Leon Pantenburg - Bushcraft Basics: A Common Sense Wilderness Survival Handbook

Copyright 2020 by Leon Pantenburg

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photo credit: Getty Images

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-5191-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-5192-7

Printed in China

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife, Debbie, who got me started writing in the preparedness and survival field many years ago, and my children Dan, Jimmy, and Maryall of you are the reason I prepare for whatever emergencies might happen.

I also appreciate the lessons learned with my siblings, Joan, Linda, Karla, Carmen, Elaine, Susan, and Michaelgrowing up on an Iowa farm taught us the value of self-sufficiency for a lifetime of the unexpectednobody ever had a more supportive backup group or better friends.

Because of my group of cousins, aunts, and uncles, I had a wonderful childhood. And if I could have picked out my nieces and nephews, I could not have done better. The in-laws added later have immensely enriched my life.

Finally, to the memory of James Jimmy Patrick Pantenburg, April 21, 1994 to July 3, 2009, I think about and miss you every day. See ya later!

And thank you, Lord, for the many blessings you continually shower upon me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A survival situation can occur during the most typical times of your life. Whether youre riding home from work and disaster strikes, or you take a wrong turn on a remote road, your life will depend on your reaction.

INTRODUCTION

WHY I STARTED SURVIVAL COMMON SENSE

Ive been an outdoors enthusiast for as long as I can remember. Im outside year round, and my favorite season is whichever season it happens to be at the time.

M y wildest dreams never included editing a bushcrafting and wilderness survival website.

Ive been an outdoor enthusiast for as long as I can remember, and was a Boy Scout leader and Girl Scout volunteer for years as well. In those capacities, I taught or helped to teach bushcrafting, wilderness survival, and various outdoor skills. I did this for fun and never thought about how my teaching skills might be important down the road. During this time, I learned a tremendous amount from other skilled instructors.

Before I retired from my day job in November 2017, I was an instructor and mentor for communications students at Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Oregon. I spent most of my career as a journalist, writing feature stories about interesting people and places, and for years I was an investigative reporter.

Indirectly, that background led to writing a survival blog. In 2006, I was working for The Bulletin newspaper in Bend. Within a one-month period, two people died of hypothermia after becoming lost in the backcountry. Subsequently, I was given an investigative assignment to write a winter survival guide for Central Oregon.

This research opened my eyes. I couldnt believe the widespread misinformation and just plain fake news and articles that were promoted as fact. The result of my assignment was my Winter Survival Guide that was published in 2007. It went over very well, and received several awards.

Concurrently, I was helping teach scouts and kids basic wilderness skills. After one session, a parent commented:

What you teach is so simple and easy. Survival is just common sense. At that instant, I knew that was a title or name for something.

Also, I grew increasingly concerned about the proliferation of reality survival shows on TV. While the shows do get people interested in the concept of survival, most of these programs sacrifice valid information for higher ratings. Some of the participants shenanigans are dangerous, and provide a very bad role model for inexperienced viewers.

My wife, Debbie, tired of hearing me rant and rave about dangerous advice, non-realistic programming, and charlatan survival instructors. She lined up an initial website, and essentially said to me, Put up or shut up. So, I stopped ranting and started writing.

My survival blog, SurvivalCommonSense.com, came online in October, 2009, a few months after my middle son died of cancer. It was a grievous period and I buried my head in writing. The website was a way to focus my thoughts and, hopefully, help keep someone elses family from suffering through a tragedy.

Initially, the website was intended only as a resource for scout volunteers, and I figured a small, select group of scout volunteers might occasionally view it. To my continued amazement and appreciation, people from all over the world follow the site, and now SurvivalCommonSense.com receives thousands of page views daily and has reached hundreds of thousands of people. The Survival Common Sense YouTube page has more than 250 videos with more than eight million views.

Heres why it works. I never claim to know everything. But I do know a lot of experts on survival subjects, and my interviewing skills and investigative experience means my bull alarm is finely-tuned. I question and test everything.

I truly love learning and teaching wilderness skills, and I hope this book gets you interested too!

CHAPTER 1

WHERE TO BEGIN

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Lao Tzu

H urricanes. Flooding. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Forest fires.

It doesnt matter where you live. Chances are there are some potential natural disasters that could change your life. And we are seeing this happen more and more all the time.