GLSC LEVEL 1 BASIC SURVIVAL KIT

We would like to take a look at Survival kits.  Most people organize their survival kits into “Levels” or “Lines”.  In this post we’ll discuss the most basic of kits.  People in the survival community would agree on certain items to always have in their most basic Level 1 or first line kit.  BUT, best thing about your kit, is that it’s yours.  You can go out, practice and see what works for you and what doesn’t.  If you’re not sure what works, a good place to start is by reading the “6 ways in, 12 ways out” manual put out by  www.USRSOG.org .  Practice those techniques in the outdoors, or even in your backyard.

Great Lake Survival suggests using 3 different Levels of Survival kits.  The 3 levels of survival kits are very similar to what the USRSOG manual suggests.  There’s a reason for that . . . IT WORKS!  Level 1 kit, going forward, is the most essential kit you would want to have, and at the same time, you’d be willing to carry it with you every day. 

The next Level 2, and 3 are essential survival kits, but get bulkier as the kit level increases.  The idea is that the bulkier the items, the less likely it is that you’re going to carry that item everywhere.  If you happen into a “bad situation”, you’re more likely to have your essential Level 1 kit, any given time of the day, than your monster size, end of the world, ruck sack.  So it’s important to think about what will go into that little tiny kit, because THAT’s the one we’re most likely to be carrying “on our person”.  Bad things never seem to happen when we’re expecting them too.

One of the reasons we really like the USRSOG.org guys, (aside from the fact that most are US Special Operations survival experts), is that they encourage people to test their kits.  It’s easy to theorize about your abilities or kits, (and that has its place), but it’s entirely different to get out and used your kits and train with them. 

What good is a kit that always sits in your pocket and you never break open and test out once in a while?  If nothing else, using our survival tools once in a while will cement things we already know, force us to “rotate our stock”, and there’s always something new to learn “out there”.

Level 1 Survival Kit Purpose: Every Day Carry

So here are our Level 1 four major components:

The Credit Card Survival Kit: One Sided Razor, 6 Fish hooks, 20’ Fishing line, Flint Rod, 4 water purification tablets, a sewing needle, 3 wind/waterproof matches, 2 credit card size cardboard pieces, and enough “100 MPH” tape to seal the whole thing.

Credit Card Size Survival Kit

Mid Assembly

Level 1 Survival Kit, Credit Card Size!

3” Folding Knife or BIG KNIFE:  We’re not even going to touch on what kind of knife to get, it’s WAY too personal . . . kind of like what underwear you have on today . . . Pictured below is a CRKT M21-02G, available at www.greatlakesurvival.com .   For developed areas, carrying a 3" folder should be sufficient.  If in the wilderness, the level 1 kit has a Big Knife included in the kit.

Bark River "Bravo 2" - (The Big Knife)

Every Day Carry Firearm:  Something that is lightweight, that you will carry every day.  Some people are denied the right to carry firearms where they live . . . we’re not even going to get into that.  Your level of self-protection is up to you, handle it as you see fit.  At Great Lake Survival we believe that the Right to defend one’s life, liberty and property is inherited at birth and is not given through permission.  We’re Americans dammit.  ‘Nuff said. 

Pocket Gear:  Essential items that cannot fit in a credit card sized contraption.  These are add on items, but can however, fit into pockets all over your body.  When not on your body a small pouch can keep these items on your belt or next to you.   Either stuffed in a cargo pocket or my briefcase, these items are always with me.  A survival blanket, 20’ of Paracord (more if you do your boot laces with paracord), Booby Trap wire (great for small game snares), 1-2 butane lighters with bicycle inner tubes over the body, a signal mirror, 4’x4’ of clear plastic, a small LED light or headlamp, Firesteel flint rod.

I should never be without AT LEAST, the first two components of this Level 1 Kit:  my credit card size survival kit and my folding knife. 

We recommend unless you’re not able to because of work, you have all of these items on you at all times.  Even at the office you can have at least your pocket knife and Level 1 survival kit.  Pocket gear is pocket gear, spread out, you'll never know it's there if you're not in dress clothes.  Going into the wilderness, I'm never without these items though.  Really, the pocket gear is part of the first line of survival tools. 

These are just suggestions, you know what works for you.  The bottom line is this:  With the most basic of items, can I defend my life against the elements, dehydration, and would be attackers at any given time?  If you’ve proven to yourself that you can, then you’ve got a leg up on most Americans.  Congrats.

So there you have it.  Our take on what constitutes one's 1st line of gear.  4 Major items:  a pocket knife (or big knife if in the wilderness), a credit card survival kit, a concealable firearm, and a small handful of “pocket gear”.  Spread out on your body, no one can even tell that you’re prepared for the worse.  You can go on living out your days ready to be a Rock for good people in a bad situation.

In the Next Post we’ll look at Level 2 gear.

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team

ZeroWater Filter

The ZeroWater Filter :  http://www.zerowater.com/

Great Lake Survival received their brand new “Zero Water” filtration system.  With the filtration system, came a Total Dissolved Solids, Tester.  The tester will let you know from a sample of water how many heavy metals, such as lead and chromium are in your drink.

The filter certainly does work, you can instantly taste the difference.  Each filter is good for about 25 to 40 gallons of water, depending on how many Total Dissolved Solids are normally in the water you are filtering.

Great Lake Survival has the medium sized filter, great for counter tops and it doesn’t take up much space.

The municipal water that we tested registered at “119” Total Dissolved Solids.  The average is around 200 I believe.  So our tap water isn’t as bad as it could be.

The bottled “purified” water that we normally drink at Great Lake Survival registered at “015” Total Dissolved Solids. . . . . so much for “pure”.

And of course our zero water filtered sample registered at “000” Total Dissolved Solids

From ebay we received our 23 cup Zero Water filter within 5 days, shipped for $42.00

Not bad.  If you are considering filtering water for your family for everyday drinking water, this is not a bad one to have.  Bottled water usually costs us about $1.34/gallon.  When you factor in filter replacement on the zero water system, your pure water will run $0.64/gallon.  That could be up to $1000 a year for a family of 4 switching from bottled water to the ZeroWater filtration system.

So there you have it:  A more cost effective way to give your family pure water.

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team

Milk Confiscation?

Are you serious? Raw milk confiscation . . .

Read this article from Natural News >

(NaturalNews) In a bombshell revelation of the depth of the food police state that now exists in LA County, California, NaturalNews has learned that the LA County health department has unleashed door-to-door raw milk confiscation teams to threaten and intimidate raw dairy customers into surrendering raw milk products they legally purchased and own.

According to Mark McAfee (see quotes below), both LA County and San Diego county have attempted to acquire customer names and addresses from Organic Pastures (www.OrganicPastures.com) for the sole purpose of sending "food confiscation teams" to customers' homes to remove the raw milk from customers' refrigerators. Using both phone calls and home visits, these teams intimidate customers and try to force them to give up their milk.

These revelations have surfaced in a recorded NaturalNews interview with Mark McAfee, the founder of Organic Pastures and a food rights advocate. Here's what he told us:

LA County health enforcers go door to door, demanding your fresh milk

"I received a phone call yesterday morning from a wonderful young gal, a 36-year-old mom out of LA County. She's one of our UPS customers that we deliver overnight raw milk to her house. When the CDFA was in here the other day on our recall, they demanded to have all our delivery addresses for overnight UPS delivery. We screwed up and [inadvertently] gave it to them, they got it from one of our secretaries here. The LA County health department started calling her, six or seven times, demanding that she give up her raw milk from her own home to the health department.

She refused, then they showed up at her house and demanded that she give her raw milk to them. She was getting ready to call 911 for the Sheriff's department and have them removed from her front doorstep, and she was threatening to use her camera to take a picture of them and post it on Facebook for harassing her over her raw milk... The investigators left after she told them she was not going to give them the raw milk and to get the Hell off her property.

This is what's going on, it's like food Nazis, it's incredible what these people are doing, trying to collect food from people's houses, that have not made them ill!

Then the San Diego health department called me up and said oh we want a list of all your buyer's club members, and I said no... and they said we want all their addresses and their names, because we want to go to their homes. I said it ain't happening, we aren't going to give it to you."

Are armed raids on raw milk customers next?

LA County has already conducted armed raids on raw milk distribution centers -- are armed raids on raw milk customers next? Will LA County Health Department investigators start calling on the police to go door to door, arresting raw milk owners as if they were crack dealers?

Remember: The raw milk from Organic Pastures is legally sold, legally purchased, and greatly enjoyed by its customers. There are virtually no complaints about this product. Customers love it. Only the government wants to confiscate it and destroy it.

And even as the county is unleashing food police to confiscate raw milk that authorities say might be dangerous, they cannot find anyone actually harmed by it. Nor do they pay any attention to the fact that upwards of 70 percent of the fresh chicken meat sold at grocery stores across California is routinely contaminated with salmonella and other pathogens.

What this clearly demonstrates is yet another ratcheting up of the California police state, where county authorities reach right into your refrigerator and confiscate food that they claim might not be safe -- food that you've legally purchased and wish to consume knowing full well that it's fresh and raw!

Regulators operating as lawless, idiotic tyrants

The question on all our minds is simple: Where does this end? Having already criminalized raw milk distribution at Rawesome Foods, thrown James Stewart in jail (http://www.naturalnews.com/035208_James_Stewart_torture_county_jail.h...) and completely shuttered the Rawesome operation, California's bureaucrats seem to have too much time and money on their hands, so they target real food and local farms while ignoring the truly dangerous criminals running loose across the streets of L.A.

Such is the inevitable result of big government gone bad, which is almost an oxymoron because big government always goes bad. Eventually, the power granted to authorities at any level (county, state, federal) is turned against the People, and food, farms and freedoms are among the first targets to be threatened.

Read NaturalNews for more breaking news on this food police confiscation story. In the mean time, I also recommend reading www.TheCompletePatient.com for timely coverage of this topic, as well as "Raw Milk Freedom Riders" (http://rawmilkfreedomriders.wordpress.com).

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035895_food_police_raw_milk_confiscation.html#ixzz1v8QqstlT

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team

Survival Medicine

An excellent resource: 

If you've never been exposed to these books, or if you don't have your own free copy . . . here it is . . .

Every home should have a copy of these books.  They are free.  Download.  Print.  Educate. :)  There may come a day when one of us is "on our own". 

1. "Where There is No Doctor"

2. "Where There is No Dentist"

3. "Where Women Have No Doctor"

 

http://hesperian.org/books-and-resources/

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team

Surviving Violence . . .

LET'S NOT BE THIS GUY ------>

                                                                                                                        
A picture is worth a 1000 words.  What it does not tell us, is "Why is this guy about to get the ever loving gray matter stomped out of his head?", "Why did he happen to be where this angry mob of people were?"

As racial tensions in the US rise, it would be prudent to keep aware of our surroundings and not be where mobs, protests and angry people are.

The story below is yet another story of Black on White violence following the shooting of Trayvon Martin.  What doesn't matter is how any of us feel about the case.  What does matter is that we keep our families safe in uncertain times.

What gets me irritated, is that the man in the story below had an egress, but instead chose to confront the angry mob of 100 people after a rock was thrown at his car.  He had no tactical advantage and was for all intents and purposes lured into an ambush.

Because of that, whether it be pride, ego or any number of other emotions, he and the young lady were beaten and quite honestly, lucky to be alive.

Not always is it bravery to stand your ground and fight.  I would hope if I come across a crowd of angry people, especially motivated toward racial violence, that I would get myself and my family out of harms way as quickly as possible.  It's one thing if I'm by myself and want to go off 'half-cocked', it's quite another thing to go off 'half-cocked' when there are others with me, that would depend on me for their safety and protection.

For those who are not new to the concept of survival and self defense, I'm sure the story below shouts "tactical error!". 

I like the quote from Mr. Miyagi: "Best way to avoid punch, no be there."  Which should have been followed with: "And then if that fails, be decisive, brutal and leave as quickly as possible."
 


By Michelle Washington
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 1, 2012

Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim.
The victim's friend, a young woman, tried to pull him back into his car. Attackers came after her, pulling her hair, punching her head and causing a bloody scratch to the surface of her eye. She called 911. A recording told her all lines were busy. She called again. Busy. On her third try, she got through and, hysterical, could scream only their location.
Church and Brambleton. Church and Brambleton. Church and Brambleton.
It happened four blocks from where they work, here at The Virginian-Pilot.
Two weeks have passed since reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami - friends to me and many others at the newspaper - were attacked on a Saturday night as they drove home from a show at the Attucks Theatre. They had stopped at a red light, in a crowd of at least 100 young people walking on the sidewalk. Rostami locked her car door. Someone threw a rock at her window. Forster got out to confront the rock-thrower, and that's when the beating began.
Neither suffered grave injuries, but both were out of work for a week. Forster's torso ached from blows to his ribs, and he retained a thumb-sized bump on his head. Rostami fears to be alone in her home. Forster wishes he'd stayed in the car.
Many stories that begin this way end much worse. Another colleague recently wrote about the final defendant to be sentenced in the beating death of 19-year-old James Robertson in East Ocean View five years ago. In that case, a swarm of gang members attacked Robertson and two friends. Robertson's friends got away and called for help; police arrived to find Robertson's stripped, swollen corpse.
Forster and Rostami's story has not, until today, appeared in this paper. The responding officer coded the incident as a simple assault, despite their assertions that at least 30 people had participated in the attack. A reporter making routine checks of police reports would see "simple assault" and, if the names were unfamiliar, would be unlikely to write about it. In this case, editors hesitated to assign a story about their own employees. Would it seem like the paper treated its employees differently from other crime victims?
More questions loomed.
Forster and Rostami wondered if the officer who answered their call treated all crime victims the same way. When Rostami, who admits she was hysterical, tried to describe what had happened, she says the officer told her to shut up and get in the car. Both said the officer did not record any names of witnesses who stopped to help. Rostami said the officer told them the attackers were "probably juveniles anyway. What are we going to do? Find their parents and tell them?"
The officer pointed to public housing in the area and said large groups of teenagers look for trouble on the weekends. "It's what they do," he told Forster.
Could that be true? Could violent mobs of teens be so commonplace in Norfolk that police and victims have no recourse?
Police spokesman Chris Amos said officers often respond to reports of crowds fighting; sirens are usually enough to disperse the group. On that night, he said, a report of gunfire in a nearby neighborhood prompted the officer to decide getting Forster and Rostami off the street quickly made more sense than remaining at the intersection. The officer gave them his card and told them to call later to file a report.
The next day, Forster searched Twitter for mention of the attack.
One post chilled him.
"I feel for the white man who got beat up at the light," wrote one person.
"I don't," wrote another, indicating laughter. "(do it for trayvon martin)"
Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen, died after being shot by a community watch captain with white and Hispanic parents, George Zimmerman, in Florida.
Forster and Rostami, both white, suffered a beating at the hands of a crowd of black teenagers.
Was either case racially motivated? Were Forster and Rostami beaten in some kind of warped, vigilante retribution for a killing 750 miles away, a person none of them knew? Was it just bombast? Is a beating funny, ever?
Here's why their story is in the paper today. We cannot allow such callousness to continue unremarked, from the irrational, senseless teenagers who attacked two people just trying to go home, from the police officer whose conduct may have been typical but certainly seems cold, from the tweeting nitwits who think beating a man in Norfolk will change the death of Trayvon Martin.
How can we change it if we don't know about it? How can we make it better if we look away?
Are we really no better than this?
Michelle Washington is a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. Email: michelle.washington@pilotonline.com

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team