My first DIY Bamboo Knife Video went crazy last month, and I got almost half a million views in just a few days. I don’t know what the demographic was, but it included a lot of very interactive YouTubers; there were 10,000 new subscribers, and they left hundreds of comments all over my channel. They posed …
It has been crazy around here. Maybe it’s because of the Blood Moons, but I’ve been extremely busy lately, presenting seminars and doing some private consulting on the issue of emergency preparedness and security. By “total collapse” I mean something more dramatic than what we’ve seen in our generation. We’ve witnessed the complete breakdown of supply lines and …
Hard tack is simply a bland, dry bread with the consistency of a brick. It is not particularly appetizing on its own; its virtue is in that it can be preserved for decades, even centuries, and retain some nutritional value. The whole point of hard tack is that it must be completely dehydrated in order to keep, …
Caveat: This episode does not demonstrate a proper ankle wrap, which requires some basic first aid training and materials. In contrast, it demonstrates doing the best you can with limited knowledge and whatever you might find in your backpack, or maybe the trunk of your car. This is consistent with principles of basic self reliance, …
No matter how many extra batteries and candles you stock, some day you might have to improvise a lamp. I’ve previously sung the praises of sardines as an emergency food stock, and while you’d probably rather eat the oil, you can burn it instead. All you need is a wick. The easiest wick is a …
In Part 1 we discussed the ingredients, the equipment you’ll need, a few safety rules, and how to calculate how much lye to mix with your fat, depending on the fat’s saponification value. Here we’ll discuss how to combine the ingredients and form the soap. I have a secret tip for making sure your soap has the …
Making your own soap is not, I admit, a do-or-die survival skill, but it certainly is a great self-reliance booster. And just think of the benefits to morale, knowing you won’t have to smell a lot of BO after the power grid goes down and the grocery store runs out of soap. Plus, it’s so …
This is Part 3 of the Basic Self Reliance series. Part 1 — How to Choose a Survival Cache Location Part 2 — Recovering Your Survival Cache Survival caches should be stocked according to the purpose you intend them to serve. I think of survival caches as falling into three basic categories: Emergency Evacuation Cache, …
This is Part 2 of the Basic Self Reliance series. In Part 1 we discussed how to select a survival cache location and how to hide it. In this article we’ll highlight the most important aspects of cache recovery. This is a basic approach to cache recovery; for a more advanced discussion, read this post, which includes …
This is Part 1 of several episodes in a series titled Basic Self-Reliance. The purpose of this series is to help you develop some confidence that you can be self-reliant in case you ever need to be. Accordingly, the focus is on developing a habit of experimenting with various skills you don’t normally exercise; not necessarily …
Basic Self-Reliance Series: How to Choose a Survival Cache Location Read More »