Saturday 29 December 2007

Easily Forage-able Resources. Online And In The Suburban Bush.

Every tribe or social grouping has its rituals and catchphrases, which let members identify each other, and let outsiders know they are outsiders. Sometimes these mantras set a frame of context, making sense of a situation and sometimes they serve to remind you how to do the business in challenging circumstances.

For as long as there’s been a fireside to return to at night, there’s been bush-lore passed on verbally by the light of the campfire, and now there’s the Bushcraft-Blog-Law. The law that dictates how a new tradition develops its tried and tested formulas, conventions and clichés. Leaving aside (for the moment), the obligatory pictures of knives, axes and hats that most of has used as symbols for our adventures. Every bushcraft blog must also pass on some timeless wisdom:
‘The-more-you-know-the-less-you-carry’.
Usually attributed to that wise old man of the hills Mors Kochanski.
Or if you wanted to ‘freshen up’ your pitch (or create your own trademark) it could
‘Make-up-for-what-you-don’t-have-with-what-you-do-know.’

As a culture develops there are also powerful totems which when invoked through stories and songs will provide insight and inspiration. Some people will find themselves wondering what Ray Mears would do. The wit and whiles of the coyote have served as a signpost to thinking beyond the expected in many North American cultures. In South Dakota I often wondered how BoB would have approached the task in hand and by emulating him was able to pass myself off as competent camper rather than reveal myself as a tubby desk jockey from the ‘burbs. But if I were to choose a guardian deity for suburban bushcraft it would have to be Wimbledon’s most famous residents…

I used to spend a lot of time with a really clever management consultant, who ran mind-bending workshops. A sort of Tobermory of consultancy, fixing up (and super charging) broken projects with stuff he found lying around. One of the really cool things that he taught us to do was, to see familiar behaviours (individual and organisational) as processes. Then to look at the process we’d uncovered in new and unexpected ways, until we could see other examples of when and where the behaviour or system attribute could perform another purpose. A bit like bushcraft and survival skills and of course just like the Wombles….

‘Making good use of the things that we find,
Things that the everyday folks leave behind.’

I really was starting to think that I’d seen all the bushcraft blogs of note, when I saw that a guy who posts on one of the bushcraft sites as Fenlander had started one, and its the best I’ve seen in ages. While most bloggers are enthusiastic amateurs afield (or incompetents-a-couch in the case of your pal the bushwacker) – This guy is skilled AND enthusiastic, what the Kiwis call ' a good keen man', check out the post where he and a pal test out the insulation provided by some woolen clothes. Brrrrr!!

As Fenlander demonstrates when the really skilled bushcrafters are out in the backcountry they find new uses for the thing that they find, stuff everyday folks would leave behind. Sadly my backcountry is more, well, suburban back-yard and it’s not so much things left behind, as crap folks throw over my back fence (everyday).

Look everyone SBW’s made a lantern!
(Without spilling any blood or severing a finger!!)

Meanwhile at the other end of the performance curve - Fenlander’s made a distress whistle that, ‘in a pinch’, could save your life.

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker

6 comments:

Holly Heyser said...

Good to hear from you again! Love the lantern. Whistle looks like it could cut your lips, though...

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Its been a while hasn't it.

The lanterns are so easy and when new are a bit shinier, and so work a lot better. That specimen had been lying around in the yard for a while.

Did you see his 'warm clothing' test?

SBW

Holly Heyser said...

Oh yeah, THAT'S why I live in California! I'd forgotten. Our survival tests here include such hardships as ... oh, wait, I can't think of any!

But that post made me so cold that I've decided to flip the switch on my gas fireplace and take a little nap on my couch. That ought to eliminate those awful images.

Whew!

Barkfoot said...

Surviving in the suburbs is a skill in itself. People are often the greatest danger. If you can survive the most difficult terrain of all, where fires aren't an option and covertness is paramount, then the wilderness is a piece of cake. Even with all his skills, Ray Mears would have a tough time surving on the local traffic island! Hone your skills on what you know, and take them where you'll go.....

Anonymous said...

Who would have thought management consultancy and bushcraft met somehwere in the middle?

Anonymous said...

Great post!

You know, the bigger part of our world is en route to becoming a suburb in one place or another, so your couch-craft skills are not without merit. Don't rush to self-derision.

Oh, and I agree with Anonymous... management consultancy and bushlore! Now there's a pairing you won't find every day.