Organic Tea that Our Ancestors Drank for Health & Curing Properties...

I have been poking around the internet re-kindling my interest in bushcraft and the associated knowledge that goes along with the practice. My interest in plants and their properties goes back to when I was a youngster. I follow a couple of channels on youtube that peaked my interest in a fungus called Chaga (Inonotus obliquus).
According to history this fungus was/is used by the people of the northern latitude as tea to maintain good health, sprinkled on food, in stew, etc. Used when sick to help the immune system fight the infection. Read more here: Mushroom Collecting - Chaga
Dr. Cass Ingram on Youtube has some great videos on Chaga: Dr. Cass Ingram
Also, here on the Renegade Health Show, and here at bushcraftbartons.

There are some birch out back on the property and so the hunt begins. After several walks around studying the trees our birch trees do not have any chaga. At least not yet. But, I continued to walk around the swamp and adjoining properties. This afternoon is a nice sunny day with the temp sitting at 44F in NW Vermont. Get the leash on Barney the Basset and collect the wife... Off we go.

Got the backpack, hatchet, Becker BK3, a couple of water bottles, bag(s). Here are some images of the Chaga that was found today. I was the one excited about the find. Barney could care less. The wife... well she was in a hurry to get out of the woods. Set them off in the direction of the road and told them I would catch up. Wouldn't you know I forgot the camera. Darn!!! But, here are some photos of the piece I got. I left much of it on the tree and got enough to last a while. 

Awesome afternoon in the woods. Now I need to cut this up and dry it out for tea. Chaga also makes great tinder for starting a fire. 
At the moment I have one cup of chaga tea a day. As I collect more I will consider replacing my morning coffee with chaga. Chaga is not bitter like coffee or tea. Has a mild flavor. Not sure how to explain it, but the drinker can add honey or the like to sweeten it up. 
Find some chaga and give it a try. Your body will thank you.

Enjoy, 

** Update
Here is a pic of the chaga chopped and ready to dry. Here is a helpful video on how to dry: Bushcraft Bartons - Drying Chaga

A New RSS Reader...

While perusing the internet I came across an article about RSS readers. Listed there was one I have not heard of and headed over to their website. Blogbridge is a Java powered RSS reader. I loaded the application on my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop. I am still tinkering with the settings. I have not had a problem with it locking up like Liferea which I have on the same laptop.

Check it out here: Blogbridge

I do like it. If you use an RSS reader currently the layout for Blogbridge is similar.

Enjoy,

To Make A Knife...

I was doing some reading about knife making, and then to add to the process I watched several videos on Youtube. Found some really cool bushcraft websites, here is one of the many out there: Making a Bushcraft Knife.

I did not have much in the way of steel. I poked around the shed and found one of the old mower blades. So far so good. I noticed that the blade has a turned up corner, cut off that section. I don't have any way to heat up the metal to flatten. At least not yet. I do have plans to build a small forge very soon. Once again Youtube has plenty of videos on building a forge.

As for tools here is what I used:

Hacksaw
Bench grinder
Belt sander (hand held, need to get a bench mount)
Dremel tool

I need to build a jig to get the blade bevel right. This is a learning experience so the first round will not be so good. Here are a few pic's of the project.

Need to come up with some scales for it. I will try to root up something out back in the woods. Maple, Birch, some decent hardwood. A small knife, but something to test out and learn from.

 Holes need to get drilled for the scales and lanyard before the tempering.

 The spine is approx. 3/16" thick. It will make a nice sturdy knife once it gets tempered.

More to follow as I gather up and build what I need to work through this project.


Enjoy,

A Weekend Emergency Ration...

I was visiting different blogs reading different ideas about creating light weight food stuffs to have in my pack as a just in case. MRE's can be had for 10+ $'s from various places. After reading and poking around I decided on a path to take. I would create my own version of an E-RAT. As a matter of fact I made two for each of the kids, son-in-law, and wife.
I used my Food Saver to create an air tight package. I suppose that a zip lock bag will work as well.

Here is what I placed in the pack:
2 - Cliff bars
2 - Lipton Cup of Soup, Chicken Noodle
2 - Instant Oatmeal packets
2 - Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa
4 - Jolly Rancher Candies
3 - Instant Coffee packets
3 - 4C Light powdered drink mix packets (100% vitamin C)

This very basic packet is good for one day or over night stay in the woods. If one conserves maybe two days. The packs the kids have contain items to filter water, start a fire, container to heat and carry water or eat from. The items will keep for sometime, well over a year if not left in the sun. All that is needed is a fire and little water to create the meal.

All of the items can be purchased at the local grocery.

Enjoy,

A Way to Store Food...

Many ways exist to safely store food stuffs for future or emergency use. Folks can purchase dehydrated food in buckets that are meals, there are MRE's, any number of combinations are out there in the market place. The price also reflects the quantity, but not always the quality.
Uncle Sam recommends that Americans have at least three days of reserve food and water on hand.

Starting off with food storage. One will need food grade storage buckets. A lot of folks sell them, but this place has the best prices as they are a manufacturer; freckleface.com. These five gallon pails will store plenty of beans, lentils, white rice, salt, pepper, sugar, and whatever else your heart desires.
I am not going into how to store the food. The internet has plenty of resources on how to store food. I am just putting up a link to the folks who had the best deal for me when I needed the buckets.

The Gamma lids are awesome and will not break you hands while opening them. A great find and worth sharing.

** Update 8 Feb 13
Here is a link(s) to some handy ideas for storing the food; Modern Survival Blog.com, Backdoor Survival.com. Plenty of other resources out there, these are just a couple I have visit from time to time.

Enjoy,

To Learn Something New...

I have decided to try and learn something new; Emergency Medical Technician Basic (EMT-B). So far so good. My class meets two nights a week for three hours. The instructor(s) include one paramedic and a few intermediate EMT's. All of the instructors are very knowledgeable concerning the subject matter.
One particular area of interest is the FEMA training courses available to the general public free of charge. These courses can be taken by anyone and provide introduction(s) to several different topics in regards to disasters. A test can also be taken upon completion of the course. If a passing grade is received a certificate of completion is e-mailed to the users.

Check out the courses here: FEMA Independent Study

Why are these courses useful? Well, you can help your community to prepare for emergencies as well as the arrival of resources to implement recovery. These courses all provide some insight as to what is expected in government response and how the organization is built to respond. If a community decides to handle the recovery without external help than these course will provide basic knowledge of what should be done.

What is unfortunate is that whenever the government gets involved the recovery effort is prolonged and drawn out. This was witnessed locally.

So, maybe folks should complete these courses on their own and be ready to help their communities and keep the inept government out.


Enjoy,

See What Congress is Voting On...

All,
I found out about the awesome website that lets me read a Bill as well as send a note to my Congressman or Senator. The note lets these folks know if I support or oppose a particular Bill. Now if you decide to read a Bill you will be years ahead of those voting on them. I suspect the percentage who actual read them is pretty low. I base this one some of the recent Bills that have passed. To me it looks like some were never read, just stuffed with Pork and passed.
Anyway, here is the link.

PopVox

Check it out. This has got to be the easiest way to read a Bill and let your delegation know where you stand.

** Be sure to read the Bill contents. Some of the titles will throw you off. I found out about this site from MAINEPREPPER on Youtube. Check out his channel, very informative.

Enjoy,