How to Survive a Forest Fire Forest Fires are among the top worst places to have to exist in. Unfortunately, they are more common than most people believe. Even more important, they spread faster than people can realize and this is the reason that every year firefighters find hikers and backpackers dead in forest fires. Surviving a forest fire is very difficult. Besides having to deal with the fire itself, the other dangers that await you are: smoke inhalation, smoke blindness, dead air, flash burns, dehydration, and the greatest killer of firefighters the widowmaker trees. Forest fires can move at … Continue reading →

How to Avoid or Survive a Carjacking Carjacking is the word used to describe an incident in which a person uses the threat of bodily harm to force a victim to give up their vehicle. Carjacking may be committed in conjunction with kidnapping when a passenger or driver in the car is taken along with the vehicle. The best way of protecting yourself is by understanding and becoming familiar with the methods, ruses, and locations that are commonly used by carjackers. Is Carjacking Common? Carjacking is on the increase there is no doubt about it. With so many cars now having … Continue reading →

This is a simple little DIY for fire straws that can be added to your survival kit and be ready for when you need to start a fire in a hurry. They take up hardly any room at all and more importantly, they’re waterproof. The great thing about these firestarters is that they are super easy to catch a spark if you’re using a Ferro rod. Start off by gathering together the following items: Plastic drinking straws (the wider, the better) Cotton balls Vaseline Scissors Lighter Pliers Toothpick How to Make a Fire Straw Begin by completely soaking/covering the cotton … Continue reading →

You are in the wild. The temperature has been increasing since you left at your campsite-a great, clear, and unmistakably hot day ahead of you. You see several isolated clouds offering small shade and look up, but at the very least you have got the trees… phew. While in conditions that are decent, you may have the ability to live for 3-5 days without water, there is seriously no earthly reason you shouldn’t examine the way your body responds to dehydration. It is time to locate some water. A terrible case of vomiting or diarrhea will just reduce your odds … Continue reading →

Believe it or not, simple trash bags are an essential survival supply. Imagine there’s been an earthquake, not the huge “big one” everyone’s been terrified of for decades. Just a medium sized, scare the hell out of you shaker. You survive just fine and everyone in the area is doing fine. Sure, the power is out and there is no gas, but you’ve got some supplies and it’s only a matter of time until the utility companies come around and fix things up. But now you notice that there is no water coming out of the tap. You are prepared … Continue reading →

You probably have a basic understanding of what’s important in a survival situation—shelter, water, and food, but one of the most important things to know in a survival situation is how starting a fire can be achieved. You may not always need a fire, but it can sure make a world of difference in the right survival situation. Fire can come in handy for purifying water, keeping you warm, cooking your food, signaling your position, and more. There are some fire-starting products that can make your life a lot easier while you’re camping or in a survival situation. Take a look at … Continue reading →

Before we start talking about how to cook muskrat, let’s first talk about what a muskrat is. A muskrat not a rat.  It is a rodent, but that’s all it has in common with rats. At the risk of offending a lot of experts, muskrats are pretty much like small beavers, but with a tail that’s flattened vertically instead of horizontally.  That’s the simple description. They have been a valuable source of food and fur in the US and Canada since well before the Europeans came. Muskrats live everywhere from northern Canada to Mexico and they are not threatened or … Continue reading →

For pioneers and settlers on the frontier, doctors and medicine were often too expensive, too far away, and probably not that reliable anyway. Medicine was usually a home-grown affair built up of knowledge that was tried, tested and handed down over generations. A common feature of 19th Century medicine was the use of poultices. Just like recipes for meals, there was hundreds if not thousands of poultice recipes. Some were freely shared and some were closely guarded. Poultices are usually some kind of warm compress used to treat skin sores, boils and splinters as well as muscle and joint aches … Continue reading →

The pioneers and settlers grew up butchering chickens. The ins and outs of how to do it and what not to do were well known. Not so much today. And it is easy to get very wrong. The best set of instructions on the web for butchering chickens is found at the How to Butcher a Chicken blog. Who would have thought about blogging that!? I’m glad they did. It’s useful information that is long forgotten. Nothing about the process has changed since the days of the pioneers and settlers. Our knives haven’t changed and chickens are still chickens. Even … Continue reading →