Gypsy Sue at Dirt Time

What I did on my summer Vacation

2010-06-22T00:59:00.000-07:00

What happens when you get about 175 people from all over the country together in Wyoming for a weeklong campout and it pours rain for the first two days, nonstop? Well, if you're at the Dirt Time campout you get about 175 people who say things like "Cool! I can test out my gear!"

Dirt Time 2010 was quickly dubbed "Mud Time 2010", at least until the sun came out on the 3rd day!

We arrived at the site around 11:00 Sunday morning. We checked in at (where else?) the check-in tent and got our official Dirt Time 2010 Goodie Bag donated by Survival Resources (Oh cool, look! A write-in-the-rain notebook! And a whistle!), and picked a place to set up our tent (where we could blow our whistle periodically in the night and use the little notebook to record the comments of fellow campers!)(The didn't give us a pen, though!) The check-in lady said it had been windy and advised us to set up camp among the trees. After looking upward 30' for trees at the height we were accustomed to in Montana, we took it to mean that the 10' Junipers were the referred-to trees. (Inside joke. A little Montana/Wyoming rivalry!)

I sniped at my husband about the huge tent he had insisted on bringing. All that space, for two people? And cots!!! I'd never slept on a cot before while camping! We inherited these along with the rest of my Dad's camping and fishing stuff when he passed away last year. I was in wonder, though, after this big tent with it's huge screened windows was set up, and there were our "beds", up off the ground! Wow! Which way to the parlor?

We went ahead and put up the huge tarp, from behind the tent, up and over, across about an 8' sitting area, and onto the roof of our Jeep Cherokee, where we tied and bungeed the whole thing down. We ran a ridgepole rope from the trees on each side, under the tarp about midway, so it wouldn't sag. What a great breezeway, with our folding chairs spread out and the cooler parked there!

I apologized to Steven and decided to enjoy the luxury...especially when the deluge of rain began two hours later and continued unabated for 2 straight days! Nice, then, to NOT be against the walls of a small tent, to be off the ground, and to have the sitting area to spread out to!

We wandered up through the woods to find the Mess tent and bathrooms. There were actual pine trees up there, the 30' kind, so I ate my humble pie and stopped snickering about Wyoming trees! There were a few dozen people already there, milling around. Among the first we met were John and Denise McCann. They own "Survival Resources", which sells supplies for your BOBs ("Bug out bags"), backpacks, or even to keep in your home or car, as well as teaching survival skills workshops in New York State (http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/). Wonderful people. More about them later.

The Mess tents were two 10' by 20' tents, like Costco sells and some people use for carports. The 3-person cooking crew used one for cooking and the other for the serving line. Tarps were strung between trees to privide shelter, and boards were laid across spools from the power copmany to provide "tables". Soup was served for lunch, though officially there was no meal until evening!

Around 1:00 it started raining. It kept raining. Everything quickly got muddy. The gound did not absorb water. It turned the top several inches into thick gumbo mud. New arrivals were getting stuck in the mud, and volunteers went to pull cars and trucks out of the mud. Finally it got so bad that some rigs were left out in the mud, and their gear was transported the rest of the way in other people's trucks.

We had raincoats but no boots. I tied plastic grocery bags over my shoes and up around my lower legs, to try and keep my feet dry. Some who didn't have raincoats took large garbage bags and made ponchos. I would have cut a hole in the top and stuck my head through, but some of these people were smarter than me! Like John McCann. He said you make a hole along one edge, with the top edge of the hole a few inches from the bottom of the bag, and Ta-Da! You have a hooded poncho! (You'll see a picture of it later on this blog!)

Setting up a tipi

2010-06-22T00:42:00.000-07:00

A call went up to help a man from Idaho set up his tipi. Steven was among several who headed out itno the rain and mud to help. I slogged along with my camera, since I'd never seen a tipi being set up. The tipi poles were 27' long. He tied three together about 1/4 of the way down from their tops.
With two of them parallel and the third one across from it, and a rope hanging down from where they were tied together, the men pulled them upright.

They spread the poles so it would balance.

Then the remaining poles were leaned up against the three to complete the circle, a total of 18 poles.

Slick, heavy, wet poles! It rained a steady light rain the whole time.

The tipi cover was attached to another pole and raised into place.

Then the cover was pulled around the poles.

The dinner bell rang (or in this case, the dinner "horn" blew!), so we left the tipi project and went to the Mess tent. Dinner was hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad, macaroni salad, and pop. Everyone ate standing around under the tarps, then scurried through the pouring rain to their tents. Steven went back to the tipi to help lace up the cover and peg it down.

The tipi belongs to George, who was here with his dog, Gilbert, to teach brain-tanning and snaring. He's a full-time trapper and lives part of the year in a tipi to run his trap line. Here's his tipi the next day:

We we returned to our tent for the night we hung our coats, clothes, shoes, and socks under the tarp-breezeway and in the tent, to dry. We were lulled to sleep by the sound of rain overhead, and woke to the same sound!

Breakfast and mud

2010-06-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

MONDAY:

Puddles were everywhere now, and everywhere we went was through foot-high wet grass, which soaked everything up...oh, about a foot high from the ground! Meaning most of us had wet pant legs, socks, and shoes. We could have run around in flip-flops and shorts and not worried about it, but it was 52 degrees. Steven waded up to the Mess tent and had a cup of hot chocolate, then brought a cup of it back to me. I was still warm in my snug (and dry!) sleeping bag! Nothing we hung over night had dried.

The breakfast horn sounded (whatever happened to dinner BELLS?) and I dragged myself out of the sleeping bag, got dressed, and went up to join the chow line.
People gathered under the tarps to eat. Breakfast was pancakes, sausage, oatmeal, milk, and/or juice. I might have missed a thing or two. There was always lots of food.

On display was parfleches and sandals, just two of the many interesting things we had an opportunity to make or learn how to make. These were made by the teacher of the class...um...umm...what what his name again?

One thing is for sure, he does darn good work!

Wilderness First Aid

2010-06-22T00:15:00.001-07:00

We went to the Wilderness First Aid class, taught by Brian and Jason. First we learned the common basics: ABC and he had a DE. That's Airway, Breathing, Circulation, which are the first things you need to check for and re-establish if they aren't functioning. "D" was "disability" meaning obvious serious injury to or dismemberment of limbs, and I can't remember what "e" is. There's also "EVPU". Eyes, which means, are they alert enough to see you? Verbal, which means can they talk to you? Pain, which means if you do something like squeeze a little hard on their shoulder (think "spock grip") do they respond with a grimace or other indicator that they feel discomfort/pain? Unresponsive means, well, it's obvious.

Here's Brian torturing, er...I mean demonstrating First Aid techniques on Jason.
His general advice was to plug the holes (the ones that AREN'T supposed to be there), with anything. If it's close enough, it's good enough. You need to stop the bleeding. In their emergency responder kits they keep cool things like Celox, which is a powder you can sprinkle on the bleeding places and it'll clot the blood. Things like that can be ordered from Chinook Medical (http://www.chinookmed.com/), as well as other medical supply sites. He said you can also use instant mashed potato powder/flakes. Potato starch is naturally sterile.

You can sterilize a bandage with water purifier from your pack, such as chlorine or iodine tablets. A bandage cloth (such as a t-shirt) can be laid in the sun for 15 minutes or so to sterilize it, especially if it's a light color. Any drinkable water can be used to wash a wound. You don't need to use anything fancy. A 60 cc. syringe is great to have in your first aid kit for washing wounds. Other things that will help blood to clot are crushed dandelion root and the underside of a Mullein leaf.

Most wounds don't need field stitching. Taping is better since any dirt or bacteria inside the wound can cause infection, and if you stitch it shut, the bad stuff can't get out. If you just HAVE to stitch, there's a handy thing called a skin stapler, also available from Chinook Medical.

He demonstrated several types of tourniquets. Each of us need to research and find which one we like best and what we can afford. You don't apply them to stop bleeding. You only use them for a severed or mostly-severed limb. You place them 1" to 1 1/2" above the injury. Splints can be field-rigged with sticks, etc., but if you want something for your medical kit there's the "Sam Splint" and the cheaper "Dixie Splint".

To diagnose a sprained ankle, squeeze the two leg bones together with your hand just above the ankle. If the person has a surge of pain from that, the ankle is possibly broken. Otherwise it's probably a sprain. You can take the triangular bandage from your first aid kit (what? you don't have one???) and wrap it. Let's see if I can describe what he did...roll it into a long "rope", go under the foot with the middle of it, pull it up each side of the foot, behind the ankle and cross it, back around to the front, pull the ends under the ones that come up from under the foot, and tie it in front of the ankle.

You can go to their website for more information and some videos of the techniques he showed us: http://raems.com/. That stands for "Remote Areas Emergency Medicine and Survival". It's a great site with lots of information. (After I got home I checked it out)

Last but not least, Brian enthralled us with his demonstration of using a catheter to stop a nose bleed. You really just had to be there...

Making bows and gourd bowls

2010-06-22T00:00:00.001-07:00

Sig did a class teaching how to make bowls out of gourds. These were huge gourds, like medium-sized pumkins! They cut them in half and pulled, scooped, scraped, and buffed the guts out of them. Then they decorated them. Here you can see the pile of gourds on the ground, and some people picking out their gourds.
A student works on their gourd:

And here's the master of the craft:

Right down the street (well, okay, pretty much next to the gourd people) was the class on bow-making. Here are staves laying on the table, each one crying out in their little stick voices "pick me, pick me!" as students selected their stave and began to work on it:

The staves are clamped down for shaving and sanding.

Ditto

Announcements and sleeping arrangements

2010-06-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Announcements were made from atop this spool...but it looks like the moment that I froze in time in this picture captured a moment when no one was sure what was going on (or who to blame!)
The schedule was posted in the Mess tent. I took a picture so I'd always have a copy of the schedule with me as I walked around:

Here's a creative and colorful camp set-up:

And a mixture of the old and new:

"Killing 101" and "Brain Tanning"

2010-06-21T22:45:00.001-07:00

The next class was "Killing 101", taught by George (the tipi guy). He used his dog, Gilbert, as a demonstration tool. (Inserted edit: Sigh...no, people, he didn't actually hit or stomp on the dog, he merely pointed out WHERE to do such things! Quit sending me emails about this! lol)
The first part of his class dealt with killing an animal you've caught in a trap. It's assumed you want the critter for the fur, so you don't want bullet holes or blood on it. When you come across an animal caught in a trap, you need to look for the "damage circle" where the animal has thrashed about, trying to get free. The grass and brush will probably be tore up as far as the animal could reach. Try to stay out of that zone. Use a stick, shovel handle or whatever you can get your hands on, and smack the animal across the nose about midway. That will drop the animal, and then you can stomp on it's rib cage just behind the front shoulder to crush the heart.

Other tidbits he shared with us included that the ears on a bear never grow. If you see a bear with little ears, it's a big bear! When you're shooting an animal for the fur, he recommended aiming for an eye (um...I need more practice). Most animals can be taken with a .22 long-rifle. He said an animal doesn't actually chew it's foot off to get out of a trap. What happens is that as the leg goes numb the animal starts turning and twisting until the leg breaks off.

His recipe for attractant/lure for traps: Rendered fish oil, which is made by putting a whole fish in a jar in the sun and letting it sit until nothing is left except bones. Mix that with 4 drops skunk scent and half a beaver castor.

Next he moved on to talking about brain-tanning hides. You don't have to use the brains from the animal who's hide you're tanning. Any brains from any animal can be used. You can store the brains in the freezer until you're ready to tan with them. He's created a "brain blaster" using a piece of garden hose to flush the brains out of the cranial (skull) cavity. He jabs it in the back where the spinal cord was connected and flushes them out into a waiting container.

When it's time to tan he thaws the brains and puts them in a blender to even out the consistency. He pours them in a kettle and mixes them with water, then brings them to a boil.

When it reaches boiling he shuts off the heat. Meanwhile, he has a fleshed-out hide ready to work. If it's a fox or something skinned whole, the skin/hide is turned inside out. After the brains & water mix is cool enough to put his latex-gloved hand into, he scoops out a handful and swishes it up and down along the skin. Be generous and keep adding brains and spreading it out until you've covered the whole skin.

See, even the women were doing this too!

Rub the brains into the hide and just keep rubbing all over until the whole hide is saturated with them. This doesn't take long. Then you just keep working it with your fingers, stretching and pulling, up and down and all over, for a few hours until the hide is dry. If you need to stop along the way, just put it in a plastic bag and keep in a cool place. It doesn't have to be a refrigerator. It was in the mid-50s and we left them in bags for hours while attending other classes.

George had a trash bag full of fox skins, all fleshed-out and ready to tan. If you wanted to tan one, you picked one out and paid him. They varied in price from $30 to $70. Steven picked out a $50 red fox with darker legs. It's beautiful. I just took pictures for the first part of the procedure, then later helped him for a little while on stretching.

The next step in tanning, after you've stretched and worked the hide with your fingers until it's dry, is to smoke it. (It's hard to roll it in those little papers...oh wait, nevermind!) George uses a small wood-burning tent heater/stove with charcoal briquettes and punk wood (such as very rotted/decomposing trees). You want very little heat and a lot of smoke. He had a 3' stove pipe, and on top of the stove pipe was a leg cut from a pair of canvas (cotton) jeans. You staple the bottom of the hide around the top of the jeans and plug the leg and neck holes with paper towels:

Let the smoke run through the hide until the inside of the hide is light brown (about 45 minutes). Then you're done! If you want, you can wash the hide with Ivory Bar soap (NOT detergent) to remove the smoke smell. The hide will dry nice and soft.

This method can be used for any type of hide. Antelope skins make good shirts. They're thin, soft, and they breathe. George used 5 antelope hides to make this shirt:

Deer and Elk hides make good jackets. He uses buffalo rawhide for moccasin soles. Rabbit (wild ones such as cottontail)), muskrat, and beaver have very thin skins and are hard to tan. Domestic rabbits and jackrabbits are easier. Coyote and fox peel like a rabbit. Split the tail all the way up to make sure the tail bone is all the way out. Turn the hide inside-out and flesh (scrape all membrane and tissue off) the hide. Spread it on a stretcher to dry for a day or more. A stretcher can be made of wood or wire, in a long, oval loop. Pull the hide over like a sock. George said that a dry hide absorbs brains better.

Here's Steven's finished fox at home:

This might be where you need to click on "older posts", below and to the right, to get to the next page. Do that each time you get to the bottom of a page, until you get to the end of Dirt Time.

Lunch!

2010-06-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

The lunch horn sounded and Steven put his fox skin in a bag and we went up and got in the chow line. We were never in a hurry to actually get to the food, since the conversations with those around us were always interesting. Today's lunch was chili (sprinkled with shredded cheese), macaroni & cheese, leftover macaroni salad, and leftover hot dog buns tore into squares to pass as "dinner rolls" (Waste not...!), and fruit.
Some of the people making gourd bowls used them for their chili. Here are those who "have":

and those who "have not"! It's funny how the gourd bowl people ended up segregated from the styrofoam people!

And here's more people spread around, eating wherever they found a space to set their stuff!

"Primitive Forge"

2010-06-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

After lunch we went to a class called "The Primitive Forge", taught by Jason. You can make a forge if you're out in the wilderness, as long as you can find some metal to work with once you have the forge made. You might ask yourself why you'd want a forge in a wilderness/survival situation, and certainly you shouldn't be looking for things to do that with until you've covered the first essentials, such as shelter, fire, water, food, etc. But if you're there a while and want to make some tools, start scavenging around for metal scraps. You can often find metal in even the most remote places. Who hasn't been so far out in the wilderness that they thought maybe they were the only people to have stepped on that soil, and then found a beer can?

For your forge project, first you want to make some charcoal. Soft wood like pine makes faster charcoal than hard wood. Ideally, you could stuff a 55-gallon barrel with the wood, punch holes in the lid for gases to escape, and light a fire underneath it. After a while smoke will start to come out the holes in the lid. When it quits smoking, your charcoal is done.

Obviously, 55-gallon metal barrels aren't likely to be handy in the wilderness. For our class he used a small campfire burned down to coals. He mixed sand and mud to make clay. Here, Robin is mixing the clay in a bucket while Jason explains the procedure:

Then Jason made a horseshoe-shaped bowl on the ground, about 18" long and 12" across:

Then he improvised a bellows with a trash bag. He said you can use things like clothing, stuff bags, anything that will hold air, even if it's not air tight. He had found a leg bone from a cow in a nearby field, and he used a stick in a hand-drill fashion to get the marrow out, creating a tube. The tube can be made out of anything hollow: bone, reed, pipe, whatever you can find or make.

He took the garbage bag and cut a hole on one bottom corner and attached that over the end of the cow bone tube. He used duct tape, but you could tie it with cord if you didn't happen to find duct tape while scavenging the wilds (or didn't have some in your pack). The other bottom corner was available to be weighted down with a foot or a rock so it wouldn't blow or twist. If you have an extra person available they can be your bellows person, but the whole procedure can be done by only one person:

Next Jason dug a rench through one side of the mud horseshoe and buried the other end of the cow bone so the opening was near the bottom of the fire bowl. The coals from the campfire were scooped into the bowl. He laid a piece of scrap metal, in this case, rebar, in the fire. A volunteer from the class worked the bellows by scooping air with the garbage bag, holding it closed with his hands, and squeezing it to force the air through the cow bone. The air rushed onto the coals and made them super-hot. Heat rises, so you want to keep your metal above the heat, not shoved down into it.

Now you need somehting to hit on, and something to hit with. To hit "on", find a rock, cement, or anything hard and not flammable. To hit with, use a rock, or hammer if you have one. (This is also something a person can do in their backyard where you might have all kinds of things available.)

If you're using a chisel, say, to "cut" a heated piece of metal, such as a lawn mower blade or rebar, dip it in water between blows to keep it cool and hardened. Here Jason is using a chisel to cut a heated piece of metal:

When making something long, like a sword (katana) work only 2" at a time, since that's all you can properly heat at a time. You can hammer a knife blade out of clay first to get a feel for it so you don't waste a lot of steel.

Work at the far edge of your anvil so the hammer won't hit the anvil instead of the metal you're working and cause an uneven surface.

You can use a bellows for cooking. He said water will boil in less than 3 minutes. In the Gobi desert there isn't wood for fires, so they cook over horse manure. They carry a portable bellows so their food cooks faster.

Other tidbits: The Japanese folded steel to work the impurities out of it. They actually were making steel, not forging it. Also, he said some railroad spikes are made of iron and can't be worked on a forge. In fact, if you overwork your steel, pounding on it too much, you'll make it into iron.

"Survival Kits"

2010-06-21T21:44:00.001-07:00

After that was John's class on "Survival Kits". He listed 7 basics for a Survival Kit: Fire-starting, Water (purify, store, carry), Shelter, Signal (for help), Navigation, Means to collect food (snare wire, knife), and Medical (even if it's just steri-strips/band-aids). Those are the main categories you work from.

Here John shows one of his compact Survival kits:
And an even MORE compact kit:
Here it is up close:

John's hat had 30' of braided parachute cord for a hat band. Inside that he had fish hooks and line. He also had a magnesium fire starter in his hat. He had a bandana, which can be used as a sling, to filter water, and even to blow your nose on!

He carries an oven bag, folded into a tiny bundle, for a water bag. Before hand, he pours a liter of water into the bag and marks the water line. Then he has a measure to go by. You can use a camera bag, a mint can (such as Altoids), or any type of bag or container for a Survival Kit. Even the very compact kits he demonstrated were packed with an amazing amount of stuff. Metal containers for your kits can be used to cook in, boil water, or melt snow.

He recommended Contractor's trash bags. They can be used as a poncho, a shelter, to carry water, or can be filled with leaves to make a mattress and/or blanket. Here John models the method he uses to cut a trash bag to make a hooded poncho:

A cable saw can be coiled and packed, or even built into the belt aorund your waist. Foil cooking pans can be folded flat and carried in your pocket. (Good reason to wear cargo pants! Those pockets aren't just for decoration!)

You should have lengths of parachute cord. There is a multitude of uses for it, such as tying things (even tying on splints or bandages), using it to hold together a shelter, etc. An important note is to be careful what you buy. Paracord is NOT parachute cord. Real parachute cord has 7 strands. Another type of useful cord is the replacement cord from venetian blinds.

Rubber tubing is handy to have. You can use it to blow on your fire to rev it up, to make a slingshot, or as a straw. Sewing bobbins can be used to wind up fishing line or snare wire. For snare wire he recommended 24-gauge brass wire.

Make a bail handle for all of your pots and cups. Punch a small hole on each side of the top of the pot or cup. Bend a wire into an arch, hook up the last little bit of the wire and put it through the holes. He cuts a small notch in the top of the rim near the holes to keep the wire in place, upright:

An antenna wire can be used to push the pith out of the center of sticks, and it can be stuck on the end of your tubing to make a better straw or blow tube.

For more information John has a wonderful website where you can not only get more information, but also order all sorts of products to make putting your own Survival Kit together a fun project: http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/. He is the author of the first book devoted solely to buidling survival kits.

Waiting for dinner

2010-06-21T21:31:00.001-07:00

After John's class we had time before dinner, so we went back to George's tipi so Steven could work more on his fox hide. After I used up all my excuses (taking pictures, asking questions!) I helped Steven stretch the hide. It wasn't really icky, just kind of clammy and rubbery-feeling. As we worked it and it got drier it felt almost like worn-out velvet.

I took pictures inside the tipi but it was hard to get back far enough. Here, George is looking at someone's fox skin. The fire is in the middle of the tipi. If I remember right, this tipi has about a 20' diameter at the ground.

This is looking up toward the opening at the top.

Dinner was chicken breasts cooked with brocoli and zucchini in broth, sliced potatoes in gravy, lettuce salad, and rolls. Dessert was bread pudding with banana slices in it. Here's the chow line as everyone waited in the rain to go through the serving tent:

Rainwater ran off the edges of the tarps strung about to provide shelter in the eating area, and we clustered under them in whatever somewhat-dry places we could find. As we walked back to our tent we passed this setup of a hammock covered by a tarp. There were a few other people sleeping this way, too:

When we got to the tent we sat in our breezeway area and Steven worked on his fox hide, which was hard to do since he was laying on his side...oh wait, the picture is sideways! I hate fixing stuff like that after I upload it.

I read a book I'd brought along, when I wasn't taking pictures or annoying Steven!

The rain stopped around the time it got dark and the sky started to clear out.

"Edible wild plants" and "Tracking"

2010-06-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

TUESDAY:

We woke to a clear sky and it was sunny all day! Steven brought hot chocolate to me again in the tent! Breakfast, like all meals this week, was an hour late. I think the cooks were on California time, but that's fine because it gives us time to mingle and talk to other people! Sometimes we learn as much while we're waiting and in the chow line as we do in the classes! Breakfast today was potato & egg casserole with options like onions, peppers, and cheese to sprinkle on top, and/or oatmeal.

First class today was Identifying Wild Plants, with Christopher Nyerges as teacher. He gave a talk on plants and plant families, and passed around several books, some of which were written by him, and some by other authors such as Tom Elpel. I looked through one called "How to Survive Anything" by Christopher, and decided it would be high up on my "to buy" list!

He showed us several mushrooms he'd found here and pointed out features that lend themselves to either edible or non-edible:

Then we walked around and he pointed out edible plants. First was Sage:

Next was wild onion, followed by Yellow Dock (pictured):

Lamb's quarter:

Mustard:

and Salsify:

He advised us to NOT try to learn it all at once. Set a goal, such as to learn one or two new plants each time.

The next class was called "Tracking", and we skipped that class and went up to watch the people who were making bows:

and gourd bowls:

There was always lively conversation around, and much sharing of ideas and information.

"Atlatl"

2010-06-21T20:30:00.001-07:00

Lunch was sandwiches. At the start of the line you picked up a plate and bread, went down the line and picked which meat you wanted: roast beef, ham,or corned beef. Then you picked from cheese, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes, and condiments to top it all off. There was chips, potato salad, fruit salad, and "Tang" drink to round out the meal!

Paul taught a class after lunch on the Atlatl, an ancient throwing device. The Atlatl turns your wrist into a catapult. Grip the spear closer to the notch for short-range throws and farther out for long-range throws. It's actually called a "Dart" and not a "Spear". It's important that the tail end of the dart has flex to straighten the path as it flies. Momentum equals speed plus weight (or was that "times" weight?).

The Atlatl is the tool that you hold and use to throw the dart. The Atlatl doesn't have to be flexible. But an Atlatl that IS flexible has a "whip" effect. Add a stone weight a little past center toward the front (which stabilizes it) and you can get more throwing distance. A person who throws hard and fast doesn't need as much flex.

Here Paul holds up an Atlatl while talking to the class:

The Atlatl is an ancient weapon that was used mostly in North America, but was found in other parts of the world, such as parts of Europe. Below, a student looks over Paul's display of Atlatls and darts:

Paul had sticks for making the Atlatl, and bamboo for making the darts. Those who wanted to make one picked a stick, got out their knife, and got started:

This is me, working on my Atlatl on against a limb laying on the ground:

"Fire Starting"

2010-06-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Fire Starting was the next class, taught by Al and Michael. Here Al explains what you need for the bow drill method:

It's important to use the right material. For the hand drill and bow drill methods, use light-density wood, such as the flower stalk of Bear grass for a hearth board (the board on the ground), and a piece of Cottonwood root for the drill. For tinder you can shred dry bark, such as Cottonwood or Juniper. You can also crumble the fungus growing on a dead Cottonwood tree. In the picture below notice how he pins the hearth board down with sticks, then kneels on them to hold them in place:

Check to see if you're using good materials. Drill for a few minutes, then look at the sawdust. It should be a fine powder. If it's coarse like coffee grounds, don't use it. Find different wood. Al said "The drill should be harder than the hearth board if you can't find similar wood." It's okay to use the same wood for the drill and the hearth board.

To do the hand drill, spit on your hands and rub it on the stick to lubricate it. It helps your hands grip the stick as you spin it. Make a divot (dip) with your pocket knife into the hearth board to hold the drill in place. Here, Al has gotten an ember and dumped it into his tinder bundle. Now he's blowing on it and is beginning to get a flame:

I'm not going to describe the procedure for starting the fire. Many websites, including http://www.youtube.com/ have exellent videos on primitive fire starting. Watching those would teach you better than any description I could give. So I'll just share the tips that Al and Michael gave us.

Keep your tinder bundle tight so that after you dump the ember into it, the ember won't fall out the other end. After you dump the ember into it, hold it up level with your face, not below, so the smoke won't blow into your face. Other tinder you can use besides shredded bark include goose down, very dry animal dung, inner fur of cat, fox, dog, etc., and the soft side of a mullein leaf. If you're using short shreds of tinder you can leave the tinder bundle sitting on the ground while you blow on it.

When you're drilling, go easy until you see smoke. Here, Michael was just starting to get smoke with his bow drill:

And here is Al doing a bow-drill without a bow, using his mouth to hold the board that pins down the drill, and his hands instead of a stick to pull the string back and forth like a bow:

Michael holds up the parts for using a Fire Piston to make a fire:

Al demonstrates a bamboo method from Asia or the south Pacific. They put tinder in the top piece of bamboo, cut a slit in the bottom, and rubbed it on the bottom piece of bamboo until they got an ember where the tinder sits on the slit. It takes a little longer but it works:

Once you see smoke, put your energy into it. But don't rush once you get an ember. It's okay to let the ember sit a couple minutes in the hearth board. It ignites more dust while you're waiting to dump it into the tinder bundle.

Dinner and Flint-Knapping

2010-06-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dinner was barbequed pulled pork, rice with veggies, rolls, pop, and for dessert there was this pudding/cool whip stuff with chocolate graham cracker crumbs on it, and gummy worms. After dinner Steven and I wandered over to whereChris and Rick were doing some flint-knapping (making arrow heads and spear heads):
My notes from that are confusing to me: "Hammerstone, grinder, rough-ish rock, round. Abrade the edge of the obsidian (or whatever rock) to knock off little flakes." I think it means that the hammerstone is a grinder. You use a rough stone for that:

Grind it off some, then smack it with a billet to break off a flat piece, like what could be used to make an arrowhead. Moose antler pieces make a good billet, which is for rough break-up work. The club-like thing in his hand is the billet:

Chert is good for scraping hides. It's sharp and flat. Naviculite is also called "Arkansas whet stones." Heat-treating the rocks in a kiln or oven makes them more workable. Raise the temperature only 30 to 50 degrees at a time until you reach top temperature. After it's at top temperature for the required time, lower it by the same method. The length of time varies. Oil chert goes for 8 hours ad 325. Naviculite baked at 1,200 comes out like glass.

Boone, who is from South Carolina, joined us, and the conversation wandered from flint-knapping to gardening and rambled over a few other topics. Around 10:00 Steven and I headed down to our tent. The weather was about perfect today.

Below is a picture of what Chris was working on:

"Ropes/Knots"

2010-06-21T19:39:00.001-07:00

WEDNESDAY:

It was sunny again today and the mud was drying up. Steven brought me hot chocolate in the tent again this morning! (Actually, he did that every morning this week!) What a nice guy...and what a lot of "brownie points" he's earning! For breakfast there was French toast, bacon, oatmeal, fruit salad, and milk or punch. Now that it's dry, most people brought their folding lawn chairs up to the eating area, then carried them along to use at the classes.

Today's classes started with a Ropes/Knot-tying class taught by Daniel. Before teaching us some knots he talked about ropes. He cut off the end of a couple ropes and showed us how to tell a good rope from a bad rope. A bad rope will have a fuzzy cord running down the center and you can pull the "guts" out of the rops. A good rope will have several cords inside and they won't pull out. A # 10 climbing rope is rated for 5,200 lbs., whereas a cheap rope of the same diameter is only rated at 300 lbs. Here he holds a rope while he talks:

A "Static" rope is one that doesn't stretch. That's not something you want to be tied in to, because if you fall, the jerk of the rope when you bottom out will snap your back, or worse. A "bite" is a turn in the rope, or loop. "Shorts" are the ends from the rope factories, and can be up to 30 meters in length. A quality rope is made from one piece, never spliced. Sterling Rope is a US company that makes very strong ropes.

The rescue ropes they use in Search & Rescue are rated at 4,000 lbs. They use a ratio of 10:1 safety rating. Meaning if they're going to be raising or lowering 400 lbs. (such as one rescuer, one victim), they want a rope rated for 4,000 lbs.

He started with an easy knot, the square knot:
There's a variation of this called the "Thieve's knot". Legend is that sailors used it to tie their gear. It looks like a square knot at first glance, but one of the ends comes out the other side of the loop. If someone messed with their gear, they'd re-tie it with a square knot. The sailors could tell before they untied it if it had been tampered with.

Next was a Figure-8 knot: Over, under, through. He said to keep the knots clean and untwisted. Minimum of 3" of rope sticking out from the knot. A bowline, which he taught us next, holds 70% of the rope's rated weight when tied right. Improperly tied it's 30% less strong.

Never put your hand in a bite (loop) of rope while tying a knot. If the load suddenly pulls the rope tight, you could injure or lose your hand or wrist.

I'd never known much more than the knot used to tie my shoes, so I found this class very helpful!

Steven and I shared a rope, and while I was waiting I practiced a knot Daniel taught us called a "Totline" with my shoelace:
To learn these and other knots go to: http://www.animatedknots.com/

"Gazing"

2010-06-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

Next was a fascinating class called "Gazing", taught by Peter. The gist of the class was to teach your eyes to be more alert and to process information faster. He told us that 2% of vision is "center focus" and the other 98% is peripheral vision. Here's Peter explaining that:
In low light, like after dark when you're walking back to your tent and you've forgotten your flashlight, use your peripheral vision rather than straining to focus your center vision. It'll give your brain enough information to help you get to where you're going.

The information from the left part of both eyes goes to the right part of the brain, and vice-versa. A different part of the brain registers motion. There are 6 muscles that control the eyes.

He had us take a pen (or a finger if we didn't have a pen) and hold it out in front of our face. Then we slowly moved it toward our nose. When we started seeing two pens instead of one, we were to stop and back it off a bit until we only saw one again. Then move it closer until it doubles again, then back off. Each time we did that we were able to get the pen closer to our nose without getting double-vision. He said if we keep doing that exercise we'll improve our close-up vision, and those who use reading glasses might eliminate the need for them eventually.

He passed out papers with two vertical columns of letters, and working with a partner, we had to run our eyes back and forth between the columns. First the top letter on the left, over to the top letter on the right, then to the second letter on the left, to the second letter on the right, and so forth. He timed us 20 seconds, and the more times your eyes moved back and forth, the faster your eye focused and your brain processed information.

Playing "chase" with laser lights can improve hand-eye coordination. You and a friend each get a little laser flashlight. One person "leads" and runs the light around on a ceiling or other surface, and the other person "chases" the light with theirs.

We went outside and broke into groups of 6. He passed out tennis balls with number written all around them with a marker. We tossed the ball to each other in our groups, and the object was to call out what number or numbers we saw on the ball as it came toward us. After a while he told us to give the ball a spin when we tossed it to make it more challenging. He told us we could do this by ourselves, too, by tossing the ball into the air and seeing how many numbers we could identify before we caught it.
He recommended a book called "Sports Vision" but I found two different books by that title on amazon.com, so I'm not sure which one he meant. (Insert Edit: Peter contacted me with the link to the book he recommended: http://www.amazon.com/Sportsvision-Training-Performance-Thomas-Wilson/dp/0736045694/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277517838&sr=8-3. Thanks, Peter!)

Lunch was after that, and it was your choice of 3 soups: bean with bacon, cream of potato with broccoli, and beef with vegetables. They were mostly made with leftovers, and it was hard to pick which one to have. They all looked and smelled so good! (I had the bean soup!)

"Knives"

2010-06-21T19:13:00.001-07:00

Rod Garcia talked about knives and knife sharpening. Rod makes the "Skookum Bush Tool", which is a very exellent wilderness knife (http://www.skookumbushtool.com/). He crafted it after the description of the perfect bush knife in the book "Bushcraft" by Mors Kochanski (around $12 on amazon.com). Here he is holding one up:
And here he is holding up one of the blades of an unfinished knife:

The holes in the handle are for tying the knife onto a stick for reaching, such as to cut a limb. Don't ever throw it like a spear. You might be throwing away your primary weapon. The Skookum has a small hole near the tip of the blade. It's for making the knife into shears. He pinned the blade between two small boards with a nail, then used it like a paper-cutter to chop. He chopped a willow stick about the thickness of a fat pencil as a demonstration:

The things we learned from him: A knife cuts where the energy goes. Consider where your follw-through cut will go. Batoning saves energy. Lay the knife blade on a limb and smack it with a baton. The baton is made of a piece of wood slightly smaller than your wrist and about 12" to 18" long.

A neck-hung sheath is easier to get to in cold climates when you're bundled up in lots of clothes and coats, than one on your belt.

He talked briefly about knife-sharpening and showed us some angles and the direction to go, and what materials to use. His advice was to go to http://www.youtube.com/ and watch videos by Ray Mears on knife sharpening.

Arrows and Trolls

2010-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

After Rod's class there was one on "Signaling", and I heard people talking favorably about it afterward, but we didn't go to it. Instead we went back to work more on our Atlatls. Steven nearly finished his. I worked on mine a little while, then wandered back up to the eating area to check out the other things going on. The people who had made bows were now making arrows and attaching real arrowheads and fletching to them. This guy posed for me:

The people making gourd bowls were to the stage of decorating them, and I didn't take pictures, just talked...sorry! Quite a few have been using them in the chow line instead of the stryofoam plates the rest of us have been using. I wish I'd made one!

Sig, the guy who taught the gourd class, is a great wood carver. He sat there idly carving away at a chunk of Basswood, and next thing you know he had this little troll-looking guy carved out, complete with a little backpack! It looked almost like Steven, and everyone was laughing. Someone brought it over and held it up next to him and I took a picture. Later, Sig came over and gave it to Steven and said he'd like him to have it. We were touched by that. The little figure now sits in our living room and I feel a tug of "homesickness" for Dirt Time and all the wonderful people when I see it sitting there! (I think that's Zen's hand holding the carving by Steven's shoulder!)

The cooks did a fantastic job of recycling leftovers into amazing meals. Not only did I enjoy everything they cooked, I was happy because I didn't have to plan the meals, round up the food, cook it, and then do the clean-up! For me, THAT was a real vacation!

Raffle, Trade Blanket, and Group photos

2010-06-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY:

Thunderstorms had been predicted for over night, but all we got was a few rain showers that moved through. It was sunny today, but very windy. Everyone seemed to get a late start, partly because so many of us sat up talking most of the night! Breakfast wasn't until 8:30: hash browns, eggs, sausage patties, and oatmeal. They were out of milk!

Some people wanted to go ahead and leave today, so they moved up the raffle and trade blanket. having them this morning instead of after lunch. In the raffle I got a Cold Steel knife, and Steven got something called "Ribz", which is a vest-type deal with pockets and pouches on the front. Here's a picture of John demonstrating one earlier in the week in his class:

A backpack can be worn with it. This way you can keep things handy in front where you can get to them when you need them.

The Trade Blanket was a tarp in the middle of the circle of people. If you had something you wanted to trade away, you laid it on the blanket when it was your turn. If someone was interested in the item, they could lay down something they were offering in trade. Sometimes several people were interested and laid down items they would trade for it. Whoever laid down the first item could decide if they wanted anything that was laid down as a trade offering, and if not, they could pick up their item and there was no trade. You could also offer cash.

Around the outside of the circle people spread stuff on blankets or tarps that they were selling (or trading). Steven spread out a few things he brought, mostly lead balls and bullets he'd cast himself at home, and vacuum-sealed in plastic bags of 50. He sold two bags of balls for a 54 muzzleloader.

When that wound down lunch was served. I don't remember what all there was, but I remember some kind of thick-sliced meat (pork? beef?), and watermelon.

Certificates were handed out to the teachers (to make them feel important...lol!), then a photo was taken of them. This was actually before the raffle, but I already have the picture loaded here. If you were there, see how many you can name:

Then everyone was assembled for a group photo. I see myself, but I can't find Waldo:

Both of the above photos were taken, I believe, by Alan Halcon. They were posted on the Dirt Time forum by John McCann.

"Caching"

2010-06-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

After the group picture we went over to the barn where Dude gave a class on "Caching". He started off by asking us what's the one item people forget when they're caching. It's a shovel to dig up the cache! He said to hide the shovel but put it where critters won't eat the wood.

Put the contents of a cache into separate bags with a string attached listing the contents on a label. Burying the cache vertical is better than horizontal. Determine the goal or reason for that particular cache when you make your list and start assembling things. Plan out what each item is for.

This is John laying on the floor taking a picture of Dude! Ignore him! *ahem*...

Don't add items piecemeal. Get everything together, including the bags and container, and let it sit for 8 or 9 hours in the same room, such as a bedroom, living room, or garage. You want to let the temperature and humidity equalize among all the items before you pack them into the container. Moisture absorbers are a good item to put in, too.

Don't hide everything in and/or around your house. Be prepared to lose your cache. Have several caches, including some easier-to-find caches of less-important stuff. Most people, when they find one of your caches, will think they've found it all and they'll take it and leave.

Ideas for caching include fake plumbing pipes in your basement. Most people know nothing about plumbing, and even some plumbers won't notice pipes that aren't "real". Drain pipes, which have a bigger diameter, are best. Even heat-duct pipes that don't really connect to your furnace can be used for caching.

If you're storing batteries, put them in a glass container so that if they leak, it won't damage anything. Watch out for water tables when you cache, and for creeks and reservoirs. They can rise without warning, and every-so-often flood higher than the usual high water level. Trees are a good place, especially evergreens, for a small cache. People don't look up, in general.

Don't count on a GPS to mark the locations. The batteries could go bad, or the satellites could be down. Make a map and mark the location from 3 directions. Key off of less obvious features. Tell someone where your map is. (Someone you trust, not Ed down at the bar, or whoever!)

Be careful about your surroundings when digging and hiding/burying stuff. People can turn up anywhere at any hour. Have dublicates/copies of important papers in your caches. If the grid goes down it could take 6 months to 3 years to restore it (if ever).

Groove out the top of doors and hide things in the trench, such as ammunition. Drill out the legs of furniture and hide things inside. In older homes you can take up the window sills and hide things under them, inside the wall, then replace the sill. In the dead air space of appliances and under bathtubs there's room for things. You can make a false back under stairs.

The most common place women hide things is in the kitchen; men tend to hide things in the bedroom or garage, and up high. The bathroom is a good place. There's lots of metal there, so it'll be harder for anyone to find your stuff with a metal detector. A blacklight can expose patched places on drywall, even if it's been years and it's been repainted several times, so don't cut a hole in a wall to make a cache.

Near fence posts is a good place to cache. Don't be predictable, though. Most people who bury a backyard cache put them within sight of their bedroom window. It's a psychological thing. They can look out the window when they go to bed and sigh in contentment;, their cache is safe!

If you have a survival retreat don't store all your supplies in it. Cache them in the area, then retrieve them if you have to go there. If you're digging a hole for a cache and have to leave to go get your stuff, stash it somewhere close by when you come back and walk up to your hole without it, to make sure the area is still safe.

Lay a tarp next to where you're digging to catch the dirt and not leave an obvious digging site. Go DEEP, try to get below frost line (to prevent frost heave) and below where rain can wash the dirt off and expose it. The three words are AIRTIGHT, AIRTIGHT, and AIRTIGHT!

Whether to cache water depends on where you are and what your plan is. Don't use things like milk jugs, the plastic is too weak and decomposes. Pop bottles like 2-liter bottles are good, and glass jars. Large plastic barrels can be used but be sure they're "food grade". You can fill pop bottles and hide them all over the place and have a lot of water stored that people don't see or notice (under and behind couches and other furniture, etc.).

It's a waste to spread nails and metal junk around to try and "hide" your cache from metal detectors. They wonder why it's there, rake it away, and scan. You don't need to move your caches, or dig them up to check them. It's okay to stroll by now ant then and glance at it to make sure everything appears okay. Make sure you can access your master list 24/7. Put a map of the area, or any area you might need to go to, in each cache. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has free online courses in map-reading.

Use string and not pacing to mark your spot. Your pace might not always be the same. Some days you might be more tired or have a sore leg, be more anxious and walk faster, or grow old and walk slower. An example would be to cut a string to a 3' length and use that: "4 lengths from the south, 7 lengths from the east, 27 lengths from the north". Something like that.

Have alternative routes and make caches along each one. If you have to bug out and you can't go one direction, you'll have a back-up route (or 2 or 3) with supplies cached along them. If you have a trailer or small cabin at your BOL (bug-out location), you could buy some of that ugly "government green" paint and paint it. Use your computer and make up a phony "government" seal or emblem, and put it on the door. Maybe add warnings about radiation or chemicals.

"Advanced First Aid" and "Snaring"

2010-06-21T17:52:00.001-07:00

After the caching class Brian gave a class on Advanced First Aid. This one dealt with things like a collapsed lung and a "sucking chest wound". I have notes on what he said and showed us, but I'm not comfortable enough to try and describe it. The information should be available somewhere on the internet for those who want to learn, and classes are offered by many organizations. There are things I DO feel comfortable sharing. Sphagnum moss has antiseptic qualities and can be used on wounds. It also makes good insulation. You can cut into it and slide a hypothermia vicitm into it to warm them up. Something called "Burn Free" can be used on burns as well as on things like "road rash".

Explain to vicitms everything you're doing, even if they're unconscious. The last sense you lose is hearing, so talk to them as though they are awake. Touch them in a reassuring way as you work. The physical contact is comforting and can calm and reassure a victim. Be respectful, even if you think they're dead. Don't say things like "this one isn't gonna make it, let's work on the other one."

Tactical Medical Solutions has medical courses, though it's mostly patch jobs so you can drag them to safety for further treatment: http://www.tacmedsolutions.com/. There are also good videos on http://www.youtube.com/, under tactical medical solutions.

Above, Brian talks to the class, demonstrating on a dummy and showing us all kinds of cool things we could buy for our First Aid kits!

The last class of the week was "Snaring", taught by George next to his tipi. He showed us how to make a set with a snare, and gave tips.

Among his tips: leave as little scent as possible. Get in and get out, don't disturb anything more than necessary.

Last supper (of the week at Dirt Time!)

2010-06-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

As we waited for the dinner horn to sound we were deep in conversation with others. People were beginning to exchange info, arranging to keep in touch with each other, inviting people to visit them at home. We even found a few who were considering moving and tried to convince them to become OUR neighbors up here in Montana! I can't imagine people who would make nicer neighbors than all the people who attended Dirt Time! Though we are blessed with good neighbors that would make great attendees at Dirt Time, too!

Dinner was roast beef slices, corn-on-the-cob, potato slices, and rolls. It got dark and we were still up there talking with people. We were reluctant to go off to our own tents on this last night at Dirt Time. It's amazing how much you can bond with people in just a week.

The cooks had pineapple upside-down cake baking in 8 Dutch Ovens, stacked in two stacks of four, with coals on their lids.

Around 10:00 they served it with Cool Wip, and it was a dessert straight from heaven! The warm sweetness melted in our mouths, and the pineapple gave it a refreshing flavor.

We finally wandered to our tent for the night. Others stayed up as late as 4 AM (and maybe even later!) talking quietly around campfires.

Joe Dabill taught bow-making and arrow-making. He's sitting here flint-knapping an arrowhead.

This is Joe's wife. She does beautiful beadwork

The tent on the left was the "kitchen", and the tent on the right is where the serving line moved through to load up plates with food!

This family has cool toys!

There was a class on making parfleches and sandals. Here, a student wears the sandals he made this week.

Departure time

2010-06-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY

This morning's breakfast was sausage & gravy over hash brown/fried/previously boiled potatoes, watermelon, and whatever else was leftover. As the dew dried off people started packing up their tents and gear. We had to say good-bye to new friends as they headed off, either for drives home or to be driven to the airport for a flight home. I tried to keep it together and not get choked up as, one after another, people hugged me and said good bye. Finally, late in the morning we packed up our own tent and made our circle of good-bye's to those remaining. Pointing the car down the dirt road leading from the ranch, Dirt Time 2010 ws officially over for us.

Man, I can't wait until next year's Dirt Time! Thanks, everyone!

Now some last minute humor (outtakes?):

Steven and four others start a fire with a modified bow-drill method. (Like the lightbulb joke...how many guys does it take to start a fire...? lol)

This is "Robin's Nest"! Robin is a totally cool young man from California who joined all of us at Dirt Time. We need more young people like him. John McCann and a motley crew of others built this debris hut, and Robin moved into it!

Brian parked in a no-parking zone and they had to tow his van... (Seriously, that was some killer mud!)

Those are shoes/slippers/boots; whatever you call them!!!

The only electrical outlets were in the bathrooms of an old mobile home on the ranch property. There's my computer plugged in to charge.