Pine Pitch Glue – Nature’s Epoxy

Over the weekend, while at Green Earth Survival School’s Primitive Skills class, we covered making a very effective adhesive from pine sap. The process, like most primitive skills, is wondrously simple. Collect sap from pine trees. Heat it. Add bulking agents. Use it. It is waterproof and strong. Let’s break down the process to clarify how its […]

Camping – Fun, Training, and Therapy

With the hot Florida weather behind us, we can now start thinking about getting outside to do more activities that benefit from not dealing with heat stress, like camping. Living in the outdoors for days, sometimes weeks, on end make for quality time for relaxing times and good memories. They also make great opportunities for learning

How To Remove the Husk from a Coconut (And Respect Your Elders)

I’ve covered getting the water out of a green coconut, and how to open the nut itself, but recently realized I never showed how I get the nut out of the husk in order to get to the meat of an older, more mature coconut. A friend that works with my wife recently sent some fresh […]

Product Review: hides® Classic

First, let me state, the lower case “h” in “hides® Classic ” is not a typo, I don’t want my senior English teacher hunting me down….And I’ll follow up with, “anyone that is so laid back as to NOT capitalize the name of their product is pretty awesome in my book”. A local company, hides.com  gave […]

Visiting Green Earth Survival School

Back in March, I had another opportunity to help out with the 2 Day Basic Survival Course at Green Earth Survival School. The course covers Shelter, Water Purification, Lost-Proofing, Signalling, Map & Compass usage, a nature walk to identify currently available edible and useful plants, and my personal favorite and one of my obsessions, Primitive […]

“Living the Dream” (at least a little bit of it)

My good friend and mentor, RidgeRunner was asking about my health yesterday, and in our email conversation, he sent me some pictures of his Kentucky get-away that he finally has sorted out. RidgeRunner and I see eye to eye on many things, wanting to get back to living in the hills being one of them. […]

Metal Detecting – The only hobby I’ve ever had that pays for itself

I went to the beach last week to try my hand at cast-netting some dinner. (Green Deane made it sound easier than I found it to be.) As I was getting out of my truck, the a saw a guy loading his up, putting his metal detector away. I struck up a conversation immediately. I […]