In today's age of modern technology, including indoor heat, air conditioning, microwave ovens and fast food, outdoor living skills are mostly for camping trips and hiking excursions. But learning these skills can come in handy during natural disasters or for helping kids through programs like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Outdoor living skills may not be necessary on a daily basis, but you never know when they're going to come in handy.
Starting a Fire
Perhaps one of the most essential survival skills, fire starting has a number of different benefits. A well-made fire provides heat, comfort, safety from wild animals and a heat source for cooking while in the wild. Various methods exist for starting a fire, ranging from the easy---matches or similar lighting devices such as a lighter---to difficult, such as using items found in the woods to make a fire plow. A fire plow uses a sturdy stick and a long piece of wood to create friction enough to produce sparks. Not only are the right materials necessary to make the plow, you need the right kind of natural material, such as wood fibers, to catch the sparks and start the fire.
Knot Tying
Whether you're building a shelter, a make-shift bridge or a carrying device, knot tying is a skill essential to surviving in the outdoors. Hundreds of different knots exist for hundreds of different practical applications. Learning how to tie knots goes hand-in-hand with learning what those knots are best used for. The square knot is one of the simplest and most easy to learn knots and has several practical applications, such as fastening two ropes to each other to make a longer rope.
Hunting and Fishing
To survive in the outdoors for any extended period of time, you'll have to eventually learn how to find your own food. Basic fishing equipment such as a rod, reel, hooks and bait can come in handy when trying to bring fish home for dinner. If you lack the basic hunting equipment such as a rifle or bow and arrow, you'll have to learn trapping skills. Traps are effective tools for catching wild animals in their natural environment without having to chase around for them. Part of hunting and fishing also includes how to properly skin and gut the animal in order to prepare it for cooking.
Member Comments