From the Chow Hall

Hey all, this is just a quick little post that is food related and thus gets the Chow Hall title. On my Christmas shopping adventures I stopped for lunch at Panera Bread.  It's a chain restaraunt, not fast food but quick service. Obviously they make their own bread and pastries but they aslo serve sandwhiches and soups...not a bad place to stop actually but enough chit chat and on to how this applies to the North Woodsman!

We all know that sometimes out in the field when we are fixing chow we want to add some flavor. Handy portable options are always popular and this company has some condiments out that I really like and maybe you will enjoy as well.

Good quality mustard and mayonaise.

One of my favorite lunches to bring out on a day trip is summer sausage, bread,cheese and mustard. Usually I make a sandwhich out of it but sometimes I just dip the cheese or bread or eat right in the mustard and just eat. Carrying a jar of mustard can get pretty heavy and in some cases breakable. carrying a couple of these packets mkes it much easier to add some flavor or use to make some sandwhiches.

the only thing more perfect than these 2 packetsin my opinion are the tiny bottles of tabasco sauce.

Wilderness Survival Baseline

This topic came up on the blades and bushcraft forum as "Fun Wilderness Survival Test" and I really like the idea. This is the testing requirements for the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. I see it as a really nice baseline for us to measure our skill as woodsmen/busch crafters/ outdoorsmen take your pick. Just looking through the list I see I have some things Ineed to brush up on and even a thing or 2 to learn. Certainly gets my juices flowing.

I really like that it also addresses some mental skills to develope for survival, avoiding panic and keeping up morale and such. I would add a few items here and there but that is just me nit picking.

Take a look and see where your skills fall. Get out and enjoy the outdoors!


Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Requirements:

1.Show that you know first aid for, and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur in backcountry settings, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters, insect stings, tick bites, and snakebites.
2.From memory, list the seven priorities for survival in a backcountry or wilderness location. Explain the importance of each one with your counselor.
3.Discuss ways to avoid panic and maintain a high level of morale when lost, and explain why this is important.
4.Describe the steps you would take to survive in the following conditions:
a. Cold and snowy
b. Wet (forest)
c. Hot and dry (desert)
d. Windy (mountains or plains)
e. Water (ocean, lake, or river)
5.Put together a personal survival kit and explain how each item in it could be useful
6.Using three different methods (other than matches), build and light three fires.
7.Do the following:
a. Show five different ways to attract attention when lost.
b. Demonstrate how to use a signal mirror.
c. Describe from memory five ground-to-air signals and tell what they mean.
8.Improvise a natural shelter. For the purpose of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter.
9.Explain how to protect yourself from insects, reptiles, and bears.
10.Demonstrate three ways to treat water found in the outdoors to prepare it for drinking.
11.Show that you know the proper clothing to wear in your area on an overnight in extremely hot weather and in extremely cold weather.
12.Explain why it usually not wise to eat edible wild plants or wildlife in a wilderness survival situation.

Hatchet project phase 2

Well today was the day I decided to get off my duff and try to finish refurbishing my Stepfather's old Boy Scout hatchet. A trip to the hardware store for some zipstrip and a good stiff wire brush got thins started.

Once home I applied a good thick coat of zip strip to the head and let it sit for a few minutes. This is powerful stuff. The can clearly states it is poison so be careful and read the can before using. I used the stuff outside and wore rubber kitchen gloves during the whole process.

Next step was to give it a good brushing with a stiff wire brush. Pretty straightforward, i was a little surprised at the dark gray color of the metal underneath the OD paint. In fact I kept brushing it for quite a while not thinking the zip strip was working. I rinsed it off quick and here is the result, obviously it worked.

Got a little in to the work at this point and forgot to photograph a few steps.  Here is the axe with the handle on, the wedge hammerd in with a rubber mallet and I sawed off the excess.

The last shot is looking down the eye. Everything looks tight to me and the head doesn't move. Being this is my first refurbish I am worried if I did it right or if there is more I should do I have a metal wedge I could pound in crosswise into the wedge if needed but I am not sure I need to.  Any tips or advice?

Thanksgiving Holiday

I hope everyone had a good time celebrating what ever they believe in over this past holiday.

I loaded up my family intothe swagger wagon and made the 4 hour drive to Bemidji to spend it with my Parents and other family. We ate, played dominoes and talked about numerous topics and generally enjoyed each other's company.

 It seems there is a growing movement of people against the holiday for various reasons, and that is their pergoative.  My family will continue to celebrate with each other as we always have: eating a home cooked meal, gathering together and enjoying each other's company.

Another Rant!

Sorry all,

This isn't outdoors related but I need to vent so here it goes. We have been fortunate in that we have an in home day care friend who has watched all of our kids almost from the birth of our oldest who will be 9 next month.  Her personal lifestyle and politics are different then ours but has never really been an issue until recently. I am not a very political person at all. I hate getting into disscussion about politics and will leave the room when folks start up. I am a Libertarian if anything. I have friends who are very left, like our day care lady and some who are just as right. I don't mind being with these folks for the most part. When they do get up on a soap box so to speak I politley listen, like at a party or get together, and then just mind my own business.

I picked the girls up after school the other day, a couple days after the election, and the girls seemed upset. I asked them what is up and what they told me really has my blood up. The ladies at daycare told them that Mitt Romney wanted to kill Big Bird. I verified with them to be sure of the words used and they said it was.  These ladies are wiccan, polygamous, bi sexual, right wing peacenicks and yet the are sitting there telling my kids that the Republican Candidate wanted to KILL BIG BIRD if he was elected. Shame on them for saying this to kids who are impressionable and who take things to heart because they haven't the  life experience yet to pick up exageration or sarcasm or what have you. Shame on them for trying to press on my kids their politics. I am still pretty mad about this.

We have been friends with these folks for years and years now and have always been able to take them with a grain of salt and the good they have done by being affordable daycare in an age where the cost is ridiculous.  But this has hit me rather hard and I am at odds.

Do you think I am right with being this upset or should I just, "Lighten up, Francis"?

Television "experts"

I saw something today while channel surfing that has really bothered me. I don'tnormally get upset by this sort of thing but today it really bothered me.  I was flipping channels and came to a program called "Gun Gear". They were in the middle of reviewing some Stag Arms AR 15s. Talking about their new relatively inexpensive gas piston models and what not. This was followed by a host of the show demonstrating how much cooler the gas piston model was compared to a  traditional gas impingement model.

The test was straight forward, measure bolt temp on a cold weapon, fire a mag through quickly and then measure temp again. He picked up the first gun, locked and loaded and fired towards his target area. I don't know what he was shooting at but he seemed to be at a range so I assume some sort of target was there. It is what he did after he fired that caught my eye. After the last round was fired the hold open caught the bolt, the camera showed this and it was easy to see the chamber was clear. Then the host released the bolt forward with the mag still in inside and set the rifle down and picked up the other.  As an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) in the Army for over 20 years, having been a range saftey and Range Safety Officer on countless rifle ranges wht he did not do stood out to me as if it had bells and whistles on it. It happened fast so I watched him shoot the second weapon and repeat what he did with the first rifle to be sure. I even waited and hoped the cameraman would close in on the weapons as he talked so I could be sure. I was kind of surprised by what I saw.

He never put either rifle on safe. As the camera was on facing the right side of the weapons where the selector lever is not visible I looked at the notch on the flat head of the lever and it was pointed straight up, on fire.  These Stag arms rifles even had Fire and Safe stamped on the right side and it was crystal clear that both weapons were still on fire. He just continued to talk about the temperature diferences and some other features, even picked them up again so the camera could get better angles.

It really stood out as wrong to me. In our rifle training we emphasize and train constantly to put the weapon back on safe immediately after firing. We hammer it home at every qulification range where the saftey in the tower announces, "Cease fire, cease fire, place your weapon on safe, lock your bolt to the rear, back away from the weapon and stand by for a saftey to inspect you".  When we do shoot house training and CQB firing we spend hours with unloaded weapons training in raising our weapon to a target, making certain it is what we want to shoot, switching the lever from safe to semi, firing, switching back to safe and lowering our weapons again. We drill this safety practice home to our troops. We chew each other out if we find weapons on semi when we are in the rear or just hanging around or whatever.

It really struck me as negligence. Now perhaps my view point is skewed but I don't think it is.  This person is a host of a program on television that is all about firearms. As a host, he is going to be viewed as some kind of "expert" in the field. As a host on a televison show I think he has the duty to demonstrate safe handling procedures of firearms at all times. In this case I think this was an extreme lack of safety. In the Army and especiallyin the Infantry we always tell ourselves to train as we fight and I sincerely hope this host doesn't do this often. Even if the host and the one cameraman were the only people on a closed range with absolute certainty there was no one else around I would still be bothered by this.

When we are learning basic firearms safety either through the Military or hunter safety courses or conceal carry permt courses we are always taught to keep our weapon on safe until we are ready to fire. it is basic safety and to see it disregarded on a show by an "expert" really bothered me today.


Wow, my first real rant!

Veteran's Day

To everyone, please take a moment today and remember the service and sacrifices of the men and women who serve and have served in the Armed Forces. To my brothers and sisters in arms, it is my HONOR to serve alongside you.