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How to Live Comfortably for Several Years
in a Hostile Wilderness Environment

Copyright © January 10, 2014 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.

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Click here and you will be taken to the Amazon web page that features this book.

ISBN: 978-0985035822
Type of Book: Paperback
Book Size: 8.5 inches by 11 inches
Number of Pages: 74
Number of Full Color Pictures: 72
Number of Sketches in Black and White: 7
Normal Price: $14.95

The majority of the information in this book is not on my web site.
For 2.5 years I sold some of the information in this book as a 35-page "e-book" on my web site for $10 per copy.
I have updated and significantly expanded the original 35-page "e-book" into the current paperback book that now contains 74 pages.

Note 1: This book is eligible for Free Shipping if your total Amazon order is $25.00 or more. However, you must choose the Free Shipping option that will appear on your final checkout screen before you transmit your order. If you do not click on Free Shipping then Amazon will charge you a shipping fee for this book.

Note 2: The title of this book was originally "How to Survive and Thrive for Several Years in a Hostile Wilderness Environment." The original title resulted in the following two problems:

1. The original title was similar to the title of one of my other books called "How to Survive and Thrive During Hard Times" and this caused some confusion about whether or not these two books were separate books or if one book was the updated version of the other book.
   
2. The original title may have given the impression that the book was about primitive "caveman" survival skills. The book does not discuss primitive skills, such as how to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, and this was clearly explained in the Amazon description of the book. But some people bought the book without reading the Amazon description and they were disappointed.
   

The current title of the book "How to Live Comfortably for Several Years in a Hostile Wilderness Environment" will hopefully resolve both of the above two issues. Only the title of the book was changed. The content inside the book was not changed, except for minor editing on the title pages, and the appendix, and the index to reflect the new title information.

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Book Description on Amazon.com

This book does not discuss basic camping techniques.
This book does not discuss primitive woodcraft skills.

This book assumes you intentionally drive a fully loaded vehicle into the woods with the intention of living there for an extended period of time, and that you wish to live a relatively normal life in the wilderness using some of the technology of modern civilization.

The following major topics are systematically discussed in this book:

1. How to select a suitable wilderness environment.
   
2. A complete list of the items you should purchase and take with you, including specific firearm and knife recommendations.
   
3. How to replenish your water and your food from nature, and some practical cooking options in a wilderness environment.
   
4. Some unique shelter alternatives for long-term wilderness survival.
   
5. Some electrical power options for a wilderness shelter, including solar panels, a small portable DVD player, a shortwave radio, and a small microwave oven.
   
6. Some practical strategies for long-term wilderness survival.
   

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Preface to
How to Live Comfortably for Several Years
in a Hostile Wilderness Environment

There are two possible wilderness survival scenarios:

1. You become unexpectedly stranded in a hostile wilderness environment and you need to survive until you are rescued or you gradually make your way back to civilization.
   
2. You intentionally enter a hostile wilderness environment and you intend to live there for an extended period of time.
   

All the survival literature and the survival manuals that I have read focus exclusively on the first scenario above. This is also the primary focus of all military survival manuals. Therefore if the first scenario is the one you have in mind then you can easily find an overwhelming amount of information on that topic.

However, the second scenario is uniquely different. Instead of becoming unexpectedly stranded in a wilderness area, you intentionally enter the wilderness area with the intention of living there for several years. This strategy is not discussed in wilderness survival manuals because their primary focus is on how to survive until you can escape from the wilderness area and return to civilization.

The purpose of this book is to discuss the second scenario and to describe what you should take with you into the wilderness so you can successfully survive for an extended period of time. Some of these items are the same things you would take on a weekend camping trip but most of them are uniquely different. The reason they are different is because at the end of a weekend camping trip you intend to return to civilization instead of remaining in the wilderness for several years.

This book is not about "backpack survival" where a person survives in the wilderness using nothing more than the items he carries on his back. This book assumes you drive a fully loaded vehicle into the wilderness.

The reason I believe I am uniquely qualified to discuss this particular subject is because I spent approximately 6 months living in the backwoods of Maine with my wife and our three small preschool age children from June to November of 1975 while I was building a rustic log cabin using pine trees that grew on the 12 acres of land we had purchased. After returning to "civilization" in late November of 1975 I continued to study about pioneer life and wilderness survival.

During the past forty years I have personally tested a wide variety of recommended "textbook survival procedures" and I have discovered which ones are truly reliable and which ones are almost completely worthless from a practical perspective. Therefore I have accumulated a tremendous amount of practical hands-on knowledge on this topic. And it has all been tempered by my real-life experience of living in a hostile wilderness environment in the backwoods of Maine during the summer and fall of 1975.

Therefore the suggestions in this book were not simply copied from a survival manual. Although some of the information in this book can be found in some survival manuals, the vast majority of the information in this book is from my own personal files and it is based on my own personal life experiences.

One of the advantages of receiving wilderness survival instruction from an old man is that he no longer has the desire to prove that he can conquer the wilderness with a good hunting knife and the will to survive. An old man more fully appreciates the comforts of civilization and the advantages of modern technology. Therefore he will employ as much of that technology as is reasonable to make his family as comfortable as possible in the wilderness.

Respectfully,
Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. (Grandpappy)
January 1, 2014

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Table of Contents

Most of the information in this book is not on my web site.
For 2.5 years I sold some of this information as a 35-page "e-book" on my web site for $10 per copy.
I have updated and significantly expanded the original 35-page "e-book" into the current paperback book that now contains 74 pages.

Chapter		Page
1	Introduction to Long-Term Wilderness Survival	1
2	A Different Perspective About Wilderness Survival	3
3	How to Select a Suitable Wilderness Environment	5
4	What Should You Take With You into the Wilderness?	7
5	A Complete List of the Additional Items You Will Need	9
6	Firearms and Knives that are Absolutely Necessary for Wilderness Survival	15
7	Water for Drinking and for Personal Hygiene	19
8	Food Recommendations and How to Replenish Your Food Supplies from Nature	27
9	Practical Cooking Options in a Wilderness Environment	33
10	Propane as a Cooking and Heating Fuel	37
11	Electrical Power Options for a Wilderness Shelter	39
12	Shelter Alternatives for Long-Term Wilderness Survival	43
13	Equipment Waist Belts and Waist Packs	51
14	Some Additional Issues about Long-Term Wilderness Survival	53
15	Some Practical Strategies for Long-Term Wilderness Survival	55
	Appendix One: Basic Construction Plans for an Underground Home	59
	Appendix Two: Practical Wilderness Survival Information Available on the Internet	64
	Appendix Three: Links to Free Survival Information on Grandpappy's Web Site	65
	Appendix Four: Recommended Books for Basic Wilderness Survival	66
	Index	67
	About the Author	70

Click here and you will be taken to the Amazon web page that features this book.

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Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com