I Highly Reccomend this.

Hello again..... I highly recommend that my blog readers look into this. During a disaster, or any survival situation, help could be hours away from you. I think that it is important that people go out, and take some basic classes to help. Granted, you will not be a doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but a little medical knowledge can mean the difference between life and death. I know that we come from all walks of life and all areas, so I have done my research to assist you all to the best of my ability. I want to be frank for a moment with this, as I am sure we are all aware of CPR classes that are always open to the public to attend. These are wonderful classes, but in a disaster or survival situation, unless you are able to get to proper care which includes, an AED, oxygen and medication quickly, the chances of someone surviving from a cardiac arrest situation are slim to none. That statement does not mean that I do not support CPR classes, because in deed I do. I hold CPR certification myself, and I highly recommend each and every reader of my blog to get certified in CPR. In a non disaster or survival situation, you can save a life with CPR. There are many places that teach CPR to the public. I suggest you contact your local fire department and inquire if they hold community CPR classes for the public. If they do not, they can point to you a place that does usually. If that fails, go to www.heart.org , the American Heart Association page. At the top of that page is a link that says CPR & ECC. Click on that link. Towards the bottom of that page you will see a link for Find A CPR Class. Please, feel free to take a CPR class, usually you only pay for the card that is issued to you. CPR is good for 2 years.

In addition to CPR I highly recommend that all my readers go out and take a basic first aid course. A first aid course will cover a lot of the items that I cover on my blog, but it will be well worth the effort for you, because of the first hand practice. Now if you go through the American Heart Association for your CPR class, talk to the instructor about their First Aid Class. It is well worth the time and effort. Not only will it benefit you in a disaster and survival situation, but in every day life as well. We all know injuries happen to people at all hours of the day and night. I have worked in Fire-Rescue for over 10 years now, and I can say first hand, that people who know basic First Aid are wonderful bystanders, because they can assist a person before EMS arrives and know the basics of what to do.

Some areas and places take first aid a bit further and offer a course for Wilderness First Aid. If you can find a wilderness first aid course, please do not hesitate to take it. I can only describe it as first aid on steroids. They will teach you more in depth, about what to do while you are actually in the wild more so than a regular first aid class. You will not regret ever taking one of these classes usually, because you will find something useful in that class. The knowledge of first aid and cpr can be very valuable, but only if you take the classes. You can read my blog, and gain the general knowledge of the skills, but practice is still very important, and I can not send you a card saying you are certified. Now,  I am not also saying, dont read my blog, because again, I will cover things that you may not learn in first aid, or more in depth than what you learned in first aid.

Until next time.. Stay Safe...

Country Boy

Types of Fractures

Hello again. I know I have been busy here these past few hours making posts, but knowledge is valuable to the people only when they have access to it! In this blog I want to discuss the two most common type of fractures, or broken bones, that you will find. These are known as the closed fracture, or simple fracture and the compound fracture, also known as an open fracture. There is a huge difference between the two, not only in the fracture, but in the dangers associated with them. An closed or simple fracture is not to complex. It involves any bone with in the body that becomes broken and the bone ends do not protrude thru the skin its self. The most common symptoms of this include, pain, lack of movement, swelling, and bruising. These fractures can be treated pretty easily, and is covered in the blog, on no, your friend fell and you heard a pop. A compound or open fracture however, is a totally different creature. This is a type of fracture where the bone end actually will exit the skin, creating an open wound. These types of fractures are a bit more complex in their management. They are also prone to more complications than a closed fracture. To show you the difference, below you will find Pic 1 of a simple fracture, and pic 2 of a compound fracture.

Pic 2

Pic 1

   

As you can see in Pic 1, there is a slight bend to the arm, where there should be no bend. But in comparison with Pic 2, you can clearly see the bone exits the skin. The management for both of these fractures, is different and we will get into that a bit more later in this blog.

Again, till next time, stay safe all.....

Country Boy

Oh No! Your friend has fallen, and you heard a pop.

Your walking along in the woods with a friend, and he trips and falls and  you hear a loud snap from his arm. Its clear what happened, he must have broken his arm, its deformed and he says it hurts a lot. Now the question is, what do you do? You are several miles in the woods, no where near a public road, and help would be hours away. Does this sound like a scary situation for any of you? I hope this post is able to ease some of that fear you may have.

Pic 2

Pic 1

When you are in a situation such as this, if you are in the wilderness, you have all kinds of resources at your disposal to help in this situation. First and foremost, you need to check for a pulse below the injury. This is a very important step, because if there is no pulse below the injury, the chances of loosing the limb very high. A lack of blood flow will lead to tissue and cell death. If there is a pulse you are in good shape. However, if there is no pulse, we will cover later in another post. Lets assume that there is a good strong pulse below the injury. Now you need to find a way to splint arm. You can use anything to splint with, from news papers, to sticks, to tent poles. The most important part of splinting, is you want to tie above and below the injury. You never want to tie a splint on top of an injury. Doing that can cause further damage to the limb. You also want to ensure that when you tie it, you don't cut off blood flow to the rest of the limb. Pic 1 is a basic picture of a lower arm with a board for a splint. As you can see the fingers are curled, and it is tied above and below the injury. In the second picture is an arm in a splint, sling and swath.. The reason behind the swing and swath, is to eliminate any play and bounce that the arm may experience which will cause additional pain. To make a sling, you need to take something that you can use to raise and hold the injury up, and in place. Usually a triangle bandage or cravat is used, but not everyone will have access to that item. As long as it supports the weight of the limb anything really can be used. A swath is just securing the arm tightly against the chest. This covers the basic first aid for a closed arm fracture, known as a simple fracture. It is important to seek medical assistance as soon as possible to ensure its properly set to allow proper healing.

Now  lets talk about some materials you can use to make this splint. If you are in the woods, saplings, limbs, and branches make a great splint. But you still need a way to tie it. You can use anything from duck tape, electrical tape, to clothing. If you use tape, you need to make sure to make a padding of some sort to ensure that it does not stick to the skin, as pulling of hair is very painful. I recommend that you use ace bandages or cravats type bandages to tie it. The main goal is to limit the movement of the broken bone. You can give the person some ibuprofen to help with swelling and pain, but they may not help immediately. 

I hope you found this helpful, if you have any questions feel free to comment and I will try to answer them as quickly as I can. This blog is for reference only and not intended to make you a trained medical professional. Until later, stay safe out there...

Country Boy

What is in your bag?

We all have a bag or some of us even have several bags that we have coined to be our bug out bags. The question is, what do we keep in our bags? For example and to give advise, I am blogging about the contents of one of my bags, to get you guys an idea what I carry and the reason behind it.

In my bag, there are 5 pairs of socks. We all have experienced wet feet at some point I'm sure. Wet feet are not good in a survival situation, as it can lead to fungal infections such as athletes foot, and general discomfort. Dry socks are important. Now along with socks, there is a need for clean underwear as well. These two go hand in hand, for almost the same reasons, fungal infections are not fun. Athletes foot and jock itch are no fun when you are in a survival situation so the need to have dry and clean socks and underwear are very important. T shirts are also in my bag, and again, I have 5. Wet clothing can lead to hypothermia, so being able to put on dry shirts and pants are important, as well as it can help with adding layers in cooler or cold weather. So following the previous reason, I also carry a spare pair of pants and outer shirt. To assist in cold weather, there is a pair of thermal underwear, two watch caps and a pair of gloves. That covers the basic of clothing that I carry in the bag, so now lets move on to health and hygiene products. I have a rather large zip lock bag that contains first aid items. For first aid I pack 3 ace bandages, a handful of band aids, a few gauze pads, 2 rolls of gauze, a small amount of tape, and a few over the counter pain medications. This is about all that one person will be able to do first aid wise by their self. For hygiene I carry a pack of unscented baby wipes to keep parts of the body clean and they can also serve as toilet paper where needed. I have a bottle of foot powder to try and keep the feet clean, dry and happy. Nail clippers are very important and serve many purposes other than the obvious.  To conserve water, I carry tooth paste and a tooth brush, but would only use them as needed, not on a regular basis. In an abundance of water, I would use them on a more regular basis. Now for survival products, there is a whole gambit of items we could carry, and it is a personal choice as to what we all carry. What works for me, might not work for you and the other way around. I carry 3 means of fire starting. I carry two bic lighters, 2 boxes of waterproof matches, and one magnesium fire starter. Along with them, I have a small container of tinder that is easy to start. In a survival situation fire is one of the most important factors. Not only does it provide heat, a source of cooking and purifying water, but it can be a signal. With out fire, there is no heat when it is cold, so to me, I want to have at least two back ups to making fire. I carry two means of purifying water as well. I have two bottles of water purification tablets in the bag, and a home made set up for distilling water. For food I carry some trail mix, and a few granola bars for protein and calories. For lights I pack a few flashlights with spare batteries, a few tea sized candles, and light sticks. I prefer the light sticks, because of their ease to use, lack of batteries, and no chance of fire if used in a tent. For those near water, they know about bugs such as gnats and mosquitoes, which are two reasons that I carry a mosquito net. Bug bites are not fun, they itch and can become infected. I carry a small fishing kit, which contains a backpacking style pole, sinkers, hooks, leaders, and a few types of artificial bait. The ability to find your own food is very important when you have no store that you can buy food from. I also carry a sleeping back and 2 person tent attached to the bag. One never knows where they may end up having to stop to sleep, and having a tent and sleeping bag can be very important. A smaller tent is easier to put up in tight spaces, and easier to heat. I am sure that a lot of you carry more than what I have, or less than what I carry. I would enjoy hearing your feed back as to what you have in your pack. Feel free to comment on this blog. Until next time, stay safe....

Country Boy

Hello and welcome to my blog. You can call me County Boy or CB for short. A few of my friends have been asking me to start a blog for some time on survival and preparedness, so I have finally decided to do just that. I will say now, I am not an expert on either subject, but I don't feel that any one person is an expert on them as well. You will find blogs on training, methods, equipment, product reviews, and other subjects here. There are also occasional polls. If you have a topic you want me to cover, please feel free to let me know. Feel free to comment on any of my blogs as well. Please understand, there will be nothing on this blog that is illegal in nature and any comments on an illegal subject will be removed.  Thanks for visiting, and until next time.... Stay Safe

Country Boy