SPEAR Survival Lesson 10 Water 1.1

Core Training
Lesson 10 of 25

Water 1.1 Water 101

          Water has so many uses that we tend to take for granted on a daily basis.  We use it to bath, we wash our cloths with it, we wash our dishes, our car and our animals with it.  Most importantly though we drink it.  Now if you had to forego the washing of yourself and your cloths, dishes, car and animals you would survive just fine.  You, however, cannot forego the drinking of water.  Your body is comprised or almost 75% water and every organ and system of your body uses it in one way or another.  When these systems start receiving less and less water and your body becomes dehydrated they start shutting down non essential portions and work at only a percentage as normal.  When your life is on the line the last thing you need is for your brain and body to let you down because you didn't have enough water.

          Water is a huge importance in your life and to be really serious about preparing and surviving you need to change the way you look at it and use it.  Most people spend a majority of their lives dehydrated to a certain degree.  Our diets in america are almost designed to make us that way.  What I want you to change is to start learning for yourself the signs of dehydration and the effects that it has on the body and your brain.  You need to drink more water everyday and make it a positive change in your lifestyle.  You never know when you are going to be forced to react to an emergency or crisis and by being fully hydrated you are going to be thinking your best and be able to more your best.

          Drinking water on a day to day is important but during an emergency it is going to keep you sharp which will give you an advantage.  Rationing will be a normal part of life in a long term crisis but water shouldn't be on the rationed list.  Water stored at your home is the next part of the lesson.  At this stage of training you should think about having a solid 72 hour survival kit at home.  The standard for water stored is one gallon per person per day.  This is not just drinking but for cooking as well.  So if you live alone you should have three gallons of water stored. Easy, Right?  

          Once you have the water stored it is best to rotate your stock so it doesn't just sit in plastic jugs for a couple of years.  Simply drink a gallon and put aside a new gallon.  If you are filling from your own tap then just dump and refill.  Fresh water just tastes better and you morale will thank you for keeping your supply fresh.  If you are storing for a large family or for longer term then you might consider storing in five gallon jugs.  I use the water bottle jugs from water bubblers with a sandwich bag taped on the top with electrical tape.  They were free and store well with a nice handle for pouring.  I also like that they are clear and I can see what is in them.  If you use these make sure to store them in a dark place so the sun doesn't encourage things to grow in your water.

          The next part of basics of water is cooking.  If you have a nearby water supply that you can tap into to bring home to use for cooking then you can use that instead of depleting your drinking water supply.  I wouldn't count on that and store less water though.  In fact, store more!  As important as this it to your health and life, and also that it is nearly free, you should make this your number one prepping priority.  Store as much as you can and keep building.  Remember, in a crisis you have no idea what will come next and when a family finds there way to your door and is on the brink of death from dehydration you probably aren't going to kick them to the street.  

          If future lessons on the topic of water we are going to cover multiple ways to treat, filter and boil water to make it safe.  We will also cover livestock and gardening watering, water travel and even water power generation.  We will also discuss to potential hazards to drinking water and how to recognize them. 

In the next lesson we are going to cover water safety to explain why you can't just drink from a stream and how to treat your water to make it safe. The goal is that by SPEAR level 10 you will be capable of finding water and staying hydrated no matter what life throws at you.  You will also be capable of using this amazing resource to grow food, provide effective transportation, and even generate some power for you home.

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SPEAR Survival Lesson 9 Nav 1.2

Core Training
Lesson 9 of 25
Nav 1.2 Polaris and the sun

Let me start this lesson with a couple of explanation to the mentality of this system.  First of all keep in mind that this is the most basic levels of knowledge for the ten branches of training.  They are intended to simply insure that everyone is on the same page as the lessons get more involved.  Secondly it is important to explain why this is important to survival.  There are thousands of skills out there you can try to learn to help yourself be better prepared for an uncertain future.  The question is which one is more important and should be learned first?  Without knowing what is coming there is no way to answer that question.  The only thing that we can do is to sharpen the best tool that we have, ourselves.  I don't mean just is learning skills and buying gear, I am talking about making yourself better.  Better informed, better trained, better equipt and better prepared.
          The martial arts is about striving for perfection.  You work on a technique until it is flawless.  You work on your character to make it the same.  A black belt represents the best that we can be physically as well as mentally and spiritually.  That is why is lends itself so well to survival and prepping.
          You can have enough food for two years and enough bullets to shoot a million attackers to your home but if you are not ready in your mind then you will lose everything, one way or another.  These skills in this course are just simple lessons to give you an understanding of the ten branches and a solid foundation of knowledge that we can build upon later.  Before you learn to run you must first learn to walk.
          Navigation is one of the ten branches of knowledge in SPEAR Survival because without the ability to move you are stuck in one place and that is dangerous.  You will need to move at some point in an emergency whether it is to get home or to get to a family members house.  You might be at home and need to go out an find resources when you don't know what is going on in the world just a couple blocks away from your house.  Basic navigation will be essential for you to be able to move but also to be able to move quickly and unnoticed which we will cover in a future lesson.
          Remember, at this point you are just a white belt and these simple skills need to be practiced over and over to become part of who you are in order to proceed.  It doesn't matter if you have a black belt and karate somewhere else, if you can't put on a white belt and humble yourself to some basic skills then you won't be accepted into most martial arts schools.
          Lets get started, Polaris is the proper name of the north star.  It is a constant in the sky and doesn't move.  It will always be north of your location which makes it great to navigate by.  The north star will help you orient your maps to find your direction without a compass.  To find the north star you can use a simple trick that I learned as a kid.  Find the big dipper  (you know, the pan shaped constellation) and locate the two stars that make up the side of the pan that are farthest away from the handle.  Now take the distance between those two stars and multiply it by roughly two and a half going up from the pan in a straight line using those two stars to find Polaris.  You can't assume that the brightest star in the sky is going to be the north star because if a planet is visible it will usually be brighter than Polaris.
          Polaris is a simple method of finding north while the sun is a bit more complicated.  The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.  I live in the northern hemisphere so that means that the sun at noon will always be directly south of my location.  If you have a watch and know the time of day you can guess which way is south and you will be close enough for simple navigation.  If the sun in almost set you are looking south west and if it is rising you are looking south east.  This changes depending how far away from the equator you are.  The farther away you are the further south the sun travels.  The sun also is lower in the sky in the winter months than in the summer months.
          Regardless of all that, here is a fool proof way to find north if the sun is shining.  Take two sticks and put them in the ground sticking up so that the shadow of the first stick goes over the shadow of the second stick.  You now have two stick that are in line with the sun.  Wait thirty minutes or so and put another stick in the ground that is in line with the shadow of the first stick.  If you connect the two second sticks together in a straight line and put a stick in the middle of those two the line that is formed from the first stick and the new stick in the middle will point due north in the direction away from the sun.
          By knowing north and south you can use that in your basic navigation to be able to move around.  You can head north and continue in that general direction by using the track of the sun.  You can find the moon and set your direction of travel for the next day.
          This is the basics that you need to understand about navigation.  These lessons will make you better today and that is the goal.  Remember, Polaris is north and the sun is south.

Continue to the next lesson: Lesson 10
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SPEAR Survival

Prepared for the Everyday

Till The End Of Days

SPEAR Survival Lesson 8 Nav 1.1

Core Training

Lesson 8 of 25

Navigation 1.1 Street Maps and Compass Points

     When it comes to moving around in unfamiliar territory there is no more important item to have than a map.  GPS units and cell phone apps are very handy on a day to day basis but in a real emergency I don’t want to put my life in the hands of anything that fragile which is connected to systems that might not be in place when you need them. 

             Street maps can usually be found in a book that covers most of the surrounding towns.  These maps will show you routes to locations as well as alternate routes to travel if the main road is blocked.  They also show the location of water features that you can use to get water from or to use as a natural blockade.  

            As was covered in the total load lesson on these maps you can write in your rally point location and highlight the best routes of travel to get in and escape.

            To use a street map isn't as complicated as topographical maps.  They don't need to be aligned with north and you don't have to own a compass, although it does make it easier.  You simply have to find the road that you are on and follow it until it meets another road to find your location.  From there it is merely a matter of left and right turns to get you where you want to go.  If you are traveling in unfamiliar places during times chaos it is best to plan your route carefully and study it before you leave.  The last thing you want to happen is get detoured down a dead end street into unsafe surroundings. 

            The best street maps that I have found include topographical detail as well.  Meaning that there are lines on the map that indicate the change in elevation.  I will cover this in greater detail in a future lesson but for now if you are going to buy a map book try to get one that is topographical.

            Map books should be kept in every vehicle that you own with up to date rally point information.  You should also have laminated pages in your core bag that has just your rally point information and any information of resources that you add to it.  This map will have markings for possible caches that you hide and store.  

            Compass Points.  Most people understand the basics of how a compass works.  The needle points north.  But there is a little more that you need to understand to master the use of this important tool.  Yes it is true that the compass does point north, but it doesn't point to true north (the pole of the earth that the planet actually spins on).  Magnetic compasses point to magnetic north which is a couple of degrees different than true north.  This number changes depending on how far away from the pole you actually are.  For our lesson on street maps this wont be an issue as a general direction of north is good enough.

            A magnetic compass is just that, magnetic.  The little needle that point to that faint signal up north can be interfered with by man made magnetic sources.  To get a true reading on your compass you need to be away from your vehicle as well as any large metal objects.  If you try to use your compass while sitting in you vehicle the magnets in the speakers of your door could give you false readings.  That is just a disclaimer as I would rather you stayed safely in your vehicle while you navigate, just understand that if you get some crazy readings that might be the case.

            To use your compass you need to just find out where north is and turn your map in that direction.  This way the streets that you see out your window will be going in the same direction as they are on the map.  In future lessons we will cover how to use your compass to it maximum potential but for now it just has to point north.  

            Magnetic north is an area near the north pole that is a part of the magnetic pole of the earth.  The magnetic field of the earth pulls down at this point and this is why it attracts the tip of the needle in your compass.  There isn't a manned outpost up there with a machine that makes this field for use with your compass. (just to be clear)

            And lastly I need to add, there is a threat of a form of solar flare that will come from the sun that could be so powerful that it actually reverses the magnetic field of the earth.  This would make your compass actually point south instead of north.  I have heard many reports of what would happen if this did take place and they range from sudden extinction to a more slow paced change of our weather system and the start of another ice age.  You can do your own research on this topic if you are concerned about this threat.  I mention it because there is a slight possibility of this happening and if it did it would obviously change this lesson.  To be as prepared as you can be the more information you have the better.

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SPEAR Survival

Prepared For The Everyday

Till The End Of Days!