---save on cooking fuel. cook in a thermos. Used thermo's are like 50 cents apiece at yard sales and thriftstores. Put your chow in the thermos, no more than about 1/3 deep if any expandable whole grains or beans, you can go deeper if just meat and veggies. Pour in the boiling hot water,not all the way, leave some space for expansion of the food as it absorbs water, then cork it up. Let set for a few hours. Enjoy! Have done this for years, think me and kurt saxon come up with it about the same time frame. It's also a cool way to "cook on the go", say for some reason you gotta make tracks through the bush. Might come in handy, either way it saves fuel. ---the ole bale cooker, same deal, but just use your regular pot. Remove boiling hot food stuff with the pot,of course,from stove, surround with hay or pine straw bales. Don't have that stuff? Use imagination. Cardboard box, line with a blanket, put cardboard and newspaper at least an inch thick in bottom, then all around the pot fulla chow, even on top, then wrap the blanket up and over the whole deal. It will be done in a coupla-so hours, and still be hot to eat. ---plastic grocery bags-NEVER throw these guys out. Use them as boot liners over your socks, much warmer and more waterproofing. Use them as field expedient gloves, good for cutting up meat, cleaning game, dressing someone's wounds, etc,you also can save on water and soap that way, if that's in scarce supply. Put all your stuff in storage inside bags, even if it's in other containers. It's one more layer of protection, and you might need a bag some day (you will). Also, can tie the bags over the ends of trees, like maples for instance, get a buncha live leaves in there, then twist tie it to the stem. Several hours later you'll have some water vapor has condensed in there to drink.Tthe tree leaves expirate the vapor, and it's been purified as it travels up through the tree, at least somewhat. ----10$ tool, keep you from freezing and help you cook. It's called lopping shears. These are the small cutting blade,long handled hedge clipper things. You can cut up to 1.5 inch diameter wood with these things. It's amazing,when I cut trees, I harvest every single scrap. Get a lot more wood that way, with less 2-stroke fume breathing. Every tree has all the kindling you will ever need to start the bigger pieces going, and if you cut to size all the branches, you'll have a variety of sizes. Lot less splitting of wood, and use less trees, too. I'm amazed at the amount of good wood that people heap up into a brush pile when they are cutting trees down for firewood and then they call it slash, or scrap or a brushpile. Phooie, waste not, want not, it'll all burn, and those lopper shears are the best thing going for the smaller branches. Cheap, rice and beans powered, y2k compliant, and last years and years and years with a drop of oil occassionally and a small amount of careful file action to keep them sharp. Heck, they're cheap, get two! Just with that one tool you can keep a small firewood stash full, and feed a small stove or campfire. Quiet, too, if that's a consideration. Even the sound of an axe or hand saw will carry far in the woods, and breaking sticks by hand makes noise, but those shears are fairly quiet, if that might be a consideration. ---here's a neat one, when hiking, keep your dry pair of socks stashed inside your stocking cap. They'll stay real warm, and be a most enjoyable comfort when you change your socks mid day, which you should do, by the way. ---Human beings tend to never go more than about 1/4 mile from where they can drive something motorized. Of course, this is a generality, but it's mostly true. Trash and human trails drop off radically more than a 1/4 mile in. Oh ya, judging distance in the woods, if you think you've walked a 1/4 mile, guess again, it'll be about 200 yards, tops.hehehehehehehehehehe...more like 150 yds....hehehehehehehehehehe ---instead of trying to learn 8,000 different wildplants, learn 10 REALLY GOOD. A positive ID with your eyeballs is worth 8,000 "possibles" with a manual anyday. ---Regular old recurve bows are really cheap in pawnshops these days, and all shoot quite well, plus you can use wooden arrows (read home made in a pinch) with them, whilst compound bows require synthetic shaft arrows. A stout bow is a comfort, tell ya what. I have never felt "unarmed" with a bow. It's different, that's all, and it gives you a different mindset, at least for me it does. Sneeekier, I guess you'd call it. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate and own high speed rock chunkers, but bows are cool. Get thee one and some arrows now while cheap. ---a few small traps in your pack will keep you in meat forever, and be quiet about it, too ---waterholes are a good place to lay in wait for some meat critter dumber than you. Be advised that most two legged predators know this little tidbit as well. Approach water crossings and holes carefully, use binox all around in advance, and don't forget to look at the ground, and up in the trees. If in doubt, WAIT. He who waits, wins. Quiet and patience will beat out macho bravado every time. ---did I mention knives? I did, so what, gonna say it again. Decent knives don't have to be expensive, wally world has a variety of schrade "old timers" that are your choice for 20 greenspans. Have at least one folder and one fixed blade on you all times. I like the smaller fixed blades for daily carry and use, don't need no giant rambo looking thing that's almost useless. We use ours daily for kitchen duty, table steak knives, etc. If you need something Rambo big get a real machete. And speaking of machetes, I like sugar cane knives over all the styles out there. Next best is the smller marine corps. bolo machete. ---they'll be more....

grizzly zog

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), November 27, 1999

Answers

Zzzimply fanzzztazztic post zzoggy. All good advice, from another experienced hands point of view! Thanks!

Respectfully;

Michael

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 27, 1999.

Dear Mr. Zog,

Thank you. I've printed this for my son and will include it in his Christmas present (a bug-out pack -- he lives in Los Angeles). I especially appreciated the tip for collecting water from trees using plastic bags. I would hope before doing that, one would be familiar with non-poisonous trees.

-- Casey DeFranco (caseyd@silcom.com), November 27, 1999.

Lopping shears are the thinking man's machete:)

-- Ocotillo (peeling@out.===), November 28, 1999.

Zog,

Priceless stuff. You know, it seems like I spent over a year reading your posts on Gary North's forums and your own website/forums. I can't thank you enough.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 28, 1999.

Zog--

Simply outstanding. Hold a seminar for us, dude!

Best regards,

-- William in Dallas (bcheek@onramp.net), November 28, 1999.

Thanks for your common sense survival tips, Uncle Zog!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), November 28, 1999.

Zog....some prettttty darn good stuff here....I especially liked the thermos and bale-cooking....thanksalot for a long, valuable post....might also mention, putting clothes in the bed or sleeping bag so they are warm to climb into the next day....I even tried sleeping in my day clothes recently, realizing that we all didn't do the peejays/nighty-nite a millenium or two ago....was odd, but better than doin the putting on the cold/stiff jeans and socks shock....sure goin miss them hot showers!!!!

-- Queen of Hearts (alice@wonder.land), November 28, 1999.