Category: Self Reliance

Building resiliency into your life, both for increased freedom and for dealing with emergencies big and small.

Hiking 101: How to Start Hiking

I absolutely love hiking. We live within the boundaries of a National Forest, and a short drive from two federally-designated wilderness areas. Our house is only an hour’s drive to another National Park. We see a lot of people in the woods, many of whom are grossly unprepared, and we’ve taken our fair share of newbies for their first “real” hike. Here is the advice I would give a beginner on how to start hiking. Continue reading “Hiking 101: How to Start Hiking”

Basics of Wilderness Survival Shelter Building

The ability to build a wilderness survival shelter is one of the most critical survival skills you can possess. Being stranded outdoors can be lethal without the ability to protect yourself from the elements. Shelter provides you protection from the elements: rain/snow, wind, cold, and beating sun. An effective shelter also provides a huge psychological boost and a sense of security. Continue reading “Basics of Wilderness Survival Shelter Building”

Know a Knot: The Swiss Seat

Welcome back to Know a Knot! It’s been a while, but you asked for it! This time we’re talking about the Swiss seat. The Swiss seat is a knot that is tied around your body to form an expedient rappelling harness. It’s not exactly a knot, but knowing how to tie one is pretty important if you’re a serious outdoorsman. Let’s get into it. Continue reading “Know a Knot: The Swiss Seat”

Basic Skills: How To Change Your Own Oil

Knowing how to change your own oil is a very basic step in becoming more mechanically proficient. I’m not a mechanic by any means, but I have changed my own oil for a long time now. If your car’s hood is a sealed mystery box and you want to get a little more familiar, learning how to change your own oil is a really approachable first step. Continue reading “Basic Skills: How To Change Your Own Oil”

Extreme Winter Weather Preparedness

Winter is no longer coming – it has arrived! Last weekend we woke up to over a foot of snow outside. I thought I would share a few of our preparations and lessons-learned from this event. There’s nothing new or ground-breaking, but hopefully some of our lessons can be helpful to your own winter weather preparedness plan. Continue reading “Extreme Winter Weather Preparedness”

Supply Chain Crisis Preparedness

The buzzword on everyone’s tongue lately is “supply chain crisis.” Due to a complex combination of lack of labor, shipping, and whatever else, the supply chain is experiencing some strain. This is causing shortages of certain items and rising prices on everything else. If you need a written invitation to start getting prepared, this is it. Before I talk about that, let’s put the “crisis” in perspective. Continue reading “Supply Chain Crisis Preparedness”

A Personal Financial Preparedness Methodology

This post is a guest post. The author is a friend who cares deeply about financial preparedness. I was more than happy to publish his thoughts here, and I believe you will enjoy this article. Above all, I hope it helps someone out there! The author would like to remain anonymous, but if you have feedback you can reach him through me. Let’s get into it!

Continue reading “A Personal Financial Preparedness Methodology”

2022: Goals for the Year Ahead

In what has is rapidly becoming something of a tradition here, I’m going to post my New Years’ Resolutions for 2022.  Though it is unpopular to have New Years’ Resolutions, what should be unpopular is breaking them. I do a pretty decent job with mine. What are you going to do this year to make yourself better, stronger, smarter, healthier, and more capable than you are now? Continue reading “2022: Goals for the Year Ahead”