When you’re in a real survival situation, your best-laid plans might come to nothing. You might run out of food, lose your food supply or just be forced to eat things that you wouldn’t normally eat. You might not even be able to cook your food! People can eat a lot of things raw, but … Read more
There are all kinds of plants serving all kinds of purposes in and around human habitation. Every once in a while, you come across a plant that is pretty divisive. Some folks might love it for its beauty or aroma, but it might have physical characteristics that make it a nuisance to others. Honeysuckle is … Read more
Every self-reliant person I know spends hour upon hour planning to accommodate the need for food in all kinds of survival situations. Yeah, you can go for weeks without food before you starve, but only a handful of days without food before you’re dangerously low on energy. But one thing that is routinely overlooked in … Read more
When you’re talking about survival, real survival, your wants and preferences will rarely factor into the equation. Survival is mostly about making the best of a bad situation, or choosing the lesser of the two evils much of the time. As always, necessity is going to be the ultimate decider of your actions. This certainly … Read more
Whatever kind of disaster or crisis you are preparing for, one of the most fundamentally important resources to have on hand is food. Everyone, everywhere, instinctively feels the need to eat, and accordingly it is a good idea to stockpile food in order to have it on hand. If you don’t have enough food to … Read more
It’s a good thing to be a prepper, in the context that you accept that bad things can happen, happen unexpectedly and it is in your best interest and the best interest of your loved ones to be ready for those occasions. But, it is easy to forget that despite your efforts you might not … Read more
In any wilderness survival situation, obtaining food is a priority. Though you can stay alive for weeks without any food, you’ll become so mentally and physically degraded your chances of survival will dwindle every day that you do not eat. Naturally, many folks include hunting and trapping gear in their survival kits for the purpose, … Read more
One of the most devastating, and sadly, one of the most plausible, mega disasters that preppers worry about today is that of an EMP, or electromagnetic pulse. Generated by the detonation of a nuclear warhead, a specialized EMP device or even powerful cosmic phenomena, a potent EMP can completely destroy the electrical grid, anything connected … Read more
Humans have had bows for millions of years, before that the ranged arrow was loosed from an atl-atl, which still exists today. The invention of the bow changed hunting and over the years changed warfare. The English used longbows to dominate warfare for hundreds of years, as the bow could be nocked, drawn and loosed … Read more
One of the hallmarks of being a good prepper is knowing what you’re up against. Understanding the nature of the threat, be it a group of people, a natural disaster or an accidental catastrophe is fundamental to preparing yourself against the consequences. No matter how big, no matter how scary, there’s always something that can … Read more
Among ancient weapons, the spear might well be the king of the battlefield. Compared to swords, axes, clubs, and other melee weapons, spears have major advantages both logistically and operationally. Spears provide reach, and reach equals safety. Spears used as part of a group act as a force multiplier compared to other weapons and spears … Read more
You are wise to be cautious when dealing with any snake out in the wilderness, but the similarities between various species, including venomous and non-venomous ones, make the matter of positive identification anything but easy. Confusing a harmless snake for a dangerous one can lead to panic and fear for nothing, and the opposite might … Read more
For most of us, suddenly coming upon an unknown snake at close range out in the world is certainly enough to get our heart rate going just a little bit quicker. But what is sure to get your heart beating double time is seeing a jet-black snake, tearing through the grass or out of the … Read more
When most people think of a snake, they probably think of a satiny brown, green, or black reptile slithering stealthily through the undergrowth. But as it turns out not all snakes are content with drab camouflage. Some snakes want to draw attention to themselves, usually as a warning to any larger animals to keep well … Read more
If there is one thing you generally don’t want to encounter when out and about in the wilderness, it is a huge and menacing snake. Be it a monstrous 6-foot rattlesnake or an even more colossal python, these primordial serpents are the stuff of nightmares for many people. However, most snakes simply don’t get that … Read more
Among every order of animals on earth, there are always a few individual species that seem to go against the norm of expected behavior, color, and other distinguishing characteristics. Among snakes, you might say that the ringneck is that species. These snakes are wildly colored and exhibit a strange “curly cue” defensive pose, but they … Read more
Most people typically think of earth tones, camouflage patterns, and similar colors when they imagine snakes, but many snakes can have striking or even beautiful coloration. One of the most striking colors that adorn the scales of snakes, and arguably the most sinister, is black. From the matte black of the cottonmouth or certain rattlesnake … Read more
If you live near wetlands, large bodies of water, or any other place that stays moist and damp you have probably encountered a ribbon snake before. These tiny, slender, quick snakes are extremely good swimmers and, if you care to watch the surface of the water, you’ll probably see the rippling wake they leave behind … Read more
For many of us, snakes are scary enough just on their own. A snake could be lying there basking in the sun, and if someone who is frightened of them were to see it, they’d probably run in the opposite direction. But things can get a whole lot worse when you’re dealing with a snake … Read more
Out of all the animals on Earth that slither or crawl, probably none are as subject to as much fundamental fear and revulsion as snakes. Snakes as a category are practically synonyms for evil and treachery, and is no wonder that pretty much everyone avoids them and many people kill them on sight. However, snakes … Read more
The garden snake, more properly called the garter snake, is not a single species but is actually many subspecies, and many of them are quite common throughout the United States, often encountered, as you might guess, in the garden! That is bound to upset some people, but since these snakes are so common we had … Read more
Even if you don’t like snakes, most snakes that you encounter in the wild are nothing to write home about. Most are tiny and furtive, quickly taking cover, and slithering through leaf litter and underbrush to get away from you. However, some snakes are so big, so powerful and so impressive they are genuinely intimidating … Read more
As much as we might hate the sight of a snake slithering around on our property, it is important to know that not all snakes are dangerous…Many of them are very important because they help reduce the populations of rodents and other animals in the wild. How about the corn snake for instance? Is the … Read more
There are all kinds of snake species in North America, and countless more around the globe. In fact, there is so much variety when it comes to snakes (species, subspecies, and even regional variations, and color morphs) that it makes positively identifying any given snake using color alone quite challenging most of the time… Assuming … Read more