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We have tens of thousands of hectares of standing dead fire trees and standing dead beetle-killed pine in British Columbia. Was not worth the chainsaw gas to cut it down. Until the market developed for ultra-dry, high energy compressed wood pellets. Train loads headed for Scandinavia are more...

I hear you, loud and painfully clear. There are a few teams of people who go around the village to cut, split and stack firewood for seniors incapable of the tasks. Stand alone hydraulic splitters with a 10-15 Hp gas engine. News that there may be a $5,000 incentive to setup a "heat pump."...

There are still some people in the village burning round wood. The suppliers ask for more money by holding the firewood in their inventory for a couple of years to dry out a bit. Split, stacked and covered. 4-5 cords will just barely heat an old village house for out winter. My wood pellet...

Outdoors, under open cover and not cooked in a shed, my cedar carving wood dries down to an equilibrium moisture content of 12-14%. 540 cal/g is the Heat of Vaporization for water going from a liquid to a gas. This is the energy loss which will kill you as hypothermia. This was a major issue...

Forestry field note books here all have waterproof pages. Pencil or many brands of ball-point pen Duk's Bak. Find a shop that sells field supplies to land surveyors. Expect a hard cover book, maybe 6" x 8" with several styles of refill page-packs.

You don't need a "firewood drying hut." Just some sort of waterproof tarp tired down over the pile. Standing dead wood is as dry as you will find it, provided you can take it. Even at your campsite, gotta cover the wood for heat/light/cooking. Splitting helps to increase the surface area for...

Any loose waterproof cover for 24/7 will allow good ventilation for drying. Wood carvers estimate that wood dries 1" thickness per year (outdoors under cover and not cooked in a shed.) You have a tall problem trying to dry your wood. Never close it in. To make matters worse, no other common...

I was parked on Grandpa's grain farm each summer as a little kid Fantastic landscaped places to explore. Next was the summer house at the lake with all the ravines and swamps to explore (very heavily used by First Nations) for stone hammers and arrowheads, clay for pots and lots of fishing...

I believe that staying dry is far easier than trying to dry clothing in a rainstorm. Hypothermia will kill you with no respect for anything else. The thinnest part of your body for heat exchange with your environment is your chest wall, your ribs, and your blood as it courses through your...

For us, the big issue is the repeated number of total power failures. Man! but is it DARK! The computer gives me enough light to pull out my "kit" and fire up a couple of kero lanterns. That warm yellow light reminds me of summers without power at the lake. I have several 1 and 2 burner bottle...

One other neat thing about "learning the wood" for one species, a lot of that transfers to the next one, suppose its peach or some other fruit wood (dried apple is like iron.) I've been carving fairly steadily for maybe 25-30 years, I don't count. Switching from western red cedar to paper birch...

Right now, I am carving a pair of Tlingit Pacific Halibut fish hooks. They are engineered to catch halibut 30-100 lbs. They roll the fish over on their backs to become quite docile. This is technology of a thousand years. I have one hook finished. When I get a little farther on #2, I'll...

Camping is what it says it can be. Once the forest gardens are planted, time to uproot every thing (house boards) and head for the summer camp on the coast. Time to tend and harvest the clam/oyster/mussel cultivated beaches, according to family territory. Dry and smoke to preserve for the...

From pole pruners down to little clipping scissors, I been buying Fiskars tools for 25 years or more. I have no complaints about any of it. Just this year past, I finally had to admit that my 30+ yr old Fiskars bypass pruners were literally wearing out. Of course where I live, usage is...

I like to read the way that you are "learning the wood." It isn't all the same, is it? Most pots have a fairly sharp bend at the bottom/side contour. Asymmetric spoons can clean that out to the last morsel.

Dry and snug in a tent out of the wind and rain. You did it right. For how many eons has Man done like you did and watched the night skies? When it gets dark, it is DARK. I'd be curious to learn more of your hot food menu selections and drinks.

Getting some stoves to "simmer" is hard, you might as well raise the pot 2-3 inches. I have never felt that I was absolutely desperate of stove fuel. Bring my preference with me and watch the kettle boil.

The green bean pods need to be cooked, well-steamed at the very least. There's a toxin, phytohemagglutinin, that is heat labile. More than a small handful of raw pods is a drag on your red blood cells & their production. First Nations out on the Great Plains of North America (eg the Hidatsa...

Horse, bison, cougar, lynx, bobcat, wolf, white tail, elk, mule deer, black bear, grizzly bear. There's lots of 4-foot meat here. Plenty on the wing, too. Test yourself and your thinking: Shut off your electricity for the winter.

I'm quite happy with the elbow adzes and a D adze as are used by First Nations wood carvers here in the Pacific Northwest. I think some what more finesse than an axe on curved surfaces. One carver in Alaska claims that the Kestrel Sitka elbow adze is a "bandsaw on a stick". I must agree. The...