Local library video and desert survival

I checked out the video Stay alive! a guide to survival in mountainous areas from my local library. Random comments after watching: According to the host, Preston Westmoreland, if you have ever heard the idea that you could add whiskey to water to clean the water than that is not true.  Ummmmm, I have never heard [...]

Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbit

Reader’s Beware:  Some of you vegetarians and snuggly animal lovers will not like the following post.  It involves dead bunnies. We made sticks.  Heavier on one end and lighter on the other end.  You carried two.  The idea was to throw it at a rabbit, preferrably a cotton tail and not a jack rabbit, hit [...]

Surviving Survivor School

This last weekend I took the Complete Survivor Class from Ancient Pathways.  I picked up a whole series of skills to practice. Notice I said “practice” because, good lord, just cause I did these things once doesn’t mean I am actually competent at any of them.   We set traps, snares, tracked, snacked on plants, [...]

What I learned about feral cats and a defense of phoenix

Up North, where there is winter, only the strong surivie.  In Michigan, a cat can have about one litter a year.  Here in Phoenix they can have three.  So Phoenix has a feral cat problem, much larger than cities outside of the sunbelt.  Lets assume that a feral cat living on wits alone is like living [...]

How to make cordage out of agave

Thank you Tommy Cannon for showing me how!

Survival schools or update to what I should do on my vacation

As part of my research on how I should spend my vacation time, I have been checking out what survival schools I could sign up for. The one I ended up settling on is the Ancient Pathways’ Complete Survivor class near Flagstaff, AZ. The class covers edible plants, deadfalls, snares, and game preparation. What I [...]

Feral Cats

I want to keep the three black cats who have claimed my backyard for Spain.  I think they help with insects, plus they keep the plants company. Altered Tails has a Trap-Neuter-Return program for  Feral cats,  which means I trap the cat, schedule an appointment, remove the cats special purpose, and finally release the cat back [...]

Update on the edible cactus

Above:  A recent shot taken of the hedgehog. The hedgehog cactus I ate about a month ago seems to be doing fine.  However, several people have told me the cactus I ate had yellow needles not because it was the wrong cactus, but because I ate one covered in coyote pee.

How to survive a bear encounter

As Alan Weisman demonstrates in The World Without Us, no one really knows what animals will thrive after we pesky humans are gone. I figure if one knows how to deal with a bear then you would hopefully be OK with any other wild animals. The presentation is the result of watching multiple videos on [...]

The barter system just grows on trees

The Arizona Desert Botanical Garden is going to have their spring sale on March 18 and 19th.   I am getting ready by figuring out what plants they will most likely have that would be good to have growing in the backyard for when civilization conks out.  Thanks to itsadisaster over at the American Preppers Network Forum, I [...]