Outdoor Skills

Camping, Climbing, Map & Compass Reading ( Orienteering ), Fishing, Trapping, Outdoor Cooking, Wilderness Survival, Emergency Survival.

Of late I have been discussing all of the above things with several friends by email. These were among the variety of skills which I had picked up in the course of my life by first Cub Scouts, then Scouts, Royal Canadian Army Cadets, The Cadet Instructors List, and the Infantry of the Canadian Armed Forces.

On top of that spending most weekends from the age of 5 on at my Grandparent’s cottage where for several years there was no power or running water a great number of “tricks” to make all of those things easier were acquired.

It is time to pass on those tricks. Add several of them together and you have a skill. Add all of them together and you have mastered an art. Eventually they become so second nature that you don’t even think of them. Two generations ago most of them were pretty common place. Few lived in cities, most in farms and many in what we today would consider the wilderness. For most the first thing that they would do if coming home would be light a lantern if it were dark then start a fire. On the family woodstove home heating was provided, meals were cooked and it was the place around which all gathered for social life. If outdoors a campfire served the same purpose. Then woodstoves gave way to Gas or Electric stoves. Microwave ovens began to replace those for many purposes and rooms were illuminated with the flick of a switch.

I am going to try to bring back some of those skills which technology has atrophied as well as point out some ways that technology created to make them easier. For example I am not going to recommend hemp rope when lighter stronger nylon and even Kevlar rope is now common for climbing. Some basic knowledge of physics and chemistry can also be a tool to make outdoor skills easier. Along with how these can be used outdoors I will cover how variations of the outdoor skills can help us get by in the event of power outages, severe weather or even how having stocks of food and other supplies can help smooth over things such as temporary unemployment or times of unexpected expenses.

I also hope to present these things in such a way that learning them becomes play rather than work. The name of the blog will remain Useless Information. Just remember all information is useless until you need it.