Bushcraft

Scout your water sources before you need them. Walk your area now and note every reliable spring, creek, and standing pond within a mile of home—mark them on a paper map. In a crisis you want to know where water is, not go searching thirsty. Moving water and rain-fed sources beat stagnant, but treat all of it.

Test your fire kit before you need it, not during an emergency. Keep tinder in a waterproof tin and carry two ignition sources—a ferro rod works soaked, a lighter can fail cold or wet. In rain, gather dead branches still attached to standing trees; ground wood is nearly always too damp to catch.

Practice in the backyard before you need it in the backcountry. A tarp shelter you've pitched once is worth ten you've only read about.

Welcome to Bushcraft. Rule one: shelter before fire, fire before water, water before food. In cold or wet conditions, exposure kills fastest.

Carry two ways to make fire and keep them dry. A ferro rod plus a lighter beats one 'perfect' method that fails the moment it gets wet.