Every day we make decisions to protect our children. We decide what they eat, where they go to school, and even influence who their friends are. We see that they get to the doctors when they are sick or injured and we teach them what’s right and wrong.

But have we taught them what to do when we are not there? There are plenty of situations where our children need to make wise decisions and should they ever be followed or attacked by someone, they need to know how to respond. While we do everything we can to protect our children, we haven’t done our job if we haven’t taught them to protect themselves. That is why teaching basic self-defense concepts is important.

 

Avoidance is the Best Approach

One of the best approaches to dangerous situations is to avoid them altogether. While this may be common sense to us as parents, children don’t have the ability to evaluate risks to the same extent as we do. Therefore, we need to teach them basic principals to evaluating risk as well as what to do once danger is established.

Awaken Your Child’s Love of Learning, History And Adventure!

If your child starts to feel uncomfortable in any given situation, they should feel free to leave and go somewhere where they feel more comfortable. If they are walking on a road, running on the track, getting into an elevator or in any other situation where they are alone and begin to feel uncomfortable, they should leave and go where there are people. This is not about instilling fear in your child, but teaching them to use their common sense and intuition to wisely lower the risk they place themselves in. Situations with an attacker can quickly escalate, so avoiding them altogether is a far better option.

 

Situations Your Child Should Avoid

• Well-lit, highly frequented, open areas are often one of the safer places to hang out. If you ride on a bus, sit up front near the bus driver and stay awake.
• Isolated places, especially at night, should be avoided and only traveled through in a group of people you trust.
• Communication is very important. Parents and siblings should know your daily schedule. If you plan to go out at another time, inform someone of where you are going, who you’ll be with and when you plan to be back. While this may feel a little restrictive, nothing will get you help faster than your parents if you fail to show up home at the agreed upon time.
• Attackers are looking for the easiest target and will look for timid, fearful people first. Walk with confidence and respond with authority if you are confronted. Yelling words like “Go away,” “Police,” and “Help” can discourage an attacker quickly. Walking with your dog can also encourage an assailant to look elsewhere. While some dogs are more intimidating than others, even a barking five pound dog can discourage a would-be assailant.

 

Personal Control Helps Diffuse

When it comes to bullying situations, teaching your child personal emotional and physical control can help de-escalate the situation. A combative person may give up if you calmly agree with what they say. Rather than adding fuel to the fire, maintaining control over your emotions can go a long way toward calming someone else down. After the situation has passed, the child can then approach the  authorities and parents to deal with the bully and ensure that the situation doesn’t occur again.

(Note to parents: If your child complains of a bully, please take them seriously. Many parents and teachers brush complaints off, but children can face a lot of emotional and even physical abuse from bullies. This is not a time to teach your child to “toughen” up, but rather to show them that help is available and they don’t deserve the treatment they are receiving.)

Pocket Sized Solar Generator Provides Emergency Backup Power

 

Self-Defense Instruction is Valuable

Unfortunately attackers are often someone the child knows and thought they could trust. And sometimes they don’t back down and cannot be escaped easily. While we all hope our children are never in a situation where they need to use self-defense moves, giving them the training and experience to handle a tense situation can build self-confidence and potentially save a life. You can find self-defense classes through friends, community boards, the local YMCA, or even the hospital. The PE teacher at school can be an excellent resource as well.

Nothing can replace the value of learning self-defense tactics and practicing them. Many attackers anticipate common moves, but a self-defense class can tell you how to catch your attacker off guard. Keeping self-defense moves familiar through taking a class can be excellent preparation for smooth and confident defense reactions if needed.

Prepare your child for a world that isn’t always kind by instilling in them wisdom, self-confidence, and self-defense basics. It just may save their life.

What do you think about teaching children self-defense? Let us know in the comments section below. 

 

 

The post Child Self-Defense: Keeping Them Safe When You’re Not Around appeared first on Off The Grid News.

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editor’s Note: A guest contribution from Scott Huntington to The Prepper Journal.

Whether you live primarily off the grid and rarely venture to town or you simply wish to extend the life of your belongings to save money, taking certain steps can make everything from your clothes to your home last longer. Even though many now live by the convenience principle of tossing broken things and buying new, learning to extend the life of our objects also helps protect the planet we share. In a world where every other product bears a label reading “Made in China,” the cliche they just don’t build things like they used to has merit.

Any way you slice it, extending the life of anything from your car to your kitchen appliances makes sense. When survival is on the line, protecting your tools keeps you alive. Here’s how you can maintain the items you own so they last as close to forever as possible.

Extend the Life of Your Clothes

Washing and drying your clothes can cause them to pill and wear more quickly. Whenever possible, opt to hand wash your clothes. It takes longer, but it’s far kinder to the environment and your wardrobe.

Tossing your clothes in the dryer may help them dry faster, but it does a number on the fabric — the lint screen gets full of all the bits of thread pulled from the fibers of shirts and more. Plus, line-dried fabrics smell so much more amazing than those dried with chemically laden sheets. If you live in an area that prohibits outdoor clotheslines, invest in a drying rack you can place on your porch or balcony to dry your duds.

Rotate your clothes and maintain proper hygiene. When you wash a load, put the clean clothes further back in the closet so every item sees relatively equal wear. While it’s not true you must shower every day unless you’ve been working in a coal mine, do wash your armpit and groin areas twice daily, as sweat can leave salt stains on clothes.

Make Your Food Last Longer

Using the right materials for food storage requires a small upfront investment, but you will save money and your stash of strawberries in the long run. Rinsing fruits such as berries in a vinegar and water solution before putting them in the fridge eliminates bacteria that cause spoilage before your produce hits the drawer. As fruits decompose more quickly than veggies, store them in separate drawers.

Invest in quality reusable food storage containers designed for different products. Store leafy greens in cartons lined with paper towels to draw out moisture and keep them crisper longer. Keep milk in sealed glass jars to extend shelf life, and spend the money for washable cheese cloths to keep your cheddar from molding after a few days.

Keep Your Vehicle Running Strong

Protecting your vehicle means performing regular and preventive maintenance on engine and body. To keep your car or truck rust-free for years, invest in rust protection for your undercoating and wash the underside of your car regularly. Wash your car at least every other week, or more often if salt and grime accumulate faster due to inclement weather.

Keep your engine running by getting regular oil and filter changes. If you drive a four-wheel drive or high-performance vehicle, speak with your mechanic about using synthetic oil — this extends the time between changes and keeps engine heat lower. If your car is older than 2007, change the oil every 3,000 miles. Newer vehicles can average 5,000 miles between changes. Replace your air filter every 15,000 to 20,000 miles.

Do the Same for Appliances

If you’ve got an older fridge, take a dollar bill and close your refrigerator door on it. If it pulls right out, it’s time to change the gasket. Doing so costs only $30-$70 and takes a screwdriver and an Allen wrench. You’ll save a fortune on electricity and keep food fresher longer.

Change the air filters for your HVAC system out monthly. Some experts recommend doing so less often in the winter, but deciding to cut down on filter changes depends on many factors. If you have pets who shed or if you smoke, keeping up with monthly maintenance can save you in terms of costly future repairs.

When it comes to your dryer if you use one, invest in a snake wand to clean out the lint trap more effectively. Create a spill barrier when using the oven by placing cookie sheets on the rack underneath your casserole or pie. Use a paste of baking soda to clean spills up if they do occur — as soon as the oven safely cools, of course.

Protect Your Furnishings

Do you ever feel warm when you sit next to a sunny window in your home? The heat isn’t only burning your skin — it’s also fading the wood and fabrics of your furnishings. Investing in window tinting can cut your cooling and heating bills, as well as preserve the life of your leather. Even your blinds become faded over time from sun and heat, so you’ll maintain your window coverings too. A bonus of such tint is that you can see out, but strangers cannot see into your home.

If your leather furniture suffers minor tears, you can buy repair kits and fix them at home in little time. Did you carelessly take a chunk out of a chair leg with a hammer while using it for support on another project? Get some wood putty and stain to repair the nick instead of buying new.

Extend the Life of Your Roof

If your roof leaks, the entirety of your homestead can suffer damage. Extend its life by keeping your gutters clear of leaves and debris, as overflows can lead to leakage. Perform a visual inspection of your roof while you do so — if you notice missing patches of tile or shingles, repair them without delay. If water damage reaches the rafters, black mold and significant water damage can occur.

Are you roughing it and having problems with your tent gear? Keep repair tape and basic tools with you to patch holes quickly. When you change campsites, shake out tents thoroughly to remove debris and insects. Pass on using water to clean it, as this can cause mildew, but if some develops from exposure to the elements, use a distilled white vinegar and water solution to kill it. Be sure to dry the area thoroughly.

Extending the Life of Your Belongings

Living in the sticks means driving miles to get supplies — and who wants to tackle such a drive every time something breaks? If you’re living rough or minimalist, no doubt you need to preserve the life of the possessions you keep with you. Even if you live in New York City, though, extending the life of your belongings saves you major moolah. Cash is better kept in your hand or even under your mattress than doled out constantly to merchants in a disposable-minded society.

Be Safe out there and be sure to check out The Prepper Journal Store and follow The Prepper Journal on Facebook!

The post How to Make Sure Your Stuff Lasts Forever — or Close to It appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: The following guest article was generously contributed by James Smith in October of 2015. It is worth rereading if you caught it then as well as for the first time now.

Additionally I want to add a link to a great, recent article along the same subject line from Aaron Karns of Startsleeping.org which can be seen by opening this link. 

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Every year, over 2500 people die and around 12,000 are injured in home fires in the United States. Direct property loss due to fires at home is estimated to be over $7.3 billion annually. Like any other man-made catastrophe, home fires can also be prevented.

To protect yourself and your family, it is essential that you understand the elementary characteristics of fire. Because fire spreads very quickly, there is absolutely no time to collect any belongings or make a phone call. In less than two minutes, a small fire can become fatal; in about five minutes, an entire residence can be engulfed in flames.

Smoke and heat from fire can be more hazardous than the flames. Inhaling the extremely hot air can char your lungs, while the noxious gases can make you drowsy and disoriented. Instead of waking up due to a fire, you may fall into deep sleep. Contrary to popular belief, asphyxiation is the leading cause of deaths caused by fire, surpassing burns by a 3-to-1 ratio.

A large majority of home fires are caused in the kitchen, while cooking. These fires are also the leading cause of injuries. At night, fires are mostly caused by cigarettes not put out properly, lack of precautionary measures around fireplaces, and heating appliances kept close to combustibles and furniture. These fires are considered more dangerous than others as they can fume for quite a long time before being discovered.

Fire is QUICK!

In less than thirty seconds, a minor flame can get totally out of control to become a major fire. It takes less than five minutes for a house to be filled with thick black smoke or to be completely engulfed in flames. Most fatal fires happen while people are sleeping. If you are woken up by a fire, don’t waste time trying to collect any things as fire spreads fast and the smoke is too thick. You will barely have time to escape.

Heat

The heat from fire is more dangerous than the flames. With room temperatures rising to 100 degrees at floor level and 600 degrees at eye level, the heat alone can kill. The hot air, if inhaled, can scorch your lungs and leave you dead in a matter of seconds. The heat can also melt your clothes and skin.

Smoke

Fire isn’t bright, its pitch black. Fire starts bright, but quickly produces black smoke and complete darkness. If you wake up to a fire you may be blinded, disoriented and unable to find your way around the home you’ve lived in for years.

Flames do not kill as many people as toxic gases and smoke do. Oxygen is used by fire to produce toxic gases and smoke that kills. Inhaling small amounts of these gases can leave you disoriented, short of breath and drowsy. The colorless fumes can put you into deep sleep even before the flames reach you.

Preparation

You can only prepare yourself and your family if you know the characteristics of fire. In case of a home fire, know that every second counts, so your family and you must be prepared. Have a fire escape plan and make sure each member of your family knows it well. You must keep some of the necessary survival supplies in your home. Keep an extra door as a fire escape route and see that it is not blocked in any way at any time. Install fire alarms and keep a check on them regularly to make sure they are functioning. Here are some tips to help you prepare:

Smoke Alarms

A properly installed smoke alarm is the only thing in your house that can alert you and your family 24/7. A functioning smoke alarm enhances your chances of surviving a lethal house fire considerably.

Install smoke alarms that contain both photoelectric and ionization smoke sensors. Test their batteries monthly to ensure that they are in working condition. See that you have a smoke alarm installed on every level of your house, especially the basement. Sleeping areas should have smoke alarms both inside and outside, this is especially recommended by the US Fire Administration.

Furthermore, disabling a fire alarm can be a fatal mistake. Open a door or window, or wave a towel at the smoke alarm to clear the air.

During a Fire

If, even after all the precautionary measures, a fire happens to break out at your residence, follow these tips to ensure survival:

1. While making your way towards the exit, crawl low under the smoke. Poisonous gases and smoke collect towards the ceiling, so crawling your way to the exit may allow you to escape.
2. As soon as the smoke alarm sounds, think only of escaping. Do not stop to gather your belongings.
3. If you see smoke blocking your exit, look for another way out.
4. Before opening any doors, feel the door and the doorknob; if they feel hot, do not bother opening it, look for another escape route instead.
5. While opening a door, open it slowly to see if there is heavy smoke or fire.
6. Stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch fire. Make sure you cover your face with your hands and roll on your back again and again until the fire is out.

Escaping the Fire

To ensure survival in case of a fire at home, you should know any obstacles that may hinder your escape route. For example, gratings or grills on windows usually have a fire safety feature that allows them to be opened easily from the inside.

Make sure you have fire escape ladders if your home is of multiple stories. Ensure that the anti-theft mechanisms that block entry from the outside are easily opened from the inside. Your family members’ safety is as important as yours, so you should teach them all the precautionary measures, as well as conduct a drill at least once a year so they know how to escape a deadly fire.

About the author: James Smith is a survivalist, who loves to write about survival skills and techniques. He has extensive knowledge about different survival kits and other survival supplies which he loves to share with others by writing blog. Follow him on twitter @jamessmith1609.

The post Are You Prepared to Deal with a Fire at Home? appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

Are we about to see U.S. financial markets go crazy?  That is what Goldman Sachs seems to think, and it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that great financial chaos has been unleashed during the month of October.  When the stock market crashed in October 1929, it started the worst economic depression that we have ever witnessed.  In October 1987, the largest single day percentage decline in U.S. stock market history rocked the entire planet.  And the nightmarish events of October 2008 set the stage for a “Great Recession” that we still haven’t fully recovered from.  So could it be possible that something similar may happen in October 2019?  According to CNBC, Goldman Sachs is warning that the stock market could soon “go crazy again”…

For investors taking a breather from the chaos in August, buckle up as the market is about to go crazy again, Goldman Sachs warned.

Wall Street is now inches away from reclaiming its record highs, but a rockier ride could be around the corner as stock volatility has been 25% higher in October on average since 1928, according to Goldman. Big price swings have been seen in each major stock benchmark and sector in October over the past 30 years, with technology and health care being the most volatile groups, Goldman said.

Goldman derivatives strategist John Marshall is the man behind this new warning, and he believes that there are some fundamental reasons why the month of October is often so volatile…

“We believe high October volatility is more than just a coincidence,” John Marshall, equity derivatives strategist at Goldman, said in a note Friday. “We believe it is a critical period for many investors and companies that manage performance to calendar year-end.”

And even though October hasn’t arrived yet, we are already starting to see some things that we haven’t witnessed since the last financial crisis.

For example, the Federal Reserve had not intervened in the repo market since 2008, but this week the liquidity crunch was so bad that the Fed felt forced to conduct emergency overnight repurchase agreement operations on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

And then on Friday the Fed announced that it will continue to conduct emergency interventions “on a daily basis for the next three weeks”…

The New York Federal Reserve Bank said Friday it will inject billions into the US financial plumbing on a daily basis for the next three weeks in an effort to prevent a spike in short-term interest rates.

The Fed will offer up to $75 billion a day in repurchase agreements — exchanging secure assets for cash for very short periods — through October 10, it said in a statement.

In addition, it will offer three 14-day “repo” operations of at least $30 billion each.

In essence, the “plumbing” of our financial system has gotten all jammed up, and calling out Roto-Rooter is simply not going to get the job done.

Of course Fed officials are trying to assure us that this is no big deal and that they have everything under control.

But if all this is no big deal, why haven’t they had to conduct such emergency interventions for the last 11 years?

And this comes at a time when the deterioration of the U.S. economy appears to be accelerating.  In fact, on Friday St. Louis Fed President James Bullard publicly admitted that the U.S. manufacturing industry appears to already be in a recession…

The US manufacturing sector “already appears in recession” and overall economic growth is expected to slow “in the near horizon,” St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank president James Bullard said on Friday, explaining why he dissented at a recent Fed meeting and wanted a deeper, half-percentage-point rate cut.

That is a stunning admission, because normally Fed officials try very hard to maintain the narrative that everything is wonderful because they are doing such a great job of manipulating the economy.

The American people as a whole are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the economy as well, and Gallup just released some very alarming numbers…

Americans’ confidence in the economy has become less rosy this month as Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index fell to +17 from August’s +24 reading, marking the lowest level since the government shutdown ended in January.

At the same time, the public is evenly divided over the likelihood of a recession in the next year. The current expectation of a recession is nine points higher than it was in October 2007, just two months before the Great Recession began but slightly below a February 2001 reading, one month before that eight-month-long recession.

Every economic indicator that we have is telling us that big trouble is heading our way, but most Americans are partying instead of preparing.

U.S. financial markets have never been more primed for a crash than they are at this moment, and so many of the exact same patterns that we witnessed just prior to the last recession are happening again right now.

Over the past few months, my wife and I have felt a sense of urgency unlike anything that we have ever felt before.  You may have noticed a difference in our tone and in the types of stories that we have been sharing.  Everything that we have been doing has been leading up to this.  The time of “the perfect storm” is here, and most Americans won’t understand what is happening.

The storm clouds are looming and disaster could strike at any time.  This is one of the most critical times in the history of our nation, and most Americans are completely unprepared for what is going to happen next.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post Goldman Sachs Has Just Issued An Ominous Warning About Stock Market Chaos In October appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

With gloriously long days, summer is full steam ahead. From starting new crops to protecting the ones you have, along with improving the quality of the vegetables you already grow, there are always ways to increase your garden’s bounty. Give these summer gardening techniques a try to make this summer one of your best.

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Use red mulch on your tomatoes.

Although it might sound like a too-good-to-be-true sales pitch, using red plastic mulch underneath your tomatoes does increase the yields by roughly 20 percent. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s research, when a pigment in a tomato plant called phytochrome detects far-red light waves, it signals the plant to grow faster and produce more fruit, particularly during the early part of the season. The mulch also conserves water and suppresses weeds. So, if you want to increase your harvest, set out your irrigation hose in your tomato bed or row, spread out and stake down the red mulch, then cut a slit in the mulch and plant the tomato through the plastic. Typically, the mulch is only good for one season, but it’s well worth it.

Protect corn from birds.

You can fence out deer and raccoons, but there’s no real protection from magpies and other birds that have a taste for fresh corn since they quickly become accustomed to loud noises or visual deterrents when a good meal is involved. It’s difficult to cover the entire corn patch, but if you want to keep your corn safe, place a plastic or brown lunch bag over each ear to save it until it’s ripe. Do this after your corn has been pollinated and check it frequently so you harvest it at its peak.

Transplant individual plants in flats.

After I sow seeds in 4-inch containers indoors, I transplant them into flats once their true leaves appear. I don’t bother transplanting each seedling into larger, individual containers. Make sure there are holes in the bottom of the flat and fill it with a sterilized planting medium. For larger vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, eggplant and cabbage, plant three to four seedlings across and six to eight plants per row in the flats. For smaller plants, you can double the quantity. The plants stay in the flats for about a month. When it’s time to transplant them into the garden, simply scoop out each plant and put it in the ground. This way, you don’t have a lot of containers to collect and wash.

Grow your own hops.

For those aficionados of craft brewing, growing your own hops is the natural next step in creating a one-of-a-kind beverage. But you don’t have to be a brewmeister to raise your own hops; you just need to know that the female flower is part of the hop plant and is called a cone. The nice part about a hop plant is that it basically grows itself. Provide a sturdy structure, since each plant will reach a height of 8 to 12 feet (and sometimes more) in short order. Give the plants consistent water and harvest the cones in the late summer to early fall when they’re mature. Cut the plant completely back to the ground in the fall or late winter before the shoots begin growing once again.

The early spring shoots are also edible and are cooked liked asparagus. Cut them when they’re less than 8 inches tall. Don’t worry about stunting the plant; it’s a vigorous grower and you’ll never notice the difference.

Protect your plants from herbicide damage.

There’s nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your tomato, pepper, eggplant or potato (members of the Solanaceae family and all very sensitive to herbicide damage) twist and wilt before your eyes. The best way to prevent this is to know the cause. For those in agricultural communities, there’s a risk from spray drift if you’re located next to a field where crops are treated with herbicides, but this is not the typical way that plants are contaminated. For most home gardeners, residual herbicides find their way to the garden through grass clippings used for mulch or in animal manure.

While avoiding lawn clippings that have been sprayed is best, if this is your only option for mulch, use clippings only when the lawn has been mowed three times after being sprayed. Animal manure can be trickier because how long the residual herbicide remains in the manure depends on the chemical used, and there are several herbicides available for pastures and hay fields. Some of these are so potent that they will affect plants even after they were put in a compost pile five years earlier. It’s important to know what animals are fed to know if their manure is safe to use. For instance, if a horse is fed weed-seed-free hay, avoid its manure. It might not introduce weeds into your garden, but it might kill everything else, too.

Encourage beneficial insects during summer gardening.

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Enlist the help of beneficial insects—praying mantises, predatory wasps, ladybird beetles and some ground beetles, to name a few—to help control garden pests. To keep them in your garden, avoid using pesticides as much as possible, even the organic ones. If the “good bugs” have something to eat, they’ll do their job with flying colors. This does mean you must tolerate a certain level of pest pressure, but a few holes in your cabbage plants are worth having if you don’t have to dose them with chemicals. Plant a variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers to give the beneficial insects a habitat in which to find “bad bugs” like aphids and whiteflies; the parasitic wasps, in particular, prefer to perch on the umbrella-like blossoms of carrots and dill. Variety makes the garden more interesting and gives these tiny predators better opportunities to find prey.

Create a strawberry bed.

Plant strawberries now to enjoy delicious fruit for years. There are three primary types of strawberries—June-bearing, everbearing, and day-neutral—and choosing the right one for you depends mostly on how you use them. For those who prefer simply to snack on the strawberries and harvest smaller amounts for longer periods of time, consider everbearing or day-neutral varieties. For hardcore jam makers, opt for the June-bearers that produce a large crop at one time.

Whether you’re planting strawberries in a garden bed or a container, the key is to dig out the area for each plant so you can spread out the roots, then cover them with soil up to the crown, which is at the top of the root system. Plant strawberries at too shallow a depth and they can shrivel and die; plant too deeply and they won’t produce as well.

Mulch potatoes with straw.

The old-fashioned way of planting potatoes—digging an 8-inch trench, then hilling the potatoes with soil as they grow—works absolutely fine, but it’s a lot of work at the end of the season when it’s time to harvest. An easier route is to plant the potatoes 4 inches deep and mulch them with straw as they grow to prevent the sun from scalding the tender spuds. When it’s time to harvest, it’s much easier to pull back the straw to gather your potatoes and use a fork to gently lift any left in the ground—no deep digging required.

Grow veggies vertically to save garden space.

When space is at a premium, consider growing up. There are a surprising number of vegetables that tolerate vertical growth, and it’s an efficient and productive way to raise them. Besides beans and peas that are frequently trained up some kind of trellis, consider growing smaller pumpkin, melon and squash varieties, as well as cucumbers, in this way. Vigorous growers, they need to be trained so their vines and foliage can grasp a sturdy support. For beans and peas, simply plant their seeds at the base of whatever structure you’re using. Plants, not seeds, are usually a better option for the other varieties so you can secure them to the trellis from the beginning.

What you decide to utilize for a trellis system depends on what you’re growing, as well as your personal flare. Making a single-season unit using twine and a few pieces of lumber is a project most anyone can accomplish, or you can utilize an existing fence or build towers that will last many seasons. As long as the plant can be secured, either by draping it over a wire or part of the trellis or by loosely tying it to the structure, it will be fine.

Re-queen your hive.

For many gardeners, part of their success relies on making the colony of the hard-working honeybees as productive as possible. It may be a little draconian, but in order to maintain hive health and production, consider re-queening your hive every couple of years. Most packaged bees will have their queen marked with a colored dot to indicate her particular year, so you don’t forget how old she is and fail to replace her until she starts lagging in egg laying.

Before you usurp the matriarch, have a new queen on hand, whether from your own hives or from an apiary that raises them. Of course, the best situation is to have a bred queen to reduce the time before she begins laying in her new home, but even if she hasn’t done her mating flight, as long as it’s early enough in the season, she’ll be able to provide a sufficient number of new bees to create a healthy hive.

When it’s time to replace the old queen, find and pick her out of the cluster surrounding her, then cut her in half with your hive tool. Put the new queen in between the middle frames as you do when you install a package of new bees. She will be in a queen cage with a marshmallow or piece of candy at the entrance. This gives the colony a couple of days to chew her out of her enclosure while they accept her. Be sure to note the month and year of the re-queening so you know when to do it again.

This article is from the summer 2019 issue of The New Pioneer Magazine. Grab your copy at OutdoorGroupStore.com.

When it comes to emergency preparedness and everyday carry, there is one name that stands above them all…. Glock. Doc and Drew talk Glocks for survival and EDC. The reasons for their choices and the backstory of how they settled upon Glock as the one-stop sidearm solution. Listen as the guys take a deep dive into everything Glock and why you should give Glock a second look if you don’t already own one.

Want to comment about this podcast? Sound off below in the comments.

A fun episode with lots of opinions (Glocks…enough said), click on one of the links below to listen now or download to your phone and listen later. Also, if you love the podcast, please leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Podbeam. It really helps!!!

 

The post Survival Cache Podcast Episode 13: Glocks & More Glocks appeared first on Survival Cache.

When it comes to emergency preparedness and everyday carry, there is one name that stands above them all…. Glock. Doc and Drew talk Glocks for survival and EDC. The reasons for their choices and the backstory of how they settled upon Glock as the one-stop sidearm solution. Listen as the guys take a deep dive into everything Glock and why you should give Glock a second look if you don’t already own one.

Want to comment about this podcast? Sound off below in the comments.

A fun episode with lots of opinions (Glocks…enough said), click on one of the links below to listen now or download to your phone and listen later. Also, if you love the podcast, please leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Podbeam. It really helps!!!

 

The post Survival Cache Podcast Episode 13: Glocks & More Glocks appeared first on Survival Cache.

When it comes to emergency preparedness and everyday carry, there is one name that stands above them all…. Glock. Doc and Drew talk Glocks for survival and EDC. The reasons for their choices and the backstory of how they settled upon Glock as the one-stop sidearm solution. Listen as the guys take a deep dive into everything Glock and why you should give Glock a second look if you don’t already own one.

Want to comment about this podcast? Sound off below in the comments.

A fun episode with lots of opinions (Glocks…enough said), click on one of the links below to listen now or download to your phone and listen later. Also, if you love the podcast, please leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Podbeam. It really helps!!!

 

The post Survival Cache Podcast Episode 13: Glocks & More Glocks appeared first on Survival Cache.

Whether Buck, Bolo, or Bowie…Kukri, Kris or Katana, iconic knives are alive and well. Even as the world seems to spin faster by the day, age old knife designs still have a rock solid grip in our hands. The centuries of knife use has honed blades and handles into a near-perfect blend of design features to maximize its symbiotic relationship with humans.

By Doc Montana, contributing author to Survival Cache and SHTFblog

As one moves from the poles towards the equator, the food gets spicier and the blades get bigger. At least that’s what it seems like. So the most recognizable Scandanavian blade, forged far from the equator, is the humble Puukko, a knife with a blade that barely crosses a man’s palm. But oddly, given the near featureless design of the Puukko, knife aficionados and blade historians alike find ample content to argue over and plenty of ammunition from all kinds of sources. So when Benchmade jumped into the Puukko, two things would happen. First, Benchmade would make a very fine knife, and second, it would cause esoteric arguments about the undefined nuances of the Puukko concept. The camping knife lineup at BladeHQ’s website highlights the diversity of knives in that category. From the Otzi neck knife that will make you smile, to the El Chappo cleaver that will make you cringe, the immense number of choices will make you applaud the simplicity and tradition of the Benchmade Puukko 200.

When I see a puukko in the wild, I generally assume the best about the user. And the opposite when a bowie is unsheathed to gut a deer. Puukko knives just ooze utilitarian efficiency, design minimalism and general confidence by the user. Which is exactly why it’s so hard to get excited about the Puukko. Kind of like the thrill driving on new tires. The truck owner is thrilled, but the rest of us are underwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of mundane utility.

Is that a Knife in your Genes?

That said, Puukko knives are primitively attractive. Deep down in human DNA shared through a thousand years of breeding has planted the seeds of the Puukko into our knife desires regardless of how bland and uneventful the design. Of course that means the Puukko has to try extra hard to capture our attention in the knife store. With no flashy pommel, bolster, guard or inlays, the humble Puukko is little more than a handle with a blade. Or perhaps a blade with a handle.

Benchmade jumped into the Puukko last year which is surprising either way you look at it begging the question, “Why?” And that would be “why so late to the Puukko party?” Or “why bother at all” given the saturated Puukko market? My guess is that the Benchmade’s answer is somewhere between this being the 21st century and there is room for Puukko improvement. And Benchmade makes knives and the Puukko is a knife. No matter the reason, the Benchmade 200 Puukko is here, and I for one am very glad it is.

Diverting from the ancient and traditional, the Benchmade 200 Puukko employs a thermoplastic elastomer handle rather than the usual birchwood. And a blade steel of semi-stainless 3V is a departure from traditional high carbon steels. The subtle differences in edge profile and grind are more a matter of splitting opinions rather than splitting hairs.

The grind is not the traditional scandi, but a slightly more complex high flat grind with secondary bevel. The scandi grind is a simple machine that is easy to sharpen. But while the purists will sing the praises of the scandi, most blades that started as true scandi grinds slowly deviate to a more convex bevel as variations in human motion while sharpening gradually rounds the metal. Either way, the real question is does it cut?

On the handle side of things, Benchmade used a Santoprene material that is extremely common in many other industries for many other purposes, but not that common in knife making. Frankly, reading the rich resume of Santoprene, it sure should be on more knives. The handle color that Benchmade calls Ranger Green, is a nice flat dark earth variant that I fell in love with on my Benchmade Bugout knife.

How Much Longer?

Overall, the Benchmade 200 Puukko is eight and a quarter inches long with just under half that in a drop point blade. It’s a full enclosed tang design with usable lanyard hole at the rear. The 0.14 inch thick blade is plenty of girth for anything this knife can do. Of course that’s circular logic, but in reality the size and design of this knife is an example of truly balanced engineering, with nothing missing and nothing extraneous. Anything you should do with this knife, you can do with this knife.

Related: Survival Gear Review: Benchmade Bushcrafter

The grip swells in two dimensions around the center of the palm giving a positive handhold shape on an already grippy grip. While not totally enough comfort to comfort those wanting some sort of physical guard between blade and handle, its well within specs of the Puukko. Thrusting, stabbing and fast poking are not what the Puukko is for so do so at your own risk. The Puukko is a utility knife that excels at cutting, carving, slicing, drilling, and other blade chores on the lower end of gross hand movements. Keep looking if you want a knife for fighting, prying, hacking, chopping or stabbing. In other words, the Puukko is exactly what you need for what you will be doing but not maybe the best single choice for wandering the dusty, sun-drenched post-apocalyptic hellscape of the future. But should you find yourself in need to stab with the Puukko, just roll your palm around to cover the butt of the handle that that should keep your hand from sliding onto the business side of the knife.

Steel This Knife

The choice of CPM-3V steel is interesting. On the Benchmade website, I get exactly four types of knives they produce that use the 3V steel. And oddly, there is very little in common among them, from a knife standpoint anyway. They include the Boost, the Bailout, the Outlast, and the Puukko with the Puukko as the only fixed blade in which Benchmade uses 3V steel. On the BladeHQ website, over 475 knife and tool choices are listed that use 3V steel with nearly 150 of them in stock and ready to ship.

So what is 3V? In yesterday’s world it would be a full fledged member of the supersteel family, but today it’s more of a entry-level superish steel. Oddly, human civilization is often categorized into time eras named for the material used in cutting tools. Stone, copper, bronze, iron, and… now what? Steel? Supersteel? Super-duper steel? Basically we are splitting steel hairs over a few years compared to the absolutely massive leaps in cutting material technology over many centuries. So the differences we perceive between blade steels today are miniscule compared to those other civilizations experienced. All that said, the 3V choice made by Benchmade was a very good one. While not quite tradition of an original Puukko, it is a worthy choice for a Puukko knife that will likely still be used in the 22nd century.

CPM-3V steel, as a near-stainless steel has some stainless characteristics, but not enough to ignore care and feeding. The knife strengths of CPM-3V steel include toughness and edge retention. Where 3V scores average in with ease of sharpening and corrosion resistance. Not a bad choice set when your lowest score is average and your best is perfect. Beyond its high grind, the point of the drop point (not the purpose but the actual point) makes a quick taper to its end allowing for a maximum retention of strength through thickness until the blade absolutely has to end. And that end is a very usable Puukko-quality tip that’s great for drilling, poking, tip slicing, and minor prying.

Hold Me Tight

The sheath Benchmade includes with the Puukko 200 is actually much better than I expected. Benchmade has a mixed reputation on sheaths. I’ve had every one of Benchmade’s dive knives and exactly zero have good sheaths, with a couple downright dangerous disasters. The Puukko’s sheath is a single-stitched black leather slip-on with a firesteel loop. The standard belt loop is integrated, and an additional leather strap is included to make the sheath dangle for added comfort when sitting. Since the dangler loop is secured by a single snap, I chose to use the dangler strap with the snap wedged between belt and pants to give some added protection against loss.

For reference, the Puukko’s sheath is a modified dangler. A pure dangler has dangling as it’s only carry option, while other sheaths have an included D-ring for an optional dangler strap. The difference actually may have more to do with the position of the knife in the sheath than the sheath attachment. The Benchmade Bushcrafter has a dangler option, but sits very high in the sheath causing extraction issues when dangling. A proper dangling sheath like that of the Fallkniven Jarl addresses much of the knife including the handle usually requiring a two-fingered pommel grip to slide the knife free enough to wrap a few more fingers around it. The Puukko falls much closer to a pure dangler thus committing more to it’s Puukko roots.

A plastic insert inside the sheath adds protection to the sheath from the Puukko’s blade, as well as a smooth hang-free insertion. The friction fit of the sheath snuggs up around the palm swell. Depending on your carry scenario, the sheath-grab may not be enough for your needs. In that case you can easily spend more money than the buck-and-a quarterish that the Puukko costs on a new fancy-smancy custom bushcraft sheath, or you can add some retention to the included sheath by either a O-ring addition to the belt loop, a horizontal strap to belt loop or dangler loop, or use the lanyard hole on the Puukko’s handle to string an additional rope or bungee cord. On mine, I tied in a short knotted lanyard that assists in retraction from the sheath. It works thus far, but I can see a length  or loop adjustment in the future. Not sure which way just yet.

Part of a Balanced Diet

Using the Benchmade Puukko 200 is a treat. The balance point is slightly handle-heavy where the knife will titer at about one inch back into the grip. This keeps the knife leaning into your hand which makes a solid footing for all the necessary tasks the Puukko excels at. The spine of the Puukko 200 is flat, as it should be, for additional thumb and palm pressure as needed. However, traditionalists might find the edges of the spine a fraction too rounded to efficiently scrape a firerod. The Benchmade Puukko 200 will throw sparks in its current configuration, but not with the ease of its sharp-spined brethren. A light spine grinding to sharpen the corners are fine if that floats your boat. However, the cutting edge throws sparks as well as anything, and pushing on the spine will likely happen much more often than the need to scrape a firerod. Err on the side of most-use.

Probably the most surprising aspect of the Benchmade Puukko 200 is its price. BladeHQ advertises the Puukko 200 for only $127.50 with free shipping which is about the price of a Griptilian, often described as the affordable entry into the Benchmade lineup. The Puukko is an excellent example of how we can look to the past for help with survival in the future.

All photos by author unless noted

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