So you’re in a bad situation. You’re in the middle of nowhere; you don’t have much food and very little water. Maybe it’s the desert, maybe it’s a mountain or a forest. Either way, survival skills may change with your environment, but the basics stay the same. First, what do you have? If you’re lucky, you have a bottle of water, a power bar, your keys, a belt, and the clothes on your back. In reality, what you have is more than you think. Everything in survival can have a purpose, so save everything, from
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Collecting rainwater in barrels is a common Earth-friendly and off-grid living practice, but the sustainable existence chore is illegal in many states. Unless you own the water rights on the property, it is not permissible to salvage rainwater in barrels for future use. Western states where water is in high demand, like Colorado, Utah, and Washington, have laws which prohibit rainwater collection or diversion. It may sound like common sense that a deed to a piece of property includes the rights to the water below, but that is not always the case. As a real
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The most important piece of survival equipment you can own is your house. If you’re serious about prepping, you will need to think of your house as a survival machine. That is, you should choose and equip a residence that is set up to maximize your family’s chances of survival. This doesn’t mean you need a fortress or a place with a bomb shelter in the basement. Instead, it means that you need a residence where you and your family can live for a long time without any outside help—or at least minimal outside help.
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As a child growing up in southern Idaho, I understood that water was a valuable commodity. The adults in my life frequently talked about the weather, especially in relation to crops. Too much rainfall could rot the crops; too little left them parched. Now that I garden on the high plains of Colorado, I have an even greater respect for the value of water. Colorado is considered a semi-arid state. In fact, yucca and paddle cactus grow in the field behind my house. The mountains get their fair share of snow in the winter, but
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Making fire and sanitizing water are perhaps your most important skills to utilize in the wild.  Coming straight out of the U.S. Army Field Manual 21-76, your survival depends upon the “rule of 3’s.” You can survive three minutes without air (this shouldn’t be a problem in the woods, as oxygen is rather abundant).  You can survive for three hours in the cold without shelter.  You can survive for three days without water.  Finally, you can survive for three weeks without food. Keeping this “rule of 3’s” in mind will help you know how you
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In this series, we’ve covered the importance of having a well-stocked pack with an excellent knife and fire options, but there are just a few more items for your pack that may mean the difference between enjoying the woods and coming home discouraged. Water Supplies There is no shortage of products to buy in terms of extracting water from the environment and making it potable (drinkable).  Depending on your budget, these can range from less than a dollar to several hundred dollars. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, boiling your water will
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Recent studies have proven that having indoor plants can actually be beneficial to your health. This isn’t necessarily very hard to believe, and most of us already have faith in their powers. They add color and life to our homes, create a feeling of unification with nature, and diminish levels of carbon dioxide while constantly replenishing our rooms with fresh oxygen. With all these wonderful qualities, why don’t we all own indoor plants? Well, unfortunately some of us are unable to keep these plants alive for long enough to justify having them in our homes.
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February 6, 2012 Step 1: Mark and Dig the Trench To mark the trench guideline, the proper color to use is white paint. Begin at the stake for the hydrant and move in a slow, even fashion (Image 1) toward the wall of the house. Make the line as visual as possible, ending about 6″
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February 5, 2012 Several years ago my family decided to get out of the city and move to a remote wilderness property. We realized that a consumer based existence was stealing our lives away from us. Our goal is to build a simple life. A life that gets back to the basics, A meaningful walk
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Distilling is basically the act of removing impurities from something or concentrating the essence of something in a liquid form. One of the most common liquids that people distill is water. Water can be distilled very simply with the right supplies, and the ability to create pure, drinkable water can save your life. Another form
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