At ALSS it’s about learning by experience in the field. Do you know how you would react being lost in the wilderness and just having the bare bones for survival gear. The Desert Drifter course  is about stripping down to basics and change what you know about living in the wilderness.

Making fire tribe style

With your tribe your trek into the wilderness begins with a map, water bottles and the clothes on your back as you become just like the ancients a hunter and gather  tribe traveling through the spectacular Arizona wilderness.

The skills covered will be those directly related to our survival such as finding water, fire, shelter, and food. Adaptation, attitude and awareness will become your constant companions on this uniquely raw, cross-country adventure, the motto for the Drifter experience simply being “whatever works.”

This page is for students new and past to post their photos and comments on their experiences their experiences from their unique journey over the past few days in the wilderness.

YERBA SANTA (Eriodictyon spp.)  This is a Southwestern USA plant, with most species found in California and even northward into Oregon.  E. angustifolium, with its more narrow leaves, is common in Arizona in the lower central mountains and all the way north into southern Nevada and southwestern Utah.  It is an aromatic plant with white, purple or bluish flowers in spring, alternate thick slightly notched leaves which are darker green on top and whitish underneath.  Leaves and stems have a sticky varnished surface.  Chewed whenfresh, the leaves and stems have a resinous, pine-pitch flavor. 

Dried Yerba Santa

 Springs of Yerba Santa make a fragrant addition to smudge bundles.  Spring and early summer growth is the best time to collect Yerba Santa, breaking off leafy stems and tying them into small bundles to hang until dry. Once dry, the resinous leaves will not stick themselves together like the fresh ones tend to do, and the dried leaves and stems can be crumbled together and stored in jars for winter use. 

I use either fresh or dried Yerba Santa leaves in hot water infusions and as an alcohol tincture.  Yerba Santa is an excellent remedy for all respiratory problems to help thin and remove mucus.  It is useful as an expectorant and bronchial dilator and mild decongestant for chest colds, bronchitis, flu, asthma and hay fever.  Steam inhalation therapy is useful for lung congestion.  For bronchial spasms, smoking the leaves along with steam inhalation and drinking the tea can improve results. The tea or tincture is also useful for mild bladder infections.  The resins on the leaves and stems are only partially water soluble, so a tincture can be preferable since the alcohol dissolves the resin making it more useable.  There are no known contraindications.  I have used Yerba Santa tea for infants with lung congestion and chest colds with good, fast results.  I know some mothers who use Yerba Santa tea for their infants when they have colic and they tell me it brings fast relief.  It is a good remedy for dysentery and diarrhea.  Drinking a water infusion hot, or hot water with the tincture added, will bring on sweating to break a fever.  Yerba Santa will also stimulate the digestive jices, thus improving digestion.

Precaution:

The use of herbs has been used for thousands of years for strengthening the body and treating disease. Herbs, however do contain components that can trigger side effects and interact with other herbs and medications. For these reasons, you should take herbs with care, under the supervision of a health care provider. If in doubt don’t use  it.

For more information on Cathy’s Herbal Tips you can go to her website at www.purrfectlyherbal.com

By Cat Farneman All Rights Reserved 2012

Although many scenarios exist that are virtually impossible to sleep thru, strive to get as much sleep as you can, when you can. Humans require about seven to eight hours of sleep each night depending on age and other individual factors yet research as shown the importance of achieving a minimum of 4.5 to 5.5 hours of “core sleep” every 24 hours. 

Under the bizarre sleep circumstances of most survival situations, naps may be one of the most effective means of increasing mental, emotional and physical performance. While naps can be taken at anytime, those initiated at night, early morning and mid afternoon will allow you to conk out the fastest. The longer the nap, the greater the restorative response, yet naps as short as 20 minutes have been found to be amazingly effective at combating fatigue. Snoozing ahead of time, before an expected, no sleep adventure, is also helpful. 

The well known nap side effect called sleep inertia or sleep drunkenness, in which you feel bitchy, confused,  disoriented and overall worse than when you started, is easily dealt with by walking around for five or ten minutes after awakening. The moral of the story is obvious, try to avoid doing critical tasks immediately upon waking from a nap.

By Cody Lundin All Rights Reserved 2012

Arizona like other desert states present amazing beauty with numerous hidden dangers to the un-trained eye. Unquie to Arizona is that all four North American deserts, the GreatBasin, Sonoran,Mojave and the Chihuahuan are all native to Arizona.

While each vary in their flora and fauna, all present a challenge to those who venture into them unprepared. Whether you are new to the desert, a day hiker or a multi-day backpacker, this course explores how to keep you and your loved ones alive during a possible desert emergency. Discover the truth about what it takes to prepare for and adapt to arid landscapes in the southwest and around the world. 

Desert Shelter: where, what, why and how to build improvised shelter to prevent hyperthermia, how to sleep cooler using physics, using space blankets and tarps and desert clothing choices.

Water Wisdom: learn the truth about creating water through evapotranspiration, bag and solar stills, how to defeat dehydration and hyponatremia, simple yet effective maximal hydration techniques, desert water requirements for men and women, nature’s water indicators and modern and primitive water disinfection techniques.

Signaling for Rescue: getting attention using mirrors, ground to air, sound and smoke, setting up your vehicle for rescue and activating the Search and Rescue system.

Hot Weather Psychology and Physiology: hot weather trip planning, recognizing desert priorities, arid land traveling techniques, desert survival gear and dealing with fear.

Desert Flora and Fauna: desert weather, desert plant and animal adaptations, edible and medicinal plants of the Sonoran desert, rattlesnakes, scorpions, cone-nosed bugs and more.

This is must know information if you visit or live in or around desert areas! Get to know the desert on Her terms for the increased safety and enjoyment of arid lands. (minimal hiking required)

This page is for students new and past to post their photos and comments on their experiences their experiences from their unique journey over the past few days in the wilderness.

YARROW (Achillea millefolium) is found throughout the Northern Hemisphere and is easily recognizable with its finely dissected, feathery leaves, woolly-hairy stems, and flat topped terminal clusters of small white to pinkish-white flowers.  Some cultivars of yarrow have been developed for the floral industry with yellow, red or peach-colored flowers, although the white flowered wild species seems to have the strongest medicinal value.  Yarrow blooms from about May (depending upon the altitude of the area) throughout the summer months.  

Yarrow

The fresh or dried flowers and leaves are used in various cold and flu remedies,either as a water infusion or as an alcohol tincture.  The fresh leaves can be rubbed, or a tincture or infusion sprayed, onto the skin as a biting insect repellant but must be re-applied every 30 minutes or so.  Also spray it onto a sore throat to relieve pain and shorten the duration.  Yarrow is said to act as an expectorant, an analgesic, a vascular tonic to improve circulation, and, with a hot infusion, taken to promote sweating to break a fever (a diaphoretic).   Yarrow tea or tincture is said to shrink hemorrhoids and stop internal bleeding of all kinds, stop diarrhea and expell gas from the stomach.  It is a good antiseptic for both external and internal use, being effective against bacteria and promoting cell regeneration for quick healing.  Either sprayed or sponged onto the skin it is an effective acne remedy.  Its analgesic properties make it a good pain relief for wounds, burns, aching feet and sore muscles and for sore gums and tooth ache.  The fresh root may also be chewed to relieve tooth ache and sore gums, or make a fresh root tinctue to keep on hand for this purpose.  Fresh leaves may be bruised and used as a first aid for cuts and abrasions to stop bleeding and relieve pain. 

There are no known contraindications except that if taken excessively during pregnancy it can cause spotting.  Use in moderation. Taken as a hot infusion it can make menses come on strong and make you sweat, so menopausal women and pregnant women need to use yarrow internally with caution.  A cold infusion may be taken for two or three days to decrease menstruation. Yarrow can be used by people of all ages when used in moderation and for short periods of time.

Precaution:

The use of herbs has been used for thousands of years for strengthening the body and treating disease. Herbs, however do contain components that can trigger side effects and interact with other herbs and medications. For these reasons, you should take herbs with care, under the supervision of a health care provider. If in doubt don’t use  it.

For more information on Cathy’s Herbal Tips you can go to her website at www.purrfectlyherbal.com

By Cat Farneman All Rights Reserved 2012

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often thought to only involve combat veterans, but nothing could be further from the truth. PTSD affects hundreds of thousands of people and can be experienced by anyone (research has shown that more females are affected than males) who has undergone or witnessed life-threatening events such as serious accidents, disasters, violent assaults, or war. In fact, 10 percent of the U.S. population has been affected at some point by clinically diagnosable PTSD. In essence, PTSD is a powerful physical and emotional response to reminders of a traumatic event, the effects of which may last for weeks, months, or even years after the initial event. 

Fear & Chaos

People at greater risk for developing symptoms of PTSD are those who were “in the middle” of the disaster itself, had multiple stressors at one time, and/or have a past history of trauma. Recent traumas may also trigger old pain and unresolved fears. Events such as direct threats to life, exposure to grisly deaths or maimed bodies, extreme destruction and loss, lack of family support, and the effects of fatigue, hunger, thirst, and sleep deprivation during an extended catastrophe will hammer a person’s ability to function. 

The symptoms of PTSD can occur years after the traumatic event but usually appear within three months after the incident, and fall into three distinct categories: reliving, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Reliving refers to “flashbacks” of the past disaster that come up unexpectedly in a person’s life. These flashbacks can be mild or severe and can heavily influence an individual’s normal lifestyle. Some flashbacks can be so intense that the person will think they are living through the experience all over again during waking hours. Nightmares are also very common. Avoidance is common in people with PTSD, and they will often avoid building or maintaining close relationships with friends or family. They will also go to tremendous lengths to avoid situations that resemble the initial trauma. People with PTSD may have trouble working out their anger, grief, or fear, which can continue to affect their behavior without their being aware of it. People affected may also become hyperaroused and feel constantly threatened by their initial trauma. They may have trouble remembering information, a difficult time concentrating, and a hard time sleeping. Their “fuse” may be short and they may get angry or reactive with little or no provocation. 

Statistically, half of those with PTSD recover within three months without formal treatment. People who feel they can’t regain control of their lives and who have persistent behavioral changes for more than a month should consider seeking professional mental health assistance. 

In summary, a survival scenario is much more than a physical event. Although they are “safe”, pay special attention to loved ones after their rescue.

By Cody Lundin All Rights Reserved 2012@

In the May/June 2012 issue of Backwoodsman Magazine Charlie Richie jr interviews Cody about his homestead, the Aboriginal Living Skills School and Dual Survival. Here is an excerpt from the interview. For the full interview you will have to buy the magazine at Backwoodsman Magazine >

BWM: Since there is a picture of your homestead on the cover of this issue, could you please tell us more about it?

Cody: lt’s a passive solar earth home that sits on about 36 acres in Northem Yavapai County, AZ. It was designed by myself and a few friends. The house is based on orientation, thermal mass, and insulation. I basically dug into the side of a hill and I live in a series of parabolas (conic-shaped). Essentially, I live in a series of caves underground. The house heats and cools itself and I never have to bum wood. It stays room temperature most of the year by doing nothing because of those qualities and by having it face solar south.

Solar Panels

The roof was foamed, covered with plastic and old carpet that I found from the dump. It was then back-filled with earth and then I planted some native grass up there to help with the erosion factor. I now have free native grass to help with the insulation from the sun. A colony of rabbits now live on my roof, and if they become too aggressive with the prickly pear cactus, I eat them! That’s the agreement that we have. The great thing is that I never have to roof my house and I have an entire eco-system up there. It’s a real harmonious situation.

The house has its own solar energy system, composting toilet, and I also collect rain water. The only thing that is missing is food. I have built a chicken coop but for the last two years I‘ve been traveling all over the world doing television work. So I haven’t been here to feed the chickens that I don’t have. I’m trying to live in a place where Native Peoples did not live; they just walked through this area- I’m in the high desert, trying to collect water and change the environment one year at a time to make it sustainable to life using both ancient and modern technologies.

Many thanks to Dave Wescott for his time and generosity in me asking so many questions of him. If you don’t know Dave is one of the orginal founders of the Primitive Living Skills movement who has spent that last thrity years gaining knowledge of skills that have long been lost to know be able to share them at gatherings at Winter Count and Rabbitstick.

What started you on the Primitive Technology path?

I started with an intense love of Tarzan and Robin Hood movies, the comic book Turok Son of Stone, and anything to do with Africa, Native Americans and Cowboys. Quite a mix, but all very tribal. The mystery and magic of the outdoors was ground into me through hours of wandering around our country property in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Artifacts of previous eras from local Maidu culture to the Gold Rush explosion were everywhere you turned. It wasn’t until 1961, when

Old Gringo

Theodora Kroeber published Ishi In Two Worlds, that I became familiar with the story of Ishi- the last stone age Indian -  who emerged from the wild in 1911.  I devoured that book and still have my original dog-eared copy. I did my best to recreate everything I saw in the photos, since his last stronghold was only about 50 miles from my home. The environments were exactly the same. In 1968, Larry Dean Olsen published Outdoor Survival Skills. If you compare the photos in his book and Ishi, you’ll see some striking comparisons that I recognized right off. I met Larry by total accident in 1970 and it was love at first sight. I have been doing ever since, what he told me I would be doing the rest of my life, and that’s teaching these skills.

2. How long has the Rabbitstick gathering been going and what has changed since the first gathering? 

Larry Olsen started the original Rabbit Stick Rendezvous in 1978. He ran it for about three years when his then business partners, Dick and Linda Jamison took it over and changed the name to Woodsmoke Primitive Skllls Conference. They ran it for a couple of years and then discontinued it along with the short-lived

Rabbitstick Cover

Woodsmoke magazine. Over the years, Larry held on to the Rabbit Stick moniker through several youth program incarnations, and Jamison’s still use the Woodsmoke title for their book and video productions. In 1988 I went to Larry and asked permission to revive Rabbit Stick through my company, Boulder Outdoor Survival School. I wrote to every primitive skills teacher of note that I could track down and asked them if I hosted an event, would they show up. The first year we had 48 instructors and 2 paying students. It was an amazing week I’ll never forget. We modified the name to Rabbitstick, and have been hosting it for 25 years. We sold BOSS in 1997, and formed Backtracks, LLC to house the Rabbitick offices. Rabbitstick now averages about 400 attendees, about 90 of these are instructional staff.

In 1995, we had moved to Arizona, so we started Winter Count as a winter gathering alternative for the primitive skills set. It took off and has grown to be bigger than Rabbitstick as of this writing.  We moved back to Idaho in 1997, and have run both events from our Idaho offices.  The programs comprise over 60 classes each day on topics ranging from primitive technology, to wilderness living skills, and our latest addition Homespun – skills for self-reliance.

This year we will be reviving the old Woodsmoke gathering. Jamison’s have given us their blessing to use the title and have said they will be at the inaugural event to support us. This event will be at a new Idaho location near Tetonia, Idaho and focuses on my latest love, classic camping. With the recent explosion of interest in what are now being called Bushcraft skills, we saw a natural fit for these two topics to be merged into this new event.

A note – Probably the most amazing thing about these gatherings is that over 300 practitioners have come together to form a community of people who all share an interest in primitive skills through lifestyle, hobby or profession. This community has helped foster these events to the point that they have assumed a kind of ownership of these gatherings that is unusual in our time. They volunteer their time and talents, and share skills for which they have a passion. I respect these people as colleagues and love them as friends. They are the best. 

3. Who are your mentors and why?

Once I found a real path through all of these interest areas – of course as a native westerner, cowboys will always be in my blood – I first gravitated to Native American ethnography and the re-creation of the many skills and crafts related to it. In high school I traveled in the summers with 1 or 2 other guys and danced on the powwow circuit of southern Canada and the northern states. This was in the mid 1960s when relations between whites and Indians was not so good. But, we were mostly treated well, and had a hell of a good time – I started traveling when I was 16. My mentors at this time came from loads of books. Remember, what’s available now – access to teachers through the internet and the sheer number of sources related to topics of interest to me – just didn’t exist. You had to become an ethnographer yourself, and literally root out information from sources that trusted you enough to share it.

I was 21 when I met Larry, and finally started to get a handle on how I fit into all of this stuff. I was 35 before I gave up the notion that I was ever going to become an Indian. That’s when I met two of my best friends, Steve Watts and David Holladay, and started Rabbitstick. Both of them came into my life in the same year, and they cranked my head around. They were both fostering ideas concerning our stone age connection and how the stone age is the great common denominator.  I no longer had to “play-Indian.” I finally figured out that I had a legitimate birthright to primitive skills, and it was way older than I had ever imagined it to be.

Larry has always been a significant player in how I got started, but it wasn’t until I started Rabbitsick and started meeting the “master of the craft” who were hiding all over the country, that it really broke lose into what we now call “Primitive Technology” – the term was not in general use until we started the Society of Primitive Technology in 1989; now it’s everywhere. Larry called them survival skills, and that was always confusing to me. Now that I have figured things out and gotten them into context, I can make sense of it all. Back then, the mastery of most skills was still in its infancy, or relegated to just a few specialists – hand-drill fires were the holy grail, deer skins to buckskins in 3 days was like climbing Everest, and pottery that came out of the fire unexploded was like discovering a cure for cancer. It was an amazing time.

One note, Errett Callahan and Steve Watts are to blame for my recent passion – classic  camping. Errett, as a kid, attended the same camp where Ernest Thompson Seton was a leader years before. He had collected all of the Straight Arrow Nabisco cards, and was a treasure trove of information  – this is besides his knowledge of primitive skills – on our shared camping heritage. Steve was a disciple of Errett’s, and came to many of the same conclusions that I have about how important the preservation of our camping heritage really is. So blame them for my current evolution. 

Another note – I went to the dark side for a brief time while I worked for Outward Bound as a wilderness guide and for a few universities as an assistant professor of Outdoor Recreation. During those years I held certifications and a guides license in mountaineering, dog-sledding, rock climbing, horse packing, back-country skiing, wilderness medicine and more. It was a formative time that has affected everything I do in the primitive skills world.  

4. What do you think we could use from Primitive Technology in today’s on the go, instant world?

#1 – Neil Postman has said, “we live in a time of instant problems and instant solutions, and the solutions are usually tied to technology.” That’s a poor position from which to fight a battle, but it’s the position that our culture has chosen to accept. Our job is to rattle their comfort zone and make them think twice about how tenuous this position has become.

#2 – David Pye has said that we can allow ourselves to be involved in a workmanship of certainty or a workmanship of risk. Most of us have chosen the

Dave at Rabbitstick

former and our reward is a paycheck, vacation benefits, and a retirement plan (we’re now seeing how great a deal that’s been). All we have to do is sign over our lives and everything becomes SAFE and SECURE. What more could one ask for. I kind of like Pye’s other option, the workmanship of risk. This work is where the outcome is not known – which is the definition of adventure by the way. The pursuit of learning primitive skills is a workmanship of risk. Using these skills to work with people in the outdoors used to be a workmanship of risk. Of course now with informed consent, risk management, and all of the other controls that have been put in place, much of the adventure is gone because the outcomes have become predictable and regulated.  The programs have succumbed to certainty; the skills are still an adventure. I know people who have pit-fired hundreds of pots, and the outcome of the last firing is as thrilling as the first.

#3 – John Naisbitt said that for every development of high tech, there has to be an equal and balancing development of high touch, or the high tech is rejected. That’s job security for me folks. The idea of crafting things by hand, experiencing nature on its’ terms, opening yourself to people who share ideas that are different from your own – there is power in that. Primitive technology is the ultimate high touch experience.

#4 – In their book, The Axe Maker’s Gift, James Burke and Robert Ornstein address the issue of what happens to a culture and individuals when they change from a stone to a steel axe. The new invention is so powerful and attractive, there is no choice but to adopt its’ use. The problem comes when you realize that by adopting the new invention, you have to give up something as a trade-off, and usually what you sacrifice is knowledge.  The fascinating thing about primitive technology is that it reverses that process. The teaching of traditions is a heritage thing – passing on knowledge from teacher to student through a face-to-face shared experience. When you realize that when you compare a stone axe to a steel axe you are really making a bad comparison. What you should be doing is comparing backwards – how good is a stone axe compared to no axe at all? What do you gain by asking that question? Knowledge my friend.

5. Some people may look at Primitive Technologists  as “preppers”  with all doom and gloom, what would you say to people curious but to afraid to ask.

I don’t see that at all. Although, I must say that a contingent of people who are looking at primitive skills as a lifestyle choice rather than an exploration of prehistory or arts and crafts is increasing in size.  Many young people are realizing the problems inherent in what I addressed in the last question, and are really looking at what alternatives are realistically available to them by taking David Brower’s advice – When you get to the edge of a cliff, rather than leaping off because you have no alternative, perhaps the smart thing to do is turn around and take one giant step forward.

To me that’s not doom and gloom at all. That’s being proactive.  Doom and gloom would be storing up arms to fight your neighbor from stealing your food storage. I have never felt that among this group of people. I do see it in related interest groups who are enticed by many of these primitive skills, but they also have a healthy love for their guns and knives. That’s not primitive technology.

You can’t watch any of the videos about Rabbitstick that have been posted on the web and say that doom and gloom is our mantra.

6. What’s your favorite technique to make fire, no matches now?

I have an affinity for BIC disposable lighters – transparent of course. And the ability to master the use of a match is in danger of going the way of the 35mm camera. When was the last time you tried to buy strike-anywhere matches? Use them or loose them folks.

I guess if you’re talking friction fire, I have to bow to the bow-drill. I have developed calluses on my hands from too many hand-drills, so it’s no longer comfortable to do it that way. I also have a theory about the bow-drill that makes it a perfect classic camping skill. I have never seen a bow-drill set in a museum display of prehistoric artifacts; Eskimo, maybe, but nothing from the lower 48. I’ve seen hundreds of hand-drills, but never a bow-drill. I think the bow-drill was primarily a northern tier skill – in cold wet country where inferior materials could be overpowered by mechanical advantage to bust a coal. My theory is that Ernest Thomson Seton made it his personal mission to use the bow-drill as a metaphor for the magic of woodcraft. He was a master of the craft – in fact, I’ve seen a photo of him teaching a group of what appears to be Blackfoot Indians.

It was his passing along of this craft through the many youth organizations that he helped found, that the bow-drill became synonymous with outdoor skill. It spread like wildfire. In our contemporary Bushcraft movement, the bow-drill is front and center. I did my first bow-drill as a kid, but never got really good with it until I had to use it twice a day every day on the trail. It’s exciting to watch 50 year old guys on the internet sharing their newly discovered skills.

7.  What’s your favorite skill and why?

My favorite skill is simply the ability to make something…anything.  I’ve been at this for 40+ years and last year I made my first set of skis from a birch plank. The year before that, I made a skin-on-frame kayak. A couple of years before that I made a 14’ Cree-style freight sled. This past Thanksgiving break I got a bug to make a wooden cup – kuksa, noggin. When I finally quit, and had to get back to work, I‘d made 10 of them.

Crafting – the making of functional art with hand tools from locally harvested natural materials is something we all need to do more of. I can’t limit myself to any one medium. I know many people who are masterful flintknappers, and they’ve only been at it for 5 or 6 years. They have applied themselves in a way that has never captivated me personally, but you can bet that even though they are new to the scene, if I can learn something from them, I’ll be their first student anytime.

The thrill of making hand-made items has not escaped the general populace, it’s the total realization that you can actually make something of quality from scratch that befuddles them. Try skiing down a slope on a set of handmade skis without getting mobbed by people wanting to know where you got them. When you tell them that you made them, the reaction is almost always “What do you mean you made them?” The possibility that it can be done is nowhere in their frame of reference. That’s sad.

8.  When you go into the wilderness what do you take out with you? Besides the modern stuff?

You’ve got to realize, I’m nearly 65 now, and I started guiding full time when I was 21 years old. That was sleeping on hard ground with a blanket on a good night, and eating things you’d never tell your mother about. I did that off and on full time for a living for over three decades. The first year I owned BOSS I did three 30-day courses back to back, and two 14-day courses with only a day off in between courses. I owned BOSS for 12 years. Before that, I ran courses that had been started by Larry Olsen. I did those for 4 years while I was going to school.  I’d be happy to compare trail time under primitive conditions with anyone.

I did the modern thing too. I have started outdoor programs at 4 universities. I know how to hit the trail with all the essentials. But, I’ve done that too. I still like to do short trips with a backpack, but today, woods-loafing is what I pine for.

Give me a canvas wall tent with an air-tight woodstove, some cast iron cook-wear, the soft glow of an oil lamp, good food and great company, and I’ll stay out for as long as my wife will let me. With that scene in mind, let me remind you about what I said about technology – when you accept the axemaker’s gift, you give up knowledge. With all the umbilical impedimenta of the backpacker, you don’t need to know anything about the outdoors. In fact with today’s ethic, you are merely a tourist who is welcome to look, but don’t you dare touch. On the other hand, to manage a cherry-red stove under a covering of flammable plant fiber fabric, you need to know a few things. To cook a meal fit for a king over unpredictable coals in a cast iron pot, compared to pouring hot water into a foil pack of glop, a thorough working knowledge of hearth management helps.   

Now some would say how do you get all that heavy stuff into the wilderness? How did camping ever become a “wilderness” activity? I can camp in my backyard and have a great time. Backpacking and it’s association with wilderness is not the only way to camp. I’ve tried them all, and the sylvan retreat of yesteryear is what I consider the best way to learn about the outdoors and about yourself, and you can be comfortable doing it. Remember, Aldo Leopold said, “woodcraft is a working knowledge of the land.” How can you beat that for an endorsement?

9.  There seems to be resurgence in getting back to a simpler life and having a better understanding of our past, but people may not know where to go to learn Primitive Living Skills. What can you tell people about Winter Count and Rabbitstick?

Ever tell a story that you thought was great, and your listener just sits there with no reaction? Then you say “Well, I guess you had to be there.” That’s the very best thing I can tell someone about Winter Count and Rabbitstick.  You’ve just gotta be there. Take that giant step forward and find out for yourself what it’s all about. As I said in question #3, there is more information available, more highly skilled people, and more ways to access teachers than in any time in our history. We used to be a culture that was experience rich and information poor. We are now not only rich with information, but we are at the poverty level of real experience. We are  “virtually” dying from lack of real life. Get out and do something. It won’t hurt you, and perhaps it might change your life. 

By Sharon Page All Rights Reserved  2012@

 (Ephedra spp.) (Also known as Desert Tea, Squaw Tea, Brigham tea, Joint Fir and American Ephedra.) This is a small to medium sized shrub consisting of numerous jointed needles with no noticeable leaves. It is usually green to grayish blue-green, depending upon the species. In the spring after good rains some of the plants will be covered with small yellow flowers while others will have tiny green cones.

Morman Tea

You can collect the plant any time of the year and stuff it into paper bags and allow it to dry. When dry it is easy to break it into small sections by hand. Traditionally it is used as a beverage tea which, in a weak solution of spring growth (a simmered decoction), is rather pleasant tasting, especially when sweetened with honey. Older growth will tend to be bitter.

A stronger decoction or alcohol extraction (tincture) is used for medicinal purposes traditionally in the American Southwest where it grows. It is reported to have decongestant properties and thus is used for upper respiratory complaints such as colds and allergies. It also has pronounced diuretic, anti-inflammatory and astringent effects and is used for urinary tract infections. It has also been used as an external dressing for wounds to cleanse and prevent infection. A freshly made tea is reported to be a good “bone tonic” to raise calcium levels to combat osteoporosis. The tea has an alkalizing effect. Some people have reported a rise in blood pressure when using Mormon tea. Mormon Tea has been found in native medicine bundles dating back more than a thousand years in the regions where it grows.

For more information on Medicinal Herbs and our monthly contributer Cathy Farneman go to www.purrfectlyherbal.com .

By Cathy Farnerman  All Rights Reserved 2012 @

Finding Water

Signaling for Rescue

 1. A positive attitude

2. Fuel to burn: food

3. Adequate hydration: water

4. Ability to stay warm and dry: clothing

5. Ability to get dry: shelter

6. Ability to get warm: fire

7. Know where you are going: navigation

8. Know the environment: weather

9. Ability to attract help: signaling for rescue

10. Ability to provide help: first aid kit

11. Ability to obtain adequate sleep

By Cody Lundin All Rights Reserved 2012@