Local library video and desert survival

I checked out the video Stay alive! a guide to survival in mountainous areas from my local library. Random comments after watching: According to the host, Preston Westmoreland, if you have ever heard the idea that you could add whiskey to water to clean the water than that is not true.  Ummmmm, I have never heard [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

How to make cordage out of agave

Thank you Tommy Cannon for showing me how!

Survival schools or update to what I should do on my vacation

As part of my research on how I should spend my vacation time, I have been checking out what survival schools I could sign up for. The one I ended up settling on is the Ancient Pathways’ Complete Survivor class near Flagstaff, AZ. The class covers edible plants, deadfalls, snares, and game preparation. What I [...]

Weekend update: Gardening for hard times

I am trying an experiment, based on what I think I read in Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon. I filled bottles with compost tea and put the bottle upside down “above” the plants. The tomatillo seems to be doing the best. The rest of the plants still look a [...]

Update on medicinal plants: Blooming Ocotillos

I went for a hike last weekend to see what the desert is currently producing.  There are no pods yet on the mesquite,  and no wildflowers yet.  However, I did see several Ocotillo plants in full bloom. Above: Blooming Ocotillo plant. According to Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest by Charles W. Kane the bark and flower can [...]

Feral Cats

I want to keep the three black cats who have claimed my backyard for Spain.  I think they help with insects, plus they keep the plants company. Altered Tails has a Trap-Neuter-Return program for  Feral cats,  which means I trap the cat, schedule an appointment, remove the cats special purpose, and finally release the cat back [...]