My Idle Time Camp Notes
We are up in the mountains with many of our family for the holiday, yesterday was quite busy as was this morning, but by midday things slowed down, many were napping, others going for walks. I decided to do a blog on some of the things I did and some notes of helpful ideas for both camping and bug out type preparedness.
- Practice – it is fun and educational to work survival and preparedness into the normal camping routine. Sometimes even theme a campout for more thorough learning.
- Sharpen Tools in idle time – sharpen and hone axes and knives
- Organize – We put most of our gear in tough boxes; food, cookware, axes, knives, saws, camp kitchen, etc.
- Cloth instead of paper – paper towels are nice and are part of our gear, but they go fast. Have some cloth towels and wash cloths, they can be used over and over, extending the time you can be out.
- It’s good to have some leather gloves in your pack. They are indispensable for managing fire, breaking tough branches, protecting from cuts while sharpening the ax, or a myriad of other things.
- Wooden utensils are great in modern nonstick pans, and have the added benefit of not melting under heat or around a fire.
- Have on hand flour such as our Buchanan’s Old Mill Pancake Mix, Bisquick, or cornmeal mix. There are so many things to use these for such as pancakes, ash cakes, dough boys, muffins, rolls, bread, tortillas, cobblers, cinnamon rolls, etc.
- Learn a plant or two here and there, try ways of fixing them to eat if edible, or use them for cord or whatever their best use is. It’s amazing how much you can learn a little bit at a time.
- If you use tarps like we do, experiment with different set up configurations
- Weave a basket out of local available materials. It may not be ideal due to plant availability or season, but see what you can come up with, it’s fun!
- Practice some wilderness first aid.
- It is fine to go a couple days without cleanup but make sure you have soap, dental care and other personal care items in your pack. Cleaning up makes you feel better and helps to preserve good health.
- Get comfortable, seriously this is very important! If the need should arise to have to spend some extended time away from the conveniences of home, one of the most critical things is to get good sleep and to make things cozy. Our PSS poncho makes into a very comfortable hammock, this allows the body and mind to rest and rejuvenate. Wherever you are try to make it better in some way.
- Cordage, take plenty of rope and cord. Although it can be made in the wild, it can be time consuming and generally inferior to modern cords. Take some Bank Line #12, #24, take some 550 Parachute Cord, some ½” rope might be good as well.
- Signaling is a good thing to practice, you can use native materials for signal fire or bring with you some item to be used for this purpose. Signal blankets, or other static sign to lay out, mirrors and whistles work really well in signaling at a distance. Practice with these items.
So above are a few ideas so no one gets bored at camp. Doing some of these things can make camp more of an adventure as well. Bring along some of the suggested items or add your own to your camp gear to make effective use of time and energy.
Until next time this is Perry Peacock, “Simplifying Survival”