Author: David McCullough

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Sweetwater – Nature’s Sports Drink!

Sweetwater is a great resource to find in the outdoors. Whether it’s for syrup, sugar, or just for drinking, Sweetwater is delicious! It has electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, inflammation-reducing agents, things to help control diabetes, liver-detoxifying properties, and cancer-fighting agents. I love to drink sweet water straight from the tree. Some people boil it to ensure the bad bacteria is gone. When it’s boiled, sweet water also loses the good bacteria stored in it.

Depending on what you want, you can tap different trees. The sweeter (higher sugar content) tree is the sugar maple, the most commonly heard for syrup. The other, birch trees, don’t have much sugar but are still sweet and have the same properties. I can personally say as a caffeine addict myself, sweet water has given me more energy than coffee or energy drinks ever have. Also, it has been used for a hangover cure!

Instructions for Tapping

When you tap the tree, you must be careful not to cause a lot of harm. With drilling, you want your drill bit to be about the same width as the beginning of your tube, this can vary with the kind of tap that you get. With the different systems of sweet water, there are other tips and ways to tap. For drilling, if you are using a tube system, you want to go into the tree straight about 1 to 2 inches depending on the size of the tree. Then you stick your tap in the tree and use something soft like a rubber mallet to softly tap it in.

When you use a drip bag system you want to drill at an angle upwards. Same as the other, only about 1 to 2 inches. After you’re all finished, use some clay to fill the hole and let the tree heal.

Times to tap

The best times to tap are in early spring and fall. In the early spring, all the sweet water is heading up the tree to start making seeds and leaves. In the fall, all the leaves and seeds are grown, and the sap goes to be stored for the future. Before fall turns to winter, you still have time to collect some. The main issue with collecting the sweet water sap is that it starts to ferment quickly, it only stays for 2-3 days unrefrigerated and only about 6-7 days refrigerated, so you got to drink it quickly! Often, people use it for other things like mead, wine, syrup, or sugar. Primarily, people use birch sap for drinking because of its low sugar content. So, whether you’re looking for something healthy or just a tasty treat, sweet water has got you covered!

Below are the two systems you can use and what you need for both. Click below and start your sweet water journey!

 

                                                                                               

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  Are you growing the right things in your garden?

 Could you survive with the things you grow in your backyard? Imagine if the economy collapsed right now, there’s no food in the store, could you make it? Right now it is winter, so it’s time to prepare for spring. If you want to prepare for a long time, get some good food staples for yourself. We need to look at calorie dense and nutrient dense food. Some good calorie foods are potatoes, beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and more. Of course you will still need to stock your body up on nutrients so we need to look at these as well. For example, cabbage, tomatoes, radishes, onions, and more. There are so many options you can choose from.  

   You will need to make sure that you get everything you need in your diet to survive long term. Also, plant some spices to change things up so you don’t get sick of the same thing. Think about growing some basil, pepper, chives, and some more delicious spices. Try to make use of the space you have and think about what can grow where. Potatoes are pretty easy, bury them in the ground and don’t take all of them when you harvest. But you have to think about some of them. 

  Some beans grow well going up a pole, corn has a nice stalk going up, so now you have two foods growing in one spot. Congratulations! Think about what grows best where. Do tomatoes grow better in the sun or the shade? Give it about 6 hours in the sun. How much should you water to grow some good cabbage? Pretty regularly. Research is key for a good garden to work properly. Could you do it?

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What should I keep in my bug out bag?

Make sure you are packing the essentials. Fire, shelter, food, water. Pick tools that are easy to use and not too heavy. Make sure you have something to eat off of, like a pan or a pot. Also have something to harvest wood, possibly a hatchet or machete or saw. Get something to skin an animal, a really nice sharp blade. possibly dig a hole, like a tri fold shovel. And self defense, consider a knife, some bear mace, or maybe even a gun.

Some of these tools could be multi-use. You will also need cordage(rope) to tie things together and possibly drag things. You might need a tarp to keep dry or wrap up to conserve body heat. Make sure you have some kind of water container(with water in it) and a water purifier and some food to eat. And make sure you have something to sleep in.

Consider the terrain you will be camping at to choose your sleepwear. Plus, keep a reusable Firestarter to make sure you have heat. It would make it easier if you had waterproof bags but it is not necessary. Another thing to think about is the bag itself, you should choose a bag comfortable for you that has the proper straps. Try to think of weight. The lighter the better. You might know how far you will have to go for safety, but plan that you’re going farther.

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WHY AND HOW TO PREPARE TO FEED AN ARMY IN A SHTF SCENARIO

 

Why should I prepare to feed an army? So that you can make sure you’re protected of course. If you can feed an army, you can have an army which could save your life.  You will want a good army so you’ll have to supply good food and good training (we can talk about that later).

To make good nutritious food for your army, you’ll have to make sure they will be able to be full and get the nutrients they need to survive. For a nice filler you can have things like beans and potatoes to keep their stomachs full. Also, for nutrient-dense foods think about things like meat and vegetables. For some extra nutrients you could even ferment the vegetables. Next bring some spice to the food by growing different spices like garlic and pepper.

Good food will keep your army’s morale up, remember that. You also have to think about where you will store the food. You most likely won’t be able to trust everyone so you can’t keep it all in one place or let everyone know where you keep it. If there is someone infiltrating the ranks to steal food they could alert their people to where you store it so you don’t want that to happen. You can now feed an army! But are they trained well? If you need some help with that i have an article right here on epicsurvivalsecrets.com.

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Spring Creek Epic FUN! Marinville Pa

So we decided to go to spring creek after a long day of work. Harley was being crazy as usual. Some of our friends were already at the creek. So we had some good laughs and a lot of fun! We were splashing and dunking everyone. Always a good surprise with friends around. We got some cool underwater shots. Shawn kept dunking Kim which was hilarious. Jimmy lost his hat so i dived and found it for him. Ian wasn’t going in the water so Kimberly tricked him into going in. I kept diving and Harley kept splashing Jimmy. Kim thought she was going to dunk me but she couldn’t. We almost lost the ball over the rocks a couple times.

After we were done, we headed into town for some supplies. Then we went to Zack’s camp for some shooting and his mom served up some great food. After that, we headed up to Ian’s camp and had some burgers. We headed to the cabin for bed and lit off a few fireworks. The next morning, we went to Ian’s camp and played with the inflatable tubes. Harley got a grass mow-hawk and we played the try not to laugh game. Overall, it was a good weekend with some good friends.

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Japanese Knotweed- Cure for Lyme Disease!

There could be a plant near you that is known to CURE Lyme disease! This plant is called Japanese Knot-weed. This useful plant is seen as a weed, therefore, people just get rid of it and don’t use it for anything. Japanese Knot-weed grows wild along drains and other wet areas in the woods with good sunlight.

Identification Japanese Knotweed

Japanese Knot-weed can grow up to 3 meters tall. The stalk of the plant is hollow and bamboo like and the coloration is purple fading into green. The leaves are green and heart to shovel shaped and can grow up to 20 cm across. In late summer, small clusters of white flowers form on the plant. It is pretty obvious once you know what you are looking for because of its unique traits.

Root Identification

The roots are dark and wood like. The inner bark is orange and has a musty smell when cut into.

Uses of Japanese Knotweed

You can eat the stalks in early spring. The roots help Bronchitis, coughs, gum disease, sore mouth and throat, lung disease, skin disorders, fluid retention, tuberculosis, stop bleeding, and Lyme disease.  Also, it is also anti-microbial, protects the central nervous system, clears out endotoxins, anti oxidant, and is anti anxiety for example. This plant is an anti-inflammatory and plaque preventative.

WARNINGS

If you are pregnant or breast feeding, do not use this plant.

Medicine Preparation

Take the roots and wash the dirt off. Then, cut off the bark all the way down past the orange layer but not into the white wood. Collect the chips and dry them out. Next, to make the medicinal tea, take the dried chips and powder them. the ratio is 30 grams of powder to 1 quart of water and simmer for 30 minutes. The tea will be strong and bitter.

Food Preparation

The best time to eat these plants is in the early spring. After that, they get too woody to eat. Because of this, its best to harvest them early. To prepare, peel the outer layer off and chop up into discs to put in salads or eat it like celery. Some people say it tastes like green apple, others say it tastes like rhubarb. I guess you will have to forage for some and find out yourself!

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