An unexpected and dangerous situation can happen to you and your family at any time, on any day, and despite the need to use common sense, most people panic and are completely unprepared. Most people never think about the need to survive anything. But you, the average person, could easily be one slip, journey, natural disaster or crash away from real trouble.

This website, written by Leon Pantenburg, is about proven common sense survival techniques that any of us should know whether we live in a large or recreate in a rural area or near a wilderness. Use your common sense to survive any unexpected calamity and turn a potentially dangerous situation into a mere inconvenience. Pack the right tools with the confidence to know how to use them and you and your family will survive any emergency.

Different fabrics have radically different properties. Choosing the wrong type, or mixing clothing of different materials, can be disastrous!

To me, the bottom line on the moss directional theory is this: Moss grows everywhere in the wilderness. There is not enough consistency, that I could find, to lend creditability to this “survival tip.”

  The thought was to take a quick stroll before dinner, and the plan was to be gone about 45 minutes. But now you’re lost, and the safest course of action is to stay put and spend the night. Luckily, you have your Ten Essentials, and whatever food you packed, but no tent, sleeping bag [...]

Pitch wood, cedar bark, dry grass, weed stalks, pine needles etc. all work great for firestarting when the weather is nice. But usually, the fouler the weather, the more desperately you need a fire.

A Mora can do about 90 percent of what I need an outdoor knife to do. And while I’ve yet to find the ultimate do-everything survival knife, a Mora can come really close!

  It seems like spring will never get here in Oregon! But cold, nasty weather has never been a reason for Troop 18 of Bend, OR, to cut short or cancel an outing. After all, rainy, snowy weather is absolutely perfect for practical survival training! Last weekend, scouts and adult leader went to North Twin [...]

The only item on the lunch menu that first day was a three-inch square of Hudson Bay Bread gobbed with about two tablespoons of peanut butter. I’d worked up quite an appetite paddling and portaging that morning, and privately wondered where I’d get the energy to last the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, many people head out into the backcountry with no idea of the inherent danger, or how quickly they can end up in a potentially life-threatening situation.

The circular motion used with a round whetstone seems safer to me. (And always wear sturdy leather gloves and eye protection when sharpening knives, axes, saws or other large cutting implements!)