What makes cooking on an open fire different from the kitchen stove? What is noodling? What bit off a finger? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley, the fiction writer's weekly inspiration station for rural life and lifestyles. From historical to postapocalyptic; helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 62. Top Disaster Survival Skills Part Three. Stick around to the end to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now let's get into this. If your character finds themselves in disaster, whether it is a natural disaster or manmade, there are skills they will need to survive and some that will make survival much easier. Your character may have these skills, or it could be somebody with them. Either way, today we will cover five more of them. Number eleven, mental fortitude, aka not mentally panicking. Mental fortitude is one of the most valuable skills that your character can possess. The ability to not panic, to think rationally, and to make decisions that are not swayed by emotions, especially fear, is what sets the average person apart from the people likely to die. Disasters are high stress scenarios. This kind of stress can cause crippling anxiety, depression, irritability, anger, rage, hostility, inability to control one's emotions, and a decrease in cognitive abilities. These include decreased memory functions, concentration, decision making abilities, and more. Some jobs and careers train for this kind of stress. These include, but are not limited to, ER doctors and nurses, military personnel, police, SWAT teams, firefighters, EMs and EMTs, 911 operators, and more. A lesser thought about group of people is the people who grew up in or went through severe abuse. Abuse is a high stress time and they have likely learned to cope with it to survive. Abuse victims often fall back into this as a survival tactic. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how they cope. Number twelve, open fire cooking cooking over an open fire is a skill. It isn't hard to learn, but learning in a disaster scenario is less than ideal. There are some differences between cooking in a kitchen and cooking over an open fire. First, your character will have to make a fire. Not only does this need to be started, but it will also need to have been going long enough to make a good amount of coals. Most foods are cooked over the coals if they are using a dutch oven, which is basically a cast iron pot that has a lid that has a lip that is turned up. They are designed to be able to put coals on top of the lid. These can cook things like bread, cinnamon rolls and more. This is more likely after an apocalypse than after a tsunami. Keep in mind that if they are cooking for several people, they will need to keep a fire going beside the cooking area so that they can rake the new coals over the other coals as they die out. Also, some foods are simmered, so they will be moved to a cooler part of the fire. Next, what are they cooking with? By this, I mean do they have pots and pans and cast iron, or are they cooking on a sheet of metal that they found? Perhaps they're even cooking on top of hot rocks or baking in ash. Each of these will be different. Remember, some metals that they find could contain poisons and toxins, such as lead paint and a lot of other chemicals that I can't pronounce. Not only do they smell awful when heated in fire, but they could also make the food taste bad. However, cooking over an open fire, even with safe cast iron pots, will make a flavor that is not the same as what you cook in the kitchen. This is because they are using wood, there is smoke, and there's ash. Personally, I love the flavor, but I have met a lot of city folk who don't and a lot who do. Something fun for you to throw in for your character. Number 13, how to sharpen a knife. Knives are one of the most important tools that your character can have. This could help with everything from preparing food to cutting strips of cloth for bandages to making feather sticks to help start a fire. I have a whole episode on how to sharpen a knife if you'd like to learn more. Knives have been used since the bronze age and will likely be used long after the apocalypse. I don't know of any people group who did not have some form of a knife, even if it was just a rock. I also have a whole episode on stone knife making called flint napping. If you'd like to learn more about stone knives. Also, if you're writing about the apocalypse, many doomsday preppers have dozens of knives saved just for this. Some even have hundreds of knives. They also have sharpening stones. You can't sharpen knife if you don't have something to sharpen it with. Number 14 signaling for help. This one seems easy, but you would be surprised with the number of people who do not know how or don't think about doing it. These are most common if someone is stranded. This could be after a plane crash on a deserted island, their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and more. The first thing you should know is the signal of three is the international distress signal. It is believed that this came after the SOS in 1906. You see, the Morse code for SOS is three dots, three dashes, and three more dots. Ever since then, people have used this as a signal. There could be three fires close together, three stacks of rocks, three gunshots, and more. I've even once heard of someone hanging three braided vines off of a cliff, and it worked. You could get creative with this one. So why does it make it into a skill? Well, your character will need to know what to do in their scenario. If they're on a deserted island, no one will hear three gunshots. If your character makes a fire, they don't want to do that in high winds. It would risk a forest fire. Common sense and reasoning are not always at their peak in a high stress scenario. This is why this one makes the list. Number 15. Fishing. Okay, I hear you. My character doesn't have fishing gear after disaster.That may very well be true, but stick with me. There are many things that they can do without gear. First off, any small twine, embroidery thread, or things of that nature can be used in an emergency. This can be used by tying them to the end of a stick. Fishing hooks can be made of metal, popkin tabs, wood, wire, and more. Worms can be dug up in most places and used as bait. This will give your character more food. Of course, they could also eat the worms. Another type of hand fishing is noodling. Basically, they're catching the fish with their hand. In my part of the world, this is done with catfish. Simply put, the person finds a catfish den and shoves their hand in it to try to put it inside of the catfish's mouth, using themselves as bait. This can be a struggle to get them out of the water, not lose them, and very importantly, not get stabbed with the catfish whiskers. Yes, their whiskelers will stab you like a knife. An important warning about noodling; your character cannot normally see what is in the hole, under the log or wherever they are putting their hand. Many people have been bitten by snakes, including venomous ones. Many, many more have had turtles bite off digits of their finger and even whole fingers. Another possibility is spear fishing. They can use the knife that we spoke of to make a spear. This is a bit of a learning curve to learn the fish's behavior and that the fish are normally deeper than they look. However, some people will pick up on this skill quickly, others, not so much, but most importantly, people don't tend to give up on this one altogether. Although they might cuss a lot and yell at the fish. Many people even know how to make fish traps. This can be done in shallow water with a bunch of sticks to make a way for them to swim in but not out. There is also a trap that can be made with willow branches, certain types of roots, cattail leaves, and even wire fabric if your character has it. Basically, they make a cone or funnel shape that gets smaller on the way into the trap but has no way to get out. I have never seen fish swim back out of this. Your character could even be good with plastic crafts and make it out of pop bottles they put together. These traps are most often baited with dead fish or parts of a dead fish. Crawfish are sometimes used in my area of the world. Keep in mind that if your character does not have a refrigerator and who doesn't disaster, they will only want to catch what they can eat. If they catch too many, they will be trying to cook and eat rotten fish. Not only will that likely contain food poisoning, but rotten fish stink.
Fun fact:many Native American tribes used fish traps and there are historical records of them teaching settlers how to make and use them. And now for everyone's favorite part. What could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you! Before we get into the best part, if you enjoy this podcast, I hope you'll take a minute to follow, rate and review on your favorite podcasting platform. If you are listening on YouTube, subscribe and hit the like button. Drop me a comment because I love to hear from you. You can find this episode's show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website, alleyhart. com. That's alleyhart. com. Don't forget to share with a friend. And now for everyone's favorite part. Likely to go wrong: your character is catching fish by hand and sticking their hand into what they believe is a catfish den. However, when they stick their hand in, instead of finding a catfish, they have their finger bitten off by a snapping turtle.
Also likely to go wrong:your character is not mentally prepared to deal with the disaster that strikes their life. They struggle to make decisions and suffer with crippling anxiety. your character has a pocket knife with them when the disaster happens. As they use it more and more, the blade becomes dull. However, they do not have a sharpening stone with them to sharpen it. They are stuck with a dull knife.
Also possible to go wrong:your character is using a flare to signal for help. However, the ground is dry and the flare sets off a grass fire. Your character might have to run away from the grass fire. your character scavenged metal to cook on after a plane crash stranded them. When they cook their food on top of the metal, the toxic paint leaches into their food, poisoning them. your character is trying to catch fish by hand and accidentally catches a cotton mouth snake that bites them. This could be deadly.
Unlikely to go wrong:your character has found some potatoes from a destroyed grocery store and is trying to cook them on a campfire. They don't know how to make baked potatoes, but heard that you stick them in the ash. They try it by shoving the potatoes under the firewood and lighting it on fire. When they pull it out, they find it is burned and anything left is covered in ash.
Also unlikely to go wrong:your character is spearfishing and accidentally spears their own foot. your character is cooking on an open fire but doesn't know open fire safety. Some embers are blown out of the fire in a strong wind and cause a forest fire. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities: your character is on a ship that crashes into an island, when the apocalypse happens. Your character tries to make a fire to signal for help, not realizing that no planes or helicopters survived. They could be stuck indefinitely. Also improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities: your character was a doomsday prepper. They had fishing hooks with them when the apocalypse came. One day they go fishing and accidentally get a fishing hook in them. They quickly realize that they don't have a pair of pliers or wire cutters to get it out. This will make it hard and potentially more painful to remove the fishing hook. Thanks for listening. Until next time, happy wordsmithing.