Primitive Survival M-Term 2024

 On this trip I sent out to not only survive in the wilderness but somewhat thrive in the wilderness. My main goal was to create a stable shelter that could withstand the elements and be made in less than one day without any external help. But I also wanted to work on making a stronger bow, a basket, a clay bowl, fishing, cooking, fire making, and more. After using the first week to learn how to accomplish all of these things, I felt prepared and I believed it was possible to complete these tasks within the two-ish days we would be there. On Tuesday, after making it to school, we loaded the mini-bus and set off at around 9:30. On the hour long trip to Sam Houston National Park we picked up some ice at a gas station and two chickens at a feed store. Once we made it to the National Park we found a good place to set up at, drop our stuff off, and have our bp&j tortillas for lunch. I began walking through the thick forest to find a suitable place to begin making my shelter. Around ...

  Our group spent 2 nights camping in Sam Houston National Forest. We left on Tuesday the 26th and returned on Thursday.  I had an awesome time at sam houston. We each had our own projects we got to focus on. My biggest one, and probably also the most challenging, was building a shelter with Sabrina. It was much more labor intensive than we thought it would be and we spent hours just collecting materials for building, like the palm fronds for walls and pine needles for insulation.  For the rest of the time I focused a lot on building fires and attempting to cook with them. It was very difficult to get anything going in the first few hours of the day because the dew completely soaked all the possible wood and kindling. Even once the wood had dried some, it was pretty difficult to get a bigger log to hold a flame. It required a lot more attention than i thought it would to keep adding kindling in the right places and clearing out the ash to prevent it from blocking the a...

 Today we began the morning by working on more tools and researching the wildlife we might find in Sam Houston National Forest. The real star activity of the day, however, was our foraging tour with Mark Vorderbruggen, owner of Forage Texas. A professional forager and all around knowledgeable guy, Mark walked around the neighborhood and centennial garden telling us about the various kinds of edible plants we walk by everyday! Here are some of our favorites:  Wood Sorrel Often mistaken for white clover, wood sorrel grows three pronged heart shaped leaves, yellow and purple flowers, and has a lemony sour taste. The leaves are the key distinction for this plant as clovers have much rounder leaves that often have white striations throughout. Every time we saw wood sorrel we couldn't help but eat it. I highly recommend trying it!  Sow Thistle:     We also tried sow thistle which, unlike traditional thistle, has much softer spines. Mark told us that this was a great p...

Today we planned to learn about hunting in the morning and fishing in the afternoon, as well as practice with snares and collecting materials outside, but it rained all day, so we mostly kept our activities indoors.  In the morning we researched passive hunting techniques, and how to assemble different types of snares. Right before lunch we went to academy to get fishing line and hooks. Those of us over 17 also got our freshwater fishing licenses which will expire in august.  I called Sam Houston National Forest and we narrowed down our campsite for next week. For the last few hours of the day we watched videos on how to tie knots and each worked on individual projects. I built a mini-bow, Eli made a spear, Rose started weaving a basket, and Sabrina made an atlatl. Carson worked on finishing his blog from yesterday. It was very fun and I cannot wait to learn to forage with an expert tomorrow! :)

  On day 3 of our M-Term, we gathered in our room as usual and started to unpack about what our day would be like. Today our focus was on primitive tools and orienteering. The first thing we did was go over some orienteering basics to help prepare for our upcoming trip to Sam Houston's National Park. Some of the orienteering basics we learned are equipment, navigation techniques, safety considerations, and more. Bringing important equipment like a map, a compass, a whistle, or a knife helps your odds of surviving and tracking/learning where you are in your forest/terrain and gives you an understanding of where to be. Some navigation techniques we learned are map reading, compass navigation, route planning, as well as pacing and timing. Having these helpful markers and an understanding of your environment helps ensure that you will not get lost. Safety is very important when Orienteering. Some of the safety concerns we went over were staying hydrated, staying oriented, and staying w...

      On day 2 of our M-Term we came to school and began to learn about the importance of water. We learned that the bare minimum amount of water to survive is two cups and that the recommended amount of water daily is 6-8 cups. We talked about the main reasons people die from dehydration being: Not accounting for the amount of water lost from sweat (it can be hard if sweat evaporates in the desert) and rationing too much water. Then we talked about symptoms of dehydration and ways to filter dirty water in different situations. After talking we began working on creating a water filter using items we found outside, we wrapped live plant leaves in a plastic bag to collect the water plants filter out naturally, we tested how vessels (such as Ziplock bags) holding water, will not melt if the water inside of them has not yet heated up, and we tested the portable water filters we bought and will be taking on the trip. After some time passed, I noticed the plants wrapped by the ...

 Hellooooooooo everybody! Today is the first day of the Primitive Survival M Term! Today we were introduced to the course and a brief overview of survival skills, as well as discussing our hopes for the term. We became certified by Leave No Trace as a group, learning survival and conservation etiquitte.  After lunch we went to REI to buy a water filter, as well as an outdoor gas stove. For the rest of the afternoon we researched and presented on different styles of shelters. Sabrina taught us about lean-tos, Rachel explained tarp shelters, Eli explained supported structures, and Carson presented on Bivvy Sacks. For my presentation I taught about traditional Caddo houses, using a recreation project built in 2015 as an example. Today was really just an introductory day, but fun nonetheless. All of us are really looking forward to the campout next week!