Rats have a horrible reputation throughout history and for good reason.  They are incredible survivors that can live off of feces and carrion.  They are one of nature’s ultimate survivors but it comes with a price.  Rats are massive vectors for disease and are responsible for millions of deaths throughout history. The “Black Death” or bubonic plague is probably one of the most horrific examples of how rats can spread massive disease and cause the death of millions of people.  It is for good reason that rats are vilified and calling someone a “rat” was, at one time in history,...

Wait! It's that easy?  There are a few moments when people's jaws drop during Jeff Kirkham's Hostage Escape course. The friction zip tie escape is always one of those moments.  If your hands were to be zip tied with a smaller zip tie you would break out of the bounds the same way that you would break out of duct tape. (video at end of article) Breaking out of heavy zip ties, or ones with multiple cinching devices requires a bit more innovation.   Step 1: Find some string (your shoelaces will do) and tie an overhand knot on both...

Everyone deserves the right to defend themselves and their family. If you are a paraplegic that involves completely relearning (or learning) a whole new way to shoot.  For the ReadyMan cadre that took on a whole new skill set of instructing. And it took some trial and error.  Jeff Kirkham and Evan Hafer have trained thousands of people on the proper way to shoot, from indigenous Afghans to Global Response Staff (GRS) but they've never trained someone in a wheelchair, until now.  Cliff was paralyzed while working construction when a piece of rebar fell from 3 stories above, penetrating his...

by Jason Ross Think of your garden plants like machines. You input sun, water and minerals and you reap squash, potatoes, corn and tomatoes. Pretty cool machine, right? When you see just how MUCH food comes out of the ground, you’ve gotta stand back and wonder; how much of that plant mass is being pulled from the soil (compared to sun and water?) The answer: a LOT. A ton of the plant mass comes from the soil, especially when you’re growing big plants like squash, corn, potatoes and tomatoes. Big stuff leaches more mineral from the soil, as you’d suspect....

ReadyMan Challenge Escape & Evasion: Grand Finale by Evan Hafer The boys of ReadyMan Challenge 6 — Escape & Evasion — tore into their junked cars and their ReadyMan Wilderness Survival Cards. The guys came up with a number of tools and weapons without actually testing them against Mother Nature. Having spent a fair bit of time “surviving” in the wild, there are a number of hard-and-fast rules of survival that are only obvious to those who’ve attempted it. So, continuing from where the boys of RMC 6 left off, here’s what you should know: You will starve. Even the...