I got an email from my friend Stephen Marshall today about the launching of his new site, Backwoods Adventures (backwoodadventures.com) in Nova Scotia.  Stephen and I worked together a few summers ago and he’s doing great things with first nations people in the Maritimes.  I’m hopeing to get over there one of these days so he can take me on a whitewater zodiac ride in a boar tide.

This morning I’m wondering where the idea about surviving in the bush “with only a knife” came from?  If I could have only one tool for a trip of a 1-100 days, it would be a full-sized axe, not a knife.  The reason is that an axe makes a better knife than a knife makes an axe.

Most survival advice available in the press is dubious at best, written by professional writers and not seasoned instructors with field experience.  Thankfully Outside Magazine decided to hire Tony Nester of Ancient Pathways to answer their  reader’s questions on their Survival Guru blog.

Tony’s got two decades of experience teaching in the field, has written several excellent books, and is just a good guy.  And I’d say this even if he didn’t list us in a recent post on edible wild plants.

I came across this graphic on Keith Johnson’s Permaculture And Regenerative Design News blog.  Keith used it to support the idea that the production systems that sustain major urban areas lie far the urban boundary.  The term we use for this is displaced impact, and we’ve written about how it applies to minimum impact camping.  It’s an important concept and one that a thinking person should be familiar with.  But today’s post deals with something else that’s visible in the graphic; outdoor living is hard work.

A quick look at the graphic tells you that over 90% of work has been done in this country by fuel since at least 1930.  We travel by car or outboard motor, dig with a back hoe, cut wood with a chain saw, etc.  Bushcraft, or living a simple outdoor life, is the opposite.  When you’re in the middle of nowhere with little or no infrastructure or motors, you are the engine that accomplishes things, not fuel or domestic animals.  I’m not trying to say I don’t use modern conveniences or that they’re bad, but I am trying to point out that if you’re planning a long wilderness trip your body will be working harder than you do at home and you should be prepared for it.  People on trips and courses are often shocked at how tired they are at the end of the day, but if you take into account all that they physically accomplished during that day it becomes obvious.  They’re tired because their labor, instead of being an infinitesimal percentage of the work they accomplished, jumped to near 100%.

It’s looking like I’ll be trading our white, 15 passenger van, aka the white tube of misery, in for another vehicle later this month.

The name was coined by Jeff Butler on our now-infamous roadtrip to Canoecopia a few years ago.  We were driving through Chicago on our way back from Madison, Wisconsin and were surrounded by large trucks.  All of a sudden the ones in front and to the side of us locked up their brakes and began to jack-knife.  Both Jeff and I figured we were goners.  After a few seconds they let off the brakes and straightened out, and we continued on unscathed.  It took us a lot longer than a few seconds to calm down, but now enough time has passed where we can laugh about it.

In addition to that trip, it’s been to northern Quebec several times, the Florida Everglades once, and all through the gravel roads of the North Maine Woods.

It will be a bittersweet parting.  But definitely more sweet than bitter.

The cord I’ve been using for a decade is finally available online. I got tired of paying the high prices for paracord in the 1990’s and switched to using commercial fishing twine. It’s tough and much cheaper than paracord. The place where I get it recently added an online store.

To check out the cord, go to: New England Marine And Industrial. This link takes you to their rope page. Scroll down to the “Twine” heading. The stuff I use for general use is the #550 braided nylon and the #550 poly dacron.

Unlike paracord, the #550 here doesn’t indicate tensile strenght; it’s a measure of how many linear feet are in one pound of it. Armed with this knowledge, you should also know that the #400 braided nylon is great for setting up heavy canvas tents (big base-camp tents such as 12×14, etc. - the #550 is all I use for my 10×12 tents). And that the tarred twine is great for making nets, with the tar giving it an extended life span. They price all the cord by the pound, weighing each spool.

This outfit also sells oilskin tarps at really low prices, but while I’ve seen them at the store I couldn’t find them on their site. You could always call or email if that’s what you’re looking for.

The book of poetry titled Pine Tree Ballads was published in 1902 and has some great pieces about the north woods of Maine.  The Knight Of The Spike-Sole Boots by Holman Day tells the story of a sport who tried to run the Hulling Machine on the East Branch of the Penobscot River.  I’ve run the East Branch and seen the Hulling Machine from the carry trail.  The top of it is visible in this photo, and it continues on for quite a ways.

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THE KNIGHT OF THE SPIKE-SOLE BOOTS
By Holman F. Day, 1902

They had told me to ‘ware of the “Hulling Machine,”
But a tenderfoot is a fool!

Though the man that’s new to a birch canoe
Believes that he knows, as a rule.

They had told me to carry a mile above
Where the broad dead water slips

Into fret and shoal to tumble and roll
In the welter of Schoodic rips;

But knowing it all, as a green man does.
And lazy, as green men are,

I hated to pack on my aching back
My duffle and gear so far.

So, as down the rapids there stretched a strip
With a most encouraging sheen,

I settled the blade of my paddle and made
For the head of the “Hulling Machine.”

It wasn’t because I hadn’t been warned
That I rode full tilt at Death-

It was simply the plan of an indolent man
To save his back and his breath.

For I reckoned I’d slice for the left-hand shore
When the roar of the falls drew near.

And I braced my knees and took my ease —
There was nothing to do but steer.

(There are many savage cataracts, slavering for prey,
‘Twixt Abol’jackamegus and the lower Brass- u-a,

But of all the yowling demons that are wicked and accurst,
The demon of the Hulling Plaice is ugliest and worst.)

Now the strip in that river like burnished steel
Looked comfortable and slow,

But my birch canoe went shooting through
Like an arrow out of a bow.

And the way was hedged by ledges that grinned
As they shredded the yeasty tide

And hissed and laughed at my racing craft
As it drove on its headlong ride.

I sagged on the paddle and drove it deep,
But it snapped like a pudding-stick,

Then I staked my soul on my steel-shod pole.
And the pole smashed just as quick.

There was nothing to do but to clutch the thwarts
And crouch in that birchen shell,

And grit my teeth as I viewed beneath
The boil of that watery hell.

I may have cursed — I don’t know now—
I may have prayed or wept,

But I yelled halloo to Connor’s crew
As past their camp I swept.

I yelled halloo and I waved adieu
With a braggart’s shamming mien.

Then over the edge of the foaming ledge
I dropped in the ” Hulling Machine.”

(A driver hates a coward as he hates diluted rye;
Stiff upper-lip for living, stiff backbone when you die!

They cheered me when I passed them;
they followed me with cheers,

That, as bracers for a dying man,
are better far than tears,)

The “Hulling Place” spits a spin of spume
Steaming from brink to brink,

And it seemed that my soul was cuffed in a bowl
Where a giant was mixing his drink.

And ’twas only by luck or freak or fate,
Or because I’m reserved to be hung,

That I found myself on a boulder shelf
Where I flattened and gasped and clung.

To left the devilment roared and boiled.
To right it boiled and roared;

On either side the furious tide
Denied all hope of ford.

So I clutched at the face of the dripping ledge
And crouched from the lashing rain,

While the thunderous sound of the tumult
ground Its iron into my brain.

I Stared at the sun as he blinked above
Through whorls of the rolling mists,

And I said good-by and prepared to die
As the current wrenched my wrists.

But just as I loosened my dragging clutch,
Out of the spume and fogs

A chap drove through — one o’ Connor’s crew —
Riding two hemlock logs.

He was holding his pick-pole couched at Death
As though it were lance in rest,

And his spike-sole boots, as firm as roots,
In the splintered bark were pressed.

If this be sacrilege, pardon me, pray;
But a robe such as angels wear

Seemed his old red shirt with its smears of dirt.
And a halo his mop of hair;

And never a knight in a tournament
Rode lists with a jauntier mien

Than he of the drive who came alive
Through the hell of the “Hulling Machine.”

He dragged me aboard with a giant swing.
And he guided the rushing raft

Serenely cool to the foam-flecked pool
Where the dimpling shallows laughed.

And he drawled as he poled to the nearest shore,
While I stuttered my gratitude

“I jest came through to show that crew
I’m a match for a sportsman dude.”

There are only two who have raced those falls
And by lucky chance were spared :

Myself dragged there in a fool’s despair
And he, the man who dared!

I make no boast, as you’ll understand,
And there’s never a boast from him;

And even his name is lost to fame —
I simply know ’twas “Jim.”

If Jim was a fool, as I hear you say
With a sneer beneath your breath,

So were knights of old who in tourneys bold
Lunged blithesomely down at Death.

And if I who was snatched from the jaws of hell
Am to name a knight to you.

Here’s the Knight of the Firs, of the Spike-Sole Spurs,
That man from Connor’s crew!

Our new podcast is coming together, and the first episode is live on the web.  There is a bit of work left to do getting everything set up and integrated, but while we’re working on that you can check it out at:

http://jmbushcraft.podbean.com/

This morning after dropping my son off at preschool I was walking down the stairs to the house and I heard a bunch of crows making a ruckus.  After looking towards the lake for a few moments, I spotted a shape in one of the white pines, about 20 feet from our deck.  It was a bald eagle.  I’ve been seeing a lot of hawks lately, and I’ve seen bald eagles around here before, but in the past it’s always been right after ice-out.  Anyway, I grabbed the video camera and got a little footage of him before he took off.  I’ll post it here as soon as it’s live.

I wrote up a document on helping people prepare for their field school course recently, and put it online with a link from our Registration page.  You can read it at:

http://www.jackmtn.com/PDF/JMB_field_school_preparation.pdf

The text is below.
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1.    Food, meals and cooking
2.    Drinking Water
3.    Electricity
4.    Gear And Gear Lists
5.    Sleeping Bags
6.    Tents And Tarps
7.    Bug Nets
8.    Fitness
9.    Tools
10.   Boats
11.   Licenses
12.   Fishing Equipment
13.  Bathing
14.  Gear Storage
15.  Food Storage
16.  Pre-course reading
17.  Course Hours
18.  Spending Money
19.  Motivation

Our field school is in remote northern Maine.  There are very few modern conveniences available on site, and limited options nearby.

READ the student information packet  and the Field School Background Information Page.  Become familiar with what they say.  We assume that you’ve done this.

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1.  Food, Meals And Cooking

On the Field School Background Information Page you can find a list of the foods that we provide.  Foods not included on the list are your own responsibility and can be purchased in town.

Food storage.  We don’t have electricity, so refrigeration and freezing aren’t an option during the warm months.  Keep this in mind.

Plan ahead.  Foods such as whole grains and beans are not convenience foods; they require lengthy periods of soaking and cooking.  You’ll need to be organized and plan ahead in order to eat.  We have great tools for accomplishing this, including solar ovens, insulated boxes, bean holes, etc., so while there isn’t a lot of work involved, there is a significant amount of lead time.

Learn at home.  If you’ve never cooked before, learn how to prepare such items as beans and grains at home before you arrive at the field school.  Doing so will allow you to experiment where the variables are controllable, and will serve you well when you begin cooking over an open fire.

Be self reliant.  No one is going to be cooking for you or making sure that you eat.  If you wait to the last minute to prepare a meal like many do at home, you’ll probably go hungry.  You need to be responsible for your own well being and plan ahead.

Cooking takes place over the fire, in solar ovens, on a wood-fired cookstove, or with propane stoves.

The first few days we cook together as a group so that everyone knows our procedures for cooking, dish washing, etc.

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2.  Drinking Water

The field school does not have a well or town water.  We get our drinking water by collecting rainwater and boiling water from a stream.  Water boiled over a fire can have a smoky taste.  Consider bringing a water filter if this is a problem for you.

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3.  Electricity

Our field school is off the grid.  We have a small solar system for our needs, but it is not available for students to charge their cell phones, etc.  If you need electricity, plan ahead.  There are numerous small solar panels and hand-crank generators that will keep your devices charged.

Hand Crank:
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/product/freecharge12v

Portable Solar:
There are numerous options.  Search for portable solar charger and see what you come up with.

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4.  Gear And Gear Lists

The less time you’ve spent camping and living outdoors, the more you should follow our gear lists to the letter.   We’ve spent a lot of time and energy on them, working to eliminate unnecessary items.  If you have a lot of experience, you should still take a hard look at what we recommend.  Gear is difficult to get in this part of Maine.  Some items can be obtained in Ashland and Presque Isle, but it requires a trip to get there.

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5.  Sleeping Bags

The most vital piece of equipment you’ll need is your sleeping bag.  You need to bring enough sleeping bag to be warm.  You don’t want to get here and find out it isn’t enough to keep you warm.  If you don’t sleep well, you won’t learn well.  Bring enough bag, or bring two bags.

But don’t take our word for it.  Here’s a note from Sean, a semester course graduate in the fall of 2008:

“When I did the fall semester course of 2008 with Tim I made the cardinal mistake of bringing with me a sleeping bag of inferior quality. It was a crappy, old sleeping bag exclusively suitable for sleeping out in warm weather.

One night when the ambient temperature began to fall significantly below freezing I began to freeze also. I slept poorly and felt dog-rough the next day. It was then Tim taught me how to make a grass blanket. The first night I slept under a grass blanket I slept like a king – I was blissfully unaware of the cold.
Tim had mentioned to me that the sleeping bag is one of your most essential items to bring with you for living outdoors. He’s dead right, so take heed of my mistake and bring a sleeping bag that is more than adequate for very cold temperatures. With all the extra physical demands of outdoor living it is important to sleep and recover well. Sleeping well, especially over a long period of time, is a huge factor in your enjoyment of the outdoors – so don’t risk getting cold and miserable – get a high quality sleeping bag instead.
If you do bring a crappy sleeping bag then you better like making grass blankets! Believe me, grass blankets are great, but they are no fun to haul around for a road or canoe trip!”

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6.  Tents And Tarps

Your tent will be your home, so bring one you can live in.  We won’t be using them for backpacking.  If we go backpacking, you can go ultra-light under a tarp.  For a tent, then, feel free to bring as large of a tent as you want.  Weight and size aren’t an issue.  We use canvas tents that weigh around 20 pounds.

Some people in the past have purchased a new tent and set it up for the first time at the field school, only to discover it leaks or has other undesirable aspects.  To avoid this, set it up at home first, and if possible, leave it out in a rain storm.  Only by doing this will you know if it will work.  Don’t trust the salesman or manufacturer - test it.

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7.  Bug Nets

A bug net is an essential item for summer programs.  The bugs in northern Maine can be fierce.  A bug net allows you to get needed rest at the end of the day, and allows you to sleep under a tarp with no tent.  Most tents are equipped with bug netting.

Recommendations:
http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Detail?no=422
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8.  Fitness

Living outdoors is a physical process.  If you want to get something done, your body is the engine that does it.  As such, a basic level of physical fitness is a prerequisite for an enjoyable experience.  You don’t need to be a body builder or an ironman, but the more fit you are, the better you’ll be able to adapt.

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9.  Tools

We have tools on the gear list.  We don’t keep extras around as there is limited storage at the field school.  If you don’t bring them, you’ll have to make do with your axe, knife and saw.

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10.  Boats

We encourage you to bring your own boat and accessories (paddle, pfd, pole) to the field school.  We even include deep discounts as an incentive for picking one up before you come.  The reason for this is that it is better to learn on and use the boat you’re going to have for years than have to switch between different models.

We recommend Old Town Trippers and Old Town Tripper XL’s, as well as Nova Craft Prospectors (18′) for canoes.  If you have a kayak you should consider bringing it as well.  There is a lot of flat water on the nearby rivers and lakes that is great for paddling, and they serve as a great platform for fishing.

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11.  Licenses

State licenses to fish and hunt are not included in the course tuition, and are your responsibility if you want to engage in those activities.  You can purchase them online from IFW.  We take the law very seriously and don’t break it.  If you don’t have a fishing license, you won’t be fishing on our course at all.  No exceptions.

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12.  Fishing Equipment

If you want to fish while you’re here, we think it’s a good idea.  90% of the wild brook trout in the USA are within 30 miles of our field school and the fishing is great.  As stated above, you’ll need to get a license in order to fish.

The upper Aroostook watershed is designated fly fishing only.  This means that the only legal means of fishing is with a fly rod.

If you’re looking to buy one rod that will do it all, consider the Eagle Claw Trailmaster.  It functions as both a fly rod and a spinning rod.  You’ll need to get two reels (fly and spin), but can switch between them as needed.  Like most items that try to do multiple jobs, it doesn’t do either extremely well, but it does both well enough.

If you want to go with just a fly rod, consider how many pieces it breaks down into.  This directly effects how difficult it is to transport.  We favor rods that break into 4 or 5 pieces, instead of 2, because they can ride in a backpack or pack basket.  Line weights of 5, 6 or 7 are all good for this region, with 6 being the most versatile.

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13.  Bathing

We do not have running water at the field school.  Bathing is accomplished by sponge baths, swims, sweats, and sunshowers.  If you’ve never used a sunshower before, you might want to pick one up.  They cost less than $10.  Try it at home first, then when you arrive here you’ll know what to expect.  We expect that you’ll maintain a reasonable level of cleanliness during the course.

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14.  Gear Storage

Plan on storing all of your gear, books, etc. in your tent or shelter while you’re here.  Rigid plastic bins work great for this.  You can also bring a tarp to cover gear outside your tent or shelter.

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15.  Food Storage

Personal food is stored away from tents and shelters to keep bears, raccoons, and other critters out of camp.  We recommend plastic bins (such as rubbermaid, etc.) for this, and store them in a central location.  If you bring a vehicle, you can store your items in it.

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16.  Pre-Course Reading

We use a humanure composting system in conjunction with our outhouse.  Before arriving you should become familiar with the concepts in The Humanure Handbook, which can be read online or purchased through the usual suspects of book stores.  Depending on the focus of your course, we may provide a list of other pre-course reading in order for you to get the most out of your time with us.

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17.  Course Hours

During the course there is down time in the evenings, early mornings, and on days off.  This is personal time for students and instructors.  It is a great time to study nature, explore the woods, read, work on projects, etc.  During those times you’ll be in charge of entertaining yourself.  Plan ahead for this.

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18.  Extra Spending Money

We regularly get asked how much extra spending money people will need for a course.  The answer depends on how many extras you will need to be comfortable.  Consider what you’re needs are with regard to extra food, gear, licenses, etc.

A good exercise for food is to buy some of the staples we provide on courses while at home and use them for food for a week.  Also keep track of the other items you eat, and how much they cost.  You can use this figure to determine how much extra money you want to budget for groceries.

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19.  Motivation

Our job as instructors is to instruct.  If you need someone to tell you what to do every second of the day, our programs are not for you.  There is a tremendous opportunity for growth and learning on our programs, but we don’t shove it down anyone’s throat.  You need to be self-motivated to get the most out of it.

Some people want to spend every unorganized moment sitting around the fire drinking coffee.  This is OK with us, after all it’s your tuition dollar.  But a better use of time would be to work on the things we cover so that you can gain experience and expertise with them.

Our programs are not for kids seeking a structured time in the woods.  There are lots of those programs, this just isn’t one.  It’s about learning and doing, not having your time managed for you.

I’m back from the field school after a great spring semester.  The weather is perfect, the perennial edibles are coming up in force, and we’ve got an edible plants of early summer workshop tomorrow.  More to come, including thoughts about the spring semester, are coming soon.

We’re taking a resupply break at the field school today and made the trek to Presque Isle.  We just finished week 4 (of 6) of the spring semester with a trip on Mooseleuk Stream and the Aroostook River.  We did some fly fishing on the stream and I caught a beautiful 11″ wild brook trout.  We poled the whole way from Mooseleuk Lake to the Aroostook River, and our day on the upper section was marked by very strong winds.  If I was guessing I’d say the gusts were well over 50 miles per hour at times.  The wind knocked down a bunch of trees along the stream.  I was poling through a deadwater section when two large spruce trees, both over 100 feet high, were blown down.  One of them missed my canoe by a mere 10 feet.      The following day there were all sorts of strainers in the river.  I’m going to head back up there in June as all the strainers will be great trout habitat.

Wildlife sightings on the trip included moose, bald eagles, beavers, whitetail deer, muskrat, and a large variety of ducks and birds.  While we were at Mooseleuk Lake I took a sunset paddle by a large wetland, and the spring peepers were out in force.  The volume they generated was like a rock concert.  I could feel the canoe vibrating.  It was like nothing I’ve ever heard in the bush.

I’ll post more when I get home in June.  Enjoy the spring!

There has been a lot of interest in simplifying and preparedness recently as a result of the economic circumstances many are facing.  Knowing how to take care of your family, even if the modern conveniences stop working for a while, is something at least one person in each household should know.  The good news is that humans are intelligent and adaptable.  We made it through all of history without  the modern “necessities” such as running water and flush toilets, and living without them now need not be a huge hardship.  Many people enjoy camping, which is doing without modern conveniences by choice.

I’ve never liked the term preparedness, so instead I usually describe it as what it takes to keep a person healthy and reasonably happy regardless of their location or circumstances.  These ideas have been developed over ten years of running semester courses in remote locations and watching people deal with the stresses of cold, hunger, lack of sleep, etc.

What It Takes To Survive

Basic survival knowledge consists of what it takes to maintain your body temperature, stay hydrated, and get enough sleep.  If you can accomplish these three things, you’ll live a minimum of 40 days.

Survival Equation: body temperature + sleep + hydration = 40 days

For the long term, you’ll need to have food stored or learn how to grow-raise-gather-fish-hunt-trap your own.

Wants Vs. Needs And The Inertia Of The Human Mind

One of the intangible qualities of survivors is that they are able to recognize when a situation is different than the norm, and when then need to change their behavior by adapting to the new circumstances.  In the case of fatal accidents, I don’t think most people are afraid - I think they’re surprised.  They weren’t aware of the numerous small things that contributed to the deadly situation that developed.  Being unaware, they continued operating with their ordinary behavior.  Not adapting to the changed circumstances is what initiated their downfall.

We’re up against the inertia of the mind.  It is difficult to change your thinking, but in many cases that’s what needs to be done.  The good news is that once you get your head wrapped around a problem it isn’t quite so frightening.

We have a lot of wants in the modern world, but our needs are the same as they were 100 or 1000 years ago.  Once you know what your needs are, you can set about procuring them.

Step 1:  Identify your needs.  I believe our needs are limited to:

Step 2: Learn how to procure them with minimal, locally-produced inputs

Specific Technologies And Strategies

Our modern lives and lifestyles in this country (USA) are predicated on cheap oil, cheap electricity, and the availability of countless other inputs.  As the availability of one or more of these factors is reduced, we need to adapt.  One way to do this is to design alternate systems with minimal inputs.  For the short term, such as during a natural disaster, it’s analogous to camping in your home.  When the plumbing stops working, the furnace shuts down, and there’s no electricity, what will you do?

A.  Microclimate.  Staying Warm In The Cold.
We design big houses and live rather luxuriously, but there are numerous inputs required to keep them working such as oil, gas and/or electricity.  Yet I’ve managed to live comfortably in the bush of Quebec, New Brunswick and Northern Maine at - 40 F in comfortably warm conditions.  How?  By heating a small area with a locally available material.  In my case, I heated a canvas tent with a small wood stove.  The lesson is to have a small space you can heat with a small stove.  The space can be a tent, shelter, or room in your house.  You can also cook on a woodstove.  Think small.  10 x 12 or so is plenty.  You should be able to sit, sleep the whole family, and have a little extra space for some pots and water.  The smaller space you have to heat, the less material it takes to heat it.

B.  Sleep
You need a certain amount of sleep to remain rational.  Even if you don’t have a hot room, you should have a warm nest to curl up in at the end of the day.  A restful night of warm, dry, sleep allows us to put up with a lot during the day.  It makes camping in difficult conditions tolerable.  Investing in a good sleeping bag, several marginal sleeping bags, a bunch of blankets, or some other way to keep warm when it’s cold pays off on the first night of sleeping in the cold.

C.  Water
Drinking adequate amounts of pure water is a prerequisite for survival and general health.  When the tap stops working, there are several options.  First, you can purify locally available water sources such as streams and lakes.  There are countless water purification devices commercially available.  If you don’t have one, bring the water to a rolling boil.  This will kill any pathogens, but won’t filter out chemicals, etc.  For that, you have to distill the water.  There are plans on the internet for simple distillation rigs which can be made to run on solar power or on a stove-top.  Second, you’ll want to catch any precipitation that falls, as this is purer than groundwater.  You don’t need a fancy system to do it.  At our field school we set up trash cans under the drip line of the roof of our only building because we don’t have a gutter.  It works great.

D.  Food Storage
Having enough food stored to last a few months isn’t difficult or expensive.  We store whole grains, beans, and sunflower seeds in food grade five gallon buckets with Gamma Seal lids.  These screw on and keep bugs, critters and water out.  It’s much cheaper to buy foods in bulk than it is buy them a pound at a time.  For long term rural living with no electricity, traditional food storage methods include drying, freezing (in winter), canning, fermenting, and salting.  You can also grow your own fresh vegetables by sprouting seeds and beans, even if you don’t have any land for a garden.

E.  Cooking
Cooking can be accomplished in an open fire, on a wood stove, on a propane stove, or in a solar oven.  Solar ovens are great because once you have it the only input is sunshine.  For grains and beans, more of the food will be digested by your body if you soak it overnight before cooking it.  This will also decrease cooking time, saving you fuel.

F.  Sanitation
During hurricane Katrina I read that toilets were overflowing because they wouldn’t flush but people were still using them.  There’s the inertia of the human mind in action.  But other than flushing it, what other options do we have?  I’ve been composting it since 1995.  It’s simple, cheap, and the only inputs to the system are sawdust(or dead leaves, shredded newspaper, or other dead plant material), hay (or weeds, or other fibrous dead plant material) and rainwater.  I use the system described in the Humanure Handbook (available online for free) with a toilet box and a five-gallon bucket.  After you use the bucket, cover your deposit with sawdust or some other high-carbon material.  When it’s full, dump it on an outdoor compost pile and cover it with hay, weeds, or whatever you’ve got available.  Everything (pee, poop, toilet paper) goes into the bucket.  We also add food scraps, including meat and bones and other things the compost gurus tell you will ruin your pile.  Our rule:  If it smells it goes in the compost.  For more on this, watch Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal - Episode 3 on youtube.

For more information on these topics there are numerous books and courses available.  If you have questions post them in our online community, the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Network.

Things have been busy with a new baby and getting ready for the spring semester.  I’ve been working on a white ash bow, and today I cut the handle and thinned the stave using a draw knife and spoke shave.

There’s a strip of open water along the lake shore a few feet wide, and the snow is patchy in the woods.  Fishing season opened the other day, but there isn’t enough open water for me to get out yet.  But with the melting of the snow comes the best time of the year to look for antler sheds.

I spent the last hour of daylight today walking through the woods looking for sheds, fungi, and anything else of interest.  The first thing I found was a dead paper birch tree.  It was about 24″ in diameter and hollow in the middle, with a hole in the trunk 3 feet off the ground.  The base was surrounded with porcupine scat - a hollow tree den.

A little further into the woods and I found a leg bone from a deer.  There were marks where mice had been chewing it.  But I was looking for antlers, so I left it.  I walked further, scanning the ground as I went, and a few minutes later I jumped a deer.  I heard it first, then watched it run through the trees away from me.

It took me a while to get home, and the light was fading as I got here.

I’ve been trading emails with Taj Forer for a few months, and last weekend we finally got together.  Taj is a photographer and one of the founders of Daylight Magazine.  We discussed a project he’s working on documenting traditional wilderness skills and made plans for him to join us for some of the spring bushcraft and canoe expedition semester starting in mid-April.

I’m excited about the project as our goals of passing on culture and knowledge that’s becoming increasingly rare are in alignment.  We also got along well, so I think it will be a lot of fun.

The project will also be a demonstration of our commitment to artists.  If you’re an artist and we can help you out, let us know.

I was recently interviewed by Iain Haywood at ooh.com.  You can read the piece here.  In addition to some nice photos of Ernie Davis and David Bosum, I’m quoted on educational philosophy:

“At its best, teaching should be invisible; a person who learns from a mediocre instructor will realize how talented their instructor is. The person who learns from an excellent teacher will realize how talented they are.”

We get a lot of requests for work-study options for our programs, so we’re introducing one for summer, 2009.

Duties include organic gardening, landscaping, cutting firewood and building an intimate relationship with the land. You’ll live in your own tent or a shelter you build. You’ll maintain an off-the-grid solar pv system, our composting system, and our organic vegetable garden. You’ll be able to swim in the river every day, or use our outdoor shower and sauna. You’ll learn to use our solar oven, as well as cook over a campfire. You’ll help us build useful items like solar food dehydrators, dig mini root cellars, and help out with whatever projects are going on.

You’ll also have the opportunity to study plants and herbs in depth, pursue our expanded nature study curriculum, and earn a free spot in our fall semester program.

This opportunity is ideal for a couple or two good friends. It’s quiet and rural - not a lot of socializing going on. This is designed to make our programs available to people with time, but not money. There is very little employment available around Masardis. You should have a minimum of $500 for expenses, etc.

At A Glance:
2009 Dates: 5/31-8/22 (12 weeks)
Positions: 2
Minimum Age: 18
Compensation: Free fall semester
Tuition: $0 If Completed

Length:
12 weeks, from May 31st to August 22nd.

Tuition/Compensation:
Interns pay $600 up front, then earn $50 back each week. By the beginning of the fall semester, you’ve earned all your money back, as well as a course credit enabling you to take our fall semester course for free ($6850 each).

There is a one week trial period. After a week, you can choose to leave and get your money back. Also, if we feel like it’s not a good fit, we can return your money and ask you to leave. After the trial week, we’ll expect you to work at least five hours per day, five days per week.

During the fall semester, you continue to maintain the vegetable garden, along with the other people on the course.

To Apply:
Email us to let us know you’re interested, then fill out our course information paperwork and send it along with a current resume and references.

Application Dates:
We’ll be accepting applications for the work-study program until May 9th.

On April 1st I’m giving a talk at the Goodwin Library in Farmington, NH, on preparedness, sustainability and using low-tech techniques to recession-proof your home and family.

I’ll be discussing how to live gracefully without modern conveniences such as septic, running water, or electricity in the New England during all seasons.  Topics will range from explaining the basic needs of the human animal, separating wants from needs, and discussing a variety of skills and techniques used at our field school which are simple, inexpensive, and green.  The include:

-  A composting toilet systems that can be made for less than $10
-  A solar ovens for cooking without gas or electricity
-  Portable wood stoves and tents which can be used during extended power outages
-  How to purify drinking water
-  How to keep stored food safe from bugs, mice and other critters
The talk is scheduled for 6pm.

If you’re interested in having me speak on sustainability, preparedness or living a simple outdoor life, check out our new speaking page, where you’ll find details on my presentations.

Part 2 (of 2) of our Philosophy Of Bushcraft Video. Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal - Episode 20.

For a higher resolution version that combines parts 1 and 2, check it out at blip.tv.

Philosophy Of Bushcraft - Part 1. Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal Episode 19.

For a higher resolution version that combines part 1 and 2, go to our blip.tv channel.

Yesterday I received a dvd copy of a television show shot a year ago called I’ll Try Anything Once and featuring Touré and myself, with a guest appearance by Don Merchant.  I spent several days teaching Touré the skills of winter survival, culminating his 24-hour solo in the winter woods.  I hadn’t seen any footage of the show, but it turned out beautiful.

I can’t post any of the footage because the show hasn’t aired yet in the US, but is has showed in Canada, Brasil, Saudi Arabia, some spots in Europe and a few other places.  I’m not privy to the workings of distribution contracts, but hopefully it will be released here and you can check it out.

I’ve been a fan of Bill Mason’s films and books for several decades.  He was a proponent of wood canvas canoes, canvas tents, and traditional skills of the bush.  I picked out a great quotation from his film Waterwalker the other night:

You see things differently when you travel the way the native peoples did.

In the internet age where information is instantly available and people are busy accumulating piles of it, the importance of getting out and actually doing it is greater than ever before.  And when you get out and do it (whatever it may be), the world is a different place.  Or at least you experience it in a different way.

Our semester course originally grew out of the desire to move past a skills-only paradigm to include the experience of living a simple outdoor life.  After ten years and 12 semester courses, I think we’ve been successful at introducing a new idea of outdoor education to the world that isn’t limited to just hard or soft skills.  But while it’s been easy to say what it isn’t, it has occasionally been challenging to say what it is.  Until now.

Drawing on the philosophies of bushcraft we’ve developed over a decade of field courses, the traditions of Maine Guides that go back generations, the Cree concept of miyupimaatisiium (translated as “being alive well”) and the Scandinavian idea of friluftsliv (translated as “open air life”), the following seven elements comprise the components of our semester and yearlong programs.

1.  Skill  -  Learn by doing from some of the most experienced in the business.  Our 21-point curriculum focuses on the skills you need for a life outdoors.  Rounded out with electives such as hunting, fishing and trapping, it gives complete instruction for the professional outdoors person.

2.  Journey  -  Travel through the north woods, experiencing directly what you’re learning.  Travel with, and learn alongside experienced professional guides.  Other schools focus on wilderness skills.  We live in the bush for extended lengths of time where the focus isn’t just skills, but living the life.  Become a professional outdoor leader while learning lessons that cannot be experienced anywhere except by traveling in the bush and living them.

3.  Craft  -  Build useful items from materials gathered on the landscape.  Man needs tools to live.  Making these necessary items from materials gathered from the landscape bonds you to the land and makes you self-sufficient.

4.  Nature  -  Immerse yourself in the natural rhythms and learn the language of the world around you.  Study the weather, edible/medicinal plants, fungi, mammals and their tracks, birds, fish, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, rocks, minerals, soil, water, ice, celestial bodies and ecology.

5.  Culture  -  Experience the culture of the north woods of Maine and the traditions and history of the people who live there.   Bushcraft and wilderness skills do not exist independent of culture and they’re not simply how-to.  They’re part of a culture that includes a strong sense of community and a connection to the land.   Experience that culture by living it.

6.  Sustainability  -  Organic farming, homesteading, composting, and wise use of materials.  Learn the techniques of living a simple life with minimal inputs.  Grow food, care for soil and the land, compost everything, and leave the landscape healthier for having been there for those who will come after.  It moves us away from the selfish idea of the individual at the center of the universe and puts us into a community of earth, air, water, and life.

7.  Self  -  You learn a lot about yourself when the distractions of the modern world are removed.  One of the benefits of a life outdoors is that it is not a life in front of the television.  You’re actively doing things, not just watching others do them, and the result is that you become confident and capable, while at the same time getting to know yourself on a much deeper level.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the National Film Board Of Canada’s site.  They’ve put their archives online for free, so we’re able to watch a bunch of great films right on the web.

To put this in perspective, about 15 years ago I heard about the film Cree Hunters Of Mistassini.  I looked around for it, tried interlibrary loan, and eventually gave up.  Then when I got on the internet, I heard about it some more and even found a copy for sale, but it was $150.  Now, it’s available for free, along with many other great documentaries about the bush life and other topics.

There are 541 free films online as of this blog post.  Tonight I’m going to watch Waterwalker, a film by the late canoeist, author and film maker Bill Mason.