On Completing My BushclassUSA Outing #2

   As this is a blog about sharing adventures in bushcraft, it has been a pleasure taking the online BushclassUSA classes and lessons sponsored by BushcraftUSA and then for most of the activities, being able to create videos of those adventures. This past Saturday turned out to be a perfect day for an outing and this time it was a solo trip. So all the video was shot by myself and for some of the distance perspective shots, I had to climb the hills twice. Now I know how Survivorman, Les Stroud feels when he is making his videos. I really do admire his style and I have tried to emulate some of his technique as it makes for great story telling. I hope one day to add some music for some portions of the videos, I just need to find the right tracks.
   This adventure had me sourcing water, lighting fire with flint and steel, foraging for natural tinders and enjoying brief animal encounters and following animal sign. I hope you enjoy the video.

   Thanks for watching and my hope is to bring even better adventures and even more bushcraft activities and challenges to share with you in the future. As always, I encourage you to get out there and try some things and to stop by and share your adventures. Happy Exploring.

On Completing My BushclassUSA Outing #1

    After spending several weekends in a row over the holidays, teaching myself what it would take to build a large debris shelter, I decided it was time to take a break. As part of my quest to complete my Basic BushclassUSA Certification, I need to complete five outings. One of them has to be an overnight. I would gladly do all of them as overnights if I could, but there is just never enough time, or the weather will not cooperate, or there are some other obligations. But I did get the chance to get in my first outing and I did it with my good friend and bush buddy, Christian. We had a really great time and I got a chance to try some interesting video techniques and we had a great adventure. So here is a video of our expedition. I hope my friends, that you enjoy it.

   Now I have just four more outings to go, and I think they are all going to be fun. The weather is getting warmer, and the snow is melting and there are lots of things to try. I encourage you all to get out and enjoy all of what nature has to offer this time of year. Happy Exploring...

The New Year 2012 And A Debris Shelter Expirement

   Welcome bushcraft friends to the new year. Over the Christmas and New Year's holidays I decided to spend a few days building a large debris shelter as an experiment. It was based on a design I saw in a video done by Ray Mears for a Country Tracks episode (number 10) on the BBC Television network. Here is a link if you would like to view it first hand for reference. Ray Mears Debris Shelter
   It took about four days over a couple weekends, working about 6 hours each day. It proved to be a good experience and taught me just how much energy and time and materials it would take to build such a shelter, especially by myself. Even Ray mentions that this is the kind of shelter that would be semi-permanent and would usually be done by 4 or 5 individuals in 4 to 5 hours. I can believe that. I was very fortunate to have access to a small piece of private land that would be in a wooded area on the edge of prairie and farm land. I will be sure to spend lots of time there and I am even planning on doing an overnight in the hooch, once I have done a few more improvements. I want to add a canvas door flap and enclose the opening on top a little more. Also I will be practicing very careful firecraft in this shelter as it is very apparent that I am in the midst of a large tinder bundle.
   So I hope you enjoy the video about my debris shelter construction and experiment.

   Thanks for watching, and I hope this has given you some ideas of how to construct a primitive debris shelter and given you a sense of how our aboriginal minnesotans might have done it on the woodlands and prairies of Minnesota and beyond. Happy Exploring.