Poison Ivy can leave you miserable for a week after a visit to the woods, if you’re not careful. Salty and I talk it over here: Despite being famous, poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) can be a sneaky rascal. Oh, there… Continue Reading
Suppose medical care is suddenly no longer available. But you’re a prepper, so you’ve got some useful drug supplies among your preps and could trade for others. Suppose you’ve got an idea of what you need and how much to… Continue Reading
Train like you want to react in an emergency, because it could save your (and other people’s) life. Train like you want to react – an example When a bad guy charged the prepper, the prepper pulled out his handgun… Continue Reading
Cables and gas lines run in a lot of places you might not expect, and preppers (along with everybody else) need to know where services cross our properties. Maybe your neighborhood’s gotten rough and you feel a need for a… Continue Reading
I hate punishing plants for growing well. Cutting grass. Pruning trees. Thinning plantings. In this podcast, Salty and I talk about the trees and garden plants. (Your HOA or other busy-body neighbors will be happy to explain why you need… Continue Reading
Spring is Flood Season. Salty and I were driving home in a heavy rain. It was a ridge-top road, passing just barely downhill of one cornfield and uphill of the next. We drove into what looked to be only an… Continue Reading
Right now, most people’s meat comes to them after being raised with some care, handled in facilities regularly hosed down with antiseptics, inspected by people who care about their company’s reputation and occasionally government inspectors, and shipped in cold storage… Continue Reading
Your bags (bugout bag, get home bag, whatever) are meant to go with you. They should be stocked to keep you going. Imagine you’ve been working steadily for a while. You’re not hungry; not thinking about food; got other things… Continue Reading
Bleeding is the largest direct cause of death in most fatalities due to accidental or intentional violence. Rapid and appropriate response can stop bleeding in the vast majority of cases. It doesn’t matter if your emergency is as mundane as… Continue Reading
It’s getting to be that time of year: Seed catalogs in the mail every day. It’s too early to plant yet, but it is time to be deciding about trees. Trees are best planted quite early in the spring, before… Continue Reading
“Two is one, one is none.” That’s a common prepper saying, acknowledging the fact that things break. If it’s critical and it breaks, you’d better have a backup. I think though, that a lot of people underestimate how much can… Continue Reading
Here at Beans, Bullets, Bandages, and You (3BY), we don’t do politics or religion. We don’t talk about ours and we don’t provide a forum for other people to talk about theirs. In this post and companion podcast, we explain… Continue Reading
I despise shopping. Except for garden seeds. Seeds are not just Stuff; they’re a world of Possibility. For mere pocket change, often less than a dollar, you can pick up a packet of seeds that can feed you and yours… Continue Reading
It’s no secret to any prepper that the bulk of society does not share our commitment to self-sufficiency in times of crisis – making us to some degree ‘nutty’. Some of that seems unavoidable if we are to open up… Continue Reading
I was seriously tempted to shoot a squirrel once. In my laundry room. As he sat on a pile of our stuff he’d tumbled onto the floor, after chewing our windowsills to splinters trying to escape. The little blighter wasn’t… Continue Reading