Category: Outdoor Survival

Learning Traditional Skills, by R.I.P.

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There is only one sure thing about plans: at some point they have a good chance of failing. Not necessarily because the plans were faulty, but because it is nearly impossible to plan for everything. The universe has a way of ensuring that we get to experience the widest range of possibilities. So what if, after all your preparing, storing food, water, fuel, fortress etc., etc, what if you suddenly do not have access to all of that? We don’t have to go through all the ways that this might happen, I’ll let your imagination work on that. So, could …


Lighting a Fire Under Myself, by Matthew B.

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert A. Heinlein Heinlein’s quote leaves me feeling about half an inch tall and roughly the length of a worker bee. I was raised to trust God, not government, and my education through …


Product Review: The Don’t Die Out There! Card Deck

The Don’t Die Out There! Card Deck is one of the card decks that doubles as an information source, in this case, on disaster response. It’s printed on very sturdy plastic coated stock, about twice as heavy as typical decks, but the same overall thickness. It’s well organized, with each suit covering different areas–Diamonds: survival essentials, signals, navigation and shelters. Spades: situational assessment, evac techniques, water, fire and food. Hearts: First aid, environmental and medical concerns. Clubs: CPR, severe trauma and evacuation of the injured. The Aces serve as indexes, and Jokers as forewords. It’s a handy pocket survival book …


Advice on a One Man Git Kit, by J.S.I.

Growing up in a family which camped a lot, the family slang for what is now usually called the B.O.B. was “the Git Kit.”  As I am now an ossified old coot, I reserve the right to keep calling it just that. Something I have noticed in most written descriptions of BOBs/Git Kits is a generality of speech bordering on the uselessly vague.  No weights, no measures, no manufacturers, no clues!  It’s enough to give  Horace Kephart’s ghost a ripping case of hives. With that in mind, I dug into my gear with the goal of providing a more detailed, …


Letter Re: A Recommended Vehicular G.O.O.D. Kit Packing List

Jim: I developed the following vehicular bug out bag (BOB) or “Get Out of Dodge” (G.O.O.D.) kit packing list. [JWR Adds: There is no “one size fits all” for G.O.O.D. lists. Your own list should be tailored for your personal circumstances. Your age, climate, local terrain, local hydrology, population density, physical fitness, and many other factors will necessitate changes to the following list. There are also vast differences between “what you can carry in your car” versus “what you can carry on your back” lists.]   Food & Water: ­­3 – 10 days of lightweight food _____ MRE (1 = …


Letter Re: Day to Day Survival–From the Perspective of a Homeless Man

It may not be TEOTWAWKI, but the end of “your world” may be closer than you think. Mine came eight years ago with the end of my wife’s battle with cancer. With the down turn of the economy and a mountain of medical bills, we had already leveraged every penny that we could. We took out a second mortgage, maxed our credit cards, sold the boat, the four wheeler, and travel trailer. Since then I’ve sold my pickup, her car, the tools of my trade (I’d been a carpenter), and anything else that could bring in a dollar. I’ve been …


Starting Your Desert Backyard Garden, by Colleen M.

One of the first things many preppers begin with is starting a backyard garden.  Those of us living in desert regions have additional challenges when beginning this task as water conservation and soil quality are serious issues in desert regions.  It’s tempting and easy to become overly dependent on technology when reclaiming the landscape around you, but with patience, trial and error and a little bit of skill you can use low tech strategies to build good soil and have a productive, water friendly garden.  The first two seasons of backyard gardening in the desert can be frustrating but are …


Letter Re: Desert Water–Where is It?

James: I live in Prescott, Arizona about 80 miles north of Phoenix. We are at over 5,000 ft. altitude, in the mountainous high desert, where the temperatures are usually about 20 degrees F lower than down in the valley. The local creeks still have some water flowing in them from the rain and snow we received this past winter, but the flow is now down to a trickle and they will cry up completely soon. We actually get some decent rain storms during the local monsoon season, usually around July, but we’re not allowed to trap it in reservoirs because …


Desert Water — Where is It?, by Knun

Let’s all hope that the information contained within this article is never used. To put it simply, for most suburban type folks, we would be in a world of hurt if we actually had to use this information during a SHTF situation. Mitigating a basic need such as water should be at the forefront of our preparations. Since preventing ourselves from being in a situation that would require the skills I will describe is ten times better than using them. With that in mind I have also described techniques to minimize the need to utilize these skills. If you live …


A Practical, Full Spectrum Suburban Survival Plan, by JIR

Survival planning can be overwhelming and a lot of the advice you get is not practical or compatible with our lifestyles. A lot of us choose, or are forced to live in the crowded East Coast far too close to cities to survive TEOTWAWKI. I dare say, a lot of SurvivalBlog readers live in suburbs just outside medium to large population centers. Many of us have jobs that don’t migrate to small towns and would face a substantial loss of income if we moved away from our livelihoods. Some of us like our current lives and feel that hunkering down …


Four Letters Re: Building Your Kits for Survival

James, I read with great interest the piece by Jeff M. on building kits. I was kind of taken aback by his statement “I just won’t be one of those guys who carries a purse”. I guess in these days I need to understand what a purse is because I am a professional person who goes to meeting all over the state in a suit and tie and I always have what my family calls my purse with me. I carry an old trusted backpack that contains my laptop, but also carries all of my immediate survival needs (knife, first …


Make it Modular and Make it Out!, by Ranger Squirrel

One of the skills that has served me best in life is my tendency to make everything modular.  I think I learned it in the Army, but regardless of where I picked it up, it has saved my rear end at home, at work, in emergencies, and even in my hobbies.  Let’s pick on Average Joe for a second.  Average Joe is exactly that.  He likes a beer now and again, listens to classic rock and some country, and works in a job that just barely pays the bills.  He has a commute of about 50 miles round-trip every day …


Letter Re: Documentary on the Sole Resident of the ANWR

Jim, I’m watching a documentary titled “Heimo’s Arctic Refuge” that I think your readers would truly enjoy, produced by VBS.tv. It is about Heimo Korth, who is the last inhabitant of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), in Alaska. VBS.tv has many unusual documentaries. I’ve truly been educated by the other documentaries they done about the homeless of Las Vegas living in the network of tunnels under the city (they actually got to film down there), and the homeless orphans of Bogota, Colombia. They also live in the tunnels underneath the city. I’ve been a daily reader for SurvivalBlog.com for …


Letter Re: Basque Sheepherders’ Tree Blaze Trail Markings

Jim: In the 1960s I hunted and fished in the mountains of Southern Utah and as I traveled by Jeep and on foot through the forest I became aware of the many blaze marks on the aspen trees. There was always a clear path, wide enough for my Jeep to pass near the blaze marks, After some observation and study I was able to discern the meaning of the blazes, and have used them ever since to navigate my way from one drainage, over the mountain into the next drainage. One blaze means turn right another indicates a left turn, …


Letter Re: The Limited Practicality of Primitive Weapons

Dear James: I was interested to read the comments on atlatls in yesterday’s post “Getting Prepared: From the Homestead to Living Off the Land”. By way of background, I’ve been interested in atlatls since an anthropology course in junior college, and a couple of months ago bought an atlatl from Bob Berg at Thunderbird Atlatls. All the points mentioned on atlatls by the writer are true; they are simple to make (my 11-year-old nephew made his own out of scrap lumber in about twenty minutes after seeing mine), and making darts is merely an exercise in scaling arrows up, although …