Many people who've only recently begun thinking about how they will get along if the support system we call infrastructure (electricity, water, natural gas, gasoline and communications) ceases to function for a little while (tornado, hurricane, earthquake, etc.) often think in terms of flashlights, spare batteries and cooking on the BBQ for a day or two.

For longer term solutions (and not having to worry about dead batteries & empty bags of briquettes) I suggest solar powered yard lights and solar ovens either (hand made or purchased.

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For those who don't know

For those who don't know, TEOTWAWKI is an acronym for "(The End Of The World As We Know It)".

It refers to a total long term breakdown of government, financial systems and society. Think the Mad Max movies or, more realistically, the book/movie No Blade of Grass to get an idea of what the term means.

If you Google TEOTWAWKI and do a bit of research you'll find TEOTWAWKI adherents generally break down into two groups: Gun Nuts and Sustainable food storage/growing Nuts.

The food nuts point out, correctly, that you can't eat guns.

The gun nuts point out, correctly, that a guy with a gun can get pretty much anything he wants from a guy without one.

(This is not an idle argument. I'd once just met a man who, when the subject of Y2K came up, opined that he wasn't storing any food because he had a gun. This man was a sergeant on the local police force.)

The term TEOTWAWKI became popular during the run up to the Y2K (Year 2000) nonevent in 2000 but its roots go back before that.

Gary North, among others, foretold the End Of The World As We Know It because computers hadn't been programmed and/or hardwired to acknowledge the year 2000 and all subsequent years. The theory was that computers would either read '00 as 1900 or wouldn't be able to cope with 2000 at all.

If you feel yourself becoming enmeshed in a desire to prepare for TEOTWAWKI keep in mind that beyond a certain reasonable point preparation for TEOTWAWKI hinders or even prevents preparation for other, more likely, events.

Yes, in the year 2011, a recession or depression seems likely in our future, but which action makes you more prepared for the MOST LIKELY scenario of 2012 or 2015 or whatever:

Paying down Credit Cards, car loans and other high interest debt as you buy cases of canned foods you normally eat and rotating them (eat oldest first and replace with case of similar), building up a reserve of cash and MAYBE a gun.

Or

Buying an "assault rifle" with hundreds of rounds of ammo and 500 pounds of rice & beans for storage in air tight containers in your garage?

Perhaps some adherents to TEOTWAWKI are attracted to the idea of avoiding car, mortgage and Credit Card payments in the smoking ruins of civilization, but the more rational approach to the MOST LIKELY scenario is to pay down debt, build up an emergency supply (one month's worth of expenses) of cash and buy foods you'll actually eat by the case.

Of course if TEOTWAWKI really comes (you turn on the TV and see smoke coming from the White House, riots on Wall Street and some guy proclaiming himself interim emperor) you can run down to Costco and buy cases of everything with your credit card and pick up a pistol on your way home. If it turns out that Orson Welles' grandson was having a bit of fun at your expense, well, Costco has a wonderful return policy.

All fun aside, most states have waiting periods for handguns so if you want one (non shooters should buy a .38 special caliber double action revolver with a two inch barrel and a box, fifty rounds, of bullets.) buy it and a trigger lock now. If you want to wait and buy a rifle or shotgun, remember there'll probable be a bigger rush at the gun store than Costco so you might stop by Pistol Pete's Pistol Trading Post first; right after you gas up the car.

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

Time is what keeps everything from happening at once which is why you'll have a hard time filling the pantry, buying bottled water, filling the gas tank(s) on your vehicle(s) and buying that gun all at once.

Desert Dave's helpful hint: if you get as many of those items checked off your list BEFORE the $#!t hits the fan you'll be ahead of the game.

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Quack Medicine

In the wake of a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) or WTSHTF (When The $#!t Hits The Fan) event you may find yourself "playing doctor" with a dearth of modern medical equipment and supplies. The following are some "make dos" and "work arounds" that may help until help arrives or you can get the patient to professional help.

As your read this keep in mind that I'm no doctor. In fact I don't even play one on the Internet.

Honey
Click here for more about Honey. See also Sugardine & Sugardyne in this document.

Yogurt
Live active culture Yogurt fights both diarrhea and constipation.

Mole Skin
Mole Skin (to prevent/treat blisters) Out of Moleskin? Don't forget blisters are best treated when you first notice the irritation (sometimes called a "hot spot") not after they've bloomed into full blown blisters.

Duct tape
Duct Tape can be used as a field expedient in place of Mole Skin just place a small piece of paper over the blister or hot spot and then duct tape in place. Duct tape can also be used to hold a temporary splint in place or as a bandage. Duct tape occlusion therapy for warts.

New Skin
New Skin is so useful for small cuts and scrapes you should have a bottle in your home first aid kit. It almost removes the need to stock band-aids. New Skin covers the wound, holds skin together and forms a clear antibiotic protective shield over cuts and abrasions thus protecting the wound from further infection. You can find New Skin in the First Aid section at you local drug or grocery store.

Bandanna
Most commonly found in red or blue paisley patterns bandannas have 1001 uses, everything from triangle bandages to tourniquets to dust masks to a Kerchiefs (head cover) or neckerchiefs (scarf) to compression bandages. They can be worn under the back of a baseball cap (effectively turning it into a Legionnaire's hat) to keep the sun off of the sides of the face, ears and neck. Be sure to buy one large enough to wrap around your head.

Brightly colored bandannas can be used for signaling (movement & contrast) but I prefer subdued colors like dark greens, dark tans, browns, black or camouflage so as to blend in with my environment. You can make an impromptu bandanna from any piece of cloth.

Expired Over the Counter Medicine
A retired SF medic once told me that the expiration dates on most over the counter medicine is there more to protect the companies from lawsuits than to protect the customers. Most over the counter medicine simply looses potency over time so you may end up having to take four pills instead of the recommended two, but work up to that slowly and only if you can't get fresh meds.

Animal Medicine
I keep hearing from various sources that the animal meds sold to farmers, ranchers and at some pet stores are "human grade" medicines. Some people even claim to take or have taken these meds with no ill effect. In a TEOTWAWKI situation with no human medicine available that might be worth a shot. (Literally ;-)

Sugardine & Sugardyne
Packing wounds with sugar and/or 10% iodine Povidone iodine (brand name "Betadine") solution now used mostly for horses has purportedly worked on humans with similar infections for over 3000 years.

QuickClot
QuickClot is New Skin's big brother. It is intended to stop bleeding from major wounds. It's standard issue for our military and some police departments as well as being used by EMT's to stop bleeding until they can get the patient to a hospital.

Graphic Video: Test of QuikClot on a live pig

You can sometimes find QuickClot in military surplus stores, hiking, hunting, camping and extreme sports stores. If the you know what hits the you know what QuickClot would be a good item to have in your survival first aid kit.
(Two civilian versions)
QuickClot Sport

QuickClot Combat Gauze

Extreme Measures
[Addendum, I found this on another site. It's apropos for most if not all "self treatment" of injuries and ailments pre-TEOTWAWKI and the laws of nature/medicine will still apply after TSHTF too.]

"Just a note to all you guys who like to take fish antibiotics... I am not against that notion especially if that is all you have, but certain antibiotics treat certain bacteria based on the pharmacology of the drugs and their actions on varying structures on the surface of or inside bacteria.

Some antibiotics are bacteriocidal (kill bugs) others are bacteriostatic (just prevent bugs from multiplying) Do you all trust your knowledge to know which are which, or will you just take a guess.

If you take amoxicillin for a skin infection that is being caused by a bacteria that is resistant to that drug, you are going to get sicker, and you may actually have some side effects from the drugs.

Drugs are not benign, I don't care if they have been around for 50 years, people still die every year just because they took Penicillin.

And there can be long term (or short term if particularly aggressive) effects from many antibiotics including anaphylaxis, liver damage, kidney damage, gastrointestinal effects, interactions with other medications...and the list goes on and on... sigh..

So in short learn the subject, don't just take chances... sorry I got on my soap box. It just bothers me that with this subject, a little bit of knowledge can be a very dangerous thing..."

Fish-Mox
(In an extreme emergency fish antibiotics may help. Many of these are made to USP pharmaceutical specifications.)

Fish-Mox exerts a bactericidal action on gram positive and some gram negative bacteria. Useful for control of some common bacterial diseases.

Be sure you know what you're doing when using these.

Go to Lambert Vet Supply when the page comes up, look on the left side and click on
Pet Medications
You will see a page entitled, "pet medicines", click on
Antibiotics
You will see a page entitled, "antibiotics", click on
OTC Pet Medications
Scroll down until you see ... "Fish Cillin" ... and you are there.

They have:

Fish Cillin, 250 mg Ampicillin x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Cycline Forte, 500 mg Tetracycline x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Cycline, 250 mg Tetracycline x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Flex Forte, 500 mg Cephalexin x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Flex, 250 mg Cephalexin x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Fungus, 200 mg Ketoconazole x 100 tablets, Non-prescription
Fish Fungus, 200 mg Ketoconazole x 30 tablets, Non-prescription
Fish Mox Forte, 500 mg Amoxicillin x 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Mox, 250 mg Amoxicillin, 100 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Mycin, 250 mg Erythromycin x 60 Capsules, Non-prescription
Fish Pen Forte, 500 mg Penicillin x 100 Caps, Non-prescription
Fish Zole Forte, 500 mg Metronidazole x 100 Tablets, Non-prescription
Fish Zole, 250 mg Metronidazole, 100 Tablets, Non-prescription

Be sure you know what you're doing when using these.

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

Emergency/improvised cold weather clothing

If caught away from home/supplies in cold weather stuff crumpled newspaper, phone book pages or other paper under your clothes for insulation. This is the equivalent of using leaves in a wilderness situation.

An improvised rain coat can be made from a large trash bag after cutting holes for your head and arms. Cutting out the bottom of another bag allows you to use it as a "skirt" or kilt to give a raincoat effect.

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Tracker

The other day I stopped by the U. S. Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, Texas. On the way out, after checking out the hands-on displays (cow hoof soled shoes used to confuse trackers, homemade boat used by Cubans escaping Castro's "People's Paradise" an airplane and patrol car retired from the Border Patrol's inventory among other things) I purchased a paperback copy of Joel Hardin's Tracker

Turns out I got a good deal. The book had been signed by the author and had one of his business cards inside. But the real deal was the information I found inside.

Joel Hardin is an old school mantracker from the days when the Border Patrol was more into tracking than electronic surveillance. After honing his craft along both our southern and northern borders he retired and started an international tracking business and school.

In thirteen fascinating chapters Joel gives detailed accounts of tracking everything from lost children and outlaws to Bigfoot. He gives a detailed account of how he captured one Special Forces trained outlaw at gun point and tells, in detail, how he disproved one Bigfoot sighting.

There's a fascinating fact laden chapter on how he tracked a "mountain man" to within 100 yards of his lair (and, not knowing they were so close, ate lunch) only to be denied the capture. However information Joel gave local LEO's (Law Enforcement Officers) led to the arrest of "mountain man" Mincio Donciev shortly thereafter.

That's an occurrence that would develop into a pattern. Often distance and direction information provided by Joel would be used by LEO's to jump ahead and rescue/arrest the person he was tracking. Hardin says he doesn't mind others getting the credit although in a couple of cases, knowing how hard he'd worked, I'd have been hopping mad.

If you read the book Incident at Big Sky that I used as a teaching point you may remember it was tracks in the snow that lead to the downfall of mountain men Don & Dan Nichols

Although he repeatedly opines that tracking can only be learned by doing he gives the reader plenty of tips get started on. With minimal effort I've identified half a dozen animal tracks when walking around on soft ground. Whether I'd be able to follow them over hard ground like Hardin routinely does is another matter.

Although Joel clearly states he is not an animal tracker he devotes an entire chapter to the story of how he, as a hunter, tracked and killed an elk admitting "Tracking people and tracking animals are very closely related skills."

Where Hardin may jump ahead from one track to another based on his feeling of what the person being tracked is doing and his or her condition (It's important to note that he marks the last confirmed track before jumping ahead to where he thinks the next track should be so as to be able to go back to it and do things the old fashioned way if it turns out he's wrong.) he knows animals don't behave like humans and (other than tending to take the path of least resistance) can't be predicted the way human tracks can.

So, what's this book review got to do with your survival?

In hard times the ability to track an animal to its bedding area or follow wounded prey may make the difference between whether your family eats or not.

Separated from your family in the wilderness? Did a child wander off from your Bug Out Location? During a WTSHTF (When The $#!t Hits The Fan) or TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) event there will be precious little manpower available to form a search party for your loved ones. You may even have to track down someone who stole essentials your family needs to survive.

Gaining tracking skills now could be an inexpensive and fun to gain survival skills.

Superfluous Survival Tip of the week:

On a recent episode of some bow hunting show Fred Eichler showed how to dress out an elk with a (very sharp) three inch knifeperiod. No saws no axes; nothing but the little knife.

First he made a cut under the "armpit" of the front leg cutting up around to take the shoulder with the skin still on (to keep the meat from getting dirty on the ground). Then he did the same with the rear leg. Backstraps were removed and the animal turned over so the procedure could be repeated on the other side.

By cutting down to and around in the joint he could remove whole limbs quickly without chopping or sawing.

Unless you want to tan the hide for a rug or something using the animal's hide to protect its meat until you get back to camp is an excellent survival solution.

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When There Are No Doctors

So how do you treat deep cuts, broken bones or Ballistic trauma (which may combine both of the former) when qualified medical help is weeks or even months away? (Years or maybe never in the case of TEOTWAWKI.)

First Aid as taught by the American Red Cross is just that FIRST aid (i.e. stop the bleeding, protect the wound, treat for shock and/or give CPR) until the patient can be brought to proper (professional) medical attention. Proper medical attention implies staff, supplies and tools that may not be immediately available in a When The $#!t Hits The Fan or The End Of The World As We Know It situation.

What's a prepper to do?

First, get free First Aid training and then advanced First Aid training from your local Red Cross. Yes yes, I know I just told you the Red Cross training is just a stopgap measure, but if you fail to properly open the patient's airway your surgical skills will come to naught before you can open your real survivalist's genuine war surgery medical kit.

What else can you do to help heal you and yours in such a time of dire need ?

If you've got the time and the bucks you may want to attend the Medical Corps class

They'll teach you how to use the contents of a Medic bag that can be bought at military surplus stores or online.

Filling the medic bag with the necessary contents including a minor surgical kit will take a bit of work on your part.

Real stainless steel surgical instruments can be a bit expensive, but will last through years of use. Made in China/Pakistan "stainless steel" surgical instruments are available for a lot less and may be the thing for you if you're not expecting to have to play doctor for twenty years after The End Of The World As We Know It.

There's nothing like sewing (suturing) up the wound on a dead chicken part to prepare you for the real thing, but books can help.

Even if you're not planning a safari to deepest darkest Africa or Amazonian jungles a cheap part of preparations would be the purchase of one or more of these books.

Where There Is No Doctor

Where There Is No Dentist

Emergency War Surgery

Superfluous Survival Tip of the Week:

New-skin Liquid Bandage (a close cousin of Super glue which can also be used) will seal up many wounds without suturing if you can get the surrounding skin dry before application.

QuickClot or Celox will stop almost all bleeding almost instantly and would make an excellent addition to your over-the-bathroom-sink home first aid supplies as well as your survival kit or Bug Out Bag.

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(If that link doesn't work for you try sending your comments to me, DesertDave@aol.com please put "Blog" in the subject line, thanks, Dave.)
Unless you specifically ask me not to, I'll post your reply here in the blog so everyone can read it. Of course I'll remove your name, email address and any other specific information for privacy purposes.