Growing Your Own Food in The Inland Northwest – Part 2, by D.F.

(Continued from Part 1.) What to grow I have tried quite a variety of plants, and have learned some that I like and others that I don’t. The Heavy Hitter Plants: Pinto beans appear to be the best bean variety for my situation. I tried black beans, grex, and navy beans. Routinely pinto bean plants look less robust than the others, but they surprise me with yields that are just as good; and they seem to get ripe and dry down for harvest sooner than the others. This is important if the fall rains are on time or perhaps slightly …


Simple Photovoltaic Power, by A. DoItYourselfer

This article presents my photovoltaic power experiences to give fellow do-it-yourselfers an understanding of what it takes to use the sun for energy. I am a 69-year-old carpenter with experience in residential, commercial and industrial construction. I abhor relying on others for needs. So that is what drove me in the area of energy, especially stored energy. By “stored energy, I mean propane, solar battery systems, stored food, and so forth. I live in Arkansas which is considered a subtropical climate in late spring to early fall. The heat in summer coupled with humidity from the Gulf of Mexico is …


Review: Cambridge University Press KJV Large Print Bible, by The Novice

I have heard it said that preppers should stockpile beans, bullets, band-aids, and Bibles. Beans, bullets and band-aids are easy to understand: in a disaster, we may need something to eat, something to defend ourselves with, and something to provide for our own medical care. But why Bibles? In Mark 8:36, Jesus said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The best stockpile of tools and supplies, even when well utilized in the most effective possible manner, cannot prevent someone from being eternally lost. In 2 Timothy 3:15, …


Reusing Can Canning Jar Lids, by St. Funogas

One of the entertaining but frustrating things about the internet is how much incorrect info is out there, and how often that same wrong information gets recycled on hundreds of web sites, often verbatim. So, let’s put one of them to rest once and for all: reusing canning lids. It would never cross your mind to do an internet search, “Do peaches taste better when they’re hard or after they soften up?” Obviously, it’s very simple to test it yourself by trying one of each and drawing your own conclusions instead of relying on the opinions of others. The same …


Cash and Your Credit Score: Often Forgotten Preps, by Dave S.

In this article, I’m going to extol and often forgotten, but top-tier prep. I like to read a lot of self-reliant and prepping blogs and articles, as we all likely do. Toward the beginning of my self-reliant venture, these articles and blogs were critical in my education. I am in no way an expert in this field, but I am comfortable enough that a lot of this information for me now is review, and it is always good to review the basics. I love reading articles and blogs simply for the fact that there is usually more than one way …


Speed Up Your AR-15 Lower Builds, by R.F.

A Parts Organizer Helps You Several Ways I find it a bit of a challenge keeping all of the thirty-plus AR-15 lower receiver parts organized when building a lower. The lower parts kits (LPKs) arrive packaged in many different ways. It’s a treat to have them come nicely blister packed or tray packed if you’re lucky enough get it that way or were willing to pay extra. But it is far more typical to have them arrive in one or more plastic poly bags packed in a larger bag or even in a blister pack like the example shown, from …


Alternatives to The Evil Black Rifle, Part 2, by Randy in S.C.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Marlin got into the lever-action market in 1881, improving its initial offering with a stronger locking mechanism in 1888. These were top-ejecting actions like the Winchesters and came in the same calibers. In 1889 Marlin went to a solid-top design with side ejection. The Model 1894 was an improved version. It eventually fell out of favor but was reintroduced in .44 Magnum in 1969. Since then it has been offered in .218 Bee, .22 Magnum, .32 H&R Magnum, .357 Magnum, .38 Special, .41 Magnum, .44 Special and .45 Colt as well as …


Alternatives to The Evil Black Rifle, Part 1, by Randy in S.C.

To borrow a phrase from a popular television series, “Winter is coming.” By the time you read this, the Leftists in Congress may well have passed, and their puppet in the White House will have signed, a new bill restricting the production, sale, and ownership of so-called ‘Assault Weapons’. By ‘Assault Weapons’ they mean America’s most popular semi-automatic rifles, used for recreational shooting, competition, hunting, and home defense. That none of these meet the textbook definition of ‘assault weapon’ means less than nothing to them. Nor does the fact that the new law will have absolutely no effect on crime. …


The Innate Value of an Apple Tree – Part 1, by Northwoods Prepper

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther As an ardent survivalist, arborist, and aficionado of the apple tree, you can see why this is one of my favorite quotes. The apple tree may be one of the most valuable survival tools you can have if you own land. The only downside to apple trees is they take advanced planning and you will have to wait several years or more, depending upon tree type, before you have fruit. The plus side is that you can have …


Salvaging Beeswax, by The Novice

The subtitle for this article is: Of Mice, Bees, Squirrels, and Beeswax Of Mice “. . . Mousie, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best-laid schemes of Mice and Men, Go oft awry, And leave us naught but grief and pain, For promised joy!” (Excerpt from “To a Mouse, On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785″ by Robert Burns, anglicized and updated by the Novice) Of Bees Near my home is a large hollow tree that for many years has been the home to a large colony of bees. Each …


A Moving Story, by Uncle Reid

Think about having to move all your stuff. Think about the weight. And the volume. The Wuhan Flu put my wife and me on the unemployment line on March 16, 2020. Living in northern New Jersey (NJ), in Bergen County with its nearly 1 million inhabitants, 25 miles from New York City, with incredibly high property and personal income taxes was no longer tenable. We had a place to “bug out” to. My son had moved to Tennessee a few years ago and had a bed for us. But just a bed. No room for our 60 super pails, our …


Using Different Size Axes, by Steve Acker

Every year that I can make it I go on summer vacation for a week in Colorado in a remote wilderness area, camping, hiking and fishing with old buddies. It is roughly 50 miles off of the nearest paved road. The area we use is a primitive camping area and at 10,000 feet. Temperatures can range from 34 F to 92 F. I use this time partly to keep up my outdoor skills, practice axe skills, evaluate new camping equipment and ideas, practice alternate fire building skills, and sit around the campfire with the guys telling stories about how fast …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 3, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.) Can you hear me now? How do you plan on communicating when your cellphone doesn’t work? There are numerous radio options available including FRS/GMRS, MURS, CB, Marine band, and ham bands. Having spare radios and accessories will be important and those spares should be stored in Faraday cages. The problem with radio communications is that they are not secure, meaning others can listen in on your conversations gathering information that might then be used against you. Some of those radios will require batteries too that may give out at some point and …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1.) Where do we Start? Like everything we do in survival we have to look at vulnerability, that is: That which can hurt us the most and quickest. In my opinion safe and plentiful potable water is the highest priority. So, what can we do now to build our own water infrastructure so that when our blue 55-gallon drum is empty we don’t die of dehydration or cholera? Depending upon your living situation (urban/suburban/rural) this may be a simple process or a major challenge. The point however is to ensure that you have the infrastructure ready to …


Building Prepper Infrastructure – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

Today’s modern society, for the most part, is dependent upon several intertwined and dependent infrastructures. We rely upon these intertwined and dependent systems for our 21st Century Western lives. As we have witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic and the Texas Polar Vortex, these infrastructures can be very easy to interrupt and one disruption can start a domino effect. For many preppers, storing equipment and supplies back is the failsafe method for handling societal infrastructure disruptions. A family of four putting away a 55-gallon blue drum of water seems like a major achievement but in reality, that water will only last …