Owen's Ancestral Skills and Primitive Tech. Blog

Fort Sherman, Panama

2011-04-12T00:39:00.002-04:00

This video was supposed to be a full episode, with a lot more skills being shown, but we moved through the Canal before it could be finished. I've put an intro on it, with a few decent clips from Panama. Not a bad little video, would have liked to demonstrate more though.

Tuamotu Atoll Survival: Segments 2 & 3

2011-04-12T00:28:00.003-04:00

We're finally settled into Australia, and that means a strong and stable internet connection. So I have uploaded the remaining segments of the Tuamotu Atoll Survival series.

Tuamotu Atoll Survival Part 1

2010-06-28T18:58:00.000-04:00

Part 1 of my segment on Pacific Island Survival in the Tuamotu Archipelago

The Marquesas Islands

2010-06-25T19:57:00.027-04:00

The soaring heights of Nuku Hiva

After a 3,000 mile voyage across the worlds largest ocean, we arrived in The Marquesas. Called Henua Enata, or Land of Men, these islands are a bastion of Polynesia culture. They were never subjected to blackbirding (a practice of abducting indigenous people, then taking them to Australia or South America), and some of the most spectacular stone sculptures and sites can be seen in these islands. Tattooing is also alive and well, and is considered to be one of the most intact and refined of all the Polynesian islands.

There are several types of stone construction in the islands. The names often have the type of place included in the name, which makes it easier to identify what the sites use was. Tohua are large rectangular spaces used for dances and ceremonies. Me'ae are temples, and can range from expansive complexes, to platforms that are hard to distinguish from houses. Paepae are house platforms, and are easily the most prolific. They can be found in towns or up in the hills.
These constructions and sculptures are not considered ancient, but are old. They were made somewhere between 1600s-1700s. The larger sites really do stand as a testiment to the ingenuity and skill of the indigenous inhabitants, as well as a healthy population prior to contact.

Cultural Artforms:

Authentic Tiki at Pa'eke Me'ae

Tiki-
One of the most easily identied aspects of Polynesia culture is the iconic Tiki. Old tiki are often found on or around me'ae, but more modern renditions seem to be far more prevelent. Old Tiki are considered tapu, or sacred, and are generally treated with respect.

Modern tiki at Taiohae

These modern renditions of tiki in the Marquesas are prolific, sometimes even being places on historic sites. Tourists often take these to be authentic, as there is no plaques or signs stating otherwise. Most however were made for the Marquesas Festival in the late 1980's, actually borrowing inspiration from tattoo, wood sculptures, and existing artifacts, to produce a modern idea of a tiki.

Petroglyphs-
With an abundance of available surfaces to inscribe symbols and figures, the Marqueseans left petroglyphs all over the archipelago. On our visit we did not visit many of the more prominent petroglyph sites, but we did find this one curious figure near a river in Fatu Hiva.
There have been studies done on the correlation of petroglyphs to tattoos, which share many designs.

Tattoo ("Patau'i Te Tiki")-
Derived from the Tahitian word "tatau", tattooing is currenty undergoing a renaissance. The people of the Marquesas are actively reviving this art form, which is considered to be the most refined and intact out of all of French Polynesia.
It was not uncommon for Marquesean men to be entirely tattooed, and over 400 different styles of design have been identified in the Marquesas. Traditional materials and tools for producing tattoos were the use of candle nut soot for ink, and sharp combs that were struck with a finely decorated mallet to puncture the skin. The small combs used have extremely fine needle-like points, and are often only an inch or so in size.
Men are most often seen tattooed, with their legs and arms heavily decorated with traditional designs.

Notes on tattooing in French Polynesia(courtesy of Tahiti Tourisme):
Society Islands: "...men and women wore tattoos on their shoulders, arms and legs but never on the face. Their buttocks uniformly blue, were enhAnced from the lower back to the hips by several rows of designs....More stylized designs based on human, vegetal, or animal shapes were also used."

Austral Islands:
"...marked their differenece by the use of hand-width tattooed bands below the armpits. In Tuamotu, tattooing was widespread in the west, and much less practiced in the east. The men of Rangiroa could be tattooed from head to toe with irregular designs such as curved lines, concentric circles, or with checkerboard designs."

Gambier Archipelago:
"...tattoo was compulsory. The archipelago's special mark was circle tattooed under the armpits of teenagers."

Basalt adzes-
The primary source for lithics in these volcanic islands is basalt, and the Marqueseans were masters at knapping and grinding the stone into finely made adze blades. Though useful as a woodworking tool, perhaps to build the impressive oceangoing catamarans for example, they may have also used them as a weapon like the natives of Mangaia, another Polynesian island west of the Marquesas.
These deeply grooved stones, a common sight around the islands, were used as building material for the church in Taiohae, but their original purpose was to shape and sharpen the adze blades. They are often associated with the deep, pecked holes also found on large stones or around stone platforms.

Pecked holes

The Sites:
Arguably the most impressive of Marquesean sites are the Me'ae and Tohua. During our time in the islands, we found the most unique and impressive in the Island of Nuku Hiva, considered to be the first island to be settled in the archipelago.

Pa'eke Me'ae, Taipivai
The valley of Taipivai's claim to fame is that in the 1840's, the would-be writer of the famed book "Moby Dick", jumped ship with a shipmate Toby Green, and was subsequently taken in by the Taipi tribe of the valley. He eventually went on to write a now out of print book called "Typee", which chronicals his time there.
Though the Marqueseans, indeed if not all of Polynesia, had a healthy reputation of cannibalism, the Taipi were said to have been particularly cannibalistic. Of course, Melville never was eaten by his hosts, and neither was his shipmate, so it's hard to say if their intent in helping him was out of friendliness or if they had a different fate in mind, one possibly including the impressive me'ae site of Pa'eke.
Boasting 11 tiki, this site is perched atop a bluff that is accessed by an unmarked path that actually starts in someones front yard! On the way up, you will notice the ever present paepae, house platforms.
During it's heyday, the site must have been even more impressive. One unusual aspect of it is the seemingly haphazard placement of tiki around the platforms.

Anahao Bay, Nuku Hiva

After our stay in Taipivai, it was time to move to the secluded and well sheltered bay of Anaho. From here we hiked over the pass and into Hatiheu valley, where two more sites waited.
In much of the Marquesas, each valley is home to an individual tribe, and the valley of Hatiheu belonged to the Api Papua people. These people build an impressive tohua in the highland, dedicated to the goddess Tevanaua'e. Here they would have primarilly held dances and ceremonies.

Hikoku'a Tohua:
If it weren't for the sign, this site could have easily been missed.
It's about as big as Pa'eke, but it is edged with low platforms for many people to sit and observe the ceremonies. There is only a couple tiki associated with this site, one of the goddess herself, which is unique because the tiki also forms part of the wall.

Modern Tiki

A number of modern tiki, noticably more detailed than their historic counterparts, were added in 1989 for the Marquesas Islands Festival.

Uniface tool made of basalt

Archeological material is very common in these islands. Some stores even have large collections of locally found tools on display, and the museums (when they're open), have impressive collections of bone, stone, shell, and wood artifacts.

Te I'ipoka Me'ae

The final, and most stunning, site of the day, is the expansive Te I'ipoka Me'ae. The size and reputation of this site is hard to convey in mere words and pictures. It has many me'ae and paepae platorms, a large petroglyph gallerey nearby, and a tohua that dwarfs the Hikokua site.
However, size is not the main draw to this site. Te I'ipoka is a documented sacrificial site. Not only were many people sacrificed and eaten here, but it also played host to one of the last human sacrifices of the 19th century. It is said that a member of the Ha'apa'a tribe was lured to the site, under false pretenses, where he met his fate.

The pit is roughly 7-8 feet deep

As a physical testiment to the cannibalistic rituals practiced here, two massive pits, one situated directly under a sacred Banyan tree, were built into a huge platorms, for the purpose of holding the victims before being brought out for sacrifice.

The Great Banyan of Te I'ipoka Me'ae

Pits are not uncommon at me'ae or tohua, but the Te I'ipoka Me'ae pit is by far the largest we have seen in the islands.

Efforts have been made to restore and preserve this site, and a traditional structure has been rebuilt atop one of the platforms.

A note on cannibalism in the Marquesas, through talking to locals, I was informed that it was not a widely practiced act amoungst the general populations of the islands. The Marquesean societies operated under a caste system, with only the upper echeleon of the community (priests, priestesses, chiefs, prominent warriors, etc) permitted to eat sacrificial victims, and even then it was only the thighs. Cannibalism was practiced or ritualistic reasons, as opposed to a means of sustenance.

Not all Marquesean sites are dedcated to gods, goddesses, and eating your tribal enemies, however. An interesting site we came across in the island of Ua Pou (pronounced oo-ah poe), was the agricultural settlement of Tetahana. This area was used up until the 1980's to cultivate taro and breadfruit. They used an ingenious system of terraced fields along the two converging streams, and were able to dam the streams and divert the flow into these terraces to irrigate their crops.

Sources and recommended reading:
Exploring The Marquesas by Joe Russel-Cruising guide to the Marquesas
Moon Handbook: South Pacific- very useful travel guide to the South Pacifc
Te Patu Tiki: Le Tatouage aux Iles Marquises- a superb French book on Marquesean tattoo
Typee by Herman Melville

Thanks to Tahiti Tourisme for their informative pamphlets!

Taboga Island, Panama

2010-04-14T17:48:00.005-04:00

There are few places in the world where the history of a place is so apparent. Taboga is one of these places. It's the oldest continualy inhabited cities in the Americas, and has the oldest church in this hemisphere. The beaches of Taboga are packed with glass from Spanish occupation, wrecks are common, cannonballs have been found, and if you have dive equipment you can fine many intact bottles from all periods of Tabogas history.
The city of Taboga was well positioned as a base for Francisco Pizarro, from which he plundered both Las Perlas and Peru. Later, the city served as an ideal place for pirates to raid the rich Spanish treasure ships.
For me, the real treasure of Taboga is before Pizarros arrival, when Taboga was called "Haboga", and where the city now stands, there stood a well established native settlement.
Even before leaving the outskirts of the city, you will note that the soil is absolutely packed with all kinds of shell. A closer look will reveal that mixed in with the shells, are fragments of pottery. We were able to find middens of shell, pottery, and stone tools. From the fragments found, it appears that they decorated their pottery simply with red pigment aroud the rim and simple etching. One piece was found that had markings made with a shell in a simple repeating pattern. All the pieces are tempered with sand or crushed quartz, and some are up to an inch thick.
The stone tools are basic, with no sign of pressure flaking. Most appear to be flakes struck from a core, used, then discarded. Interestingly, they are all of types of stone that I have not seen anywhere on the island, and range from a deep black/blue to almost bright yellow.
I found no glass or earthenware mixed with the shells and pottery.

Taboga is an excelent place to hike. We spent some time exploring some of it's then dry creeks as well and found a species of animal we had not seen before.

These green and black frogs are Dart-Poison Frogs, and we were told they are a type that is endemic to Taboga, though we are not certain. They live in colonies so if you see one there are usually many more around.
Of course every paradise has it's hidden dangers, and Taboga plays host to tarantulas, scorpions, and snakes.

Return to the Pearl Islands

2010-04-14T17:30:00.004-04:00

After our ordeal at sea, and with Bristol Rose repaired and fully functioning, we took a week to return to the Las Perlas Achipelago to relax and enjoy the last of Panama before we attempted the passage to the Galapagos for the second time.
After returning to Panama City, I happened upon a book written by Robert Vergnes that details several interesting sites of historic significance in the islands, relating to both native and Spanish occupation.

We visited serveral islands we had not stopped at the first time though, and one of them was the well known island of Contadora. This is a very well built up island, and according to Vergnes, pottery fragments were found during the constructions of the buildings you will find there. On the northern end of the island you can also find a face etched into the cliffs, made by the native people before the Spanish arrive. We weren't able to visit this pre-columbian site however.

The island of Chapera to the south of Contadora was said to have an old colonial Spanish well, so we made a point to anchor off it's southern shore and use the dinghy to locate the well using the directions given by Vergnes.
This is Vergnes' first landmark, which is more noticable at low tide. It stands near a beach, which we landed at and located a dry creek bed that would lead us to a path. This path snaked it's way through some of the most beuatiful terrain in the Perlas, until it opened to a clearing with many Royal Palms.
In the middle, with beams of sunlight shining through the canopy, stood this well. It is 17 feet deep, and 12 feet wide at the top. There was signs around it that someone had made attempts to rebuild it, and it had a partial outer wall that is not present in pictures taken by Vergnes in 1980.

On Isla Saboga, on the western shore, is a very large fish trap made from good sized stones. We found it at high tide, but you can see part of an inner wall in this photo. The outer wall is much larger, and can easily be seen on Google Earth.

During our explorations of these islands, we also found some very old shell midden piles, as well as pre-columbian pottery fragments in some places.

Gerber Mini Fast Draw Pocketknife

2010-03-11T13:14:00.011-05:00

I first became aquinted with this knife when a student brought one to a camp I was working at, and was imediately impressed with its quality and easy of handling. It's not a large or intricite knife, and I suppose that's what appeals to me. It's compact, well made, opens quickly and easily with one hand, and stays shut when you want it to. For young campers, it's size makes it easy to handle as well.
I recently found one for sale in an outdoors store in Panama City, and decided that the $35 price tag was worth it (I'm aware I could have bought one cheaper from other places, but it was an impulse purchase at the time).

Only 3 inches when closed, it's an excelent every day pocket knife. It weighs 1.9 Ounces, so it won't weigh down in your pocket or on your belt. The clip holds very well and I've never been concerned about it working loose and being lost. The blade is 2.1 Inches, and I've found it perfectly suited for fine carving of Tagua nuts, opening boxes, carving knotches in fireboards, and I'd venture to say it wouldn't do too bad at butchering. The quality of the steal is of course very good, as Gerber is well known for their use of superior materials and fine workmanship, and this knife is no exception. I found it easy to sharpen, and it holds an edge very well.
The lock system works very well, which did surprise me. I've traditonaly been a fixed blade user, so I approached the small plastic lock button with a skeptical eye. I'm pleased to say it works as well as the day I bought it.
I live in a very caustic environment on the boat, and many of our knives on board will eventually exhibit signs of rust of corrosion. This knife is holding up very well however, most likely oweing to the quality of the steel. I've also made sure to oil the action with T-9 oil to make sure it's kept in perfect working order.
Another aspect of this knife that appeals to me, is its overall appearance. It's simple and elegant. It serves a function, and looks professional doing it. It conveys it's purpose as a serious tool, while remaining subtle.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this knife. You can find this knife for sale in a number of places online, or outdoors stores. The Gerber product number is 22-01526. This style also comes as a partialy serated blade.

Photographs credited to Trish Budd

Panama Canal Transit

2010-03-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

This is a severely delayed post, but still worth a post no matter how late it arrives. I've found that my experiences worth posting about in Panama occur so often that I have to pick and choose what to write about!

Our transit of the Panama Canal began on January 27th, 2010. The first step in the process is to receive your adviser, a canal official who boards your vessel near Colon. It's an impressive and rapid boarding, as they bring the adviser out on a work boat, which comes just close enough for the adviser to jump onto your boat and they immediatly leave. Our adviser was a man of few words, who had done over 400 canal transits and was himself a tug captain.
We approached the first lock chamber after sundown. Approaching the immense chamber at night in your small yacht is a humbling experience. It's akin to entering a cathedral.

Entering the first chamber of Gatun Lock

The water that fills the chamber enters through holes in the floor of the chamber, so when they fill the lock the water suddenly boils as hundreds of gallons of water flood the lock.

Gatun Locks enormous riveted doors

After making it through 3 chambers, we arrived at Gatun Lake. We were guided to a large fiberglass mooring ball where we would be moored for the night. Gatun Lake is teeming with life, from Howler Monkeys and sloths to Harpy Eagles and Crocodiles. Fishing is not permitted in this lake.

Dredging out the Canal

Impressive terrain inside the Canal

Centennial Bridge

The tropical shoreline of Miraflores Lake

Approaching The Bridge of the Americas

The Pacific and Panama City Skyline

The transit is many things to sailors. A transition, a big step toward the world of the Pacific. The gateway to a whole new coastline for many, and perhaps the hundreds of islands of the Pacific itself. Just crossing the Pacific itself is a huge move forward, as many find themselves unable to make that move out of the Caribbean and onto even bigger adventures. For us this is one step closer to our homeland.

Vegetable Ivory

2010-03-08T08:28:00.004-05:00

Everywhere you go in Panama, you can find art produced by the Kuna,
Embera, and Wounaan. Molas and intricitely woven baskets and masks are the most
common, and sell for hundreds in Panama City. Another art form the
Embera and Wounaan produce, are Tagua nut carvings. They are usually
of animals and are decorated with very fine India inks.

Embera-Wounaan masks

The Tagua nut is native to this region and grows in a pod on the Tagua
Palm. It also goes by other names such as Ivory Palm, Elephant Plant,
or vegetable Ivory. The reason for this is the mature nut has the
same colour and consistency of Ivory. It can also be sustainably
gathered, so it can be used as a substitute for tusk ivory. In some
varieties of Ivory Palm, the young seeds are edible, before they
mature and harden.

Ever since arriving in Panama and seeing the Tagua carvings at
Tusipono, we've been looking for raw seeds to carve ourselves. Most
vendors have one to show, but not to sell. Finding a tree we could
collect from was also proving impossible. We eventually happened upon
a store in Casco Viejo that sold raw Tagua seeds for about .50US cents
each.

Tagua in its shell on left, de-shelled on the right

We noticed some have holes from borers, so to avoid any blemishes to
the nut we picked out ones with intact husks. The husk is very
brittle and easy to remove.
The first thing I noticed was just how heavy the Tagua is, about the
weight of a large glass marble, and how difficult it can be to carve.
It's extremely hard to take off large shavings so you must take your
time and use a small, sharp knife. So far my small folding Gerber
knife is working perfectly.

Photography credited to Trish Budd

Survival Las Perlas video

2010-03-06T14:50:00.003-05:00

Here is my Las Perlas survival video. A lot of fun to film and edit, hope you enjoy it.

Passage to the Galapagos Islands

2010-03-05T18:56:00.005-05:00

From Isla San Jose we sailed towards the Galapagos Islands. With
fresh provisions of fresh fruit and fish, we were well equiped to
handle the 6-8 day passage. We had not been able to download the Grib
files, but reports from other yachts making the same passage indicated
a calm and uneventfull passage. We were even expecting to be becalmed
for portions of the voyage.
An exciting catch outside the Perlas was a juvenile Yellowfin tuna,
our first ever. We made some excelent nori rolls (both cooked and raw
tuna rolls).

During our first watch of the passage, several butterflies, of a type
we had seen hundreds of during our time in Las Perlas, appeared on our
boat while being almost 60 miles from shore. This seemed unusual for
being so far out. My watch ended at 9 pm, and I settled in for the
night, trying to get some rest before my next watch at 6 am.
I was awoken sometime around 10:30 pm, to the boat heeling (rolling
sharply to it's side) violently, as though we had gone off course and
broadside to the wind. Cabinets and anything that wasn't held down
fell to the floor, cluttering the narrow quarters below deck. All our
charts and books spilled from the navigation table into the galley.
The wind had suddenly spiked to 30 knots and we were caught with a
light wind spineker sail up. We rolled so much that water began to
rush in through a starboard seacock, giving the appearance that we
were taking on water. As I held one of the overhead handrails, I was
unable to get both feet on the floor as I struggled to keep from being
thrown to one side of the boat. We had to get the huge light wind
sail down before water made it's way over our sides.
To get such a sail down, we had to turn on the engine and point the
boat into the wind. In winds this strong we would need all available
hands to haul it down.
As the situation progressed rapidly, I heard a sickening sound from
the engine, almost indescribeable, but the obvious sound of something
going very wrong. What we soon realized was the sound came from a
line, recently uncleated, wrapping around our spinning propeller, and
jamming our rudder. In the blink of an eye we were disabled, dead in
the water.
As we stowed our sail, drifting aimlessly in the rough seas, we began
to take stock of our situation. Over 60 miles from land and 300 miles from a proper port, drifting on a 2 knot current out into the Pacific.
Rolling in the heavy waves, we drifted further and further from help,
stretching our ability to make radio contact with Panama or any vessel
capable of helping us. Our eyes wearily scanning the horizon for
lights and continuing to hail anyone who could hear by issueing a
Pan-pan, one step below a full on mayday. Until the answer to our
prayers came over the radio, Captain Graham of S/V Eowyn, an ever
vigilante English captain with years of experience on the worlds
oceans, and a superb radio voice. He ordered his boat to heave to in
open water to keep in radio contact, and served throughout the ordeal
as our faithful lifeline to the rest of the world. Without his help,
I am certain we would have drifted for days.
Word finally arrived that through Eowyns efforts, he had notified
Emergency Coordination Center in the UK, US Coast Guard, Servicio
Maritime de Panama, and the World Cruising Club, all of whome worked
tirelessly to send aid in the form of a patrol boat called Ligia
Elena. All told we drifted from 10:30 on the 13th of February until
8:00 am on the 15th.

Patrol Boat Ligia Elena

My family and myself forever have a debt of gratitude to these people
who worked all the way until we set foot on dry land to assure our
safety of ourselves and our boat, Bristol Rose.
My thanks go out to the Panamanians who offered us shelter upon our
arrival on land. I will omit their names in this post to preserve
their much deserved privacy, but they know our appreciation and
gratitude is likewise extended to them.
Survival situations can appear in a heartbeat, and being on the open
ocean, even in a modern boat, does not exempt you from this reality.
Something someone asked me was if we paniced. I am proud to say we
didn't, which is fortunate. Keeping a level head, and above all hope,
helped us make the decisions and deal with the siuations at hand.
Hoplessness can be just as much a killer as the elements, and can
consume your whole reality. No matter how bad things get, keeping
hope is paramount in walking out of a survival situation.

Something we didn't expect, was as soon as we arrived on land, we were
informed that we had made the local (and global) news. Word had
spread of a distressed, American flagged vessel off Panama, and we had
found our way into a half dozen articles and press releases, one being
as far as India. Even though we felt so alone in the Pacific, it
turns out people we had never met were watching for our safe return.
We even received emails from other countries offering assistance,
should we find ourselves in their waters.

We managed to make basic repairs and are now safely in Panama City to make the boat ready to go to sea again.

UPDATE: Later we found through a Panamanian news source that Ligia Elena was attacked by speedboats a few days after they towed us to safety. One of their crew was shot in the leg, but thankfully survived.

Las Perlas

2010-02-22T18:31:00.011-05:00

Las Perlas islands are a stark contrast to the busy life of Panama
City. Tropical dry forrests skirted by rocky shores, and only
sparsely populated by small fishing villages, you can really get a
sense of being alone on a deserted island here.

One of Isla Bayonettas protected leeward beaches

These islands were once the domain of an indigenous tribe of skilled
pearl divers under the rule of "King Toe". This all tragically
changed in 1515 when Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro arrived
in the islands and conquered the people. It appears that the
indigenous population did not survive this encounter.
The islands on the other hand, seem to have been left alone, with only
a hand full being inhabited. Small plots are cultivated by locals, as
well as subsistance fishing at the villages.
Pearls are still illusive here, but gorgeous shells and sea beans are
abundant. Brightly coloured scallops, cockles, and cowries can be
found on many of the beaches, especially the western side of Isla
Bayoneta (if you don't mind some surf and the brutal equatorial sun
bearing done on you).
We found far more sea beans on this beach than we have in Kuna Yala
and all the Caribean islands combined. They come in three distinct
forms, with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and colours. You'd
struggle to find two exactly the same. On Bristol Rose, we polish
these sea beans while underway.

The real draw to these islands for me, has been it's past use as the
location for the filming of Survivor: Panama. Ever since I began
practicing primitive skills, I have inevitably been approached by
friends and family suggesting I should go on Survivor. This is
probably the closest I'll ever get, and it's an opportunity to visit
the exact location to test my skills against their experience.
My challenge was to be dropped off shore of Isla Mogo-Mogo amoungts
the submerged rocks and shoals, swim ashore with only a knife and
build a fire before the sun went down, using only resources I could
find on the island.

Video of this challenge to be posted soon.

Isla Mogo-Mogo's leeward beach

Scouring the tidal pools at low tide

Isla Mogo Mogo also provides me an opportunity to try out some seafood
that lends itself perfectly to the coastal or island primitive. Tidal
rockpools are an extremely common feature of these islands, where the
tides can drop as much as 15 feet. This opens up a whole range of
food that can be easily collected, from simple snails to crabs and
fish. One such organism is the humble limpet (Order
Archaeogastropoda). The variety we found was quite large, up to 2
inches in diameter. These shells can be collected by using a rock to
either push firmly at their sides until they dislodge (or strike them
carefully in the same place, be careful not to crack their shells).
Place them on a broad, flat rock and cover with hot coals. Their
shells will actually steam them. Once cooked, remove their shell and
the bubble of guts on top and eat the chewy disc that is left. I found
these to be surprisngly good and tasted like BBQ octopus, and not at
all fishy as I anticipated. They're also a safe and very abundant
food source that can be collected with minimal effort. These can be
found worldwide in varying forms, and make up the bulk of shells found
in middens in the UK.

I have thought of possible ways to make them more tender, and the use
of an Umu or Pit Oven may produce a more tender result, but this
method would not be justified by a few limpets. You would probably
want to deshell a few and place them in with fish, clams, and anything
else you have to cook. There is interest on our boat amoungst the
crew to try this method at the next beach BBQ.

Adult Female Frigate Bird

Embera Village

2010-02-05T11:13:00.009-05:00

The Embera people are one of 7 tribes within Panama. They have long been closely associated with the Wounaan people, though they speak two distinct languages, and only really share a root language. These people speak their own language, as well as Spanish.
The village we visited was Tusipono, the village of the Bird and Flower. It's inhabitants are descendants of the Embera who chose to move from Darien Province to Panama City, hoping to get education for their children and live a better life in the city. They found themselves doing jobs such as house cleaning and gardening, and were not happy with this arrangement. So they decided to leave the city and return to their traditional life. The problem was that when they left Darien Province, they sold their lands to other Embera, and so had no place to return to. So they settled in what is now the National Park (though it wasn't at the time). When the government established the park, they told the Embera they had to move, which they refused on the ground that they had no other place to go. The government made a deal that they could live within the park, so long as they opened their villages to tourists and engaged in the tourist trade.
After an hour and a half bus ride, this is the view that greeted us from the doors of the bus. Several dugout canoes made from the Wild Cashew tree, piloted by two Embera guides, all framed by the immensity and beauty of the Panamanian jungle. It was easy to feel as though this scene has echoed through hisitory along many of Panama's rivers, minus a few outboard motors and tourists.

After a trip along the river, gliding past villages and local Embera, the guides skillfully maneuvered our dugout into a muddy tributary. They beached their canoe on a muddy bank where they encouraged us to disembark and journey into the forrest. We were to hike along a worn path until we reached an amazing waterfall.
The whole way, I couldn't help but think back to all the time I hiked along Maryland's streams and rivers, and found it remarkable how similar they are to the stream I was hiking along in Panama. Even Rex commented that it was similar to the time he visited us and we swam in the Patapsco River. Even the geology of the area is the same, with quartz and similar types of stone.

Watching Embera guides doing some rough trailwork

Tropical Flora

A crossing in the stream
After our swim in the cool jungle waters, we returned to our dugouts and moved back into the main river to make our way to Tusipono, where we would meet with the village chief, and hear about their way of life in the jungle, as well as have lunch.

Children playing around dugouts on our way to Tusipono

This is the first view of Tusipono, as you arrive by dugout. You arrive on a grassy landing, where the villagers greet you with music played on traditional instruments such as small drums, turtle shells, and flutes. The yellowish sign at the entrance greets you to Tusipono, in Spanish.

All the houses are stilted, to keep their living spaces away from wild animals and insects. They share this jungle with spiders, venomous snakes, Jaguars, Panthers, Leaf-Cutter Ants, and numerous other creatures. These jungles are some of the most diverse on the planet.
We were free to photograph anything in the village, with the interiors of their homes being the exception. In this picture on the left hand side, you can see a slanted log. This has notches cut into it so as to be used as a ladder, which is drawn inside the house at night to prevent animals from entering while they sleep.
Cooking is done on a clay hearth within the meeting house. They use a method I have seen used by South-Eastern tribes, of putting several log ends together, like spokes on a wheel, and placing their cooking pots on top.
This is looking up into the slanted roof of the meeting house. The thatch you can see here is done with Royal Palm and lasts about 3 years. The base of the house is thatched with another kind of palm that lasts 10 years. Note the two termite nests at the very top of the roof.

Details of the lower part of the roof, these leaves last 10 years

The Embera have a number of dances that are kinds of gifts to the spirits who inhabit their world. They offer these dances to the hills, butterflys, rivers, and many other parts of the jungle they rely on. The men play instruments while the women dance and sing. Some dances are social and we were invited to dance with them.

Women dancing

Left to right: Chief, tour guide, first lady of the tribe

The Embera are skilled artisans, proficient in basketry and carving (both dense woods and even harder seeds). The baskets they are able to produce are watertight, and go for up to $300+ in Panama City. They use traditional methods and materials to produce these works of art. The birds on these shallow baskets are the Harpy Eagle, Panama's national bird, and a species you can see in the Jungle. It is an immensely powerful raptor, with a 2 meter wingspan.

Some examples of wood carvings done by the Embera

Visiting these people was a pleasure and a privilege. To walk barefoot shoulder to shoulder with Embera guides, and travel their rivers in dugouts will be one of my fondest memories of Panama. They are exceedingly friendly and open people, and you could truely feel welcome in their village.

Back in the dugout after an amazing day with the Embera

Photographs credited to Rex Budd

Embera Basket and Tattoo

2010-01-29T18:56:00.012-05:00

My uncle Rex and I visited the Embera village of Tisupono today. Located within a national park, it's accessible only by dugout piloted by the Embera. I'll have a post up with details of the village once I upload the pictures and videos, but for now here are a few pictures of what we brought back with us.
Here is my first artifact of our visit. It's a traditionaly made Embera basket, produced by weaving palm fibers that are dyed with natural materials (yellow is from a root, brown is from wood chips). They boil the fiber along with their dyes much the same way you would dye quills.
They call these tattoos but they are more like henna. They use a dye from the Jagua fruit to produce a body dye that can last up to a month. This particular one will most likely last 6-8 days.

Kuna Yala

2010-01-25T10:44:00.020-05:00

The passage across the Caribbean sea is considered to be one of the
roughest in the world. Starting in St. Lucia we set a course for Kuna
Yala (formerly San Blas islands), a passage of 1100 miles that would
take 8 nights. This was my first blue water and overnight passage.
Off the coast of Colombia we encountered heavy weather with 45 knot
winds and 10-15 foot seas. Sailing in these conditions can be
considered uncomfortable at best. We fared far better than most boats
in the fleet however. Some boats arrived in Kuna Yala with damaged
masts, torn sails, and malfunctioning radio equipment.
Piracy is also alive and well in these waters, mostly along the
Venezuelan and Colombian coasts. Only a month ago a yacht was boarded
by armed pirates outside Cartagena's harbour and all their electronic
equipment was stollen.
At 1:00 am on the 14th (my birthday) we finally reached our
destination. Being a moonless night in an area known for multiple
reefs made our decision to drop our anchor a very dangerous one. This
was not made any better by all available charts of Kuna Yala being
extremely inaccurate. Some of our electronic charts even placed us
directly on land while our sounding instruments indicated 70 feet of
water.
We attempted to approach a cluster of islands at the western end of
Coco Bandero Cays, with my uncle and myself at the bow to watch for
reefs. I happened to look up to see a white sand beach about 100 feet
in front of us. Our depth had suddenly dropped from 60 feet to 20
feet, so we swung around and made our way back our into deeper water,
fearing running aground on jagged reefs that had already claimed large
cargo ships and fishing boats. Our only choice was to wait for the
sun and make our way east to a better anchorage.

Kuna Yala is unlike anywhere in the world. Pure white sands and tall
coconut palm trees with hundreds of small, uninhabited (and inhabited)
islands. Coconuts are off limits to non-Kuna however as every island
belongs to a family, meaning that taking some would equate stealing
veggies from the neighbors garden (and yes, this is taken seriously).
Coconuts are also one of their primary exports and their main sources
of income.
The populated islands are inhabited by the Kuna people. They are
considered to be one of the most intact indigenous cultures in the
world, and function independantly while observing Panamanian laws in
conjunction with their own laws. They subsist on cultivating fruit
and vegetables, and hunting in the mainland portion of Kuna Yala,
which lies within Panama.

They live in traditional houses built with
hardwood frames and thatched with palm leaf. Typically these last up
to 15 years and are very effective at keeping out rain. The general
layout is simple, a dirt floor with hammocks for sleeping. Belongings
and clothing hang from the rafters, so the floor is generally free of
clutter. Houses vary from family to family of course, so we saw some
very clean houses and some that were not, just as you would in any
society.

They are probably best known for their Molas, a traditional art they
make by sewing layers of fabric together to produce a variety of
patterns and images. Animal motifs are common, but we prefer the
geometric designs which are more traditional. They traditonally used
fabric made from natural materials, but with the introduction of
cotton fabric, and brightly coloured fabric available in Panama City,
this skill appears to have all but died out.

To move about their nation of islands they use finely made dugout
canoes propelled by either sail, outboard motor, or paddle. They are
remarkably fast and agile craft, regardless of how they are powered.
Even the children have small, but very functional, versions of their
parents canoes that are accurate down to the last detail. These
watercraft are roughed out in the mainland jungles, then finished in
their village. Some villages are known for exceptionaly high quality
canoes.

Canoes in Acuadup, facing the Panama coast

We have found it impossible to trade goods with them, because American
dollars are all they will accept for Molas, seafood, or fruit.
Transactions are conducted in broken Spanish, English, and Kuna. We
try to learn as many Kuna words as we can, such as nuedi (thank you),
teki malo (goodbye), and jagi (dolphin, pronounced ou-ah-gee). They
seen pleasantly surprised to hear a few white folks saying thank you
in their native tongue.
They are also accustomed to asking for a dollar for photographs, a
practice that stems from seeing pictures of Kuna selling for a dollar
in Panama City.

Our first major village we entered was on the island of Acuadup.
Located west of the Carti Islands, it is not nearly as crowded as the
Carti Islands, and has quite a lot of vegetation (mangos, bananas,
Noni fruit, and almonds on expanses of grass). The houses are also
spaced apart, compared to the cramped quarters of the more populated
islands. This island also doesn't seem to be as heavily visited, so
as we walked through the village we were greeted more with people
simply going about their business than selling molas. Apart from the
school, all the houses are traditional as well.
A good book for information on the Kuna is Eric Bauhaus' guide The
Panama Cruising Guide, which has also been an invaluable source of
information during our travels in Kuna Yala.

Subsistance fishing and Marine life

Cruisers live a unique life off the grid, sailing from country to
country, often crossing large expanses of ocean to arrive at remote
locations that are far off most tourist maps. Living aboard an ocean
going vessel demands a certain amount of survival skills, since many
of the places they visit are far beyond even basic search and rescue.
Even in the Caribbean islands I have witnessed first hand how being in
a well populated area does not guarantee safety, when two fishermen
perished 16 miles from two well populated islands that are also very
popular tourist destinations.
Fishing is an excelent way to add to provisions taken on at port as
well as providing food when provisions run dry. Generally yachts take
on enough provisions for their journey or until the next port of call
they expect to be able to replenish at, which in some cases could be a
few months.
During our passage we were able to hook two good sized fish. In these
deep waters there are a lot of very large pelagic species that are
both abundant and generally Ciguatera free, such as Mahi-Mahi, Wahoo,
and Yellowfin Tuna. They are however very powerful so good tackle is
necessary or you will loose your gear. Even on 100 pound line we lost
2 lures and bent a hook. There are obviously some fish in the sea
that you would just as rather let get away then bring onboard.

This Wahoo was the biggest of the two fish, weighing in at
approximately 30 pounds. We use rum to kill fish we catch, this one
took quite a bit. You do have to be careful bringing big fish on
board. I've heard stories of people being hit in the head by tails,
and even a man who earned 30 stitches from a Spanish Marckarel that
sliced his leg with it's teeth.
It is prohibited for foreigners to collect sealife from the reefs
around the islands. Lobsters, crab, and even octopus are available
from the Kuna fishermen however. We avoid buying the lobsters now,
after seeing undersized ones being brought to us, but the Channel
Cling Crab is excelent eating that provides more meat than the
lobsters. Just like Blue Crabs in Maryland, the males are far better
eating, which fits in nicely with our prefured practic of leaving the
females alone.
They seem to be more available closer to the mainland though, since we
didn't see any until reaching the Carti Islands. They are found in
relatively shallow water, about 10 feet or so, and can be caught with
the help of a spear.

Snorkeling in Kuna Yala is quite good. Large fish can be hard to find
and are skittish. The reefs we explored had a number of brittle coral
that we have not seen elsewhere. Some interesting species we have
seen are Parrotfish with a Cleaner Wrasse and a Nurse Shark.
The Dog island wreck is an excelent snorkeling site. It was
intentially run aground in the 1950's while transporting rum. For it's
age it is in exceptional condition, with much of the weck's parts
easily recognizable. It's forward winches are above the water and are
the only parts visible from the surface. The stern lies in 15 feet of
water with her twin rudders visible at the bottom. Her aft hold is
easily accessible, sheltering a variety of species including a very
large snapper. Amidships you can find one of her two engines as well
as some tanks. Her forward hold is very open with the port side of
the hull missing.

Our travels will take us next to Las Perlas islands, the origin of
Queen Mary Tudor's "peregrina" pearl and site of the TV show Survivor.

All photographs credited to Trish Budd, reef photographs credited to
Elliot Budd

Leg 1: St Lucia-Kuna Yala

2010-01-05T08:13:00.003-05:00

I have recently joined as crew of S/V Bristol Rose, a 43 foot sailing vessel bound for Australia. At noon tomorrow, we begin the 1000 mile leg to Kuna Yala (former San Blas Islands). Our journey is part ofthe World ARC, a circumnavigation of the globe with about 39 other sailing vessels. Very few boats are selected to join this rally, and it affords us an opportunity to safely transit the Panama Canal, and the Pacific. We will also have the opportunity to meet important officials in the countries we visit.
I will be posting more frequently on the various Islands and countries we visit, some of which are very remote and are seldom visited by anyone. I'm particularly excited about our first destination, which is a collection of islands, as well as parts of mainland Panama, that are controled by the Kuna people. The Kuna are indigenous to these islands, and are very friendly. They are also considered to be one of the most intact tribal cultures in the world, and they try very hard to keep it that way. Non-Kuna are not permitted to settle in these islands, not are Kuna permitted to intermarry with non Kuna. That being said they are a very friendly people and are welcomeing of guests, both tourists and cruisers alike.
The Islands themselves are small, with many coconuts. Each coconut belongs to someone, which is also common in the Pacific Islands, and so taking of fruit is considered stealing, just as taking corn or pumpkins from farmers in the states would be frowned upon. The snorkling is said to be excelent, so I am particularly looking forward to that aspect of visiting Kuna Yala.

For more information on the ARC or Bristol Rose, check out these links:

ARC Website

S/V Bristol Rose Blog

Primitive Tools in the Windward Islands

2009-12-26T12:28:00.007-05:00

The Windward Islands of the southern Caribbean have a lengthy history with primitive peoples. Moving out of the South American continent, they settled their way across the islands in a series of migrations. Much has been written already on these peoples and their interactions, but little appears to b be available on their ways of life, skills, and tools. It is well known that the Arawak were sophisticated craftsmen who produced high quality pottery, but as of yet I have seen little of their lithics. This leads me to wonder what the natives of these islands were using to cut, scrape, gouge, saw, and drill.
I have spent much of my time in the islands seeking out museums with the answers, as well as looking to the environment itself for those answers.

You can see that with relatively little difficulty, one could put together a very useful toolkit. This kit is entirely made of local materials and using basic primitive skills. With this kit you can produce fire, butcher game, hunt, carve, produce stone drills, and produce a number of other tools.

The stone found here comes in varying degrees, which is very useful to primitive people or the survivalist. All of the stones I found are razor sharp, but are obviously more suited for certain tasks. The caramel coloured stone is probably the sharpest, but would not stand up to working wood. The grey stone is far more robust and could easily carve wood. Much of the islands here are volcanic, though obsidian is rare, if not non-existent.

Fiber is readily available from the palm trees. Both the trunk of the palm and the husk have very strong fibers. It can be somewhat wirey which makes me uncertain of whether it would work for fishing line. It would be suitable for all other tasks and I am certain it was a staple for primitive peoples in the islands.

As for fire I have had good success, even with wood simply collected from the beach. The set picture has been used several times and produces coals quickly and consistently.

Spearfishing

2009-12-23T20:06:00.005-05:00

I caught my first fish with a 3 pronged spear, albeit a modern spear with the aid of my snorkling gear, but quite a feet regardless.
Peacock Flounder appear to be fairly common on the sandy areas around here. I saw two the day I caught this, including the one I speared. They're excellent at camouflage and if you strike and miss, they bury themselves in the sand and become impossible to locate.
The Peacock Flounder is a left eyed fish, and the one I stalked seemed rather cautious. My first attempt to approach directly and go slow seemed to alert it and sent it gliding over the sand to a patch of algae that it promptly blended into.
Mum prepared it, since this is apparently one of her favorite fish to eat. They have a lot of bones, so there is a certain amount of skill required to eat this without getting messy. This is also how it is served in restaurants. Flounders hav no scales, so it's cooked with the skin on, which you peel back, then eat the flesh from one side, using your knife to separate it from the ribs. Once finished on one side, you flip it using your knife to seperate the flesh from the underside as well.

Choco Seeds

2009-12-14T12:22:00.002-05:00

Finally bored through enough choco seeds to put on my necklace. They use these in a lot of jewelry in Bequia, and apparently down into the Amazon as well. They're brilliantly red seeds that almost feel like they're made of glass. I used a small chert drill (stone found locally) and a fish tooth to drill them.

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary

2009-12-13T11:25:00.004-05:00

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary is located on Bequia, SVG. We walked the 2 miles from Port Elizabeth to see Brother King and his sanctuary. He houses mostly Hawksbill turtles but also has Green Turtles and Red-Footed Tortoises. He runs his operation on his own money, so if you're looking for someone to donate to, this guy may be it. He is a retired fisherman who used to catch turtles, but has since dedicated his time to protecting the ocean he once fished.

The Hawksbill is actually quite aggressive compared to the Green Turtles. They fight with each other constantly and will bite you if you let your fingers too close. They do have brilliantly coloured shells however, which was one of the main reasons they were hunted prior to the introduction of plastic. Now they are primarily hunted for food with the shells discarded. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada are the only islands that have not stopped hunting turtles.

Adventure in the Windward Islands

2009-12-08T10:59:00.007-05:00

I finally have pictures to post! It spans everything from Grenada to Bequia so this may end up being a decent sized post.
I'm starting to adapt to the resources and materials available here, it's obviously very different from the woodlands, and the needs of living in this environment are different too.
I was able to find Jasper in the hills around Tyrrel Bay, though it is some pretty burly stuff, and was difficult to spall. It ranges from almost yellow, to deep reds.
As for cordage, I have found a lot of agave and yucca, but that requires processing which I cannot do on the boat, so I have turned to the Coconut tree for fiber. The fibers inside the dry husks of coconut is surprisingly strong, and produces a decent cordage.

This was on a wall in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most of the bricks are pitted from the sea air, but this one stood out. Upon closer look, I found it to be a dog track impressed in the brick when still wet, then made perminent when the brick was fired.

Coconuts are of course, everywhere. The trick is being able to get them. This is made particularly difficult when people hammer nails into the sides of the palm.
Anyway, they grow in various stages with each stage being used for something. The water can range from quite sweet to sour, but it's all good and safe to drink, which is helpful on these islands where fresh water springs are sometimes non-existant.
Machetes (also called cutlasses on some islands), are a very useful tool down here, and are extremely common. One local told me that every house must have a machete, speaking to its usefulness. I've seen old women cutting tuna in the fish markets in St. George with large, English made machetes. The two cutlasses Elliot and I were able to purchase in St. George are Brazillian and have already proved quite useful.

The infamous Barracuda. Not nearly as aggressive as I've grown up thinking, they are incredibly common reef predators. The locals eat them regularly, and you have to ask at restaurants before you order fish, or you'll end up eating one of these. That is something to be avoided because they are known carriers of Ciguatera, as are other reef fish. I have eaten it since I've been down here, and it isn't bad, albeit a bit boney. Other fish we have had here are Red Hind and Snapper, which I much prefure.
I'm told the smaller Barracuda are safer, but for the most part we throw these back.

Aloe Vera grows abundantly here, which is fortunate for us people or European decent. The sun here is absolutely merciless at midday, and you really do have to watch your back. Definitely a good plant to have in a survival situation in these islands.

There are many types of lizards here, as well as Iguanas. Some of these types can get quite big, which makes them a possible survival food on the islands.
After anchoring in Chatham Bay, we heard from some locals that there was an abandoned British Fort in the hills around the bay. We were pointed in the direction of a dirt path leading up into the hills, so we set off to find this fort. The whole island used to be heavily defended against American Privateers, so forts seems to be relatively common on the island.
First interesting thing we noticed was as we left the beech behind, we noticed the trees were almost covered in these air plants. They're everywhere, growing on anything with a bare branch.

Some pretty rockey trails at parts, which I walked barefoot. It was like hunting for a lost city, and the trail became so dense in parts we had to use our machete to cut our way through.

Red Footed Tortoises are native to the island, and we found 5 along the trail. They seemed to be hanging out in little groups, which is quite different from the Box Turtles in the US. I'm not sure if the natives ate these, but Elliot says they can get up to a foot in length so it's possible. They were not afraid of us when we picked them up and are quite beautiful.

In some parts the canopy was quite dense, creating these open patches that were quite refreshing to be in.
There are many of these snakes, none of them are venomous. They're also very aware and it was hard to even get a picture of them before they vanished into the leaflitter.

In all reality, Fort Irene is probably on the hill behind me, but we were unable to find it. Should we have had another day in the bay, I would have just bushwacked my way up until I found it, but we weighed anchor later that day and left. I have no idea what kind of fort it was, or what was in it.

Carriacou Island

2009-11-27T15:11:00.003-05:00

We arrived in Carriacou yesterday. It's a relatively small island compared to Grenada, but was apparently heavily settled by the Arawak and later Carib natives. In one guide book I read that there are places on this island where ancient pottery literally covers the ground, and "tumbles over the cliffs into the sea". The museum in Hillsborough has a decent collection of artifacts from these groups, which gave me a pretty good idea of what resources they were using, and how they made their tools.
Local stone appears to be Quartz, Jasper, and a dense stone called Ironstone. They make celts here out of Ironstone as well as Conch Shells. The Conch shell (called Lambi here) celts look identical to their stone counterparts
Cordage has been very difficult to find in these islands, and after asking at the museum it seems that the Arawak used a native cotton and some other plant which the museum interpreter didn't have a name for. It almost sounded like she was describing yucca or agave, which they have both of here. I'm just not sure if its native or an introduced species.
Turtles are protected here, but they were once a staple of the island cultures. In the museum they had a number of pottery artifacts with turtle effigies on them, as well as turtle bone pendants.
I am yet to see any stone projectile points, and the only artifacts that show any working are actually shell that have been knapped into serated blades.
I made my first bowdrill fire in the islands 2 days ago on Isle De Rhonde. It's a very scrubby island with a few palm trees, the rest of the vegetation being cactus, a variety of toxic tree related to poison ivy, and some kind of very spikey acacia.
Elliot and I picked up Machettes, which they call Cutlasses, in St. George so we can cut up coconuts, and explore some of the denser parts of the islands here. As we enter the Pacific, uninhabited islands will become more plentiful and the chance to make overnight survival camps on them will be more frequent.

Grenada and the Tropics

2009-11-23T09:09:00.003-05:00

I arrived in Grenada last Tuesday and its vastly different than any environment I have ever been in. We haven't reached any uninhabited islands yet, as Grenada is relatively developed. Most of the beaches here are privately owned and any of my bushcraft skills I would like to practice here I fear would attract too much attention. Tomorrow we make passage for Curriacou, an island that has a lengthy history with ancient peoples who migrated there from Northern South America. One account I read described "pottery literally falling into the ocean" from the ancient inhabitants.
My plans are to make a series of tropical survival videos with the help of my brother, so if anyone has any advice or suggestions in this area please share, as there appears to be a relatively steep learning curve in the tropics, in my opinion.

Winds of Change

2009-08-11T12:59:00.003-04:00

Its been quite awhile since I graced my own blog with a post, but summer always proves to be an intensely busy time for me, and this summer has been no different. I have however documented it fairly well with my new (albeit outdated) camera.

I have come to the decision that I will be leaving the US soon (3 months or so), and thus I will be opening up myself to different environments to test my skills, and learn new ones. My next destination will be St. Lucia, and the surrounding islands. Eventually I will end up in Australia after traveling extensively in the Caribbean, with a trip to the Galapagos Islands in between. It's a pretty big change, but it is one that will ultimately enrich my skills, as well as this blog.

MAPS Meet 2009- May 21-25

2009-04-19T21:51:00.002-04:00

Its that time of year again, there are still spot available to register, so if you've been thinking about going to a primitive skills gathering, or you've attended MAPS in the past, sign up!!

www.mapsgroup.org

http://www.ancestralknowledge.org/maps_meet.html

MAPS Group Overhaul

2009-02-23T19:09:00.003-05:00

For those familiar with the Mid-Atlantic primitive skills scene, you may have heard of a group called MAPS. It recently went on a little hiatus of sorts, and largely disappeared except for a yearly gathering that bears its name (MAPS Meet). Through the diligent work of Rick Hueston of Earth Connections School, it has been brought back to the fore front of the primitive skills community in the Mid Atlantic region with the complete overhaul of its website (which lay stagnant for a few years, and was in serious need of change). It now features far more content that is updated regularly, lists of events, and even features a Facebook-like networking feature.
So if you've attended MAPS Meet, or are interested in primitive skills and are in the Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia area, please join!

http://www.mapsgroup.org

Australian Military Issue FRED

2009-01-30T15:53:00.006-05:00

While cleaning up around my apartment I came across a little device I was given when I was about 8 years old by my dad's friend. It's a thin, about 3 1/2 inch long piece of metal with a small blade attached. It's been floating around for a number of years, and I figured it was a rather gimmicky military can opener with little to no practical application. I decided to research it and find out if it was valuable or what it was exactly.
The only marking on it are a rather lengthy serial number and the year 1985, along with a faded British Board of Ordinance marking (looks like an arrow, it's present on almost all British made military equipment).
Through some quick Google research, I found it to be an Australian version of the P-38 and P-51 can openers. The P-38 and later model P-51 can openers were issued in mess kits in the 40's, and were apparently supposed to be disposable, however the soldiers were keeping them so they made their way into standard issue. The Australian military seems to have capitalized on the concept by improving the design by adding a can opener, and spoon-like depression to the end.
It's very light weight, sturdy and durable, and has a hole so it can be attached to a key ring, making this my new favorite survival tool. I also read they have been used as screw drivers, box openers, and one source even reported them being used by women in the 50's and 60's as weapons against rapists and muggers.
The US versions are no longer issued, but the Australian versions are still in use and are still available from some Australian surplus shops.

*UPDATE*: As of 2005, the Australian Military have determined the F.R.E.D. to be redundant and have removed them from standard issue. Since writing this article I have found them to be rather difficult to get a hold of, though they are available through military contractors by using the NATO Stock Number (NSN) on the back of the F.R.E.D. (7330-66-010-0931)

Beginners Guide to Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills Part 1

2008-11-25T18:23:00.003-05:00

The realm of the skills used by our ancestors, and survival in general can, to some, seem like a daunting and overwhelming place, fraught with hardship and discouraging moments which all too often lead to a "this just isn't my thing" mentality. On a regular basis when I mention the skills i practice and teach, I am greeted with the all too familiar retort: "I would die if i got lost in the woods."
This mental barrier of doubt gets in the way of learning new skills, the though that because it implies leaving your TV behind and cooking on a fire, it is somehow a difficult and painful way to get by, or live. The purpose of this, and others that will follow it are to give some guidelines and direction to those who are interested, but have no idea where to start when it comes to learning these skills.

First of all, locate a teacher or mentor if possible. When I began, I managed to get by for a short while by teaching myself to sew leather, knap small arrowheads, and generally spend lots of time in the woods making various odds and ends, but when it came to the desire to learn the hard skills like fire making, shelter building, finding water, or more advanced knapping skills, I realized I would need a teacher (or teachers) if I wanted to progress to a proficient level. My answer was MAPS Group at the time, where I attended many gatherings and learned many of the skills I know today. Other teachers seemed to find me, my friend Bill Ewing happened to have extensive bow drill knowledge, and had a very natural way of teaching me which woods to use and how to adjust the set to make it work.
Look up nearby tracking groups, anthropology departments at some universities teach knapping, or atleast have someone on staff who knows something of knapping. If you are on the east coast in the Mid Atlantic Area, there are several schools you can take classes from such as Ancestral Knowledge and Earth Connection. MAPS Group also has a list of people who can offer advice on certain skills.

Which skills should I learn first?
Good question. Perhaps a good way to decide is to put it into perspective. Eventualy you will hear of the Order of Survival. No, its not some mysterious cult dating back to a group of 15th century survival monks, the Order of Survival is the 4 things you need to live on a day to day basis, and in the long term, which are:

Shelter
Water
Fire
Food

This order is not set in stone however, since your situation will dictate which is more important, but this is more or less the order of importance of these 4 things.
That being said, I personally consider fire making one of the first things you should learn and become proficient with. It can be learned any where you are, there are a number of ways to go about it, and it covers a lot of your physical and mental needs. Being able to make fire can dramaticly increase your chances, so it is always a good thing to have a number of ways to do it on hand (and have some level of mastery of those ways).
I'm a big proponent of controlled chaos, putting yourself into less than desirable situation in order to take your skills (and your edge) to new levels. Its important to always push your limits, do not simply make a fire with a bow drill then put it away and decide you have mastered it, because you haven't (can you ever truly master anything?). Start adding in new factors, new obstacles, new challenges. Try it in the rain, in the snow, in a hail storm, break your arm and fine a way to make it work then. Well.. don't actually break your arm obviously, you can just tie it behind your back or something, but you get my point!
I'd like to share a story I often share with my students when teaching fire making.
Last Febuary on a particularly cold day, I was in the hilly woodlands of central Maryland. I was showing my girlfriend (at the time) around a patch of woods I had been going to for a number of years. THis particular patch of woods was a steep sided valley with a fairly deep, and at times wide creek running through it. It was cold enough that ice covered large patches. So, being the manly survival so-called "expert" that I was thinking I was, I decided it was a very good idea to show her how to cross ice without falling through. We found a patch of ice in a rather deep section of the creek and I laid down on my stomach and army crawled across the ice. No problem. Not so much as a crack. Once reaching the other side I coaxed ehr into doing the same, so she got on her stomach and started to crawl across the ice. About halfway across, she pushed down onto the ice to inch her way forward (instead of inch-worming your way across with arms out-stretched) and cracks immediately shot in every direction. Luckily she stopped moving and I was able to grab her hand and pull her across without the ice stressing any more.
We proceed down stream until we reached a series of rapids with deep pools, and we came upon a bridge crossing the creek from one side to the other, with open holes on either side. Once again my "man vs wild" mentality took over and I proceeded onto the ice bridge to show her how it could hold my weight, which it did, up until I started hitting the side of it with my boot. I remember looking back to her to say "wow it isn't breaking" or something to that effect, and that's when I heard a definite crack. I remember looking down in time to see the ice disappear beneath me and water come up to meet me. First thing I noticed was how fast the current was, it literally grabbed hold of my legs and tried to force me under a nearby sheet of ice. Another thing is that everything they say about trying to get out once you've fallen through ice is true. It's wet, cold, slippery, and tiring. I did manage to pull myself out however, at which point my clothes were completely soaked.
I don't remember feeling especialy cold, but I do remember rapidly decideing whether I was going to walk out of the woods, or stay put and make a fire. I settled on fire making, it was about 30 atleast in a snow filled valley.
The only fire making device I had on me was a bow drill, and a ball of tinder which had both gone into the creek with me when I fell through, so I immediatly handed it all to my girlfriend (who had done bow drill once or twice prior). After about a minute trying it became clear that she had not practiced since the last time she made a fire, and was not going to get a coal in time, so I had to take over and managed to get the fastest coal I think I've ever made (amazing what a little motivation can do). Within about 5 minutes of going into the water I had a fire going and my clothes drying by it. At first I felt slightly embarrassed, I had put myself in a position to get seriously hurt or killed, but I saw a different side of it. Using the skills I had practiced so much up until then, I had used them to better my situation, and perhaps save my life.
From that experience, I have come to appreciate the value of scenarios. Putting yourself in situations that are uncomfortable or perhaps risky to push your edge and test yourself. Making a fire in your backyard on a nice day is vastly different from making it in heavy rain t 40 degrees in a t-shirt and a pair of Carhartts. So I encourage you, challenge yourself, be uncomfortable, learn to adapt.

Wander

2008-09-03T19:46:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went on a wander around the surrounding woods. It was a relatively warm day and I found many interesting things as well as seeing a deer with spots, Red Ear Slider, hawk (unsure what species), Red fox, squirrels, Great Blue Heron, rabbit, and several interesting plants including nightshade and Wild Comfrey. Here are some pictures I'd like to share from my wander.

This caught my eye the moment I saw it. It was on a slight hill on the edge of a large area of dirt in a construction site. I took the picture then decided to find out what whatever animal that made it was trying to bury. I found a strip of raw animal hide about 4 inchs wide and 6 inchs long. Almost looked to be untanned deer hide, no chew marks visible. My guess is its the work of a fox hiding its meal to allow it to break down a bit before eating it.

Squirrel tracks in mud.

I found this Red Ear Slider in a creek. He dove in from the bank where he was hiding under some grass. He wasn't too bitey which is how most of these water turtles can be.

Letting the turtle go

I'm not sure what kind of mushrooms these are but they were all over this small part of the creek. I was struck by how many there were and how much they contrasted with the leaf-litter and roofs.

Nightshade (Silverleaf?). It was all over a field behind the library. It has very distinct fruits (seen here in yellow) which look like little watermelons when they're younger.

Product Endorsment

2008-08-29T14:01:00.003-04:00

I recently vacationed in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and while at a hammock store I came across am interesting hat. There were also messenger bags, baseball caps and I believe backpacks, but this particular style of hat has always appealed to me so I was drawn to it immediately. They all looked as if they had been dragged through the muck and mire of an African safari and back, then hopped a jet to the Philippines to aid resistance fighters before making a bee line for the hammock shop in Kitty Hawk. Upon turning it over I noticed a text on the inside of the hat, informing me that it was made from recycled cargo truck tarps used in the amazon and other parts of Brazil.

This. Is. Awesome.

2 minutes and $30 later I was the proud owner of a Real Deal Brazil hat. According to the explanation on the inside of the hat, this hat should stand up to nothing short of 30 odd years in the jungle with a side of urban combat. Now, my previous hat was a black, 100% fur wide brim hat (same style), and needless to say it did not stand up to the riggers of being dragged up and down every slope and hill around the Patapsco river, not to mention the early summer rainstorms I have been caught in. Now it seems to have taken more of a hobbit fisherman look with the brim all distorted and wavy.
My favorite line in the description is "There is nothing you can do to the this hat that hasn't been done before." Ignoring immediate implications of this statement, I have decided to run this hat through every terrain and conditions I encounter and see how its doing in 12 months.

So far this hat has a lot of character, is a great conversation piece (as if the flint knife and buckskin bag on my side with bow drill in hand wasn't enough already), all while doing its part to prevent many tarps from being burned up and wasted.

Their website is http://realdealbrazil.com/
They also have a blog at http://realdealbrazil.blogspot.com/

Update

2008-08-29T13:35:00.004-04:00

Summer is slowly transitioning into Fall, and posts will come more frequently as my summer work is now over. It was an awesome summer with much learned.

Something to look forward to is a video series that has been in planning for about a month, but due to my work I haven't had the chance to make it yet, but it's on it's way.

Friction Fire Class- August 2nd, 2008

2008-07-13T19:36:00.003-04:00

If you are in the area of Oregon Ridge Nature Center, you may be interested in a Fire Making Class I am teaching there . It will be from 9-5 on Saturday August 2nd, 2008. Registration is handled through Oregon Ridge Nature Center. Cost for the class is $80.00 per person and the minimum age requirement is 18 years of age. If you're interested in more classes such as this, or this class in particular, you can find more information at www.earth-connection.com or Oregon Ridge Nature Center

Ancestral Knowledge and Living Earth School

2008-05-09T12:36:00.007-04:00

Lately I have begun my work with Ancestral Knowledge Inc., based out of Mt Rainier, Maryland. We work mostly with providing summer camps and workshops for home schooled kids, at risk youth, as well as schools and boy scout troops to teach ancient life ways, wilderness awareness, and sustainable living skills. Above all, we like to get the kids out in the woods and streams, learning by doing, and experiencing nature the way their ancestors have for eons. We operate mostly in the Mid-Atlantic area.

I also work for Living Earth School based out of Charlottesville, Virginia. Living Earth runs weeklong overnight and day camps.

Ancestral Knowledge Inc.:
http://www.ancestralknowledge.org

Living Earth School:
http://www.circleofseeds.com/LES.html

Here are some pictures from past events and Camps:

Demonstrating the bow drill with an over-sized set.

Making cordage

Oneof my favorite parts of spending time in the woods is discovering new and interesting places. This is an old Limestone Quarry, potentially over 100 deep.

Eastern Box Turtle

This is a print I am trying to identify. I could only find one. 5 toes, no claws visible. Don't tell me what it is if you know, simply give me a hint in the comment section or email it to me.

Improvised Bow Drill

2008-04-12T00:39:00.005-04:00

Yesterday my friend and I were hiking in the nearby woods, and we decided to test her bow drill skills. It seems that everything that could pose a problem, did. First, finding adequate tinder, then her soapstone handhold was too soft, so the spindle had drilled almost all the way through at this point, then we realized the bow (with buckskin string) had been dropped somewhere in our travels. So we had to come up with some solutions to fix these problems and ultimately achieve fire.
First, a string for the bow. While I had a backup bow, we were testing her skills, not mine, as well as her equipment on hand. I was merely an observer in this. So after a moments thought, she produced a fine shoelace from her shoe, which served perfectly.
Next, tinder. We managed to locate a piece of bark with somewhat fibrous inner layer.
After giving the set a go, we found problems with the spindle, and realized the wooden spindle had actually bored deep enough into the stone that it was not spinning as freely as one would like, so we needed to find something to replace it, preferably without too much time needed. We weren't the first to visit this spot, and some others had seen this area as a good place to consume alcohol. As such, there was a few beer cans around, so why not try the bottom of a beer can? This worked rather well, surprisingly.
And so we were able to achieve an ember, and with some coaxing, a flame.

Above you can see the shoelace, beer can, and set used. The green coloured stone is the soapstone handhold.

Bamboo Fire Saw

2008-04-08T13:36:00.005-04:00

I recently tried the Bamboo Fire Saw method of producing fire. I have not been instructed in this method, though I have seen pictures, videos, and read about the process.
There is a large stand of Bamboo next to a creek near here, so I made my way there to gather the necessary materials. I wanted to go into this endevour with the assumption that I did not have my bow drill set with me, nor tinder, so I gathered tinder along the way. I did have my stone knife, but I was reluctant to use it, since I was trying to produce and ember without the usual tools I have with me, or with no tools at all.
I hadn't been in this patch of Bamboo in quite awhile, and so I spent a bit of time exploring while I gathered materials I would need. There was a faint smell of skunk, as well as a pile of bird feathers (unsure what kind, they're grey and very common to find around here).

In this photo you can see a dark groove in the bamboo, thats where I was sawing away to produce some dust to form the ember. I did produce some dust, but it didn't collect very well. I did have some help from my friend, but we were unable to sustain the necessary endurance to get an ember.
After this attempt I did some research on the topic, and I found some great information on producing an ember with Bamboo in Russel Cutts' book, Wildfire: Fire Making Art. The method he illustrates is designed so that one person can do it. I plan on demonstrating that in this blog soon.
The method I attempted can be seen here (with success!)

Raccoon Pelt

2008-03-26T11:36:00.005-04:00

I finally got around to finishing the raccoon pelt I scavenged in Virginia. I used the method described on braintan.com here. This is my first pelt that I actually brain tanned, as opposed to simply buffing it until its soft.

The bare spots are where the fur pulled out when I was fleshing it. It's not as soft as I would have liked, but it will do the job. Overall, it has a somewhat oily feel to it, I cant figure out if thats because of the brains or the pelt itself. Compared to other pelts I've done, and hides too, this one seems a little more oily than the others.

Here is the underside of the pelt. I still need to trim the edges, and smoke it to protect it from insects.
To apply the brains, I mixed it into a paste, then painted it onto the pelt, then folded it up and left it somewhere out of the sun and where animals couldn't get to it.

Glass-tipped Spear

2008-03-24T08:01:00.004-04:00

Spears are some of the oldest weapons used by by humans, both for hunting and warfare. They are also what comes to mind when most people think of when they hear "primitive", "paleo", or "tribal". Though not necessarily the easiest of weapons to use, both on a day to day basis, or in an immediate survival situation, they are nonetheless a very versatile tool in the paleo arsenal.

This is really the meat of it. Without a good point, your lance or spear is just a pole. When is comes to putting the business end on your spear you can go two ways, either a stone/glass point (or some scavenged metal if your knapping skills leave something to be desired), or fire hardened tip. I find fire hardening to be a skill I have no yet mastered, as it takes a certain amount of intuition on my part to tell whether I am indeed fire hardening it, or simply burning it into charcoal. So being halfway decent with a rock and some glass, I settled on using knapped points for my spears. The points above are as follows: (left to right)

-Large glass point, I believe from an old window from an abandoned hospital I visited
-Obsidian point, Idaho, no notching
-Notched Obsidian point, very thin
-Raw Texas Chert point, small enough that it might be better suited for an arrow
-Bottle glass point, I really like this one, I was able to flute it on one side
-Raw Texas Chert point, the overall form of this one is very nice, quite a robust point. I used it as an atlatl dart point for awhile

I used pitch to hold the point in place, then wrapped it with sinew I had soaked in the nearby creek. I finished that off with a strip of rawhide to secure everything and protect the hafting. I used a beech sapling for the shaft.

The finished product. It's not as long as some spears can be, but I feel it's size suits the sometimes dense woodlands of the east coast.

I honour you Storm

2008-03-22T02:34:00.002-04:00

Storm of Stoneage Skills has passed on from this world. It's hard to write anything here that can truly honour him to the fullest extent, I feel like the right words simply don't exist.
And so I would like to recognize him in this blog as a great teacher and as a true human.

May there always be good water, dry wood, and good food wherever you are.

You can view his blog here: http://stoneageskills.com/index.html

Blog Recommendation: The Daily Coyote

2008-03-14T08:36:00.006-04:00

I was recently shown a blog by a good friend of mine that I thought deserves a recommendation to anyone reading my blog. It's called The Daily Coyote and it is maintained by a woman living in Wyoming. I feel like I couldn't possibly do it justice in any explanation, so heres the link:

http://dailycoyote.blogspot.com/

Spring is on the way

2008-03-14T07:41:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we had amazing weather here in Maryland, you can feel spring on its way (not to mention hearing it, birds seem more active and I've heard frogs at the nearby pond). On days like yesterday there are a few local spots I like to go, so here are a few pictures of one of my favorite places. I've been coming to these woods for a number of years now, and I know it very well.

Some of the more prevalent trees in the area are Beech, Sycamore, and Tulip Poplar. When I make Poplar Bark buckets, this is the place I come to for the bark. Though it is bordered on all sides by housing developments, its remarkably clean of too much trash. Hawks, Owls, Box turtles, as well as very large deer herds can be found here. This is also where I harvested Japanese Wineberries in July.

I really like this particular bend in the creek (this is sort of behind and to the right of the previous picture). It seems these woods are almost characterized (especialy so as you head downstream) by steep sided valleys. I have picked up several deer trails in the area of these pictures where deer have been walking along these steep hills, almost like the Big Horn sheep in Montana.

Even on warm days I enjoy a nice fire. In fact it seems there are few times I don't enjoy having a fire around. The set I used for this one was Basswood on Boxelder, and I used local Tulip Poplar bark for tinder.

The creek can raise several feet when it rains heavily (evident from errosion along the banks as well as debris) and the ground was covered in Tulip Poplar seeds. On a warm, dry day these can ignite, so I brushed them away from the fireside. This also helped when it came time to leave, so once the coals and ash had been removed I could cover the spot. Something I've noticed is when you build a fire somewhere, and someone else comes along and sees the coals, they get the same idea, and suddenly it becomes the place to have bonfires.

Day in the woods

2008-02-19T14:23:00.003-05:00

I filled up my gourd canteen and took it with me into the woods today. I've found it doesn't change the taste of the water and works quite well, though it still needs a stopper.
I've decided this summer is the time to make a good hunting bow. I've learned alot about what to do with an animal once you've taken it, and I hope to begin hunting my own animals. Up until now I have been relying on others to provide me with meat, hides, bones, sinew, etc.
There is a hickory tree I have been aware of for a number of years and it appears to be the perfect size for a bow. I want to get to know it before I cut it, so I'll visit it for a while until I feel its the right time to cut. For something like a bow, where so much goes into the making of the tools and hunting of the animals, I feel like this should be done right, and not rushed.

A Box Elder (Ash leaf Maple) fell near my old debris hut, which I am very grateful for since it it one of my favorite friction fire woods around here. I try not to ever cut live branches, and to come across an entire tree like this is an appreciated gift. Some of the upper branches are very straight so I've made a hand drill set. I tested it out but produced only white wood dust. I'll make a video so I can explain it easier. This is the first time I've made a handrill set with a wood other than yucca, cotton wood root or mullein.

Sit-spot and getting to know your enviroment

2008-02-17T17:40:00.007-05:00

Something that I'm beginning to learn is that it is a good thing to know these skills, but they can seem arbitrary and disconnected when not applied. Especially so because the materials use to make many of the things I talk about on my blog rely heavily on what your particular environment provides, and so an understanding and knowledge of your environment is desirable if you want these skills to be more than just a passing hobby or interest. When it comes to making bow drill sets, for example, you will want to know what trees in your area work best. You'll also want to know where they grow, how they grow, what animals rely on them, etc. The point I'm trying to make is all these skills and technologies stem from a deep understanding of the natural world that surrounds you.

The best way I have found to increase your awareness and knowledge of an area is Sit-Spot. This technique is done by simply finding somewhere within 5 minutes (preferably) of where you live. The reason for 5 minutes is that you should be able to go there easily so you can visit it daily.
Now if you want to implement this technique and benefit from it, it should be a daily, or at the very least a routine task, and you will want to do this at varying times of day and weather.

Now onto what sit-spot is. You find a place that is close by, and you sit. Thats right, sounds simple, but you'd be surprised how difficult it can be to just sit and take in your surroundings sometimes. You should strive for atleast a 20 minutes minimum at your sit spot, because it generally takes about 20 minutes from bird alarm calls to stop. You will also want to use wide angle vision at this time, if you are familiar with wide angle vision.
To supplement your sit-spot experience it might also be advantageous to keep a journal and write down things you see or notice. When I do sit spot one of the first things I do is take note of the surrounding trees and plants, and try to get to know them and what they are over time. Sit-spot isn't something you rush, and it is an ongoing thing. The longer you do it, the more you begin to know and understand your area.

Southeastern Style Blowgun

2008-02-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

At MAPS Meet 2005 I took a class taught by Mac Maness on making rivercane blowguns. This weapon was used by many Southeastern tribes (Catwaba, Chocktaw, Cherokee, etc) to hunt small game. Blowguns have always been an interest of mine, its simplicity and the fact that you can shoot something lethal with your breath is has always appealed to me. They're also not entirly difficult to make and under Mac's expert instruction I had a function blowgun and dart in only a few hours. Unlike most ranged weapons of any great effect or accuracy which require special tools or time to prepare the material, the river cane blowgun can be field crafted on the spot if need be.
I still have my blowgun and pick it up from time to time, and its fast becoming a favorite weapon to practice with. I have been using the same dart I made in 2005 and the thistle down is starting to wear off, so I decided it was time to make a new one. I still had a thistle blossom I picked up from Mac's class, so I went about fletching a new dark. It's not very paleo, but I use skewers for the dart shafts. The real fun of making the darts is not the wooden shafts however, applying the thistle fletching is where it gets tricky. I would have liked to get some pictures of the process, but sadly I possess only two hands, and I was using both to hold the whole assembly together. However I do plan on photographing the entire process when I get the chance to collect more thistle blossoms.
The blowgun itself is about 4'7 while the darts are approx. 6 inchs. On average blowguns fromt he southwest range from 6-8 feet in length.
The Cherokee Heritage Center website has a good section on how blowguns and darts were made and their significance in Cherokee culture. I found this passage that describes the process fairly well as well as providing the common name for the thistle used:

"It's made with Scottish thistle, which, like the river cane, grows locally. You pick it in the late summer, August being the best month. You want to pick the thistle after it has bloomed, opened up, and then reclosed. After picking as many flowers as you can, they need to be stacked and the pressed between two pieces of wood to keep the thistle flower from breaking open and dispersing the fluff.

Once the thistle is dried, you pick off the purple flower casing and keep the white down of the thistle. You pinch the entire bundle of fluff between your fingers, brush off the seeds, and tie a piece of sinew or string to the end of the shaft, hold the string in your mouth, and then roll the shaft into the down so that it naturally builds around the shaft into a large, round stabilizer for the dart. Then you tie the sinew to keep the thistle mounted on the shaft." (1)

There is also an article written by Douglas S. Meyer in Spring 2005 issue No. 29 of the Bulletin of Primitive Technology on fletching Choctaw darts with cotton, as well as pictures detailing how to do so. ("Choctaw Blowgun Darts", pp.69-73)

Practicing with the blowgun about two summers ago, showing dart exiting the blowgun

Gourd Canteen

2008-01-30T12:14:00.000-05:00

I finally finished my gourd canteen yesterday. I suppose sealing the inside with beeswax isn't 100% necessary, but I decided since my friend had some to spare I might as well.
This particular canteen is the one I started at MAPS Meet 2007 at Jamie's (of Earth Connection) gourd class. I might give it another coat of wax to be sure its sealed.

If you have any gourds sitting around that are suitable for something like this, all you have to do is poke a series of holes where you want to remove the top so you have an opening, then it should break free with relative ease. Use sand to scour the surface to remove any mold or dirt, and rocks to clean our the inside of the gourde.

General Update

2008-01-28T09:21:00.001-05:00

I haven't really sat down to update in awhile, so I'll covered a few new things.
We got some nice snow accumulation about 2 weeks ago, which was also my first snow experience in Maryland for about 3 years. I've grown used to dry powdery snow in Montana, so the wet, icy snow of Maryland is quite different for me. We usually get at least one big snow storm a year in Maryland with significant accumulation (save my senior year of high school when we failed to accumulate any snow days), so I look forward to another big snowfall as Spring draws closer.

This picture doesn't really reflect how much actually fell, this was pretty early on when I was visiting my old debris hut.

This hut is in very poor condition, and I was going to tear it apart earlier and rebuild it so I could use it when snow came, but the snow beat me to the chase. I was looking through the contents of the shelter and found a bundle of milkweed stalks and some polypore fungus I had left last December. I also left an elk knuckle bone, however it appears the local animals have made off with that. It always amuses me to find things I've left from the previous year.

I spent some time exploring the woods in the hills above Ellicott City this past week and found an exceptionally large deer rub. I'm no expert on deer rubs, though I enjoy finding them, but I'd say this is from a rather large buck, judging by its distance from the ground. My friend who hunts further west of Ellicott City agreed that a very large deer made this. It does seem unusual to me that it would be on such a thick tree. I see them on smaller saplings usually.

Growing Avocado

2008-01-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

Growing an avocado plant may seem out of place on a primitive skills blog, but I thought it was interesting none the less. I know a few people who do this, and one thing they report is if you put it outside too soon, the squirrels will come and eat it, so I plan on keeping mine indoors for the most part, and hopefully get some nice fruit from it.

It's really quite easy, simply put three toothpicks in the thickest part of the pit,put it on top of a glass with the bottom of the pit about a half inch in the water, give it sunlight and keep the water level up and let it do the rest.

MAPS January Skils Meet

2008-01-11T10:56:00.000-05:00

Last night was the second MAPS (Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills) Skills meet. There was a pretty good turn out, with a few kids and a couple people I hadn't met at a MAPS event before. It's a free event held every second Thursday of each month, and anyone is welcome to walk in and learn more about a skill, or just talk with people about skills. The monthly skills meet is a new thing to MAPS since Kevin Haney handed over the job of coordinator to Andrew Pinger. If you're in the DC, Maryland area, I recommend that you get yourself on the MAPS Email list, and drop by.
Some of the skills practiced were proper fire setup, bow drill, cordage, deer leg bone knives, bird wing identification, as well as talk of debris huts.
Here are some pictures from the meet,

Waiting for an ember

Enjoying a nice fire

Miriam modeling a braintanned hoodie (belonging to Andrew Pinger)

Recently split deer canon bone

Softening Pelts and Hides

2008-01-07T13:50:00.000-05:00

It's an unseasonably warm day in Maryland today. So I took out a few pelts I need to finish and a deer hide I didn't complete last summer. I have one raccoon pelt and two gopher pelts from the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. The raccoon is from last summer in Virginia.
The hide is a Whitetail Deer Hide I acquired from a friend who is an expert braintanner.

The raccoon pelt is on the left an has been frozen since last summer, looking more like a bundle of fur or a big owl pellet. The gopher pelts have been salted and stored in my garage, and appear to be fine. They just need to be scraped, maybe washed and softened.

The hide is pliable, but not soft and open as you would expect with buckskin. I think a good working over a post or cable should soften it up enough to be of use. I have a particular project in mind, so that's the driving factor behind finishing these pelts and hide.

I will probably use a 2x4 either lashed to two trees or with a beveled edge to soften these.

Fires of the New Year

2008-01-02T15:57:00.000-05:00

I was planning on making a video today, but when I arrived at my old debris hut, I found I had left the memory card to my camera at home, and while my house wasn't that far, I didn't feel like walking back to get a 1"x1" piece of plastic and metal. So I pulled out my basswood bowdrill and started an ember. For tinder I used some birch bark collected in Montana with Tulip Poplar in the center. For kindling, even though it's been wet and rainy around here recently, there was plenty of dead rose bushes, box elder twigs and dead grapevine. The fire produced is of the scout fire variety. Small, enough to keep you warm, provide you with spiritual comfort, some light, and easily extinguished if need be.
The debris hut I have is in very poor condition. The skeleton of the structure can be seen, and the ridgepole has snapped in half. It's also located in a wet area, so it has a tendency to rot away so by this time each year it needs to be pulled apart and reconstructed. I hope to get a series of pictures when I rebuild the hut to demonstrate how it's all put together.

Aboriginal Teachings

2007-12-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

I was at a church meeting with Ashley's family last night, and there was a 3 month old there crying. I had learnt a technique from Prof. Gary Kerr at University of Montana that is used by aboriginal men in Australia. It's essentially whistling and humming simultaneously. It's also only done by men, and is very difficult for women to do. The idea is that the sound sooths children, and stops them from crying, and in some cases puts them to sleep. I tried it and was met with success. It seems to me that it works best when the cause of the crying is from general distress or discomfort, as opposed to crying for food.

More hide work

2007-12-10T01:49:00.000-05:00

I went back to WolfKeep with Jared today to soften hides. We softened up 2 hides, but didn't get to finish the elk hide, it was simply too big to deal with at that moment.

The hides were brained then smoked in a tipi, then we took them out and dried them by some heaters (its very cold here so thy were frozen), then worked them over a piece of lumber in a vice.

Carl, the guardian of WolfKeep, also gifted me a wetscraper/flesher that he made. Its got some different features than the one I was using before, and therefore works differently. Instead of using the sharp 45 degree edge for scraping, you use the 90 degree edge on the other side. I haven't used it yet, so I cant report on how it works out, but I'm anxious to use it.

Theres also a groove on one side which helps give the hide room to lift up, thus making it easier to remove membrane and grain.

Dinner with Wolves

2007-12-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

The other night I went to a Wolf sanctuary called WolfKeep. Its an amazeing place, and if you're ever in the area of Missoula, Montana (about 30 or so miles from where), make a point to stop and visit.
We also worked on finishing the elk hide we've been trying to finish for months. Hopefully it's all done by now.

Snow Shoes

2007-12-01T22:14:00.000-05:00

Kind of a delayed post. Over Thanksgiving Break I was in Helena, Montana. I finished my show shoes there, except for the rawhide lacing's.

The first snow shoe is Dogwood from Missoula, but I didn't have another piece of Dogwood, so I had to use willow from where I was at the time. I cut a flexible willow branch with my chert knife, and removed any sticks or switches so I had a nice clean loop. I also cut two cross braces.

Here is the materials I used and one semi-completed snow shoe. I used mule deer buckskin and dogbane cordage to lash the framework together. This particular style can be seen in Man Vs. Wild. I haven't had the chance to test these out, since we haven't had snow deep enough to warrant them.

First, tie the ends together.

Then place the rear cross-brace. I fitted this one to sit in front of my heel. I fitted them to be used with my boots.

Then place the front cross-brace. I positioned these to be below the ball of my foot.

Here are the completed shoes as I'd wear them in use. You can see I haven't laced them with babiche (the rawhide lacing's of a snow shoe). When I encounter deep enough show, I'll demonstrate their use.

I found an interesting video about snow shoes here

Oetzi's Knife sheath

2007-11-27T16:13:00.000-05:00

Last night I stripped some basswood (American Linden) fibers from some basswood branches I scavenged, and made a replica of Oetzi's lime bast knife sheath. Its holding up well, and looks nice. I simply made a ring of basswood, then looped vertical strips on the ring, then twined it together and tied off the end. Fairly simple and easy to make.

Snow in Missoula (gathing wood broken by snow)

2007-11-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

Last night we got about a foot of snow. This is the first real snow we've had in Missoula this year. This also made for great snowball fights, but when morning came it also brought many broken and downed trees. Some of these trees were Basswood (American Linden). I've been waiting for a sizable branch from one of these trees to come down so I can get some new parts for my bow drill set. There's good trees around here for bow drill, but I like using Basswood for my set, and teaching others.

Here's a juniper that fell completely over from the weight of the snow.

When I got to the center of campus, there were stacks of branches piled up next to their respective trees (some had been but up into convenient pieces).

I cut several branches with my flint knife. The key to cutting with a knife like this is sawing around the stick to form a weak point, then snapping it in half. Continue sawing if the branch doesn't snap.

I'm also working on a pair of snow shoes. I have the frame of one completed, but I'll save picture from that for another post.

UPDATE: Its about 6 months from when I constructed my flint knife (box elder handle with raw Texas chert blade), and I compared it with a picture from when I posted about it in July (here)it is still going strong, with virtually no change, with the exception of a few flakes, but even those are minimal. Its been used extensively for cutting wood, boring holes, and various other tasks, and is still holding strong. I started out hafted with commercial tanned leather, but now sports brain tanned antelope hide bindings.

Processing fiber

2007-11-18T04:00:00.000-05:00

My friends and I processed dogbane tonight, as well as elk and deer sinew.
I now have 3 bundles of sinew and 2 baskets of dogbane, so I should be set for fiber for awhile.

I quite like processing fibers with friends, its a nice community activity.

Antelope and Elk hides

2007-11-15T23:09:00.000-05:00

We (Jared and I) worked on finishing the antelope hide and wrung out one of our elk hides. Jared blogged on it so you can find some great pictures and details here.

Camping the Rattlesnake

2007-11-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

Jared, Mariah, and I camped up in the Rattlesnake Wilderness last night. We brought some elk meat, sweet potatoes, dough, onions, and a few other food stuffs for dinner and breakfast. We found that the bears are indeed still moving around. When we arrived at the Rattlesnake creek and got out of the car, we saw a bear cub (probably Black Bear), on the other side of the road. It apparently didn't like us much, because it started to climb a nearby tree.
We used the handrill to make the fire, since my bow drill wasn't working well. I'll be collecting new parts for it soon.
Dinner was excellent, of course, and we all slept well.
The next morning we explored the surroundings a bit, and I gathered some Kinnikinik berries and leaves. I plan to dry the leaves, and use the berries to make pemmican. The berries are very starchy and tend to keep rather well, not unlike a potato. It's also a medicinal plant, used in many places to treat or cure a variety of illnesses. It grows as a groundcover in patches.

Here are the berries, which I gathered using my new elk ear pouch, as well as the branches with leaves.

There are also these green fungi type things? It grows on dead pondarosa pine branches in the rattlesnake and its bright green. If anyone knows what this is, send me an email.

Elk Ear Pouch

2007-11-10T01:14:00.000-05:00

I sewed up the tear in the elk ear. I had to do it carefully and precisely, so I used a very small splinter of chert and a little stick to poke through the ear and push the buckskin through with the stick. Its very thin, so you have to be careful not to tear it. Its works and holds together though. I left the buckskin long so it can be wrapped and tied to hold the pouch closed.

I tried skinning a Mule Deer ear tonight, however the inside part of the ear stuck firmly to the cartilage and it tore easily. I also noticed the hair to be very different from the elk, far longer and thicker. The inside of the deer ear was almost bare.

Elk in Montana

2007-11-05T02:19:00.001-05:00

I was invited to Jared's fathers house to help butcher an elk that was shot on the plateau near his house. The area is an amazing play, and I'm told the plateau is a viciously cold place, which makes it all the more interesting. We made a nice handdrill fire (yucca on cottonwood root) and slept by it. It turned out to be very nice night, considering it had been 18 degrees the morning before.
Anyway, the elk was a beautiful cow. It was an all day job, but very interesting. I'd never done any butchering, or skinned something that large. I used a chert blade of course to do all the cutting. We got the hide, many bones, tendons, leg skins, and even made a pouch from the ear (inspired from Torgus' blog post here). We also got some meat of course.

We had a couple of dogs who did their best to take advantage of my generosity with the scraps. Elk meat is very good, so I can't blame them.

Some of the things we wanted were cannon bones, scapulas, ribs (good for bow drill bows and scrapeing tools) as well as an ulna bone. I'll post pictures of that particular bone when we start to work on it. Also the leg skins were saved (much to the dismay of the dogs who happen to like to eat that part). The ear pouch idea was very interesting, so I'll focus on that.

I started by cutting the ear from the head. I didnt cut all the way to the base, though I wish I did. I didnt use any tools, except my fingernails to seperate the skin from the cartilage. The trick, I found, was to use your fingernail to pick at the skin until it seperates. Its very thin on the inside of the ear, so I took my time and tried not to rush, but I accidently tore it slightly (nothing major, I'll sew it up later). I found the edges of the ear to be a bit tricky, but not impossible. One thing I found was that skinning an ear isnt difficult, just requires patience.

Once I got to the end, its a bit tricky to remove the cartilage, but you just pull it away from the skin. I was worried I'd tear open the bottom of the pouch, but it turned out alright.

Finally, you have your ear pouch. You can see the tear, which luckily doesn't go too far down. I left it inside out to dry, and worked it with my hands until it was no long stiff. I suppose you could brain it, but I'm not sure it would actualy penetrate the hide, because there seemed to be some membrane that would be hard to remove without tearing the ear. I agree with Torgus that this is a resource that has been overlooked, and I plan to make many of these pouches (a few friends have already asked for one). I like that I can get more than just a brain from the deer heads we pick up from the butchers.

Squrriels on campus

2007-11-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

We have alot of fox squirrels on campus here at University Of Montana. They're non-native species, the native squirrels are much smaller and darker in colour. This one is in a hole in trunk of a Mountain Ash tree. I've seen them here for past year, so it appears to be a favoured nesting site. I didn't have time to get closer (on my way to class) so I could only snap a quick picture. There's also a very large polypore on the left side of the tree too.

Hunting the Antelope

2007-11-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

This post it long overdue, but thats ok. A few weeks ago I was invited by my friend Jared to go hunting with his father and friends. We set out on Friday, left a little later then we would have liked but it was a good drive anyway. Montana looks amazing this time of year with the few deciduous trees standing out against the pines on the mountains.

We arrived after dark at the camp. We exchanged greetings with Jared's father and friends and then turned in (I think it about about 10:00 by that point, or slightly later). I made a willow deer effigy before going to bed, hoping it might help with the hunt the following morning.
We woke around 5, before dawn. When we had arrived the evening before it was hard to see the surrounding area, but now with the sun coming up, we could see that we were surrounded by dense willow and open plains with mountains in the distance. It's quite an amazing place. I haven't spent much time out on the plains before, or in this section of the Rockies. It's quite a place.

The ranch we would first hunt on was several miles down the road, so we drove to the ranch just as the sun was beginning to warm the earth. Its easy for your eyes to deceive you in this terrain, to call it expansive would be an understatement. Antelope are a light tan with white, and blend in very well with the surrounding grass. They also have excellent eyesight and stand in the open, which means they see you long before you see them. In almost every instance of seeing one, it was either a mile or more off running in the opposite direction, or looking directly at us. They are truly amazing animals.
I didn't get any pictures while hunting, because I left my camera at camp, and I don't photograph animals that have been recently killed (personal thing). I really wish I had brought the camera to try to capture the terrain.
Back to your eyes deceiving you in this land, while on a hill we tried to estimate how far the next hill over was. I guessed 200 yards. Other guesses were 375 yards. When we used the range-finder, we found it to be 600 yards from us at the base of the hill. Its so difficult to accurately judge terrain and distance, your eyes and brain arn't used to seeing that kind of distance.
We were able to get one young female and a buck. Jared and I helped skin and process them and in exchange got some meat, hides, and head of one.

Jared and I cook wild meat over coals often, so we put some antelope meat and ribs on. The ribs were a bit scarce in terms of meat, but the meat chunks we put on were good. We also put some onions and potato's on too.
We were able to brain the female antelope hide that night after fleshing and graining. Antelope hair pulls right out after it dies, so no soaking or bucking was needed. The hide softened nicely, but we're going to re-brain it to make it as soft as we can.
Here is our fleshing/graining set up.

The following morning we tried using atlatl darts without fletching. We had seen aboriginal people in Australia, as well as numerous anthropology textbooks demonstrating the atlatl being used without fletching. Our conclusion is that if you don't use fletching, there must be some kind of traditional techniques used to make it work, because our darts didn't fly straight.

The dart is lashed with sinew, dogbane cordage, and buckskin. It's tipped with an obsidian point, the shaft and atlatl is of willow.

There is a lot of game in the area. I heard beaver slapping their tails on the water in the nearby stream, an owl flew over me while collecting wood, you can hunt and trap various waterfowl, rabbits, beaver, elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope, and many other species. Its quite an amazing place.

Before we left Jared took some pictures of me. I brought all my primitive tools, and used stone for cutting and helping with the butchering. I also worn my buckskin shirt, wore my Hudson Bay capote, and slept with my Hudson Bay blanket and elk hide. I enjoyed having these things with me and using them for what they are meant to be used for.

The blue coloured pouch hanging from my satchel is a beadworked pouch. It's a design of my own creation, done in lazy-stitch.

I have many more pictures of brain tanning, so I'll put them up in another post. I have an elk hide which I'll be working to completion which will hopefully be soon.

Pine Pitch

2007-10-30T21:35:00.000-04:00

Pine pitch is a rather useful tool when it comes to making things in the woods, or even around the house. Its been used all over the globe for things from binding to water proofing. From hafting blades to sealing canoes. For such an important material, its something that many (myself included) don't or didn't know how to make for some time. I'll try to shed some light on this in this post.

What you'll need:
1. Pine sap. Main ingredient to this. You'll have to collect this from some variety of pine tree. I've collected them from all kinds, pretty much I'm on the lookout for pine sap whenever I come across a stand of pine. Sometimes it hardens and gets a coating that makes it look like bark. You might want to experiment with different consistencies. Even the really hard stuff will soften though.

2. Charcoal. Not those briquette things, I mean real wood charcoal. Make a fire, collect a few pieces. You take the little black chunks and grind it into a powder. As fine as you can. You'll mix about this with the sap, about 50-50. But it can vary, sometimes I add less, sometimes more. It depends on how it looks to me.

3. Dung. Most likely deer, though I like to use elk. You want them dried out, because what you're looking for is the fine grass fibers. It seems to add some extra strength to it. This isn't an essential ingredient, but I add it when available.

You want to warm the pitch, not boil it though. In this picture, I have it in a large scallop shell I bought from Michaels Craft store (chain store, find it in the section with sea shells). You can use pottery too. I've tried using oyster shells, but it fractured and exploded. The reason I settled on a scallop shell was it stands up to heat well.
After the sap is liquid, add the ground up charcoal. Mix it together. Get some sticks and get some on the stick, then form it into little globs on the end. I usualy carry quite a few with me at any given point, so make a few of these. Be careful, pitch hurts like mad if it drips on you, but it should be ok to lightly touch it and form it into the glob shape.

You should have some pitch sticks now :-) Enjoy!

Old pictures

2007-10-27T16:41:00.000-04:00

Still haven't bee able to upload my pictures yet, but I did come across an old album of mine that has some pictures from way back before I knew much at all (i.e. debris hut, tracking, etc.) Theres also some old MAPS Meet 2005 pictures in there among others.

This is me circa senior year of high school. I can remember walking down the road dressed like this to get to some woods that are pretty far from my house. Alot of strange looks. Anyway I have a whitetail deer hide cape with rabbit pelts lashed to my arms and hide wrapped around my legs to keep the snow out with buckskin moccasins. I have an Osage Orange sapling bow with arrow wood arrows (stone tipped), as well as my satchel and quiver behind me under the hide. Even though I have a shirt on I was quite warm and comfortable.

This is a debris hut I made also during my senior year. It's mostly pine boughs from discarded Christmas trees and branches from the surrounding area. Key things that are wrong with this shelter (yes, I froze in this shelter), too many open areas to let heat escape, too big, no leaves. If I had made it smaller and used more leaves, I would have been warmer I'm sure. I did have a small fire in there, but it was placed off to the side and provided little to no heat.

Fast forward to this past winter break. This is me approaching a debris hut made by my brother and I the previous summer. I had been told they had severe flooding in the area while I was away, but surprisingly it was relatively intact and required only minimal repair to be usable. It showed no sign of other human habitation, everything was as we had left it 5 months or so earlier. This means to me that the area is relatively safe from most flooding in the area, and not many people go here. The cool thing about this shelter is that one side of it is a large boulder. I plan to rebuild it, possibly take advantage of the boulder to use it as a heat reflector (possible lean-to style shelter?)

Close view of the shelter showing the framework, severe lack of leaves and me removing various gear. Theres also an Ironwood sapling in the foreground, theres quite a few of them around.

This is from the very first summer camp I taught. It was one I ran where I taught my mums friends children. Pretty basic stuff, some primitive bows, tracking, moving through the woods, making things out of tulip poplar, etc. Just a cool picture from the past.

Facts about fire

2007-10-16T20:07:00.001-04:00

Since learning friction fire methods, I've been very interested in fire. Always amazed by its impact on us. I found some interesting facts about fire that I thought would be interesting to any readers of this blog. You can find them here.

Crow Tribe teachings

2007-10-15T15:39:00.000-04:00

I visited the archives today to do some work for a class and decided to look into a collection they have on campus by Fred W. Voget. He studied both the River and Mountain Crow tribe during the late 1930's. There is a lot of notes and information there, so I focused on teachings and how they raised their children. Here are some interesting things I found:

Some advice given to a man named Ball by his clan brother after his father died:
-Whenever you have a horse of your own, do not starve it, keep it fat.
-When you marry, never hit your wife, nor become jealous of her [this advice attributed to Ball's clan brother]
-His friends fathers would tell him never be lazy, but tend to the horses, and when he had a wife of his own, to provide for her and her family.
-They advised him when on a warparty, to have his gun at hand all the time, he should have it at his side while sleeping.

It's also noted that children who failed at one lesson, only got more lessons and care, until he learned the lesson. It seems rare that they gave up on children who failed to learn a lesson.

"Pretty-shield reports that when she was seven years old she dug roots"
"The Crow are not in the habit of punishing children by beating them. When a child is crying for a long time, the parents put it on its back and pour water down its nose. If at some later time the child begins to cry, the parents merely say "Bring the water!". Then the child generally stops."

In some of the notes, some men reported that when they were seven they recieved a "genuine bow". It also states that they were made of cedar and backed with sinew. The arrows were short and blunt.

"In the night the boys sometimes stole the two outside lodge poles. Then the owners would chase them and the thieves had to run for if they were caught their blankets would be taken away from them. They took the poles form the sheer mischief in order to be chased."

There was also information regarding names and naming practiced.
"It was bad luck for the natural parents to give a name to his or her own child. This service was performed by a special friend, upon request or a name came spontaneously by reason of some situation connected with the life of the named one."
"Medicine-woman possess the right to name their own children as well as their grandchildren."

I went on an antelope hunt with my friend, his father, and their friends. I took some pictures so I'll post those and detail the weekend soon.

Mark of a good day

2007-09-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

My day started fairly late yesterday, around 12 or so. My friend Jared and I were planning on getting some hides from the local butcher shop to do some hide tanning. So we got our tools together and drove out to the shop. However, when we got there, we found that our local source for hides was now keeping them all, because Pacific Hide and Fur buys all their hides at the end of the year. But I think we'll be able to negotiate some hides, since they probably pay the shop a flat rate for all of their hides at the end of the year, as opposed to a per hide basis.
We did get a head and several legs out of the visit though, so we cut open the skull and removed the brain to freeze it. We're considering re-braining out elk leg hides to make them just a bit soften. I remember a time when removing brains was a task I didn't really look forward to. But now its something I don't mind. I suppose its the appreciation for what the animals brain can lend us, the ability to turn a hide or a pelt into something usable, and even desirable.
Having taken care of the brains and legs, Jared wanted to try out his hand drill set. We tried yucca on yucca, but it just seemed to burnish. I'm not sure what was going on with that set, I've used yucca sets before with success. I get the feeling there was still moisture trapped in it. Next we tried the same hand drill, though on a cottonwood root fire board. After a short while we had an ember, which we promptly put into a cedar bark tinder bundle and rushed it outside to blow it into a flame. Theres something about making a hand drill fire with friends, everyone should experience it.

It was quite a nice day so a trip to the Bitterroot river near Blue Mountain was planned. It's an amazing place with alot of plant diversity and wildlife. To name a few there were Blue Heron, lots of Robin, Mule Deer, Whitetail, bear (their scat was everywhere), lots of fish, tule growing in the swampy areas, as well as extensive grasslands and willow stands. Another feature was that there is actual fine grained sand in areas (especially around the willow) with many insect and bird tracks, as well as what appear to be coyote tracks. The whole area is quite amazing. After crossing the river, we began making out way up river to a large stand of willow. On our way Jared spotted a fawn grazing in a dried up channel. We stalked up to it for the next 10 minutes (it was quite unaware of our proximity, and even laid down in the grass to rest). I was reminded of what Joey Murray had said about the first day of hunting season, that most of the deer brought in were very young. I could clearly see that even though we were stalking through very dry grass, this fawn (who was on his own) was not picking up on us at all. Eventually he must have heard something because he stiffened up and looked right at us, then got up and ran off.
We proceeded up the river, noteing the bear scat all the way along the path. We arrived at the willow, where there was also a marsh. There were alot of deer tracks here too, as well as patches of Tule. I had never seen tule in person before, it is not common in this area. I ended up collecting a bundle of it to work with it and see what could be made. We spent the rest of the day exploring the river. Shortly after leaving, we passed a flock of about 10 turkeys as well as a doe and fawn crossing the road. A fitting farewell to a great day at the river.
Our evening was occupied going from back alley to back alley collecting various fruits that grow in the alleyways in Missoula. We found salmonberries, raspberries, apples, grapes, and tomatoes. We often find and gather other fruits like plums, pears, apricots, and peaches. That's one thing I really like about Missoula is the abundance of these fruits that no one really picks.
Later last night I used some of the tule to make a Paiute Tule Duck Decoy. It turned out fairly well, thought I want to use more tule to fatten it up a bit. I used instructions from Primitive Ways. They can be found here. I'll put some pictures up of the decoys soon.

Skills in Montana

2007-09-13T11:39:00.000-04:00

I'm in Missoula now, so I've been doing skills out here.
I don't have any pictures right now (two reasons, 1. I don't have my connection cable and 2 haven't really taken any.)

I'll summarize a few things I've done so far:

-Taught a few friends how to skin and elk leg and remove the sinew, as well as tan the hide from the leg.
-Knapped a few arrow points and spear points
-Taught some friends how to make willow baskets
-Taught several people I didn't know how to make willow deer effigy's
-Explored the Blackfoot river, found some interesting knappable stone
-Stalked a doe and two fawns on campus for a couple of nights

Update:
This picture shows the bone and sinew from the elk leg, raisins made from grapes found locally, a squirrel pelt from a dead squirrel on campus, obsidian projectile points, and a deer hide tanned early in the season.

Busy Weeks

2007-08-10T20:14:00.000-04:00

Well the last few weeks have been pretty busy with teaching at Ancestral Knowledge and Living Earth School. Both are great organisations and I recomend you check out their websites. ( Ancestral Knowledge, Living Earth School)
He are a couple of pictures from the camps.

Stalking Rabbits

2007-07-14T18:30:00.000-04:00

I was out in my front yard and saw a rabbit hopping across the driveway. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to practice fox walking and wide angle vision. So I slowed down, and fox walked around the garden until I was about 7 feet from her. At that point she noticed me, perhaps I was moving too fast. She hopped to the other side of my neighbors yard so I ran inside and grabbed my camera to get a few pictures of her for the blog.

And she's off under the fence. I've seen her around alot recently. Ashley said she saw her with a baby rabbit too.

Ancestral Knowledge Work

2007-07-12T17:04:00.000-04:00

For the next 2 weeks I'll be working for Ancestral Knowledge. So there wont be many/any new posts or any new projects, while I dedicate my time to Ancestral Knowledge.

To find out more about Ancestral Knowledge and their mission, visit their site:
Ancestral Knowledge

Berry Harvest

2007-07-07T21:28:00.000-04:00

Ashley and I went into the woods to harvest berries today, and came back with a full bowl of them. There were a few patches around, and with ripened red raspberries they stood out against the green landscape. They taste much sweeter than just a few days ago. Here is a picture Ashley took of our gatherings.We could have gathered more but didn't, because I felt we had all we needed for the afternoon.

I noticed there was areas where the plants had been flattened slightly. I don't know of anyone else who gathers berries near here, so I'm guessing the deer have been eating them.

Berry Season

2007-07-06T21:36:00.000-04:00

Berries are now almost fully in season. The raspberry patches near my house are almost fully ripe. I also found a blackberry bush near my old school that has a few berries that are close to being ripe enough to gather. The raspberries are ripening fast so I'll have to gather them tomorrow or sometime very soon before the birds and critters get to them.

Older beings and interesting finds

2007-07-01T19:07:00.000-04:00

While traveling down a bike/walking trail through the woods, I stumbled upon a very old being. It's a very, very old Tulip Poplar tree. And being so old, it is also the largest Tulip Poplar I have ever seen. Its diameter is easily 10 foot, even with me and three friends we couldn't go completely around it. I'm not sure how long Tulip Poplars live, but I'd say it has been there for at least the last 50 years. There were no other trees nearby this large. Surprisingly it had no names or anything carved into the bark, or any visible serious damage, unlike some other old trees near here. The bark was actually looking rather decayed with age, but the upper branches looks alive and well, so I expect this tree to be around for many years to come.

Later on our way back home we stopped in a clearing near a creek. While exploring the creek a hawk (I'm not sure which species) flew in front of me and around to join up with its mate. I headed in their direction and found 2 feathers on the ground from them, in addition to a whitetail deer heading away from me. On the way back across the creek I found a large antler. Quite a rare find this late into summer, the squirrels usually get to them fairly early. This antler has no marks from squirrels or mice chewing on them.

Indian Longhouse and Wigwam construction

2007-06-30T18:09:00.000-04:00

Today Ashley and I went to Jefferson Patterson Park to volunteer with the construction of the cattail reed longhouse and larger bark longhouse that Jeff Gottlieb has been supervising.. It's an amazing place, with several wigwams and longhouses. The weather was looking rather stormy/rainy, but it turned out well and we had no rain until later in the day.
The first thing we worked on was weaving cattail mats using a kind of loom. It seems like it would be a task that would take a long time, but it went rather quickly. It takes about 3 people to weave the mat with another person or more to gather reeds.
After weaving the mat you untie it and cut the strings holding it to the loom then place it on the longhouse. This is the fun part, you can climb on longhouse and wigwam frames. So, of course, I climbed up to help tie the mat to the frame. We made about 3 mats during the course of the day, then added the bark sheets to the roof of the longhouse. We finished up by working on adding bark sheets to the larger longhouse nearby.
The picture above was taken from on top of the completed bark longhouse. It shows the cattail and bark lodge, then the bark wigwam, and in the background is a side less longhouse which has 3 fire pits. You cant see it, but between the wigwam and the side less longhouse is a dugout canoe under construction.

Fired Pottery and Completed Shell Bead

2007-06-25T12:51:00.000-04:00

Here is the completed shell bead. I already have two requests for more of these so apparently they're still as desirable as they were at Cahokia.
We also fired the pots yesterday. It turned out to be a perfect day and night for firing. We started in the afternoon Ashley used her bow drill kit to start the fire. It was the second time she's started a fire with her kit. Its a basswood on basswood set, but she also have a yucca on Western Red Cedar set she practices with. She used an elk knuckle (one I found at my friends ranch in Montana that we think may have been picked over by wolves. It was very white and clean when we found it), and tulip poplar tinder bundle with an oak gall in the center. Perhaps its because she's seen me do it so many times, but she really seems to pick up bow drill skills fairly quickly.
Once we got the fire going, we put the pots around to warm up and dry out more (we dried them for about two weeks or so prior to yesterday, and dried the larger one in the oven for a day. No drying cracks at all were visible.
We built the fire up pretty big and got it fairly hot, for about an hour before letting it burn down to coals and making a ring so we could put the pots in the center. Next step after putting the pots in is you start adding smaller pieces of wood and sticks on top of the ring of coals. These combusted fairly quickly. You continue to add on top of them and begin to place them so they form a kind of igloo of wood and fire over the pots. We added progressively larger pieces of wood, but not so large as to crush the other pieces of wood or risk breaking the pottery. You wouldn't want to put a large log on and accidentally break that nice cooking pot.
We continued to add wood and increase the temperature until I could see the pots glowing red. I was reading an article in a Society of Primitive Technology bulletin on firing pottery and I read that at this point, it is beginning to reach the temperature for ceramic change, and so you maintain this temperature for about 30-45 minutes. You could always keep it that hot for longer, but I suppose that's roughly the minimum amount of time.
You'll notice the edges of the pit are lined with bricks. I believe these might help with maintaining the temperature, or help focus the heat towards the pots.
We kept it going for another hour or so and let it die down. We left it to cool for the rest of the evening and the rest of the night. I did check it at 12 that night, but there were still embers and the pots were too hot to handle even with leather work gloves.
I pulled them out this morning and they turned out great. I did refire some pottery made with clay from Owego, New York, hoping it would harden up, but it's fairly week and still more of a soapstone consistency. Perhaps if I used some kind of grit it might have worked better.
The lighter coloured pot that you don't see in any of the other pictures is Ashley's. She made it at MAPS Meet 2007

Museum of the American Indian trip

2007-06-23T18:11:00.000-04:00

Ashley and I took a trip to DC with our families to visit the White House (Boy Scout's thing), then we headed over to the Museum of the American Indian to check out the exhibits. If you haven't been, I highly recommend going. They cover all aspects of native life (prehistory, historical, and contemporary), and many different tribes and regions. You first enter a circular room with three Native water craft. There is a kayak, an outrigger, and a reed boat made in Peru. I didn't get pictures of the other two but here is the reed boat.
It's quite a well made boat. If only tule or some other usable reed grew near here. I suppose cattail in tight bundles would work..

Anyway you then see a large cedar carving. Its quite a nice piece, carved on both sides.

There is actual alot of cedar carvings. Reminds me of Seattle.

On the second floor there are artifacts from Natives in the Chesapeake area, as well as artifacts found in Washington DC prior to there being a city there. They had a very nice beaver and buckskin bag used t o carry medicine and a few types of medicine used. I thought this would be of particular interest to any readers of this blog.

The caption under the bag and medicine says:
"Beaver Skin and leather medicine bag, 2003. Made by Mark Tayac (Piscataway). Port Tobacco, Maryland
Natural medicines still used by some Chesapeake Native families: a red corn necklace stops a nosebleed, dried eel skin soothes arthritis, calamus root calm stomach upset, and a tobacco twist and wild turkey beard are powerful ceremonial tools."

Micro Drill Project Update

2007-06-21T12:40:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of the micro drill kit. I used Texas Chert for the drill tip, and bamboo for the shaft. I tried on a piece of clam shell I collected in Ocean City.

At first, the drill slipped off the shell because there wasnt anything for it to grip into to stay in place. So I used the handdrill technique to get it started, then switched to bow drill.

I'd agree with Morse's findings that it took 10 minutes to drill with bow drill. It seemed to take about that long, though I didnt time it.

Right after drilling through. I continued drilling to widen it slightly.

And here is the bead being roughed out. I dont have a picture yet of the finish product, but I will later.

Microdrills Project

2007-06-20T00:13:00.000-04:00

During some late night research, I came across articles on the Lithics Casting Lab Website about micro drills. Micro drills are small (no more than an inch and a half at most) flint or chert drill tips used in the production of beads. The article focuses on shell bead manufacture at Cahokia, and there are many great pictures of these drill tips in various states of use, including reproductions used in studies to determine exact use and effectiveness. One finding stated:

" Morse (1983) states that drilling experiments showed that it took about 10 minutes to drill a bead. Larry Kinsella timed the process a little above that. If it took 10 minutes to drill a bead during the Mississippian period at Cahokia the drilling process of the 60,000 beads found in Mound 72 alone would have taken 1,250 eight hour days of steady work to complete!"

I have a collection of clam shell pieces out back, and so I've decided to give this a try. I've known about this technique of drilling, and its not a new concept to me (I use flint drills to drill through bone and wood all the time), but the specific design of using a very small flint tip inside a cane shoot, is something I'd like to try. Plus, Ive been wanting to make some shell beads and now I have a sound design to try.
You can read more on Micro Drills here: http://lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2002junemicrodrillspage1.htm

Pottery

2007-06-19T19:06:00.000-04:00

Well, the pottery I'm working on is nice and dry and ready to fire. It's supposed to storm tonight, and I'm not sure about tomorrow, but next clear day I'll get onto firing my pottery. I have one small bowl and another that's more like a small personal cooking pot, or a drinking cup. I used clay collected at MAPS Meet 2007, so I'm anxious to see how it turns out. I've used clay from New York and local clays found in my backyard, and they've turned out alright, although they needed a bit more firing. I'm going to put the pieces I have done in the past that weren't quite done, in with this batch. I've taken my time drying these pieces, so that the risk of exploding is reduced somewhat. No cracks are visible so that's a good sign.
I also collected clay from the Little Patuxent River. When I collected the clay it was very wet so I allowed it to dry somewhat, then put it in a bag to prevent it from drying out completely. I'll update on how that clay goes later.

Bow drill videos

2007-06-18T13:24:00.000-04:00

At the end of last summer, I posted a couple videos on youtube of me using my bowdrill set. I'll probably put new ones up that might be a bit better than the two I posted before. But regardless, here they are:

The spindle I have is an extended spindle using a deer canon bone. I used this all summer and part of the following fall before it split when I forced a new bit in without supporting it. It worked very well, reduced wear on the string, and because of its irregular shape the string gripped it fairly well. The wood in that video I believe is yucca on box elder. Works quite nicely. Box elder on Box Elder works very well too.

Stone tools

2007-06-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

Today the at the river I hafted the stone blade I made earlier. It looks quite nice, feels secure and sturdy, and can be stored in the handle when not in use. I happened upon this design on accident. I had read in the Society of Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills, an article on making a primitive switch blade knife by George Stewart. This design seems to work rather well, since it means I can turn the blade around and insert it into the handle and put it in my pocket, or in my satchel and not worry about the blade getting blunt or breaking. Its possible that you could even drop it and it would be supported enough from snapping. I haven’t tested this so don’t go around making nice stone knives and dropping them on rocks to find out.

This is what the knife looks like when storied in the handle. The blade is about 3 inchs long, the handle is 3 in. x 1 in., and about 5 inches total. It also has a nice feel to it so its easy to use. I've used a number of stone tools for cutting notches, processing antlers, etc. So I'll go over the various types I regularly use.

The first type is the most basic of blades, the flake (Far left). Its easy to make and its disposable. They’re usually the by-product of knapping larger bifaces. I've used them for cutting notches in hearth boards and butchering game, as well as carving and cutting buckskin. It’s a very versatile tools and rather economic, because if you do any knapping, you’re bound to have tons of these little guys laying around. I carry a few around in a little deer legskin pouch.
The second type are blades removed carefully from a core. The blades I’ve produced tend to be long, very sharp, and could double as very lethal dart points. I generally keep them for butchering game though, since they are razor sharp.

There is a video on YouTube that shows these types of blades being removed from a core (http://youtube.com/watch?v=RBNAUfR-uaw). I've tried this, but havnt gotten the hang of it yet.

The next blade type are unhafted, knapped, leaf shaped blades. I use mine like a saw to very quickly cut notches in my heath boards. I haven’t used it for much else. Its bulky and rather heavy-duty, so its ideal for sawing through wood and tougher materials.
The final type is the Basketmaker II Sand Dune Cave Knife, as learnt from David Holladay's article "A Basketmaker II Knife System". I've seen people in Montana use similar ones, probably learnt from the same article of David Holladay himself. I used Texas Chert, yucca stem for the handle, dogbane string, and pine pitch to haft it. It worked very nicely, it can be looped over my wrist so its always at hand, and the blade can easily be replaced if it breaks or wears down, since it is made from a relatively small flake. However, I would prefer my new "switch blade" knife because it has a long edge and can cut notches better (notice a trend in cutting notches yet?).

Knapping Texas Chert

2007-06-14T18:09:00.000-04:00

I went about spalling and knapping some chert today, and created a small, crude, but still useful blade/spear point. I'll probably end up using it as a knife. It has a rather thick spot towards the base, I was able to thin it slightly with an antler punch but it got to the point where I couldnt thin it anymore, plus I was causing some damage to the side.

It does have a nice edge though, so I'll test it by cutting notches in my hearthboard later to see what it can do. Normaly I use a Basketmaker II Sand Dune Cave Knife hafted into a yucca stalk with some pitch, using the same type of stone for the blade. This works well, although it is a short blade. I'll post later how well it works.

First Post

2007-06-13T21:01:00.000-04:00

Well, this is my first post in my Primitive/Ancestral Skills blog. I plan to post various gatherings, projects, etc. I do here. Hope its enjoyable, and I hope to atleast impart some knowledge to those who read it.

To the left are some of my tools and equipment on a braintanned shirt I made.