As we’ve seen with the 2008 great recession and the stock market ups and downs the past few weeks, our society will never be immune to negative economic outcomes. Whether it be a stock market crash or a foreign attack on our banking systems, there are a variety of potential situations that could negatively impact our financial well-being as individuals and as a country.  Fortunately, there’s a lot we can learn about preparation for economic worst-case scenarios simply by looking at the recent past--the Great Depression for example.  The Great Depression started when the stock market crashed in 1929 and...

Tom Hanks featured in the movie Castaway Since the time that humans began building and sailing ships, the premise of being stranded on a deserted island has been used in many epic survival stories.  We laughed at Gilligan’s Island. That was being stranded in luxury! One story from recent popular culture is the one portrayed in the fictional survival film Castaway. The film premiered in 2000, stealing the hearts of moviegoers. Both comedic and dramatic, the film features Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland, a FedEx employee who becomes stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. While the movie...

It’s called “reading the water.”

Once you’ve found a piece of water to fish, you need to be able to find the fish.

This is not always obvious and takes some practice to learn. Just like learning to read a book, it might seem strange at first, but will become second nature if you keep some guidelines in mind.

One of the most ubiquitous images of fishing in our culture is with a rod and reel. It is also called “angling” because of the angle the line forms from the tip of the rod to the fish when hooked up. However, some forms of angling, like cane pole fishing, don’t use reels and are still considered angling.

Today I want to launch a topic I can’t believe we haven’t covered in our Survival Scouts before: fishing for survival.

It’s something I’ve been doing with my family since I was old enough to stand on my own two feet.

It’s also invaluable as a skill to have in a crisis. I’d like to share my expertise with you over the course of a series of articles, so that you may add this survival skill to your quiver.

Last week, I wrote to you about Steve Callahan's story of survival at sea. In case you missed it, you can click here to read all about it.   What's your situational awareness? Callahan's story had two powerful lessons that we can all apply to our preparedness journey. I felt that one of those lessons deserved a bit more attention - the power of improvisation in a survival situation. Today, I wanted to share some practical tips for developing those improvisation skills. BECOME A SURVIVAL IMPROVISER   Improvisation. Most people are familiar with the kind of improv you might see...