Doin your own survivorman?

barrabas74 · Feb 23, 2006

When I was a kid my father made me rough it for 3 days, had to make my own fire, build my own shelter, etc. etc. He gave me a fixed blade, a SAK, and a trash bag. He had the Same, and we did our version of survivorman. We did it on the family farm, that has 3 ponds and small game and deer and bear on it but still it wasnt cake and he didnt share hsi fire:jerkit:

My g/f' and I spring break comes in late march and I am headin back to the farm to do what I did when I was a kid cept I am takin some fishin rods cuz I love to fish an I am a cheatin sob, and my Shakespeare has a heck of a lot more reach than the long stick I had to use( I'll dig for the worms though

.I also will prolly have a large sleepin bag handy cuz March in PA aint exactly warm but I wanna rough it as much as possible. I was thinkin bout tapin it(as much as possible) and takin pics. I know it aint exactly survivorman but I was wonderin if any of you guys did similar stuff to this. I mean if you get tired of it you can always quit, but I always liked doin this kinda stuff. Any thoughts?

ajcz · Feb 23, 2006

yea i wish i had a camera so i could do that but no one forces me and im 14 i just get up and do it on weekends inbetween boyscout stuff i build a new shelter every time i go up and follow leave no trace and i love it i have some pics sumwhere if i can find em ill post em

shotgunner11 · Feb 23, 2006

I was a big primitive camper when I was a teen but now my wifes idea of roughing it is a Jayco pop-up, water and electric hookup.

I really want to start my girls out on the right path and teach them the primitive stuff at a young age, but their 1 and 3 years old, kinda young still.

Few more years....

Brian6244 · Feb 23, 2006

I do this quite often. Someone on the ETS forums a long time ago gave me the idea. She called it "one knife camping" IIRC. My version is much less extreme than what she described but I still enjoy it and I think it's good practice.

I will go out from Friday till Sunday (and occasionally I'm lucky enough to add a day when I get a 3 day weekend from work) with minimal items, though not quite to the extreme that your dad did.

I will take a knife, a couple feet of decent cordage, a few MP-1 tabs with some type of 1 liter water container and a 3 day Mainstay ration. The gear varies from time to time (for example a couple times I left the MP-1 tabs and 1 liter bottle and just took a metal camp cup instead) but that gives a good idea of what it's usually like.

I always take a cell phone and my sealed PSK also for safety reasons but so far I haven't needed either one (which is good since half the time the cell signal is sketchy at best). There were a couple times I couldn't get a fire going when I first started doing it and still resisted the urge to open my PSK and break out the ferro rod and man-made tinder. This was in the summer in Texas though so not much chance of hypothermia when youre dry and the overnight low is 80*F.

The concern in the summer out here is dehydration and heat exhaustion.

I do it in the winter months too but admittedly not as often as in the warmer part of the year. I'd like to go out with only a knife and piece of cordage (I'm simply not skilled enough to make fire without a piece of cordage and I cant see actually using a shoelace when I'm just out practicing and having fun) but it just doesn't seem practical to go that primitive for just a weekend or even a 3 day weekend. If I could get away for a week or more I might give that a shot.

I see no reason not to take a cell phone and sealed PSK with quality fire starting, signaling and water purification equipment. So far I have had no trouble resisting the temptation to use the PSK and I think/hope I am skilled/smart enough to know when I'm risking my health and/or life and it's time to crack it open.

Funny enough I always think about bringing a camera to document the experience but I never actually do. Maybe next time (though I think I say "maybe next time" every time).

Brian6244 · Feb 23, 2006

shotgunner11 said:
I was a big primitive camper when I was a teen but now my wifes idea of roughing it is a Jayco pop-up, water and electric hookup.

I really want to start my girls out on the right path and teach them the primitive stuff at a young age, but their 1 and 3 years old, kinda young still.

Few more years....

Have you done any camping with your girls yet? My son is 2.5yrs and I have been thinking of just hiking out a couple miles with a 35lb pack and 2 man tent or even doing some car camping.

I haven't done it yet. I can't decide if he's old enough or not. The kid sure loves hiking and playing in the woods with me but I think he may get real ticked off after 12 hours or so, and as I'm sure you know, a ticked off 2 year is no fun for anyone.

mewolf1 · Feb 23, 2006

I started my boys in the back yard and made sure that it was agood exp. for thier first time. We cooked hotdogs and marshmellows. They still talk about itand they're 15 and 13. Back then they thought it was the greatest and a hike was a couple hundred yards. Whenever they were done I said, OK, and took them back. Now I can't stop them from wanting to go all the time.

mewolf1 · Feb 23, 2006

OOPS:foot: I didn't mean to get off topic.
I've never thought about filming what I do,I just like to go out and do it, always have.

bigbcustom · Feb 23, 2006

I never filmed anything, but in high school (yikes lol more than 20yrs ago now) during the summers, my best friend and I would hit the woods with .22's, knives, and (ya I know it's cheating) matches....nothing else (except clothes, shoes etc). We always tried to do at least a week, a couple of times we hit two weeks no problem well fed and happy. (stinking to high heaven lol but what the hell when you're a kid in the woods it doesn't matter.

barrabas74 · Feb 24, 2006

yeah sounds like we have all done some similar stuff, but I thought it might be fun to tape or try anway for my kids and to just see how it looks. I think it would teach me alot about what I need to brush up on too. So we'll see.

shotgunner11 · Feb 24, 2006

Brian6244 said:
Have you done any camping with your girls yet? My son is 2.5yrs and I have been thinking of just hiking out a couple miles with a 35lb pack and 2 man tent or even doing some car camping.

I haven't done it yet. I can't decide if he's old enough or not. The kid sure loves hiking and playing in the woods with me but I think he may get real ticked off after 12 hours or so, and as I'm sure you know, a ticked off 2 year is no fun for anyone.

This year is the year for the backyard camping to start. They are very accustomed to our pop-up but thats soooooo not the same, so a tent and a small fire in the backyard will be the beginning of their "training".

Brian6244 · Feb 24, 2006

Well I live in an apt in the city so the backyard isn't going to happen but it sounds like some nice comfy car camping in good weather my be just the thing to do with him this summer.

Back on topic: I think the main thing needed for me to get the necessary motivation to tape my outings would be a smaller, lighter camera.

pict · Feb 24, 2006

Take your kids survival camping they can handle it.

Even the little ones love it. This is a kid sized backyard debris shelter we made in GA.

Mac

barrabas74 · Feb 24, 2006

Great pics, good to see your gettin them out there and havin them appreciate nature, and learnin about it.