The Making of Bushcraft Base Camp One

Daphne stands downhill, waiting for me to toss down young trees and brush that I am ripping out of the ground. It is brutally hard work–for me anyway–but fortunately the ground is stony and the earth is shallow, so it is not as hard as it might be. And ripping the trees from the ground by hand does a more thorough job of prepping the site than cutting them, which would leave small trunks here and there to trip people up. Daphne is stacking the wood on either side of the flat area. Some will be cut on site to be used as firewood for Base Camp One, and the biggest stuff will be brought back to Twa Corbies Cottage to become firewood for the wood stove. Just beyond Daphne is a beautiful little brook, and I will lay two large logs over it, plane them with a draw knife, and nail 2x6s over it to make a simple bridge so students can get to a hillock on the other side where the classes will be held.  We worked till dark and just camped on the spot in one of our guide class tents, the music of owls and the brook making for a very pleasant evening.

Bushcraft Base Camp One (permanent name not decided yet): spending the night as we prepare the site.

Potential students should note: all the work is being done with hand tools except the cutting of the largest logs where I will use a chainsaw. This entire camp is being built with advanced skills of bushcraft.

$306 For a “Bushcraft” Knife???

A nice knife, but $306? What is the point of a tool if it’s too expensive to use?

While searching for a course grade Japanese waterstone this morning on Amazon to compliment my finer grade sharpening stones, I came across a listing for a bushcraft knife. $306 for a Sibert “bushcraft” knife? (Shown left.)

Seriously? At that price for a 9.5″ knife, it better build my fire and cook my food for me, and do it looking good in a cute little camo French maid outfit. I mean, geez, I could cob that sheath together out of a piece of heavy duty leather and deep sea fishing line in about an hour for $5. As to the knife, get something good that doesn’t cost so much you’re afraid to use it, like maybe a Becker 17:

The Ka-bark BK 17: affordable bushcraft excellence.

“I claim this rock!”

To a tracker, this is very interesting and even humorous. Here you see a scent post. To the right of the rock (about 18″ long) are two coyote scats, probably from two different coyotes, as they are both about the same age but different sizes and of different foods. But right on top of the rock is a porcupine scat, just a little fresher. This area is the traditional territory of an established, stable coyote pack (and, no, not for the life of my mother will I ever reveal its location) and the rock is regularly marked by the members. Two of the pack members recently visited, then along waddles a little porcupine, notices the site is marked, and thumbs his nose at the coyotes by marking right on top of their rock.

Porcupine’s In the Apples

Photographed two days ago. I was only a few feet from him, and you can see he’s wondering what I’m up to.

Part of the fun of learning to track is finding wildlife to observe.  Here is a porcupine visiting a wild apple tree in the woods around the homestead.

Cold Steel Trail Master

The Trailmaster Bowie by Cold Steel–hands down, my absolute favorite knife for bushcraft and hunting.

As long as there has been bush and bushmen and stuff that could be made sharp, outdoorsmen have had a love affair with knives.  A good knife will last a lifetime, but I would bet your typical bushcrafter, hunter, fisherman or woodsman has at least a half dozen good knives.  Yet the allure of the knife is no wonder; it is the all purpose outdoors tool with which a skilled person can hunt, clean game and fish, make tools from fishing poles to bows and arrows, build shelter, strike chert and start a fire, even build shelter and stay warm.

Find the entire article in Product Reviews by following this link.

Real Skills for Natural Living

The wild wood around the homestead during an early October snow last deer season.

We are soon to open the Twa Corbies Hollows School of Bushcraft & Homesteading.  That’s quite a mouthful, which I suppose is appropriate for our undertaking is grand.  We will endeavor to provide real and meaningful skills for competent enjoyment of the outdoors and successful, sustainable living.

Unfortunately, bushcraft as presented on television and online, has become something of a circus.  There are televised “expert” bushcrafters pulling risky stunts like eating raw animals, or who seem competent but manage to enter the subarctic wilds during summer and starve for days, which to me is much like managing to emaciate oneself at a buffet.  Likewise, in various bushcrafting magazines and online resources, an endless parade of knives, firestarting gadgets, tents, high tech clothes and innumerable other gizmos are paraded as essential to the bushcrafter’s (and the homesteader’s) success.  It’s a good thing I didn’t know this when I was growing up on my grandfather’s bayou farm, or living at our cabin deep in the Alaskan wilderness.  I would never have managed to get by with a simple flat-bottomed boat and rifle, an ordinary axe and camp knife.

What we’re going to aim to do is something a little different–we’re going to aim to teach people real skills, not sell them on stunts.  Want to venture competently into the woods?  We’ll teach you to find your way navigating by landmarks, stars and compass, how to make shelter with what you have on hand, how to stay warm when it’s cold or start a fire when it’s wet, and how to make your own food for outdoor adventures or identify edible plants and mushrooms in the natural setting so you never have to starve.  Want to learn to live sustainably?  We’ll teach you to grow a garden without chemicals, how to create your own compost, press your own cider, or buy a good horse at a reasonable price and train it to be a reliable work animal and trail horse.

In short, we’ll teach real skills real people can use to get out and live green and well.  That’s what the School of Bushcraft & Homesteading is all about.

We offer a beautiful site.  Twa Corbies Hollow is a semi-secluded homestead in the Nova Scotia highlands.  Set in a valley atop a mountain, surrounded by woods, brush lands and glens, rich with ponds, brooks and springs, the homestead is over a mile long.  We maintain organic gardens and grow nearly all our own food, or forage it from the wild country.  Students will have the chance to learn in a wild setting of intense natural beauty, offering four distinct seasons each of which with its own special challenges and opportunities.

Stay abreast of the site for news on upcoming classes, and welcome to the adventure.