Starving and afraid?

Here is a list of a few edible plants that grow wild in North America

So you’re stranded in the wilderness. You consumed the last nub of your Clif Bar two days ago, and now you’re feeling famished. Civilization is still several days away, and you need to keep up your strength. The greenery all around you is looking more and more appetizing. But what to nibble on? Some plants will keep you alive and are chock full of essential vitamins and minerals, while some could make you violently ill….or even kill you.

Which of course makes proper identification absolutely critical.

Plants to Avoid

If you can’t clearly identify a plant and you don’t know if it’s poisonous, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Steer clear from a plant if it has:

Milky or discolored sap

Spines, fine hairs, or thorns

Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods

Bitter or soapy taste

Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsley-like foliage

“Almond” scent in the woody parts and leaves

Grain heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs

Three-leaved growth pattern

Many toxic plants will exhibit one or more of the above characteristics. Bear in mind that some of the plants we suggest below have some of these attributes, yet they’re still edible. The characteristics listed are just guidelines for when you’re not confident about what you’re dealing with. If you want to be completely sure that an unknown plant is edible, and you have a day or two to spare, you can always perform the Universal Edibility Test.

Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus and other species)

Native to the Americas but found on most continents, amaranth is an edible weed. You can eat all parts of the plant, but be on the lookout for spines that appear on some of the leaves. While not poisonous, amaranth leaves do contain oxalic acid and may contain large amounts of nitrates if grown in nitrate-rich soil. It’s recommended that you boil the leaves to remove the oxalic acid and nitrates. Don’t drink the water after you boil the plant. With that said, you can eat the plant raw if worse comes to worst.

Cattail (Typha)

Known as cattails or punks in North America and bullrush and reedmace in England, the typha genus of plants is usually found near the edges of freshwater wetlands. Cattails were a staple in the diet of many Native American tribes. Most of a cattail is edible. You can boil or eat raw the rootstock, or rhizomes, of the plant. The rootstock is usually found underground. Make sure to wash off all the mud. The best part of the stem is near the bottom where the plant is mainly white. Either boil or eat the stem raw. Boil the leaves like you would spinach. The corn dog-looking female flower spike can be broken off and eaten like corn on the cob in the early summer when the plant is first developing. It actually has a corn-like taste to it

Clovers (Trifolium)

Lucky you-clovers are actually edible. And they’re found just about everywhere there’s an open grassy area. You can spot them by their distinctive trefoil leaflets. You can eat clovers raw, but they taste better boiled.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Sure, it’s an obnoxious weed on your perfectly mowed lawn, but when you’re out in the wild this little plant can save your life. The entire plant is edible- roots, leaves, and flower. Eat the leaves while they’re still young; mature leaves taste bitter. If you do decide to eat the mature leaves, boil them first to remove their bitter taste. Boil the roots before eating as well.  You can drink the water you boiled the roots in as a tea and use the flower as a garnish for your dandelion salad.

Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia)

Found in the deserts of North America, the prickly pear cactus is a very tasty and nutritional plant that can help you survive the next time you’re stranded in the desert. The fruit of the prickly pear cactus looks like a red or purplish pear. Hence the name. Before eating the plant, carefully remove the small spines on the outer skin or else it will feel like you’re swallowing a porcupine. You can also eat the young stem of the prickly pear cactus. It’s best to boil the stems before eating.

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)

While considered an obnoxious weed in the United States, purslane can provide much needed vitamins and minerals in a wilderness survival situation. Ghandi actually numbered purslane among his favorite foods. It’s a small plant with smooth fat leaves that have a refreshingly sour taste. Purslane grows from the beginning of summer to the start of fall. You can eat purslane raw or boiled. If you’d like to remove the sour taste, boil the leaves before eating.

Field Pennycress (Thalspi vulgaris)

Field Pennycress is a weed found in most parts of the world. Its growing season is early spring to late winter. You can eat the seeds and leaves of field pennycress raw or boiled. The only caveat with field pennycress is not to eat it if it’s growing in contaminated soil. Pennycress is a hyperaccumulator of minerals, meaning it sucks up any and all minerals around it. General rule is don’t eat pennycress if it’s growing by the side of the road or is near a Superfund site

These are only a fraction of all the edible plants in North America. If your are going on a long camping trips, or even a hike through the woods do yourself a favor and brush up on all the edible plants in your area and also what’s in bloom for that time of year. It might seem silly and you might have packed enough food for the trip, but when accidents happen (and they DO happen) you will be wishing u had taken the time to learn the #1 survival trick. Edible plants can save a life!

2014 Winter Olympics      

Here are some interesting facts!

-The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C. until 393 A.D., when the games were banned for being a pagan festival (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus). In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.

-Host Greece won the most medals (47) at the first Olympic Summer Games in 1896.

-The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.

-Norway has won the most medals (263) at the Winter Games.

-The United States has won more medals (2,189) at the Summer Games than any other country.

-The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceana, and every national flag in the world includes one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

-Up until 1994 the Olympics were held every four years. Since then, the Winter and Summer games have alternated every two years.

-The first Olympics covered by U.S. television was the 1960 Summer Games in Rome by CBS.

-No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Games.

-Three continents – Africa, South America, and Antarctica – have never hosted an Olympics.

-A record 202 countries participated in the 2004 Olympic Summer Games in Athens.

-Only four athletes have ever won medals at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games: Eddie Eagan (United States), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada).

-Speed skater Bonnie Blair has won six medals at the Olympic Winter Games. That's more than any other American athlete.

-Nobody has won more medals at the Winter Games than cross-country skier Bjorn Dählie of Norway, who has 12.

-Larrisa Latynina, a gymnast from the former Soviet Union, finished her Summer Olympic Games career with 18 total medals—the most in history.

-The United States Olympic Committee established the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983 to recognize outstanding American Olympic athletes, however, a plan to build a hall has been suspended due to lack of funding.

-The Summer Olympic sports are archery, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe / kayak, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running), mountain biking, rowing, sailing, shooting, soccer, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, track and field, triathlon (swimming, biking, running), volleyball, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling.

-The Winter Olympic sports are alpine skiing, biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting), bobsled, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hocky, luge, Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country skiing), skeleton, ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating.

Chamonix, France in 1924.                                                                              Sochi, Russia 2014

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Fell victim to his addiction to heroin

 Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose — with a hypodermic needle still stuck in his arm and 70 baggies of the drug inside his Greenwich Village pad Sunday, authorities said. He was 46.

The acclaimed screen and stage star was discovered in his underwear on the bathroom floor of his $9,800-a-month rental after missing a morning appointment to pick up his three young kids from their mother, his estranged girlfriend, Mimi O’Donnell.

He was declared dead at the scene, a needle in his left forearm. A source said it was clear that the “Capote’’ star had been dead “for hours.”

Cops found five empty glassine envelopes in a garbage can, two more under the bed and one on a table in the apartment, along with a charred spoon in the kitchen sink, sources said.

“He was shooting up in the bathroom,” a law-enforcement source said.

The drug envelopes were marked “Ace of Spades,” which sources said is a brand of heroin that has not been seen on city streets since around 2008 in Brooklyn.

Police later executed a search warrant and found 70 glassine envelopes of heroin inside a desk. In addition to the “Ace of Spades,” investigators also found packages marked “Ace of Hearts” and one with a playing-card jack stamped on it.

Hoffman’s body was found at about 11:15 a.m. by a screenwriter pal, David Bar Katz, and Isabella “Bella” Wing-Davey, Hoffman’s personal assistant, who performed CPR. They called 911 at 11:36 a.m. Hoffman was pronounced dead at 11:45 a.m.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was on a heroin binge 6 weeks before he died, and told friends he feared he was destined to fatally over dose.

Back in December Hoffman told them he had started injecting himself with heroin and couldn't kick it.  Hoffman said he would kick it for a few days and then fall off the wagon.

He went back to AA in a desperate attempt to clean up ... but much to his great frustration it didn't work.

During the last 6 weeks he often looked disheveled and dirty.  At one point someone asked him how bad his problem was, and he responded, "If I don't stop I know I'm gonna die."

We're told Hoffman was also drinking excessively ... which opened the door to many bad decisions when it came to heroin use.

Ironically and sadly, we're told Hoffman went to AA meetings over the last 4 years and was considered a "guru," because he had been sober for so long.  Hoffman would give inspirational talks to people who attended.

The deadly truth:

Drug overdose deaths in the United States have risen steadily since 1970. Painkillers actually kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but heroin is still one of the No. 1 killers of illegal drug users. Only one in 10 heroin overdoses ends in death.

Overdose deaths from heroin have increased recently, and heroin use is also on the rise. In 2011, 4.2 million Americans over the age of 11 had tried heroin at least once, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

An estimated 23% of them will become addicts. And it's addicts who die more frequently than new users, studies show.

How heroin works:

Heroin is most often mixed with water and injected. Injecting it minimizes the lag time between when the drug is taken and effects are felt -- with injection, the effects are almost immediate.

It can also be smoked, snorted or eaten, but smoking or eating destroys some of the drug and mutes its effects.

When someone takes heroin there is an immediate rush. Then the body feels an extreme form of relaxation and a decreased sense of pain.

What's happening inside the body is the heroin is turning into morphine. Morphine has a chemical structure similar to endorphins -- the chemicals your brain makes when you feel stressed out or are in pain. Endorphins inhibit your neurons from firing, so they halt pain and create a good feeling.

Morphine, acting like your endorphins, binds to molecules in your brain called opioid receptors. When those receptors are blocked, that creates a high.

This eye opener story has showed many people that anyone can fall victim to addiction! Don’t neglect the signs and if you see anyone that is In need of help please reach out to them! You might just save their life!

Family Survival List

Putting together an emergency plan seems like a daunting task but if you are ever in an emergency situation you will be glad you took the time to plan and include your family. I am sure you are thinking it now; if an emergency situation arose and you did not have a plan in place your first thought is going to be “what am I going to do to protect my family?” Putting a plan in place will put you in a position to keep your family safe.

First things first, water and food are your most basic essentials. Ready.gov suggests a three day supply for each person in your group. Just how long a person can live without food differs because of factor such as health, weight, age, etc., but water is a must have. Since water is heavy to carry and transport we recommend not only having a water supply but also having water filtration supplies such as filters or purifying tablets/drops.

Protection is also important. Having protection (yes, weapons) in your home is one thing, but knowing how to use them is another. You want to be able to handle any situation, but it is also important that everyone else in your household be able to do so. You may have young children, so you will need to find your own comfort level with teaching your kids how to protect themselves. What I like to tell people is to plan for the worst and hope for the best. Ask yourself: How will (fill in the blank) be able to protect themselves if I am not here?

At this point you are already putting a lot of thought into what you need to do to keep your family safe, but you’re not quite done yet. Watch this video on how FEMA is trying to get kids to educate their parents. Their thought is that the average American won’t listen to FEMA but maybe the kids will and then educate their parents. Obviously, having the luxury of staying in your home in the event of an emergency is preferable to anyone. After all, you have all of your belongings, tools, food, etc. as well as the comfort of your home and a locked door. But you may not be so lucky, so an exit plan is a must.

What is the quickest way out of town? What are alternate routes? Where will you go? Does your city have emergency shelters, and where are they? What shelters accept pets? Keep all of this listed in a convenient place and update it regularly. Subscribe to your city’s reverse emergency notification system. In addition create a special plan for you and your family members in the even that you have to meet to evacuate. You might not all be sitting at home together when an emergency arises. You may be at work, your kids may be at school, and your spouse may be running errands. Have a plan specifically for getting your family together first, and then proceed to a shelter/out of town/etc. You may need more than one plan and that’s OK, just make sure that your entire family knows the plan and practices it. It is always better to be safe than to be sorry.

Duct Tape

Survival Blog

Survival with duct tape

Duct tape is an incredibly useful product to have around the house; it is readily available and inexpensive. It has many practical applications including uses in survival situations. The metallic gray color can be somewhat offensive to the eye, so fortunately it is also available in a variety of colors and designs at your local hardware store.

Duct tape is durable, strong and waterproof so it makes for an excellent patch in many situations. Here is a list of just a few things:

-        Repair your rain gear: have a tear or rip in a water repellant article of clothing? No problem! Just cut a piece of duct tape to completely cover the hole, inside and out, and it works just as well as it did before you got the rip!

-        Avoid chiggers: when walking through a leafy or wooded area, tuck your pant legs in to your boots and duct tape all the way around to keep chiggers away from your skin.

-        Repair a tent: Have a rip in the side of your tent? Patch over it, inside and out, with duct tape to completely cover the tear.

-        Create a makeshift butterfly bandage: cut duct tape into three small strips, one smaller than the other two. Place the smallest (sticky side to sticky side) across the other two, leaving the width of the smaller strip between the two.

-        Mark your trail: leave small pieces of duct tape on trees or other markers along your path. This works really great if you have neon colored duct tape.

-        Make cordage: duct tape is very strong, so twisting one piece of duct tape into a makeshift cord may be good enough, but if you need something stronger twist multiple pieces together.

-        Affix a bandage: you don’t want the “glue” of duct tape to affix to a wound, but take a piece of gauze or cotton completely covering your wound and cover with duct tape.

-        Close a hole in your water bottle/container: clean and dry the surface and affix enough duct tape over the hole, since it is waterproof you will not have any more leaks.

-        Mend shoes/clothing: apply duct tape to torn/ripped/cut area. If you have an iron to iron over the duct tape it will make the repair more permanent.

-        Repair a broken fishing pole: Did your fishing pole snap? Find a sturdy stick nearby and duct tape it to the pole (piecing it back together of course). Make sure the stick overlaps the broken section and the duct tape completely covers this section.

There seem to be countless uses to this wonder-tape and it is a must have in any survival situation. Oh yea did I mention the prom drees duct tape? click here to see duct tape prom dresses.

Miley Cyrus making U.S. look bad

From our friends at Survival Cave Food:

Miley Cyrus making U.S. look bad

If you haven’t had the chance to check out a video of Miley Cyrus’ collaboration with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV MVA’s your eyes should be thanking you. Thickes’ summer sensation “Blurred Lines” certainly makes you want to dance . . . but not like that. The former Disney star has done a complete 180 with her racy outfit, twerky dance moves and downright off-putting mouth gestures. Is this how our current generation of tweens and teens are acting?!

An often but fleeting thought is how our country appears to others around the world. Our politicians and celebrities are the focus of media not just in our country but in many other countries and this is what they see. They see Presidents, Mayors and Congressmen in sex scandals. They see a fascination (one I don’t really understand) with the Kardashian family. And now they see Miley Cyrus embarrassing herself and others on stage with her grotesque display of hypersexuality. US Weekly reports that Thicke is bummed over being overshadowed on his big night and he probably wouldn’t have included Cyrus if he knew she would out act the way she did.

http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/miley-cyrus-team-freaking-out-robin-thicke-bummed-after-vmas-2013268

There are people starving around the world, people homeless, people who are dying from preventable diseases, and here in the U.S. we choose to flaunt our lavish lifestyles and sing songs saying “I’ll do what I want” (thank you again Miley). The rest of the world has to see our country as a complete joke. We had it all, freedom from Britain, a lavish land that was fertile; we had “The American Dream”…for a while at least. But we have squandered it, taken it for granted, and now we are left with an out of control government, most of the country living in poverty, and all we seem to care about is what the hottest celebrity is tweeting.

We were once a world super power. The rest of the world actually looked to us as an example, asked for our help and valued us as an ally. It’s a depressing fact, but we are a joke to the rest of the world and Miley Cyrus is just the latest in a long line of crazed celebrity acts, pinning our flamboyant culture with tags lines of what not to do.

This isn’t just my opinion either. The Huffington Post reported on a story that NBC produced just a year ago in conjunction with the BBC and World Opinion.org that clearly shows the rest of the world thinks we Americans are “over the top” and that America “has the most negative influence” on the rest of the world. Oh yeah, and the vast majority view China as the world’s leading economic power. Overall it isn’t just our political stance in the world, but our bad manners, disrespectful attitudes and overt sexuality that are off-putting to the entirety of the world.

As a society we are in desperate need of change. I just hope we can. Still want to see that video? Ok so click here and see what the rest of the world sees!

Snake Bite Safety

From our friends at Survival Cave Food:

Snake Bite Safety

Unfortunately for many outdoorsmen, poisonous snakes are still prowling around in the most inconvenient places. Sometimes, you can step on one, or too close to one, and their instincts tell them to strike to protect themselves. While bites from poisonous snakes can’t always be avoided, they can be treatable and manageable when you know the steps.

First you should know that most snakes will avoid you at all costs. There are very few snakes (namely the South East Asian King Cobra and the African Mamba) who will attack a human out of aggression, and even so that will seldom happen. Almost all snake accidents are because a human does not hear or see a snake and will walk too close or step on them.

Even though snakes avoid you at all costs, you should still make it a point to avoid them at all costs. When outdoors, don’t sleep next to bushes, tall grass, large rocks, or trees. Snakes will hang out there, especially at night, so it’s best to sleep in open clearings. If you want to be extra careful, mosquito netting underneath a sleeping bag will usually deter them. Don’t stick your hands in dark places when you don’t know what’s in there (you’d think this wouldn’t even need to be said, but apparently lots of people don’t think that through). Don’t pick up a dead snake without cutting off the head first. The nervous system is often still active after a snake has died and it can still bite. When hiking, look at the ground and where you’re going to be stepping, and you’ll hardly ever have any problems.

Usually it’s pretty hard to tell if a snake is poisonous. Most snakes that the average person will come across won’t be poisonous, but if you’re bitten and you think it could be poisonous, call 911. Better yet, call poison control so they can help you identify what might have bit you. If you live in North America, the most common poisonous snakes are pit vipers (AKA rattle snakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths) and coral snakes.

You can divide most poisonous snakes into two groups: proteroglypha and solenglypha. Proteroglypha has a “fixed” fang (meaning they are always erect) and usually delivers a neurotoxin, which will usually cause troubled breathing. A solenoglypha will have a “folded”(meaning the fangs will protrude when needed)  fang that usually delivers a hemotoxin, which affect your circulatory system. This will cause danged skin tissues and internal hemorrhaging. Unfortunately for us, most snakes have both types of venom, though one type will usually be more dominant.

The severity of a snake bite depends on a few things: where you were bitten, the size and category of snake, and the age and health of the person that got bitten. Sometimes, a snake will bite without delivery the poison. If the snake did deliver poison, symptoms will most likely occur within 8 to 12 hours, but you should never wait until you experience symptoms. However, symptoms can sometimes show up to two weeks after the bite.

If you or someone with you is bitten by a snake bite, they should be taken to a physician immediately. You make wash the wound with soap and water. Try not to move the area that has been bitten. IA tourniquet may be applied two to four inches above the bite, but two fingers should be able to fit underneath. If the tourniquet is too tight, it will block arterial flow and can worsen tissue damage. The myth that you should suck out the venom is simply that: a myth. However, a venom extractor found in most commercial kits can prove to be helpful when applied for about 30 minutes. Unfortunately the use of these extractors are still debated between experts, so never rely on the device.  Never apply ice to the wound – it could worsen the bite.

The hospital will always know what to do in case of a snakebite. Usually, it’s treated with anti-venom or a through cleansing of the wound and observation afterwards. Just remember to stay calm and let your doctor do all the work!