Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

This is our 2000th post. Over the years I have found blogging, and more recently podcasting and video, to be a great way to communicate with our audience. It allows us to publish what we want when we want, without the gatekeepers that were the norm twenty years ago. Our initial blog was setup by [...]

Higher education is changing. Whether due to covid or other factors, traditional education is being disrupted. While 4-year college degrees are still the norm, alternative education routes are growing dramatically in popularity. A question we get regularly is how can students pay for our program. Enter the 529 college savings plan. A 529 plan is [...]

Halfway Day, Spring ’21

Today is halfway day on the spring semester; Four and a half weeks done, four and a half weeks to go. Life is returning to the land as the warmer days are filled with birdsong and the buzz of insects. The leaves are coming out, and we’ll have fresh fiddleheads to eat any day now [...]

Last year we had a single black morel mushroom growing in an old garden space near the Guide Shack. This year there are about 100 of them. I’m not sure what it is about this soil that they like so much, but I’m happy to have them.

This morning we’re starting week 2 of the 9-week Wilderness Guide Training Semester. This week we’ll continue with our deep dive into self-reliant living in the forest with more useful plants and campfire cooking skills. We’ll also be adding our first shelter of the course, where students will spend four consecutive nights before moving on [...]

We’re getting closer to the end of our first Friluftsliv Forest Program in southern Vermont. It’s been a great experience, and we’re already getting signups for this year’s session. This got me thinking about the differences between a long-term residential program like our nine-week guide training and bushcraft semesters at Jack Mountain and the once-a-month [...]

Yesterday we began our 51st long-term program, the Wilderness Guide Training Semester, and the first field school program of 2021. After a winter filled with Covid-related challenges, it’s feels fantastic to be back out on the land and working with people. We’ve got a long way to go and a lot of material and miles [...]

We’ve just added a 3-day introduction to fly fishing course at the field school May 28-30. It will be guided by Paul Sveum, Master Maine Guide. Tuition is $450. Details are here. Gear, Casting, Fishing, Fly Tying Participants will arrive Thursday evening and we’ll start Friday morning at 8. We’ll learn the art of casting [...]

This episode features our first returning guest. Mike Clough from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is back to talk about the newest edition to the museum’s educational animals. There are now live Virginia Opposum’s at the museum, and they’re part of a pilot program for the state of Vermont, exploring the possibilities of museums [...]

As of yesterday both of our family bushcraft weeks this summer are full. It’s great to be able to provide an outdoor experience that families can take part in together, and due to the current pandemic we’re limiting the course to four families per week. If you’d like to sign up for the waiting list [...]

After struggling to keep up with a wide variety of different communication channels over the last few years, I’ve decided that it’s too much and have decided to simplify the channels I stay current with. Social media messages, email, texts, comments, messenger, whatsapp, etc. – it all adds up. These days every website seems to [...]

We had another signup for the inaugural family bushcraft week at the SOTF campus in southern Vermont. That brings the course registration to half its maximum, so if you’re interested in spending a family vacation learning outdoor skills, cooking over a campfire, and sleeping under the stars, register soon. We’ve cut the maximum number of [...]

The instructor-student relationship needs to be based on honesty and verifiable facts. If someone asks me a question as to whether I’ve eaten a certain plant, I can tell them yes or no, as well as what I thought about it. If someone asks me about the medicinal properties of a plant, the waters are [...]

In this episode, we chat with Jenna Rozelle. Jenna is a  homesteader, professional forager, and member of Back Country Hunters and Anglers. Through all of her work she aims to bring people to a place of greater understanding about the ecosystems they inhabit, and as we discuss in the podcast, brings a sense of art [...]

I’m about halfway through the book Course Design Formula by Rebecca Frost Cuevas. So far I’ve really enjoyed it and learned a lot about putting together a well-designed course, how teaching online is different than teaching in person, and a whole bunch more. Why am I reading this book? Because we’re going to be adding [...]

December 27th in the evening I had a little bit of a scratchy throat. I woke up on the 28th with zero energy. I stayed in bed, not doing anything and getting weaker, until January 8th. That night I went out for a covid test and tested positive. They told me to go to the [...]

Today I received this custom wool-lined canvas vest from my good friend Blake Towsley. Blake has been making gear for the staff at JMB and SOTF for years, and in the last few months has started up a business making all manner of custom outdoor gear. A lot of the gear I use day to [...]

I’m excited to start this year’s series of podcasts with a conversation with my friend Arthur Davis, director of the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Project at the Rich Earth Institute and coordinator of Rich Earth’s new festival toilet business. Rich Earth uses human urine to create sustainable fertilizer for farmers. Long time listeners will have heard [...]

We’re about halfway through the initial Friluftsliv Forest Program at our campus in southern Vermont, and it’s been going really well. Students are building the skills and systems they’ll need for our two-week canoe expedition in July. Next session they’ll be participating in their “frozen 24”  exercise, where they use their knowledge of fire and [...]

Gratitude On The Shortest Day Of The Year

Today is the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year, and a day that traditionally is about being thankful for what we have, and the people we’re around. This morning, as I slipped on my snowshoes to wander around the woods at our place, I remembered a dear friend of mine showing me how [...]

The second article in the Bangor Daily News from my discussion with Sam Schipani is titled “How To Pick An Axe” and was published on November 12, 2020. Link: How To Pick An Ax Ms. Schipani lists six things to consider when choosing an axe. As with the first article she wrote based on our [...]

Last year I had the pleasure of helping our friend and alumni, Seth Walton with a winter outdoor living skills course for his Outdoor Leadership program. Pretty excited to do it again in the upcoming weeks. As temperatures get colder, people are going to be stuck inside more often. Programs like Seth’s provide young people [...]

News from the School Of The Forest Campus in southern VT. We’re adding a slew of one-day programming to our calendar for the winter 2020 season. These programs are geared towards the local community in Brattleboro but are open to anyone who wants to (in accordance with whatever the current covid-19 guidelines are) make the [...]

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been setting up a partnership with the wilderness medicine fellows of Dartmouth-Hitchcock at the School Of The Forest Campus in southern Vermont. Students at Dartmouth Hitchcock go through extensive medical training for remote locations, but are looking to expand that knowledge base with skills like shelter building, fire lighting [...]

The View From 50

We just wrapped up the fall, 2020 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. 50 is the number of the day, as it was our 50th long-term program, and this week I celebrated my 50th birthday. I always get nostalgic at the end of fall semesters. As I was walking through the woods from Moose Vegas to the Guide [...]

If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that you’re on your own when things get tough. Unless you give a lot of money to politicians they don’t care whether you live or die. So this is a great time to start taking control of your self-reliance needs. In northern Maine we’re sure of [...]

I’ve been dragging my feet in making this decision, hoping there would be a vaccine or a change or something. But as people are trying to make travel plans for our February programs, it’s time. I’m officially cancelling the 2021 Winter Woodsman and Boreal Snowshoe Expedition due to the covid. I have been confident we’ve [...]

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