Toasting Punk

I had a hot bed of pecan wood coals in the pit after working up something tasty for the supper table. Supper was done. The coals were waiting. 

It was time to toast some fire making materials.

My fire starting go-to is a fire steel and charred cloth. Flannel, out of all the 100% cotton offerings, is my favorite cloth for charring. It is soft and fluffy and seems to take a spark a lot easier than tighter woven materials.

This is not the only fire starting means that I carry in my kit. There is a bic lighter in there. There is a magnesium bar and ferro rod in there. I just happen to like old school. 

I am, where old school is concerned, still working on the bow drill method. I do not imagine the bow drill ever becoming my go-to fire starting means. Not as long as I have some hard steel and a sharp rock to cut red hot sparks. Friction fire just happens to be one of those good to know things.

Friction fire predates everything but lightening for getting a fire going. It has a certain mystique about it that makes it attractive. I do question its reliability here where the humidity is always high, rains are more often hard and heavy, and things tend to remain at or beyond the damp side of the scale. 

I would not want to have to depend on it. Maybe in a dryer climate. But not here.

Charred cloth. It dawned on me at our last class that I have gone through my little stash of the valuable resource. Time to replenish the container that I carry in my kit.

We do not have to rely on the textile mills to provide us with material to char. Charred cloth is convenient, handy, and readily available close to the settlements. However, in a long term situation where replenishing resources is a serious matter, we do not want to waste a good bandana or toast our cotton underwear to have material to get a fire going. Not when Ma Nature provides us with all the natural materials we need for the fire making purpose.

I am always picking things up when I see them.

Especially good fire making resources. 

It is like they are waiting for me to happen along, find them, and add them to my stash. 

I think this collecting business happens to folks when they begin making a priority of identifying and utilizing natural resources. It is amazing how much there is laying around waiting for us to recognize its usefulness.

The punk wood had fallen out of a live oak in town. A piece from a small limb. It had been run over a few times but there was still a nice bit of it that was usable. 

I stuffed it in a small bag and put it in the truck.

Throw some sparks in the tin of char, hold your tinder bundle on top, blow on it until the bundle ignites, then put the lid on the tin. Charred punk is great stuff. It takes a spark nicely and gives off a lot of heat. Once it is going you have to either drown it, suffocate it, or let it burn out on its own to put it out.

Hence the need for a tin with a tight fitting lid to choke off the supply of oxygen to put out the burning charred punk.

The tin will get quite hot. Give it time to extinguish and cool down before packing it away in your fire bag.

Hydration And A New Pot

Hydration is an important health issue.

We do not give it a lot of thought as long as we are close to a faucet or can grab a bottle out of the cooler at the grab it and go store. Get away from the settlements and established parks and drinking water has to be either hauled on your back or processed from whatever sources you happen upon.

We need water to stay hydrated. We need water to flush toxins and other junk out of our systems. Without water we can be dried-out dead in 72 hours. We become debilitated before we become dead.

My canteen holds a quart of water.

On a normal day I need to drink at least three canteens to keep hydrated. Let the summer heat come on like it does, along with sweat running out my pores like water through a sieve, and I need to increase that amount. Easy to do when I can turn on a faucet. Not so easy to do when there are no faucets and every source of water needs to be considered with suspicion as potentially dangerous.

I really like the Stanley cook pots we carry. They are great for stewing up a small meal or boiling some water for tea or coffee. 20 ounces though is way short of the quart that it takes to fill my canteen. It is also a bit small for boiling a grown squirrel that would be too tough to chew if cooked on a stick over an open fire.

So I have been pondering the cook-pot dilemma for some time now and have looked at some of the bush pot offerings that can be had. Nice pots but that thrifty side of me balked like a mule at the price they go for.

I was in Walmart a few days ago picking up some things and found what I considered to be the perfect pot for my purpose. Stainless steel with a lid. Holds a little shy of half a gallon. It was not in the pots and pans section. It was, of all places, in the pet section and made to hold dog treats.

$6.00.

My thrifty side latched onto it and brought it home.

The lid had a rubber gasket on it that I pulled off and threw away as soon as the pot entered the house. Two little holes drilled, a piece of metal coat hanger bent to fit, and the bail was attached. Ready to go to the woods and get blackened over a fire.

A stainless cup with folding handles sits in the bottom of the dog biscuit pot. The Stanley pot sits inside the cup leaving room for stuff like a dish rag or pot holder. The downside is that the lid will not fit on the pot when the other items are in it. Not a problem. The lid does not occupy much space. There is room in my kit for it tag along.

The pot comes with some stamped embossing around it. Dog tracks.

I told Shirli that I thought about hammering out the embossing. She told me those were bear tracks and to leave them alone.

Yep.

Bear tracks. That's what they are.

Grooming The Next Generation

It has been a month since we went to the woods with these guys for their first set-up session.

I seriously considered using our outdoor classroom on the farm for this one though I knew the two watershed crossings would still be running water and a couple stretches of the trek in would be muddy. You know. Make it as real as possible. After all, when you are out there hoofing a trail you have to deal with Ma Nature on her level. Sometimes she can be a little testy. Sometimes she can be flat unforgiving.

These guys are not ready for that level of adventure yet. Yet. It is coming though. One step at a time preparing them for some adventures farther on in their journey. So rather than hiking in to the hill we utilized our outdoor space here for their exercise.

I wondered how they would do.

Drawing straws set the order for their demonstrations. Rather than turning them loose as a group to do their set up and fire making I wanted to be able to observe each one individually, offer a little troubleshooting assistance here and there, and make some mental notes.

They did good. Real good.

While the guys are studying on what I am teaching them, I am studying the guys … getting to know them as individuals … getting to know their individual personalities … identifying their individual strengths and weaknesses so I can better assist and direct them in their journeys. This is something that mentoring this trio affords me the opportunity to do. It gives me access to levels not afforded in short courses.

There are a couple of things that I have to reiterate in this early stage of their woodcraft adventure.

1. Practice. Keep practicing the skills you are learning until you own them. It’s easy to build a shelter or make fire when the weather is fair and you have time to spare. It is altogether another story when the weather is against you, everything is wet, and the dark of night is twenty minutes away.

2. Your kit and its items. Safeguard them. Keep every item in its place when it is not being used. Every time it is used. Do not lay anything down and walk away from it. If you lose something in the grass or leaves here in these exercises it is easy enough to replace it. If you lose it out there miles from a supply point you are in real trouble.

I can communicate a lot in a morning crash course, a day course, or over a weekend. Honestly though. Actually grasping, integrating, and owning what is communicated is a whole ‘nuther deal that takes time in the school of woodcraft where there is no graduation day. There is a lot to it … a lot more than having a prescribed kit … that simply cannot be taught in a crash course.

It was a new culinary experience for them.

The broth and squirrel was quite tasty. 

It tasted just like squirrel. Seasoned with a pinch of salt, a little black pepper, and a little crushed red pepper to give it a bit of zip and zing. Now I must admit, being one that wants simulations to be as real as possible, I did not wash all the hair off the parts before putting them in the pots.