In addition to beginning week 8 of the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, we’ve been diligently working on the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School Digital Archives project. With the generous help of all of our students, we’ve been digitizing a many of the old, rare books I’ve accumulated over the years. Our “needs to be scanned” pile of books has been shrinking, and some of the rare ones I’ve never seen another copy of are safely in the archives.
In his later years, Mors Kochanski gifted me the entire set of the magazine that he published in Alberta back in the day called Wilderness Arts & Recreation. With the help of the fall 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester students, the entire series has been scanned. Much of this material went on to become the book “Basic Safe Travel And Boreal Survival Handbook“by Kochanski, so there is a way for anyone with interest to access the contents, but I think there is value in having access to the original documents.
And there are always more old books, pamphlets, and articles to scan.
I’m still working on our 2027 schedule, and was recently confronted with the question of whether it will be the last of the old or the first of the new. I’m still working through it, more ideas to come.
We’re having a significant drought in Aroostook County this fall, which has led to the lowest water in the rivers that I’ve ever seen and the leaves coming off the trees earlier than usual. It’s October 11 as I’m writing this and ninety-five percent of the leaves are on the ground. We’ve got two weeks to go on the current semester, and will be working on big projects this week and going out on solos next week. It’s been a busy year, but I’m still having a great time doing the work.
