the bushcrafter you are today

Old Yeller and Savage Sam by Fred Gipson. Where the red fern grows by Wilson Rawls. Lion Hound by Jim Kjelgaard. Those 4 books, more than anything, instilled the call of the wild in me. Henry
 
For me it was a move. I was born and lived in a large city. At age 8, my parents bought an isolated 40 acres in the country. After moving there I quickly began to roam the woods and discovered that behind our property were many thousands of undeveloped woods thick with beaver ponds and wildlife. Spending years in the Cub and Boyscouts taught me more, followed by 26 years in the Army. In the Army I attended an Artic Warfare and Survival Instructor Qualification Course and for years would teach the skills to others. Factor in books, DVDs, and other learning methods and I have arrived at where I am now with the understanding that I still have a lot to learn and I will never finish.
 
My dad always loved history, and hunting and hiking and the woods.

My grandad on my mom's side also was really into the mountian lore. He was from Richwood WV and went to school with Jim Comstock who was the editor of the WV Hilliblly Newspaper which sort of promoted mountain life also.

So when I was a kid my Grandad would take us digging sassafras and stuff.

My dad used to take my brother and I on hikes and shooting and hunting and as a family we often did weekend trips to museums and places of state historical interest, so I was always fascinated with the frontiers men and the woods.

We always ate wild game, and fish he caught and berries we picked and stuff like that. Also grew up in the late 60's and early 70's when inflation was bad and you had people trying to do more for themselves coupled with the whole back to the land hippie thing.

Went to college and majored in Forestry and my wife in Forestry and Biology so now we sort of took all the things our parents taught us and taken it one further.:thumbup:

Then when we finally bought a place we are near Lincoln Co WV and in the 70's Mother Earth News listed it as a place to go homestead so tons of hippies moved here and we've even learned a lot of good woods foods and other things from them.:D
 
Although I love the term "bushcraft" ...I was always in the woods as a young boy. I dont know that I am a "bushcrafter", but maybe I am now.
Its funny. I now look at my time in the woods as just that..I think about it..when I was young..nothing scared me, or touched me in the woods..I was the tiger in the woods...everything else, was my prey.:D
I can remember wading neck deep in the wetlands of MA..running through the woods with my dogs..I always had a knife.
My first was a sheath knife givin to me by my grandfather..his father had brought it home from the uprising of Pancho Villa. it has a 5 inch or so blade...and a marble's style sheath. Maybe it was a Marbles, I dont know.
I lost it, and regret it still. I also had my Dads Ontario machete..from Vietnam..I didnt lose that, it rusted away into nothing.
Overall..I did read "my side of the mountain" and "where the red fern grows" when I was young..but it was my Dads and Grandfathers stories
Its funny,
Most of the edible plants in my neck of the woods, are known to my family..my mom said they made many salad with Dandilions and the like...I knew the use of pine bark and birch bark by the age of 10. I had shot my first rifle and pistol by the age of 8, and owned my own at 13 or 14 years old. I always had a knife though..even now, I cant imagine life without one. Everyone that knows me knows..I have a knife on me. When someone needs one sharpened, they ask me.
 
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JMAN86 said:
I grew up in a rural Pennsylvania town. As kids we used to build shelters, whittle, attempt friction fires, sleep out by the fire, track wild game, etc. We spent most of our spare time in the woods.

I don't remember having cable TV, internet or video games, maybe that had something to do with it.
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Same here. I mat very few people who had same experience. Cheers to you.

From my earliest memories the woods was my playground. Everything I know about the bush was learned by trial and error. My best childhood memories are from the bush and today it's what I dream about. This is why I spend time on this forum. It keeps the dream alive. I feel I "live" in the woods and survive in the city.
 
Spent early yrs raised by grandparents out in the boonies, after grandpa passed when I was around 6, spent most every evening in the woods with a shepard mix renacting old tv shows. Into my teen yrs starting hiking and camping which in turn went into making shelters and friction fires. Other than Jack London books maybe it was first blood. Lol. Now I am enjoying introducing my soon to 5yr old to nature
 
Growing up on a rural farm without TV or telephones was the beginning, books like "Where the red fern grows" and "Last of the Mohicans" were read again and again. When there were no chores, or slack times like in the winter, it was not uncommon for us to vanish into the woods for days or even weeks at a time. A homemade sheath knife, a medicine bottle of fishing gear and a "billy can" cookset with a spoon and we were good to go! Man oh man..Sicily02 is right...30+ years have passed, times have surely changed. I suspect soon I'll be trying to corral my grandkids and teach them that you gotta be still to fool a deer or catch a rabbit! (LOL :) ) (and just when I thought I was going to get some "quiet time" too!..God grant me patience..cause I would not be who I am today if my Dad & Uncles had'nt had a LOT of it! )
 
I grew up in rural PA as well. As a kid I remember library day at school I always got the same book. It was a big book about Indians that had all sorts of well done drawings, I was nuts about that book. I was fascinated by American Indians as a kid. My mom had a childhood friend who's father was a serious collector of Indian artifacts and taught us how to find arrowheads. We lived on the site of an old Leni-Lenapi village so finding artifacts was fairly common. My dad once gave us the book "Diary of a Trapper"by Osborn Russell...

Two other factors fueled the fire. We lived on the edge of a very large (at the time) tract of forest, swamp, and long overgrown farmland. There was a railroad right of way that passed through it and connected that large parcel with several other undeveloped areas. That was a very large stomping ground for a kid, almost all of it has since been developed.

The other was a difficult home life. The woods was a place where I felt safest.

In the early 70's my parents built a house up in the mountains that we would go to on most weekends and most of the summer. From there we had easy access to the AT and several State Gamelands or State Forests. Same bad homelife, just a bigger woods to get dropped off in.

Mac
 
I honestly don't know. My parents took us hiking maybe once or twice a year. Never camping. My dad wasn't much of a dad, and left when I was 12. (no skills passed on, he wasn't an outdoor guy.) My brother and I played a lot, in the local creek, great fun, always an adventure. Had some fun outings with friends in late teens early twenties.

Not to sound mall ninja or anything but Rambo First Blood and Red Dawn stirred my interest. So maybe a combination of above mentioned. Plus I've always been drawn to the outdoors and animals.

But when my Daughter was born eight years ago, the fire was lit. Money is tight camping, fishing, hiking, canoing, its all cheap and some free. Its outdoors with family.
When I was young we roamed free. In this day and age kids don't have that freedom. So by taking to the outdoors, I hope to give my daughter more than I got to experience.
The few experiences I've had, have lasted a lifetime, But we are now making lots of them as a family.
 
pict said:
I grew up in rural PA as well. As a kid I remember library day at school I always got the same book. It was a big book about Indians that had all sorts of well done drawings, I was nuts about that book. I was fascinated by American Indians as a kid. My mom had a childhood friend who's father was a serious collector of Indian artifacts and taught us how to find arrowheads. We lived on the site of an old Leni-Lenapi village so finding artifacts was fairly common. My dad once gave us the book "Diary of a Trapper"by Osborn Russell...

Two other factors fueled the fire. We lived on the edge of a very large (at the time) tract of forest, swamp, and long overgrown farmland. There was a railroad right of way that passed through it and connected that large parcel with several other undeveloped areas. That was a very large stomping ground for a kid, almost all of it has since been developed.

The other was a difficult home life. The woods was a place where I felt safest.

In the early 70's my parents built a house up in the mountains that we would go to on most weekends and most of the summer. From there we had easy access to the AT and several State Gamelands or State Forests. Same bad homelife, just a bigger woods to get dropped off in.

Mac
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Hey Mac,

Didn't Will Weaton play you in Stand By Me? :D
 
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