HMharrisonmurray Bushcraft/ Primitive and Subsistence Living

Natural Canteen (gourd container)

2011-11-24T14:04:00.002-05:00

Haven't posted in a while so I put this up to show you what I have been working on.

It holds close to a gallon.

Common Greenbrier

2011-04-22T13:31:00.004-04:00

Common Greenbrier

This vine has lots of strong thorns, broad and heart-shaped leaves, and tendrils that sprout from the leaf axils. This vine has small, green flowers in the spring, and a blue-black berry from late summer into the spring.

This vine has simple leaves that are heart-shaped, and they are from 5-12 cm (2-5 inches). The leaf has parallel veins.

Common Greenbrier grows in thickets and woods.

Greenbriers (and Catbriers) are good as asparagus, in salad, and cooked by using the young shoots, leaves, and tendrils. If the rootstocks of these vines are crushed and washed, the red powder can be boiled in water to make a "mild jelly". This powder can also be mixed half and half with wheat flour to create a "thickening agent," or can be diluted in water to make a cold drink.

A little love for the trees

And.........

Grass Mat

2011-02-12T21:28:00.004-05:00

Setting up the loom takes a minimum of five small poles. I would recommend eleven for the strength of the mat and making it easier to tie the mat up when finished, but for this mat I used seven. One of the poles is used to lift and lower the strings as you weave in a grass or straw.

As you move along you alternate the grass or straw so that one side doesn't get ahead of the other. Its important to alternate the lifting pole from right to left as you go up and down. This will insure that the mat will hold together.

I trim the sides as I go to reduce the weight on the loom and to keep a cleaner space to work in. It helps when your trying to move around the loom in a tight area.

Tightening as I go so I can put more straw on it. This will keep it from seperating as it is sat on or slept on.

A finished mat. Its four feet long and two and a half feet wide. If I make another one of these I can tie them together and have a decent sleeping pad, but this works enough to keep my upper body off the ground.

most recent spoon

2011-01-30T22:18:00.001-05:00

straw bed and shelter

2011-01-27T15:24:00.008-05:00

This is the field in which i stumbled apon a few days ago while out scouting. Finally, I can work on a more comfy bed than just a ground pad.

I learned a few years ago that a hand saw works a lot better than you knife to cut the straw down. Plus the straw will dull your knife up real quick.

So I tied it up with some "whippy sticks" and backpacked it another mile back thru the bush which wasn't easy considering how much the straw sticks out the sides.

As you can see I already made the trip once before but it just wasn't enough straw for comfort.

And now that i have enough straw I can finish the roof. Sometime soon I'm gonna weave the straw together so it is more transportable and doesn't shift around in the night.

survivalCHARLEY...Coming Soon!

2010-09-20T22:19:00.005-04:00

New episodes are coming soon!

How to find, identify, and prepare various wild edibles (and actually making them tasty!)
Animal identification (and how to spot hazards)
Wilderness information for the average city slicker

...and much more!

http://www.youtube.com/survivalcharley

Wild Edibles-The Delicious, Lemony, Medicinal Wood Sorrel

2010-07-28T12:44:00.019-04:00

Wood sorrels are my favorite wild edible. They're from the oxalis (ox-AL-iss, meaning "sour") family, and there are sorrels found at every location on the rotation except at the north and south poles. The best part? They're VERY hard to mis-identify, especially when you take into account their VERY distinctive taste.

Another thing I love about the wood sorrel is the fact that it's useful for edible and medicinal purposes. I'll explain that later. MAKE SURE YOU READ ABOUT THE WARNINGS BEFORE YOU EAT TOO MUCH!

Identification

The plant, which is widely considered to be the plant that St. Patrick used to demonstrate the Trinity to the ancient Irish, is distinguished by it's clover-like leaves, arranged alternately along the stem, divided into 3 heart-shaped leaflets.

Yellow wood sorrels and creeping red wood sorrels have dainty yellow flowers that occur in clusters, they spring out from long stalks at the leaf axils. (In the photo above, the yellow flowers are hidden beneath the outer green covering.) Individual flowers consist of 5 yellow petals that are 4 to 9 mm long.

Common wood sorrels, like in the photo above, look the same but lack the yellow flowers. Instead, they sometimes have white flowers with purple accents. The ones in my neck of the woods, however, don't have any flowers.

The stems have tiny little hairs on them, which you can see in this picture. They're not very noticeable unless you look REALLY close. Depending on the particular species, they can be bright green (like this photo here of the yellow wood sorrel) or a light reddish color (like the common wood sorrel photo below).

If you pull up the wood sorrel, you'll find long, slender rhizomes underneath with a fibrous root system. There are minor differences between how the roots look in different sorrel types, but they all have root systems which connect (either rhizomes, like with the yellow wood sorrel or stolons, like with the creeping red wood sorrel, if you want to get technical!)

The entire plant is devoid of any odor, but it's taste is VERY distinctive and unmistakable.

You can find wood sorrels in shady areas, along trails, in lawns and gardens...pretty much anywhere without TONS of direct sunlight.

Eating Wood Sorrels
One of the reasons I'm so fond of wood sorrels is the taste. It's deliciously sour, but in a pleasant, non-bitter way. It reminds me of lemons, and in fact, the French used to blend dried wood sorrel with sugar and make a "lemon free lemonaid powder."

As with most sour vegetables, it's very high in Vitamin C and has medicinal properties (see below.)

It's very refreshing on hot days. Since it can often be found along trails, it is a perfect mid-hike thirst quencher. The leaves, flowers, green seed pods, and roots are all edible, raw or cooked. It can be eaten straight out of the ground, added to soups, made into a sauce, or used as a seasoning. As a seasoning, it provides a lemony/vinegary taste to whatever it's added to.

It's been traditionally popular as a compliment to fish, and makes a great stuffing for fresh fish on the campfire (yum!) In lieu of a blender to make "lemonaid powder," you can just boil it with sugar, then let it cool, and you'll have a sweet sorrel tea that tastes similar to lemonaid.

However, DO NOT CONSUME WOOD SORRELS IN EXCESS!!! See warnings below!!!!

Medicinal Value
It has diuretic, antiscorbutic (which means it treats scurvy) and cooling properties. The cooling factor is very useful in treating fevers. The diuretic property can help with urinary disorders, and it has been used to treat hemorrhages. HOWEVER, it should NOT be used by anyone with kidney disorders or rheumatic disorders. The oxalic salts are also bad for people who suffer from gout.

It's soothing to the stomach, relieves indigestion, can produce an appetite, and can help stop vomiting. It also acts as an astringent, which constricts blood vessels...useful to help stop bleeding. Sorrels are attributed with blood cleansing properties and are sometimes used by cancer patients.

WARNINGS!

Wood sorrels contain rather high amounts of potassium oxalate and oxalic acid and should be avoided by people with kidney disease, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout. Some people can have allergic reactions to wood sorrels.

As with anything, you should consume it in moderation. Excessive consumption can cause calcium to leech out of your bones, super bad for the ladies.

And, although less dire, you need to be careful eating too much raw sorrel because it can give you the runs. In a camping situation, this is exceedingly unpleasant. In a survival situation, it could mean the difference between life and death.

Cooking plants with oxalic acid reportedly renders them harmless, so you can easily avoid this if you're sensitive to oxalic acid or just want to be super careful.

Overview

Wood Sorrels are tasty, medicinally useful, plentiful, easy to identify, and have no dangerous look-alikes. The wood sorrels from the Oxalis family are found all over the world, and they are very sturdy weeds, so you will probably be able to find a plentiful amount. Every part of the plant is edible all year long, so you don't have to worry about missing out on the season. In addition, it can be eaten raw or cooked, and its uses are myriad.

Keep in mind that eating too much can give you diarrhea, cause you to lose calcium from your bones, and make people with gout, kidney disease, and rheumatic conditions very sick.

Once you've tasted a sorrel, you'll never be able to forget the flavor and therefore will have a VERY VERY hard time misidentifying it in the future. However, as with any wild edible, you should check with local experts before you eat it, and eat at your own risk.

I'm Survival Charley, the Survival Gourmet, saying "Eat, drink, and be merry...but always in moderation!"

tiny frog

2010-06-03T15:13:00.001-04:00

Don't know how i saw him, but i did. This is one lucky frog that he didn't get stepped on.

yum yum catfish

2010-06-03T14:41:00.002-04:00

Stumbled across this today. There are three more off camera, but it looks like something had a good meal!

prickly pear(opuntia)

2010-06-03T14:22:00.004-04:00

Prickly pear cactus has been a staple of the Mexican and Central American diet for thousands of years.

The plant has two different edible sections: the pad of the cactus (nopal), which can be treated like a vegetable, and the pear (tuna), which can be treated like a fruit.

Remove the spines from the pad by using a vegetable peeler or a knife. The pads not only have large spines, but there are also tiny, invisible and far more irritating spines called glochids that are extremely difficult to remove from the skin. The spines and glochids can also be removed from the prickly pear pads by burning them off.

turning red (blackberries)

2010-05-27T14:58:00.005-04:00

view pictures of blackberry blossoms producing fruit 16 days ago

cattails and pollen

2010-05-19T16:18:00.006-04:00

New green leaf stalks can be split out and eaten like celery. A little snack. Reminds me of cucumber.

Find a male flower spike which has not yet shed its pollen. Look for bright yellow tips above the green cattail. The flowers in the area where we gathered pollen were at their best when small flies could be seen clinging to the male flowers. Carefully bend the flower into a collecting sack, and then tap it to release the pollen. Its not unusual to get a tablespoon or more from a single flower. Be careful not to break the stem. If you do, the pollen explodes off the tip, and the female flowers will fail to develop seed.

The male flower's edible pollen was used like flour. Immature flowers (male and female) were eaten while still sheathed. The bloom stalk can be used as a fire stick when thoroughly dry. The same flower later produces cattail fluff, versatile as insulation, tinder, cradle board padding, and wound dressing. The root stalks are rich in starch, and can be processed as a food.

seagulls on the beach

2010-05-18T18:50:00.002-04:00

Another find: dead buzzard

2010-05-13T18:36:00.002-04:00

Another good find, more bones for tools. Most of the feathers are damaged, but the bones are good. I'll show them soon.

opossum bones

2010-05-11T21:01:00.003-04:00

a short walk today revealed some opossum bones. not much left, but i think i can make a few tools out of these so i will show those soon.

wild strawberries

2010-05-11T20:57:00.000-04:00

blackberry blossoms producing fruit

2010-05-11T20:47:00.006-04:00

the flowers are falling off and the fruit is starting to produce.

view pictures of blackberry blossoms 11 days ago

weaving cattail mats

2010-05-05T16:45:00.004-04:00

Since making this the leaves have dried and shrunk. To fix this just slide the leaves tighter together and add more (before it comes off the loom), thus giving it a more water tight ability as shingles on your wigwam.

rainy day on a rose

2010-05-05T16:40:00.001-04:00

dandelions

2010-05-03T12:14:00.009-04:00

Dandelions have a thick tap root, dark brown, almost black on the outside though white and milky within, the long jagged leaves rise directly, radiating from it to form a rosette lying close upon the ground. The leaves are shiny and without hairs, the margin of each leaf cut into great jagged teeth, either upright or pointing somewhat backwards.The leaves should always be torn to pieces, rather than cut, in order to keep the flavor. The dried Dandelion leaves are also employed as an ingredient in many digestive or diet drinks and herb beers. All parts of the plant contain a somewhat bitter, milky juice (latex), but the juice of the root being still more powerful is the part of the plant most used for medicinal purposes.

Dandelion Coffee is a natural beverage without any of the injurious effects that ordinary tea and coffee have on the nerves and digestive organs. Dandelion is very nourishing and high in vitamin A. It is a blood, kidney, and liver cleanser and tonic. Dandelion is one of the best natural sources of potassium. Dandelion root has a significant cleansing action on the liver and stimulates bile production. Dandelion root is one of the best detoxifying herbs. As is works on the liver and gallbladder to help convert waste products it also assists the kidneys to remove the toxins through urination.

blackberry blossoms

2010-04-30T13:31:00.001-04:00

fiddlehead fern

2010-04-19T13:00:00.005-04:00

unfurled fronds of a young ferns and are harvested early in the season before the frond has opened and reached its full height

found near areas like this

flint and steel

2010-01-16T15:56:00.001-05:00

wind chill chart

2010-01-02T15:25:00.001-05:00

fire piston....wet conditions

2010-01-02T12:49:00.003-05:00

more info click here