We just finished up our practical skills class and had quite a good time. Not only did we learn about essential skills like chainsaw maintenance, knot-tying, compass/map/GPS skills, and measuring and building rafters, stairs and other construction things, but we also had a three night camping trip where we put many of those skills into practice.
I love camping, but since Lael literally had our newest addition, Rynn, a few days before the trip, we decided that I’d be the only one roughing it.
We built our shelters out of tarps, logs and rope, and they had to be waterproof and well-insulated. The temp dropped to 28 degrees one night, but it only rained the first day we were out there.
I cut down my first tree of any real size with a chainsaw and also got to butcher a chicken!
We also had a great time of community as a class and took the initiative to whittle a chess set from some branches (I carved a white bishop).
One day we were told that the meat for dinner that night was hidden out in the woods. We were then given GPS coordinates and told to find the food with a map and compass. After hiking through the woods for a few miles, we came to our first target. The only problem was that our next coordinates were written on aluminum plates…frozen inside two large blocks of ice. We quickly built two fires, melted the ice and read our next coordinates. It was a great team building exercise…and the meat for our dinner tasted even better after the long hike.
On the techie side of things we rigged up a solar panel to a water pump and ran water up to the holding tanks at our main camp…that way we always had plenty of fresh water. Overall, the trip solidified many theoretical ideas.
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