I had been thinking for some time that I would like to do something like this ... hand on, pass along, teach things related to woodcraft, or bushcraft, or survival, or whatever handle you want to attach to it.
Whatever you want to call it, it is all about the knowledge, skills, and resources that help a person get along in the event of dire unexpected circumstances. Not only the dire unexpected. It also has a way of opening up the natural world outdoors where one's understanding and appreciation is concerned.
Woodcraft.
I happen to prefer the term woodcraft. That is what it was known as long before the more popular bushcraft term came along ... long before survival training was known outside of military Basic Combat Training.
Woodcraft ... a school that nobody ever really graduates from ... has a way of honestly captivating one's interest and becoming a way of life. It has mine anyway. For quite a long time now but especially the past several years. I have become a perpetual student of the subject and readily admit that the school has an awful lot yet to teach me.
On Saturday, February, 8th I met up with this eager and attentive group from Bay Minette First Baptist Church. I met them in a beautiful outdoor classroom setting for a crash course to help them prepare for an upcoming survival weekend in the woods of north Baldwin County.
I have to admit that it was one of the most pleasurable things I have done in a long time.
So Woodsmoke Woodcraft School was born on February 8th, 2014 in the woods just north of Bay Minette.
This weekend, Satuday morning, we have three motivated young people doing our Orientation Class. Then we are off to the north Baldwin woods for the afternoon to visit the group doing their survival weekend.
