Summer is here, along with warmer nights. One of the things to learn about woods lore is that you can actually tell the temperature in the backwoods by paying attention to the insects and a couple of amphibians that live out there. The first to pay attention to is the cicada. These insects live underground as a lymph, but emerge to become adults about every 13 to 17 years. These insects “sing” at daytime temperatures starting at 72 - 75*F. They drop off at 95*F and above.

Every since I retired earlier this year from the gun shop, I have been really getting into making my own bushcrafting and outdoors gear. Late last Fall I attended my first basket weaving class. I wanted to learn how to make a pack basket to use with my pack frame I made from red oak. I was pretty happy to find that Miss Jessica Steele (of Wood Thrush Wilderness LLC) was offering yet another class that I could attend. This one would be harvesting an ash tree and peeling the ba

Changing out my hydraulic fork tubes for a dampened springer front end.

An afternoon spent teaching kids is always a good day.

A small light weight handmade aluminum cook stove.

I hammered out a tiny wok for making stir fry out in the backwoods while camping.

It’s been a pretty long winter here in Maine so far. It’s late February and the weather guesser is saying that we’re in for another snowstorm by this weekend. Now the big deal here in Maine are “Bean Boots” made and sold by LL Bean. They’re nice… with leather uppers and rubberized lower parts of the boot. They’re great for the cold slushy muck of northern winter. But they are kind of pricey. And part of the problem with rubberized boots is that they trap moisture against your

I decided to experiment some more with my long term storage foods that I keep on hand for camping and for emergencies. I live in a fairly remote part of Maine, (by choice) and sometimes in winter the power gets knocked out when snow tips the trees over onto power lines. Not to mention that I often haul my camping gear out into the backwoods for up to a week or more at a time during warmer months. So today I broke out some of my baggies of freeze dried stuff. Freeze dried bee

I’m pretty much an experimenter as far as food can go. Hey — I have a dog, so if it doesn’t turn out OK, I got an automatic “garbage disposal” of sorts. All except for ingredients that dogs can’t eat without getting sick. Today’s kitchen experiment was using just a few ingredients to make this dish. I have a box of ditalini pasta, and some freeze dried components, so let’s experiment ! I started off with about 2/3 cup of freeze dried beef crumbles. I add a cup of ditalin

Sometimes an adventure in the backwoods doesn’t always go as planned.

A lightweight easy to pack stew that adds good calories to your meals out in the backwoods.

Perhaps one of the best new innovations in outdoors gear in a while. The Valtcan 1.8 liter pressure cooker.

The Bemco oven is IT ! A must have for motorcycle adventures.

Weaving an Algonquin style back pack to carry my gear in the backwoods.

How to process a large animal into meat for the table.

Make a pair of tongs in the backwoods to help you with camping chores around the fire pit.

There’s nothing quite like baking a pizza in the middle of nowhere.

A way to bake a quick bread in field conditions.

With deer season coming up soon, take a look my load out for a week spent in the hunting woods.

Part 1 of the gear that you would see in the Possibles Bag of a mountain man or eastern long hunter to keep his flintlock rifle running in the field.