GREEN EARTH SURVIVAL SCHOOL

Air Guns

2012-01-27T18:14:00.000-08:00

Air Guns for Survival

Air guns for hunting small game? Absolutely. To my simple way of thinking it's a very efficient and practical weapon to consider. Can you kill a wild boar or a deer. No, not with the rifles I'm discussing although there are high powered rifles very capable of taking even the largest of game. I'm talking about the ones they sell in WalMart for under 200 bucks.

Here's a couple of reasons to consider these as a survival type weapon. First - they are quiet. You can shoot these in your backyard and never raise an eyebrow. That alone is a feature that greatly appeals to me. Secondly, there are very potent on small game. A well placed shot, i.e., in the kill zone, will dispatch a squirrel, rabbit, armadillo ( great eating by the way) doves, quail etc. as effectively at short ranges as a 22. What are short ranges? I'm saying under 50 yards. Under 25 is even better if your stalking skills are up to par.

I have a Gamo Whisper .177 caliber. It's a Break Barrel, single cocking system, spring piston type - which BTW, is the most common type available. Velocity is 1200 feet per second with PBA and 1000 feet per second with lead pellets. I had a 3-9 x 40 scope mounted on it for a while and you can drive a tack at 20 yds with that combo. I've just switched to a red dot scope and initial sighting in looks very accurate. BTW - I'm doing that sighting in by shooting at a target with suitable back stop- in my garage. Try that with a standard rifle. You'd have a SWAT team beating down your door.

I'm not going into a long technical discussion here. I don't know all that stuff and it's readily available online for those that are interested. But I do want to mention one other very attractive feature about air guns. You can buy a box of 500 pellets for about 6 bucks. That's a lot of shots folks. At those prices you can afford to practice a little, maybe even bust a few beer bottles and cans. Empties of course.

For you technical types Dr. Robert Beeman has a handy little graph that gives one an idea of what level of power is needed for dispatching the game you are hunting. According to Dr. Beeman, 3 fpe is all that is needed to dispatch a squirrel, provided you have placed the pellet in the kill zone. With a pellet weighing roughly 8 grains, that translates to about 415 feet per second at the point of impact. In a .22 caliber airgun, an average weight pellet only has to be going about 300 fps to achieve the same level of energy needed to accomplish the deed. Here's the link to that graph. http://www.beemans.net/field%20use.htm

Because the kill zone on small game is rather tiny, I do recommend the use of a scope. Not only does it increase accuracy, but it is also a great aid in locating game hiding in brush or, in the case of squirrels, up in the top of trees. I find a 3-9x variable scope with an adjustable objective (AO) to be adequate for most hunting situations. One thing about scopes. Don't mount that old 3-9x you picked up at a garage sale. The vibrations from a spring-piston type will shake that scope to pieces post haste. Get a scope designed for use with a air gun.

I have yet to field test the difference in pointed and hollow point pellets on small game but from my research and hunting experience with that old standby - the 22 caliber bullet, I'm quite sure hollow points will be my choice.

Think about it. Do a little research on those babies and I think you'll agree with me.

Awareness

2011-11-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

What do I consider the single most important survival skill I'd have to say that awareness, the simple state of consciousness of your surroundings, potential opportunities, actual or perceived threats and your own physical and mental condition and levels, is, without a doubt, the one thing that can contribute the most to one's success.

In a survival situation you must be aware of a host of different and ever changing conditions and possible situations. When to build a fire, the best shelter, whether to travel or hunker down, drinking water and food needs - the list is almost endless - and your decisions and actions may mean life or death.

Survival situations demand the ability to remain calm, flexible and to make rational decisions even while under very stressful and unfamiliar conditions. When pushed to the limits and totally outside your comfort zone it can be very difficult to make quick decisions that may have such grave results. It's at times like these that awareness can contribute the most.

Is awareness a skill that can be learned? Absolutely! Awareness can be developed by training and practice just like any other skill. Once you recognize the need, that is - become aware of, its importance and how it can effect or even direct your decision making you'll be on your way to learning this as a skill. It's an important and essential skill that can aid you in everyday life whether functioning in the modern world or in the wild.

Here's a simple example what I mean: Let's say you are totally lost, no hope of finding your way back to camp before dark and have decided to hunker down for the night. Right then and there you are faced with a number of quick decisions you'll have to make. Do you need to build a shelter? How about a fire? Where's the best place to spend the night and why? If - during all that time leading up to and previous to this exact moment in time, you were paying attention- that is: aware of: your surroundings, the environment, weather conditions, your physical condition etc., etc., the decision and next course of action would be easy.

You'd already have it figured out and know exactly what to do. Why? Because you were aware. You had already made a mental note of the weather conditions, what materials you had available for a shelter, how much time you had to accomplish the tasks and the best possible course of action. In other words: You were practicing awareness.

Can you take this to higher levels. Most certainly and, again, it's by training and knowledge. Ethnobotany and Primitive Skills are two perfect examples of skills that will help greatly in developing awareness. The more you learn about nature: plants, trees, animals and their uses the more aware you will become of not only your surroundings but of their many survival uses. If you are hiking through the woods and know that certain plants can be used for making fire, others are great sources of food, others for shelter, cordage, etc. the more awareness you will practice and develop. When you walk through a forest and can't see the forest for the trees as the old saying goes - you can't really " be aware" of anything but the most basic - Yep, duh, I'm in the woods. Your goal should be to be aware of and be able to make use of all that nature can provide. That Willow Tree you passed - that's medicine, fire, shelter, baskets, cordage, all there for the taking. Those Cattails next to the pond: more food ( lots of it), shelter, fire, medicine. Those rocks you tripped over: fire, heat, weapons, tools.

Once you become aware of what nature can provide and just as important - how to use it, then the more aware and better prepared you will become.

Garbage Bag Emergency Shelter

2011-10-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

Garbage Bag Shelter Field Test

This is the last night of a 2 week visit to my favorite State: Colorado, and tomorrow we drive into Denver, spend the night in a hotel and fly back to Florida. I'm hoping the temperatures are below the boiling point as it's now mid Oct. You know, Fall, leaves turned to gold, a crisp to the air. Everywhere except South FL that is.

The first night out here we woke to about 3 inches of snow and temperatures in the mid 20's. The high that day was 29 degrees and when you factor in the wind chill that's made it around 10 degrees, give or take. A long way from Florida weather.

Luckily it warmed up to the high 60's the following week and the wife and I got to do a lot of back country hiking and a little gold prospecting. Actually, we were looking for areas where we good do some gold panning and run a small sluice box when we come back next spring. We found lots of very promising high country creeks in the Pike Natl. Forest and my research shows that they were all gold producers back "in the day". We also did a little gem hunting and found some nice feldspar, milky quartz and a very nice topaz crystal. These little gems didn't come easy folks. I'm talking 2 miles straight up, both ways, and at 10 thousand feet plus altitude that's a hike.

Enough of the vacation slides, (anybody remember those). This blog is to report on some field tests I made using a 3 mil, 55 gal. garbage bag for a quick emergency shelter. My test conditions were with temperatures at 30 degrees F. and a north westerly wind at about 15 knots. Factor in wind chill and we're talking 9 degrees. My first exposure was wearing just a pair of jeans and a thin tee shirt. Standing directly in the wind I lasted about 5 minutes before I started to shiver. BTW - this was at night, no sun to help with the warming.

After warming up inside the camper I cut a small hole in the garbage bag to peak through, pulled it over my head, set my timer and stepped outside. After about 30 minutes of star gazing I started to get a chill and noticed myself trying to avoid contact with the cold plastic. Remember, all I had on my torso was that tee shirt. I didn't actually start to shiver. I was just starting to get uncomfortable and supper was ready so I called that test and went inside.

After eating a warm meal and warming back to normal I decided to try another test, this time wearing a light fleece jacket over the tee shirt. Same drill - I slipped the garbage bag over my head, set my wrist watch timer and resumed my star watching. By now the thermometer was reading 29 degrees and the wind was what I'd call "very sharp". One hour later, and approaching my bed time, I called it quits. I was just the slightest bit cold. Could I have made it another 12 hours or so? I think so but it would certainly have been a long night.

These tests were out in the open, fully exposed to a very brisk and cold wind. Doing nothing else besides getting myself out of that cold wind made a huge difference. I tested this by simply moving to the lee side of my camper, out of the wind. Almost immediately I could tell the difference. My body was now able to produce enough heat that I could feel it warming up inside the bag. Adding a big bed of leaves or pine boughs to nestle down into would have made a huge difference, maybe even a life or death difference.

Obviously there was nothing scientific about that test and you have to take into account individual tolerances to cold and also the clothing one would be wearing.

Regardless, that simple, inexpensive garbage bag could easily prove to be a life saver and I plan on carrying one in my personal survival kit.

Snares

2011-08-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Why use snares to procure food, fur and hides rather than the steel leg hold and body gripping traps? There are many valid and compelling reasons, especially for those that are on a limited budget, have limited and quite often little free time to devote to making and setting somewhat complicated trap sets that are required by standard trapping methods and equipment.

Snares were probably one of the first tools that early man utilized. By 15,000 B.C. snaring was already a sophisticated and commonly practiced art. Cave art in Europe and Africa show ancient hunters using snares as tools to gather food. Of course, there’s a big difference between the snares used by our ancestors and today’s modern steel snares. Likewise, the techniques are much different, and in my humble opinion, much improved.

Snaring is quiet, very efficient, low cost and very simple to do once a few very basic guidelines and basic methods are learned. The tools required to set a snare are simple, lightweight, inexpensive and easily transported in a small backpack or possibles bag and in most cases can be found and collected right at the site.

Unlike steel leg hold and body grip traps, snares are easily made as needed by the trapper and can actually be made up while in the field to suit specific situations and/or target animals.

Just like steel traps, snares are out there working for you 24/7. Once the simple basics of properly setting traps are learned a survivalist can set dozens of snares in a fraction of the time it would take to make and set the common leg hold type sets, and with much less effort. Meaning much less time expended, fewer calories burned and much less energy wasted.

Of course the big difference, especially for someone thrust into a survival situation, is that you can make your snares from natural materials. Try making a steel leg hold trap from scratch!! I know of no where on the globe, the source being plant and/or animal, that one cannot find some natural material to make a snare.

Wants and Needs

2011-03-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

In true survival situations, as well as in life, it is very difficult for anyone to completely separate themselves from their “wants”. From years of habit, conditioning and self indulgence, we have come to think of our ‘wants” as our “needs” and now-a-days, we all have a lot of self perceived “needs”. If we find ourselves in a situation or circumstance where we are denied these “wants”, our lives can completely unravel or at least, become very uncomfortable to the point that we are thrust into a survival mode.

What are our actual wants and what are our actual needs? Let’s kick this around being as pragmatic and reasonable as possible. Our actual “needs” have not changed since man first walked the Earth. Not in the least. Two million years ago our “needs” were the same as they are today. To survive, man, and all animals, has three basic requirements. Please keep in mind that I am talking individuals and short term. Not propagating the species, reproduction and not long term survival of the species. Just the most basic needs someone surviving in the wilds would need. Those three requirements or “needs” are: shelter, water and food. That’s it. That’s the way it has always been. That is the way it will always be.

That order, shelter, water, then food, is not carved in stone. There are a lot of factors that can effect and switch that order of importance. If the weather and surrounding ambient temperatures happens to be perfect, then shelter is, for the time being, of lesser importance. If there is an abundance of clean, pure drinking water, but it’s snowing and cold as a ditch digger’s belt buckle, then obviously, that order has changed. Regardless of the order, those three specific needs have to be considered and complied with fully, or we die. A lack of one, or more likely a combination, of those three basics will result in death.

What is a shelter? The answer is anything that will maintain our core body temperatures at 98.6 degrees F. That’s it. Whatever satisfies that very basic and simple requirement? End of discussion. What is water? What is food? Of course we all know those answers and I do not intend to enter into that long, never ending discussion on calorie in-take, daily water consumptions, proteins verses carbohydrates etc. Those issues have been beaten to a frazzle and for the most part, never fully address, and sometimes cloud or ignore the basic and core issues.

So what about our wants? All those things we confuse with, actually consider as needs. I want a hot meal and a cold beer. I want a soft bed and my TV. I want to be surrounded by four strong walls, with family photos hanging on them. I want a fridge filled with food. I want to push a button and get ice. I want, and I now expect, a hell of a lot of things.

What do I actually need? Very little. Just those three simple aforementioned things. Are those things easily obtainable? Maybe, maybe not. It may well depend on your training, knowledge and ability to cope.

If your training, basic skills and knowledge is limited to “modern” techniques, materials and tools – plastic for shelters, chemicals for water treatment and fire steels to make a fire, as examples, then you’d better hope that those things are at hand, and maybe even in abundance or else you are going to find yourself “out in the cold” (pun intended).

If the only way you know how to start a fire is with a cigarette lighter, matches or a fire steel – modern implements - there is only a slim chance you’ll be able to build a fire using a friction method. If you have never considered or practiced filtering and/or purifying water using only natural materials and methods and you find yourself without fire or chemicals, how are you going to do that?

How about natural shelters? Think you can just throw one of those together? One that can maintain that core body temperature around 98 degrees? Not very likely folks. Especially if you cannot make a fire.

So the point here is simple. If your training and skills are limited to basic, modern survival methods than it would be a smart thing to make sure you are never caught in a true survival situation without modern tools and materials. If the only thing you have ever made an emergency shelter from is a piece of plastic, you might want to make sure you carry that. If you have only started a fire using fire steel and a cotton ball soaked in petroleum jelly, you’d best have one in your pocket if and when you need a fire.

I’m sure you know where I’m going with this. To be truly prepared for any survival situation you need to learn and become proficient in primitive skills. Those skills that our ancestors used daily for thousands of years. The only skills that can get you through any and all real survival situations.

Tinder -Many Choices

2010-08-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Most all of us where taught that the primary requirements for fire were oxygen, heat and fuel. Those are, without a doubt, things that must be considered by everyone attempting to build a fire. Lets take those three requirements just a little farther, separate them and then discuss how each must be addressed.

Oxygen, of course, we have all around us yet few pay enough attention to this key ingredient when they build their fire lay or tinder bundle. A tightly packed fire lay, let’s use the familiar tipi tyle as an example, will not burn as readily as one that is a little loosely build so that air, i.e. oxygen, can circulate through and be drawn into the fire. One way to demonstrate this is by lighting a match, holding it in a horizontal position and let it burn. The match will burn until it’s totally consumed. If you repeat this process, light the match then place it down on a flat surface, what will happen? The match will go out. It simply can’t get enough oxygen to burn. Time and time again I’ve watched as students (and even experienced “old hands”) fire building attempts failed, their fire just slowly dying out, simply due to lack of oxygen. The common solution, and a very good one, is to get down and blow life back into the fire. This does two things. First it provides much need oxygen, force feeding it essentially, which in turn produces the next of the 3 essentials : heat. Get enough heat built up and you’ll have fire.

Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty, the practical, controllable elements and the part where decisions can be made. How we apply heat; whether it be flame, sparks or ember, also dictates what the third essential ingredient will be, that is the fuel. Aka known as tinder.

We’ll get to a discussion about tinder soon but first let’s talk about our heat source. We’ll start from the easiest to hardest – flame, spark and then ember. The best choice, and by this I mean the one that’s the easiest to start a fire with, is a flame. The flame can be supplied by many methods with a match, cigarette lighter or candle being the most practical.

The next source of heat to be considered are sparks. Fire steels are a very popular means to generate sparks and many consider carrying one an essential survival item. These babies generate very hot sparks, somewhere around 5000 degrees and with the correct tender ( fuel) it’s easy to get a fire growing- first try. Just move a metal blade slowly down the length of the magnesium rod and you can throw a shower of sparks onto your tinder. Fire Steels can be used in any weather, even wet and are the favorite of many survival experts, hunters, campers and the military.

That other common source of sparks and the method favored by many mountaineering and early history buffs and practitioners is flint and steel. A good combination of flint or flint-like rock: jasper, chert etc. when struck by a high carbon piece of steel, produces some very nice sparks. Take note - these sparks are no where near as hot as those from a magnesium rod.

Now to the third, and most difficult method of making fire. The ember. An ember used for fire building is most commonly produced by a friction method. The Bow Drill and the Hand Drill being the two most obvious and the most practiced.

So there we have our three most common methods of ignition, or the source of heat that we use to start our fire - flame, sparks and ember. The next part of the equation is our fuel or the more common term used for the fire building process – tinder. ( Wikipedia lists over a dozen definitions for tinder but none of them pertains to fire building. The first edition of Noah Webster’s Dictionary published in 1806 ( and no – I wasn’t around then) defined tinder as: “Tin’der, n, burnt linen, what easily catches fire.) Times are changing. For this discussion, tinder, will be what we use to turn our heat source into fire. The key word here, of course is “correct” tinder. There is no one tinder that works for all three of our selected heat sources. A tinder that works great with a Fire Steel may not work at all with a ember. Likewise, and here’s where it gets confusing for many, a tinder that works great with an ember, will not work with a Fire Steel.

Let’s continue by talking about the best tinder to use with a flame. If you have a source of heat like a Butane lighter or candle that can provide steady heat to your fuel there’s a wide and usually readily choice of tinder available. Grasses, leaves, small twigs, even some that are slightly damp can usually be coaxed into fire with a sustainable flame. Hold that flame on there long enough and something is going to burn. Paper, rags, cardboard, the list of materials you can light with a flame is many and varied making it the first choice for most all folks needing a quick fire.

Our next choice of heat was the Swedish Fire Steel. There’s been a lot of misleading information written and taken as gospel about what makes a good tinder to use with fire steels. Remember now, I’m talking about fire steels, not flint and steel. Even though these simple devices can throw out sparks as hot as 5000 degrees F you cannot hope to ignite natural materials like pine needles, shaved sticks, dry leaves, Spanish moss etc. Don’t waste valuable time in an emergency even trying. They won’t work. But don’t despair, there are many natural materials that a fire steel will work with. Cattail fluff, any dry plant down that looks like cotton: thistle, dandelion comes to mind. Cabbage Palm trunk fibers makes excellent tinder, also some dry inner barks if first they are finely shredded to almost hair like threads. Obviously, some of these work better than others. Cattail fluff and cotton-like plant fibers will catch a spark and burn but they burn very fast, like in a flash, and unless you have a very well constructed tinder bundle with some very combustible material right next to that little burst of fire, you’ll come up ended handed. Lots of people carry small balls of Oakum fibers or jute string to use with their fire steels. Although these are natural fibers ( called tow by old timers) you’re not likely to find any growing in the field. (Try your local hardware store.)

None of the natural materials listed above that can be ignited with a fire steel will work with flint and steel. You can take that to the bank. There’s only a handful of natural materials that will take a spark from flint and steel and even then, those need to be prepared first. The only natural materials that I’m familiar enough to talk about is punk wood. ( I don’t consider that old standby and the material most commonly used with flint and steel - charcloth, as being natural) Punk wood is fairly easy to find. Just about anyplace there are trees and/or large woody plants, there will be some form of punk wood. By definition, punk wood is any wood that has rotted to the point where it feels spongy. It can be a limb on the ground or even pieces of trunk wood up inside a hollow tree. Anything that looks and feels close to a cork-like consistency is the best I can describe it. Will all punk woods that fit that description work. Of course not. Nature just doesn’t work that way. I once picked up two branches that were lying side by side and looked like they came from the same tree, one worked like a charm, the other didn’t. That’s just the way things are folks, which means you’ll have to experiment, try different woods from your neck of the woods and see what works.

How do you process punk wood? Just like making charcloth. Put small pieces in a small can that has a 1/16 inch hole in a tight fitting lid and slowly cook until smoke no longer comes out the hole. When done it should look like just what it is, a piece of charcoal. This can be done over an open campfire also. The best method I’ve found is to place your punk wood in white hot ashes along the outer edge of the campfire and let it slowly burn. Once totally consumed and blackened, gently rake the hot coal out of the fire and cover with about 2 or 3 inches of dirt. The dirt will smother the coal. When it’s completely cool to the touch you can uncover it and hopefully you now have a piece of char that will take a spark. As always, before betting your life on starting a fire with this fragile little piece of burnt wood – try it. Make sure it works, then carefully cover it and stow it safely in your strike-a-light bag.

There is another natural tinder for flint and steel that’s actually prized and was considered a trade item by early Native Americans and then later frontiersmen. That’s tinder fungus. It’s a fungus that grows almost exclusively on Birch trees. I have yet to have any of this material in my hands to play with and test, but I do know this – it also has to be processed. It’s not something that you just peel off a tree, strike a spark and bingo – fire. Obviously, any tinder that will work with flint and steel will work even better if you use a fire steel, but, like I stated previously, not the other way around.

That leaves us with that truly primitive fire starting method – the glowing ember. Stuff of legends and images of aboriginals twirling a stick between their palms and then gently blowing life into a small bundle of grass and twigs. One of the best tinders to use with an ember is cedar inner bark that’s been twisted and shredded and made into a small bundle. Place your small ember into the center of the bark bird’s nest and start slowly and gently blowing on the ember. You’ll have to watch carefully so as to not blow so hard you blow the ember apart and then carefully nurse the coal and make it grow and slowly spread it’s heat into the surrounding bark. It take a little practice to get the technique down. There are other barks that work almost equally as well as cedar: grape vine, honeysuckle and Juniper are three I’ve had luck with. Dried grasses, crumbled leaves, pine needles also work as do jute and hemp fibers. They have to be dry. Moist or damp tender just won’t work. Here in Florida just the humidity can keep you from working up a flame.

One would think, and many do, that any tinder that could be turned into fire from a small ember could surely work with a fire steel. And, logic would seem to make this true. It just doesn’t work that way. That bird’s nest of cedar bark that works so well with an ember – no way with a fire steel. The same goes for most grasses, pine needles and crumbled leaves. You can shower them all day with a fire steel and never get a flame.

Keep in mind that there are exceptions to all rules and who knows, maybe one day I’ll find that perfect natural tinder, one that grows just about ever where, and can be ignited with any and all heat sources. Anything I find while wandering through the woods that looks like a likely candidate as teider I pick up and tote home to test. Most don’t pan out but in the process, whether failure or success, I learn a little.

The point here is that anyone that decides to depend on one particular fire starting source, flame, sparks or ember would be wise to practice a bit and make dang sure that their technique, the equipment and most importantly, that tinder they may be betting their life on will actually work, and I mean work ever single time under the harshest conditions they may encounter. That’s a tall order for any single fire starting method or materials and the primary reason that we recommend a minimum of three separate fire starting methods are carried. Unless, of course, you are truly confident in your abilities and choice of materials.

Wilderness Dining

2010-04-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Eating Out

I always seem to get a slew of questions asking what are people’s best options for survival food. If you really think about this question then you’d have to realize that there can’t be one single answer. The only true answer is that it’s entirely dependent upon a bunch of factors. Factors that are constantly changing, just as nature itself does. Location, seasons, weather, climate conditions, your physical condition and skill level and even time of day are just a few factors that could impact what might be available for food.

If you consider just the time of year – winter verses summer for instance, there’s a huge difference in what’s available to the survivalist foraging for something to fill their belly.
An area that was brimming with delicious edible berries, plants and small game in the summer may turn completely barren during the winter months. For many common and edible plants the difference between being plentiful and non-existence may be just a few months, weeks or even days. That’s especially true for those old standbys -berries and fruits. That black berry patch that was full of juicy and tasty handfuls in late spring will be barren just a few months later.

So what is the answer? How can you always count on finding a dependable source of food year round? The best answer I can give is that you will have to take the time and put in the effort to learn as much about the plants and animals in a given area as possible. You’ll need to learn what edible plants are indigenous to your area and habitat, what times are best for harvesting, what particular part of the plant is edible, how to prepare it safely and how to store it. The same goes for animals. What animals can be found and harvested as a source of meat? Are they available year round, do they hibernate or migrate during the winter etc?

Just as an example of what is possible and what I’d consider traveling the high road – I once read that the Cherokee Indians had knowledge of over 600 different plants. Plants that they used for food, medicines, clothing, fire, shelter, weapons in everyday life.. I’m not saying you need to have that kind of knowledge to survive, but quite obviously, the more you know the better your chances. Like the old saying goes – knowledge is power and in a survival situation – this knowledge may be life.

Another point that needs to be addressed and one that many consider their greatest obstacle- just what can, or better yet, what will you actually consider as food.. Will you be able to wolf down rodents – mice and rats? How about those delightful and plentiful insects. Are those on your menu? Snakes, frogs, worms, birds – does the thought of munching down on any of those sound repulsive and trigger your gag reflexes? If you say, or think, yes; then join the club. That’s the most common response. Few people, that is, few Westerners anyway, consider any of those types of foods as even edible, let alone possibly a main course.

That opinion of food is definitely not true for millions of people in other, let’s say – less developed countries. There are literally millions of people that eat foods we wouldn’t even touch, let alone put in our mouths. Foods that you and I might think of as being completely inedible, disgusting and vile, are eaten on a daily basis. And, you really don’t have to travel to foreign countries to find similar examples. In the Appalachians where I grew up, people still routinely eat opossum, hogs feet, cow tongue, blood pudding, brains and a host of other foods that you ain’t going to find in your local supermarket.

I’m a fan of the TV show Bizarre Foods, hosted by Andrew Zimmern. On each episode he travels to a different country or region and highlights all the different foods that people prepare and eat. On last nights episode he was in North Eastern Thailand ( an area I spent about 3 years in) and showed some of the foods and prepared meals that many of those native peoples eat on a regular basis. Silk worms, grasshoppers, dung beetles, raw pieces of meat from a freshly killed calf, whole rats chopped into small pieces ( I’m talking guts, brains, bones) then stir fried, were some of the more popular meals. Just the thought of eating any of those things would make most of us regurgitate last weeks meal. On many of his episodes he’s shown people preparing and eating animal entrails, brains, eye balls etc. and eating them with zest.

When asked if they would actually eat things like eyeballs, entrails, worms etc., a lot of people answer, that yes, if they got hungry enough, then they most likely would. And that would be true – when we get hungry enough, our perception of what is edible and what we will eat, will definitely change. The problem is, and I’m talking from a true, long term survival situation, continuing to be picky about what you eat until you get so hungry you’ll eat absolutely anything, is not your best choice for surviving a long stay in the wild.

There are many stories of people actually slowly starving to death even though they had available, what by all reasoning, should have been adequate enough food. Early accounts of N. American pioneers and settlers make mention of Whites starving while their Native American counterparts , sharing the same food resources, managed just fine. Speculation is that while the whites would eat only the choice, lean parts of meat, the Indians consumed “all” of an animal, even down to the bones in some cases. They actually thrived eating what the white man discarded as being “inedible”.

In more recent times, there’s the story of Chris McCandless , a young man that decided in the Spring of 1992 he’d walk into the wilds of Alaska and live off the land. As the story, and the movie; “Into The Wild” goes, he was able to hunt and forage what should have been more than enough food, but still ended up dying from starvation in less than four months time. It was later determined that the major contributor to his death was lack of nutrition. Although he was consuming enough food, by volume, his diet lacked the proper nutrients to sustain life. Basically, his picky eating habits caused, or at least greatly contributed too, his untimely and tragic demise.

His journal states that he killed a caribou. Now that’s a lot of meat, but, he didn’t know how to preserve it and the bulk of it rotted. He mentioned killing squirrels, rabbits and grouse. All those are excellent sources of bulk food but very short on some very essential nutrients. It’s a known fact that anyone trying to survive on “lean” meat alone is not going to last very long. Our bodies need that fat, that greasy disgusting stuff, to survive. If Chris had known that and if he had also known how to make something as simple as pemmican, chances are he would have walked out of there in fine shape.

So what’s the moral, or lesson to be learned ? How could you, cast into the wilderness to fend for yourselves, survive a prolonged stay? First of course is to be prepared. You’d be wise to study what our early ancestors survived on, how they prepared their meals, what parts of meat they used, ( just about everything is the answer), how they supplemented what little meat they had with roots ( starch) , homemade breads ( carbs) . A lot of these folks lived completely off the land using only what nature provided. And they lived well.

You certainly better get over that “picky” eater thing. You’d be well advised to seek as varied a diet as possible – roots, nuts, greens along with whatever meat you could find. You’d better learn to like, ( well maybe not actually like these things), things like liver, brains, hearts and fat meat- all the fat you can get, even if you have to scrape it off the hide. And you’d best, and very quickly, come to the realization that you now have a new, and very essential , full time job – finding food.

Surviving the Cold

2010-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Rethinking Shelters

My recent trip and subsequent cold weather hiking experiences in the high mountains of Colorado this past April has prompted me to try and stress the importance of being prepared for an emergency overnight stay in the wild.

When teaching the shelter portion of my basic survival courses one of the things that I try and impress on students is that more often than not, people that find themselves lost and forced to spend the night out in the wild, do not build shelters. This is true even when the individual that’s lost may have survival training and should know, not only the importance of, but also how to build a shelter.

First let me explain why few people will actually stop and build a shelter. In most instances it’s simply a combination of human nature and then the result of circumstances. The first thing a person will refuse to recognize or admit is that they are actually lost. In almost all cases the individual will be charging through the woods at top speed thinking that around the very next bend or over the very next hill they will walk right back into camp. This is especially true for men – and yes- I too have been guilty. Men just can not admit to themselves that they are lost. So the result is that they continue on the move, maybe retracing what they think is their trail, until all of a sudden- it’s dark.

So here they are. It’s dark, in the middle of nowhere and there are no suitable materials or natural shelters in sight. In most cases they don’t have a flashlight, no means to start a fire and nothing with them except the clothes on their backs. So what do they do? The only thing they can do. Curl up on the cold ground and try and survive the night.

So why do people put themselves in that kind of situation? A good question and one that’s again answered by: it’s human nature. People just don’t think it’s going to happen to them. After all, they are just going for a short walk, the trail is well marked, it’s just over the hill, they are part Indian, any number of excuses, but mostly, it’s just plain and simple complacency and “ it can’t happen to me” mentality.

After several years of research, teaching and harping on the subject and actual dirt time experience myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter how well I teach a student to build a shelter there’s a better then even chance they will never actually put that training into practice. Even when faced with the very possible and real prospect of spending the night out in the woods. Even though they have the training and know-how to build a shelter. People now-a-days are just not wired to think that way.

So what is the solution? How do you train and prepare someone to survive one or maybe several nights out in the wild? Teaching them to build emergency shelters is still a very valuable skill and, just maybe, might be used, especially by someone faced with their second night caught out in the open. ( I say on the second night because after that first night of lying on the ground without any type shelter people are a little more prone to consider taking the time and effort to build some protection.) Teaching preparedness is the better option and that’s the method that I’m now focusing on.

Being prepared to spend a night outdoors is, in my opinion, the absolute best and most likely to be actually used, method one can teach. When one thinks about it, the clothes we wear are the single most effective and protective emergency shelter one can find. Modern materials have made it very possible to spend days outdoors in sub zero weather and remain comfortable, even toasty warm. Dressing and correctly using layers of the proper type of clothing allows one to regulate the body’s core temperature. If you are getting warm and start to sweat, you remove layers; if cold, you add layers. It’s a very effective and simple technique that is actually quite intuitive. There’s no learning curve or training required. You do what feels right for your body.

So where is this leading and what does it mean as far as a survival situation? It’s very simple. If you are heading outdoors for a short hike, maybe doing some mountain biking or on a canoe trip there’s one simple and very easy step that you can take to prepare for a night or two outdoors. Always wear or carry with you whatever clothing you would need to spend the night outdoors. If you’re in an area where the temperatures could possibly drop down to below freezing then it’s obvious – you need sufficient clothing for those temperatures. I’m not talking about just enough clothing to keep you warm while hiking along at a brisk pace. I’m talking about being dressed well enough to weather the night curled up on a bare rock on top of a wind swept mountain – in the rain. Now that might seem like a tall order and something that would require about twenty extra pounds of clothing. Not true. It boils down to the proper selection of clothes.

For instance, I have a 100% goose down jacket that weights 8 ounces and packs into a small nylon bag that’s about the size of a grapefruit. I’ve worn that jacket alone in 10 to 15 degree weather and stayed toasty. I also carry a light weight windbreaker and if I add that over the down jacket I’m good for below zero temperatures. For trousers this last time in Colorado I wore light weight ski pants. They are water proof, wind proof and very comfortable. I could sit in the snow with complete comfort and not worry about having wet jeans.

I don’t have the time or room in this blog to go into a complete discussion about suitable clothing for cold weather. There’s tons of good advise on the web and in thousands of books but if I were to give any advise it would be to look toward clothing designed for skiers. There is also one other little bit of advise that I always give and that is to never wear cotton. In cold weather – “cotton kills”. Not even cotton underwear folks.

All the reasons outlined above are the reasons I’m now teaching that your Primary Shelter , the clothes that you have with you, are your most important emergency shelter. How you are dressed when you inter the woods may actually be the difference between surviving or not. I can’t stress this enough. I know that you are not going to stop and build a shelter. I know that the majority of people “lost” in the wild never built a proper shelter. I know that no matter how many different types of shelters I teach students to build, none are as effective as being properly dressed. I know that the energy, calories burned, time and effort required to build an effective shelter are not equal , shelter wise, to the comfort of putting on a single warm sweater.

So here’s my advise on emergency shelters. Take it with you. Wear it. Actually say to yourself: “ I plan on sleeping in the woods tonight. What should I wear? ” Thinking this way will hopefully also prompt you to tuck that Personal Emergency Survival Kit into one pocket and maybe even a large contractor’s garbage bag or two into another pocket. How about a knife while you’re at it?

The point is –if you think you’ll just wait until it’s life or death and then build one of those nifty shelters like the Survivor Man does, good luck. You’re going to need it.

Surviving the Cold

2010-02-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

Wrapping it up

I recent tragedy here in Florida brings to light the need for anyone that plans on spending time outdoors to have some basic survival training. A hiker on the Florida Trail died from hypothermia. The report I heard on the local news was that he was found wearing cargo shorts, a t-shirt and a light windbreaker. The temperature that night dipped down to freezing, very unusual here in FL, but none-the-less, that’s not something that should result in a death.

I’ve yet to read anywhere as to whether this unfortunate hiker carried anything to build a fire with or if he carried some sort of shelter – tent, tarp and survival blanket. It was reported that he carried a backpack with a weeks worth of supplies. I find it very hard to believe that anyone would plan for and pack for a week on a trail and not have a shelter or a means to build a fire.

With that incident in mind I’d like to point out and discuss three common mistakes or simple oversights that I often see or hear about. Number one – and this is the one everyone has the most control over, yet sadly, the one they pay the least attention to - your primary shelter. Your primary shelter, that is, your first line of defense against inclement weather, is the clothes you are wearing and/or carrying. The best advise I can give anyone venturing outdoors is to always dress as if you plan on sleeping in the woods without any kind of shelter other than the clothes on your back and that it’s going to be 20 below zero that night. If everyone would do just that alone, there would be few, if any, unfortunate deaths from hypothermia.Of course wearing the proper type of clothing is also important. Without going into a long discussion about clothes, ( that’s another blog subject ) let’s just say – in cold weather, do not wear cotton. Just remember this – “cotton kills “.

Mistakes number two and three, shelter and fire, pretty much go hand-in-hand. Our basic survival courses teach that shelter is a higher priority than fire. Some people find that this doesn’t seem like the proper order and in some cases it may not be. Your particular situation may necessitate building a quick fire right there and then and you’ll worry about a shelter later. Most often though, you’ll find that without a shelter you may not even be able to build a fire. If it’s pouring the rain and/or there’s a wind blowing– some type of shelter will be required. Now by shelter I’m talking about both something as simple as a small wind break ( your body) or just a small cover to block the rain so you can get that fire started and larger shelters you can sleep under.

Most all survival instructors strongly recommend that anyone venturing out into the woods, even on a short hike, should carry some sort of emergency shelter. What they may not all agree on is how to actually use that shelter. Let’s take something as simple as the ubiquitous Space Blanket, an emergency shelter often carried by hikers and other outdoorsman. What would be the absolutely best way to use that small piece of material to keep warm? The answer is very simple. Just wrap the blanket around your body. Folks - there is no better way.

Of course you could build a small A-frame or lean-to type of shelter with it. You could even use it as a liner inside a debris hut. All fairly good options and ones that will afford some degree of protection. The same goes for other commonly carried emergency type shelters. Large garbage bags, drum liners, ponchos, sections of plastic and small tarps all can be used for a shelter. And – if you have the time, the materials and a good location, you might end up with a descent and warm shelter. And, even if your shelter building skills are above average – I’ll bet you even money – that shelter will not be nearly as effective it would be if you used the quickest and the simplest method of just wrapping it around your body.

Here’s just a few reasons why I recommend this method above all others. Some obvious ones:

1. Quick and simple. If it starts to rain you can cover up immediately and not get wet while trying to build a shelter.

2. Very simple. Even small kids can do this. No training or extra materials needed.

3. Easy to regulate body temperature. If you’re warm, open it up, if cold. wrap tighter.

4. Very portable. If you need to move it goes with you.

5. A small candle, stove or even open fire under the cover will provide plenty of heat.

6. Windproof and water proof even in a blowing wind.

7. It also serves as your ground cloth.

What if you’re all wrapped up and are still cold? Good question and of primary importance. If there’s no other natural shelters available, like a rock cliff, downed trees etc, and it’s safe to do so – my first recommendation is to simply walk and keep walking at as fast a pace as it’s safe to do so. Walking generates heat and even in frigid conditions that may be all you need to do to stay warm. Even at night. If there’s enough light from the moon, distant lights or you have a flashlight – consider walking. Nights are almost always the coldest part of any day and the time that you are in the most danger of becoming hypothermic. Sitting around and trying to sleep at the risk of freezing is not the best option. Would you rather be tired and sleepy –or dead? Put your efforts into staying warm, not sleeping. Here’s a news flash. You’re probably not going to get any sleep anyway!

Another option, and a good one if the materials are available, make yourself a debris hut. It can be a something as simple as just piling leaves on top of you. Pile them as high and as deep as possible. The activity alone should do considerable to warm you up . Stay wrapped in your space blanket, garbage bag or whatever you’re using as your emergency shelter as much as possible and then crawl in.

If you have the fuel and something to get a fire going – do so of course. Again, stay wrapped up as much as possible. If the fire is providing enough heat and it’s safe to do so, now might be the time to get a little rest.

I do teach my students how to build simple shelters using a space blanket, poncho and sometimes even a garbage bag. I still consider those to be viable and sometimes useful survival skills, and well worth the time and effort it takes to build one. I do not teach those type of shelters as the best or only option. Each and every type of shelter will have it’s good and bad points. The circumstances will usually dictate what works best. For my money, a simple body wrap will fit the bill and offer the most protection hands down.

If that Florida Trail hiker did die from exposure and hypothermia it’s an absolute shame and to my way of thinking, completely avoidable and preventable. I can’t believe there was nothing in his backpack to at least wrap up in and I can’t believe he wouldn’t have had a means to build a fire. Let’s not let something like that happen to us. Pack those emergency blankets and at the first hint of a chill – wrap up.

Simple Plant Identification

2010-01-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Taste Testing Plants

I’m hoping that everyone one had a great holiday and also that each and everyone has a great, safe and prosperous new year. And just as important, I’m hoping that everyone finds the time to get outdoors and experience the rewards and the joy of nature.

We just completed our first “ winter” weekend Basic Survival Workshop. I placed the word winter in parentheses because any of you reading this that lives anywhere North of Florida would probably laugh at the thought of 30 degrees at night being a cold winter night. Our workshop was attended by a very wonderful, light hearted and close knit group from Tampa that, like most of us residing in Florida, were not accustomed to sleeping under the stars in below freezing weather. They had to brave a cold drizzling rain for almost all of the first day and even colder temperatures and a bone chilling wind during the night. Luckily the skies cleared for the second day and even with a cold breeze blowing most of the day, we were relatively comfortable.

While doing our nature /edible plant walk one of the ladies in the group asked how someone could determine which plants were edible if they didn’t know anything about the plant. She asked that question probably because she had just observed me doing a taste test of some berries that we had just found and I had just declared to the group that I did not know what the plant was. (This was the first time I’d spotted that particular plant and I only noticed it because it was loaded with small, plump, juicy looking berries.)

The answer to her question isn’t that simple and there is no straight forward, do it exactly like this, steps or rules to follow. Knowledge, research and learning to identify as many plants as possible will be a great help and there are a few steps that you can take that should prevent you from popping something into your mouth that will kill you. Actually, to ease that fear – there are very few plants, especially plants that look like they would be good to eat, that will kill you or even ones that will make you very ill. That’s not to say that is not something to be concerned with and that’s especially true for anyone that may be prone to allergic reactions.

Identification will become much easier if you understand the basic parts of a plant.. Most all plants have one or more of the following basic parts: leaves, stem, root, buds, flowers, fruit and seeds. Quite often plants that are in the same family have one common and easily recognizable feature.

A very good example is the common Pine tree family. Just about anyone can recognize a pine tree at a glance simply because all pine trees have needles. The same goes for the cacti plant. All cacti have very distinctive and common looking features that are easily recognized. Those were very obvious and somewhat extreme examples but they can be applied to most all plants. For instance - Oak trees come in many shapes and sizes. The most familiar and easiest for most people to recognize are those like the Live Oaks, especially when they are full grown. But there are also many Oaks that barely resemble those huge and stately Live Oaks. Several varieties of Oaks grow barely a few feet high. Regardless of the size and shape - what they all have in common and what makes it easy to identify an Oak is that they all have acorns. If you spot a tree or bush with acorns - you've found yourself a Oak tree.

Let's apply that same principle to some edible plants that are a little less identifiable, the Vitis species, or wild grapes. Wild grapes are very common with at least a dozen different varieties growing throughout N. America. Of those, the Fox Grape and the Muscadine are the standouts. All of the Vitis species are vines and are easily recognized as such. But here's where it gets tricky. There are several different species of vines and for the most part they all look quite a bit alike. Some are even posionious. That's when the devil is in the details and one must know what to look for to prevent a mishap.

Once you learn and start using the distinctive characteristic of a plant you are well on your way. That being said – you should never identify a plant by a single characteristic. Every feature of a plant can vary from what would be considered it’s normal look. The accepted steps to identify a edible plant are as follows:

1. Locate a plant that you think is a certain edible plant. This is called Initial or Tentative Identification.

2. Carefully compare your plant to a reliable reference using several, not just one, of it’s characteristics.

3. Try to locate several other specimens and compare their common characteristics and features. Do they all look the same?

4. Triple check everything. I’d say this is a critical step before you take that first bite. Are you willing to risk your life on a “maybe it’s edible" guess?

Use all the tools and techniques at your disposal. What does the plant smell like. Does it smell like something you’ve eaten before? Does it smell edible? Try a simple touch test. Put it on your wrist and check for any sign of a skin reaction. Don’t rush this test. It’s possible for even violent reactions to take as long as an hour to show up.

Consider placing a tiny bit of the plant on your tongue. Does it taste overly bitter or have an objectable taste? Be very cautious here and do not swallow or ingest any of the plant or it’s juices. If the taste test goes well try chewing just a small amount. Again, you are just testing for taste. Don’t swallow any of the plant.

After all that – are you ready to actually eat the plant? That’s a hard question and one I can’t answer for you. Personally, I’m probably not as cautious as I should be. So far I’ve never had any bad reactions or suffered any ill effects from trying different plants. You may not be as lucky.

I really enjoy learning about and trying new edible plants both for possible survival needs and to supplement regular meals. I attend every edible plant workshop I can find and love doing nature /plant identification walks with other knowledgeable naturalists. It’s become sort of an obsession. I’m a long, long way from being any kind of an expert but I am starting to become more comfortable and secure in my ability to at least supplement, if not actually survive on plants.

For those of you that are interested, my advise, and first choice, is to find someone that’s very knowledgeable and willing to teach you how to identify plants. Read and study as many books about edible plants as you can find. Here’s two books that I use and recommend: “ Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants” by “Wildman” Steve Brill and “ The Forager’s Harvest” by Samuel Thayer. There are many other good books out there and that good old world wide web has some very good information also. Take those reference books to the field and practice "hands-on" identification every chance you get. The more you study, examine and learn the easier it becomes.

By the way – that plant I found and taste tested. The day after I returned home I pulled out some books and identified that plant as being a very edible member of the Hackberry species. I was definitely putting the cart before the horse, but in this case it worked for me and I’ve added another edible plant to my list.

Apache Acorn Cakes

2009-11-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

Live Oak Acorns

After my experience at the Earth Skills Rendezvous with gathering, preparing and then eating a mess of Chestnut Oak acorns I decided to give it a try here in South Florida. I’ve never seen a Chestnut Oak this far south so I knew that tree was off the list. What we do have in abundance is our very large and stately Live Oak trees. If I were to pick a favorite tree, here in Florida at least, it would be the Live Oak. These majestic, and often moss-draped oaks, with their massive low hanging branches just seem to scream...Deep South.

I’ve bit into acorns from several of the other seven members of the White Oak that are native to Florida and with the exception of the Live Oak the only other tree that didn’t have a very strong and bitter taste of tannin was the Bluejack Oak which is actually odd as it’s a member of the Red Oak family, known to be very bitter. I don’t know if it’s a seasonal or location thing or not and I’ve only sampled a few acorns in a very small area but my taste test definitely ruled out everything but the Live Oak. I’m quite sure that prepared properly, and with many changes of water, any of the White Oak family acorns could be made edible. We know that the Glades Indians that were native to this area relied heavily on acorns as a staple of their diet and I doubt that they totally shunned all but the Live Oak.

It did take me a bit of hiking around to locate a tree that had a bumper crop of acorns. I found a medium size tree growing on the edge of a large pasture that had acorns hanging on just about every branch and the ground under the tree had more than enough acorns that had dropped to fuel my small experiment. I picked up about two full cups from the ground and pulled off maybe a double handful from several of the low branches that I could reach. It’s fairly easy to tell if the acorns that are still on the tree are ripe. If they fall out of their cup with just the lightest touch – they are ready. If you have to tug on them, just leave them. They’re not fully ripe yet. Another way is to shake the tree or branches. The ripe acorns will fall from the tree.

If you’re picking them off the ground just take the best looking nuts. Any that are black or that have any holes are either slightly rotten or may have a worm in them. Just as a side bar, in a true survival situation, or if you’re maybe just curious, the grubs in acorns are a good source of protein. I once ate a batch of them that had been stir fried in rabbit fat on a flat rock with just a touch of wild mint for flavoring. I found them to be very tasty but; do consider this – I was really hungry at the time. I’m talking wolfing down rabbit eyeballs wrapped in raw liver kind of hungry.

After getting home with what I hoped would be my dinner for the day I got started by first putting all the acorns into a medium size cook pot and bringing the water to a boil for about three minutes. I them poured the water off and let it cool down to room temperature. Using the pliers on my Leatherman Multitool I squeezed each nut until the hull split. The hot water bath made this very easy. I found that by squeezing from the pointed ends with just a slight effort I could split the hulls just about in half. I then used the tip of my knife blade to pop the meat out. I ended up with about two cups of acorn nuts.

The next step was to chop the acorns into smaller pieces. I used my knife again much the same way one would dice vegetables. I then dumped the sliced and diced acorns bits into a clean change of water, set the burner to Medium heat and brought the water to a slow rolling boil. I maintained the slow boil for three minutes then poured off the now slightly tannic stained water, added a fresh change of water and repeated the boiling process another two times. At the end of the third boil I drained off all the water and did a taste test. As expected the acorns no longer tasted even the least bit bitter. They actually had a mild, musky, sort of mushroom taste. Not bad at all.

At this stage I set the acorns aside and let them dry overnight. The next day I used my coffee grinder and turned the small bits into something that closely resembled fine flour.

With just a second or two of web surfing I found this simple recipe for Apache Acorn Cakes:
1 cup acorn meal, ground fine
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup honey
pinch of salt

Mix the ingredients with enough warm water to make a moist, not sticky dough. Divide into 12 balls. Let rest, covered, for 10 minutes or so. With slightly moist hands, pat the balls down into thick tortilla-shaped breads. Bake on an ungreased cast iron griddle over campfire coals or on clean large rocks, propped up slightly before the coals. If using the stones, have them hot when you place the cakes on them. You’ll have to lightly peel an edge to peek and see if they are done. They will be slightly brown. Turn them over and bake on the other side, if necessary.

I followed the recipe to the letter except for the part about cooking over a campfire. I used the wife’s electric stove set to medium heat instead and lo-and-behold ; before you could skin your Granny’s Persian cat, I had real live Apache Corn Cakes; and – believe it or not, they were very tasty. I’m thinking that ¼ of honey may have a lot to do with the good taste. As soon as I find the time my next acorn project might be to take a stab at making some bread. A few more hours in the kitchen and I may have to think about wearing an apron and one of those funny white hats – not.

Bamboo Tools

2009-10-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Bamboo Joy

I had the great fortune ( at least I think so now) to live in the Far East for over 9 years. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam ( not so great). I even spent some quality military type time in Laos, China and a few civilian trips into Burma. One thing all those countries has in common is Bamboo. Lots of it. And -the native people make good use of it. You can find just about everything and anything made out of bamboo in the Orient.

My first experience at actually making and using tools and utensils out of bamboo was while attending Jungle Survival training in the Philippines. There I was taught to make steam cookers, vessels to carry water and eat and drink from, carve simple spoons and knives and to make shelters. To my surprise, although giant bamboo is very hard, it’s very easy to work with - if you have the proper tools. You’d be hard pressed to cut down a single stick of bamboo with just a pocket knife, although it can be done. Machetes and parangs are the preferred blades of the locals and they yield them with precision and authority.

Lately I’ve sort of re-discovered the craft. My wife and I managed to get dibs on a large stand of giant bamboo a few weeks ago and took down six or so large plants that ranged from 2 inches in diameter to a couple that were over 6 inches. We cut these into 8 foot lengths so they would fit in the back of my pick-up and hauled them home. Our first thought was to use them to build an arbor in the back yard but after some thought, and considering the difficulty required for that arbor, I ended up just throwing the pile of overgrown sticks in the garage.

Anyway, to make a long story short, remembering some of the things I’d seen made out of bamboo while overseas, I decided to whip out something useful – like - utensils and tools. I started with a couple of simple bowls. These are very quick and easy to make and with that little spark of interest and success I just continued cutting and carving. Next I made a spoon, then I got really ambitious and next thing I knew – wham-o, I’d made a soup ladle.

After taking stock of what I’d completed in just a short afternoon my wife described a water bottle, or canteen, that the men folk in her village carried water in when they went to the rice fields or on hunting trips. In very short order I had one of those made. Maybe not exactly as she’d drawn out, but it certainly turned out very functional and practical. As a matter of fact, I like this thing so much that I’ll be carrying it next time I’m in the bush. In my humble and sometimes convoluted opinion - it just looks totally abo. So as to not modernize my new prize I even went so far as to twine a carrying strap from cat tail leaves. No Para-cord or leather straps for this baby – aboriginal all the way.

My next project is to make a couple of musical instruments. I’m thinking maybe a bamboo flute is first in order. Native Americans used river cane of course, and I’ll probably have to go that route myself. The bamboo I have on hand is a little to large for a flute. What I do have is some two inch inside diameter bamboo that I’m considering using to make a Didgeridoo. For those of you that have never heard one of these played you are missing one of the truly great aboriginal sounds. Type in Didgeridoo on YouTube and have a listen.

I’m quite sure I can make a Didgeridoo easily enough. The actually construction using bamboo is about as simple as it can get. Playing one is another matter. I tried blowing a tune on one a few weeks ago at the Earth Skills Rendezvous and although I did manage to get some sounds out of it – it was way short of sounding anything like the Didge masters can play. Frankly – I love the sound. It’s as primitive and primal as a wolf’s howl.

So folks, round yourself up a couple of sticks of bamboo, muster up some ambition, stir up your creative juices and see what you can come up with. I’m thinking with Christmas not that far away I may start cranking out these things by the dozens for use as gifts. I’ll tell everyone it’s not because I’m a tightwad, it’s in the spirit of going green.

Earth Skills

2009-10-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

Earth Skills Rendezvous

For anyone that would like to expand their knowledge base and really immerse themselves in primitive skills for several days at a time I highly recommend the Earth Skills Rendezvous that are held twice a year near La Fayette, GA. I just returned from the last rendezvous and can attest to the skills and dedication of the staff and instructors of Earth Skills Inc. These guys and gals know their stuff. You name it – there’s an expert available to share their knowledge and skills.

I’ve wanted to make an Atlatl for a while now, and sure enough, there was a class available. Not only did I get a chance to make my own using tools and materials that were furnished for free, I was taught some of the rich and varied history of the Atlatl going back to the prehistory age of the Aztecs and up into almost modern times of the American Indian. Heck – prior to the class I was even pronouncing the word wrong. The proper way is = attle attle. Say it like battle battle, just leave off the B.

Our instructor – Denton – had us start by making a down and dirty, quick version. One that can be shaped out of a small branch with just a pocket knife or- a stone blade if one were so inclined. In maybe 15 minutes flat we were hurling a primitive spear through the air at what I would say was a very accelerated speed. With practice these things are very accurate and at some rendezvous they hold competitions.

After we’d absorbed and understood the basic function of the ancient tool/weapon by watching what the simple version could do we then went on to build a much better and more functional example. Denton had already split some very nice Osage Orange wood splints for us to use so it was just a matter of shaping and smoothing each piece to it’s final form. I copied my instructor’s design as I really liked the clean lines and it’s artistic form. Beside that – I knew it would work flawlessly.

After we’d carved, scraped and sanded our Osage into it’s final shape the next step was to first carve and then add the point or spear hook to the throwing end. Denton also provided these pieces, carefully carved from a deer bone. ( I think). The addition of a hand loop completed the weapon. A simple, effective and deadly weapon.

The list of other skills taught at the Rendezvous would fill a page. Blow Guns, flint knapping, baskets, bullroarers, canning, foraging, tracking, tanning hides, cordage, flutes, snares and dead falls – and the list goes on. Although I was only able to spend 2 days I managed to cram in at least a half dozen workshops. All these workshops were for skills that I’ve read about, maybe even tried on my own or had some limited experience with in a earlier survival class but – I’d never really felt that comfortable with. You know – I just knew that I had a lot more to learn. Those workshops really put me at ease with those particular skills.

Another old time skill I’d never actually done myself – but knew I could probably do it on my own, and I’ve even played around with a few times, was collecting, processing and then making a meal out of Oak Acorns. Our instructor this time was a young and very knowledgable lady named Natalie. We did a short hike out into the hills and collected a sack of Chestnut Oak acorns. Now these aren’t small acorns as acorns go. These guys are the giants of the acorn world and it didn’t take long to pick up enough for a meal. We lugged these back to camp, cracked and removed the outer hulls then sliced and diced the meat into very small pieces. We then threw these into a pot of water, boiled them for ten minutes at a time, switching water at least 3 times until the water was clear and with that - they were done. The acorns can be eat as soon as the tannin is boiled out but a taste test proved them to be very bland. Not bad – the taste is hard to describe – but it would be a very dull meal. To spice things up Natalie added a couple pounds of butter to the pot them a couple of apples sliced up about as thin as potato chips. After letting that brew on medium heat until the apples were sort of mushy we served them up and chowed down. Big difference. A very tasty dish this time. You survivalists’ out there should know that properly prepared acorns are very nutritious and well worth the time and effort required to make them palatable. I brought a bunch home to process and I plan on taking a stab at making some acorn flour. Pancakes anyone?

Again – I can’t say enough about the staff at Earth Skills. For the most part the instructor’s are volunteers – folks that are there both to teach and to learn. It was very common to see instructor’s taking part in other classes and oftentimes sharing their skills and knowledge with other instructors. A few were hard core survival and backwoods types but most were just everyday folks – Mom’s, Dad’s, Grand Parents, Doctor’s, Engineer’s etc. The one thing they all had in common was the love of the simple life and preserving and practicing old time skills.

The next Rendezvous is in April. Their website and information is at this link for anyone that’s interested.

I hope to see you there.

Stone Age Visit

2009-09-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

A Look Back in Time

Although I don’t watch that many of the Food Shows on the Boob Tube I did catch one last week that was amazing. – at least to me. Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman on the Travel Channel. Zimmerman was in Botswana, South Africa roaming around the Kalahari Desert with a family group of the Sans tribe - the legendary bushmen of the Kalahari.

Now the thing that was amazing to me was that this tribe was just a stones throw from living in the stone age. The few clothes they wore were mostly animal skins with a scattering of modern garments, mostly worn by the women. Their tools were very primitive – even by primitive standards. All the tribes people carried a digging stick they used for digging roots, ant hills, grubs or whatever – their main sources of food. The men also carried bows and arrows. I’m not talking compound bows or even what we would consider a long bow. These weapons would have been on the reject pile of any of the American Indian tribes. At best they were 4 foot long, very loosely strung and appeared to be very weak, I’m guessing maybe 20 lbs. pull at the most. There was no evidence of any shaped handle and the limbs were left natural – that is rounded with just the bark scraped off.

The arrows were small to match the bow, just barely straight and there were no attached points, flint or steel that I saw. The ends were pointed and maybe, not sure of this, fire hardened. Regrettably - the program didn’t show the tribesman actually shooting any game with their bows – something I would have loved to seen.

The men also carried spears and my impression was that five foot long, metal tipped, almost straight, stretch of wood was their primary weapon The program narrator did mention that those spear points and the metal axes we saw them use to chop into a bee hive were the only modern metal implements they owned.

The episode followed the tribesmen while they were conducting a hunt and highlighted their tracking skills. These guys can track a butterfly across the sky – in a thunderstorm. They reportedly can tell, almost to the hour, when an animal made the tracks, what sex the animal is and even where they slept the night before. Okay, I made that sleeping part up- but- you get the picture. These guys livelihood depend on their tracking skills. They are not in it for sport.

Another bush skill the film crew captured was how they made a bird snare. First one of the tribesmen made a long length of cordage. He made this small line in just minutes from a plant the talking guy said was a Snake Plant.( I use this same plant and it makes great cordage) He then made the trigger parts from small tree branches and baited the small loop, the business end that was set on the ground, with a couple of nuts that the birds favor. I don’t remember – maybe they didn’t say – the name of the bird they were after. Anyway, the next day they caught one bird. This bird was not the size of a turkey – not even a small chicken. More like a half starved quail. To cook the bird they simply pulled the skin off and threw the bird onto a bed of hot coals. Now here’s the best part. That bird was shared by 12 adults. That was their meal for the day. No veggies, no baked potatoes smothered with butter, no hot rolls – just that tiny, cooked to a crisp, ash coated little chunk of fowl meat- (no pun there) shared between twelve adults. Skinny adults by the way – rail thin even. You’ve heard the expression “ he could stand under a clothes line and keep dry” ? That thin. None-the-less the tribesmans stature -that ain’t much meat. Not if you’ve been out beating the bush all day. Hell, even if you’re just setting at the home table waiting on the little lady to serve it up to just you – not eleven other, ribs showing, hungry mouths – that’s barely a snack.

I don’t know about the rest of you – but I’d love to spend a couple of months with people with those skills and knowledge. We’re talking skills that go back centuries, back to the stone age and beyond. Skills that our ancestors knew and practiced but that are now – except for a hand full of people in remote parts of the world – basically lost. Lost that is – to most of the modern world – but not lost entirely to us true primitive skills students.

Edible Plants

2009-09-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

Foraging Facts

Way to often it seems, I’m asked about foraging and in particular, being able to live off the land by eating edible plants. Lots of people have read one or more Survival Manuals and from those manuals somehow ascertained that all they have to do is learn how to identify the plants pictured in those manuals and they can eat like kings. And honestly, that’s sort of the way some of those books read, especially if you take everything in them literally.

I recently read that there are as many as 365 thousand different plants on the N. American Continent. That number includes trees, vines, bushes, weeds, mosses etc. but even so, that’s a lot of plants. That article also stated that at least three quarters of those plants were edible. Seeing those numbers one could easily come to the conclusion that finding plants to eat should be an easy task. They should be growing everywhere – right?

Not necessarily - the thing that a lot of these manuals fail to emphasize or fully explain is that most all plants, no matter where in the world they grow, are very seasonal. Most produce berries, seeds, nuts, roots or fruit only once a year and sometimes for a very short time. That vine that is loaded with big sweet grapes today may be totally barren next week.

Foraging over a large range that contains different and varied habitat can greatly increase your odds of filling your basket. Even so – although these territories may have a large variety of edible plants, a lot of these plants produce edibles at totally different times of the year and you could easily find yourself completely stumped and going to bed on an empty stomach.

History shows us that many early peoples were nomadic and often on the move following the growing seasons of plants so as to maximize harvest. Keep in mind also, other than dealing with wars, foraging for food was a full time occupation for these people. If you had to do nothing each day but hunt animals, dig roots and harvest berries, nuts and other edibles – you’d soon become expert - or very hungry.

During the cold winter months even the experts would have a difficult, maybe even impossible, task of keeping their bellies full. There just isn’t enough plant food out there to even consider living off the land eating just plants. Now you might ask – how did the Native Americans manage to survive the winters?

They learned to store a supply of food for the long winter months when little other food could be found. They learned to dry roots and berries and how to grind maze into flour for long term storage. They sometimes stored the food by digging holes into the floor of their homes or lodges where it was cool and protected from animals. Even though these early natives were truly experts when it comes to foraging for plants, hunger and even death from starvation was a common occurrence, especially during some of the longer and harsher winters

Also, don’t forget - prehistoric Indians weren’t just foragers of plants - they were also hunters. It’s doubtful that food from plants alone could sustain a tribe through the many long, cold months of winter in the Northern Regions. Much needed protein was obtained by hunting of animals. And - unlike our present day wasteful practice, early hunters used just about every part of any animal harvested. Even the bones and skin were used either as a source of food or for clothing to ward off the cold.

Could any of us back-to-nature types conceivable live totally off the land for extended periods of time? I’d say the answer is – maybe. If the area you are foraging in has a real abundance and variety of edibles. If you have the training and knowledge to recognize the edibles and, if you have the time it will take to keep your larder full. Even so – you’d still have a hard time finding a well balanced diet eating plants alone - one that could properly fuel the body – especially through a winter. Remember – the longer and harder you must forage – the more energy and calories you’ll need. Even in nature - nothing is free.

Weekend Workshop 9/09

2009-09-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Basic Workshop 9/20/09

In spite of rain on Saturday, and I’m talking frog floating, snake choking, gully washing torrents of rain our Basic Weekend Workshop was loads of fun. (actually the rain and cloud cover was a welcome respite from the Florida heat) We were a little short on the number of people that attended. Three people had to cancel due to work schedules but I tend to prefer small classes anyway.

One thing the rain did provide was a challenge. The students were given a very real demonstration of how difficult it can be to start a fire when everything around you is wet. Not only was it difficult to find dry tinder, even dry kindling and squaw wood was hard to come by. We had to resort to tricks of the trade like whittling away the outer bark of limbs and making little sticks out of big sticks to get to dry wood.

Finding dry tinder that would catch a spark from our fire steels was the biggest challenge. There were no cattail punks left around the ponds ( too late in the season) most all the palm tree bark and leaf fibers were damp and even digging under piles of pine needles produced nothing suitable. It took a lot of poking around but eventually one of the students found some dry Palm Tree trunk fibers at the base of a jack. With that little bit of dry tinder we were then able to get our fires going.

The rain and super high humidity also taught some of the students another valuable lesson: keep your sleeping bags dry. Although warned, a couple of guys didn’t pay attention and ended up getting very little sleep that night due to wet sleeping bags and water in their tent. This time of year with night time temperatures in the upper 70’s, there’s not much danger of hypothermia but under different circumstances and if the temperature had dropped even 10 or 15 degrees you can bet they would have been cold. Another lesson learned the hard way.

While doing our nature walk I did my usual combination of basic navigation skills, lost proofing, scouting for natural shelters and materials, foraging for food and collecting any and all natural or discarded man made items that might prove useful for survival. Along the borders of some of the more heavily timbered areas we were able to find several Wild Plum Trees with enough ripe fruit for several meals. Fox Grape vines were very plentiful, they grow all over the area, but we could find no ripe grapes. I’ve noticed this to be somewhat true for most of the South East region. Last year it seems almost every vine had grapes, this year there are very few. Of course we found many of the familiar - and can almost always be counted on - local edibles: small plots of Prickly Pear, center sprouts of the Palmetto, Pond Lilies and one Persimmon Tree – which I totally forgot to point out.

Our shelter building session went very well - excellent as a matter of fact. This group of students made some of the best natural shelters I’ve seen in a while. And that was with very little instruction or input from me. One student in particular, a 15 year old, made a free standing shelter entirely from natural materials. All the material was either already dead and basically dry. No cutting or breaking of live plants what-so-ever. Just the way I like it.

So to wrap up – it was a great class and I’m hoping my students had as much fun as I. I certainly hope they will remember and practice some of the skills I taught and as always – I too learned a great deal.

Shelter Building

2009-09-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Shelters of Opportunity

Although I do teach survival skills, I still consider myself a student and as such I’m always looking for a better way - something new, a different approach or some foolproof means to get a message across to students. I read everything I can find on the subject, attend Primitive Skill Rendezvous, watch videos and generally live and breath survival for a good part of each day ( I do have another life that occupies some of my time) but even then – I’m a long way from knowing it all and have enough common sense to realize that I’ll never actually “Master” any of these skills. There’s always something more to learn.

After watching many of the wild antics of Bear Grylls or even the more pragmatic and realistic approach of the Survivor Man , Les Stroud, I’m not surprised anymore when a student asks me if I’ve ever bitten off a rattlesnakes head or run down a full grown caribou on foot then drank it’s blood. When I answer those questions with a “No” they sometimes seem disappointed and I get the feeling that, in their minds, I’m not a real survival man.

I do understand that sometimes these made-for-TV drama shows are my students only exposure to the art or practice of survival. They’ve maybe seen an episode where one of these TV experts built a mini condo using loose sand mixed with bat guano, built a roaring fire during a monsoon with one wave of their magic fire wands and then feasted on roasted pheasant under glass that they caught with their bare hands. A hard act to follow to say the least.

Shelter building especially seems to be one of those skills that a good number of students have trouble with. It seems they think only in terms that range from one extreme to another. They want to build either a full blown 2 story, 2 bath house, complete with a carport for the ATV they’re going to build the second day, or, they just want to sleep on some hard wet rocks like The Survivor Man did in that last show they watched.

My approach to teaching shelter building is slowly but surely evolving into what I think of as Reality Shelters or more specifically: Shelters of Opportunity. After many years of research and a few years of practical experience I’ve come to realize that, for the most part, people that find themselves in a true survival situation, that is, a situation that actually calls for a real need to build a shelter, are probably not going to follow the rules and guide lines commonly taught or recommended by us supposedly more informed survival types.

The point I’m trying to make here is that we instructors, teachers of survival skills, are not seriously taking into account and fully considering what actually happens when someone gets lost. (I’m using the lost person scenario as that’s the most common). Let’s say that this individual has actually attended a basic survival course and during this course he was taught to make a shelter using a large section of plastic tied into place with about 25 feet of parachute cord - a very common and very effective standard instructional method. In addition to the plastic shelters he may have also being shown how to make a simple debris shelter using whatever materials are at hand. Again, a very common and practical training exercise.

The problem here is that statistics show very few people, even though they may have some training, are going to actually stop and take the time to build a suitable shelter, especially the first day out. As far as the sheet of plastic goes, I seriously doubt that few, if any, students actually carry a large sheet of plastic with them or elect to make that one of the shelter items in their Personal Survival Kit ( PSK) If this lost individual did happen to bring along a PSK it’s much more likely that he’d have a space blanket and/or maybe a large trash bag. Both of these can make excellent emergency, short term, fair weather shelters, but only if they know how to use them. That training they got in building a large plastic A-Frame isn’t going to be all that much help.

I feel the same way about those large debris huts. That’s good stuff to know and they do make fairly good shelters, IF- you have or actually take the time, if the materials are at hand and if you really know what you are doing. In many cases there will not be suitable material at hand, it may be pouring down rain (try building a dry debris hut in the rain) or the most likely scenario, that poor lost soul is going to run around in circles until it’s totally dark and to late to build any type of shelter. He’ll be lucky to find a dry spot under a tree.

When I was a kid I spent many a night outdoors in all kinds of weather. Not once did I have a tent, tarp or any form of shelter. I never owned one. None of the guys I ran with and hiked all over the hills of Kentucky with owned a tent, sleeping bag or anything else that most people now consider essential. We slept wherever we could find a dry spot. The same goes for Native Americans and early man all over the World. When caught out at night, whether by accident or purpose, they didn’t have large sheets of plastic, space blankets or anything else other than the clothes they wore and what they were carrying.

Where did these guys sleep and how did they keep from freezing? Just like animals they found themselves a natural shelter, a shelter of opportunity. Their shelters ranged from a luxury type shelter like a rock cliff or small cave to maybe just a depression in the ground and a clump of grass or two as cover. This was practiced for thousands of years and goes on to this day in remote parts of the World. As you are reading this there are thousands upon thousands of people sleeping outdoors without any of the modern aids most of us softies desperately need.

My new approach and training philosophy for shelters is to teach students how to find and utilize shelters of opportunity as their primary, first choice shelter. This may sound like a backwards approach to some. Why not teach the conventional shelter building methods using space blankets, ponchos, plastic tarps, as the primary shelter and consider shelters of opportunity, natural shelters, as a fall back, last ditch shelter? Good question but it goes back to basic human nature and statistics. The chances that a panicked (and they usually are) lost hiker, especially teenagers, the most likely age group to get lost, are going to stop and take the time build to a bomb proof shelter, even if they had the materials, are slim to none.

What I hope to do is give students the necessary training and ability to be on the look-out for and be able recognize a suitable shelter of opportunity even while they are doing exactly what they have been told to never do – run blindly through the woods. Yes, I continue to teach the conventional methods but not using large plastic sheets or other non-realistic materials. I use only items such as space blankets, garbage bags, ponchos (my favorite), maybe a tarp, items that a person might actually carry in their PSK or in a small day pack.

I’ll continue to hope that none of my students would actually run amuck through the woods. I’ll also hope that I taught them well enough that they will remember to follow the basic rules of survival. And I'll hope that in the event they find themselves lost, or maybe just a little confused for a day or two (directionally challenged) they’ll use their skills to build that picture perfect shelter.

Core Skills

2009-09-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

Primitive Survival Skills

The Three Core Skills

Our ancestors used what we now consider primitive skills on a daily basis in order to survive and as a matter of routine everyday life. For thousands of years these skills remained basically the same and were passed on to generation after generation. The foundation skills, i.e., the skills most experts consider the core and truly “primitive” skills are the ability to make fire, twist fiber and to shape stone.

To better define and emphasize the need to learn each of the core skills just consider the steps and the materials needed to make tools as basic and as simple as the bow and arrow. In order to fashion the bow some sort of sharp tool would be needed to first cut, then shape the limbs and to cut notches for the bow string. To make the bow string would require the knowledge and expertise to select and process materials and then the ability to twine those materials so that the cordage would be strong enough for repeated use. The arrows would also need to be cut, maybe shaped or smoothed with a sharp stone and then straightened by applying heat – meaning you’d need fire. If the arrows were fitted with a stone arrow head, again flint knapping skills would be required.

Primitive tools, weapons and implements advanced proportionally in design, usefulness and effectiveness as the three core skills advanced. The better early man became at making arrow heads, spear points and stone blades the more advanced and effective their weapons became. As man learned and improved his skills in making cordage from grasses, roots, and leaves, the better simple articles of clothing, nets, baskets and shelters became. It also goes without saying that as man became more adapt at creating and controlling fire the faster his quality of living was advanced.

Flint knapping, making cordage, starting friction fires all go hand in hand. Many, if not all, of the other primitive skills often regarded as essential for subsistence – cooking, smoking meat and fish, tanning hides, making garments and containers, tools and weapons etc., all depend on, or are accomplished by the use of one, or a combination of these three core skills.

For those primitive skill students and practitioners that stick to the truly primitive methods, shunning the use of any modern tools, quite obviously, we have a real need to become proficient at each of these core skills.