Okay, so we spend a fair amount of time practicing and learning survival skills. How to build debris shelters and how to start fire with a bow drill. But the recent thread on making clothes got me thinking. I've learned a lot of survival skills without even noticing thats what they were.

So much of what you learn in the kitchen translates directly to survival. I think a good survival course could be spent almost entirely in the kitchen and then moved outside. Knife handling, fire safety, cooking and keeping clean are all survival skills I learned first in the kitchen. They only difference is you don't have a counter or refrigeration in the woods. But if you can sharpen a kitchen knife you can sharpen a hunting knife. If you can disassemble a chicken, you can disassemble a rabbit. Fish are exactly the same. If you understand bread, you can make it anywhere. If you don't wash your hands, don't cook things well, you'll get sick and it doesn't matter where you are.

Sewing is another survival skill I didn't notice learning. I think I learned sewing first in elementary school art class. Then I made denim stuff sacks out of old jeans and finally I learned how to do leather work. But if I tear up my jacket or pants in the woods or even my boots I can fix them. As long as I have needle and thread I can repair or make all kinds of things I might need.

I learned use a map and compass the same way. I learned how to do it just being in the woods or riding in a car, and then ROTC and later geology refined my skills. But if I get lost I can probably get myself found.

Don't get me wrong, I think practicing survival skills is important. If you've never cooked over a fire with out utensils you're going to mess it up. And pitching a tent is a far cry from building a lean to, but there are tons and tons of things we learn how to do with out ever thinking about them as survival skills.

Hmmm... fascinating thought! Very very true as well. Many people have never cooked for themselves. I remember one of my friends trying to figure out how to use a can opener, and this was back in college.

Imagine someone like that out in the woods!?!

There are so many skills that translate into survival skills. Just basic knife safety could mean the difference in a stressful situation.

In essence, we are surviving every day. I think surviving is easy, its Living that can be hard at times, if that makes any sense.

I think for most people, survival comes in a whole new color when things like cold, wet, hunger, fatigue, and fear are involved. Worst still if working with injuries. Knife handling in the kitchen is good and all, but its a whole new world when its dark, raining and you haven't slept or eaten for three days. This kind of stuff can only be appreciated and learned one way.

The hard way.

That being said, there are a lots of thing we can do at home while in relative safety to help counter these things when we do face them. Go light a fire in the back yard when its raining, Sleep outside on the deck when its cold. all that jazz. It all helps. I became a master at using a spark tool just by lighting my fireplace with it long before ever attempting to take it afield.

Have you noticed that there seem to be two groups of people: The 'A' people who do things, and the 'B' people who have things done for them.

A-people do things, don't know everything, but know that lots of information they have gained from doing some things will often translate to other things. At least they have a clue as to what might work and what probably won't.

The B-people either pay others to take care of them, or just whine and complain until someone gets tired of hearing it and does the job just to shut them up. They are putting themselves in a dangerous position should any kind of emergency strike.

A woman I used to work with said she never did anything because she didn't want to look stupid. I guess she never considered how stupid she would look after a major earthquake, crying and twisting her hands, unable to function, because she has nothing in her head to fall back on.

Emergency personnel must get very frustrated when they are overwhelmed by people who simply don't have a clue and never will.

Sue

"...Emergency personnel must get very frustrated when they are overwhelmed by people who simply don't have a clue and never will..."

Oh Yeah!!! California freeways are full of them...

All depends on how you define 'survival skills'. Earning a living is a survival skill, however I choose to do it. Political skills are clearly survival skills: mine deserted me once, causing an abrupt decline in earnings and a survival crisis ensued. Field dressing a moose is a survival skill-but so is the skill set needed to parent a child, or drive a car. Heck, participating in conceiving a child is a species-level survival skill; maybe we should devote more time to developing kits and training for it.
Heinlein's book "Tunnel in the Sky" reflects the continuum of skills involved in individual, group and societal survival in an entertaining and insightful way. Yes, it is one of the Heinlein Juveniles-I get lots of my survival books from the kids section of the library, cuz that's where Heinlein's and Gary Paulsen's books are kept. Chairs are really uncomfortable in that section. The kids can be pretty cruel, too, but I'll survive...

It's not all that long ago that what many of us call "survival" skills were simply "life" skills.

And really, it's the things that we pick up along the way that we can transfer into other situations that are going to be the most useful. Kitchen knife skills translate to using a knife in the field...you might not be julienning anything, but you need to remember to keep the part that could harm you away from parts of your body that could get harmed.

How do we define then what a "survival" situation is? Any situation, of varying degrees that one does not expect to encounter? I didn't expect to honk off that guy driving to work this morning, but I avoided/diffused his road rage by backing off a little, and letting him go on his way. Aggressive animals usually respond to aggression with more aggression. For all I know, that guy might have been pulling out a gun, just looking for an excuse to release some frustration...but I will never know for sure. I survived that situation because of the skills I've learned as a driver, a teacher, a martial artist and a person.

Could survival be as simple as "making it through still breathing with most of your body parts attached"?

And as I've said before, there is a difference between surviving and surviving comfortably...I choose the latter...so I keep starting up the firebowl with the MagFire, so when it's cold, rainy and nasty out, and that fire could be the difference between still breathing and not still breathing, I'll have practiced my skills to perfection.

I just love Heinlein!

Whether it be wilderness survival skills, firearms training, accident avoidance, or anything else that requires fine motor skills, most people mistakenly believe when it really counts (or their life is on the line) they will somehow rise to the occasion.

In reality, one is much more likely to find that their skills default to the level of their training, and more than likely they will only be half as good as they were on their best day camping, at the range, driving, or whatever.

Jim