Peanut Butter and Strawberries

So I was making myself some breakfast the other day. I try to hit all the food groups when I eat, so on this particular morning, I was making myself a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. This strawberry jam is particularly awesome because it was homemade by my lovely wife with strawberries we picked on a local farm.

As I was putting the super-duper jam on, a big blob of unmixed stawberry part came out and made its way to my sandwich. I was thinking to myself that if I left it that way one bite of my sandwich would be particularly sweet. The thought of this and when I might actually get that bite kind of hit me as being sort of random. My particular inclinination at that point was that this surprise bite would be rather negative, then it hit me that it would actually be kind of nice! THEN it hit me again that this mindset is what keeps people from wanting to get involved with and actually dig deep into nature study.

I know what you are thinking, "Did he actually equate nature study with a peanut butter and jam sandwich?". The answer is yes, so let me try to explain.

As I share some of these topics, particularly edible and medicinal plants with others. Everyone seems to want to categorize everything and put it into nice little neat boxes, categories, sub-categories, etc. Yes there are methods for doing so, and on more intellectual, scientific, and or deeper level one would have to do exactly that, to maintain some type of order to his/her study. But I believe that we each have to accept that there is alot of "randomness" in nature and simply be OK with it. For example, one of the things I have done through the Kamana program of Wilderness Awareness School is to have a "secret spot", or sometimes called a "sit spot". At this spot you simply sit and observe, every day. What often appears as random, will sometimes become a regular occurrence. What one might thinks is regular, will often times become random. It is rather enlightening to say the least. That raccoon that I saw one day in the morning, wasn't just happenstance, he was actually on his morning routine back to his home. I only knew this because of regularly sitting and observing.

If you start observing nature in both a large sense to try and take in the whole picture, and also at the same time focus on individual parts, you will begin to see this. Several years ago, I owned a farm that I cooperatively worked with both the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Foresty. I learned so much working with those guys, one small thing I was shown by the forester was how different tree species will congregate in drainages, and other places where water is likely to be. Yes, I know how the sycamore likes water (almost all of have notices that), but he was showing me how different sub-species of oaks like water, vs. how other sub-species of oaks like the ridge tops.

To the untrained eye (mine in this case) I saw that as randomness. To his trained eye, he saw order. The wildlife biologist that I was working with had spent basically his entire Master's Degree study and thesis on turkey vultures, (please don't call them buzzards :)). What appeared to me as random birds eating road kill, became an orderly species, highly valuable species to the overall ecology of any place.

Again, randomness is OK. Order is OK. Most of us are not OK with random, because so much of our lives are in order for us (think fast food). So I write this to encourage our readers who overwhelmed with random.....be OK with it. Time, patience, and study of random, may very well lead to a more orderly study of nature.

Priority 2 of the Law of Three: Water

As a means of review for those that have been following our articles, or for those that are new here today, I want to review very briefly the Law of Three, which states; in any given survival situation you only have three hours to live without body heat, three days to live without water, and three weeks to live without food. In our last column we discussed the needs and how-to of maintaining body heat. In this column we will take a look at obtaining water, more importantly clean water. I suppose that it goes without saying that just bending down and taking a drink from your favorite wilderness spot is luxury that we no longer have access to. Virtually all water has the possibility of being contaminated in many, many different ways. A friend of ours, who works for the Kentucky Division of Water, simply put it this way, you don’t want to know what all is in our water. This is so sad, but true.
One of the easiest and most efficient methods of obtaining clean water is to carry iodine tablets or drops with you when you go onto your next hike. To do this you need to have a water container of some sort, or find one in the woods. Again, keep in mind this is all in reference to a survival situation, not just your average hike in the woods. Fill the water container, and put in 5-10 drops of iodine tablets per every 32 ounces of water. You must also remember, and this one is easily forgotten, to put iodine around the rim of the bottle itself to cleanse it as well. Shake the container well, so that the iodine is dispersed evenly throughout the water, and then let is sit for at least 30 minutes. The water will definitely have an iodine after-taste to it, but it will still provide clean water for you.
Another option for you when you know you are taking your next trek is to have a water purifier pump. These little gadgets are worth their weight in good water! Each manufacturer is different but basically you have in intake hose, an output hose and a small hand pump that brings the water into the filter and puts it out into what ever container you have. Again, keep in mind that when using these pumps that you NEVER let the output hose into an unclean water source, or it will possibly contaminate the water as it goes into your container.
The other obvious option that goes along with cleaning water, but like these last two, requires you to have supplies on hand when you go into the woods, it to bring water to a boil as your method of cleansing. Most outdoors folk suggest bringing the water to a rolling boil for approximately one minute. If the water is cloudy or has a lot of other grey matter in it, you can further filter it with a bandana or t-shirt.
Those are methods when you find yourself lost in a survival situation and you went in prepared. But what do you do if you find yourself lost unprepared or maybe stranded in your own home, without water? Those are the questions I will address now.
One of the best things to keep mind is that dirty water, is better than no water at all. Once again, keep in mind in a general sense, that without water for 3 days you simply cannot survive at all. So if you find yourself out, or stranded in some way for 3 days, without water, you will start noticing obvious physical signs of dehydration. Some of the signs of dehydration are dry mouth, stop, muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting, heart palpitations, and lightheadedness. Your proper decision making capability will also markedly decrease which could easily because you to leave a shelter, erratically go through the woods, or many other things that could come from diminished thinking capabilities.
Some of the best sources for water in nature are rain and dew. You can gather them both easily from grass, or leaves, by wiping the foliage with a shirt or bandana and squeeze the water into your mouth to get the water you desperately need. There are also certain vines, such as the wild grape, that when cut will provide upwards of a gallon of water a day. Be cautious though, you must have your edible and medicinal plants skills going strong, because Canadian moonseed vine and wild grape look virtually identical. Wild grapes, which are awesome when you find them, and Canadian moonseed being poisonous! Misidentification could mean life or death in a survival situation.
As for in your home, in a disaster situation where you may be unable to leave, always have water on hand in some form of storage for you use. Water bottles or gallons of water, unopened are too easy to store and there for emergency use in whatever situation may arise. You also have a few gallons residing in your toilet tank as well. That is clean water, and again I mean the tank, not the bowl itself, no matter what your pet Fido thinks about it. Also in a severe emergency, you have many gallons of water resting in both your hot water tank, and in the pipes themselves, that you can easily get to.
So those are the basic methods for beginners, there are other methods such as solar still, hillbilly filter (my words) made from plant material and rocks, using animal skins. If you desire to discover those you can do your own research, or contact us, we would be happy to help you find your way into the woods!

Owl Eyes

So I am going through this Naturalist training program that is put out by Wilderness Awareness School. I chose to use our week of vacation (camping) as the final week of study. My thought was that I would have access to new and varied surroundings in a much larger sense than I was accustomed to. That I did, it turned out to be a fabulous time of relaxation and study.

The thing that kind of "got me" was that the whole week was spent on awareness training. Awareness of your surroundings such as direction, wind, water, etc. Jon Young who developed the program provided the wonderful idea of a "trigger" that would bring you back to thinking of things whenever that "trigger" went off. Richard Cleveland told us the same thing in another way. He told us that throughout the day, to just stop and ask yourself "What am I missing?". Wonderful and sage advice from both men, both of whom were students and/or assistants to Tom Brown Jr. of the Tracker School.

As I was saying, the thing that got me through this awareness training was to have "owl eyes", I believe Richard would call this wide angle vision, in martial arts I might call this soft eyes. The premise is the same; to not concentrate on any one thing and to take in the whole picture, even into your periphery. Well, I did this all week. Even going so far in one exercise where it was suggested we find a perch and look down on activity, something like getting into a chair. Me being the geek that I am, I climbed a beech tree and found a good resting spot, and then "became the owl" as best I could. I saw alot, alot of things that I know I would have missed otherwise.

The whole week was spent like this, trying to have these "owl eyes". On our final day, as we were preparing our stuff to come home, a deluge of rain appeared. I was packing the camper, truck etc. in the rain, which is always a bit of a downer. A downer because not only are we leaving the woods and heading home, but heck it was in the rain. I took a break from packing and went out into the woods and had a good sit in the rain, to go over in my mind the things that I had learned, and putting through my mind how those things could make me a better person, back in the real world. How could I be a better father, son, teacher, naturalist, child of God, etc. etc. This is a typical response of mine when I have spent alot of time in quiet solitude. As I was doing this, I was meditating, in some way praying to God to help me do these things....to take these "learnings" to help others in some way. As I was doing so, and practicing my "owl eyes" I noticed soft, small movement just in front of me. As I left my "owl eyes" and had a bit more concentration, I found what you see in the picture looking back at me.

I would say that was a good finish to the week.....

Law of Three

Last year, the news was filled with story after story, of someone being stranded in the outdoors in an inhospitable climate trying to survive.

Whether it was started because their car broke down, they took a wrong turn on a hiking trip, or time and distance got away while they were tracking an animal, getting lost just happened to them. It can also just as easily happen to you.

Many in the military special operations community and those that study survival methodology know that the “Law of Three” is one of the easiest things to help them prioritize their responsibilities when they have determined they are lost.

The Law of Three, simply stated, is that each of us cannot continue to live three hours without body heat, three days without water, or three weeks without food. Those are generalizations of time, for the purpose of easy memorization and recall. By looking at this Law of Three it easy to determine that in a situation where you are lost your top priority is to conserve body heat. In this column we will only be taking a look at the first of these three.

In a situation where you find yourself lost, one of the worst things you can do is panic. When you panic, you will start to move too fast, make irrational decisions, and therefore start to sweat. Sweating is our way of cooling the body down. This is counter to remaining with the Law of Three which states that we must conserve body heat first and foremost, without it we will succumb to hypothermia.

Secondly, if the weather is cold, you need to find or build a structure that will help you conserve body heat through the night. This can be as simple as taking extra clothing out of your pack, particularly a head covering, or building a survival structure. Survival structures will be covered in detail in another column, but you can simply build what some have termed a “squirrel’s nest” which is just a pile of leaves you crawl into, or debris hut which is much like a one-man tent made out of sticks and leaves, or lean-to structure. Also if you can find a rock overhang or fallen tree to crawl under and pack leaves or pine branches around, they both will serve as a great wind break for you and get you out of the elements.

Next priority to help conserve heat is to build a fire. If you happen to have a lighter, or matches (I always keep some of each in my day pack and car), you can build a fire. If you don’t have these with you, you can make a fire from hand, bow or mouth drill. These are skills that you need to study before you need them. They are difficult at best, under nice conditions, under duress, they become even more difficult.

The last thing you need to remember if you find yourself lost is to, stay in one place. Search and rescue teams typically lay out a grid on topography maps of your last known location. They then proceed to move out and search particular grids. Once a grid has been searched, they will mark it off as being searched. If you move around you may by accident go into a grid that has already been searched. If so, search teams may not find you until days later.

The last thing I would like to share about going in the outdoors is to have a plan of where you are going and when you should return. Tell someone not in your hiking or hunting party, what time they should alert authorities if you do not return. In these situations, time is of the essence. An early report to authorities and the use of these basic skills to conserve body heat, will help you be found before it is too late.

I hope to see you outside!

Edibles and Medicinals in the Wild

You have heard (or simply remember) the story of your grandmother who said you could eat “poke salat” and it was OK, actually it was good for you. The truth is she is correct, sort of.

There is a bounty of edible and medicinal plants that surround us. They could prove to be very useful to our health and happiness, but you need to proceed with caution. Virtually all naturalists that utilize these plants regularly recommend a basic methodology for identifying and utilizing these plants. This involves two steps.

Step one is to utilize, at minimum, three sources when identifying these plants. There are two specific ones that I often recommend to people when they are getting started and those are, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal by Steve Brill and Evelyn Dean and, Edible Wild Plants, Eastern/Central North America, by Lee Allen Peterson. Brill and Dean’s book has line drawings and is heavily researched with their own “hands on” approach. Mr. Brill has an exceptional ability to relate interesting tid bits into detailed information about both edibles and medicinals. He relates folklore, Native American customs, as well as his own experience finding many of these plants in New York City.

For those that are familiar with the Peterson series of guides, you know they great resources for a host of outdoor topics ranging from identification of amphibians, bugs, and mammals to trees and wild edibles. It is heavily researched and has wonderfully detailed drawings, and exceptional photography. It is also very compact and easy to throw in you day pack on your next hike.

As for a third source, just pick one. There are literally dozens out there. Simply browse one at the various online booksellers or visit a good bookstore and pick one that seems to fit what you are looking for.

Step two in this process is to get outside. This is one of those topics, that you can do a lot of reading on and studying pictures on the internet The only way to really grasp it, is to get outside and match pictures in books, printouts, or your digital handheld to actual living plants. My family’s methodology for learning was to read about one plant, its possible habitats, they way it looks and then go find as much of it as we could. I had an instructor at an outdoor survival school have each of his students choose a plant species after his lectures, and then go find a paper bag full of it. Then all of the students put together our species and made a great stir fry and salads with our species. After picking lambs quarters all afternoon, I can now see it on the side of the road as I drive at 55 mph!

The last step in the process is to actually utilize by ingestion or topical application of the various plants. There is another methodology to testing various plants that may come into question, either because your resources are vague, or unavailable. We will cover that in another column. Until then, I hope to see you outside!

Survival Methodology

That’s right, survival! What is survival anyway? Thanks to Bear Gryls and the ever popular Survivorman, survival strategy and methodology has become a household topic.

Survival means to take the steps necessary to simply stay alive, typically in hard or otherwise inopportune circumstances. To many that means being able to conquer what nature throws at us such as, hard climatic conditions, being lost, or loss of a backpack. To others that means, making sure everyone stays safe and warm during a prolonged power outage. Perhaps taking a step in a different direction survival, to a certain age group, is learning how to cope with out texting for a few hours!

I would submit to you that all of these mindsets are true survival. Survival mindset is exactly that, a mindset. I have studied with experts and on my own for years in the art of survival methodology. Last year I took a class in survival in the beautiful Smoky Mountains, from an instructor who is known virtually worldwide as a “survival expert”. There is no denying that he is exactly that, an expert. He taught our group many things, from edible and medicinal plants to navigating without a compass or GPS, to building our own debris hut or survival shelter. What I discovered throughout the class was that the things he was teaching as survival were merely things I had been doing most of my life for fun!

What most people would call “survival” most of our grandparents and theirs before them, would simply call natural living. For you see, survival, is not learning how to conquer or defeat much of anything, it is rather learning how to work with the circumstances that a given situation puts you in. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times where someone may be lost and without quick access to shelter, water, and food. That may be a situation where a survival mindset is of the upmost importance. For example what is most important, food, water, discovering where you are, rest? There is definitely a priority list of things to go through in your mind when you find yourself in this sort of situation (which we will cover in our next column).

These are all skills that are now lost to us thanks to big box stores and easy access to food and the fact that water simply comes to us by turning a faucet. Please don’t misunderstand me; I enjoy these things as well. But, these are places and ways of convenience that we all take for granted I believe. Generations not to far removed from our own, pumped or gathered their own water from a well, or creek. Slaughtered and processed their own domestic animals, or had wild game opportunities around them as well. Taking it a step further, many generations before our own, Native Americans were a part of their environment, not conquering it. They thought of rivers as “the long human”, because these waterways were alive and vibrant to them and worked with them to keep them alive. Conversely they would never do anything to harm their sources of water. Even in my lifetime, I am now 40, our closest river has gone from a waterway that I played in as a boy, to one we would not dare drink from without lots of purification and cleansing.

The ability to work with the circumstances is above all most important. If you think to yourself, “Oh no, I am in big trouble”, then you are exactly that, in big trouble. If, on the other hand, you think something along the lines, of “I can do this” or “We will be just fine”, it goes a long way in your chances of survival in any given situation. When I travel alone, particularly in the forests and other backwoods of Kentucky I typically take a memento of my family, in the case I am lost or otherwise hurt such that I cannot find my way out. A remembrance helps in the mindset, of why one wants to return to normal life and goes a long way in keeping one’s spirit awake and alive for the hardships that may occur.

Survival, self-reliant living, relying on nature, emergency preparedness, are all buzzwords for these ways and methods that I look forward to exploring and covering with you in the future. Just so you know I am neither a “survival nut” nor a “tree hugger”, I suppose I am a little bit of both, or maybe better said, I am neither. Whatever I am, I look forward to getting on this trail with you and finding things together.

Direction Finding

Greetings to you all,

For our first blog, please take time to read this recent notification regarding our next public offering.....

I am writing to announce some good news regarding Nature Reliance School. If you were not aware the first inkling of a website is now up, just a basic homepage thus far. Also, we have determined that our slogan, motto, cool saying, etc will be Nature Reliance School, Where Practical Meets Natural. Pretty cool huh!

We will be offering our first in a series of free workshops, “Direction Finding”, this Sunday at 2:30pm in Jacobson Park in Lexington, KY. Topics to be covered will include the following:

On the practical side of things,
Topo maps and how to read them.
How to use a map and compass to find your way.
Trianglulating your position
Google Maps
GPS
Geocaching

On the natural side of things,
Using the sun as a direction finder.
Mythbusters: does moss really grow on only one side of trees?
Why knowing N-S-E-W is important? (ie how to setup a campsite etc.)

I am sure a few other topics and questions will come up, I hope we will have time to cover them. I would expect this to last about 2 hours. PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND AND SEND US YOUR PHONE NUMBER!!!!! If the weather turns bad, we will call those who plan to attend and cancel.

Please also keep in mind our next Survival Weekend is planned for May 22,23,24. Our first night discussions will be held at Bluegrass Budokai headquarters in Winchester, KY. If you will be driving far or simply want to hang out, you are welcome to crash at our dojo. We will head out on Saturday morning to practice outdoor skills both practical and natural. A brief general outline:

Friday Night
Direction Finding, Map and Compass, GPS
If you are lost how to set up markers and what kind so that you can be found.
If you want to stay lost, how to do that too. J

Saturday
Using the markers skills, we discuss on Friday
Water purification, both natural and practical
Edibles and Medicinals, there should be enough available for us to make a decent salad for dinner.
Shelter setup, lean-to, both practical and natural (due to comfort levels and bugs, you will be welcome to bring your own tent and sleeping pad if you wish)
And always, firebuilding, both practical and natural.

Sunday
Camoflauging, both natural and practical for the purpose of hunting.
Stalking and woods walking for nature observation or hunting
We will then put these skills to use, in a “capture the flag” game, to test the skills we learn out.
Finalize with a discussion on woods ethics, stewardship and conservation.

I will be sending out a flyer with this information on it, our location is yet to be set due to state fire season requirements. We will notify you as soon as we can get some clarification, if we don’t have the ability to build fire, I have access to private lands where we will.

But again, take advantage of the free workshop this Sunday and look forward to having some of you for our weekend in May as well. Also, if you are not already join our Facebook Group called Nature Reliance School, we notify you of events there as well.

As for the future, we have penciled in as free workshops, water purification, paddling (flat and rough water), knife building, night directional finding, flint knapping, and the list goes on. If there is one topic you may be interested in, let us know, if we cannot teach it, we probably know someone who can.


Craig Caudill
Director
Nature Reliance School
PO Box 4093
Winchester, KY 40392-4093
info@naturereliance.org
859.771.8313