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Reviewing My Bushcraft Library

bushcrafthwy

Updated: May 12, 2024

So, Starting a website was pretty easy. Find a host for your domain name, pay a bit of cash, log in and set up some pages. Yay! I have a website! I have a .com domain name! I even have a catchy custom logo!


Oh yeah...content....REGULAR content...bummer.


Thus I began reviewing my Bushcraft and outdoor knowledge and trying to get thoughts to come out as words for the web to see. That's when the old saying came back to me


"When you do not know when to start, the beginning usually works best"


I honestly don't recall who said this, but it gave me a kick in the pants to start writing again after reviewing a few books in my library. Yes, hard-copy printed books from a shelf. I do have a PDF library as well. I read enough electric text and manuals at work.


Besides, books don't need charging or batteries. So here are a few of the books I've been looking through again:


 


  1. Canadian Scout Handbook 4th Edition - May 1985


Even Before I had joined Scouts, I was out and about in the bush with my older brothers.


The handbook does outline a lot badge requirements and the history of scouting, but there is also tons of information on map and compass use, canoeing, winter camping, conservation, and first aid and safety.


Mine is a little out of date. But most of the information inside is still valid. Tried and true from the early days of scouting.






  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0919062091

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Boy Scouts of Canada; Sixth Edition (Jan. 1, 1980)

  • Language ‏ : ‎ English

 

2. Tom Brown's Field Guides



Loaded with tons of knowledge and essential skills.


This series starts with the basics in the WILDERNESS SURVIVAL guide. Shelter, water, Fire, hunting/trapping game and edible plants.


The second book NATURE OBSERVATION AND TRACKING helps to re-awaken your senses of sight, smell, hearing, and taste. There are also sections for tracking animals (and people) and techniques for moving silently in the wilderness.


The CITY AND URBAN survival guide flips the focus from the wilderness but still provides information for survival (a sort of unofficial "World War Z" scavenger manual). Not only is there information for alternate sources of heat, light, water and food. this guide includes sections for surviving natural disasters and even urban crime.


Amazon links:


 


Much Like the scout handbook (minus the citizenship, and badge requirements), this guide is jam-packed with survival information for any and all environments.


Arctic, tundra, desert, temperate forests or grasslands, and even survival at sea this book has got it


This was one of the first survival guides I had read (borrowed from a friend) and we actually practiced some of the skills outlined.









 

Honourable Mentions:



Most bushcraft and survival manuals will show you how to dig a latrine, but this book outlines the longer-term environmental effects of dropping a brick in the bush.


Included inside:

  • "trekker's trots" and dealing with diarrhea.

  • when you can't dig a hole - for rock climbers, Arctic travellers, and ocean disposal.

  • For Women: How Not to pee in your boots and other hygiene topics regarding menstruation.

  • wilderness alternatives to toilet paper when there is none

  • if you can't dig an environmentally sound hole, pack it out


This book is definitely packed with some good sound advice from Kathleen Meyer. She certainly knows her shit!


 


This gem from 1967 has been part of my Mom's kitchen since I can remember.


This volume contains all the basics plus recipes for wild game, fish and fowl.


Bear, Buffalo, Moose, Elk...but also Beaver, Muskrat, Squirrel...even recipes for seal and whale.


I don't know if I'll ever try even half of the recipes in here, but even reading about wild game that I would not personally consider edible was an eye opener.







 


The outdoors is not for everyone. Even my spouse's idea of "outdoorsy" is a hotel room with a window that faces some trees.


I have just started reading this to get a different perspective, from my spouse's point of view.


Hopefully, we can find some middle ground somewhere and trundle off into the woods together at some point.









 

Not really a Bushcraft topic per se, but it's not like I can use my firearms indoors.


The Canadian edition covers most topics for non-restricted and black powder firearms regarding:

  • hunting

  • sport shooting

  • basic maintenance

  • Basic "Ballistics" and marksmanship

There is also a section for handguns, but since we're Canadian we'll save that discussion for another time and place






 


So this is what I've been digging through the last few months in my quest for possible content. I have other books, guides and manuals that I can also refer to. these were just some that I have recently re-read or currently have subjects bookmarked for further study.








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18 nov. 2023

Great Blog. I have some of these books myself!

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