Week one of our 9-week semester is all about making people self-sufficient. We spend a lot of time workong on fire, cooking over the fire, using an axe to get wood for the fire, sanitation, and settling into the woods life. We also spend a lot of time on the academic side of the course, [...]

An inch of new snow fell overnight, and this morning sat on top of the frozen ground creating a near-perfect medium for tracking. So we spent most of the morning exploring and looking for tracks. We were fortunate to find fisher, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, ruffed grouse and robin tracks in the snow, as well [...]

We received an inch of fresh snow overnight. In planning for it yesterday, we worked on our introduction to mammal studies and first thing this morning we will be covering our introduction to tracking. A fresh inch of snow over a frozen ground is pretty close to as good as it gets in this part [...]

The beginning of a bushcraft semester is always marked by a settling in period. Everyone is learning our systems, getting settled with food and shelter, and digging into both the hands-on and academic instruction. It takes time. By the end of last summer I was pretty burned out with media, social media, shooting video, etc. [...]

Today was the first day of the spring Wilderness Buschraft Semster in 2025. We still have some snow cover in shady areas, and we started our first morning working on making fire and coffee. #FullTangLifestyle

Today marks the start of the spring, 2025 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and the 2025 edition of the Expedition Instructor (XI) training program. This is our 65th long-term immersion program. I can see them all in my mind’s eye, stretched out over the past 26 years. For arrival day yesterday, mother nature decided to roll out [...]

Paul Sveum and I got together in our new digital studio (actually a piece of software) to talk about fly fishing opportunities for the upcoming 2025 season. We had a long list of topics to discuss and only got to a few of them. Hence the part 1 in the title. We’ll be recording another [...]

The last few winters I have taken some time away from the web and the website around the holidays. This year I extended it through the whole month of January. It was good to take a break and reboot, but now I’m ready to jump back in. Taking time away gives me the perspective to [...]

Recorded on December 23, 2024. Rick, Oz and I got together via the internet to discuss the Maine Guide Medic wilderness first responder course that took place in November, 2024. We go over what worked well, what will be improved for next year, and some interesting things we learned. For me, the Stop The Bleed [...]

Beginning in 2025, we’re adding a 2-day Wilderness First Aid course to the curriculum of the 9-week Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. This will allow WBS students who are interested in testing for their registered Maine guide licence to do so without having to chase down an outside first aid and cpr class. It also will give [...]

We’ve done really well over the years when it comes to publicity based on being listed in the top ten bushcraft or survival schools in the USA. It used to be magazines, now it’s blogs and online influencers. And they are all full of shit. This isn’t me being sour grapes because we were dissed. [...]

On our long-term programs, we are working to train participants to be self-sufficient. Both in camp and when we’re out on the trail, we do this by traveling solo together. The idea here is that we expect everyone to pull their own weight, police their own gear, plan and prepare their own meals, have their [...]

Recorded on November 14. Sam Summers and discuss the Women’s Bushcraft & Canoe 3-Week Immersion, coming in 2025. We also discuss her experience on the 2024 Expedition Instructor program. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Sam paddling with her dog. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 133 Kid-Friendly? There is no profanity in this episode. Links: Women’s Bushcraft & Canoe [...]

It’s getting close to the end of the fall, 2024, Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and I had a nature day. It was cold (in the 20’s) this morning. On my way down the hill, I saw a bunch of turkeys and a deer. We ran through our day on the course, then I cleaned up the [...]

Recorded on Saturday, September 21. Oz and Rick are back from the solo expedition canoe course. We discuss how it went, what worked, what didn’t, what the plan is for next time. If you’re interested, the solo canoe expedition course is on the calendar for next summer. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Lake reflecting the sky. Show Notes: [...]

Recorded on Saturday, September 14. Oz and Rick are in camp preparing to run the solo expedition canoe course and we decided to record our morning coffee discussion. Current events, all about the solo expedition canoe course, Rick’s survival courses in New Hampshire, Oz’s trip to Michigan’s UP, and a bit about the reworking of [...]

We’re making canoe poles this week to replace the old and broken ones. As it is with many projects that start with raw materials from the forest, identifying, harvesting and processing the blank is hugely important. You have to find the right species of tree (spruce) growing in the right way in order to make [...]

We’re into the middle of the summer 2024 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester and people are getting deep into the projects on the course. The morning we filmed this everyone was working independently, so I figured I’d walk around and document the different things that were going on. #FullTangLifestyle

On episode 128 of the JMB Podcast, Jesse and Tim discuss some big-picture ideas about why you might be interested in learning bushcraft, and what you do with it when you learn it. Ultimately it’s about being resilient and connecting with the land and our ancestors. It is a lifestyle that resonates with a deep [...]

JMB Vlog 104 is an update to JMB Vlog 201, where we were starting canoe paddles. At this point all of the students have finished their paddles, and we’re varnishing them. We do this to seal them so they don’t absorb water. Everyone did a great job on this project, and we’re excited to get [...]

Our first shelter we’re building on the summer, 2024 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester course. #FullTangLifestyle

We started carving canoe paddles on the semester course. Over the next few days people will become intimately familiar with the draw knife, spoke shave, rasp, and cabinet scraper. #FullTangLifestyle

After some rain, the river came way up. Here’s how we end a day of working on canoe skills in the summer. #FullTangLifestyle

On rainy mornings at the field school we almost always practice wet weather fire skills. #FullTangLifestyle

So many uses for an axe. We recently used one to cut up some meat. #FullTangLifestyle

How big does a bow drill need to be? Jessie makes a mini bowdrill to find out. #FullTangLifestyle

The final video from our 2024 canoe expedition on Quebec’s Bonaventure river. Check out Hobo Camp 2024 and watch as we paddle the lower river, taking out in the salt water. It was a fantastic trip with challenging water and great friends. #FullTangLifestyle

Episode 124 of the JMB Podcast is about training people for solo wilderness canoe expeditions. We discuss the skills needed to do it safely, and talk about a September 2024 course designed to give people the skills and confidence to pull it off. Read more about the course discussed on the Solo Expedition Canoe Course [...]

Part five of the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester in 2024. #FullTangLifestyle

We had a fantastic week canoeing the Bonaventure river in Quebec. The upper river was very low, but thanks to an overnight rain the water level came up and was pretty close to perfect. Although we came close a few times, our crew didn’t dump any boats. I’ve got a bunch of videos to edit, [...]

During rush hour some of our highly traveled routes sometimes experience traffic jams. #FullTangLifestyle

Part four of our trips on the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester in 2024. #FullTangLifestyle

Part three of our trips on the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester in 2024. #FullTangLifestyle

Part two of our trips on the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester in 2024. #FullTangLifestyle

Part one of our trips on the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester in 2024. #FullTangLifestyle

From 2023, a short video of bow-drill practice on a humid summer day. #FullTangLifestyle

Back from the river at the end of the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester, we discuss challenges from the trip and the thought process behind a medical evacuation and getting a student from a remote trip to the hospital. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Tim in the canoe putting in the miles. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 123 Kid-Friendly? [...]

The seventh day of May is a personal holiday for me in remembrance of an amazing day in the life of a rural kid. Some of the details are lost to the past, but let me tell you what I remember. It was 1983 in rural New Hampshire, I was in the sixth grade, and [...]

Recorded on May 5th, 2024. Opening day of 2024, the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester starts today. I’m joined by Rick Swain and Oz to discuss current events, the upcoming course, and how we spent our summer (winter) vacation. We discuss a few changes to the 2024 Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester, the idea behind the soon [...]

New video series of an early May, 2024 canoe trip in Aroostook County, Maine. This was May 1st and the ice had just gone out (three days prior) on this pond. 40 miles to go. I’ll be posting this in short segments. Hope you enjoy! #FullTangLifestyle

We had a great 40-mile trip on a nearby river over the past three days. The water was high and cold, the rapids were fast, and the fish were biting. I caught the native (not stocked) 13-inch trout above at one of our campsites, and it made for great eating after slow-roasting it next to [...]

I’ve been busy getting ready for our first field school program of the year. In The week and a half that I’ve been home, I went from getting vehicles stuck in the snow to bare ground. A lot of water has moved across the landscape. I only had to clear two trees from the road [...]

Last video from the the Texas/Mexico border, video 6 of 6. #FullTangLifestyle

More good times on the Texas/Mexico border, video 5 of 6. We are on the lower portion of the river now, and the canyons are not as tall. We haven’t seen any sign of people since the put in. #FullTangLifestyle

More good times on the Texas/Mexico border, video 3 of 6. #FullTangLifestyle

An evening camp scene from our first night on the Rio Grande lower canyons trip. It was a big stone beach that backed up to a small field, and only a few miles from the put-in. We had great sunset light here, as well as room to spread out. Because the water contained a lot [...]

I was off the grid for a while recently, came home to finish some documentation for an ongoing project, and had to do some research on outfitters in Maine. Several had listed themselves as the “premier” outfitter in Maine. What does this mean? I don’t begrudge anyone for a bit of self-promotion; it comes with [...]

We’ve had a bunch of registrations recently and I wanted to let people know where we are with regard to available spots in our spring, summer and fall immersion programs for 2024. 2 Spots Remaining. Spring Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester (4-weeks) 2 Spots Remaining. Summer Wilderness Bushcraft Semester (9-weeks) 4 Spots Remaining. Fall Wilderness Bushcraft [...]

I just read The Compost Toilet Handbook by Joseph Jenkins. If you are coming to the field school you shoulld read it because this is the dry toilet system we’ve been using since 1996. I still recommend that teacher read the humanure handbook as well, but this book separates out the how-to information from the [...]

Nesting bowl for the JMBS Pot System. More about it in this blog post. And here’s a link to the bowl, available in many stores. Update 3/15/24: I bought a second bowl and the two nest perfectly in the 2-quart pail. #FullTangLifestyle

The woods are white now, covered in snow. Watching the changing moods, the changing light of the natural world has been one of my lifelong passions. I work to become a better photographer in order to share what I see, but the images my eyes see are often not well-represented with what my camera sees. [...]

It has snowed off and on for the last five days, and as I’m writing this it is -6 degrees F and there is 8 inches of fresh snow on the ground. Winter has definitely arrived, and I’m getting excited for winter programs in February. This photo was taken a while back, showing a line [...]

Recorded on November 20, 2023. We just wrapped up the field school season, and in this episode I look back and reflect on the experiments we ran during 2023. I discuss the Expedition Instructor (XI) as a continuous 6-month, residential program, moving the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester back to May and the high waters of [...]

From the spring. We went up to our local lake for some paddling and Maine IFW was stocking remote trout ponds by float plane. They would load the young trout from a stock truck into the floats of the plane, then it would fly off and dump them in the ponds. Since I was a [...]

It has been cold and snowy in Aroostook County this week for the Autumn Woodsman course. We’re past the halfway mark on the course, and thus far we have covered a lot of ground, including axemanship, fire making and management, fire by friction, navigation, hot tents and stoves, woodstove lighting and management, and a bunch [...]

My wood canvas canoe, rigged up and ready for the carry around Allagash Falls. Notice this canoe has a center thwart, not a carved yoke. Notice how the paddles are tied to the thwarts so that when it is carried, the weight of the boat is distributed by the paddle blades onto the shoulders as [...]

A small shelter next to a long fire, spending the night with no sleeping bag in the cold. The details all matter: The size of the fire, the quality of the fuel, the width of the bed, the distance from the edge of the fire to the back of the shelter, the overhead volume of [...]

Canoes on the beach on the Allagash, high and dry and ready for night. #FullTangLifestyle

A misty morning on a northern Maine lake poling canoes. #FullTangLifestyle

It is Friday of week 8 (of 9) on the fall, 2023 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. Everyone has been hard at work and the finish line is coming into view. What remains to finish are some practical exams, the solo, and a night spent in front of a fire with no sleeping bag or blanket. The [...]

This photo is 10 years old and was taken on a -20 F day with a stiff breeze while we were out on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. It was a great group of people and a few of the guys got it in mind to take a “tasteful nude” photo with the toboggans. So they [...]

We’re at peak foliage in northern Maine right now. The nights are cooling off and it feels like fall. I have been seeing a lot of animals as they get ready for the cold season. Yesterday morning I jumped a deer while riding my bike, and in the evening I saw a lynx crossing the [...]

I picked up a new piece of software called Retrobatch that batch processes photos and went through all the old hard drives full of photos to make an archive. My rough count is around 37,000 images that I’ve shot over the years. Not all of them are mine; maybe 1000 were taken by others, but [...]

Last week we were out on the St. Croix river, which forms the border between the USA and Canada. We had a great week of high water, peak foliage, and warm water. It isn’t often that you get to swim every day of an October canoe trip, but we did. As we begin week 8, [...]

Congratulations to the newest Registered Maine Guide, our own Tessa Storey. Wear that patch with pride because it was earned. We are all proud of you. #fulltanglifestyle

Our first day on the water in 2023. Paddling from the Masardis boat launch back to the field school into a big headwind. At least I was paddling solo in a 20-footer with no weight in it. #fulltanglifestyle

This photo was shot on a cold morning in May of 2023, so I was wearing the wool toque under my big hat. Beautiful spot, beautiful lake, beautiful Maine. #FullTangLifestyle

Making simple mocotaugans (crooked knives) in the campfire. It doesn’t take a bunch of infrastructure to make a functional knife. I used to believe it did, but now have 20 years of making simple knives in the campfire under my belt. Vise grips and a hammer are necessary, as is a new file to cut [...]

Sealing a crack in a birch bowl with pitch to make it water tight. Rock boiling next. #fulltanglifestyle  

Carving a coal-burned spoon with a newly made crooked knife. #fulltanglifestyle #friluftsliv  

Pounding ash for pack basket splints. #fulltanglifestyle