Yesterday we unpacked and dried out a bunch of gear from the Allagash trip and cut the base logs for our new sauna. The students felled several trees with an axe, then sectioned them with a cross cut saw. It’t great to watch their expertise with these tools increase exponentially. We also covered general map [...]

My friend and colleague David Cronenwett of Montana emailed me with a link to an article about the incomparable Mors Kochanski and his philosophy of outdoor education, or what he prefers to call “tangible education”. It’s a short article, and you can read it here.

This morning marks the beginning of week 5 of the ESSP. This week we’re focusing on advanced navigation and foraging, so we’ll take a trip to the seacoast and spend an afternoon in a nearby swamp digging cattails. While we were on the Allagash our sauna stove arrived, made by my good friend Don Kevilus [...]

We had a great trip on the Allagash marked by warm weather and low water levels. Picking up two people on our drive north, we arrived at the bridge at the south end of Chamberlain Lake in the late afternoon, then loaded up the boats for the short paddle to Boy Scout campsite. Our party [...]

We’re off in the morning on our 12-day Allagash canoe trip. Packing is done and most of the gear is loaded. Everyone is excited and it’s sure to be a great trip.

Group size for our 12-day bushcraft and guide training canoe trip on the Allagash river has swelled to 11. In addition to the students who will be here for the entire semester, we’ve got people coming from Canada, Scotland, and even Japan for the trip. It’s pretty exciting, but planning and prepping for the group [...]

Last night the ESSP students and I attended a talk given by Tom Wessels, the author of Reading the Forested Landscape and other books. The talk focused on reading and understanding the history of the woods of New England for signs of farming and logging. Having heard him speak before I was prepared for the [...]

Yesterday we started with one match fires since we had rain overnight. Skill and confidence levels have dramatically improved and everyone was either able to successfully start a fire or self-diagnose what went wrong. With our focus on the process, not the product, this is a complete success because they understood what was happening and [...]

Yesterday we spent the morning planning the meals for our upcoming Allagash trip. We’ve had a flurry of phone calls and the size of the group has swelled to 10 people. Then we were out on the water practicing canoe strokes, poling, and learning a flat water rescue technique. After lunch we started on knots [...]

Last night we had rain, and on every wet morning we start with one match fires. This morning was no different. The ESSP students have made amazing progress with this in the short time we’ve been together. We moved onto making cordgage by hand, then making rope with spinners, and finally making rope with a [...]

The wood around the eye of an axe can get brittle and the head can get loose. To solve the problem of a loose head, some authors have advised to soak it in water to swell the wood. But when it dries out, the head is loose again, and more brittle, often more than when [...]

We had lot of rain come through over the weekend, which will be good for the lettuce planted last week. It will also put some water into the Allagash for our trip next week. Lastly, it will help with the bumper crop of mushrooms that are growing in the surrounding woods. We’ll be spending several [...]

Do you know much about where you live? Can you answer 30 questions about your knowledge of place and home from www.biohabit.org? Give it a try.

Yesterday morning the ESSP students carved bow drill sets and learned several ways of attaching the spindle to the string. We discussed the science behind friction firelighting, then everyone worked on perfecting their drilling form while breaking in the new sets. Then we moved onto percussion-based firelighting using flint and steel before working with more [...]

The ESSP students and I had a busy day yesterday doing axework, working on friction fires, one-match fires, and going on a 3-hour plantwalk. The long-term shelters were finished, and last night we had a campfire and baked some sourdough biscuits in the stone oven. Everyone is excited to get out into the canoes today, [...]

Similar to past classes, I’ve set up a separate photo gallery for the 2006 Earth Skills Semester Program at www.jackmtn.com/gallery/essp2006. After the first two days we’ve got 14 photos, with lots more to come. Stay tuned.

Today was day 1 of our 10-week Earth Skills Semester Program. Each student is building a permanent shelter to use as a home base for the duration of the course. We’re building them to be large and comfortable one-person shelters with a raised bed, some storage space, and a small changing area. The design has [...]

In preparation for the semester class I spent yesterday cutting dead wood and making the bases for several shelter frames. I used an axe to fell the tress, all dead, and a saw to cut them to length. Using a saw instead of an axe to section trees I can get more useable wood since [...]

There are several large wilderness survival schools that have big reputations and have hundreds of people participate in workshops each year. We’re not one of them. Instead we serve a small number of people each year and really get to know them, since I see this as a vital step in learning how best to [...]

This summer marks the 11th year I’ve been composting human manure, or humanure, by a process outlined in The Humanure Handbook. It’s a simple system, with the only inputs being sawdust and hay, that has worked flawlessly for our school and home. To mark the anniversary, I’m reposting the original book review I wrote about [...]

In preparing for the Earth Skills Semester Program, I’ve updated and rewritten much of our nature study curriculum, including updating the lists of birds, plants, and mammals that are in this area. I’ll be posting the updated lists as they’re written, starting with a list of birds seen in and around Rust Pond.

The Beech trees have begun dropping their nuts in the nearby woods, creating a glut of food in the local bush economy. A favorite of black bears, who have been known to climb the trees for better access, the nuts are good to eat and have also been pressed to extract an oil that was [...]

Today I reposted a bunch of blog entries that were lost when our site got hacked. I also added a “Past Favorites” section with links to the posts that have been the most commented about. If you have a post you’d like to see listed there let me know.

Yesterday I received my copy of “The Forager’s Harvest” by Samuel Thayer, subtitled “A Guide To Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants.” I spent most of the evening reading it and examining the many photos. My opinion is that it is as good or better than the best books on wild edible plants. The [...]

Last week I went on a solo canoe/fishing trip to Allagash Lake and Allagash stream. I put in on Allagash Stream above the lake, where it’s narrow and winding. There wasn’t a lot of water so I poled the entire way to the deadwater above the lake. As I was coming around a corner I [...]

There are endless discussions as to what makes a good knife. Everyone has their opinion, and some people seem to be willing to defend theirs for hours. I’ve found that knives are kind of like dogs – everyone thinks that their dog is the greatest, and no matter how bad or poorly behaved it is [...]

Becoming competent at lighting fires with a hand drill or bow drill takes time, sweat and blisters. But it can be done. There’s a difference between trying to get a coal and trying to master the techniques. Decide what your goals are before you proceed. If you want to get a coal, then drill until [...]

If you work as a guide or teach wilderness survival for any length of time, someone, or more often lots of people, are going to ask your opinion of those individuals who have elevated themselves to celebrity status in this type of work. I duck these questions and avoid these types of conversations, if only [...]

Yesterday a friend stopped by who had just come into possession of a bunch of blackberries. She was thinking about making a pie with them, but was put off by the idea of making a pie crust. She’s not alone. Making pie crusts ranks up there with public speaking on people’s list of fears. I [...]

The Earth Skills Semester Program starts next week, and I’ve been busy getting prepared. This morning I put a coat of varnish on four canoe paddles, set up a new composting bin, and laid out where several new shelters will go. I’ve also rewritten our nature knowledge curriculum and have included common species of plants, [...]

I was in western Massachusetts this past weekend working with Frank Grindrod and a group of youngsters for a shelter-building class. They were focusing on debris shelters, building them during the day and sleeping in them that night. It was a warm, overcast day, with the sky foretelling the coming rain. With this type of [...]

We’ve got our new blog up and running, but it will take a few days to get it set up and customized.

Right after I left on my recent trip to Alaska our site was hacked and all 140 of my blog posts, stretching back several years were deleted. As such I’m looking into alternative methods of blogging since the previous software package obviously wasn’t secure enough. As soon as I get something up and running I’ll [...]

Yesterday I did some weeding in the vegetable garden and enjoyed mid-July in New Hampshire by picking and eating raspberries, blueberries, and juneberries I’ve got growing. Today I’m off to Valdez, Alaska, where for two weeks I’ll be working as a consultant for a Discovery Channel tv show on survival. It’s been about five years [...]

The summer issue of Natural New England arrived yesterday, containing the article on canoe poling I previously blogged about as well as an essay I wrote about a 10-day snowshoe trip without a sleeping bag I took in 2002. I’m pretty excited as it’s the first article with my byline to appear in a magazine.

Today is the first day of our bushcraft day camp pilot program. I’ve worked exclusively with college students and adults in the past, so it’s sure to be exciting. Today we’ll be focusing on the five stages of fire, fire ecology and several ignition strategies. We’ll also study the edible and medicinal wild plants of [...]

I had a great trip yesterday poling on the crystal-clear upper Saco river, running downstream from the bridge on River Street in Bartlett to the bridge at River Road in Conway. The 12 mile trip took me just under 4 hours. Except for the extreme lower portion of the trip where the bottom gets sandy, [...]

I’ve always enjoyed fishing. I fished every inch of the small New Hampshire town where I grew up, as well as surrounding areas that were within biking distance. When my friends began getting their driver’s licenses, I was incredibly excited because now all of the rivers and lakes around the state were within reach. It [...]

Yesterday I sent out our final email newsletter. We ran it for a number of years, but with the growth of spam and the associated hassles we’re going to focus on this blog and the associated RSS feed. If people want to read what we’re up to we’re only a click away.

Our town has a big July 4th celebration every year with a parade, a brass band by the town docks, and fireworks at dusk. Our family participated in all of the festivities and had a great time. There is a small bookstore in town and my wife and I know the owner and some of [...]

Yesterday morning I was able to get away for a few hours of canoeing and fishing on the Bearcamp river. I was up and out the door early and spent a few pleasant hours poling upstream from where I put in, then drifting and fishing my way back down. When I got home I finished [...]