How to Live in the Wild

Choose a safe and secure location. You need to choose a place close to the water source but far enough away to avoid the risk of encountering wild animals (usually living around the water source) and high tides. ^[7]

• You also need to set up camp on solid ground. Avoid sloping ground, rocky surfaces, or locations too close to water. All these areas are very susceptible to weather elements.

Light a bonfire. ^[8] Warmth is at the heart of the comforts of living in the wilderness. But just knowing how to make fire is not enough; You need to know when and how to light a fire. Here are a few things to watch out for:

• Keep fires away from valuables and food sources in case something goes wrong (including animals).
• When using fire to cook, do not cook immediately after lighting the fire, but wait for the fire to burn for a while. You should light the fire for a long time before eating. During the fire, you will create a layer of hot coal to feed the fire. This fire will help to scorch the food.
• Find birch bark to make a fire. Birch bark, dry or wet, is flammable and is suitable for starting fires in cold or wet climates.
• Poisonous twigs when burned can repel mosquitoes.

Pitch. ^[9] Building an A-type tent is the easiest, but this type of tent is not sustainable. For the first week or so, you can make a temporary shelter and use this time to build a more sustainable home. The longer you plan to be in the wilderness, the more secure your shelter should be.

• Never sleep on the ground. You should always line the floor inside the tent with materials such as hemlock branches, leaves or hay, or you could freeze to sleep on the ground.

Prioritize finding and storing water. You can last up to a month without food, but water is always essential. Find a source of water that you believe is safe to use. If possible, bring back plenty of water so you don’t have to go to the water every day.

• Alternatively, you can collect the morning dew on leaves and grass with a clean cloth and squeeze it into a container. It’s not very pure, but it also helps you to quench your thirst.

Learn how to hunt, trap, and gather. This also depends on the region. Learn to find food by any means. Think of all the resources you can find: rivers full of fish, animals in both heaven and earth, and plants around. The more skills you master, the more chances you have when the weather changes or when food sources become scarce.

• Don’t eat anything that you’re not sure is edible. If possible, bring books about the flora and fauna of the area you are going to.
• You also need to prepare a safe place to store food. Scavengers may be lurking around and threatening your pantry.

Make sure the water is clean. Drinking clean water is extremely important, as you can get many diseases if you drink dirty water. You can’t be sure if the water you are using is really clean (for example, there may be animal carcasses lying on top of it), so you should always clean the water before using it. ^[10]

• The easiest method is to boil water. Boiling time is about 10 minutes.
• Another way to purify water is to use iodine tablets ( not the iodine solution sold at the pharmacy). Use iodine tablets according to the directions on the product label.
• The third method is to use a water filter. Filter the water briefly with a bandana or a piece of cloth, then filter it again with a water filter. Your water purifier needs to be at least 1 or 2 microns in size, which means it allows 1-2 micron particles to pass through the filter. The smaller the water filter, the better and the slower the water will flow out.
  • If you can carry it, a gravity water filter is the easiest to use. You just need to fill the tank with water and come back 1-2 hours later and you have clean water.

Keep “dirty” and “clean” water in separate containers. Never let a single drop of dirty water fall into a clean water tank. Just a drop of dirty water can cause a deadly disease.

• To disinfect the clean water tank again, boil it for 10 minutes. Remember that the entire pot must be submerged in water when boiling.

Think of ways to address hygiene needs. You need to have a toilet (or something similar) that is far from water, where food is stored, and away from home. Your toilet could be a hole dug in the ground or a less temporary place, such as an outside toilet.

• If you do a toilet or similar construction, don’t forget that your butt can get freezing cold in the winter. Use a sponge to place on top of the toilet bowl to avoid risks.
• Boys can pee into the tree and just need to use the toilet or toilet when defecating.

Learn to walk in a straight line. Strictly speaking, the ability to navigate is extremely important when living in the wilderness. Surprisingly, it’s almost impossible for us to even walk in a straight line (humans tend to go in circles unconsciously). The most basic way to avoid this is to create markers along the way, also known as “markers” or “marks on the back” (turn around and make sure the marker is directly behind you).

• You can also rely on trees, the moon, and the sun for direction. If you have a natural aptitude for direction, this is not difficult.

Bring meatloaf (rubbing cotton) with you wherever you go. This is dry roasted meat with fat. ^[11] Make lots of these when you need to prepare for a two-week trip to the nearest town. You will be glad you did.

• Meatloaf can be eaten immediately without processing, and if there is enough fat in it, it will help you last longer than any other “survival food”. You can live on meat for months under any circumstances, even at home.

Self-made doctor. Being alone in the wilderness also means you’ll be your own doctor. In fact, you will have to manage everything yourself. You will have to handle if there are many cuts on your body (the wound can become infected). ^[12] Hopefully you have knowledge of first aid and can do everything from disinfecting wounds to splinting.

• If you accidentally break your leg (or some terrible accident like that), you need to have a means of communication to call for help such as a radio, telephone, or transmitter of some kind. If you’re prepared, you’ll have less to worry about if something goes wrong.

Consider planting a garden. You will live alone for a long time, so why not plant a vegetable garden? It will be your small farm and a source of food without much effort (except for the early stages). It also helps boost your spirits, become resourceful and self-reliant in the wilderness.

• Remember to prevent wild animals from entering the garden. Build a fence around the garden, use different objects to repel them and “mark the territory” if necessary.

Reserve for the winter. If the area you are going to has long winters, you need to stock up when everything around freezes. It will be difficult to find wild animals to hunt, it will be more difficult to travel, and even keeping warm is not easy. When autumn comes, you will have to start stocking up on everything you need.

• Store enough food for several months if possible. If you have a way to freeze meat, try hunting a deer or large game in late fall.
• Same with firewood. You should bring firewood into the house if possible.
• The water will freeze in winter, so you need to keep fresh fresh water in your home as well.

Reinforcing accommodation. ^[13] In snow up to 2 meters thick or under downpour, your hut is unlikely to be safe. Take advantage of the summer and fall to build a structure similar to a small wooden house to withstand the harsh weather and wild animals. Plus it looks more like a house.

• Find ways to make it easier to access the toilet in the winter. The toilet should be closer to the house, but not in the house (if you don’t want your house to smell)!

Stock up on vitamin C. Don’t let yourself get scurvy. You’re not a mid-18th century sailor, so don’t let your teeth decay and your body weaken. If you don’t have a source of vitamin C with you (such as Tang powder), you can use rosehip. Although they are not very tasty, they are still useful. Pine leaves are also very good; In fact, it contains more vitamin C than citrus fruits. You can simply chop the pine needles and boil them to make a tea, but be careful not to take the pine needles, as the plant is poisonous. ^[14]

• Diet is the key to survival. The more balanced the nutrition, the better. Try to find all the major food groups to keep your body healthy and strong. Otherwise, you run the risk of a weakened immune system, and even the weakest bacteria or viruses can make you sick.

Learn to judge the weather. Let’s say your supplies are running low and you need to go shopping at the nearest store down town a week away. If you don’t know how to judge the weather, you will have to risk going whenever it feels convenient. But if you know the weather, you can predict that a storm is coming and needs to be postponed – or gone as quickly as possible.

• Guessing the weather means detecting changes in air pressure, recognizing cloud patterns, even paying attention to small details like the movement of smoke from the fire you’re burning (smoky smoke is not good sign). Animals can also tell you about the weather.