Build a collapsible sapling A-frame shelter with knotless toggle joins in 90 minutes
A cold rain moves in two hours early. Wind snaps the treetops, your tarp grommet just tore, and the last light…
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Build a hand-crank phone charger from bike parts for grid-down emergencies
Thirty-six hours into a blackout, you still have bars but your phone is bleeding down—17%, 16%—and the weather net is lighting…
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Build a power-free ram pump from PVC to push water uphill day and night
A cold creek is spilling past your boots while your tanks sit empty 120 feet uphill. No grid, no generator fuel,…
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Move unseen by exploiting micro-terrain: master dead ground in wooded hills.
A damp October morning, oak leaves slick underfoot, I paused behind a shallow hump no taller than my knee. Two hikers…
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Myth: a single bug-out location is enough; plan layered destinations instead.
The first time I watched a wildfire flip its own wind and leap a ridge in minutes, it erased three paved…
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Build a no-pump thermosiphon solar water heater using junkyard radiators
The power goes out after an ice storm, the propane delivery is three weeks late, and morale sinks with every cold…
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Convert a chest freezer into an off-grid root cellar with passive ventilation
Last fall, a windstorm knocked out power across our county for four days. Generators hummed, coolers filled with melting ice, and…
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Build a gravity-fed, freeze-proof garden irrigation system from barrels
A summer thunderstorm drops one inch of rain on a 1,000-square-foot roof—that’s roughly 623 gallons, enough to water a productive garden…
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Build a Hydraulic Ram Pump from Scrap to Irrigate Your Garden Without Electricity
The power’s down, the creek is still running, and your garden is wilting. You’ve got 3 feet of fall from a…
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Make Pace Count Beads That Don’t Slip: Paracord, Heat-Shrink, and Field Tuning
Your headlamp sweeps across a wet treeline and catches nothing but fog. You’re sure you’ve walked 600 meters from the last…
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Cat-hole vs. trench latrine: choose the right human-waste plan for each terrain.
Rangers once shut down a favorite high-country basin after a sunny holiday weekend when E. coli levels spiked downstream. The culprit…
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Build a gravity-fed water storage tower from IBC totes and scrap lumber.
The night the wind snapped the grid like a twig, our county’s taps went quiet. By morning, folks were rationing coffee…
