Tips to Survive A Zombie Apocalypse

The URL was going to include the word Zombie, but I had to ditch it so it could fit. A lot of these tips will help in any disaster situation, so it is kinda fitting anyway.

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The Rule of Threes

As many of you will already know, when it comes to survival there is a rule of threes. It's a simple and effective way to explain what we need to survive. You can survive up to: 3 minutes without air 3 hours without shelter 3 days without water 3 weeks without food Shelter The three hour rule for shelter is dependent on circumstance. If the temperature is warm, even at night, the chances are you can last a lot longer than 3 hours, even when sleeping outside. However, sleeping outside is an extremely bad idea when in a zombie apocalypse. However, if it's winter, staying still, especially sleeping outside, greatly reduces your chances of survival. Even if you're not outside for 3 hours, you risk catching hypothermia or pneumonia. It's because of this that shelter is very important. Abandoned hourses, abandoned buildings of any kind, will serve as good shelter. Even an abandoned car will just fine. As long as it keeps you out of the rain, snow and wind, it'll do. Water Water is something else that will vary from person to person. Some might last longer, some might not. Keeping spare water on you is a good idea. Under the Water section of the Survival page on this blog there will, if there aren't already, be ways of collecting, filtering and purifying water. Food Food, like water, is something that will vary from person to person. However, after so long, you will start to get sick, even if it's not been 3 weeks, and there is a point where you need special foods to be able to get your digestive system working properly again. Obviously these won't be available in an apocalyptic situation. This is why most of the food section on this blog is going to be devoted to finding food in the wild. There is an abundance of food in the wild and it will continue to grow for many years to come. There is no reason why you should go hungry if you learn to live off the land. Air Now, with air, that's obvious. I don't really need to say much about it. You stop breathing for 3 minutes, even if you can start breathing again, you might be brain damaged. There's quite a bit of air within the atmosphere and, without so much pollution, you might even find the air fresher. To survive when it comes to air you just need to... ya know... not stop breathing. If you do have breathing difficulties, or an illness which affects your respiratory system, a good idea is to stock up on whatever medicine will help. At some point, I'll also be including a few herbal remedies that can help with things like asthma.

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Food for Storage: Pasta

Before everything goes to hell, some of you may be wanting to stock up on foods. A lot of people will immediately go for tinned/canned foods, which are great, however, one you may also want to consider is pasta. Specifically, dried pasta. The reason why food goes mouldy is because of moisture in it. The less moisture a food has, the longer it'll last before going mouldy. Dried pasta has all of the moisture sucked out of it, so it lasts a very long time. To show you, I took a picture of the bag of pasta currently in my cupboard downstairs.

In case you can't quite make it out, the date is Aug 2015 and, as of writing this, it's currently November 2013. Now, I eat pasta maybe once or twice a week. This bag was probably bought late August or early October of this year. Which means it's another two years before it goes past it's sell by date. Two years is a long time when you consider that other foods will be going off withing days, weeks or months. A good large stockpile of pasta will keep for years, and help ensure that you have the food you need. Other benefits of pasta are that cooking it serves a dual purpose. If you don't already know, to cook pasta you need to boil it for about 20 minutes. Boiling is also a means of purifying water. This means that, as you cook the pasta, you are also purifying the water and making it safe to drink. However, when you boil water, some of it is wasted, so be wary of this. Pasta is also a good source of:

Complex Carbohyrdates, which provide more long lasting energy than simple sugars, which provide a quick burst of energy.

Iron and several B Vitamins

It is an excellent source of fibre

Anti-oxidants

Magnesium

Vitamin E

It's very good for maintaining a well balanced diet. As a final tip, storing spaghetti would be better than other types of pasta. It may be long but it's very thin, which means you can fit more into the space you've got. Due to the shapes of other forms of pasta, such as fusilli or macaroni, there are gaps and spaces. It may not seem like much but it adds up. Spaghetti doesn't have that problem.

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Pros and Cons of Blunt Weapons

This will be a general list of pros and cons, going into explanation on some points. It is NOT about any specific blunt weapon. Pros

There is no ammo, you'll never find yourself running out of ammo in a tight spot

Blunt weapons made from metal are extremely durable and unlikely to break

Blunt weapons need little to no upkeep to keep them functional

Blunt weapons will not get stuck inside a zombie or a piece of wood (should you miss)

Blunt weapons, especially those made from wood, are relatively light-weight

You don't need any particular skills to operate a blunt weapon effectively

Some blunt weapons can double as other tools (like hammers or crowbars)

You can find them all over the place

Cons

Blunt weapons made of wood risk being broken with repeated use, use on something too hard or used with too much force

There is a very limited range with blunt weapons

It may sometimes take more than one swing to take someone or something down, which will take more energy and strength

A blunt weapon isn't much of a deterrent against other hostile people, especially if they have guns

Blunt weapons can sometimes be clumsy, especially if they are heavy headed (like a hammer)

I may add to this list as time goes on, however I'll be going into more detail on individual weapons.

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Water Collection: Home-Made Water Filter

When the infrastructure of the country breaks down, there'll be no more tap water, no more bottled water. It's a good idea to keep a stockpile of bottled water just in case, however, that will inevitably run out. There are a number of methods of collecting water, however, once you have water, you need to be able to make it drinkable. The best first step in making water drinkable is the one pictured above. It is a home-made water filter and can be made pretty easily. What this will do is remove a number of particulates from the water, making it safer to drink. Method To begin with, you'll need a plastic bag. Poke a few holes in the bottom of the bag or tie it so that there's a hole in the bottom. Next, you need to fill the bag with alternating layers of the following, in any order that you'd like, leaving a space at the top to pour the water in:

Rocks

Sand

Cloth (make sure to use both fine and coarse cloth)

You can also add charcoal to the bag. It won't filter out any particulates but it will improve the odor of the water. If you do use charcoal, make sure you add a layer of cloth underneath it. Once you have your desired layers, suspend the bag above the ground. Make sure you have something underneath to collect the water in. Then just pour the water in and let it filter down. Notes All of these materials are easy to find. People use gravel in their gardens all the time. Sand is readily available in gardening shops and isn't a high value item so will most likely be left in the event of an apocalypse. Old shirts or curtains can be used for cloth. Charcoal from a burnt out fire can be used. It is a good idea to have multiple filter bags, as it will increase the efficiency of your water filtering. IMPORTANT: Filtering is NOT the same as purifying. Filtering water means getting rid of any bits in it. Drinking filtered water alone may still be dangerous and could potentially cause health risks. You will need to filter water AND purify it. (X)

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Survival Foods: Common Stinging Nettles

I think everyone on here will know of common stinging nettles. They're one of the most common and most well known weeds that grow in many different parts of the world. The little stinging buggers are everywhere where I live. Entire fields are covered in the things. As it turns out though, the common stinging nettle is a fantastic multi-vitamin health food. Nutritional Information Nettles are known to contain:

Vitamin A, C, E, F, K, P

Vitamin B- complexes as well as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B-6 all of which are found in high levels and act as antioxidents.

Zinc

Iron

Magnesium

Copper

Selenium

Boron

Bromine

Calcium

Chlorine

Chlorophyll

Potassium

Phosphorus

Sodium

Iodine

Chromium

Silicon

Sulfur

As you can see, the common stinging nettle contains most of the nutrients that we need to survive. Nettles are a wonder plant in an apocalyptic situation. They are everywhere, not many people realise their nutritional value, and they provide you with most of what you need to survive. Handling I want to note, they are called "stinging nettles" for a reason. They can and will sting you if you handle them without gloves. Unless you have an allergic reaction, the stings won't be fatal, but they will irritate your skin for, potentially, hours. To prevent this, a simple pair of gloves will suffice. You can find gardening gloves almost anywhere and gardening gloves would be a good thing to include in your pre-prepared kit, should you make one. Preparing and Cooking Blanching As you will probably know, nettles will sting you. Due to this, you can't eat them straight off. To get rid of the stinging, the main method used is to blanch the nettles. One way to do this is to put the nettles into boiling water, for about 30 seconds, until the nettles wilt. Then you remove them from the boiling water and put them into cold water. Another way to blanch the nettles is to leave them near a fire for a few minutes until the plants completely wilt. Once the nettles have been blanched, you can eat them in a variety of different ways. You can eat them on their own if you wish, put them into soup or stew, make a tea from them. There are many different things you can do. Warnings There are some possible side effects to eating stinging nettles. They are a diuretic, which means they will increase urine flow. This can be helpful in some situations but if used in excess it could lead to kidney troubles. Nettles have also been known to lower blood sugar levels in people. If you have diabetes, this could lead to complications and issues. Nettles have also been known to lower blood pressure. If you already have low blood pressure it could lead to complications with this. If you're pregnant or breast-feeding, it's not recommended that you eat nettles. As previously mentioned, touching nettles without gloves can cause skin irritation. Remember to blanch the nettles before touching them with bare skin. For more information on nettles, see this video which will go through a number of things I've already mentioned, for anyone who prefers a video guide. The video also goes through Jewelweed.

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Okay, my blog is now built. From time to time I will be improving and adding on other things, but for the time being it will be done. The tagging system will be broken down into 3 categories Pre-Preparedness Survival Tips Weapons Guide The three categories will then be broken down into sub categories. Pre-Preparedness will be general preparedness. Survival will be broken down into general survival tips, water, food and fire. Weapons will be broken down into blunt, sharp, projectile and gun. Each title of the sub categories will lead to my blog's tagged page for each of them. For instance, if you click on the "Food" category title, you'll be directed to all posts tagged as food. Each sub category will contain a list of all posts relevant to the category and each item of the list will lead to a single post. So, for instance, if you want to know the nutritional benefits of nettles, click on the "Nettles" link in the Food sub category and it'll take you to that specific post. Each post will have a link back to the page you came from. To get to these pages, click Survival Guide Master Page on my blog home page in the links at the side.

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I'm still currently in the process of building this blog, so there may not be any content for a while. However, I am working on it and I'll begin uploading content soon :D