Seriously, I want to know who decides the "rules" for "bushcrafting".

I have been an outdoorsman most of my 56 years. My very earliest memories are of going fishing with my Dad and my Uncle, and family camping trips. I did my time in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. I've done overnight backpacking trips. I've floated countless streams. I've caught just about every kind of fish that exists in Missouri and Illinois waters, and eaten most of them. I've done more solo camping trips than I can even begin to count. I can build a fire a dozen different ways, and cook more dishes on a campfire than many can on a kitchen stove.

Admittedly, much of this is in the past, and because of current and chronic health issues most of it will have to remain in the past. But that doesn't take away my qualifications for doing this little rant.

I recently watched a delightful young man (with autism) try to make his first fire with a ferro rod. It was a damp and windy day, and his fire materials were not ideal. Yep, he "failed", and he had to use a Bic lighter to get it going. And he apologized for "cheating". Friends, that is NUTS! Why should this young man, just starting out on his first outdoors adventures, think that he had somehow "cheated" by using a lighter?

I also recently watched another person, a woman outdoorsmanperson, carve a beautiful spoon with a really whimsical look to it, and sort-of-apologize that it wasn't really a "bushcraft" spoon. Says who?

I have kibbitzed on countless Facebook debates concerning the difference between "bushcraft" and "woodscraft" and "outdoorsmanship" and "camping" and several other terms. These things can get downright heated, as the keyboard commandos and internexperts get their grooves on.

The last I heard, there was no governing authority over our hobbies. There are a few widely respected, almost legendary, individuals such as Mors Kochansky and Ray Mears still around. But there is no person or group of persons that has the right to tell you or I how or how not to camp, what gear we can and can't use, what method is acceptable and what isn't. Nobody!

Mitch Mitchell, of the Native Survival YouTube channel and History Channel's "Alone" fame, thinks that friction fire such as a bowdrill is the ultimate fire-making skill, because it requires absolutely no unsustainable materials, no matches, ferro rods, no chemicals, not even pieces of steel. But he also carries a lighter and flint-and-steel most of the time. So is he "cheating"? Is he violating his own dictum? No, of course not. Sure, if you can master a bowdrill fire, you are pretty much set even if you find yourself completely naked. A sharp rock to shape your kit, a little natural cordage for the drill, and you'll have fire. Doesn't mean it is wrong to carry and use alternative means. It isn't breaking a "rule".

I just watched another guy fly a tarp over his tent, as added protection during a rain-storm. And he all but apologized for it, because it "usually isn't done". So what? Did it work? Did it serve to keep him and his gear dry and comfortable during a storm? Then WHY should it be considered "wrong"?

Bottom line is this, people. There are certain rules of safety that of course we should all follow. Boil your drinking water. Cut away from your body. Don't look down the barrel of a gun. Don't eat a plant unless you are positive that it is not poisonous. Keep your matches dry. Don't break through the ice to go swimming. You get the point.

There are certain rules of physics that can't be violated. Gravity hurts, so don't fall down holes or out of trees. Crap rolls downhill. Heavy crap rolls downhill faster. Don't stand and wait for it to magically go around you. Whatever goes up, must come down. Don't be underneath it. Again, you get the point.

Then, there are certain temporary rules put into place for a specific time and reason. These usually involve skills challenges. Can you build a sustainable fire in the rain using just your ax and locally found resources and no other tool? Can you put together a kit that in the aggregate weighs no more than five pounds and then spend at least 24 hours out in the woods with only that kit and the clothes on your back? These kind of challenges and little games can be a lot of fun and educational for everybody involved.

But to start declaring general and arbitrary rules that are supposed to be "for everybody" is just plain ridiculous!

People, get out into the woods and fields. Stay safe. Have fun. Enjoy the beautiful nature that God has given to us. Take photos. Draw and paint pictures. Use whatever gear you have or want, and don't listen to those that say you MUST have this or that, or that you CANNOT use this or that. There is just not enough time for that kind of crap in my life, and I suspect not in yours, either.

OK, done ranting.

God bless!
Ron and the Debster

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"OTO" (One Tool Option) as a life philosophy

"The more you know, the less you need." -- Mors Kochanski, legendary Canadian bushcraft instructor.

There is a debate that crops up regularly in the bushcrafting community. It is the "One Tool Option". The premise is that you are forced into a survival situation in the wilderness, and only have one cutting tool available to you. You are going to be needing to process tinder, kindling, and firewood, skin and clean fish and game, build a shelter, and do all manner of things that require a cutting tool. So, what one tool would you prefer to have in that situation? 

The debate then rages over various knives, axes, hatchets, multitools, and saws. Since most if not all outdoorsmen carry several tools, such as a belt knife, a pocketknife, and a folding saw, the premise is in a sense rather silly. For example, my current health and fitness level prevents me from doing any backpacking, and relegates me to car camping. Since I don't have to worry overmuch about weight, I usually have a multitool, a pocketknife, a belt knife, a hand ax, and a bow saw. I'll be adding a full-size ax to that list soon. So, I have a tool for almost any cutting task that may arise.

However, the "OTO" mindset leads me to not only become proficient in using each of these tools for the task they were designed to do, but to also "cross-train". Could I clean a bluegill with my hatchet? Could I split logs with my pocket knife? 

Sounds silly, I grant you. But things can and do happen. Murphy's Law is alive and well. Tools can break or get lost. So being prepared and trained to improvise by using tools in ways that are "outside the box" is a good idea.

My personal approach goes like this: At age 55, almost 56, I am just now trying to get back into an outdoors lifestyle. I did a lot of this stuff when I was younger, and was fairly proficient. But that was decades ago. Any skills that I might still possess are very rusty. So, for the time being, I am going to concentrate most of my efforts on learning the strengths and limitations of my various tools, and practice using them for the tasks they were designed to do. (Just for giggles, I'll change up and try various other things. For example, I might use my pocket knife to carve hardwood wedges that I could use to split logs.) 

Once I am satisfied with my level of proficiency with each tool, I'll spend more time using each of them in unorthodox ways, until I have reached a point where I can be confident that if push came to shove, any one of my tools would allow me to survive if I had to.

Now, let's apply this concept to other areas of life. What about cooking? What if, instead of a whole collection of skillets, pots, pans, baking tins, and so forth, you had to prepare meals using just one utensil? Which one would you choose? Personally, I think I'd choose a cast-iron Dutch oven; it could be used for baking, boiling, and frying with little trouble. But what if I only had my tin coffee pot? Or an eight inch skillet?  Or a loaf pan? Could I adapt my cooking to make do with one of those?

How about gardening? Shovels, spades, hoes, tillers, rakes, clippers, pruners, trowels. Pick one?

Let's get a little esoteric. I have done a little preaching in my time, and have a fairly decent library of Biblical reference books. If I could only have one, which would it be? A Greek dictionary? Strong's Concordance? Robertson's Word Studies In The New Testament? (Concordance for me.)

You get the idea. Become proficient in the proper use of the tools you have. Learn and practice until you can do those things blindfolded. But don't stop there. Exercise your brain and your hands. Figure out how to use those tools in other ways. Practice those things too.

You never know when the skill of improvisation may become necessary, in any part of your life.

God bless!
Ron and the Debster

Weekly roundup

Well, another week has gone by. Last few days have been fairly decent, weather-wise. Nice to see the sun again, after weeks of pretty much non-stop rain!

A friend posted this to Facebook the other day.

There have been some fun things done this week, but first, let's address the elephant in the room: The Supreme Court has issued several rulings. Two of them have been getting a lot of play on the news and social media. 

The first involved the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare". The immediate issue concerned the federal "Healthcare Marketplace". The ACA, as written, passed by Congress, and signed into law, stipulated that individuals without insurance needed to sign up for subsidized healthcare via "Marketplaces" set up and run by the individual states. However, many of the states refused to set up Marketplaces. 

The Federal Government was horrified by this. The ponzi scheme financing of Obamacare required that a majority of citizens to either sign up for insurance or to pay massive fines, to provide the funding for those that couldn't afford unsubsidized insurance.

So, to bring in the required number of "insured" from the non-compliant states, the Federal Marketplace was set up. To begin with, it was a joke. There were huge problems with their software that allowed hackers easy access to very personal information. Fingers were pointed, lower-level people were fired, higher-level people were vilified. Eventually, they managed to get most of the bugs out of the system.

However, this was NOT what the ACA allowed for. The ACA only allowed for the state-run Marketplaces, not a Federal one. The Federal Marketplace was completely outside the scope of the ACA, and of course, lawsuits were filed thick and fast.

The issue finally reached the Supreme Court, and in a stunning blow to the Constitution, they ruled that the Federal Marketplace was legitimate and would be allowed to stand. The bottom line is that the ruling allows the White House to circumvent Congress and rewrite any law that it sees fit, in any way that it sees fit. This was a major step away from representational government and a major step towards tyrannical dictatorship, and all of it by the blessing of the Supremes. This is a very dangerous precedent!

Overshadowing the Obamacare ruling was another ruling a couple of days later, that effectively banned states from enforcing laws against same-sex marriage. Honestly, I saw this one coming a long time ago. 

The majority of the states allow same-sex marriage. The US Constitution requires that the individual states recognize licenses and other things issued by other states. That is why my Missouri Driver's License is valid in all fifty states, for example. And why the marriage license that the Debster and I have, although issued in and solemnized in Missouri, was valid when we lived in Illinois. So this ruling did not come as a major surprise to me. The minority of states that maintained bans against same-sex marriage would have eventually been forced to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. So, it made little sense to keep their bans in place.

One problem, in my opinion, is that once again the Federal Government is dictating to the States what they can and cannot do. This is a violation of the Tenth Amendment, if nothing else. But, it has the blessing of the Supreme Court, and that, as they say, is that.

There is a bright side to this, however. Allen West wrote THIS ARTICLE concerning possible side effects and unintended consequences to this ruling.

The other problem is the moral problem. From my position as a Bible-believing Christian, that is the biggest problem. One that needs to be addressed separately. So stay tuned, my friends!

I want to publicly thank God for the care He took with my dear friend Mary P. Mary's van caught fire the other day, and burned down to a pile of slag. Thanks to some kind and brave strangers, she was extricated from the burning vehicle completely unharmed. God is good!

We had another death in the family this week. Our last remaining cat, Bull, died this past Tuesday. He was just shy of his 14th birthday. This is a photo of him from a few years ago, with his sister Cow, who died in November of 2013.

Now, on to the fun stuff! The Debster and I were blessed to be able to spend today (Sunday), with my grand-nephew Tyler, who just turned seven. 

First, we went to breakfast at Steak-N-Shake. I had the country skillet breakfast, and was only able to eat about half of it. The rest is in the fridge for my breakfast tomorrow. Tyler and the Debster had chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and powdered sugar. Looked awesome, even though I am not a fan of whipped cream.

Then, we went to Lone Elk State Park, and drove through looking at the critters. We only saw one deer, and didn't see any bison at all, unfortunately. But we did come across a large herd of elk!

What a cute calf!

Look at the rack on that bull elk!

From there, we went on to West Tyson County Park. Although Lone Elk is a rather major tourist attraction, the nearby West Tyson park is virtually unknown, tucked away in the hills off the highway outer road. Doesn't even have a marker sign on the highway. But in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful parks in all of the Saint Louis County Park System.

There, I finally managed to get some "dirt time", as my bushcrafting friends call it. Nothing special, but I did get to play with my new Mora knife and Kobalt hand ax. I made a pile of shavings and batoned (split with my knife) a few  branches, and gathered a large bundle of twigs. Built a fire, roasted hot dogs and made s'mores. We all had a blast. Even if it did try to rain on us a couple of times, and the wood was all damp making the fire difficult to get started.

Kobalt hand ax, Mora Classic #3, Buck folding knife

Used the Mora to baton some small branches down to kindling

Spine of the Mora used to scrape dry dust off of inner bark for tinder

Bark, bark dust, shavings, some kindling

Tyler and I roasting hot dogs. Wow. Look at that gut I have. I have GOT to do something about that!

Tyler with his first fire-roasted hot dog

You can see the moisture boiling out the ends of the fuel.

Gidget relaxing next to the Debster while Tyler and I played with fire.

Well, that's enough for this week. Stay tuned, folks!

God bless you all!

Ron and the Debster

Weekly round-up

I know, it has been a few weeks since I have posted, but I really need to post more often. There is almost always SOMETHING going on that I could write about. So, if nothing else, I'm going to try to post at least a weekly update of what happened during the week.

So, although this is a "weekly" update, this first time out will be actually a monthly update.

Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, we lost out dog Stempy to cancer back in early May. Daisy, the youngest of our dogs, took his loss very hard. Her playmate suddenly disappeared, and she searched and searched and cried and cried, and then just moped around. Poor thing! We felt so sorry for her, because we were going through the same thing.

Pam to the rescue! My eldest niece called me out of the clear blue towards the end of May. She had this little itty bitty pupy that needed a home, and thought of us. She brought her by the house, and we fell in love with her.

"Gidget" joined our family on May 25. She was only about 7 weeks old; she was born March 31. Weighed maybe 8 ounces or so. Part fox terrier, part chihuahua, part who-knows-what-else. Mostly white, with black head and ears and a couple of black spots on her back. And BIG ears standing straight up. Fox terrier heritage, I believe, showing up there. And so tiny!

Gidget with the Debster, the day after she joined us

We had hoped that an energetic puppy would rejuvenate Daisy, but for the first few days, it was a little touchy. Neither Daisy nor Chelsea wanted anything to do with this little thing, and our cat just stared at her with a "WTH?" expression.

Well, eventually Daisy warmed up to her, and they have become pretty tight. Daisy is back to her playful self again.

Here is a YouTube video of Daisy and Gidget playing in our back yard last week. 

(Sorry, I haven't figured out how to insert a thumbnail image.)

Our garden has gone insane!

We have been harvesting Romaine lettuce, spinach, green onions, and herbs for several weeks already. Just as well, because with all the rain we've gotten the last couple weeks, the tomatoes, cucumber, and zucchini plants have completely overtaken everything else. I'm trying to keep them tied up, but they have still completely smothered the remaining lettuce and onions, and are threatening the pepper plant, spinach, and the herbs.

I harvested one large cucumber earlier this week, and several more will be ready soon, as will some of the zucchini. The tomatoes are loaded down with smallish green fruit, so we should be able to start harvesting them in a week or two.

Well, if nothing else, I have learned some valuable lessons about planning the layout of the garden that I can apply next year when I expand to two full size 4'x8' beds. The tomatoes and squash-type plants will each be completely enclosed in separate cages about 20" in diameter, and the smaller plants will be kept farther away from them. And I think the herbs will be in individual containers rather than the main beds. Live and learn!

Haven't done much at all lately with genealogy. Too many other things have kept my interest. My interest in prepping has led me to re-discover my love of the outdoors, especially bushcraft and survivalism. My personal health issues and physical limitations will limit the extent of what I will be able to actually do. Long backpacking trips are out of the question, at least for the foreseeable future, for example. 

But I can still do some things. Day-trips are always possible, and camping for extended periods as long as I camp near the car and stay reasonably close to the camp and don't try to do too much at once. 

As the weather gets hotter and muggier, I probably won't be doing much. So for now I will concentrate on collecting and maintaining a decent collection of gear, and practicing various skills that I can do mostly at home. Then, when cooler weather returns, I'll be out and about a lot!

This is a Morakniv Mora Classic #3 sheath knife, and a copy of Dave Canterbury's first book. They were very early birthday gifts from the Debster! Gotta love that gal o' mine! She has little interest in the type of camping and outdoors activities that I prefer, but she is very supportive of me anyway. I really don't deserve this wonderful woman. But God has seen fit to put us together, and so I must be the best man I can be, for her if for no other reason.

Well, that's enough for now. We'll talk again soon.

God bless you all!

Ron, and the Debster