The strategy behind growing a survival garden differs from that of growing a standard vegetable garden. Sure, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs taste great, but they are all low in calories. A savvy survival gardener will grow a diverse assortment of high-calorie food crops. [ Read Full Post ]

If you are fortunate enough to live within the native range of birch trees, then you have a lot of interesting survival options at your disposal. Birch can provide you with firewood and containers, and the right species of birch can even be turned into a tea and sweetener.

Fire
For friction fire building with birch, you can use the dead and dry branches for your drill and fire board. These materials are effective, but not quite as easy to use as willow or cedar. By far, the best fire related use of birch comes when you burn the papery curls as your fire starter. This birch paper is like a stepping stone between tinder and kindling. Whether wet or dry, these birch bark curls will burn strong, creating a black oily smoke. Any birch species that produces papery bark will be useable, but the white birch (aka paper birch) is the most effective. You’ll need an open flame like a match or lighter for best results in lighting the bark. Spark-based fire starting methods are not particularly effective for lighting the bark strips. [ Read Full Post ]

When you think about bow fishing, you might naturally jump to the idea of shooting harpoon-tipped arrows attached to a reel of line. Sure, that’s how most folks do it, but there’s another fish bow out there. This one isn’t for arrows, but in fact, it’s an improvised spool to store your fishing line. [ Read Full Post ]