One-page beginner's guide with 40+ tips and tricks so you can learn how to start a fire, especially in an emergency or DIY situation.

Portable battery power stations like those from Jackery are a useful addition to your power outage kit, especially when paired with a solar panel for off-grid charging. But you can easily build your own, customizing it for your own needs and learning about electronics in the process. The project is simple enough: you add batteries, a solar charge controller, and various ports to a waterproof ammo box so that you can charge and power small electronics like phones, tablets, laptops, lamps, and

One-page list of the best survival and prepping apps for your mobile devices.

OR is a major annual trade show for the outdoor industry, similar to what SHOT is for the firearm market. There’s already a lot of overlap between outdoor recreation equipment and self-reliance --- clothing, shelter, stoves, navigation, communication, etc. So much so that, over time, these kinds of shows have evolved to often include vendors specifically marketing to the prepper crowd. It’s been 18 months since we last went to an OR show. It’s cool the show team tried to pull something

I love the idea of waxed canvas clothing. It’s waterproof, rugged, and fire-resistant --- but it’s also expensive. So I instead settled on a Carhartt Bartlett jacket in charcoal gray, which has plain duck cloth and no waxing. However, I quickly realized during a snow shoveling session that Carhartts were not very waterproof. Sure the duck cloth weave is tight and is more water repellent than a looser weave, but it still is made out of cotton. So I decided to try waxing the Carhartt mys