Weekend Training

[JUSTIFIED]

I was one of the ones that had never been. I too stopped scooping macaroni and looked around for a second. The thought I had was the someone kicked an ant hill. The OWA was in motion. I didn't see one idle body. What was suppose to be a three hour job we did in just over one..not bad at all.
Thank you Karen for organizing this.

Ditto to thanks, Karen! First timer here. I enjoyed myself and enjoyed meeting folks. Patriot Lady wished she'd felt up to going. I hope we go back soon!

Cimarron whose that stud muffin you've got pictures of?

[Karen]

You're all welcome! Glad to do it and I'm already on the waiting list to do this again. I love that the OWA's work like a well trained team! Thank you all for making this so much fun :-)

[Cimarron]

Cimarron whose that stud muffin you've got pictures of?

Umm..I dunno, either Matt or Grand..they look so much alike it's hard to tell which one it is in this picture :p

[Grand58742]

Umm..I dunno, either Matt or Grand..they look so much alike it's hard to tell which one it is in this picture :p

Matt will never look this sexy!

I'm too sexy for the cannery, too sexy for the cannery, no way I'm vacuum packing!

(Yeah, I had a good time too)

[JUSTIFIED]

Umm..I dunno, either Matt or Grand..they look so much alike it's hard to tell which one it is in this picture :p

LOL I thought both pics were of me and just took a closer look. One of them looks like someone else. Whoever it is I'm not calling a stud muffin! LOL

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Little Piggy
Little piggy required killing, butchering, and prepping for being cooked in the ground. This was a class for everyone as I have killed everything that walk, crawls, swims or breathes near me but had never removed hair n hide by scraping and boiling water. He was put down with a well-placed .22 shot behind the ear entering the brain causing no immediate trauma and resulting in enough nervous movement so that when we opened the artery it still bled well. The discussion of the importance of the knowledge and study of anatomy was stressed because in the absence of killing experience that is what you will be relying on and when combined makes it an easy tasking.



We then utilized boiling water and scraping to remove the hide which was much easier than I would have believed. The hot water should not be underused as it does most of the work.

The head was them removed. In a survival situation many “parts” would be used and consumed that we do not normally do as truth be known many of us don’t like the “parts”.
Once that was accomplished we removed the innards (gutting) and went slow so everyone was able to absorb what was being done. We discussed the inspection of parts such as the liver for disease and the utilization of the creature’s bladder, glands etc. for cover scent on our boots and clothing.




The use of a gut hook, a $6 investment, was shown and the benefits are easily seen during the procedure. I use the term procedure loosely as these are not the hands of a surgeon but a shade tree butcher.



The pelvic bone was then broken in a manner that doesn’t require the use of a saw but slight pressure applied to the correct place.



Continued:

[Matt In Oklahoma]

We then removed the hooves and spiced and marinated the beautiful piece of meat up and readied it for the pit which remained to be dug.
We dug the pit in freshly rained on soil which was a blessing, cut the grate and emplaced the brick stands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QzRbOBbq7A&feature=youtu.be

Speaking of blessings it is one to have the ability to do this at a leisurely pace in the company of those who are of the same mind in a totally friendly atmosphere where much needed jokes and humor was abound with quality people in the greatest country in the world.
Team Karen then got up at odarkthirty and in spite a light rain managed to cook the little guy to a mouthwatering prize meal. Now that the pit and grates are done it’s just a matter of refinement for an alternate permanent cooking method.


many other things were accomplished this weekend as well and I will post on them later
Cont:

[Matt In Oklahoma]

NEXT:
Candle Making
This is being posted on behalf of Team Karen who led this event. We made several different types of candles this weekend. The first type was the emergency shortening candle using small leftover cans.
This is something I can see being used in an emergency situation that is quick, cheap and easy because most all of the materials are common. It’s not too technical and provides immediate gratification.

We all left with several candles to utilize whenever needed. If I can ever rig up a paperclip rack I’m gonna cook bacon on mine! LOL

Continued:

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Next Candle was a regular wax candle in which a waterbath method was used to cook the wax down to melting point and pour into the cans for holding.
A small amount of wax was pour and cooled to hold the wick in place till the full can was poured.
Several methods were used to hold the wick in place with the hole in foil top seeming to be the preferred method.
I can see how a large batch of these could be quickly made if you knew/thought an event was coming or even listened to a talk show where dooooomsday was predicted LOL.







Continued:

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I made one with the antelope fat that I had rendered.

https://www.survivalandpreparednessforum.com/showthread.php?4899-Rendering-Tallow&highlight=antelope

Team Hit N Miss made an interesting setup in a tin and brought it in to show as well.
I really like this idea and wouldn

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Cont:

Senario
The scenario given to the role player was this:
You are at dinner at a restaurant and something is going to happen. You have been trained over the past several months on certain items and that combined with skills such as stress shooting in IPSC etc you have the needed tools to get thru this. 3 role players were given airsoft handguns.



No other instructions were given.

Now behind the scene a role player in soft body armor and a helmet with full face protection was geared up and entered the area and stated

[Cimarron]

As one of the members at this exercise I'll go first and hopefully others will jump in and give their thoughts or comments.

I'll be the first to admit I was the slowest of the group to act.
In this simulation we were a dinner party at a restraunt. The scenario started with the dining members seated and one was a hostess. Roleplay started and we were ordering drinks when the hostess left. We were all talking and joking (which would be realistic of a real life setting)
I had my head turned to my right and was talking and the shooter came to the table from my left. I did not see them approach the table. They just appeared.
I turned to see a person standing there say something and then shoot one of our party. There was a moment of hesitation as one of our party went down and then someone had the inclination to shoot back taking the aggressor down. As others were moving about I slowly got up and approached our down member..poor Sharpshooter was laying on the ground with a severe gun shot wound..
I gave absolutely no thought to the shooter, if they were still active, or they had possession of their gun and could shoot again.
I stood over the team as they administered first aid and slowly thought of what I could be doing. In my mind what I thought was just seconds was closer to two minutes. This is where time is critical and you may only have a few minutes to save someone..

As I drove home I went over the training exercise and two thoughts kept coming to my mind.

1) What could I have done faster or more efficiently? Because someone was taking care of first aid doesn't mean there aren't other important things to cover.

2) What if I wasn't in a group of LMI's and I was the only one to act? How would I do all that, or have the mind to take charge and direct others into action?

Another thing that I remembered. Quite a few years ago I worked in sales and our sales staff would get together and roleplay with one of us pretending to be a customer. They would come in and ask hard questions or behave rudely and we would practice our sales "skills" to be ready when this happened. It helped our sales team giving them a perspective of different situations that can occur. Now, praciticing sales skills is no where as critical or tense as roleplaying a life and death situation but I hope you get my meaning.

[1Admin]

Excellent!!! Cool deal guys!!

I gotta tell ya- the O.W.A. is the envy of everyone on this site! Great job!

[Grand58742]

Another thing that I remembered. Quite a few years ago I worked in sales and our sales staff would get together and roleplay with one of us pretending to be a customer. They would come in and ask hard questions or behave rudely and we would practice our sales "skills" to be ready when this happened. It helped our sales team giving them a perspective of different situations that can occur. Now, praciticing sales skills is no where as critical or tense as roleplaying a life and death situation but I hope you get my meaning.

While it might not be the same thing as what you faced, it is the same in a matter of perspective. Role playing and "what if" means you are ahead of the game and have thought about situations in advance. While you cannot possibly think of every single possibility in a likely scenario, chances are you are still more prepared than 99% of the folks because you are getting in the analytical mindset of tearing down a situation at the speed of thought and working through to an eventual outcome.

And that's what these situations teach believe it or not. While it may be considered "instinct" it actually comes down to analytical thought process and best actions based on a given set of conditions. The fine line is not to over think a situation and not react at all. But, as Matt hammers on, by using super fast analytical thinking, the OODA loop is used instead of "I was trained to react this way so I will act this way." The motions might be practiced, like shooting or close quarters self defense, but overall, it's in your brain to determine whether or not you will jump left instead of right, draw while seated instead of drawing while standing up, rush an attacker and put them on the defensive instead of standing your ground so on and so forth as every situation is going to be different. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act all in a matter of four single thoughts at the speed of said thoughts.

So even your role playing as a sales person can and is valuable as it gives you the basis for the OODA loop. Observe an irate customer demanding action. Orient your defensive strategy to counter said irate actions. Decide on the best course of action. And finally act on said decisions. And while you are acting, you are thinking of the next counter and/or what the other person did to counter the actions you just performed. Hence the loop portion. So in a manner of speaking, there is no difference in role playing an irate customer or a defensive life and death situation...just different actions you might take.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Excellent!!! Cool deal guys!!

I gotta tell ya- the O.W.A. is the envy of everyone on this site! Great job!

I honestly can not see any reason why everyone here shouldnt be involved in this type of activity. Rather than barber shop discussion all the things wrong in the country which equals the plan of inaction to the opposite extreme of running around bayoneting trees to death we got together, made candles, a tangible needed asset that will be used long before many items of coolio factor - worked on martial arts skills, a useable skill set - ran thru a scenario, a more realistic approach to mating skill sets we have learned - cooked a pig in the ground, learned and/or practiced butchering techniques, made a reusable pit that can be made a permanant fixture if desired with a few tweeks and had a heck of a meal.
This particular weekend required extra effort with the time involved over what we normally do however the reward was worth it IMO.
The amount of discussion was incredible and at times hard to keep up with. Was everything perfect? Absolutley not, in fact some was aggrevating however it isnt going to be perfect. You must work thru things now, not later but now.
I can not stress enough that you need to find others in your area, work, train and do something together. Just dicussing things isnt enough. Too much talk and too little action = the same problem we already have in this country. I know it's hard to find LMIs. Truth is we arent always that close on Like Mindedness on many subjects but our common goal is the same and that is what is the most important part. Some drive a considerable distance to do this stuff. There is no requirements, no secret pinkie handshake, no secret agenda just some folks that had a pig roast and worked on a few things that are now in better shape than 2 days ago.