Even though it has warmed up a little since last week’s cold spell there’s a thin layer of ice on the pond this morning. The forecast is for it to be a warm week, but the water is still cooling off as the nights have been cold and days are short.

Today I’ll be working with a group from the local youth center as part of a 3-week pilot program. Last weekend our focus was on useful wild plants and common tracks and sign. Today we’ll be focusing on either firelighting or shelter design and construction.

It was a great winter survival weekend course and the weather couldn’t have been nicer. Everyone slept outside on Saturday night in various shelters, and even though the temperature was in the 20’s everyone was warm enough. We worked on a variety of survival skills, and by the end of the course everyone had greatly improved their understanding of survival and competence with core survival and bushcraft skills.