A WOODEN BOWL
PREVENT AND TREAT MOSQUITO BITES
Introduction
The vast majority of people enjoy the natural world, but many of us are unaware just what an incredible natural resource awaits beyond our front doors, or we are intimidated by our lack of knowledge of the wild places. However, everyone is capable of learning traditional skills to tame the wilderness and to deepen their understanding and enjoyment of nature. We would all benefit from a crash course in outdoor living.
Most of us haven’t got the first clue about the easiest al fresco tasks, let alone how to track animals or build a dry stone wall. But nothing is more important than getting back to basics! Nothing! That’s why you’ll love this book. It’s an indispensable collection of practical, straightforward advice—everything you need to start facing the challenges of the great outdoors.
It is a pocket compendium of more than seventy wilderness skills to boost your open-air basics, from plucking a chicken and collecting maple syrup to shoeing a horse and opening a coconut with a stone. Keep it handy so that you can refer to it whenever you need to start a fire in the rain, read a compass, forage for food, sharpen a knife, or survive a bear attack. It’s reassuring to discover that many seemingly complicated tasks are quite simple when broken down into their basic, essential steps.
Some of the skills in this book require a bit of practice, but in the words of Eighties pop band The Korgis, "everybody’s got to learn sometime" and everybody’s got to start somewhere too. Even an expert has to begin with the nuts and bolts. Despite this, the hope is that you could actually study topics like "make a dugout canoe" or "pan for gold" and disappear for a few weeks to turn a fallen tree into an open boat or find your fortune in a local stream.
Reading this book won’t make you a master of primitive technology overnight but it will certainly put you ahead of the game, point you in the right direction, and show that some of the skills you considered beyond your reach are extremely accessible.
STOP A RUNAWAY HORSE
When a horse gets spooked and starts to run away with you on its back, acting quickly and calmly is the only way to avoid taking a dirt bath and breaking bones.
If you tense up, shout, and scream for help or try to brutalize the horse into submission by yanking indiscriminately on the reins, you will simply make the horse more frightened, putting you in even greater danger.
Don’t be tempted to pull the Spaghetti Western trick of ripping your shirt off and using it to blindfold the horse or pulling hard on one rein to make him gallop in a tight circle. Westerns have taught us a lot of silly myths about horses, not least that riding them is easy! Both of these methods are the equivalent of turning off your headlights and punching yourself in the jaw while driving the wrong way on a highway. If the horse can’t see, it may slam on the brakes but it may also run into a tree before it comes to a halt. Meanwhile, if you are exerting several hundred pounds of painful rein pressure on its jaw, you become part of the problem.
STOPPING A HORSE MEANS CONTROLLING ITS MIND SO YOU CAN REGAIN CONTROL OF ITS BODY:
1. Focus first on riding the horse rather than stopping him. Allow the horse to see where he is going while you concentrate on keeping your balance.
2. Stay calm, loose, and relaxed. Stiffening your muscles will only give you a rougher ride, making it harder for you to keep your balance. Focus instead on keeping your body relaxed and upright, allowing your body to absorb the horse’s galloping rhythm.
3. Keep your legs in soft contact with the horse as you become attuned to his surges and begin squeezing a little with your legs each time, then relaxing to allow the stride. This brings you more in synch with the horse and helps him to calm down and trust your judgment. Think about using your legs to reassure by framing rather than dominate him into submission (good luck with that).
4. Gradually take back control and begin to shape the horse’s strides so that eventually you can stop the horse by using the conventional commands that he has already learned. He hasn’t forgotten those commands, but he won’t pay attention to them unless you help him to calm down first.
PITCH A TENT without tent poles
If you roll up at your campsite miles from anywhere and then suddenly discover that you’ve left the tent poles at home, here’s a neat way to get Around the problem.
1. Find an overhanging tree, or a tree with a horizontal branch that is a couple of feet higher than the top of your tent.
2. Tie a rope around the tree trunk/branch and let the loose end hang downwards. This is the center point of the tent roof, so lay out your tent underneath and stake the corners of the tent to the ground.
3. Measure and cut two lengths of rope. Feed one through the front right corner to the back right corner; feed the other one through the front left corner to the back left corner, so you end up with two parallel loops.
4. Attach the two loops to the loose end of cord hanging down from the tree, using a tab (you should have one on each guy rope). Tighten vertically until the tent is taut.
5. Use your remaining guy ropes to pull the tent fabric outward to shape and secure the tent.
CLIMB A TREE
First find a tree that is suitable for climbing: it should provide sufficient challenge to push you out of your comfort zone, but not so you face serious danger. Only you can be the judge of this. Dry conditions are the best for climbing.
1. Don’t look down. Look up and focus on finding a climbing route using safe branches.
2. Always keep at least three points of contact with the tree, so that if a hand or foot slips, you can support your weight with the other two.
3. Lean up against the trunk to gain maximum stability and place your feet where the branch meets the trunk, where it is thickest and strongest. The further away from the trunk you place your feet, the greater
