These Rugged Days

Secession -- War in the valley -- Mobile under blockade -- Streight's Raid, 1863 -- Rousseau's Raid, 1864 -- The Battle of Mobile Bay -- Wilson's Raid, 1865 -- The Mobile campaign -- Montgomery Falls

Secession -- War in the valley -- Mobile under blockade -- Streight's Raid, 1863 -- Rousseau's Raid, 1864 -- The Battle of Mobile Bay -- Wilson's Raid, 1865 -- The Mobile campaign -- Montgomery Falls

Become self-reliant, live off the land, and be prepared for the unexpected in this modern guide to self-sufficiency and homesteading from New York Times bestselling author, retired Navy SEAL, and survival skills expert Clint Emerson. “Add The Rugged Life by former Navy SEAL Clint Emerson to your library today and get on the path to independence and self-sufficiency.”—Jack Carr, Navy SEAL Sniper and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil’s Hand Clint Emerson is the go-to expert for surviving the first minutes, hours, and days of a crisis. Now, in The Rugged Life, he works with modern homesteading experts to show you how to thrive over the long-term—for months, years, or even a lifetime—by being prepared and self-sufficient. You can live the Rugged Life completely off-the-grid by farming your own food and using the waste from your toilet for compost. Or, you can live it by adding solar panels to your suburban home and keeping chickens and bees in your backyard. You can even live the Rugged Life in a city by simply gathering the salad for tonight’s dinner from your windowsill garden. Each of these homesteading and prepper long-term survival skills stand on their own, and taken together, they can help you design the independent life you want for yourself and your family. • Be your own homesteader: Make your own shampoo and face creams; pickle and ferment food; make natural bug spray and cleaning products; smoke meat; tan a hide • Be your own protector: Create a last-resort emergency plan; gather medicinal plants; protect against dangerous animals and threats; understand survival first aid • Be your own provider: Hunt for game; make a gillnet; set snares; forage for wild foods; build a rabbit hutch; ice fish; butcher a pig; keep bees • Be your own builder: Retrofit a van; set up solar, microhydro, and geothermal power; create a water catchment and filtration system; build a shipping container home • Be your own farmer: Grow a victory garden; build a greenhouse; waffle garden to save space and resources; build a root cellar; can, dry, and store crops; operate a tractor With hundreds of step-by-step, illustrated, self-sustaining skills and projects, The Rugged Life is for everyone who feels they can use more adventure, freedom, and choice in their life—everyone ready to get out of their comfort zone and try new, hard, profoundly rewarding things.

"Instant family--just add daddy! Gruff rancher Luke Evans's new live-in housekeeper comes with an unexpected addition...a small son! Emily may be pretty--and even Luke has to grudgingly admit little Sam's quite cute--but a family is not on this die-hard bachelor's wish list! Luke's plan? To spend as much time away from the house as possible. But, slowly charmed by Emily's sunny smile and Sam's infectious giggle, Luke begins to wonder if there might be room on his ranch--and in his heart--for a family after all..."--P. [4] of cover.

Part narrative, part guidebook, this book follows the author and his wheelchair-bound daughter as they complete a range of hikes in all 50 states, validating that anyone can experience the natural landscapes the United States has to offer, even if pushing a mobility chair or stroller. When Kellisa Kain was born premature with significant developmental and physical disabilities, she wasn’t expected to survive her first 24 hours. She defied the odds, and 20 years later she and her father, Christopher Kain, have pushiked using a specialized mobility chair in all 50 states. Now Chris wants to inspire other families, whether with children in strollers or in mobility chairs, to get outside and experience the country’s natural landscapes. Rugged Access for All: A Guide for Pushiking America’s Diverse Trails with Mobility Chairs and Strollers showcases some of the greatest trails across the US that can be completed while pushiking—hiking with someone in a wheelchair, mobility chair, or stroller. Part narrative, part guide, this book chronicles their hikes in all 50 states. It includes detailed trail descriptions, full-color trail maps, and vibrant stories from Chris and Kellisa’s own experiences. Trails vary in difficulty, from deserts to mountains and everything in between. Sometimes even a stroll around the block can have frustrating barriers to those with wheels, and this can lead to families staying inside too often. Rugged Access for All gives families the knowledge, confidence, and direction to travel and experience the wonders of nature, no matter what mobility challenges they may face.

Today, American "rugged individualism" is in a fight for its life on two battlegrounds: in the policy realm and in the intellectual world of ideas that may lead to new policies. In this book, the authors look at the political context in which rugged individualism flourishes or declines and offer a balanced assessment of its future prospects. They outline its path from its founding—marked by the Declaration of Independence—to today, focusing on different periods in our history when rugged individualism was thriving or was under attack. The authors ultimately look with some optimism toward new frontiers of the twenty-first century that may nourish rugged individualism. They assert that we cannot tip the delicate balance between equality and liberty so heavily in favor of equality that there is no liberty left for individual Americans to enjoy.

As Rugged as the Terrain explores some intriguing history of Idaho's wild and scenic Lochsa River. In 1893 this site, at turbulent Canyon Creek, was a footnote in the saga of the ill-fated Carlin hunting party. Next, in 1933, it housed nearly two hundred tent-dwelling Civilian Conservation Corps recruits, most of whom were "city slickers" from New York State whose antics provide a colorful tableau of young men on their own and far from home. In 1935 the site became Federal Prison Camp No. 11, a roadbuilding facility for convicts mostly from the Leavenworth, Kansas, penitentiary. Although the authorities stressed rehabilitation rather than punishment, the camp's unsecured status (it had no fence) did allow several thrilling escapes. After the prison camp closed in May 1943, Japanese detainees at the Kooskia Internment Camp continued road construction for two more years. Several chapters in As Rugged as the Terrain document the Japanese internees' story as compared with the experiences of Italian and German internees in the vicinity. This volume features 110 illustrations, notes, appendices, a bibliography, and an index.