The Feral Woodsman and the Self Reliant Lifestyle, Chapter 6 of 18

The art of survival can take many forms. Over the last 50 or 60 years, what I’ve noticed through many learning outlets is that survival is always under ideal conditions—plant life is there and looks perfect, wild life is easy to harvest, it is never too hot or cold, and no terrain is too steep or to difficult to penetrate. For the most part, it does not depict what I would call “real”.

Getting established will be work, while you learn your environment on an intimate basis. Learning the ins and outs of what it means to harvest food is part of the path to being a self reliant Feral Woodsman. We are not looking to just survive but to having a thriving life style.

You will most likely have to,supply yourself with goods from the outside, from time to time, even more so at the start. The learning curve will be steep, but you should pick up the pace as you continue to apply the skills we have talked about in past articles. By owning those skills and using them on a day to day basis you will advance quickly into a more comfortable lifestyle… The pathway to self reliance.

Today, I can point to several people who could step into the part of being a Feral Woodsman, and not have too difficult a time of it. By attending events like Wintercount , Rabbit stick and Dirttime you will see these folks . They are giving classes and have a lot of advice to help you along The path of being a self reliant Feral Woodsman. They are not all males, a few of these women I would pit against almost any guy who thinks they have it together So, it is not gender specific, as many might think.

We are children of a modern society, who, for the most part, are so far out of touch with our inner wild self as to think it is a Disney movie.

Just to throw yourself into the wilderness, you will die. Thats why I keep pounding the “own the skills” mantra. We are used to certain comforts and the expectation of those comforts. However, in the Feral Woodsmans lifestyle you will not be without comfort, perhaps just not to the degree you have come to know. But, we know what we need to know to be as comfy as we want. You want to” smooth it not rough it “, as Nessmuk, (George W. Sears) stated in his classic book, “Woodcraft and Camping “. If you have your skills set in order, you will not be roughing it. You need to outfit yourself with the proper gear and learn to set yourself up, that includes what nature has to offer us. Learning how to use what is in front of us is key for the Feral Woodsman.

One of the easy ways to be comfortable is the use of a hammock. I can hear the nay sayers already. First you need a real hammock and you need to know how to use it. There are many options available and are ideal because they leave no trace. You can can hang one in places no one would look for as a camp. There are several types of hammocks from just a basic net to high tech hammocks. Don Paul’s ,”24+ ways to use your hammock in the field” is a great resource for the simple net hammock. I used the net hammock for years and it can be improvised for many uses. As a chair, as a net for game, including fish. It can be camo netting by weaving local plant life throughout the net. I carry two of them in my pack at all times they roll up the size of a soft ball.

For a camp that is in more of a permanent location I use the Speer hammock. You can learn how they really work, and you will be in for a very pleasant surprise. The hammock allows you set up over wet ground or even a small creek, and over very rocky ground. It gets you up and away from creepy crawlies and is really comfy as you sway in a breeze. Put a tarp overhead if you need it. You can set it up with a mosquito net as well. I carry a stuff sack (bed tick) slightly longer than I am tall. It rolls up into a small package, but can be stuffed with leaves or whatever kind of forest duff I can find. It provides for a fine mattress, to make yourself comfy and acts as a barrier for the hammock as it gets colder. You just lay it in place inside the hammock. Now go hang yourself.

Being clean is a must for the Feral Woodsman. Here are a few plants you can make soap with. Soap lily you use the bulb, grate it and rub together and it will provide a nice lather to soap yourself down with. The yucca is a great source for soap and is also edible and makes great cordage. The leaves you strip into fine long threads and rub them in the water and it produces a great soap for your hair and body. You can also use the root in the same manner. I would just stay with the leaves, since roots are very hard to dig up in most cases. The stalk it shoots up, while green, makes for a delicious meal. Just slice it up place in water and cook it. Mountain lilac, really looks like a small tree, has beautiful blue flowers when in bloom. Rub the flowers together in water and it will hit you with a lather of soap to wash with, those are just a few plants that can help keep you clean, but all plants with saponins will produce similar results. This is part of the pathway to self reliance for the Feral Woodsman.

Another plant that provides more than food is the cattail. When the top turns brown and dry break it open and it is full of fluff. Stuff it in your bedding or a coat and it will help keep you warm. When cattail tops are green, they make good eats. Cook it like corn. When the top is loaded with the yellow pollen scrape it off to make a fine flour. The root is good to eat and is starchy. The cattail fluff is also a great fire starter, but will just burn. You may choose to char it instead, to produce a long lasting coal. One way to char it is by placing it in a small tin, compress it down as hard as you can, cover the top and put it in a fire. Be sure to punch a small hole in the top of the tin. As long as the smoke pours out of the hole let it stay in the fire. Once the smoke stops pouring from the hole, pull it out, let it cool and open it up, you will find it black or a dark brown. place in a dry container like an Altoids tin , spark it and it will make a great tinder fire starter. You can also do the same to make char cloth, using small squares of 100% cotton. All of this is part of the path to being a Feral Woodsman.

By Dude McLean

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