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Review: Best work boots? Irish Setter Ashby 83605 work boots may be your best choice

 600 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Work boots don’t get the hype or have the glamour of more expensive, fancy-looking hiking or hunting boots. But if you’re working hard and on your feet all day, you’ll soon appreciate a good pair. These Irish Setter Ashby model 83605 boots are an excellent choice.

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Survival Knives

Review: Versa rescue knife could be a lifesaver

 600 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

I carry a crowbar, machete, ball peen hammer and hatchet in my vehicle.
But what good will they do me if I’m trapped inside a wrecked car, with  a jammed seat belt behind a stuck door? How could that seat belt be cut or the window broken to get out? This Versa survival knife may be just what is needed.

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Hunt|Fish|Camp

ten-top-deer-hunter-knives

My deer hunting equipment All Star list may work for you

 600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Every deer hunter has gear he/she prefers, chosen through individual preference, inclination and experience. Here is my list – see how many of these items will work for you.

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Making Fire

Feather sticks make good firestarting materials and they are easy to carve.

Five tips to make better feather sticks for firemaking

 600 318 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Suppose you need to start a fire, it’s been raining, and all the sticks are wet. Here’s how to make dry firestarting materials.

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Emergency Shelter

survival tarp shelter, cheap tarps, best tarp shelters

How to choose the best (cheap) tarp for survival shelters

 600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Tarps can be really valuable survival tools. But what if your budget is limited and you need several that will do the job? Here are some tarp materials that have worked for me.

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Survival Gear

Best everyday or bug out boots? We review the Timberland® Earthkeepers

 600 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness
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The best endorsement of a product is to use it continually and take its reliability for granted. These Timberland® Earthkeeper boots fit that description and they have been through the ringer.

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Survival Skills

Improvise footwear, keep feet warm, keep feet dry

Helicopter rescue thwarted by wrong hand signals

 549 400 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

The wrong hand signals to a rescue helicopter could have resulted in a survival disaster. 

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VIDEOS | TIPS & HOW TO's

big river wild adventures
Update Day 28: High Winds on Lake Pepin – Follow this Mississippi River source-to-sea canoe voyage
 600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Jean-Canot Stephen Walker, my friend and fellow Quapaw Canoe Company guide, is paddling the length of the Mississippi River this summer in a canoe. He will travel from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico.
Follow his adventures here.

build a fire, survival fire making, best fire making tools
Video | Five tips to know about using a ferrocerium rod for emergency fire making
 600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

Your survival gear is as effective as your ability to use. Here is how to use a ferrocerrium rod to make sparks for firemaking.

make-mullein-tea
Video: Urban foraging | Edible and medicinal plants may be easy to find.
 600 300 Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness

It’s a great idea to combine normal activities with preparedness training. In this case, a nightly dog walk became a wild plant foraging adventure.

Leon Pantenburg writes a survival skills blog with tips and techniques to help typical folks survive an unexpected urban or wilderness emergency, using their common sense and emergency preparedness training. Topics include survival knives, survival clothing and camp cooking, making a fire, emergency shelter, hunting and fishing, competent survival skills and survival gear reviews.