What Bush Craft Means to Me

Northern Dancer

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Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills, acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding,
in order to survive and thrive in a natural environment. Bushcraft skills, therefore, provide
for the basic physiological necessities for human life:
food, water sourcing and purification, shelter-building, and fire craft.
✔Added to the list we now include psychological needs of confidence and inner strength.
✔ Resilience and a determination to live have become part of bushcraft skills.

All this interpreted for me means

PRIMITIVE CAMPING
I define primitive camping
as being without neighbours, electricity, running water, bathroom facilities, and,
oftentimes, cell service. You camp in a remote location and provide everything you will need for yourself.
I think that describes me.
I like the term primitive and not the term survivour because I'm not a survivour.
I do very well thank you.
Baden Powell once said, "The only people who rough it are amateurs."
Being engaged in primitive camping to me means that I am sufficiently trained to be able
to take care of myself and others if need be. It means having the right equipment
for the right application. It means knowing how to use natural resources
and at the same time respect the environment.

I've learned over the years, through example, experience, and have been taught by
knowledgeable people to get to a position that I can say I am a primitive camper.
And yes, it has taken me years to accumulate the necessary equipment. I'm now
at the stage where I recycle items and often give them away to purchase new ones to update
my inventory. This is especially true when it comes to tents and shelters. I have the finest.
Notice I said the finest and not the best. I do not believe there is such a thing as the best.
I've learned to be prudent in the use of money and always buy when things are on sale.
I've taken the bear courses, first aid instructor's course, canoe courses, cooking courses,
survival courses, hygiene, and safety courses and attended a lot of seminars in between.
I know I still have much to learn.


3068
 

oldsarge

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Well said! I am vicariously happy for your gained experience and knowledge. I would love to have had the opportunities available to develop my outdoor skills to your level. As with most of the folks who post here, I always enjoy reading about their skills and knowledge.
 

Northern Dancer

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Well said! I am vicariously happy for your gained experience and knowledge. I would love to have had the opportunities available to develop my outdoor skills to your level. As with most of the folks who post here, I always enjoy reading about their skills and knowledge.
=====> Coming from you I accept that as a supreme compliment. It seems to me that we haven't seen much of you of late - I hope this isn't the last. Wisdom, experience, and character are needed more today than ever. Thanks again, hope to see you online real soon.
 

ppine

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Bush craft skills are kind of out of date, until you really need them.
Survivalists and bushcrafters and leaving all kinds of bad shelters in the woods and mucking up wild lands.
Be careful how you use an axe, where you shoot and how you affect other people.
 

Northern Dancer

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I agree with you Pine and often see remnants left behind. Then the are the trees that are slashed, others with gigantic nails protruding, cords, wire, hooks, and just plain vegetation debris, etc. With all the electronic stuff and the new advances of equipment bushcraft skills have become out of date. And like you suggested, they are really only valuable when you need them. Things like a compass.

 

AK Hunter

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You call it bush craft skills, I'm a hunter so I call it woodsmanship. I not only have to know how to take care of myself & equipment but what the animals in the woods are doing or going to do because of me being there.
 

Northern Dancer

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Bush craft skills are kind of out of date, until you really need them.
Survivalists and bushcrafters and leaving all kinds of bad shelters in the woods and mucking up wild lands.
Be careful how you use an axe, where you shoot and how you affect other people.
=====> I think some of the terminology might be out of date but skill is still valid. The use of technological advances is now part of course criteria. I remember [a time ago now] when I took my first Wilderness First Aid course and thinking how advanced it was and how advanced I would be. Then I had to take a course on using a defibrillator and so on. There are new skills that demand our attention and all I wanted to do was to canoe and camp and with friends.

I was out this weekend at a group camp and part of the program was a certificate course for young people. The course included care and the use of a knife and axe/hatchet. If they passed the test they received a certificate that allowed them to wear and use a knife, axe, or hatchet. Then I observed one of the activities - hatchet throwing. Now that was something I never learned.
 

Cappy

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There are volumes written on Cajun culture I will attempt a very short version. The original cajun people were from nova scotia where they had settled from France. When england took over they tried to force the people to give up their Catholic faith and were insisting they either join church of England or leave so several ship loads of them left. Sailing down the east coast looking for somewhere to settle some stopped here and there along the coast the majority of them knew that south Louisiana was french and catholic came here to settle. The word Cajun kinda evolved from describing the acadians from canada. The dominant French culture in south central Louisiana remained for many years being remote and not easily accesed they retained their culture and much of it remains today. The french Acadians along the river more exposed to outside influence evolved and adapted some worldy things in their culture and became known as creoles. This is the very short version I could go on at length so if ya need more info let me know.
 

Northern Dancer

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There are volumes written on Cajun culture I will attempt a very short version. The original cajun people were from nova scotia where they had settled from France. When england took over they tried to force the people to give up their Catholic faith and were insisting they either join church of England or leave so several ship loads of them left. Sailing down the east coast looking for somewhere to settle some stopped here and there along the coast the majority of them knew that south Louisiana was french and catholic came here to settle. The word Cajun kinda evolved from describing the acadians from canada. The dominant French culture in south central Louisiana remained for many years being remote and not easily accesed they retained their culture and much of it remains today. The french Acadians along the river more exposed to outside influence evolved and adapted some worldy things in their culture and became known as creoles. This is the very short version I could go on at length so if ya need more info let me know.
-----> I learned something today that I should have known. Thanks, Cappy - much appreciated.

I hope you are doing better than well and things are going your way. Blessings.
 

ppine

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Thanks Cappy. I have only been to NOLA once, but it was memorable, around 20 years ago before the Hurricane.
I really enjoyed carriage rides with mules and mule drivers.
We ate our way across the city.
A very interesting place to visit.
 

Cappy

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Sadly new orleans has become democratic and a lil too dangerous. We seldom go there and then only in the daylight. At its best it is a good example of creole culture a melting pot of ethnic groups all adding their flare too the culture and cuisine. To experience more cajun culture you would have to venture to the Lafayette area of the state
 
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