I can’t remember if someone told me or if I read that coffin-shaped toboggans, widest a few feet from the bow and tapered at both ends, pull better than rectangular toboggans. Regardless of how I came to know that as true, I’ve believed it since I started pulling toboggans and camping with them in the [...]
Although the snow is still more than waist deep and we have yet to hit mud season, today will be the second day in a row where the mercury tops 40 degrees F. Spring isn’t here yet, but it’s coming. So I wanted to take a look back on a really busy, amazing winter. It [...]
They’re trickling in from far and wide. England arrived yesterday. Texas and Chicago tomorrow. Ohio, Connecticut and California on Thursday. New Hampshire is ready to go. Alberta and Montreal are meeting us on the road. In two days our small group (on the Jack Mountain calendar as the Subarctic Snowshoe Expedition With The Cree) is [...]
Monday morning inventory: Dog getting quilled by porcupine? Check Kid throwing up all night? Check Overnight rain making road glare ice that is unsafe to walk on? Check But, we did have a great weekend in the woods with the Winter Survival Weekend Course. Met some great people, got them on snowshoes with traditional bindings [...]
This weekend we’re running our Winter Survival Weekend Course at the folk school in New Hampshire. It’s a short course designed to teach the fundamentals of living in the winter woods. We’ve been running it for more than a decade, and I think that it has provided a basic skill set to a lot of [...]
Last night Discovery again aired the Norway episode of Dude, You’re Screwed featuring yours truly. It was a great experience from start to finish; great people, beautiful place and a little boat that grew on me over time. Being on the show has given me a lot of great memories, as well as my first [...]
It’s easy to make something that looks like a bucksaw frame, but it’s much more difficult to make one that will cut a lot of wood without coming apart. It’s easy to make something that looks like a snowshoe, but much more difficult to make one that will allow you to walk on it all [...]
Last week we ran our first program of 2015; the Winter Woodsman course. In summing up the experience, it was cold. Really cold. -50F (with wind chill, -25 in still air at night) cold. While those temperatures aren’t unheard of on winter expeditions, the Winter Woodsman is an introductory course in living out in the [...]
I started blogging in 2004, but that first blog was hacked in 2006 and all the posts deleted. I don’t know how many posts I had, but somebody thought it would be fun to delete them all, and they did. I started this blog in 2006, and this is post 1001. I had no idea [...]
2015 marks my 20th year composting humanure, also known as human poop. In that time I’ve managed numerous compost piles, scrubbed countless buckets, read The Humanure Handbook about five times, built a variety of structures to serve as outhouses, had numerous outhouses built by others, and created a lot of soil. What started me down [...]
Video 9 in the 2014 WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we run the Telos Cut. Running Telos Cut We finished our trip down the Allagash in the last video. After taking out in Allagash Village, we had a big lunch at Rock’s Diner in Fort Kent, then went back to the [...]
Join Tim and instructor Tom Belluscio as they discuss how Jack Mountain got it’s name (the Jack Mountain origin story) and the summer, 2015 Teen Bushcraft And Wilderness Canoe Expedition. Recorded in the truck on the way back to the folk school after picking up three toboggan blanks and two paddle blanks. iTunes Link | [...]
Video 8 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we swim below Allagash falls and paddle the lower river. At Allagash Falls
Video 7 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we paddle into Round Pond, and Tim does a walk-through of our campsite. At Round Pond
Video 6 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we line canoes down Long Lake dam, an old logging dam. It’s unsafe to run because of metal spikes that move each year when the ice goes out, so we tie up lining bridles and line it, or lower canoes over the [...]
Video 5 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we pole Chase Rapids, the most challenging water on the Allagash. Poling Chase Rapids
Video 4 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join the guys out on Eagle Lake looking for fish. Looking For Fish
Video 3 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series, shot during the aftermath of the big storm. Also some introductions a few days later on a beautiful day with views of the mountains. After The Storm And Introductions
Shot on the first day of our 2014 Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester, on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway at Chamberlain Lake. We spent the afternoon paddling with a tailwind and were right on the tail end of a big storm system. Storm On Chamberlain Lake
Last summer, during the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester, we shot a lot of video. It’s taken some time, but now we’re ready to post that video. Instead of spending a lot of time editing it into a long video no one will watch, I’m going to post it as a series of short clips. I [...]
There is a surging trend for people to get their names on things. Lots of guys have their signature knife or other piece of gear. Others are trying to attach their name to certain techniques. I saw in a video a while back a guy had named a method for determining where the top of [...]
I have a question and need some education, so I’m looking for input. What are the ethics of posting digitized versions of old books online? Is there an ethical difference between a book that is still under copyright, but is impossible to find, as opposed to a book where the copyright has run out? I [...]
While he’ll never hear me say it, Paul Sveum is a wealth of knowledge and a great instructor. Our friend Derek Faria from The Woodsman School shot and edited this video of Paul teaching a bannock 101 class at the Snow Walker’s Rendezvous. Solid information from a man who has made a lot of bannock [...]
Lucky Dog and I had a great afternoon in the woods tracking yesterday. I shot a bunch of pictures, but only a few turned out well. We found tracks of deer, turkey (foot and wing), grey squirrel, snowshoe hare and fisher. The snow conditions were perfect for tracking; a layer of crusty snow covered with [...]
The second podcast from the 2014 Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, recorded on our last night of the trip. Listen as participants reflect on the two weeks and what they’ve learned, have a few laughs and discuss their favorite bannock of the trip. iTunes Link | Play, Download Or Subscribe In iTunes Stitcher Link | Play, Download [...]
Recorded in the warmth of a tent on a bitter cold night during the 2014 Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, join us as we discuss the trip and the biggest lessons learned while on it. We recorded part 1 (this) in the middle of our 14-day snowshoe expedition. We also recorded a part 2 on our final [...]
We’ve got the overview for the spring, 2015 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, our 30th long-term course, published. We’re making some changes, mostly in the form of going back to the roots of the program and doing more traveling. Some of the changes are included below, but you can read them all on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester [...]
I spend 6-7 months per year off the grid. The rest of the time I’m at home in a modern house. Most modern houses become unlivable when external inputs such as electricity and running water stop being piped in. I’ve scratched my head for decades as to why they were designed like this, and I [...]
Open spots on upcoming winter and spring courses are dwindling. We’ve been adding people here and there and the result is that all upcoming programs are 60% or more full. Here are the current available spaces per upcoming program as of December 4th. Winter Woodsman: 3 Wilderness Survival Weekend Course: 4 Boreal Snowshoe Expedition: 3 [...]
If you’re interested in learning how to live, work and play in the boreal forest in the bitter cold of winter, we created the Winter Woodsman course just for you. Part survival course, part bushcraft, part winter guide training, the goal is make you feel comfortable and at home in the winter wilderness with a [...]
We’re adding two new bits of information to our program descriptions: physical challenge and technical challenge. Each of these operate on a 1-5 numerical scale with 1 being the easiest/lowest and 5 being the most challenging. Physical challenge refers to how physically challenging a particular program is, as well as whether or not a person [...]
Although we’ve managed to keep our tuition frozen for a number of years, we’re increasing the tuition on our immersion programs for 2015. Tuition for the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester and the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester will increase by $250. Tuition for the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition will increase by $100. But it isn’t all bad news. [...]
We’ve got a new forum up and running, and we’ll be using it for the next few weeks to see if it works for us. I found some great looking software called muut that, without going into a lot of detail, looks like it will be a good fit. Most, if not all, of the [...]
Our forum recently took it’s last breath and is no longer with us. It wasn’t a sad parting. 100+ new spam users per day, old and clunky interface requiring lots of time and input, not viewable from a mobile device; let’s just say no tears were shed on our end. We did lose some content, [...]
Home with my kids today and my five-year-old said she wanted something sweet. I haven’t baked a sourdough cake in the dutch oven for a while, so I decided to mix it up, figuratively and literally. Behold the Sourdough Oatmeal Quick Cake; quick to mix (3-5 minutes), an hour to bake. I started with some [...]
I’ve been playing around with a new kind of blog post for a few months now. I’m calling them updates, and they are short bits and photos that aren’t complete ideas. They’re the type of thing that end up on social media sites, but as I’ve always had a healthy distrust of social media I [...]
Our next School of the Forest is scheduled for November 15th. We’ll get started at 10am as usual but we won’t be wrapping up at 2 o’clock this time around; we’ll be sleeping in the shelters we build! Staying the night isn’t mandatory, but it will be fun! Cost will be the standard thirty dollars [...]
I cook with cast iron daily, and have a bunch of it at our field school for students to use. There are many good reasons why I think cast iron is superior cookware, both at home and on the campfire. And with all those benefits comes one major drawback; disposable cleaning and upkeep products. When [...]
Are you looking for a cheap, fun night out this Wednesday? For the November installment of our Self Reliance Workshop Series with GALA, we’re having an instructional campfire cooking dinner. Learn to cook over a campfire, build a sturdy pot suspension system, and use a dutch oven and a reflector oven like a seasoned professional. [...]
The Snow Walker’s Rendezvous is this weekend in Fairlee, Vermont. If you’re interested in traditional winter gear and techniques in the north, it’s one that you shouldn’t miss. I’ve been going for 15 years, and it keeps getting better. This year I’m traveling with Paul Sveum, who will be presenting on the 21-day Boundary Waters [...]
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