Reconnecting The Life Lines

Survival?

Sure.

I suppose, when it comes right down to it, you can say these are survival skills that can get you through an unexpected bad turn of things. Things do happen. Unexpected bad turns do come around. There is a lot of wisdom in planning for unexpected scenarios and there are a lot of scenarios worth investing some thought in.

Honestly. You never really know what is around the next turn in the proverbial road.

I recently read an article about a family vacation that went bad. The folks decided to go for a drive out west and see some country.

Off they went in the car, picking up Granny on the way. One stop was a ghost town up in the high elevations. Up the mountain. Unpaved road. Wrong turn. Unexpected blizzard that dropped three feet of snow and thickened the mercury reading to below freezing.

A hunter found the dad trying to walk out for help. Had it not been for the old woman taking along a few blankets and some snacks it would have been a really bad adventure for them.

The truth of the matter is that most of us just follow the road without thinking about what might be around the next bend. Maybe nothing. But, then again, it might be something that will test us to our limits and then some.

It is our modern generation that thinks along survival lines. A couple centuries ago these were common fare life lines. A lot can be lost in a hundred years. By the late 1800’s and early 1900’s … the era of time when Nessmuk and Kephart were walking the woods … a lot of the life lines had been forgotten. Kephart considered that not one in a thousand city men could go it alone in the woods.

It has been another hundred years since the time of Nessmuk and Kephart. How much more of the life lines has been lost in a century … a century where we are all now, of a sort, city men?

Is Kephart’s one in a thousand now one in ten thousand for the present generation and one in one hundred thousand for the generation fanny-warming the seats in public schools? I do not know what the numbers are but I cannot help but to wonder about the obvious growing generational disparity.

There is a rewarding sense of accomplishment in acquiring skills and reattaching life lines. The knowing and the ability to perform these tasks offer stability and peace of mind. I think, and this is just my personal position on the matter, if our only reason for learning and performing these skills is to survive something unforeseen that may befall us in the future … we are shorting ourselves.

Learning, acquiring gear, and performing these life line tasks is every bit about getting back into, reconnecting with, and enjoying the natural surrounding environment … whether we do it with modern gear or with facsimiles of articles from the 17^th Century.

Stanley Cook Pot Modifications

I bought one of these pots for my wife to carry in her kit. The pot comes with two plastic cups nestled inside. They are great for drinking hot stuff from but cannot be used for cooking. The pot needed a little work done to it to make it more usable in a woodcraft environment.

The first thing was to remove the plastic tab on the lid. A small drift pin punch made short work of removing the tab. The green plastic tab was replaced with a piece of metal coat hanger bent in the shape of a fireproof tab.

The next thing to do was to fashion a bail to hang the pot over a fire.

The pot comes with a nice folding handle that secures over the lid when not in use. It is handy for pouring the finished product but I like to be able to hang a pot over a fire. A fire has no knob to control its temperature. Being able to hang a pot higher or a little off to the side makes a big difference in the outcome of the heated contents.

A couple of holes and a coat hanger accomplished the task.

I liked the outcome of her pot enough that I picked up a second one, set it on the shelf, and waited for some time to make the needed modifications. The corn boiler that I have been using is a great pot but its fixed handle makes it a little awkward for packing and carrying in a small pack.

So a rainy day comes along. I grab a few tools and set about working on the pot modifications.

The pin did not punch out easily this time. The metal piece where the tab attaches came loose from the lid. No problem. I drilled a ¼ inch hole in the center of the lid and used a 1 inch bolt with a nut on the top and bottom sides of the lid to hold it in place. A stainless bolt would have been better but I did not have one and used what I could readily put my hands on. I will pick up something stainless when I am by a hardware store.

Rather than drilling directly beneath the rim of the pot (like I did on Shirli’s) I made the holes for the bail about ¼ inch below the rim and attached the metal coat hanger bail.

When I bought this pot I also picked up the stainless cup. The combined works makes a nice cook set … stainless cooker with two serving cups nestled inside that nestles nicely in the cup for easy packing.

Now all that is left is to get this rig over a fire, smut it up good, and get rid of the new look. Oh. And pick up a stainless cup for Shirli’s pot. 

Putting Your Core Kit Together

Three great young guys embarking on a journey! 

We are really happy to have a part in it with them.

So now that the orientation class is behind us it is time to work on putting our kits together to be ready for the next class. We will be utilizing the contents of our kits in the next class. 

For the next class your kit needs to include …

1.  Tarp, ground cover, blanket, leather gloves

2.  Knife, folding saw

3.  Paracord (100 ft.)

4.  Cook pot and canteen

5.  Ferro rod and bic lighter

There are other kit items that we discussed at orientation that should be in your kit as well. The above mentioned items will be getting a workout as we work on constructing shelter and fire making skills.

Put your kits together. Wear your packs. Go for walks wearing them. Become accustomed to wearing the weight of your kits (including water in your canteen). Our next class will involve a nice walk.

10’ x 25’ rolls of 3 mil plastic have a lot of uses including making ground covers and systems to collect rain water.

Check the sporting goods section of Walmart, the Coleman Store in Foley, or Bass Pro Shop for kit items.