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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Thought for Food - Guerrilla Camping 101.3

Draft originally posted at The Guerrilla News Network. Included here with GNN commentary courtesy of the GNN Archive.
R91613
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

i highly recommend these books.

R91618
4 years ago
deadduck

I don’t think you have any verbosity to apologize for. Frankly, I think you’re publishable. I’ve paid for less useful writing than this.
As long as you keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
Cheers,
dd

R91622
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

this is kinda cool, though a localized (because they’re smaller) edible plants and herbs guide, and/or a mushroom guide would be even better. with mushrooms, be sure to double-check your guide and look closely at the specifics of the ID description, because many choise edibles have poisonous and even deadly look-alikes.
trackertrail is an informative site.
and of course:
*At Home in the Wilderness*
_by Tom Brown, Jr._
I: Shelter
II: Water
III: Fire
IV: Hunting and Traps
V: Edible Plants
VI: Survival Cooking
VII: Animal Tracking
VIII: Basic Skills and Lost-Proofing
IX: Advanced Survival Shelters
Other articles by Tom Brown, Jr.
Making Natural Cordage
Be a Back-to-the-Basics Bowyer
Post Modified: 10/22/05 21:59:50

R91626
4 years ago
BlackPacker

The reason I advocate the Mabey guide is the fact that it identifies individual edible portions of plants and the seasons in which they are edible, along with providing great full colored pictures. I had an old guide with hand drawings, but got so hungry after not recognizing anything that I ate it.
Thanks for the feedback DD.
That At Home in the Wilderness series is great. I love it.

R91627
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

i couldn’t get parts III & IV formatted correctly, as you probably noticed. some textile bug i guess.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1982_January_February/A_Home_In_the_Wilderness__Part_III__Fire
on edit: two underscores between Wilderness and Part and two between III and Fire.
textile bugs out with web addresses with more than one underscore in a row
Post Modified: 10/22/05 21:36:15

R91628
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

it’s because some of the addresses have three underscores in a row which textile tries to recognise as italics, i think. anyways, even if i post the address it won’t work, because it takes out an underscore http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1982_March_April/Part_V__Hunting___Traps
there should be three underscores beween Hunting and Trapps on the above addy. weird textile bug.
Post Modified: 10/22/05 21:33:51

R91630
4 years ago
MarchHare

Your series of survival blogs are awesome. I’m very interested in buying a book like “Food For Free”, but particularly geared towards plantlife in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia/Washington State area). Does anyone have any suggestions?

R91669
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

MH – when in the PcNW, i eat salmon and raspberries, and other fruits i find. occasionally we’d get shellfish. don’t know of any good guide books for the area, sorry. if i come across one, i’ll post it here.

R91670
4 years ago
ShiftShapers


R91684
4 years ago
kingkong

love your blogs, always vote 5, however, you seem inordinately attatched to the Structure. what would you do w/o an atm?

R91685
4 years ago
kingkong

i have this awesome tool for making fire… FOREVER... wanna buy it?

R91686
4 years ago
remarcus

layoff king, he is validly pointing out the obvious, you mentally challenged midget

R91719
4 years ago
thefistofgod

god i love your blogs.
i agree with duckie; you have no reason to apologize, and I’ve definitely paid money to read less talented writers.
keep blogging, keep writing, keep backpacking my dear.
marla

R91731
4 years ago
MaxBooze

Actually ive learned ALL my survival techniques from SAS manuals. For general camping, hiking, and survival trips i recommend “Essential SAS Survival” by Barry Davies, hes cant be active duty SAS or he wouldnt disclose his name, so hes ex-SAS...

R91735
4 years ago
ShiftShapers

king – hence my comment on a previous guerrilla backpacking entry:what do we do when the stores all close their doors?

R91769
4 years ago
sisyphus

Excellent stuff.
For the stove, I have been messing around with perlite as a fuel (using alcohol as a “wick”) and it seems to work rather well – burns longer and need to carry very little alcohol. Haven’t field-tested it yet, but it looks promising so far.
Dead-on on the oatmeal thing, ruined my taste for it for months on one trip (same goes for grits). Dried fruit or fresh berries help liven it up a bit though.
what do we do when the stores all close their doors?
I have some ideas in mind for this that I am trying to put into a coherent form – may blog it in the next few days.

R91774
4 years ago
fennec

what do we do when the stores all close their doors?
Wait ‘til the morning? Or if it is a holiday then find a place that is open or wait until the next day? If it’s a Sunday and one of those arcane places that still closes then either go somewhere else or brick them into the 21st century.

R91791
4 years ago
Snark

Perlite? Is that shit flammable? Awesome….I wanna know more.

R91798
4 years ago
Number5Toad

right on man, 5 from me…
don’t know why it took me so long to read your stuff, but keep it coming!

R91801
4 years ago
BlackPacker

Kong, I am attached to the system. I have spent nine years trying to be as dis-attached as possible. Right now, I know the name of the farm where my flour comes from. I’ve met the guy who runs it, and I’ve walked by the mill that grinds it. I still buy it at a store, but I know to guy who owns the store, too. Yes, this makes me inordinately attached to the system, but it also means that I have created a system of my own. Some anarchist theorist once said, “You are only as free as your circle of friends.”
Maxbooze: SAS novels are fun. But only if you read them where you can use them as activity books.
As to, What do we do when the stores close their doors?
You walk up to the door of a farm house. Knock heartily, and say, “Hey Mike. Remember me? Yeah, I fixed those fences for you last year for some corn and a place to pitch my tent. You know, the stores have all closed their doors, so I need corn and potatoes. I’ll help you on your farm if I can have that acre pasture over there to grow a garden.”
There. I’ve got an out. If the collapse comes next year, I’ve got plenty of places to hide out and grow food. However, if the collapse comes in five, I should already be on my own land and growing. I can sit out in the middle of nowhere, right now and I make enough electricity to power everything I own. However, I don’t expect to walk into a pasture and pull potatoes out of the ground. That will take a year or two, and up to five before I can call my field a true sustenance farm.
By the time I finished college, I was so aware of the un-sustainability of our economic, political, agricultural (and even social) systems that I spent a year working 9-5 while spending my free time looking for a way to change it all. In the end I had put into action a plan to think globally, act personally. If society should use solar power, than I should be able to power everything I own solar panels. I did it for under fifty bucks, and that includes the wreckage of me learning to solder. Oh my god, we’re going to run out of gas? Learn to cook with alcohol and wood and make sure you’re a strong walker.
I feel that I have succeeded at this point of creating a sustainable community of one person. I am however tied to the machinations of our unsustainable commerce. It is difficult to wash the smell of petroleum off my rice, but I manage. The sweat from carrying it works like jasmine out there. I don’t think the stores are all going to close. There will be a fundamental shift in the way we live. It may be uncomfortable for those who aren’t adaptable. But if you want to learn adaptability, be professionally migrant for nine years.
For the record, I haven’t had an ATM card since halfway though college when I realized money was a drug. I have a savings account, but I rarely need to use it.
So, to answer your question about what will we do when the stores all close? We’ll flirt with the waitress next door and get our bocaburger and beer for free. In short. Improvise. I just started improvising a bit ahead of schedule.
Sisyphus, I enjoyed your earlier posts and if you can come up with a good answer to the question above, please do. I have no answer as to how to do it as a society. I had to figure out how to do it to myself first, and I’m only part way there.

R91802
4 years ago
BlackPacker



R91810
4 years ago
MaxBooze

I wasnt implying novels like “Bravo Two-Zero” i was talking about ACTUAL SAS SURVIVAL MANUALS. Written by ex-SAS they are probably the best survival books you can get. Ive learned TONS of survival skills on top of my already vast knowledge…

R91821
4 years ago
Number5Toad

BP as you know better than most, it’s insanely difficult to disattach yourself from the system. i’ve been taking baby steps, one at a time, for almost a decade, and i’m nowhere near as close to off the grid as i’d like to be.
others at this site have gone much farther than myself and, i’d wager, would say the same thing.

R91826
4 years ago
TheHyperT

I really dont care about this, because the only good thing about being a developing (and not developed) nation is that our natural resources are almost intact, while you guys need to pour 3 oil-calories for each meal-calorie.
Its like supernovas: they are brighter, but last several times less than normal stars.
Anyways, good luck with the whole hunting thing…

R91832
4 years ago
sisyphus

Perlite? Is that shit flammable?
Actually, it isn’t flammable. I shouldn’t have called it “fuel” – that is still the alcohol. It is just a lightweight substrate for the alcohol that supposedly allows for a longer and more consistent burn with less alcohol needed. I am going to put it through some tests against a standard homemade alcohol stove to see if that is true.
Simple Perlite-alcohol stove design
Post Modified: 10/23/05 20:54:45

R91864
4 years ago
sisyphus

Marchhare – I’m very interested in buying a book like “Food For Free”, but particularly geared towards plantlife in the Pacific Northwest (British Columbia/Washington State area). Does anyone have any suggestions?
Since we already covered this elsewhere, I figured I would link some related stuff:
Wildflower Center bibliography by region
(great resource I just came across recently – lists books on flora by region and gives an idea of what type of guide each is)
Foraging and Ethnobotany Links Page
(awesome collection of stuff)
Forager Community Pages
(be very cautious about wild mushrooms – even the experts can be fooled)
Getting a general edible wild plant guide and one specific to your region would be a good idea. Implementing and practicing what you read is crucial of course.
Post Modified: 10/24/05 02:28:00

R92068
4 years ago
OriginalG

Blackpacker, you’re Guerrilla Camping blog entry’s are good reads.
Thanks :)
Your Geurrilla Camping blog entries have claimed the top spot at Google ;)

.........
- Ø®£Z –

R92069
4 years ago
OriginalG

Not meaning to litter your blog, but I could of sworn that I correctly used “your” instead of “you’re” in that above comment :s
I meant for those to be “your”, not “you’re”
.........
- Ø®£Z –

R93724
4 years ago
hagcel

BP, I dig your food selection. I’m fortunate enough to have a great bulk co-op nearby where I can get all this stuff. I started “living cheap” a few years back and started learning how to make everything myself. It helps that my mother was forced to do it to keep us fed growing up. She taught me all about soda bread, although I’m convinced I make it better than her now.
But your stove. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve built tons of alcohol stoves, and always carry one with a bit of rubbing alcohol (yes, I know methylated spirits are better, but you can use the alcohol for hygiene too) and use it to cook trail lunches since it’s so easy to set up, but the amount of fuel it needs is ridiculous and the heat produced makes it impossible to use for melting snow and if you mismeasure the alcohol, your stove goes out before stuff is cooked, and crunchy rice sucks. Oh yeah, and I can cook rice.
But, the true reason I got the whisperlite (Other than how cheap I got it on Ebay) is the fact that is the lightest multi-fuel stove around. I don’t believe all the stores are going to close their doors, but if they do, it’s good to know I can forage for gasoline by hunting cars. It runs off automobile fuel, kerosene and white fuel (Coleman lantern fuel), Their new XGK stove burns all these AND biodiesel so I might eventually spring for one if I find it used and cheap.
The system is amazingly efficient. It’s two nesting cookpots, inside of which nest a heat diffuser, a wind screen, and the stove. The fuel Bottle has a pump to pressurize it, allowing you the woosh of a canister stove without the waste of disposable canisters. The heat diffuser is a metal affair that allows the flame of the stove to directed around the outside of the pot, drastically reducing energy waste and meaning less fuel to carry. One fuel bottle is enough for four or five days, and once after using it way too much I ran out of fuel mid-trip. I night hiked four miles to the park’s parking lot and “found” gasoline to run it off of. (Yes, my cook set includes four feet of thin plastic tubing and yes, I thought of that before it happened).
The weight of the system is not much of an issue since my GF walks with me most of the time, so we have a lot of “shared weight” (usually meaning I carry it for both of us) in the form of tents, cook sets, etc.
The only major draw back to the stove is what people online call the jet scream. The thing wooshes. Loudly. It doesn’t scare animals like they say, but it is not silent. I actually think the sound of it summons raccoons at campgrounds, since they know its dinner time.
I understand the weight / ratio, and I don’t think you should switch if the alcohol stove works for you, but I wanted to put something in here as an answer what we’ll do when the stores all close. I’ll siphon.
Keep it up man, you’ve got quite a knack for DIY writing. If you can, you should post a picture of your stove, I’d love to see what design elements you use.

R93824
4 years ago
sisyphus

hagcel/blackpacker –
the answer is whatever works of course. I love the whisperlite but like my “luxury model” dragonfly even more (will be taking a look at the XGK for the hell of it soon – even though a new bag is far higher on my list of to-get things). From the way I see it, knowing how to put together a “hobo stove” quickly is far more important than using it on a regular basis (but props to those who do). This is the reason I have even been screwing around with perlite – which really seems to add little to the stove’s efficiency.
As long as I can afford to buy/acquire gas, and have tools to keep it going, I will use the MSR. When that fails, I hope to have the homemade stove pegged. I really don’t see a big issue in the weight difference since most of the mass/energy spent will be in fuel anyhow – but I, like hagcel, also have the 2 person hike-thru thing going (and 2 dogs with packs and harnesses to help).

R93825
4 years ago
sisyphus


R94611
4 years ago
BlackPacker

I carried a coleman peak for a while when I first started out. After a while, I got sick of cleaning all the stuff and learned to cook with less and less. The peak also had the ability to run of unleaded, but I seldom used it. The prblem with gas stoves is gas. You have to buy a gallon of this stuff even if you only need 16 ounces. Methylated Spirits are more available than coleman fuel, and I don’;t mind carry a medium sized can of it. It may not be economic, but it’s light and lets me resupply fuel without giving away the other 3/4 gallon I can;t carry wth meI like the idea of a syphon tube though. I might give it a try if I go back to a commercial stove.
I like the idea of biodeisel A LOT. Now we just need sombody to write about how to make biodeisel in a backpack and we’re hooked up.

R94613
4 years ago
Snark

You could do it in a nalgene bottle, I betcha. You’d need to do a lot of shaking, but it’d be doable. Heat it with a boiling water bath. Add lye and methanol. Shake a lot, keep it hot. Let it react. Pour off glycerine. I could do more research if you want, but shit, I made a little batch in my blender just to play around with it. It works pretty well.

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