temperature and retaining mental sharpness. In order for a man to be healthy and entirely functional, he needs to have access to an amount of water that will get him through the day.
It is best to suspect that all water is contaminated. Lentic, smelly ponds are a source of infected and dirty water. However, they can also be drinkable, if necessary. On the other hand, clean, cold, free-flowing water which is rich in oxygen and which seems to be safe for consummation without purification can be the source of many stomach problems. First, one must always seek for the cleanest source of water, one that is the freshest and the healthiest without any trace of pollution. After water has been collected, one needs to extract any kind of substance that has accumulated.
The best way to do this is to fasten a watertight cloth when decanting the liquid from one (polluted) container into the other (clean) one. One of the methods includes filtering inside the bottle by using rocks and sand. If you do not have a bottle, you will need to improvize and, in such a situation, use a sock. The layers of rocks and sand will remove the dirty particles of the polluted water leaving it clean enough to be further refined with boiling. When this is done, the water needs to be thoroughly boiled (you should boil it at least 5 minutes in order to have it safe for drinking). Before going to sleep, you will need to boil enough water for the next day, store it and leave it on an open space so it can cool down.
Fire is very important for survival. It dries clothes, is the best source of heat, it cooks food, boils water, gives light during nighttime, removes insects and so on. Having the possibility to make fire and maintain it is a skill that needs to be mastered and improved. As a part of the equipment, one should always carry a trusty mode of starting a fire (matches, lighter). Also, we should all need to know how to light a fire the way our ancestors did – without using matches, because anyone can find oneself in a situation where he or she needs to survive without them or without any other contemporary mode of making fire. Three major components are necessary in order to do this – fuel, oxygen and heat.
Also, in order to do this effectively, an unlimited amount of each of the listed component needs to be available. The driest possible piece of wood needs to be secured as well as a sufficient amount of it, depending on the purpose. In a damp or windy weather one needs to make sure that there are enough twigs or smaller trees available.
The primitive way of making fire is by friction. This underestimated method is useful because you can almost always find all the necessary materials. After the equipment is collected, a couple of seconds are enough time needed to make fire. From all the methods that include friction, the method of using a bow and a drill (i.e. bowdrill) is the most efficient and safe to use in every possible environment.
One needs to make a drill, 20 cm in length and 2 cm wide and round one end in order to make a larger surface for friction. The other end which is held and which a person pushes down with a handle needs to be made into a smaller surface so unnecessary friction can be avoided.