Raising Beef on a Small Homestead – Part 1, by K.R.

Raising beef cattle may be outside the comfort zone of many Survival Blog readers, but it doesn’t need to be. At least that is what my wife and I found out. Doing so on a small, manageable scale has significantly upgraded our level of land management, food preparation, and enjoyment. Now we can’t imaging our high altitude (6,500 feet) American Redoubt retreat without full freezers of steaks, roasts, and burgers, all the nutritious compost we could ever hope for, and our two Highland cows roaming our mountainous 20 acres. Many might say that, “I’ve never raised livestock and want to …


Survival Gardening: The Most Vital Prep – Part 3, by T.J. Dixon

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) Your crops should be started indoors 4 to 6 weeks before you’re ready to put them out. Since your space is small to start, you will only need one or two 72 cell starter trays; you can also use egg trays or make pots from rolled up paper. When you are selecting your seeds look for heirloom or “open-pollinated” seeds; they will be labeled on the seed packet. Since you will be harvesting next year’s seeds from your little garden, you do not want hybrid seeds. Heirloom and open-pollinated seeds will reproduce …


Survival Gardening: The Most Vital Prep – Part 2, by T.J. Dixon

(Continued from Part 1.) The planting process starts by seeding most crops indoors under artificial lights about 4-6 weeks before it is time to plant them outside; Here, refer to the USDA Hardiness information for planting times. Most crops need from 60 to 90 days to mature after you’ve transplanted. In Zone 5, I start spring seeds indoors in February, summer seeds indoors in April and fall seeds in July. Once things have sprouted, they need to be transitioned outside. You cannot just take a plant from the low light of the indoors into the full power of the sun …


Survival Gardening: The Most Vital Prep – Part 1, by T.J. Dixon

Many of us would regard someone with one year of freeze-dried food as a good example of someone who is prepared. They are ready to ride out the storm when a major Without Rule of Law (WROL) scenario comes along. The issue then becomes, what happens after that first year? Even if they escape mob violence because they have effective self-defense supplies and have trained both at the gun club and in tactical scenarios, they will be out of food in one short year. While they have may all the medical supplies to handle small and large emergencies throughout that …


Planting Productive Orchards, by David K.

When someone says the word ‘orchard,’ most people begin to immediately conjure images of fall and vast acres of fruit trees, hayrides, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, apple harvests, making cider, and so forth. But to those with a preparedness mindset, the word ‘orchard’ also implies benefits like self-sufficiency, the attraction of wild game for hunting/trapping, diversified protein sources, fur for blankets, boots, hats, coats, and gloves, as well as bartering. The term ‘orchard’ can have broader connotations beyond your typical fruit tree acreage. For many, myself included, the term ’orchard’ stretches beyond fruit trees and includes nut trees, berry bushes, …


One Year Review: Blackhawk Trident Boots, by Desert Al

Back in January of 2020, SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor  Pat Cascio reviewed the Blackhawk 6-inch Trident Ultralite Boots, and caught my attention. I am wary of buying gear online without physically holding something in my hands and trying it on. But I have used many Blackhawk products over the last 10 years and have been pleased with the price point and quality of their items. I had my boots picked out waiting in my shopping cart on Blackhawk’s website for several months until they went on sale for Father’s day in June of 2020 and I purchased them for right …


Antique Schmidt-Rubin Straight-Pull Rifles, by Rick C.

I would like to share with you my experience with the Schmidt Rubin Model 1889 rifle. Antique because of its pre-1899 status, it can legally be shipped directly to the buyer in most states, if the seller properly understands the law. I’m sure you’re aware some will not ship without FFL regardless of antique status. Your exhortations to buy antique firearms have not gone unheeded. Prices have indeed gone out of sight. These rifles are now in the six or seven hundred dollar range, or more. I am not a gunsmith nor an expert on firearms, antique or otherwise. My …


The Science: Reusing Canning Jar Lids – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) #4. “Tempered less than Mason jars.” Nearly every book, website, and blog discussing this subject insists that Mason jars are tempered. They’re definitely, absolutely, NOT tempered. Glass has three basic hardening options: tempering, heat strengthening, and annealing. All commercial and home-canning jars are annealed, not tempered. Annealing is a process where jars are cooled down very slowly after production to make them more consistent and to minimize stresses. Whenever glass breaks into the sharp jagged pieces seen when we break a jar or window it’s merely annealed, not tempered or heat strengthened. …


The Science: Reusing Canning Jar Lids – Part 1, by St. Funogas

I’ve been on an incredible journey since submitting my last article Reusing Canning Jar Lids to SurvivalBlog. That article was based on my personal experience reusing 1,000+ canning jar lids. Many other home canners bear similar testimony about successfully reusing lids. My article specifically mentioned ignoring all the blogs, the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, and even my own experience mentioned in the article. Since the best teacher is personal experience, I then challenged the reader to do a simple test themselves by canning some water with used canning jar lids. In this follow-up article, I have researched and …


Gear Review: Two Twig Stoves, by The Novice

I often enjoy using my Norwegian “Storm Kitchen” alcohol stove. It is reliable, quiet, compact, clean, and convenient. It has just two weaknesses: it heats slowly, and in a long-term disaster scenario, I might run out of fuel for it. So I started looking into “twig stoves”. These stoves are fueled by sticks, pine cones, and other small, dry bio-mass. They have a reputation for heating quickly, and I have a virtually unlimited supply of fuel around my property. I looked at quite a number of stoves. There are dozens to choose from. Most of them are made in China. …


Chainsaw Fuels for Long Term Storage, by Tunnel Rabbit

Even if I do not have time to lay out all that I know about long-term storage of various fuels and the various types of engines that might consume that fuel, perhaps I can pass along some helpful information. As a rule of thumb, I figure I’ll need one gallon of chainsaw gas for every one cord of wood that I cut, and I’ll need half that volume in bar oil. If we can keep a chainsaw running, then that fuel could be of adequate quality to run anything else. Gasoline is much more difficult to store than diesel, and …


You Can Shoot — But Can You Fight?, by B.D.C.

Many of you, like myself, have stored firearms and ammunition for events likely to come. Many of you train to become proficient in the use of firearms. But do you know how to fight? Knowing how to effectively deliver an accurate shot to a target from a static position is not knowing how to fight. It is knowing how to shoot. This article is not going to be a how-to. Its purpose is to educate you in the skills you need to effectively fight with a firearm under adverse conditions. Do you train under adverse conditions? To illustrate what I …


My Quest for Waterproof Tinder, by The Novice

In the past, I have generally used a cotton ball with a dab of petroleum jelly as my preferred tinder. During some recent testing, I accidentally got the cotton ball damp. I found out that damp cotton performs very poorly as tinder. This was grounds for some serious thought, since wet conditions are often experienced in the field. I decided it would be wise to try to make a waterproof tinder that could be easily ignited with a ferrocerium rod. The First Attempt: Cotton in Paraffin I first tried waterproofing the cotton ball with paraffin. I took a coffee can …


An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 2, by S.B.

(Continued from Part 1.) Using the AC/Heater in the Car Matters (a lot) The weather is not only going to have more of an affect on your electric car (compared to a gasoline vehicle), but it is going to have more of an effect on you because using climate control draws a lot of juice from your battery. In a gas vehicle, running the heater has little to no effect on the vehicle’s performance because you are just pulling heat from the engine compartment that is a byproduct of the engine running. Although running the air conditioner (AC) in a …


An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 1, by S.B.

I’ve been working on an article for SurvivalBlog on electric cars for quite some time…writing a little bit here and there then prioritizing other activities and halting work. With the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware fiasco and associated fuel shortages on the east coast Report: U.S. Capital Nearly Out of Gas While NC, VA Also Endure Outages (breitbart.com), I thought this an opportune time to buckle down and finish up the article. Regardless of how you interpret U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s recent statement regarding the Colonial Pipeline shutdown where she said “if you drive an electric car, this would not …