Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Gardening and the Struggles – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) I decided to try raised garden beds, and I’m three years into it!  When people purchase and store seeds for their apocalypse garden should they need it one day, I laugh.  You could starve before you ever get a good garden going.  Unless, you happen to be sitting on perfect and fertile soil. Raised garden beds    In my case, I had to hire the help to build all the beds, transport barn compost from another area of the farm to the beds, and pay for composted “top soil” to be delivered.  …


Gardening and the Struggles – Part 1, by SaraSue

I am going into my fifth year trying to garden here on my farm.  I have ranching and farming neighbors who have been at it for generations, and their gardens are amazing.  Mine?  Not so much.  There also exists a large Amish and Mennonite presence here in this area.  They have large and productive gardens.  I could just buy from all the neighbors!  But, I wanted to have my own garden, which gives one a sense of security and food system control.  It has been a several year struggle. The 2025 gardening season was a positive change from previous years, …


Making Repairs, by Big John

So you are living in a societal collapse and something breaks. Let’s say that your generator dies. You’ve gotta fix it. The following describes what have I learned about fixing things: I used to go through the repair process in my mind a few hundred times. I would pull the cover by loosening two screws, then unbolt the coil with a socket wrench. Then pull the coil and inspect for a broken winding. But first of all, I must borrow my friend’s socket set. I have learned over the years that the most efficient route is often to just tear …


Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) At one auction, I found some very odd tools for some type of woodwork.  Upon research they were used by wheelwrights to make wooden wagon wheels.  I have an interest in several old trades but wheel making is not one of them.  On a trip to Holmes County, Ohio (in Amish country) I took those old wheelwright tools and traded them for some other tools (blacksmithing and chisels) that I did want at the Colonial Homestead Store, in Millersburg.  This store offers old but usable tools from many old trades.  Just walking …


Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

We have all seen the post-apocalyptic movies where improvise armored vehicles with machine guns roam the landscape.  These Hollywood creations make for great entertainment but are such cobbled together machines just fantasy?  The civil war in Somalia introduced the world to “Technicals”, or utilizing civilian vehicles, like decades old Datsun and Totota Hilux pickup trucks, as a platform to mount heavy machine guns, like the Soviet era DShK 12.7mm.  Thirty years later and such vehicles are now being used on the battlefields of Ukraine.  Not only has Ukraine made improvised war wagons out of civilian pickup trucks but they have …


Your “Gray Man” Camouflage, by A.C.

Background I travel for work, often traveling all over the word into some not-so-friendly environments where I don’t want to be a target but I still need to remain capable. I’ve interviewed behaviorists about the science behind being memorable and I’ve also spoken with members of certain 3-letter-agencies about what they’ve learned about traveling in austere environments. This short essay is an aggregate of that information that is easily consumable and understandable. In the world of tactical preparation and survivalism, there is a pervasive image of the “operator”, that is; someone decked out in multicam patterns, sporting morale patches, and …


Raising, Hunting, and Harvesting Animals – Part 1, by Lodge Pole

In late 1929, when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began, the population of the United States was around 121.7 million people. All through the Great Depression, it was unheard of to leave roadkill on the side of the road left to rot. With high unemployment,  the hunting pressure was heavy. Small game, like rabbits and squirrels, nearly went extinct in large parts of the United States from being over-hunted, to feed desperate families. Today, in 2026, the estimated population of the US is 348.3 million. If animals were being hunted to near extinction when the population was …


Some Extreme Cold Weather Advice, by Hollyberry

We have all seen the media drama these past few weeks regarding the weather. Until about 10 years ago, I never even heard the term “polar vortex”, it was just winter. Living in Maine for the past 20 + years and making through the harsh winters has been a humbling and rewarding experience. Every spring you can hear people sigh in relief. I feel sorry for the lower portion of the country that has been experiencing the extreme cold, ice and snow. It’s something that takes getting used to and it helps to have the proper clothing and gear to …


Going Off Grid In The Tropics – Part 2, by Conan Stevens

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) To give a vivid image of what it is still like here, the next smaller village over where my girl grew up still has a single electrical wire held up by bamboo poles with a 3W LED bulb dangling off every 100m (330 ft) or so for street lights, and house wiring running off that same single wire. But the sand roads were concreted over a few years ago, so there is improvement happening. As you can imagine in the tropics solar power works great, in dry season we have full batteries …


Going Off Grid In The Tropics – Part 1, by Conan Stevens

Have you ever thought about going off-grid in the tropics?  No? Well, me neither, yet that’s where I find myself. First up, though I have had food stores and access to water as a habit for over a decade I have only been living (mostly) off-grid for a year. So I’m not very experienced and still learning the ropes. But I thought my experiences here might be a curiosity and possibly be interesting reading for others. I originally moved to Thailand to work in the action film industry, 21 years ago.  Since then I saw that the country started modernising, …


Balancing Farm Life for Success, by SaraSue

2025 was a difficult year to get through.  By the end of the year, I was not enjoying any of it.  In fact, I wanted to quit (do I feel this way at the end of every year?).  You have to laugh and find your sense of humor or you won’t make it through anything that is slightly difficult.  There were so many things that went wrong, so I had to sit down and list accomplishments to remind myself that a lot of things went right.  And once reminded of all the good, I can face the next year in …


Diamond “Strike-A-Fire” Fire Starters, by Thomas Christianson

Each Diamond “Strike-A-Fire” Fire Starter (SAF stick) is kind of like a giant match which is 5.75 inches long, 1.13 inches wide, and 0.25 inches thick. The shaft of a SAF stick seems to be made out of some sort of pressed wood that is impregnated with a waxy substance. When the match-like head of a SAF stick is struck on the striking strip on the box, it ignites the SAF stick which then burns for approximately 12 minutes. In the process, the SAF stick creates enough heat to effectively ignite most types of kindling. [JWR Adds: The SAF sticks …


Practical Preparedness Suggestions – Part 2, by R.J.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) 5. Self Defense This segment references reading, training and situational awareness that will be difficult for some people. Use what you can. Learn how to profile people and your surroundings. It happens in many forms, constantly. There are predators who don’t care about how nice you are. (Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”) They will take advantage of the graces and courtesies that we usually employ to soften or de-escalate a problem. Learn what and how those predators think. Trust me, you …


The Dirty Side of Homesteading, by Patrice Lewis

Too often, homesteading articles, blogs, websites, and videos (including this one – guilty!) show only the successful side of homesteading. The abundant harvest, the completed projects, the fresh eggs and baby chicks and overflowing milk, the healthy livestock … by golly, this lifestyle must be easy-peasy, right? Yes and no. Of course things go right. And of course things go wrong. But what is seldom shown is the nitty-gritty day-to-day dirty side of homesteading, including the daily chores that must be done for the comfort and welfare of animals. For that reason, I thought I’d show you something I do …


Loaves, Fishes, Tree Bark, Seeds, and Knowledge – Part 3, by The Chemical Engineer

(Continued from Part 2.) 2.3 – Finding Edible Cambium Locally And Harvesting It If we live in an area with a sufficient number of trees, the next step would be to find out which ones have edible cambium. To accomplish this I recommend two sources. First, you would need to buy the National Audubon Society’s book titled Trees of North America or something equivalent. Here are two free sources that just have tree maps: Tree Map Link 1 and Tree Map Link 2. I am referring to the 2021 edition of Trees of North America in my following statements. This …