Survival Hacks When Less is More: Alternate Uses for Common Old West Items

[Tsalagidave]

With so many worried about our dependence on tech-luxury, here's a few hacks from our frontier past...
Survival Hacks When Less is More: Alternate Uses for Common Old West Items

How Did Old West Travelers Treat Life's Little Emergencies Without Towns or Stores Nearby? Here are Some Ideas on Making Do With What Little You May Have in Your Bullet Pouch, Bedroll, and Saddle Bags

Anyone reading this will know a few hacks of their own. Either a grandparent's sage advice or friendly conversation with a venerable elder, reminiscing about "back in my day..." has left you with some gem of advice that you have used to impress friends with. Here's a few more for the collection...


When traveling the 19th century American Frontier, a variety of problems can come up and in many cases, the only thing available is in the bullet pouch, pockets or saddle bags. These little 'hacks' are more than just interesting topics, they were essential nuggets of knowledge that many of our frontier ancestors used. I used some content from my previous article on frontier medicine since it was appropriate to explain the medical properties of some everyday items. The rest is from my new book coming soon.

For more reading, follow the link:
https://www.frontieramericanillustratednews.com/post/survival-hacks-when-less-is-more-alternate-uses-for-common-old-west-items-1

[Abilene]

very interesting, thanks.  BTW, I hate the word hack - way too modern. 

[Tsalagidave]

Thanks Abilene, almost 60 percent of my demographics are now Millennials and younger, so I adjust the vernacular to fit the SEO better. This hobby has almost completely skipped the last 2-generations and I'm trying to do my little part to help work on that.  One of them said something to me that really stuck. He said "You Gen-X'ers and the Baby Boomers call us a bunch of idiots and wimps because we don't know a lot of this stuff but the truth is, half of us didn't even have dads, and most of the other half didn't have dads who could teach us this kind of stuff. The closest a lot of us get to even having a dad or getting mentoring is from watching videos and reading articles from older guys like you."  I think that for way too long, the younger generations have been treated more like the enemies to this hobby than the heirs to it.  I took a hiatus from the site to finish my main book (624 pages and 150k+ words), and in the process, wound up with enough material to get the other 3 books in the series well underway. It has been a fun project pursuing a lifelong passion, but now that my daughter is away in the Army, I want to do something more meaningful than just hanging out with my rancher buddies all the time. I've been talking about this long enough; now I want to see if I can at least put a dent in it.

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[Dave T]

"...almost 60 percent of my demographics are now Millennials and younger, so I adjust the vernacular..."

Dave,

You and I have discussed this before and I conceed you are right. But...I'm with Abilene in not liking the modern, computer related terminology.  (smile...'cause I don't do Moji's, or how ever you spell it!)

Dave

[Abilene]

T-dave: I get it, and anything you can do that piques the interest of younger folks in history is a good thing!

Dave T: I got my 1st smartphone a couple years ago when the service ceased for my old flip-phone.  When I text, I have to look through a thousand different emojis to find the simple smiley face and frowny face, and those are almost all I use.   

[Tsalagidave]

For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of much of the modern terminology; I don't even like the term 'bushcraft' because 'woodcraft' has been the proper vernacular since the latter half of the 1800s. I even wrote the Frontier Plainsman's guidebook in period first person because those who buy the book are going to make the time to sit and read through it.  The internet is a different animal. I have on average, no more than 1.5 seconds for a browser to see my link and make a decision to either click on it or keep on scrolling. Even when someone clicks through, I only get an average of 5 minutes read time although I break that rule a lot.

This calls for choosing imagery that will (hopefully) appeal the best to the target readership. The vernacular is harder because it changes with the current zeitgeist regularly. This is often trial and error. For instance, the term 'bedroll' was not at all common period vernacular, but when I used it on my "bedroll" article and also put in "bushcraft" as a search word, participation shot up.

I love the traditional ways and I wish I could keep it pure, but that's only going to happen in my print literature. For the online stuff, I have to wear the marketing manager ballcap whether I like it or not.

-Dave

[Mogorilla]

My survival practice is multi level.   1st one is when I lose the remote.   How long can I survive?   Proud to say I have made it 4 days, although that was because we had no power. 

Okay, seriously I do at least once a year start a fire, from gathering to using flint/steel.   We have a fire pit for my practice area.  Funny was my neighbor watching and him calling out he would loan me some matches, just as my bundle took light and I got the fire going.   Timing could not have been more ideal.