Living Primitively

Last year Patrick McGlinchey (Backwoods Survival School) and I ran a survival course in my home valley in Telemark, Norway. We arrange one this year too in the end of September.

A list of some of what was covered last year:

• Bowdrill fire with natural cordage
• Trout fishing with bare hands
• Skinning and butchering, small game and moose
• Fish spears and spearing
• Making nets
• Moose ear pouches
• Basic flintknapping
• Shelter
• Skin boat (coracle)
• Seine netting

I can not guarantee that the exact same subjects will be taught this year. BUT I would go as far as saying that I guarantee that we catch trout and if it turns out like last year, we’ll catch loads of them! I think we caught about 500 brown trout then.

Photos by a participant last year can be found here.

If you think this sounds exciting, feel free to contact Patrick through this link.

Sorry, no money on the phone card. Can’t update every day without it.

PS! I’ll try to do a proper update in a few days.

It’s been a struggle, I’ve had to make some trade-offs, but from now and on I am living out in the woods. Actually I’ve already been doing it for some days. It is going to be a transition, making everthing for my daily life, food will be gathered, caught, stored and cooked. I’ll be juggeling two lives to some extent, though with clear emphasis on the primitive living. Legalities and real life situations will dictate that I continue to ask local hunters for skins and do some work to make a little money.

About once a week I’ll try to post an update on how things are and my progress.

Things I’ll do:

• Get food through: Hunting, fishing, gathering, gardening, forest gardening (a hybrid approach between gathering and gardening) and scavenging stuff from hunters.
• Make everything I need in my daily life. No exceptions, I’ll continue to use some of the stuff I already have, like fishing nets and clothes, but it will all be phased out as I manage to replace it with primitive gear.
• Live in primitive accomodations for most of the year (when I’m not visiting somone).
• Take photos and update the blog occasionally.

Things I’ll not do:

• Raise livestock. They need regular tending and I value freedom of movement and action.
• Try to make things as hardcore as possible. I’m not interested in a life of perpetual suffering, so I’ll try as hard as I can to find the solutions that makes a primitive life enjoyable (without resorting to modern tools).

PS! If you like what you are reading, please donate as I really need it.

Down “on location” now and have been so for a few weeks. Just a simple update on what I’ve done:

• Finished planting all the corn in the garden. A lot of the corn, sunflower and the peas are now coming up. Planted some beans and squash.
• Unsuccessfully fired some pottery I made. The pottery was ok I think, but I was probably too impatient with the firing, raising the temperature too soon.
• Chopped down (sorry, metal axe for the sake of speed) a few more aspens, some are to serve as main beams for the earth lodge, the rest for firewood. A second reason I have for chopping down these trees is to give the garden more sun and to give light to a few bushes of hazel that aren’t producing anymore.
• Cut a fairly large number of spruce poles for the lodge and collected the bark for thatching.
• Thinned out a suitable patch of forest by cutting most of the birch there. The logs I’ll use for various projects and firewood.
• Planted 2 seeds of American Chestnut, most graciously given to me by Scott on Paleoplanet.
• Have done some fishing, mostly with a rod, caught a number of fish.
• Managed to overbuck a skin (first one, not fun). May still be usable for a few things I hope.
• Made a pair of rawhide moose skin shoes (pampooties).

Pics:

Corn and sunflower coming up (quite a while ago).

View from the garden.

The garden.

Skinning the spruce poles for the earth lodge.

The spruce bark laid in pressure.

The crude shoes I made (please ignore the ripped pants…).

Various scenery pics.

When I was away now for 2 weeks I was teaching at a local high school (Fyresdal Videregåande Steinerskole). This isn’t the regular type of high school, but one that specializes in teaching sustainable crafts and biodynamic farming. However, it is still possible to also do the curriculum required to qualify for subsequent studies at university or college.

Details about the school:

• It’s a large farm/ranch owned by a foundation. They have sheep, cattle, swine etc… And quite extensive vegetable gardens. All ecological and run on biodynamical principles.
• The school is a Rudolf Steiner School.
• The location is quite remote and located in the sparcely populated muncipality of Fyresdal. Remember, you can walk around wherever you want in Norway. Trespassing isn’t an issue. That gives you plenty of opportunity for outdoors life.
• There are two directions you can take to achieve a proffession at this school: ecological agriculture (+ forestry, crafts etc.) and ecological construction.
• As a student at this school you are allowed to hunt, trap and fish for free on several thousand acres of land. In regards to hunting and trapping you still need to pass the government issued test before you qualify.
• You have the opportunity to live in a dorm at the school. The food produced at the farm is by large consumed by the students.

From this autumn I’ll be teaching outdoors life (3 seperate weeks of fieldtrips around in the terrain. ) which I’m allowed to impart my own angle on (will of course include primitive skills) and some crafts.

If you are interested in more information, I’d advice that you drop them a mail.

Various photos of the school:

The sheep at the school are of the Norwegian stone age type (though not totally pure).

The mountains behind the farm makes for quite good scenery.

This is the main area of the school. Not all of the buildings are so easy to see from this point of view.

Photo of various working buildings. There are is a building dedicated to wood working a smithy etc…

Some rather small examples of buildings built with sustainable methods. The one to the left is a traditional timber cabin, the one to the right is a hay bale house.

A closer look at one of the vegetable gardens and a part of the orchard.

The second vegetable garden, with the barn at left and you can probably see some cows and a greenhouse on the photo too.

Some of the students (They aren’t all males, though it appears to be from this photo) .