Brown leaves float down around me as I walk quietly with my bow through the woods on the way to my deer stand. As I begin climbing up the ladder of my stand a cold north wind begins to blow. It hits my face like a thousand little shards of ice and I tuck my head down into my chest in an attempt to escape the onslaught. Winter is coming…

Most people depend on their gun for self defense nowadays, but what if you are away and you didn’t bring your gun with you or you don’t have a permit to carry one? Fortunately for us, humans were experts in self defense for thousands of years before guns were invented. With a few tips and tricks, you can look at a rock, a bike helmet, or even toothpaste with the same sense of security you feel looking at a gun.

As a Survival and Outdoor skills instructor, over the last decade, I have definitely fielded one question disproportionately more than others.  “What is the best survival knife?” Usually I don’t have an hour or so to dive deep into this topic with folks, so I’ll usually steer them toward the more than adequate Mora Clipper Companion knife. Truth be told, though on many occasions I have been hopeful, I have never bought the perfect survival knife and I don’t know that I ever will. The caveat to that last statement is that, because I am a professional survival instructor and I use my knives in the woods daily I am very picky, and a hard customer to please. If I am going to label something the “best survival knife”, I want it all!

Maintaining a healthy body temperature in an emergency survival situation can be very challenging. Ambient air temperature inside our modern structures is something that we really take for granted in the developed world. Like me, most of you probably rely on some type of heating system in your home that is powered by the electrical grid. Even if it is a natural gas system, it still most likely requires electricity for the blower to work and without the blower the furnace is nearly useless.

People take an interest in gardening for a variety of reasons—higher quality produce, exercise in the great outdoors, or saving money. Whether you hope to discover your green thumb or save a little green, growing your own produce can be a very advantageous hobby. When you’re just getting started, however, gardening can seem really intimidating. How do you even know where to start?

No Electricity? No Gas? No Refrigeration? No Problem! When you think about it, you realize that constant, dependable electricity is a very recent development. People survived and thrived for thousands of years before we had the convenience of refrigerators – and so can you. Depending on the resources around you, there are plenty of other ways to safely, effectively feed yourself.

Whether you choose to fall into the hobby gardener or health-oriented farmer categories, your options will grow exponentially once you master the PEST process. Having a working knowledge of seed and how to deal with it is already a valuable skill. In a barter economy, you will not only be able to trade your seed, but your knowledge, as well. You may not be able to fiscally prosper from today’s preparation immediately, but rest assured that you will be in the position to do so once things go haywire and people cannot feed themselves. For those with an eye towards the future, however, the option to acquire wealth via seed is one worth having.

PEST is an acronym. It stands for: Preservation, Extraction, Storage and Trade of seeds. If you can master PEST, not only will you survive, but you will also thrive. Mastering the PEST technique will help you feed yourself and your loved ones. Manage your seeds so that your plants, fruits, vegetables and sprouts renew each season and even learn to extract the economic benefits from your seed supply.

Trapping is a rewarding activity that can improve your existing survival strategies by adding another sustainable food source. If you plan to incorporate trapping into your existing survival plan, take some time to practice the techniques described in this issue before you actually need to depend on these skills to survive. You’ll learn valuable lessons while learning how to customize your traps for maximum effectiveness.

Eminent Domain has been used to expand cities, build new infrastructure, and make cities a better place. But it has also destroyed lives…. The REAL question is… How do you defend against it? This and more about survival priorities in this issue.