Summer break

I realize that the Apocalypse is going to be tough, but it is really hot out there.  It’s been a little tough to practice the necessary skills with this heat.  ”Sure,” I can hear you saying, “You are going to be fine during the nuclear holocaust, you can’t even take a little sunburn.”  But trust me [...]

Been a little lazy lately

So I haven’t been working on my skills too much in the last couple of weeks.   The CERT class being cancelled got me off-track a little because I had planned to get a lot of skills to practice from that class.  I still got skills I can practice that I learned at the Ancient [...]

tracking animals

As mentioned in a previous post, we learned how to track humans as part of the Complete Survivor Class from Ancient Pathways. During the weekend we also discussed tracking animals. Most books center of what the impression of the animal looks like. This is not so useful because the print will quickly deteriorate so there [...]

Random notes from Survival school

Below are some random notes I took at the survival school the other weekend.  It is not all of the notes, the ones that should be their own subject/post I have not included.  Think of it as random bits of wisdom. –The animals were skittish for it was a full moon.  The bunny rabbits were [...]

tracking the most dangerous game

Part of the Complete Survivor Class from Ancient Pathways was a brief introduction to tracking.  We practiced tracking humans and then looked at animal tracks as we came across them.  Just like everything else in the class the key to this skill is practice.  I liked how our instructor, Tony Nester, set up the tracking exercises.  Both [...]

Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbit

Reader’s Beware:  Some of you vegetarians and snuggly animal lovers will not like the following post.  It involves dead bunnies. We made sticks.  Heavier on one end and lighter on the other end.  You carried two.  The idea was to throw it at a rabbit, preferrably a cotton tail and not a jack rabbit, hit [...]

Surviving Survivor School

This last weekend I took the Complete Survivor Class from Ancient Pathways.  I picked up a whole series of skills to practice. Notice I said “practice” because, good lord, just cause I did these things once doesn’t mean I am actually competent at any of them.   We set traps, snares, tracked, snacked on plants, [...]

Chaco Canyon or Why someone would volunteer for the Apocalypse?

Many years ago I was a Park Ranger at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.   In my mind, Chaco Canyon is the most impressive Native American Ruins in the United States.  I feel it is sad that every school kid in america does not know the story of Chaco.  The Anasazi built a great trading network across [...]

Weekend update: Getting hot, hot, hotter!

It is starting to get hot in Phoenix.  For the grand experiment I am going to see how long I can go without turning on the air.  At some point it becomes too hot to sleep, and I have a day job.  The goal is to see if I can make it to June  15. [...]

What I learned about feral cats and a defense of phoenix

Up North, where there is winter, only the strong surivie.  In Michigan, a cat can have about one litter a year.  Here in Phoenix they can have three.  So Phoenix has a feral cat problem, much larger than cities outside of the sunbelt.  Lets assume that a feral cat living on wits alone is like living [...]