April 3rd, 2012 at 10:02 am (survival skills, urban survival, the human path, texas outdoor education, the combat medic, martial arts, Outdoor Fitness and Self Defense, readiness)
Today Sam Coffman continues his discussion about realism in self-defense training with Mark Hatmaker.
Mark and Sam discuss topics including:
- What do mud/obstacle races like "The Spartan Race" calculate into this kind of training?
- What kind of training test will be involved with the Level 1 Combat Medic?
- Where do kicks fit into street fighting?
- How important is awareness as a martial arts skill?
Make sure you listen to Part 1 if you missed it! Episode 113: Training Out of Your Comfort Zone.
Comments |
April 2nd, 2012 at 12:26 pm (urban survival, the human path, texas outdoor education, the combat medic, martial arts, Outdoor Fitness and Self Defense, health and nutrition)
Today Sam Coffman has a great discussion about realism in self-defense training with Mark Hatmaker.
Mark and Sam discuss topics include:
- Mark's journey across the different aspects of fighting in western martial arts
- How Historical boxing and old-school pugulism and catch-wrestling fit into fighting styles
- How much of the boxing and wrestling base gets thrown out of the window when it comes down to real adrenaline training
- What are the "Outer Limits" drills and how does disorientation fit into adrenaline and real street fighting drills?
- When is the "Outer Limits" DVD coming out (on Paladin Press)?
- How can people train to take away their comfort zone to constantly learn and "stress-inoculize" themselves for a street encounter?
- Randomness in a fight, and the book "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb
- The Mixed Martial Arts continuum of "Conditioning, Positioning, Striking and Submission" and how those apply to a street fight?
- How does submission and grappling training fit into the concept of realistic self-defense practice?
- What do mud/obstacle races like "The Spartan Race" calculate into this kind of training?
The second part of this podcast will be released tomorrow. Don't miss it!
Comments |
March 28th, 2012 at 11:35 am (urban survival, the human path, texas outdoor education, self sufficiency farming, health and nutrition, self sustainability, prepping, intentional community, community, gardening)
 |
Today Sam Coffman discusses the Food Is Free Project with its founder, Jon Edwards.
Together, Sam and Jon discuss:
- How the Food Is Free project got started and what it is
- How making wicking beds and planting food has brought community together
- How many houses are participating in the neighborhood in Austin that they are working with
- The kinds of community aspects that have blossomed as a result of the neighborhood being involved in growing their own food.
- The practicality of raised, wicking beds for growing food in an urban area
- Some of the potential conflicts with city officials and HOA's to front-yard food gardens
|
- Upcoming events in Austin for the Food Is Free organization
- How anyone can get started, and the toolkit that is available to help people lead a similar project in their own neighborhood
You can read more about the project at their website and blog here: http://foodisfreeproject.org/
Be sure to like them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/foodisfree
Contact them directly here: foodisfreeproject@gmail.com
Comments |
March 26th, 2012 at 3:44 pm (survival skills, urban survival, the human path, permaculture, texas outdoor education, herbology, wild food sources, outdoor survival, green homesteading, self sufficiency farming, bushcraft, disaster preparedness, readiness, self sustainability, prepping, homesteading, gardening)
In today's podcast, Sam Coffman talks about forest gardening.
Forest gardening is a great way to grow both food and medicine in a space and labor-efficient environment. Sam talks about:
- Why a forest garden is a great idea for preppers
- What are the different layers of a forest garden?
- How can you get started on a forest garden even if you don't have any canopy trees?
- How much room does a forest garden take up?
- What are the advantages of food and medicine grown in a forest garden?
- What are some of the examples of food and medicine that Sam has growing in his own forest garden?
To learn more about plant medicine, make sure you are on the mailing list for notification as our herbology level 1 online class comes out over the next few weeks...
Comments |
March 21st, 2012 at 1:07 pm (survival skills, urban survival, the human path, texas outdoor education, Outdoor Fitness and Self Defense, outdoor survival, disaster preparedness, readiness, survival scenario, weapons, reviews, societal collapse)
In today's podcast, Sam Coffman discusses the zombie apocalypse series - The Walking Dead - and how we can learn from critically thinking during and after watching shows pertaining to social collapse.
Sam discusses:
- Why it helps to think critically, even while watching fictional TV or Movies
- What we can learn from The Walking Dead in regards to basic self defense concepts
- What some of the different styles of leadership can do to group dynamics
- How to think about leadership with a group of random people
- If you have to fight to survive, then you have to discard false notions of anything other than fighting to win
- How important it is to think outside the box in a fight or a war
The Zombie Apocalypse is coming up in about 7 months. You must have taken the Urban or Primitive Core Basic in order to participate in the Zombie Apocalypse. Sign up now for the UCB or PCB.
May 2012 Urban Core Basic, Part 1 May 4 - 6th, and Part 2, June 1 - 3rd.
September Urban Core Basic, 5-Day Intensive: September 17 - 21st.
September 2012 Primitive Core Basic, Part 1 September 7 - 9th and Part 2, October 5 - 7th.
1 Comments |
March 19th, 2012 at 2:57 pm (survival skills, the human path, texas outdoor education, intentional community, community)
In today's podcast, Sam Coffman discusses the concept of "Intentional Community" from the standpoint of preparedness and survival. "Intentional Community" can mean a lot of different things to different people. Sam breaks down some different aspects of the idea of community into a few various levels that might make it easier to sort through how to go about forming your own community or communities of like-minded people.
Today, Sam talks about:
- What "intentional community" means
- What are 3 different levels of community?
- How do you go about finding and creating community based on those levels?
- How does stress affect community?
- What are the gathering points of community? The "watering holes?"
- How does The Human Path try to create community and put stress on people to help them come together?
- What are some of the things you should think about when choosing a school to learn skills (of any sort) at, and how does that relate to community for you?
There are 2 Primitive Core Basics and 2 Urban Core Basics still to be offered in 2012. Here are links to them:
May 2012 Urban Core Basic, Part 1 May 4 - 6th, and Part 2, June 1 - 3rd.
September Urban Core Basic, 5-Day Intensive: September 17 - 21st.
September 2012 Primitive Core Basic, Part 1 September 7 - 9th and Part 2, October 5 - 7th.
Comments |
March 8th, 2012 at 11:27 am (survival skills, urban survival, the human path, permaculture, texas outdoor education, outdoor survival, green homesteading, aquaponics, self sufficiency farming, readiness, self sustainability, homesteading)
In today's podcast, Sam Coffman speaks with Jessica Enzo of the Permaculture Education Center about Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) and permaculture education in general. They talk about:
- The advantages of taking a PDC online vs. on-site
- What to look for when finding a PDC course to take
- How much to expect to spend on a PDC course.
- How does permaculture fit into preparedness and the "prepper" lifestyle?
- What are some ways that a person can get started on their own with permaculture concepts aroung the house and garden?
- What are the underlying fundamentals of permaculture, and why is it important?
- How can a person get started with the Permaculture Education Center if they want to get their PDC online? How long does it take?
You can check out more about online permaculture design certification by going to the Permaculture Education Center website
You can also sign up to learn about growing, wildcrafting and using medicinal plants by attending the Herbology Level 1 class at The Human Path here: online registration
The Online Permaculture Education Center's mission is to provide Permaculture education while promoting and demonstrating sustainable living techniques to the world.
Main Instructors: Alan Enzo, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Enzo (also known as "Enzo") is an award-winning researcher and international consultant in Ecological Economics and Ecological Design (Permaculture). He is a registered Instructor and Consultant with the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia. He earned a Ph.D. in Management (specialization in Ecological Economics), and an M.B.A. in Sustainable Business from Tennessee State University. He is passionate about sustainable systems research, alternative local economic systems, natural building, organic food production, and helping students and clients start their own small green businesses.
Jessica Enzo, B.A.
Jessica Enzo is a Permaculture co-teacher and consultant, and is also a certified Health Coach specializing in Integrative Nutrition. Jessica has a love of natural landscapes and an eye for patterns and appropriate design. Her passion and desire is to demonstrate and share her love of Permaculture and its amazing principles with as many people as possible.
The Enzo's are currently working to create a Permaculture Demonstration site and Education Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Alan and Jessica are respected teachers and consultants in the region, and are best known for designing the new Permaculture Demonstration site at the Mother Earth News Ecovillage near Asheville, N.C. This famous ecovillage was one of the first established in the United States. In addition to teaching and consulting, the Enzo's work with other Permaculture and Sustainability professionals to help re-localize economic activity and organic food production, while creating a network of small local green businesses in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Bioregion (Katuah).
In 2011, Alan and Jessica Enzo, Tom Brody, Ian Booth, Galen Hull, Raoul Russell, and several other leading Permaculture teachers created a new online PDC curriculum and started PermacultureEducation.com. The site is now managed by the Ecological Education Association - a collective of local Permaculture teachers and consultants in Southeast U.S.
Comments |
March 1st, 2012 at 11:41 am (survival skills, urban survival, the human path, texas outdoor education, green homesteading, long-term food storage, readiness, economic collapse, self sustainability, prepping)
Each day, grocery stores throw out thousands of pounds of fresh and useable produce, meat and food staples. These items are not spoiled, they are often times not damaged, and might be tossed just because there is too much overstock. Today, Sam Coffman talks with a Human Path Facebook follower, who watched a video trailer we posted, 'Dive', about 2 months ago and decided to try her hand at dumpster diving to help her family through a rough financial spot. She was shocked at the amount of waste with perfectly good food being thrown away and now her family eats healthier than ever.
Sam and listener Zoe discuss:
- what led her family to try dumpster diving and the negative stigma that they had to overcome in order to try it out
- the movie 'Dive' that changed their attitude about the practice of dumpster diving
- the volume of fresh organic food being thrown away and the great variety of high-end healthy food
- how they share with friends and neighbors when they collect more than they need
- how they were able to stock up for their family of 5 for a full year after 2 months of dumpster diving
- store dumpsters may often be full (and locked) even though stores claim to donate everything to charities and shelters
- the dangers to note and precautions that divers must take before going out
- the best times to go and where
- the idea of a co-op for divers to share and distribute collected food to make sure perfectly good food doesn't just got tossed
- making extra cash by selling cast-off items
- dumpster diving as a growing and thriving sub-culture, sometimes called 'freegans'
- learning about food safety
Waste and over-consumption are a huge problem with our country's landfills being packed with things that can either be consumed, re-used or re-purposed. When thousands of pounds of good food are being thrown out, natural resources continue to be depleted.
Learn how to sharpen your urban awareness and survival skills. See how to be a part of the eco-solution and not part of the problem.
Comments |
February 29th, 2012 at 6:48 pm (survival skills, urban survival, primitive living, the human path, texas outdoor education, wild food sources, outdoor survival, self sufficiency farming, long-term food storage, disaster preparedness, readiness, power shortage, survival scenario, survival gear, weapons, self sustainability, prepping)
In today’s podcast, Sam Coffman reviews last night’s “Doomsday Preppers” show (National Geographic channel) –
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/
Sam gives his own feedback on the preppers that were featured in this show, as well as some of the concepts involved in their method of prepping. Aside from talking about the details of each individual prepper and some various feedback on their plans, he also talks about:
- bird alarms as a method of early warning in a rural environment
- lifestyle adjustments for the first family of primitive skills enthusiasts for prepping
- over-population as a possible disaster scenario and why it works well
- firearms' role in survival
- living off the 'fat of the land'
- surviving in a bunker: what happens when they have to inevitably emerge from the bunker?
- changing a culture of 'distraction' to ensure a positive survival of the species
- security: humans vs. machinery
- prepping for martial law: what this means
- water: what is the bare minimum per person needed, and how much for comfort?
- what is to be gained through sniper tactics in a survival situation?
- the difference between these prepper's everyday lifestyle compared to what they are prepping for
There are two survival courses coming up that deal specifically with survival in all types of situations.
See the online schedule for:
The Primitive Core Basic: 5-Day Intensive, March 12 - 16th, online registration
The Urban Core Basic: Part one, May 4 - 6th, online registration
Comments |
February 20th, 2012 at 2:16 pm (Uncategorized, the human path, texas outdoor education, green homesteading, self sufficiency farming, self sustainability, eco building, homesteading)
Sam Coffman continues his discussion on eco-building with Kelly Hart of
greenhomebuilding.com, discussing the creative and novel use of unexpected salvage items to build environmentally smart homes. These materials are both environmentally friendly, re-use existing materials to cut down on waste and are very affordable and simple to construct.
Sam and Kelly go over:
- using grain bins, railroad box cars and school buses as alternative house structures and how well they work
- how living in a smaller home makes a person more eco-conscious and less consumer-oriented
- using passive solar cooling, heating and lighting by utilizing a sensitive design
- building underground to use less energy
- green rooftops and earth berms to create the same effect
- methods of renewable energy
- benefits of using natural and local building materials
- growing and storing food in naturally cooled environments
 |
Kelly Hart is the founder and host of www.greenhomebuilding.com , www.dreamgreenhomes.com and www.earthbagbuilding.com, and has been involved with green building concepts for much of his life. Kelly spent many years as a professional remodeler, during which time he became acquainted with many of the pitfalls of conventional construction. |
| Kelly is knowledgeable about both simple design concepts and more complex technological aspects of home building that enhance sustainable living. He has even designed and built a solar-electric car that he drove around his neighborhood. Kelly, and his wife Zana, lived for many years in an earthbag/papercrete home that he designed and built. |
Comments |
