Category: Traditional Skills/Fieldcraft

Odds ‘n Sods:

In keeping with our well-entrenched philosophy of redundancy, we now have five ways to cut firewood at the Rawles Ranch: 1.) A reliable (but noisy) Stihl 024 gas engine chainsaw with a 20″ bar, 2.) An assortment of felling axes and mauls, 3.) an early-1900s vintage 1-1/2 man saw, 4.) A Makita electric chainsaw that can be powered by quiet a Yamaha 2.8 KW inverter genset carried in the back of our utility ATV, and 5.) An even smaller Black & Decker 18-Volt cordless electric chainsaw. (The latter lacks the muscle for anything more than cutting saplings or for limb …


Navajo Corn, by Rachael E.

When people stockpile food they like to stick to the basics; beans, rice, and pasta. The one crop I would like to include to this list is corn. The corn I will be talking about is fresh corn and not the canned corn you can buy all year round. Unlike rice and pasta, many people have the ability to grow more corn if they run out. With beans you have limited ways to prepare it. Corn on the other hand can be used in many different ways.  From one ear of corn you can collect enough seeds to grow enough …


Skills You Never Knew You Had–Eliminate the Starting Point, by Natural State

As a newbie prepper I have gone through the emotional progression of realizing my lack of preparedness.  It started with the feeling that something bad was going to happen now!  This quickly subsided, followed by the overwhelming feeling that I must act now.   This impulse quickly digressed to the obvious and most important step in my preparedness action plan, honest self-evaluation.  With the growing database of information on preparedness, I felt overwhelmed with my apparent lack of knowledge when it came to surviving.  I had less than a week’s worth of food in my home, no guns, and a vehicle …


Letter Re: How to Make an Old-Fashioned Utility Quilt

Hello James, We had a hurricane watch here in Long Island, New York today, and I raced home with my kids relaxed, knowing we had food and water for a month minimum. That is because of your blog.  I was thrilled to read Jean’s article on how to make a quilt. My mother is a master quilter. I am writing to let people know that dryer lint is an excellent quilt filler. If you hang you out your clothes, terrific! But if you use a dryer, do what I do, and put your dryer lint aside in a bag. You …


How to Make an Old-Fashioned Utility Quilt, by Jean P.

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Quilters tend to be perfectionists.  However, quilts have been used to keep our poorly-furred bodies warm for centuries.  When you just need warmth, and not a perfectly crafted heirloom, a quilt is just the ticket.  Utility quilts can be made from discarded items around the home, as long as you have a needle and some thread.  A quilt is merely 3 layers, fabric/insulation/fabric, stitched together to keep you warmer.  In a perfect world we all have our Wiggy’s, but in a real-life situation, especially with the economy these days, that perfect scenario may just not be possible.  Also, remember that …


Letter Re: Observations on Post-Tornado Cleanup

James, We have been volunteering at the remains of a home of a prepper here in Ohio for the past two weekends.  Their home was destroyed by a tornado.  I have some simple suggestions that you might incorporate into your future work.                 1.  Store / Organize photos and documents in Ziploc bags.  In this case, they had the preverbal box of pictures stored on the second floor of a three story 1860 brick home with brick interior walls located flood plain.  The tornado remove the upper story plus half of the second floor.  The box of pictures was found …


Letter Re: Self Defense Without Firearms

James: Concerning the recent article on traditional weapons, I have a couple of comments: Knife fighting:  Stabbing may have it’s place, but a good knife fighter will slash and cut.  Someone who stabs with a knife is relatively easy to disarm.  Someone who slashes is much harder to defend against.  A stab wound is unlikely to be instantly fatal.  A slashing attack directed at tendons can instantly render the victim defenseless and eliminate his ability to fight back or flee.  (See the following link for more info http://www.martialbladeconcepts.com/ A word of warning regarding arrows:  If you shoot a compound bow …


Self Defense Without Firearms, by Daniel W.

Now I know y’all like your guns, and that’s fine. I like mine too. I once heard someone say, “If you don’t have gold and silver you’re doomed.” Now these two things are also very important, but I question how this man planned to defend his precious metals without a well-stocked armory. As Mr. Rawles himself has said, guns are tools much like those found in a carpenter’s tool box. Each fills a different role. But although guns are good at a great many different things, there are some roles which are difficult for them to fill. For instance, here …


Letter Re: Dying and Death in a Collapse Situation

James: I thought the article Dying and Death in a Collapse Situation, by Irish Eyes was a well written piece.  As a funeral director I thought I would add my thoughts. The article was very well written and had good working knowledge of the death and dying process. The point that I wanted to touch on is the fact that there is a stigma that dead bodies are extremely unsanitary. They may be and should be treated as such if you were to come upon a body that died of unknown causes. However, according to Ron Hast publisher Mortuary Management …


Letter Re: Discovering What We Needed in an Actual Time of Need

Hi Jim, Two SurvivalBlog posts on Friday (Discovering What We Needed in an Actual Time of Need and Hot Water, Post-SHTF) caught my attention and got me to thinking. They were similiar in the sense of discovering “needs” during a “crisis”.  One (MM) was wanting a generator and other had a generator but still had needs.   But were they really needs?  Or just wants?  Both spoke of “keeping life as normal as possible” and maintaining their current lifestyle.  Both spoke of the psychological aspects (stress, crying and sanity) of dealing with changes to their accustomed routines and environments.  Wow, what are they …


Discovering What We Needed in an Actual Time of Need, by M.M.

There has been much talk on many survival/prepper blogs about when and if our electricity goes out. Lots of speculation by folks who have experienced short power outages. My husband and I have experienced numerous, long power outages. They are very common in the remote area where we live. As we are the last house on the power line, when the power goes out we are the last to get our power restored. Our most recent long lasting power outage was in January, when our area experienced a rare ice storm. In 17 years of living in our present home, …


Hot Water, Post-SHTF, by Scott C.

In March of 2012, I was shopping at Sam’s Club doing some food prepping when a tornado struck my rural northern Kentucky community. We were asked to go to the center of the store until further notice because a tornado had been spotted in the area. After 20 minutes of nervous waiting, we were able to continue shopping. On our trip home there were several roads closed due to mobile homes being in the road as well as a tractor trailer turned over on my main route home. Seeing the destruction so close to home I started to get this …


Bees Like John (The Baptist), by Mike The Bee Shepherd

In a true TEOTWAWKI situation, many people will naturally resort to hunting and fishing to procure food. The increased hunting pressure will make many animals nocturnal and quickly deplete the populations of wild game. There is, however, one overlooked source of food that flies completely under the radar by even the most seasoned survivalists.  It tastes delicious, lasts forever,  replenishes itself to be harvested again and again, is a phenomenal barter item,  and can be found in every state in America.  I am talking about wild honey! The Bible says that this is the food that sustained John the Baptist …


Heirloom Vegetable Varieties

With the end of season sales starting for garden seeds, it’s a good time to be buying heirloom or open pollinated seeds. Unfortunately, the big name seed companies aren’t always very good at labeling their product as hybrids or heirlooms. The aim of this article is to try to list the commonly seen varieties of non-hybrid vegetables, so that preppers can pick up seeds for their stockpile during the sale season. First, some definitions: heirloom seeds are usually those varieties that were in existence prior to 1951, when the first hybrids appeared on the American market for home gardeners. An …


Your Local Museum: A Key Non-Internet Knowledge Resource, by Prairie

One of my favorite places to find information on just about everything I may need at TEOTWAWKI is at my local museum.  As a genealogist and museum professional I also have an inside track and know that 90% of all hard copy information about individuals or local communities is not now and probably will never be on the internet.  I am one of four part-time employees at our local county museum and am responsible for all nine computers, printers, our server and web site.  Technology is a tool that may not always work when I need it and I recognize …