For Friction Fire Tuesday...

   Well, as it was Friction Fire Tuesday at BushcraftUSA, I decided to join in the fun and try my hand at it. More specifically, I wanted to try a wood combination that has been giving me trouble for quite awhile. So today it was Norway Maple on Norway Maple.

   To preface this, I would like to go back to the Hardwoodsman Meet 2012 that I had the privilege to attend back in April. Before the meet, I looked upon friction fire methods as something to know and to try occasionally, and I did have successes over the years, but it was nothing that I would "practice" on a regular basis. It was just "back pocket" kind of knowledge and more like an occasional party trick to pull out on a camping trip with friends.

   But at the HWM, I learned that it was something to be practiced, and studied and favored as one of the best and most advanced of skills you could learn as a bushcrafter. My eyes were open. I was hooked.

   On Thursday night, just before the Meet started on Friday, two guys came by my tent as I attempted to try a hand drill fire with a piece of mullein I had harvested and a piece of box elder for a hearth board.

   One of the guys, if I remember correctly was "Scooter" who I later would learn, would be the winner of the skills competitions for the Meet. The other guy was Ross or aka "Redmech", who I would later learn, was a friction fire wizard in his own right and had been studying friction fire methods almost exclusively since the last Hardwoodsman Meet in 2011. These two brothers, stopped long enough to help me get some finger loops fashioned and attached to my hand drill spindle. In the end, they helped me to succeed in getting an ember. Whoo Hoo!!

   I later discovered Ross had a great collection of wood types for spindles and hearth boards, all organized in what I think was a couple of large cases that made moving it all around, easy to setup, and to practice a great number of combinations. He showed me that organization was key to building a good practice  set. So from this, I started to label all my wood types. I am still looking for a case like his. I think it was something for storing a compound bow perhaps? Maybe a large gun or rifle case? I am not sure. Long, flat, wide. Something.

    Anyway, back to Friction Fire Tuesday. I just had to have some fun and got this video in the process.

   Before I wrap this up I would just like to say, "Where has the month of July gone?" Here it is, July 13th or rather Friday the 13th, my lucky day! and this is my first posting for the blog this month.  I have been really busy with lots of bushcraft adventures, I just need to stop long enough to just share it all with you, my friends.
Hopefully I can get some more video taken about some upcoming adventures. I will be meeting with some bushcraft friends soon to help them with bushclass lessons and I know that will be fun. Also, there will be more fun with friction fire. Until then, Happy Exploring and remember to get out and get dirty.

Failed Bowdrill Friction Fire

   Okay, so sometimes things just do not go as planned. Practice anything long enough and you will discover how many times you fail. You can not get good at anything without practice.
   Many years ago, a preacher friend of mine would tell this simple story. He had a friend who could sit down at the piano and play just about anything you put in front of him music-wise. He could play all the tunes and all the classics. He could even improvise for jazz, the blues, rock and any different venue. Then my preacher friend would say, "How do you suppose he had the freedom to play just anything he wanted?" It always came back to the same answer, lots and lots of practice and the learning of all the fundamentals. Personal discipline focused on the goal of learning everything he could about playing piano had given him the freedom to do what he wanted to do.
   Now flash forward in time to me, struggling today to get a bowdrill fire going. I know all the fundamentals, I practice friction fire methods all the time. As of late, I have been practicing almost everyday. I am almost addicted to making fire by friction. It is so primitive and yet feels so right. Yet, I know that I cannot get better at it without testing myself over and over again with different kinds of wood in different situations. I need to challenge myself with friction fire all the time to find the freedom to make it work more consistently. I am trying to build a collection of experiences both successful and failures, to teach me what works and when.
   Every friction fire attempt is different. Some days, the combination of woods fails utterly and then a couple of days later, you will get success almost immediately with the same combination.
   So earlier this month I attempted to challenge myself with making a bowdrill friction fire constructed from one single piece of dead standing willow I found along the trail. The only thing I allowed myself was one knife, one rope and my bearing block. The rest had to come from that one piece of willow. I fashioned my spindle, my hearth board and my bow and set to work, trying for an ember.
   So here is the attempt.

   I don't think I failed completely, because out of this I learned that my choice of cordage makes a big difference under certain conditions. The failure raised more questions for me, that I will have to explore yet in another outing, trying to do the same thing, the "One Stick Challenge."
   So until the next time, I will keep practicing and hope that this will encourage you to not give up on any friction fire challenge you set for yourself. It is truly a big part of the bushcraft adventure and well worth mastering. Until then, Happy Exploring.

On Having A Minnesota Bushcraft Anniversary

   First of all, I would like to thank all my family and friends who stop in to visit my Minnesota Bushcraft blog. This past year has been full of adventures, and in looking back, I can see that I have grown thru the practice of bushcraft as well as many of my friends.
   This site has grown and moved thru many changes as well. Looking back to the beginning, I can see where I struggled to find my audience, where I faltered at using my format and that I was just plain timid about putting anything of good content into my posts.
   But that has all changed and the new challenge of adding video and pictures and including my friends in some of the adventures has made this a much better place.
   As of this moment, Minnesota Bushcraft has received 4,062 visits over the past year. That I would never have imagined. Though I can only see 16 subscribers, I know there are many of my friends at BushcraftUSA that stop in to read my meanderings and to see the latest goings on from my place here in southern Minnesota.
   Since joining BushcraftUSA (also about a year ago), I have completed the Basic BushclassUSA Certification thru the online BushclassUSA courses and have had the privilege to lead some of my friends into the BushclassUSA classes and they too have completed a few lessons, which has given much fodder for sharing their adventures here at Minnesota Bushcraft.
   This past year's Minnesota Bushcraft highlights include the coverage of the BushcraftUSA sponsored 2012 Hardwoodsman's Meet Up in April held in the great state of Missouri. The completion of my BushclassUSA course with an overnight on the fifth outing, in 20° F weather in a debris shelter. The many lessons and outings for BushclassUSA, which helped to fill many of my postings. And of course, the chances to share what some of my friends are now doing with bushcraft which even includes my post about "Bushcraft is Not Just for Boys."
   A special thanks has to go out to my bush buddy and constant wilderness companion Christian, for all of his energy and excitement and enthusiasm. He never refuses to go out in the wild with me and would give up TV and all the video games and sometimes even his other friends, just to get out and explore the wilderness and to learn all that he can. I hope someday he is a bushcraft master and can teach me a thing or two. For a kid of just eight years of age, he sure has learned a lot about bushcraft in the last year.
   Lastly, I would like to thank my Dad, for giving me the chance to learn from him all those many years ago. First as a scout and then secondly as a leader and mostly as his son just learning bushcraft, even when we didn't know to call it that back then.
   This next year I know will be filled with even more adventures, and I am hoping you will continue to share in them with me. Please feel free to comment, and to let me know what you are doing with bushcraft, especially if you are living in Minnesota. We have it wild here and Minnesota is a great place to practice bushcraft. It has in it's very heart and in it's history the very soul of bushcraft.
   Until next time, Happy Exploring.

On Making Bushcraft Toys...

   It has been a busy month, and I realize that I had not posted anything yet this month. It is not that I have had any lack of bushcraft adventure, it's just that I have had so little time to record and post any of the things that I have been doing lately.
   Just so the whole month hasn't gone by without a single post, I put together this short video of a recent adventure with my bush buddy Christian.

   It was a beautiful day to be out, spending time with my bushcraft buddy and together practicing some bushcraft skills. We worked on natural tinders, wild edibles, bow drill practice, natural cordage, water purification, navigation, wildlife identification, tree identification and alternative fire lighting methods with using a magnifying lens and a reflector improvised from a coke can, which did not work (yet).
   After all that, we decided to use some of the cordage we had made out of some milkweed to build a small raft. After we set it to float, we realized it was only going to find it's way by the currents alone. It was then the my bush buddy suggested we use goose feathers for a sail. So while he set to work to gather the feathers, I made up some willow bark cordage and we lashed up another raft and mounted the feathers for a make shift sail. So here is the video of our results. What a fun time. All materials found on site. Now we are both wondering what other people will think. A fun day.

   So that is a quick report and I do have a couple more adventures to report on, just as soon as I can get some pictures and video together. Until then, Happy Exploring.

Partial Solar Eclipse 2012

   Although not particularly bushcrafty, I would still like to share with you a short moment in time, when I got to observe this years Solar Eclipse. In this part of the country, southcentral Minnesota, the eclipse happened starting around 6:30PM local time and ended for us around sunset at 8:40PM.
   It was a great and wondrous sight and a very rare thing to have enough of the sun's light attenuated by the atmosphere at sunset that you could see the 60% coverage by the moon with a fleeting and quick glance.
   It made me wonder how are paleo-ancestors might have felt if they saw part of the sun being "swallowed up" by some unseen celestial monster or demon. Would they feel cursed? Would there be much fear? Or would they see it as a sign of good fortune and know that it was the moon and the sun dancing together in some kind of celestial romance?
   Whether a good or bad sign, I took it for what it was, a great chance to get out and see how celestial mechanics works first hand. Although, I did call my girlfriend to share the moment and felt a little romance.
   As for the scientist in me, I set to work setting up my Canon SD800 with the "hacked" firmware CHDK and a working script to capture some time-lapse photos. I also used the newer firmware options to set my shutter speed up to 1/1600 of a sec so as to get only the solar disk, with none of the flair. Focus was a bit of a problem, even as I had it set for infinite and total digital zoom.
   In the end, I was able to capture the last 10 minutes of the sunset and then later compress it to about 10 seconds of video. So here is that short clip and I hope that you too had a chance to get out and see this event. Enjoy.

   So the next time you are out doing some bushcraft, and you experience some great natural phenomena, let your imagination travel back in time and try to feel what your paleo-ancestors felt when such a thing happened. Find their mindset, and enjoy the learning and the emotion that was theirs to live. It will help you to find again that great kinship with the landscape that is bushcraft. Until next time, Happy Exploring.

Tarp Shelters: Should You Have Some Sort Of Cover?

   When I first started on my BushclassUSA Basic lessons in the fall of 2011, what I soon discovered was that the lessons not only gave me a chance to continue to polish my skills in bushcraft, but they also gave me a good list of things to do while I was out in the bush. Each adventure came with a challenge and the effort and energy I had was used to focus on accomplishing something. It gave some needed structure to the activity. Not that I don't enjoy going out in the wilderness, with no plan in mind. In point of fact, a lot of my best adventures come from the unplanned explorations and discovering what skills I need to use along the way.
   But if you are going to go out with a purpose, then following the lessons for BushclassUSA is about as good a plan as any. Besides, you get course credit and that makes it a lot more interesting especially when you have to record the event for future postings to the Student Practice threads.
   One of the very first lessons I completed, really came about as a whim. I had my USGI Poncho with me, and I had some paracord of various lengths in my "line" kit. As I was out and about, and it was a little cloudy and looking like it might rain, I thought maybe I would just setup my poncho as a shelter and in so doing, accomplish yet another lesson for bushclass and maybe in the process figure out some other things I could put together in my "line" kit, like toggles and tent stakes and such. I also wanted to see just how fast I could create a shelter from what I had on hand. Here is what it looked like, once it was up.

 

I discovered that once I had all the pieces together that it took about four minutes to hang the poncho (or a tarp in any case) between a couple of well placed trees. The nice thing about the USGI Poncho is that it can also double as a piece of rain gear or if the poncho liner is tied into it, can act as a light duty sleeping bag with pretty good water repellency, almost like a bivy sack.
   I still carry my poncho around in at least one of my day bags, but since that time I have purchased the Bushcraft Outfitters M.E.S.T.
   That is the Multipurpose Emergency Survival Tarp . It is an amazing piece of gear and now goes with me on nearly every outing, freeing my poncho to be what it was meant to be.
   Flash forward to one of my latest adventures shared with some new bushcrafters practicing their BushclassUSA lessons. My good friend, Little Jon, decided to accomplish his "Student Practice for a Tarp Shelter" by hanging his newly purchased MEST for the first time. He also got to learn some valuable knots at the same time, and will most probably post that lesson up as well, just as soon as he can get some pictures taken. Here is a short video I made covering Little Jon's lesson this last Saturday. (I mentioned his other lesson of that day in the previous post)

   Shelter building is an essential part of the bushcraft skill set, and it is one that needs mastery in many different forms, from the simple tarp shelter to the simple debris shelter and then to even the larger wiki-ups for many more individuals. It begins with a good grasp of necessary knots, cover materials (nylon versus canvas, etc.) and a good understanding of natural materials and their insulating and waterproofing characteristics.
   I am sure we will explore more of these things in future posts, but I wanted to share what we have been doing lately and encourage you to try a few things yourself. Consider get the MEST as I posted the link above. It is a good piece of gear at a good price. Until next time, Happy Exploring.

Friends and FireCraft and Fun

   Wow, it has been two weeks already into the month of May and I have yet to share any of my recent adventures in Bushcraft. But I have not been slacking, no way. This is prime time in this part of Minnesota to get out and enjoy the weather and the wilderness. Maybe I have just been to busy to write anything or maybe just having too much fun. Whatever the excuse, it has all been worth it. The adventures continue.
   As I have shared in previous posts, I have given a standing invitation to some new BushcraftUSA members to join me every Saturday morning at 9AM, rain or shine, to go out for 3 or 4 hours and practice bushcraft skills and for them to work on BushclassUSA Basic lessons. I have been leading them thru the various lessons that require some outdoor activity and so far we have been having a really great time of it.
   On this past Saturday's adventure, I was joined by my young bush buddy Christian, member Little Jon (who is a teacher at the college where we work) and a friend of his from school, actually a college student of Jon's who also happens to be named Jon (spelled the same he says) and New Jon's son Taylor, who happens to be seven years old and a good companion for my eight year old bush buddy. Got all the players straight?
   Anyway, we started out meeting in a parking lot near the wilderness we were going to explore and I decided while I was waiting on Little Jon to finish a phone call, that I would practice some firecraft of my own and got out my hand drill, hearth board and finger loops and knife. Shortly, they were all gathered around as I was working diligently to get an ember out of the mullein hand drill and the box-elder hearth board. Soon I had a coal, which rested on my knife and I was able to gently transfer it to some tinder (shredded cottonwood inner bark) and blow that to a flame. I was amazed as usual.
   But the expression on Little Jon and New Jon's faces was worth even more, as they both said that they had never even seen that done before, except in the movies. I know at this point you might be thinking, "no pictures, so it didn't  happen" but if I had not been actually doing it, I might have been taking pictures so you will just have to ask Little Jon on this one, or trust me, either way I was pretty excited to show them this way of making fire.
   A little while later, we were all headed out to our usual campsite to practice some more firecraft. Little Jon was going to try for his "Student Practice for Feather Sticks and Shavings" and maybe get in another lesson. New Jon and his son Taylor busied themselves by watching me go thru various fire starting methods with Little Jon.
   It was at that point, I decided to demonstrate yet another fire making method by using my flint and steel and some charred cloth. Soon the cedar bark tinder was burning and we had yet another method for making fire.
   After demonstrating to Little Jon how to make feather sticks and shavings, I had a pile of shavings which were just ripe for a spark from my firesteel. So, you guessed it, I touched off that little fire with shavings alone and was able to demonstrate yet a third method of starting fire.
   Now these guys are really excited and New Jon was seriously looking into joining BushcraftUSA and getting started on the Bushclass lessons. Big smiles all around.
   It was finally time for Little Jon to do his lesson and so I set to the task of trying to capture it with photos and video. He has got to start doing some of this for himself, and I know he will, but here is a video of Little Jon's adventure in bushcraft doing his lesson "Student Practice for Feather Sticks and Shavings." I hope you enjoy it.

   We had a great time at all of this and Little Jon was able to complete yet another Bushclass lesson after doing his firecraft lesson, but I am going to share that little adventure in my next blog post.
   Until the next time. Happy Exploring.