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Author: Samantha Biggers

Samantha Biggers lives on a mountain in North Carolina with her husband, Matthew, in a house they built. They have a small steep slope vineyard, raise sheep, and grow gourmet mushrooms. Since 2017 she has been proud to write for Backdoor Survival. 

Samantha learned the foundation of preparedness on the banks of the Skagit River in the North Cascades of Washington State while being raised by a single father who saw heavy combat in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive. At 16 she moved with her dad to his home state of North Carolina where she worked on some farm projects before attending Warren Wilson College and graduating with a degree in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Sustainable Forestry. After college, she and her future husband spend a few years in Ketchikan, Alaska before returning to North Carolina and moving into a small 1970s Holiday Rambler camper on 11 acres of family land given to her by her father. This is when the adventure of building a house and farming began! Over the years her articles have appeared in various homesteading magazines such as GRIT, Back Home, Backwoods Home, and Countryside and Small Stock Journal. Her writing can also be found on Lew Rockwell and The Organic Prepper. Her husband, Matthew Biggers takes all the original pictures used in her articles and occasionally writes a few himself!

While writing for Backdoor Survival, Samantha became friends with the original founder, Gaye Levy. They discovered they had a lot in common, including being born and raised in the same area.  They talk often about prepping and life in general.  Although Gaye has moved on to writing and managing her site, Strategic Living, she continues to offer more support than she realizes! Gaye no longer writes or owns Backdoor Survival but you can find many of her posts still on the site today.

Education:
Samantha was homeschooled starting in the 7th grade. After graduating from Freedom Christian Academy, a through the mail homeschool based in Kentucky, she was accepted and attended Warren Wilson College located in beautiful Swannanoa, NC. Warren Wilson is a work college with only 800 students. While there she worked on a variety of work crews but spent the most time on the Natural Resources Crew (NRC). The crew was responsible for maintaining many miles of trails, running an on site sawmill, providing the school and faculty with firewood, and managing 650 acres of Appalachian forest. Other duties included growing and selling Shiitake mushrooms grown on logs harvested from the college forest.
She graduated from Warren Wilson College in 2005 with a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Studies with a Concentration in Sustainable Forestry.

Interviews:

Homesteading and Preparedness With Samantha Biggers of Backdoor Survival, The Prepper Website Podcast
An Inside Look At Bulletproof Backpacks, ABC Amarillo
How To Prepare Your Emergency Survival Kit, Healthline

Articles For Other Publications:

Forest Management For The Farm, GRIT Magazine January/February 2013
Raising Dairy Calves For Meat, Countryside and Small Stock Journal
Canning Chickens For The Pantry, Backwoods Home Magazine, May/June 2012
The Bear Facts: Coping With Overpopulation and Problem Bears In Town and Forest

The Bear Facts: Coping With Overpopulation and Problem Bears In Town and Forest

BDS had an article a while back about how to survive a wild animal encounter. While I had dealt with plenty of animal incidents, my first true run-in with a…

The Many Uses Of Tarps For Survival and Prepping

The Many Uses Of Tarps For Survival and Prepping

Tarps are one of the most versatile things out there. Everyone should have a few tarps as part of their preps. The smaller sizes are of course lighter and easy…

Keeping Up Morale & Finding Entertainment During Hard Times

Keeping Up Morale & Finding Entertainment During Hard Times

Morale can be hard to keep up during hard times, but it is very important to maintain. Morale can have a major influence on your overall chances of survival during…

The Best Hand Crank Flashlights

The Best Hand Crank Flashlights

Editor’s Note: This is an updated and revised edition from earlier in 2018.   Hand-cranked flashlights offer light and other functions when out on the trail or during a survival situation. …

National Hurricane Preparedness Week is Over – Are You Ready?

National Hurricane Preparedness Week is Over – Are You Ready?

Editor’s Note: This is an updated and revised edition from earlier in 2018.   Hurricane preparedness week may be over but it is far from too late to make sure your…

Surviving Flooding During and After Hurricane Florence

Surviving Flooding During and After Hurricane Florence

It is hurricane season, and so far it is lining up to be an eventful one. Florence is likely to bring flooding to a lot of areas. Figure 1. Infrared satellite…

A Review Of The Camp Chef Pro 60 X Two Burner Stove, Grill Box, and Griddle

A Review Of The Camp Chef Pro 60 X Two Burner Stove, Grill Box, and Griddle

    Camp Chef sent me a bit of gear to test, and I have been impressed with the quality and value you get. For this review we are testing…

Making Smoothies With Valley Food Storage Freeze Dried Fruit

Making Smoothies With Valley Food Storage Freeze Dried Fruit

During an emergency or survival situation, having some fruit can be nice. Recently I was sent a variety of Valley Food Storage Freeze Dried Fruits to test out.  For this…

How To Signal For Help: Whistles, Hollering, Infrared, Fire, and Beyond

How To Signal For Help: Whistles, Hollering, Infrared, Fire, and Beyond

I was browsing through some survival books when I thought about how there are not a lot of posts in recent times that talk about all the different ways to…

Cans, Caddies, and Conservation: Gas Storage and Strategies For Emergencies and Shortages

Cans, Caddies, and Conservation: Gas Storage and Strategies For Emergencies and Shortages

Storing gas is something a lot of preppers have probably thought about at some point. There are some challenges to storing gas. Finding the right can and planning out your…

Building A Prepper Library For SHTF

Building A Prepper Library For SHTF

Having a good reference library is something I consider essential for any prepper. It can be electronic or paper or a combination of both. Paper copies of some books are…

Natural Anesthetics For SHTF: Natural Pain Relief For Every Day and Extreme Circumstances

Natural Anesthetics For SHTF: Natural Pain Relief For Every Day and Extreme Circumstances

Way before there were modern pain medications, there were plants.  While the effects of a plant may not have the extreme pain killing capabilities of what some use in the…

Goggles and Safety Glasses For Preppers: Finding the right pair for any purpose

Goggles and Safety Glasses For Preppers: Finding the right pair for any purpose

There are many reasons why goggles are useful for the prepper or homesteader. We have went through many many dozens of goggles over our time up here on the mountain….

Avoiding Rescue Situations: How To Not Be “That Person”

Avoiding Rescue Situations: How To Not Be “That Person”

How many of us have seen a rescue situation unfold on TV or the paper and think “How did they get into that mess” or “what on earth?” Every year there…

The Bucket List: The many uses of buckets and help finding the right one!

The Bucket List: The many uses of buckets and help finding the right one!

The importance of a good bucket cannot be stressed enough. There are a lot of different buckets and some are better for some things than others. I am going to…

Beyond Bic: Lighter Choices For Survival and SHTF

Beyond Bic: Lighter Choices For Survival and SHTF

We have done posts on the past about firestarters, but lighters have been overlooked. The type of lighter that is best for you depends on various factors.  Here are some…