It’s been awhile, but I haven’t forgotten about the survival mini-series. Last time I talked to you about shelters. This time, we’re going deeper into survival and looking at food and water procurement. Shelter is very important for surviving in the wilds, but without food and water, it doesn’t mean anything. I found a lot of this information on the Internet and have provided links to some of the articles. Other information comes from my own Air Force survival instruction and knowledge. Let’s talk about food first.

According to Dr. Alan D. Lieberson, a doctor who wrote an article for Scientific American, “The duration of survival without food is greatly influenced by factors such as body weight, genetic variation, other health considerations, and most importantly, the presence or absence of dehydration.” After doing some of my own research, I found a variable of about 10-30 days, but as Dr. Lieberson pointed out, it depends on each individual. While researching this very topic, I found a helpful little saying that brings it into perspective: Three minutes without air, three days without water, and three weeks without food. In any case, we need food to continue to thrive.

When you start to starve, the body’s metabolism slows down and feelings of fatigue and a drop in mental acuity occur. Simple motor skills begin to shut down, hormone production is disrupted, and your will to survive goes away. As time goes on, the body begins to consume itself to survive which can lead to weight loss (the bad kind), organ damage, and eventually death. Therefore, food is absolutely necessary for continued survival. It doesn’t end there though, knowing what to eat and how to procure it can also be the difference between life and death.

When it comes to surviving, you always have to play a game of risk management. Ask yourself, do the risks outweigh the gains? If so, maybe you might want to rethink your plan. In a long-term survival situation, calories count, so you don’t want to expend a lot of energy if you don’t have to. Hunting sounds great, but it may take a lot more energy than it’s worth; maybe climbing a tree for nuts isn’t worth the risk of injury. I’m not saying hunting game or climbing trees is out of the picture, I’m merely stating that you need to examine all the possibilities and come to an educated conclusion that fits your situation.

As far as food goes, I’ll break it down to three areas: plants, insects, animals. Let’s take a look at the first area, plants. Plants are by far the easiest and possibly the most plentiful source of food you can find in the wild (depending on the area). However, plants can be just as dangerous as anything else, and I can’t stress enough the following fact: DO NOT EAT ANY PLANTS UNLESS YOU CAN POSITIVELY IDENTIFY WHAT YOU ARE EATING. There are some plants out there that are very toxic to humans, and they will make you sick or even kill you. There is an edibility test; however, it is time consuming and still contains risk. The best course of action is to educate yourself beforehand and know what plants are in the area you are traveling through. If you know before you go, you’ll have an idea what you can eat. I can’t stress this enough, you need to be educated on the types of local plants in your area because there are some poisonous look-alikes for safe plants, and unless you know what you are looking for, it could end up making a bad situation worse.

Here are some warning signs of plants to avoid: thorns, shiny leaves, white/yellow berries, milky sap, bitter tastes, plants with leaves in groups of three, fine hairs, and plants with an almond scent. While this isn’t comprehensive, and there are some exceptions to this rule, it’s a good start. Mushrooms are a whole other beast, but follow the same rules, unless you know for a FACT that they are safe, don’t risk eating them.

Here are some known goods that are easily identifiable. Cattails or punks are found near the edges of water sources. They have long stocks and brown “hot-dog” looking part at the top. Many parts of the plant are edible to include the brown part can be eaten in the earlier part of development. The roots can be boiled or eaten raw, as well as the stock and the leaves.

Clovers are another plant that are edible. They can be eaten raw or boiled. Avoid eating these while pregnant.

Dandelions are abundant and can be eaten. The entire plant is edible, although don’t eat the seeds. Also, eat the leaves before they mature otherwise you’ll have to boil them to avoid a bitter taste.

If you live in an arid or desert climate, the prickly pear cactus can be eaten. Just be sure to remove the spines.

The art of foraging plants is extensive and could take an entire book to cover. However, nothing beats hands on training. If there is a class in your area on foraging or identifying edible plants, take it. It could save your life one day. For now, we’re going to move on to insects.

Insects are easy to find and can be highly nutritious. Many cultures survive on a diet of insects and plant all around the world, and if you can get over food aversions, you can also survive on this plentiful bounty. Much like plants though, you have to know what you are eating or you could get stung or poisoned.

When searching for insects, look under rocks, logs, leaves, loose bark or under the dirt. Grasshoppers, crickets, ants, grubs, worms and larvae can be eaten. While most can be eaten raw, some are easier to eat after being cooked. During my training, one of my instructors said if it was much more than an inch long, cook it. Better safe than sorry, especially when it comes to aquatic insects. Avoid insects that are covered in fuzz, brightly colored, slow-moving in the open, and disease carrying (such as flies, and mosquitos). I’d also avoid stinging and known poisonous insects; while some are safe to eat, the risk of procurement may outweigh the gains. Use your best judgment.

Finally, let’s talk about meat. If you are a vegan or vegetarian, then you might just want to skip this part and go straight to water procurement. In my opinion, nothing beats a hot meal when you’re surviving, and having cooked meat can help take the edge off of a bad situation. However, taking game in the field brings its own set of issues. Whether you trap, fish, or hunt an animal, you’re going to have to prepare it for eating. This generally means gutting, skinning, and cleaning the meat. I’m not going to get in to the methods of hunting, fishing and trapping, because that will be another article. I have provided some links below on the procurement and processing of game animals.

First off, once you’ve killed something, you’re going to want to gut it as soon as possible. This helps cool the meat down to prevent spoilage. When it comes to meat, life begins at 40, or in this case, 40 degrees. Meat will spoil quickly at temps above 40 degrees, so it is vital to keep it cool. Be careful not to rupture the intestines when gutting the animal, this will contaminate the meat. You also want to try and keep the carcass clear of flies if possible. Flies carry disease and can transfer that disease to your meal.

When you cook the meat, you want to make sure it is thoroughly cooked in order to kill any bugs or bacteria that may have called that meat home. A good rule of thumb, is if the meat looks discolored or smells funny, don’t eat it. Hunting can be very rewarding, but it can also be very taxing. You have to weigh the benefits to the calorie loss or risk. Also, if you kill a large animal, smoke the meat or turn it into jerky for long term use. A survival situation is the last place you want to be wasteful. Besides, you just killed that animal so you could survive, treat it with respect and use everything you can from its death.

The next step of surviving is water procurement. Without water, you could die within three days. The body needs water to survive, and a lot of other functions depend on that water intake to function, to include eating. Don’t eat anything if you don’t have water. It takes water to digest food properly, and you could speed up the dehydration process by eating without water intake.

Much like food, many factors go into figuring out how much water you need on a daily basis and how long you could actually survive without it. However, a good rule of thumb is that a person needs a gallon of water per day for intake and sanitation needs. Of course, you could get away with less, and probably will have to get away with less in a survival situation. External factors can play a big part in this as well; if it is extremely hot, or you are burning a lot of calories, then you’ll need more water.

Dehydration can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, swelling of the brain, seizures, low blood volume shock, kidney failure, and of course, death. Much like starvation, motor skills will slow or cease, headaches will occur, and the body will begin to shut down. There’s no good gauge for dehydration because everyone is different. If you’re feeling thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. The best bet is to watch the color of your urine. You want your urine to be a clear as possible; dark or yellow urine is a sign that you need more water. To re-hydrate, drink water and try to replace electrolytes if possible. Drinking water alone sometimes isn’t enough, and drinking too much water can be just as dangerous. Electrolytes are the key here. It pays dividends to have an electrolyte powder mix in your survival kit. If you don’t have that, there are many natural recipes that can replace the lost electrolytes. Do some research on what natural herbs and wild veggies grow in your area and know how to make them into a tea or broth.

There are a number of ways to finding water in the wild. Of course, the finding a lake, stream, or pond is the easiest, but also require purification before consumption. Even if the river or stream is fast moving, don’t trust it. You don’t know what’s been in the water upstream, or what kind of bacteria lives in the water. When surviving, a debilitating stomach bug is the last thing you want to deal with.

To purify water, boiling is your best method. Put the water in a metal container if possible, and boil for at least ten minutes. This will kill any of the bugs and bacteria in the water and render it safe to drink. If you can’t boil it, there are other methods such as: water purification tablets, iodine drops, or filtration. I've provided some links below on how some of these methods work, and it’s worth a look. Be prepared and take purification tablets and at least one other method of purification with you whenever you go out into the wild. They make some small filters now that are built into a straw that you can use on the go. A tiny thing like that can life or death.

Now, on to the hard part, what if you are in an area that doesn't have a stream or other open water source? Don’t worry; there are methods of collecting water that you can still utilize to save your life. I’ll explain a couple of these methods, but remember that when it comes to survival, sometimes you think outside the box.

The first method is simply collecting the morning dew off the tall grass or plants. Wrap clothing or a towel around your legs and walk through the tall vegetation in the early morning. The dew will saturate the cloth, which you can then wring out and drink. I wouldn't recommend this method if you think the area has been sprayed with a pesticide though; it will make the water off the plants undrinkable.
 

The next method is a condensation or transpiration bag. I always pack a couple heavy duty plastic sacks with me when I go camping or hunting. You can take the bag and put it on a tree or bush with green vegetation. Let it sit in the sun for a few hours, and you’ll notice condensation collecting in the bag and pooling at the bottom of the bag. This method takes a while, but if you put a few bags out, it can provide you with enough water to keep you alive.

The next method is referred to as a solar still. Dig a hole about 12 inches deep by 12 inches wide. You’ll need a sheet of plastic (again, a good reason to carry plastic sacks). Put a container centered at the bottom of the hole and then surround the container with green vegetation, and then cover the hole with plastics. Use rocks or something heavy to keep the plastic from falling in, and then place a couple of small stones at the center of the plastic sheet to weigh it down slightly. This method won’t produce much water, but some water is better than no water; plus, the water it produces is pure and will not need to be purified. Plus, as the method implies, it distills water, so it can be used near the ocean and will still produce drinkable water.

http://basisgear.com/edible-wild-plants/
Hopefully this post provided you with some good information. It’s always a good idea to be prepared; take food and water with you when you go camping, hiking, or hunting. Have multiple methods of purifying water. Try and be in the best health you can be to make surviving easier. Most of all get educated and trained; I’ve said it before and needs to be repeated, but you have to try these methods out before the shit hits the fan. When you are actually surviving isn’t the time to be trying new things when you could have learned how to properly do those things in a controlled environment.

Coming up next, The Will to Survive. Also, don’t forget to vote on what you want me to cover in the bonus blog post. You can vote here!  I’ll pick the top three topics and share some wisdom. If you don’t see a topic listed in the poll, go ahead and vote other and shoot me a message on what you’d like to know about.

Dr. Lieberson’s Article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-long-can-a-person-sur/

Edibility Test:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/plants-1.php#uet
http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/universal-edibility-test.htm

Plants:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/10/06/surviving-in-the-wild-19-common-edible-plants/
​http://basisgear.com/edible-wild-plants/

Insects:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/survival/survival-food/2010/08/eating-insects-survival
http://survival.outdoorlife.com/blogs/survivalist/2012/11/survival-skills-5-bugs-you-want-eat

Animals:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/food-1.php
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/food-5.php

Water:
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/water-1.php
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml

All the hard work finally paid off. I recently went elk hunting with a good friend of mine that I've known since 9th grade. He met me on a Thursday morning and we loaded up in my truck and set out on our adventures. I'd be lying if I didn't say that our initial adventures were more misadventures. Getting the camper from the rental place and figuring out that I needed a hitch with a higher rise was "fun" and cost us one scissor jack. After a two-hour delay and $100, we were on our way. We had to brave meth-head tweakers, gawking douchers, and a scavenger hunt through Ute lands to get the propane and water filled on the camper. Then, to top it all off, I lost my wedding ring setting up camp.

The next day wasn't much better. Someone had set-up in my spot that I wanted to hunt. We saw them on the trail; a couple of horsemen coming out of the woods like two defeated warriors leaving a battle. That night we decided to hit the glade where I had heard all the cow elk screaming like banshees. After a couple hours of freezing our butts off, we decided to call it a night.

It snowed a lot up there the first two days, which I think was part of the reason we didn't see or hear anything. The next day we decided to go into town to get some more fuel for the generator, as well as some supplies. On the way out, I wanted to check out a couple of spots I scouted on my first trip up there. The sun was out and the weather had turned which made it a nice day. The spot I wanted to check out, was a big open meadow that had a stream running through it. In the middle of the meadow was a small copse of pine trees. When we got out there, we saw some fresh elk tracks that led from one side to the other. We figured it would be a good spot to come back to that evening. On our way down the mountain into town, we saw even more tracks, so we had some alternate spots to sit just in case.

That evening, we set up in the small copse of trees. My buddy on one side, me on the other. This gave us a 360 degree view of the entire open meadow. My buddy started hitting the cow call every ten minutes or so, as well as spraying some cow estrus in the air. We sat for about an hour and a half when the bull came walking out of the trees headed toward us. 

I put a round in my gun which caught the bull's attention (mental note for next year, have the gun ready to go). However, he couldn't see me. I was set up in front of the tree which helped break up my outline. That, coupled with my camouflage patterned clothes (my blaze orange had a pattern as well) helped hide me from its sight. I took aim, and figured it was between 200-250 yards out. My aim was all over the place and I decided I needed to sit on my butt and post up. This in turn created more noise, but the bull still couldn't figure out what the noise was. I took a couple of deep breathes, let my final breath half-way out, and squeezed the trigger.

The shot rang out and the bull jumped a little and turned in a circle. It meandered off to the tree line and stopped. I was trying to see if I hit him, but couldn't see any obvious wounds. He looked back at me from the tree line, and lowered his head. It looked like he was grazing which made me think I missed. I was about to shoot again when he disappeared into the trees.

I met up with my buddy and explained what happened. He was just as excited as I was. We decided to wait 20-30 minutes, and then go check for blood. We wanted to wait just in case I had hit him. That way he wouldn't feel pressured and would hopefully lay down and die. Otherwise, we could end up chasing him all over the mountain. After the time passed (which is forever when you're waiting for something like that) we headed up that way. I found the spot where he was standing when I shot, but I couldn't see any blood. We tracked him to the treeline just to check, and I found a blood trail there! We started tracking him further, but after a moment, we both looked up and saw him laying in the trees. He wasn't more than 20 yards in the treeline.

We ensured he was dead and then started the work. Initially, I couldn't find the entry-wound, although later when we examined the pictures, it's clear as day. I hit him right behind the shoulder, exactly where I was aiming. We found the exit while quartering him.

This was the first time I'd ever quartered an animal, and I found out pretty quickly that the knife I brought wasn't the best choice. Inexperience, doubled with the wrong knife meant it took us three hours to skin and quarter him, and get back to camp. I think next time it will go much faster now that I know what I'm doing, plus I'll ensure I have the right tools.

The next day, we packed up and left. My ring is still up there. I'll probably end up getting a different one, but I want to go back in the spring with a metal detector just for sentimental reasons. I should be getting the meat back from the processors in a few weeks. All in all, it was an experience I'll never forget. I spent time with family and friends both scouting and hunting. I shot my first elk ever. And I've provided us with meat that will last quite some time. I couldn't ask for much more than that.

I spent another night up in the Uintah Mountains. My goal—find elk. I failed. I didn't find any elk. However, I found elk sign (read poop), and I heard what I think could have been cow elk talking to one another (more on that later).

First off, just because I failed at finding any elk, doesn't mean the trip was a total failure. One, I covered a lot of ground while I was out there. I probably hiked a good four miles and covered a lot of distance on my ATV. What did this serve? It let me become familiar with the terrain and the locations I wanted to hunt. It also helped me prepare for when I go back. I now know where I want to camp (with back-up locations just in case) and I have a half-a-dozen spots I think could be good to try and get a good shot at an elk.

Two, I learned that I need to take something to mark my trail. Even though the trail was blazed with these markings (which was a life-saver), it was too dang easy to get lost. I went out twice on the same trail, and lost the same trail each time. You might think it’s easy, especially with the tree markings. Think again. Too many trees out there and that trail was grown over in a lot of spots. When I go back to hunt, I’ll tie small ribbons on the trees at regular intervals to mark my path. I figure I’ll be going out to the sweet spots in low-light to no-light, and having the trail marked could make or break the hunt.

Three, just getting out into nature is a win all by itself. I love the outdoors. I could spend too much time out in the woods if I didn’t have obligations to pull me back. I got to test out my new pack as well as brush up on my land-navigation skills (yes, it will atrophy just like everything else). Plus, you get to find crazy things like this burnt out tree trunk and this hidden wood person.

Will I fill my two elk tags? I don’t know. I do know that there are elk out there. I saw the sign, found wilderness that looked like great elk habitat, and I also heard a bunch of cows talking. Which, by the way sound like a pack of banshees wailing in a chorus. It happened in the morning while I was cooking my breakfast. Not more than a half mile from my camp, it started off as a kind of a cross between an elk bugle and child screaming. Within seconds many more of the same calls answered in a hellish chorus. Then they all died down to silence in about 40 seconds. Really kind of terrifying if you’ve never heard it before.

Elk are kind of sneaky bastards and this will be my second hunt. I’m somewhat flying by the seat of my pants again since I never did much elk hunting growing up. I’m working off what research I’ve done, advice from friends, and pure luck. We’ll see come October whether or not I’ll get lucky and have some meat for the freezer.

I went out a couple weeks ago and took a look at my trail cam again. I was happy to find that I didn't have 300 pictures of cows. Instead I had over 1000 pictures of moving tree limbs. I guess I set it up too close to another tree and whenever the wind would blow, it would register the movement.

Regardless of the wind, I got some interesting pictures. Unfortunately, no buck deer pics. I guess the bucks didn't want to travel that path. However, I did get a close up shot of a doe. At one point she looked right into the camera and said hello, or what the hell is that thing?

Then, the cows returned to enact their sabotage! Once again, the 'effin' cows ate my salt lick! I didn't think they would climb that trail...guess I was wrong. I won't immortalize them by posting any of those pics. What I will post, however, is the strange, flying, stick creatures I caught on camera. Not sure if they are just falling sticks, or what. But I like to believe it was a Sasquatch throwing communication rods in an attempt for some Jacks Links Jerky. 

I made it up to the lake this time. It was more of an overly large pond, but pretty nonetheless. Also, on the way up, I spooked a good amount of doe. One of them decided to not give a crap about me and keep on nomming on the grass. I got a decent pic with my phone. 

Even though I didn't spy any bucks this time, it was fun and totally worth it. I'll be going out to scout again at least one more time before the hunt starts, plus I'll be going to scout in an entirely different region for elk soon. I'll post on both of those adventures.

Just a little under a week ago, I had the chance to head back up the mountain and retrieve the data from my trail camera. I had my ATV out of storage, a fresh SD card, and some new batteries. After work, I got my things together and headed out. I knew time was going to be a factor even with the longer summer days, so I didn't dink around. I found the spot to park, unloaded the ATV and headed up the mountain. It only took a little over 30 minutes to make it to the trail head with the ATV, which beats the 1.5 hours it took to hike up there last time. 

Here's a note to the wise on a matter of survival. Conditioning is key. Last time I hiked up the mountain, I hiked further. This time, it was probably 3/4 of a mile up and I got my ass kicked. The difference? Due to school and a trip to Vegas for a grappling tournament, I hadn't run for two weeks. In those measly two weeks, I lost a lot of conditioning and I could feel it. You always want to keep up on exercise. When the shit hits the fan isn't the time to take up a new exercise routine. Needless to say, when I go back up there, and definitely when the hunt rolls around, I'll be ready.

On my way up, I saw a few doe as well as a couple of cows (not elk, regular cows). That should have been the first tip-off that something wasn't right. I made my way to the trail camera and found it pushed from its original position that it was pointed directly at the trunk of a nearby tree. 

Sabotage! I was pissed and thought that someone had come up here, saw the camera, and decided to sabotage it. In a way, I was correct.

Curious to see what happened, I opened my laptop and threw the SD card in. The first few pictures were alright and included a couple captures of a deer.

The saboteurs of my trail camera were revealed! Cows! A bunch of 'effin' cows decided to come by and eat the salt lick. At some point, I think these cows caught on that they were being recorded. They must have been listening to the current events and thought that maybe the NSA was spying on them. Well one cow didn't think that was cool and decided to shut down my deer spying operations.

After that, all I had was about twenty pictures of the tree trunk. Chalking it up to a learning experience, I changed the SD card, switched the batteries and headed further up the mountain. I found a game trail on the hillside and planted the trail cam there, along with the remaining half of the salt lick. I'll go back up in a couple weeks and see if I have something more to show for my efforts than 300 hundred pictures of paranoid cows. Before I left though, I saw a buck which kept my hopes up. Means I've seen buck deer every time I've ventured up that way.

There was something else on my camera. Something dark and nefarious. It only caught a glimpse of the creature. Some sort of robot deer, or perhaps a Rocky Mountain chupacabra. 

I did a little pre-season scouting the other day. I know, it's still early, but I had some free time and I wanted to take advantage of it. My dad and I met up around eleven and headed out. I decided to take my dogs so they could get some outdoor time and a exercise. I took a day pack with me, which consisted of a Camelback, two bottles of water for the dogs, a granola bar, some fruit, a first aid kit, matches, lighter, TP, hand sanitizer, water purification tablets, trail camera, and a salt lick.

I'd gotten directions and descriptions from a friend at work who had haunted the area,and after double checking the map, we were off. I knew we were in for some hiking, and it turned out to be more than I expected, but it was beautiful country. It ended up being about two, maybe two and half miles up to the top. About a mile up I got confirmation of deer when a buck stood up twenty yards away and we locked eyes. The moment I moved for my camera, it bolted. I was still growing in its antlers, so hard to tell how big it was, but it was a good size buck. I spooked another one close to the same size near the top. Oni, my Doberman, flushed a pine hen which I was able to get a picture of.

Once we it the top, I found a spot to drop my trail cam. It was off the beaten path and in a good spot, at least I hope it was. I'll trek back up there in a week or two and retrieve it, so look forward to some pics of what it captured.

Things I learned: I need to get my ATV out for the next trek, it would have shaved a lot of time and sweat off the venture. Also, in order to effectively hunt the area, I'll need to drive the ATV up to the trailhead and camp. Thant way I will have enough time to get no and get into place before the sun comes up.

The next step after getting my trail camera back, will be camping up there. That way I can observe the deer movement in the morning and evening and get a good feel for what they are doing. I'll probably wait until later in the season for that though.

I drew out a buck deer tag this year for the Stansbury-Oquirrh range in Utah. I've decided I'll run a string of blog posts that show what I do to get ready, my scouting adventures, and of course, the hunt itself. I've applied for some antlerless elk tags as well, so that may make it into the mix. Stay tuned for the first post coming soon!

After my last post on guns, I was asked a series of questions. One of which was how military members/veterans acted around guns vs. civilians. I responded directly to that question, but I think it's a great question, so I wanted to share my opinion with everyone. Keep in mind, these are my opinions and thoughts and aren't meant to be the end-all, be-all.


How do military members act differently around firearms? The major difference you will find, is that all military members have handled a firearm at some point. During basic training, regardless of service, there is a portion where they have qualify with the M-16 rifle. Then, after basic training, the service member is required to maintain proficiency and re-qualify throughout their career. The amount of time between each qualifying period, as well as which weapon(s) depends on a number of factors and could be anywhere from 90 days to three years. Which service the person is in, what job they hold, and how soon they are slated to deploy all play into these factors.


Depending on what your their job in the military is, they might qualify in more than the M-16; i.e. Security Forces, Special Forces, etc...will have a whole myriad of weapons that they train on. The training with these groups will be more in-depth than your regular service member. But, remember, every military person will at least have handled a gun in their career.


Don't let this fool you though, just because they qualified on the weapon doesn't make them a deadly sniper ready to take on the enemy single-handed. Personality and skill play a factor. Shooting skills still make a difference. Some people are great shots when there isn't a time factor, but will get sloppy if they need to shoot fast, as well as the other way around. Some may qualify, but are still nervous around guns and it shows when they are required to carry one.  


The bottom line: the differences are the fact they've been exposed to guns and have to shoot them on a scheduled timeline whereas civilians are not subject to the same exposure.

Practice makes perfect. Repetition builds muscle memory. Consistency is the key. We’ve all heard these phrases from time to time. Generally, we hear them in with regards to sports, martial arts, fishing, music, performance and such. However, I think they apply to writing as well.

Things get easier when it becomes habit. I’ve found that it becomes easier to write if I write at the same time each day. It’s as if my body expects it to happen, and my mind gets in the right place. I’ve read strategies and habits from different successful writers, and something keeps popping up. They all write at the same time each day, and they all write in the same place each day. 

I've played around with different approaches to remain constant in my writing. I've tried writing for time, word-count, and most recently, until I felt as if I accomplished something. Personally, I don't think any method is superior to another; however, try them out and see what works. I read a blog post by Chuck Wendig (check it out here) that said if you write 350 words a day for 260 days, by the end of the year you'll have over 90K words. 350 words is nothing. Find what works the best for you and stick with it. If it's word count, great. If it's time, get out your stopwatch. If it's until you feel good about it, wonderful. Whatever works, works. Just keep at it and keep it consistent.

The bottom line -- it’s about getting words out first. The magic of revision can come later and should come later. Spew your rough draft out and then pick the quality pieces out of the primordial ooze.