The Winter Warmer: The Best of BDS Winter Preparedness Posts

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 PodcastAn Inside Look At Bulletproof Backpacks, ABC AmarilloHow To Prepare Your Emergency Survival Kit, HealthlineArticles For Other Publications:Forest Management For The Farm, GRIT Magazine January/February 2013Raising Dairy Calves For Meat, Countryside and Small Stock JournalCanning Chickens For The Pantry, Backwoods Home Magazine, May/June 2012Samantha Biggers can be reached at [email protected]