Skin a dead animal. Smash its leg bone into a blade. And use its tendons to tie that blade to a handle. Sound gruesome? That's how you'd make a knife in the wild.

Every prepper knows that no matter how you much they’ve done to prepare ahead, there’s no guarantee things will go according to plan. Supplies can run out quicker than expected, tools can break, or food can be stolen. Whatever happens, you must learn to adapt and improvise so you can live to fight another day. […]

Learning wilderness survival tips to help you find shelter, staying hydrated, or building a fire can mean the difference between life or death.

Toxic tree frogs, poisonous plants, malaria-carrying mosquitoes. You get the picture: The jungle is no place to get lost. How will you make it out of this lushness alive?

It's always good to have a plan for every eventuality. Just a loose one of course, because there's no point in freaking out about everything or you'll never have the chance to enjoy life! However, it is helpful to have a few tricks up your sleeve just in case the worst happens, and we mean the worst! Check them out!

Various ways to find direction using the sun and stars with sticks and even an analog watch. Taken from an old military manual.

This video is about some life hack inserts that were printed over 100 years ago. Most people have forgotten these life hacks.

Learning wilderness survival tips to help you find shelter, staying hydrated, or building a fire can mean the difference between life or death.

When you depress the brake pedal on your car, it pressurizes fluid in your brake lines which transmit force to your brake pads, forcing them to squeeze against your car’s wheel. The resulting friction is what brings you to a nice, comfortable stop. When your brakes fail, it’s typically because you’ve lost a substantial amount […]

Learning how to ride a horse well can take years. It involves understanding the nuances of a horse’s behavior and how your own behavior communicates your intent to them. But, with a few basics you can certainly get at least a taste of that childhood dream. The first step? Getting on.

Individuals who carry a handgun are attuned to the mannerisms that can indicate a concealed weapon. Others, too, can learn these signals.

Emerson's book promises to help you navigate in the wild and stay alive in any disaster.

I decided on a few alterations of my bed plan. The benefit was that I could use (with only slight altertions) the same parts I had already purchased. Since I'm a teacher, I used my connections to get in touch with the high school shop teacher. He agreed to let me come over and work on my bed parts there. It took a while to find a day that worked for both of us, but I finally made it over. First, I've gotta say WOW. How did I not know about shop class when I was in high school??? So many tools, nice layout, powerful drill press. I should have taken photos but I was busy drilling. Oh yeah. I have a serious crush on that drill press. My friend's drill press stalled out if the bit grabbed too much material, so I was producing a lot of sawdust as I slowly drilled my holes. THIS drill press CHEWED through the wood, producing chunky shavings and drilling deep holes in about 60 seconds!!! Yummy. Anyhow, my original bed plan had the poles going into my 4x4 legs on the same level. The problem with that is that a 4x4 is really only 3.5x3.5. If you draw a little picture, you'll see that if you're drilling 2 inch wide holes, there's only enough room for the holes to be 1 inch deep (even drilling wide of center). So the poles weren't set very deeply into the legs, which contributed to the wobbliness. Also, since the poles were all on the same plane, that allowed the bed to wiggle a lot. Lastly, I'd overestimated how tall I wanted the beds. The extra height was unnecessary and adding to the problem. My solution: cut off 6 inches from the tops of my leg posts (thus removing my old holes) and redrill holes which vertically offset the head/foot and side poles. That way I could drill much deeper holes without worrying about them running into each other. I decided to lower the head and foot, because in the old design the head and foot ended up much higher than the middle due to sag. I figured this would help counteract that, since there was a limited amount of sag the higher sides would allow. (Important to me since I like to sleep on my tummy and there's a limit to how much my back likes to bend that way!) So the shop teacher used his chop saw to shorten my 4x4s and I got to drill lots of holes :) You know what? It worked!!! My beds are now much sturdier, and don't have that annoying high head & foot feeling. The legs tend to spay out just a little, which is a good thing as far as stability is concerned, though it does look a little sloppy ;) I've written up walkthroughs for anyone interested in making their own rope bed or straw mattress.

Skin a dead animal. Smash its leg bone into a blade. And use its tendons to tie that blade to a handle. Sound gruesome? That's how you'd make a knife in the wild.

Wood ash from your fireplace, woodstove, or outdoor boiler may seem like a waste product, but there are a surprising number of uses for wood ash. Historically, wood ash was an asset, and there are

A few field-expedient tricks that scouts have used for centuries to estimate the height and width of objects using nothing but sticks and a bit of geometry.

Mastering Morse code alphabet offers reliable communication in any emergency. Learn how in our guide, made for preppers. Our tricks make it effortless.

You’ll never know when you will need to flee or be forced to flee, but whatever the real reason is, ... Read more

Title: The complete American and Canadian sportsman's encyclopedia of valuable instruction Identifier: completeamerican00buzz Year: 1913 (1910s) Authors: Buzzacott, Francis Henry, 1861- [from old catalog] Subjects: Camping; Fishing; Hunting Publisher: [Chicago] M. A. Donohue & co Contributing Library: The Library of Congress Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: TricKs of Woodcraft. Things That Can Be Madd In Camp. Text Appearing After Image: 14—Brush Lean to Teepee. 431 15-Camp Fire Place.. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.

Make a Wood Carrier That's a Cinch: Make this simple, effective, and low cost wood carrier. You only need two materials. The picture probably tells you everything you need - but I am posting detailed steps and comments. Traditional wood carriers take more materials and al…

If you find yourself functioning as an all-you-can-eat buffet for a leech, get rid of your best customer the right way.

A while back I took a winter foraging course at our local herbal school, and I was truly amazed at how many ways you can eat a pine tree. Most conifers are not only edible,

Prepping & Survival 7 Instant Foods for Your On-the-Go Emergency Supply Sometimes, you just need to keep yourself fed while on the move. Here are seven instant foods to include in your emergency, on-the-go stash. Gardening A Gardener's Guide: When to Plant Seedlings Outside (or Not) How do you know when it's time to plant your carefully nurtured seedlings outside? Amy discusses the four factors you need to assess before you transplant. Books & Entertainment Good Citizens: Is This How Freedom Ends in America? Daisy Luther's unsettling new work of short fiction takes you into a near-future world of technocracy

Knots and Boy Scouts go together like campfires and cobbler. Here’s how to tie three of the knots required to reach First Class, plus four more that can be very useful.

Every man should know how to build a fire. But every outdoor situation requires different types of campfire lays (set-ups in the firewood), so it’s imperative to know how to make more than one kind. Here we highlight six of the most common and useful fire lays. Teepee Fire Lay There’s a reason this is […]

Various ways to find direction using the sun and stars with sticks and even an analog watch. Taken from an old military manual.

Have you ever been hiking and started to notice the sun might be setting a bit more rapidly than you were expecting. We all have been in that odd limbo of do we stop for the night or do we press on, can we make it to the car before dark or is it safe to keep going on this trail if there is no light?I remember personally traveling in Arizona near the Arizona Hot Springs one afternoon. The hike was so beautiful and the hot springs were so inviting that time slipped away. By the time I real