Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

How to Carve a BushCraft Wooden Spoon: Step by Step

March 7, 2011
By Creek
Click on the photos to enlarge them

BushCrafting and Spoon carving have a deep history together. Carving wooden utensils and bowls is a classic bushcraft project. Below is a step-by-step pictorial that will help you get through your first Spoon Carving project. Below the photos is a video that will help as well.

Let me know if you have any questions at all! Cheers, Creek


Step # 1: Split a 3″ diameter branch in half. Seasoned wood is preferred.

Step # 2: Trace the outline of the spoon shape you want.

Step # 3: Rough cut the spoon with a sharp axe.

Step # 4: Always chop down the handle, never toward the spoon.

Step # 5: A nice sharp axe will do most of the work for you.

Step # 6: Back view after rough cutting with axe.

Step # 7: Using a knife, start to shape the bottom of the spoon bowl and around the handle.

Step # 8: Once you complete the shape of the spoon, use a Spoon Hook Knife to carve out the spoon bowl.

Step # 9: Carefully carve out the bowl to your desired depth.

Step # 10: Gently sand the spoon with sand paper.

Step # 11: Oil the spoon with Linseed Oil or Mineral Oil every few months.

Step # 12: USE YOUR SPOON – or give it as a gift!


A Mora Spoon Knife can be found in our BushCraft Knife Store if you are interested.


Similar Posts:

• Mora ’bout Spoon Carving
• BUSHCRAFT Camp Chair – FREE PATTERN
• WillowHavenOutdoor – An Official Retailer of Swedish Mora Knives
• Ice Fishing Bushcraft Style
• Mora of Sweden Video Knife Review

About Willow Haven Outdoor & Creek StewartCreek Stewart is the Owner and Lead Instructor at Willow Haven Outdoor - a leading Survival and Preparedness Training Facility located on 21-acres in Central Indiana. For more information on Survival Courses and Clinics offered at WHO, click HERE. Creek is also author of the new book Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit. His book is currently available for preorder on AMAZON.COM for only $11.20 - LIMITED TIME ONLY. If you enjoy Creek's Blog Posts, you will also enjoy his new book. You can contact Creek directly at creek@willowhavenoutdoor.com.


http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/genera...-step-by-step/

BushcraftOnFire on Dec 20, 2010

We have gotten a lot of requests about why something works or doesn't work with the bowdrill. In this video we give you all of the tricks to make a successful Bowdrill fire every time that you try.

Bushcraft On Fire - http://www.yhwhswordoffaith.com/WAS/Survival.htm

CPR For Your Food Storage

March 26, 2012 by Peggy Layton

Raw foods contain enzymes.

Food can be dead or alive. Foods that sprout are considered live foods, and processed food is considered empty and dead.

Most dehydrated fruits and vegetables sold in gallon-sized cans for the purpose of long-term storage are still alive because the drying process is done at a low enough temperature that the enzymes remain intact. Dehydrated and freeze-dried fruits, vegetables, grains, beans and legumes can be purchased at www.peggylayton.com.

Enzymes, the biochemical catalysts in each cell, orchestrate complex biological processes. Every transformation — every nutrient breakdown and transfer — involves enzymes. They are life.

Killing Enzymes
Canned food has no enzymes because, during the canning process, the food is heated to kill bacteria. Unfortunately, the process also destroys what is needed to digest it.

Fresh produce from the grocery store also might be dead. Produce, grain and foodstuffs that are shipped from areas outside of the United States often are irradiated to kill bacteria coming in from the country where the food was grown.

What is irradiation? Purdue University’s Department of Animal Sciences describes the process as such: “Irradiation is a method of preservation which uses ionizing radiation to destroy or inactive many of the microorganisms which cause meat to spoil and cause food-borne illnesses. Because irradiation does not destroy all microorganisms, food treated by irradiation must still be refrigerated or it will spoil.”

That’s a good thing, right? We don’t want meat that will spoil and go rancid. But other foods are irradiated, too. The premise is that this will protect the consumer from harmful bacteria, including Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella and E. coli O157:H7.

The Texas Agricultural Extension Service notes that such bacteria are commonly found on many raw foods. Food irradiation kills harmful bacteria but also kills live enzymes in the food. It’s a double-edged sword. That is why it is vital to purchase organic food, locally grown or homegrown, and make sure it is chemical- and pesticide-free.

Enzymes Keep Your Body Running
Enzymes keep you going. The minute food is harvested or an animal is killed, enzymes jump into action to start breaking it down. That is not good if your food must be shipped a long distance. Most food breaks down within 12-36 hours.

Why is it important that enzymes break down the food? Enzymes start to break down the sugars and carbohydrates so that the food is easier to digest. Without this digestion process, your body has to produce its own enzymes to break down the food.

Chewing food well begins breaking it down for digestion, and the process is aided by enzymes in your saliva.

When we eat mainly processed, cooked and irradiated foods, we place the responsibility on our bodies to produce all of the enzymes to process the food.

The pancreas does the brunt of the work, by producing the enzymes and processing sugars that weren’t broken down. If we overtax the pancreas, what happens? Diabetes.

Dr. Edward Howell, who pioneered enzyme research, notes that when we don’t take in enzymes from their natural source (unprocessed food), the result is: shortened lifespan, illness and lowered resistance to stress.

Humans and animals that mostly eat cooked food have enlarged pancreases because this organ tries to increase its function. What decreases in size because it’s not being used or is not being given the correct amount of nutrition? The brain! Your brain actually shrinks when you eat a diet high in cooked foods.

Some enzymes such as proteases contribute to anti-inflammatory responses. They assist in reducing swelling and reactions to foreign invaders. Our autoimmune responses depend on adequate amounts of enzymes being on board.

Dr. Howell also found in his studies that most animals have digestive enzymes only in the passageway from the stomach down, but not in the mouth. The exception? Humans.

Why? Because animals in their natural environments eat raw food. When the animals chew raw food, the natural enzymes in the food are released.

Because humans don’t eat only raw food, nature helps them with oral enzymes such as amylase, which breaks complex carbohydrates down to sugars that can be available for the body. Lactase breaks down milk sugars. Protease breaks down protein. And sucrase digests sugars.

Columbia University’s Dr. Max Wolf and Dr. Helen Benitez discovered that using both animal- and plant-derived enzymes has a potentiated effect in healing.

New research by Michael W. Loes, M.D. reveals that oral enzyme supplementation may be the new aspirin alternative. Imagine the idea that giving your body naturally occurring enzymes in live food can heal your body.

In times of stress (like now) it is vital that you give your body the enzymes it needs if you want to be able to survive even more devastating and demanding times. The time to boost your body is now, before a crisis!

Get The Enzymes You Need
While almost 3,000 enzymes have been identified, it is estimated that more than 50,000 exist. Plants naturally contain just what we need in order to digest them. So how do we get enzymes into our systems?

1. Grow your own food. The only way to ensure that you are getting all the enzymes a plant or animal has to offer is to grow it yourself. Carefully research the grain and animal feed that goes into your chickens, ducks, goats and cows. Consider your pets’ needs. If they eat enzyme-depleted food, their bodies will have the same problem.
2. Shop organically. Organic meat and produce have many benefits, the main advantage being reduced chemical spraying. There are more enzymes in food grown organically.
3. Take supplemental enzymes. Live greens will provide needed enzymes. If you don’t have live greens, the best thing to do is to add Live Greens Powder to your food storage. Keep it cold in a basement or in the refrigerator or freezer to extend the storage life. You can make a Live Green Powder drink or breakfast smoothie that will have high nutritional value.

Live Green Powder Drink
In a blender, mix:

• 20 ounces of rice or almond milk, fresh milk or reconstituted powdered milk
• 2 frozen bananas or ½ cup of frozen berries, freeze-dried fruit or frozen fruit
• 2 teaspoons Live Greens with Peppermint for digestion support (Click here to learn more.)
• 1-large scoop of your favorite vegetable protein powder
• 1-small scoop of Sunfood powdered Organic Cacao Powder Raw Chocolate
• 1 teaspoon of raw honey
• 20 drops of ION stabilized oxygen, to boost the immune system and oxygenate the blood (Click here for more information on ION. I have amazing testimonials on my website of people getting better from all kinds of ailments because of stabilized oxygen, which helps the body’s immune system fight infections.)

The Live Green products sold at www.peggylayton.com are processed at a very low temperature. At an organic farm in the western Rocky Mountains, young plants are grown in high altitudes that are protected from lower atmosphere pollution access. The soil the greens are grown in is nutrient- and mineral-rich from previous volcanic deposits. Add the clean water from the Rocky Mountain reservoirs, and you have a high-quality product that is nutrient- and enzyme-intense. The Live Green Drink contains peppermint essential oils to aid in digestion. The included greens — alfalfa, barley, wheat, oat grass, spinach and yucca — are probiotic-cultured to add healthy bacteria to your gut to further promote digestion and bioavailability of enzymes. This 100 percent organic product has no chemicals, preservatives, fillers, artificial additives, coloring or flavorings.

I keep protein powder and greens as well as health supplements in my food storage. I rotate them and restock so they don’t expire.

The Live Green Drink costs $29.95. The ingredients in this pint container has 90 servings

One pound of Cacao Powder costs $16.99 (recommended for daily shakes to last about 2 months).

I am the author of seven books on the subject of food storage and survival. If you are interested in any of the books, the Live Greens Powder, Cacao Powder or ION stabilized oxygen to boost the immune system, click here.

–Peggy Layton

CPR For Your Food Storage : Personal Liberty Alerts=

Prepping for the Financially Challenged: Basic Survival Strategies For Apartments and Confined Spaces

Tom Chatham
March 27th, 2012
The American Dream Lost
Comments (59)


The following article has been generously contributed by Tom Chatham, author of the newly released book The American Dream Lost – Economic Survival Strategy for a New Paradigm.

Previously we talked about basic critical preps for apartments. Once these basic elements are secured, you will want to expand your supplies to increase your capabilities. Your expanded supplies will be dictated by three things. They will be based on your individual situation, your personal preferences and your financial capability. The potential list of supplies based on these things is infinite so we won’t try to list all of the conventional items but instead let’s look at some unconventional things.

In the area of sanitation and hygiene it will be important to keep clean. Your cleanliness will be a contributing factor to your overall health. Women have their own special needs so they should plan for this accordingly. Overall you should have a way to shower at least once a week and clean yourself a few times in between. This can be as simple as having a supply of baby wipes and a solar shower to use. With the solar shower just keep in mind that you will need a way to hang it up high that can support 50 or so pounds. One solution to this might be to use a step ladder that supports your shower when you need it and the rest of the time its’ steps can be used to hold small planters such as for sprouts.

As for sanitation you will need to have a good supply of toilet paper but even so you need to plan on the day when you will run out, then what do you do? The yellow pages may help for a while but even that is a limited resource. You may need to have some type of cloth that you can reuse and a way to clean it so you need to figure that out now. One solution may be to keep a small supply of cloth baby diapers which are made for this similar purpose. If you have the resources to maintain cloth diapers then you should be covered.

I have just one final note on sanitation. Your water supply may be limited so you want to make the most from what you have. After you shower you might want to save this grey water for watering your plants. Cut the top off of a milk jug or large plastic bottle, fill it two thirds with sand and punch a few small holes in the bottom, wrap a tightly woven piece of cloth around the bottom and pour your grey water through it catching this filtered water in a container. This should remove most of the soap scum. It would also help if you were to use organic or bio compatible soap with chemicals that your plants can use.

On the subject of water, you will be dependent on whatever local sources you have over the long term. This may be a puddle, pond or river. There are two main problems I see with foraging for water in an emergency situation. Most people will not have the filtering and storage capability that you do and going out in public will advertise this fact. The other thing is, the first problem may lead to you becoming a target of those unprepared and wishing to upgrade their position. Moving around too much in public could be very dangerous.

Because of these dangers it would be much safer long term to have a rain catchment system. For an apartment this is a tricky problem. If you have a balcony you can set up a tarp and channel the rainwater into containers. If you have access to the roof you can set up the same system. A more advanced system might involve having a rain barrel on the roof with a threaded pvc connector that a garden hose can attach to. This hose can be hung over the side of the building and down to your window. The hose can be run through your window and have a shut off valve on it to aid in filling containers. A nylon collapsible type of hose would be easier to store and handle and most of these components could be secured in your apartment until needed. If your apartment is more than about 200 feet from the roof this system may not work because of the weight of the water in the hose. It could actually drag your barrel off of the roof unless it is well secured. This should give you some ideas to ponder as you plan the system that will work best for you.

The conventional approach to food is to store canned and dehydrated goods but this could run out at some point. One way to insure sustained access to food is to grow some of your own. This is difficult in the confined space of an apartment but is possible. If you have a balcony you will have room for more planters but almost all apartments have at least one large window that you can use. You need to grow the most food in the least amount of space so certain plants with a high yield will become obvious. Things such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and peppers that can be grown vertically work well and have a small footprint. Other plants such as carrots, beets, turnips, radishes and lettuce are compact and can be grown in small containers and provide a good yield.

Here is something that most people don’t consider. With a potato tower you can produce up to 100 lbs of potatoes in a container with a footprint of 4 square feet. The plans for this can be found on the net so I won’t go into a lot of details on it. Most people plant a summer garden but don’t think about a winter garden. You may grow some plants in your apartment during the winter but will they live if you have no heat? Things like cabbage, turnips, brussel sprouts, spinach and collards can survive a lot of cold weather and even if you have no heat these things will live and provide you with fresh produce throughout the winter. Two potato towers and a few planters can provide you with a great deal of life sustaining food. In the winter your potato towers can be laid on their side and used as planters for large things like cabbage and collards providing you a good dual use for them.

Here is another plan for providing food throughout the year. If you are allowed to keep pets such as birds then why not keep chickens. You can keep four Rhode Island Red pullets in a cage and be provided with about 2 dozen eggs every week. They will need at least 4 square feet per bird or more if possible. A multilevel cage would work well. For 4 birds you would need 4 bags of lay ration and 1 bag of cracked corn. This 250 lbs of feed would keep your birds fed for about a year. For about $65 worth of feed you would get about 100 dozen eggs, not a bad deal. The egg shells can be fed back to the chickens for extra calcium and any trimmings from your garden would make them very happy birds. The only other thing you would need to stock is a bag of granite grit to feed them to help with digestion. Another good thing to keep in mind is that chicken manure is some of the best fertilizer you can get. Chickens are also very cold hardy as long as you keep them out of the wind so a cold apartment would not bother them.

You could almost survive with nothing more than two potato towers and four chickens. This would provide you with three eggs and over half a pound of potatoes a day. While not ideal it would go a long way towards prevention of starvation and desperation. One last word on apartments, other than security issues regarding two legged critters, the main threats you face are destruction of the building and fire, which may be one and the same. If an earthquake or similar destructive force takes down the building there is not much you can do except make your peace with God and try to get out. With a fire you may have enough time to gather your critical supplies and evacuate. You need to plan on a hasty evacuation and have a list of must take supplies. These will allow you to set up another home and continue caring for yourself. In this instance one special item you might need is a respirator or protective mask to filter out the smoke so that you can make it to the lower levels and escape. This is a very real threat in the city during a grid down situation because water and firefighters may not be available to assist you.

Planning for long term self sufficiency in an area that is not designed for it can be daunting but it can be done if you take the time to think everything through carefully while you have the time. The greatest asset you have is your mind so fill it with all that you can to make the best use of available resources. In the next article we’ll look at single family homes and some things that are unique to that situation.

Tom Chatham is the author of the newly released book The American Dream Lost – Economic Survival Strategy for a New Paradigm.

Also by Tom Chatham: Prepping for the Financially Challenged: A One Month Survival Plan For Under $300

Prepping for the Financially Challenged: Basic Survival Strategies For Small and Confined Spaces

Doomsday Preppers or How to Look Crazy without Even Trying

March 27, 2012
Holly Deyo

How to Stockpile Food – Talk about not even giving the basics! This article is endemic of "everything's OK and I don't even need to do the bare minimum"! Somewhere between these minimalists and the extremists on the History Channel's Doomsday Preppers (who've got it wrong in many areas and makes preparing look crazy), is where you need to be.

It was a near-given that this program would paint preppers as wackadoodles and in this regard, it doesn't disappoint. To be fair, some creative and unique ideas are demonstrated, but then they gum up the works with the ridiculous.

Doomsday Preppers could have been a really good wake-up teaching tool. However their "expert" analysts who rate the preppers' efforts at the end of each segment are exceptionally narrow-visioned. They often overlook important considerations like medicines, fuel, heating, extra clothing, alt. energy, and pet items to name a few in favor of reading from ludicrous scripts. Their experts neglect the whole picture and in nearly every segment they conclude that the prepper's concerns were mostly invalid and score them accordingly. So what is the point of the show?

Most astonishing in one episode the analysts negate the chances of an EMP-induced power grid failure, when NOAA, a notoriously conservative venue, says this is a near certainty. Mainstream has reported on this potentially catastrophic problem for the past 2 or 3 years. Writers of Doomsday Preppers should have done their homework to avoid looking so ignorant.

The only value we see in this program is to share what preps could be made. Forget their extremist sensationalism like wearing gas masks in America for Japan's Fukishima Daiichi meltdown, or keeping $350,000 in stored foods. We have yet to witness a single person here parading around in a gas mask over the last year.

These lengths are meant to look ridiculous and be self-defeating. Was this the program's main purpose? Who is financially capable of spending a half million bucks on dehydrated food? Not many, and the Lord doesn't expect us to, but He does expect us to do what we can and rely on Him for the rest.

By showing people going to such extremes and saying this is the way to prepare, it squashes the heart and desire of those who don't have the financial means or space to do so. SHAME ON THEM! It spurs people to give up before even trying, and the little bit of effort they might have expended, which could save their lives, is crushed before even begun.

Don't buy into National Geographic's self-defeating nonsense. Instead, go to our 100% FREE prep website and make use of the info. It costs you nothing and you can prepare a little bit at a time. But get busy – time's a-wastin' and it may save your life.

Millennium Ark: Hot News

OFF-GRID 101 | Living Off the Grid

OFF-GRID 101 | Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself

Pickup Truck Campers as Bug Out Vehicles, by Wade on the Road


A few years ago, I found myself widowed after 36 years of marriage. Seven months later, I buried my mother after she lost a long battle with colon cancer. I was only 59 but my kids were gone and suddenly I had no family nearby and no one dependent on me. It took a few months to mentally adjust, but during that time I began thinking about re-engaging my life and setting new goals....sort of a bucket list if you will. Two of the things that were on that list were traveling around our country and retiring early if possible.

Retire, I did, and my travels have, and will in the future, include visiting the great national parks and wilderness areas of our country. Also, I am an unabashed fan of Virginia Tech football and enjoy tailgating at the game. My parents had a truck camper when I was a young man and it occurred to me that a truck camper would allow me greater access and enjoyment for both traveling and football games. My parents' camper and truck were gone decades ago, so I began doing my research on the various makes and models and what they offered. I quickly found out that the capabilities and amenities modern truck campers offered were light years beyond what I had experienced using my parents' camper.

I have slept in the open and under shelter halves as a Marine. I’ve also tent camped with my son's scout troop, put up big old wall tents, cooked over a campfire, and used a cat hole. I decided that roughing it is no longer my thing. I wanted to go for more comfort and I decided that I was going to get a camper with a lot of features and buy used to save money. I also needed a truck to transport it. To make a long story short I bought a 2003 Lance 1130 camper and a 2004 F-350 dual rear wheel ("dually") pickup to haul it. Admittedly even for truck campers, this is a big combination but it had all the features I wanted and by buying used I saved thousands of dollars getting both truck and camper combined for around $36,000. Before you sigh and close this article because of the cost, let me assure you that you can buy much less expensive truck campers that can be carried on standard pickups which I bet many of you already have. A quick search on one RV web site while writing this article, yielded 12 campers in the Mid-Atlantic region for sale under $10,000 and at least one was an 11' foot 2011 model.

Good fortune smiled on me and quite unexpectedly, I was recently joined in life by a beautiful lady who had been a neighbor for years. We were acquaintances but didn’t really know each other, but our respective kids swam together on swim team, went to the same schools and we had much in common that drew us together. We were married last year and one of our delights has been using the truck camper for camping and tailgating. My wife has told me that this camper is definitely her idea of “camping,” and our tailgating friends are amazed at the amenities we have right in the parking lot.

We have both been very concerned about our nation's political situation, the danger to our economy and non-conventional threats to our society. We recently began serious prepping activity and are on our way to self-sufficiency should the Schumer hit. We live in a rural area and hope to stay in place if things aren’t too bad, but if we have to, we will bug out and we have what I think is darn near the perfect bug out vehicle. Let me tell you why I think so and why I highly recommend a truck camper.

First, here are some basics for those of you unfamiliar with truck campers. Far from the “camper” shells you see on pickups, a truck camper has at a minimum the following features: A bed, refrigerator, stove, kitchen sink, lighting, heat, and almost all have at least a portable “potty.” The camper sits in the bed of your pickup and has a connection to your truck’s electrical system. The interior is high enough that a six footer can walk easily down the aisle of the camper. A bed rests in the “cab over” section of the camper over the roof of your truck. Most manufacturers’ model numbers reflect the length of the floor of the camper not counting the cab over section. In our case, we have a Lance 1130 which translates to approximately 11 feet of cabin length. Our camper requires a long bed truck but dozens of models are available for short bed trucks. I think all will require you to remove the tailgate. Minimal modifications need to be made to most trucks in the form of tie down brackets and electrical connection and can be installed by an RV dealer for just a few hundred dollars or for much less if you do it yourself.

Most truck campers have many more features than listed above and you’d be hard pressed to find a camper with just those. I’ll use mine as an example and while it has physical capacities larger than most due to its exceptional size, almost all campers have the same features just on a smaller scale.

We have a queen size bed over the cab. This is pretty standard on truck campers these days. Our dinette which seats 4, converts to a bed and over that is a fold down bunk for a child giving us the ability to sleep 4. Most truck campers will sleep 3 or 4 fairly easily.

We have a 40 gallon fresh water tank, 25 gallon gray water tank, and 24 gallon black water tank. The gray and black tanks have a sewer hose for dumping into an RV park’s sewer, or emptying into their dump station or in a pinch, somewhere else We have an electric water pump or can hook up to a standard outdoor water faucet with our fresh water hose. We have A/C and a furnace. The furnace runs on propane The A/C runs on regular 110 volt power but we also have a built in Generac generator. When “shore” power is available such as at a campground, we use it, connecting via a 30 AMP power cable. While we seldom run the A/C when not connected to external power, we can if we want to by using the generator.

Our galley has a 3 burner propane stove, an oven, a microwave and a double sink with counter space. We have a 6 cubic foot “3 way” refrigerator with freezer that runs on A/C, propane or battery power. It automatically switches between power sources based on settings you can manage. We have a hot water heater that can run on propane or electricity. We have cabinet space for utensils, pots and pans, food and cleaning supplies. This doesn’t count the multiple cabinets for clothes, supplies and gear.

Our bathroom (head) has a sink with hot and cold water, a medicine cabinet, a shower stall, powered exhaust vent, and a flush toilet.
We have a flat screen television, with crank up external antenna, AM/FM radio and a Blu Ray player. Other amenities include a back door awning and a large awning on the side. Our windows are generous and all except the front window have screens to allow us plenty of fresh air. We have a powerful ceiling exhaust fan. Outside are power outlets and a gas nipple for connecting an outdoor grill. There is also an external, stow able shower head with hot and cold water.

Despite all of these amenities, a truck camper is designed to be able to ‘boondock” for weeks at a time with no external connections. Our camper has two deep cycle Interstate marine batteries. It has two onboard 30 lb. propane tanks. All of the lighting is 12 volt as are the fans. There is an inverter to run electrical devices from the batteries and we have easily run the lights, television, Blu-Ray player and other things while barely drawing down the batteries. With widely available solar panel re-chargers, and conservative usage of power, you can have power indefinitely. But the campers also have an interface to your vehicle’s electrical system, so by running the truck engine for a while you can charge up your onboard batteries. Also, our onboard Generac can charge the batteries but in a bug out scenario, you’d probably want to avoid that as well as running the truck engine.

Speaking of bug out scenarios, we could load our camper with supplies and be on our way very quickly. As I mentioned, we have an F-350. The truck has huge diesel fuel tanks giving us almost 400 miles range. We have the crew cab which gives us a large cargo area when the rear seats are folded down. Our truck has 4WD and is a dually. Even with the camper mounted, we can still park it in a standard parking space. Now since our rig is pretty long compared to most, we’re not as maneuverable as some but we can still go almost anywhere we want. We could easily drive into the woods, pull it into a secluded spot, throw some camo netting over it and disappear. If you could find a spot near fresh water and be able to expose your solar panel, you could stay out for a long time. Obviously, there are other considerations, such as OPSEC, how much food you brought along or that you cached, and sanitary disposal but there are ways to deal with that and go beyond this article.

A situation that would be most favorable would be owning your own remote piece of land, with water, pre-cached supplies, and good hunting potential. You wouldn’t have to build a shelter or cabin, just drive your camper there. Obviously, a truck camper doesn’t take the place of a cabin or bunker, but it also gives you flexibility and much more comfort than living out in the open. I strongly encourage you to check truck campers out as a family emergency vehicle (FEV) and as something you can enjoy right now while things are “normal.” Many of the prepper’s purchases are something we buy and put away. This is one that you can enjoy all year long, yet can save your life if things get bad.
JWR Adds: Because of space and weight constraints, virtually all vehicular retreat approaches are doomed to failure in anything longer than just a short term disaster. That is, unless you heed Wade's advice. I agree with him that you will need to cache a lot of food, fuel, tools, and other bulky items such as rolls of fencing wire at your retreat property. Without a pre-positioned deep larder, you will become just another statistic. Mobility is great, but inevitably it is just a means to get yourself to a locale with supplies stored in depth and where you have fertile soil and plentiful water to grow crops.

Pickup Truck Campers as Bug Out Vehicles, by Wade on the Road - SurvivalBlog.com