Fantastic Videos of Artic Living

If you want to watch real survivalists and see outstanding and very entertaining footage of a family living up in the Arctic, check out:

http://www.vice.com/far-out/heimos-arctic-refuge-1-of-5

I've embedded below the first one, just to get you started.

Its a five part, 52 minutes series. Other adventures are filmed as well. Two guys went in to shoot the video. They are young and fascinated, as I am with the man, his wife and skills. He plainly says he does it not to be a survivalist. It is his lifestyle.

We see hunting, trapping, fishing and how they manage to watch movies in America's Last Frontier.

Ultralight Silnylon Teepee for Mountainman Retreat Adventure

I made this tepee several years ago. Its been used in several base camps in Georgia and right outside Yellowstone National Park. Youtube had a problem with the background music and suggested I swap out for some of theirs. Well, it totally covered my voice and the information I was trying to get across. There are captions, though, so its not a total loss. Please bear with me as I try to fix it.

While this shelter does not have a floor, it keeps out bugs and mice because the no see um netting
is 15 inches long. I fold it to the inside and set random pieces of gear along the netting.
Some folks would think you'd fold it to the outside, but that wouldn't be nearly as effective.

I plan to use this tepee up at Mountainman Mike's this summer.  Read more about this fantastic Retreat at http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=242472 .With 100 square feet (area of a circle is radius squared times pi) There's lots of space for sleeping, out of rain writing, researching and fun. I have cooked and burned small candles inside this structure. The heat rises, eventually necessitating the door being kept open due to some smoke issues. Its really amazing at night, though, when a tiny tea candle is burning. Looks like a glowing cone.

The value of a no floor structure is that one can cook or leave muddy gear on the earth while stretching a tarp for the sleeping area. The structure is lighter and more versatile.  If you must suspend it from a branch that has a few rocks or roots underneath, no problem. Just stake the shelter and enjoy nature's furniture.

Sharing Our Best Cookbook Update

 

The cookbook I did a last fall is being updated with stories and recipes from the Man Camp Experience.

 

 

 

The cookbook will be listed on Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobel as the second edition with Bonus Material.

 

I'll tell you how we utilized the extra cooked oatmeal to make fabulous breads, including the one pictured below. The guys have fresh homemade bread nearly every supper. The only time they don't is when they are having burritos ---a Mexican supper extravaganza.

 

I'll share how we use the bread heels to make breading. We also make our own tortilla chips from corn tortillas. The leftover chips are combined with toasted bread to make the coating for our pork chops and Parmesan chicken.

After combining the materials, I use a can to crunch them fine. We don't have a food processor on site. I will tell you about some of my favorite tools here that we use to produce our own marinara sauces as well as 'house' dressings.

 

I've made a lot of the desserts from the Sharing Our Best Cookbook. However, I've quadrupled them, then doubled them again, for mass production. The guys get all homemade desserts too, for lunch and supper. We haven't bought any sweets other than ice cream.

I'll tell you how to make cookies into bar recipes.

If you're cooking and doing your own pots and pans, check out my Rice for 50 method.

 

We have to think big now that we're nearly done here. We'll get 10 surprise diners. Check out the Man Wraps and Man Stackers for ways to utilize those last half pounds of sliced meat.

 

This new, second version should be available the end of May. I'll post here.

Surivalist Photos

 

Its really hard to be objective when choosing a photo of yourself when designing a book cover. The one above ended up being the shot used for book three of The River Survival Series. In this photo, Carla Hunter is preparing to take out federal scouts.

 

 

This photo wasn't nearly as "proactive" although here she is watching the bluecoats as they drill.

I cropped a photo for a "head shot." Not really what I was after. Carla's expression isn't as Dark and Evil as it needed to be for this deadly raid.

River Survival Series-Post Grid Thriller Series

Wild Edibles

How to Eat Stinging Nettles is a great page for reading about a very common, easily identified wild food. I've eaten these before and can attest they are pretty tasty once boiled. You've basically got to do something to remove the sting from the plant before eating them.

 This summer, I will be spending a great deal of time living in the wilderness, both backpacking on the CDT and working with Mountainman Mike who lives on the Continental Divide. Check out my post entitled "A Real Mountain Man Survivalist" on April 10, 2013.

Many people just have book knowledge because they don't have the time or inclination to get out there and try it. I have both, so this blog should take on some interesting twists in June.

Right now, up here at Man Camp at Lake Yellowstone, in Yellowstone National Park, the snow is melting and the construction is at an all time crazy level. All sorts of guys are showing up to get this massive project accomplished.

We in the kitchen have to deal with unprojected numbers by overproducing to deal with an extra 10-15 hungry dudes. If some leave before eating, we have leftovers to creatively deal with. No problem, we can make that happen.

I look forward to a change of scenery. Much as I love Yellowstone, this last month, May, is going to be something to write home to mom about. The concessionaire, Xanterra, is focused on getting their people housed, trained and on track for an excellent season. I hope everyone makes it, seriously I do.

We've had to vacate the Osprey dorm and bring in trailers for the extra guys to sleep in. Even though they can drive their own rigs, Lake Yellowstone is a long ways from anything.

There's a lot of activity. Trucks hauling in furnishings for cabins, materials for the painters, a deep cleaning crew to make the dust all disappear.
Its been quite an experience and I'd like to thank all the bosses for letting me work up here for seven months.

Personality Flaws Anyone?

I started a thread over at http://survivalistboards.com a couple days ago and its already generated  244 replies and has been read by 3,705 people.

Here's the post:

Personality Deal Breakers

---

If you were assembling a "survival team" to build a BOL, what personality traits would you exclude from the group....

are there any irritating habits that you could just not tolerate for the long haul in a post grid collapse scenario?

are there skills that a person could possess that would override any personality flaws?

Read more at http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=299886#hkocJTHqeXtDuzDO.99




As I wrote the River Survival Series I pondered all the horrible things people would be going through and I knew each individual would be changed dramatically, in ways one could not imagine in a civilized society.

The story begins with a couple living up in the Georgia mountains. When the grid collapses, they are prepared to deal with it. However, the nearby townspeople aren't and eventually organize and decide to take matters into their own hands. Experiencing scarcity and starvation is not a pretty sight.

As the story progresses, we find the neighbor has changed from a sociable, portly gentleman to a greedy, cannibalistic  Trader who searches abandon buildings to ply his trade.

Eventually we make a journey to the big city of Chicago. I took sometime figuring out how political systems would have changed. We meet people on both sides of the law and learn their reasoning for the terrible crimes they commit.

Book One ends in a River community along the Mississippi River. There we meet, follow and learn how I sincerely believe humanity will eventually overcome a world wide collapse of the systems as we know it. I believe the answers lie in the old skills so many have abandoned in our technical age.

As an author, its difficult to proof your own work. I had a friend read and "edit" the first two books. A couple reviews said the story was good, but the editing was not....so, I just finished going over the first three books and I believe the editing is much better.

I put a new cover on Book Three....as a marker if nothing else.

 

A friend took this shot of me holding a rife. In book three we learn what has driven Apache, our dark warrior, to become the man is now is.

 

In Book Four, the Brewmaster changes dramatically. He's always played by the rules, lived a god fearing life, been the pillar of the struggling farming community.

 

I won't spoil the end of Book Four....it's a heart breaker, as are most classics.

 

I have begun Book Five...its called Deliverance.

 

As in all endeavors, the more you do it, the better you become. Re-editing my work has allowed me to improve the work. At present, this series contains over 500,000 words, a lot of detailed survival skills and deep philosophical ideas.

Challenge to Define

I  joined a survivalist forum and put the term Minimalist under my Avatar, which is a cropped headshot from this PCT photo taken at Lake Moreno, at the anual zero day kick off party.

A friend asked me, What is your definition of minimalism, and when did I get interested in Survivalism. The answers aren't that easy to put into words. So, after some thought and of course,  some condensing or minimizing of the ideas, here's what I came up with. Thanks for asking me, Bruce.


Definition of a minimalist to me means having the things I need without excess. For instance, I have maybe seven pair of pants, two of which are for work...do I need all of that? Probably not. How many shirts are hanging in your closet that you never wear? How much fluff -decorations line your book shelves? Its hard to come up with a specific definition. Of course it would be different for a family. For me, everything has to fit in my geo metro.

I became a minimalist while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I found the less I had, the better my experience. Many things can serve more than one purpose. Some people are accumulators and feel their self worth is measured in Stuff. Mine is measured in experiences. Marketers try to sell us so many kinds of soap, for instance, one for every task under the sun. A minimalist finds the best all purpose soaps and keeps the clutter down to a minimum.

As survivalists, the less we need for our basic comforts the more satisfied we will feel. People go into panic mode when they feel their needs are not being met or that scarcity of essential things is right around the corner. Minimalists perceive that same scarcity differently. Not everything is essential, most things are luxuries, so the level of perceived scarcity is much less threatening. Panic leads to bad decisions, and eventually disaster. A minimalist requires little, is mobile and can adapt readily.

That's basically my philosophy, in a nutshell. I've wrote about it as an ultralight backpacker at trailquest.net.

I can't say when my Wilderness Survival Interest and fascination merged with an End Of the Power grid or End of the world survivalism thought process. Surely watching and reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy several times made a huge impact, also the craziness surrounding the possible bird flu pandemic and the fact we could be quarantined in our homes for weeks.

I've always been fascinated by survival stories, and wrote a whole thing on it, called Wondering, which can be read by following a link found on my webpage at www.trailquest.net/BRindex.html

We humans have a host of book knowledge. Few have any true survival -homesteading skills. We are loosing this. I bought a book maybe 20 years ago, called Brain Tanning the Sioux Way, and it said that skill is being lost, few if any native Americans know how to tan a hide using the brains of an animal.

This made me realize, its the same for other skills and if they aren't passed on, we as a people, our whole sustainability will suffer.

So, no real answer here, Bruce, but my next step is to learn to hunt with various weapons, and actually utilize as much of the kill as possible.

NOW!

If I actually had a place to store stuff, and stopped living the life of a transient, I'd have lots of tools and materials for surviving a national or world wide crisis. I have a lot of respect for those who have left the gerbil wheel and are prepared for grid collapse. Survivalists call mulitple systems redundancies, which are back up "plans" or tools for primary system failures. That is very smart. If a person has the room and ability to do that, excellent.

Which brings up a key point of minimalism. Being able to re-purpose, re-cycle, restore the stuff we already have is an important skill for minimalists. Instead of throwing things out and buying something new, we reshape them into the things we need.