Trey Dulaney's Primitive Survival Trip

For my primitive survival trip, I set out to do two things: build a great shelter and weave a basket. However, I mainly wanted to focus on building my shelter because, in a survival situation, I needed to learn the skills to build a shelter quickly and effectively. When we first arrived at camp, I set out with Eli to find a good location. What we were looking for was a spot to create our shelters. Ideally, this spot would be more uphill, not showing any signs of a basin for rainwater, with many fallen trees nearby, and close access to the camp. After exploring much off the beaten path, we decided that a spot already found by Rachal and Sabrina would be best. This spot had a large fallen pine tree with lots of fallen branches around it. It also had limbs sticking out, perfect for my lean-to-shelter design. The whole first day, I spent gathering and cutting to-size fallen tree limbs and saplings crushed because of the fall. This took much longer than expected, with the whole day flying by, and it felt like I had only started. A lesson of how stuff will take much longer than expected in a survival situation is something that really struck me. Even though I spent the whole day rarely taking a break, I only finished around half of my shelter. Around 6pm, I decided to call it a day because of how tired my body was, so I started helping Rachal start her fire by collecting wood. That night, I slept in my shelter, wanting to truly live out the cowboy camping experience, and it also motivated me more because my inaction would have more consequences. So it was like a forced motivation!

On the second day, I woke up quite well-rested. I slept really well through the night, and I was pleasantly surprised by how comfy it was. To this day, I decided I wanted to finish my shelter fully. To be completely honest, I also gave up on basket weaving just because, for me, it was too much sitting and not enough action. So I set my mind to achieving one thing and one thing only, to creat ethe best shelter ever in the Primitive Survival M-Term. My first step was to go completely primitive and lose the tarp that I put over in case of rain the night before. I wanted my shelter to be from all materials that I could find out in Sam Houston National park, nothing synthetic, I went fully hippie. From a video that I saw last during our research stage of a guy building a large house and using peeled bark as shingles, I got an idea. Why don't I steal his idea and call it my own! So that is exactly what I did, I found another fallen pine tree, and with an axe, I stripped off large pieces of bark and laid it down on the side of my shelter. This especially created a waterproof, durable "roof" that was perfect for achieving what the tarp guarantees without all the fake non-primitive aspects. Once I finished the exterior of my shelter, I moved on to the interior. Due to the fact that the ground is not the softest thing in the world, I wanted to add more cushion to my home, so I created pine needle flooring. This not only created a luxurious bed but also helped define the interior space of my house better, creating a distinct inside and outside. Finally, once that was complete, I went over to the pond where Dr. Lammel and Carson were fishing to give it a shot. I was enormously successful in catching a small but mighty Sunfish. Filleting it, and cooking it up as a nice snack. This experience of catching, killing, and preparing my own food really helped me understand how fortunate we are to have such an extensive agricultural system. This enables us to have so much more free time than otherwise possible, allowing us to pursue the sciences, history, arts, literature, and so much more. After collecting more wood for Rachal, we ended the night by the campfire, making smores and enjoying the opportunity to spend time together. 

On the final day, was spent deconstructing my shelter to make sure that I left no trace. I have heard and followed not leaving any litter on the ground, picking up after yourself, etc. Though I never heard about the natural resources you used, leave them in a natural state. I will take this environmental protection method with me for the rest of my life because before, when I would build shelters in the woods, I would just leave them. Now, because of this M-Term, I have learned the importance of making it look as natural as possible for the next person. Once I finished making sure I left the area better than I found it, we all packed up and went back to school.

Overall, I loved this M-Term; the people were great, the teachers were fantastic, we covered such a wide range of topics, I did stuff I didn't know I could do, and I came away from this experience with so much. My favorite thing that I learned was, through trial and error, shelter construction; if I were to do this again because of the mistakes I made in this M-Term, I could improve it so much more. This class ultimately taught me that the best teacher is mistakes, and it is only useless when you don't learn something from it. 












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