Fire!

Hunter and Dancer....There has always been a saying, "Survival of the fittest"...



but in today's world...it probably should say, "the survival of the smartest." One item you absolutely need in the wild to survive is fire. What might be the percentage of people reading this that can actually build a fire without using a match? As far as myself, I have a clue how to start a fire, but haven't been too successful building a fire with non-man made instruments.



Most people in a survival crisis might feel embarrassed, scared, lonely, hungry, bored, or in poor spirits. They need fire to overcome these predicaments. I am going to refer to Indians again



which said that there are 3 things fire helps with: 1. Warmth 2. Companionship and #3. The power to ward off evil spirits.

Fire also dries clothes, gives light, drives away pests, cooks food, signals people that help is needed and ultimately lead to rescue. Next post: Where to build, and how to build a fire

700,000 years ago

Okay, let's imagine that unfortunately a doomsday catastrophe, the blowing up of the super volcano (caldera) in Yellowstone National Park, which blew approx. 700,000 years ago, has happened again and all easy access food from the local supermarket comes screeching to a sudden unimaginable halt! What would you do?

Would you give up? Would you say to yourself, "I don't know what to do?" Fortunately, we have many natural resources available to us.(unless, they're under a foot of ash)

In the last post, I told you about the cattail, which can be found throughout the United States, usually in ditches, marshes, swamps, shallow water, lakes and ponds.



Do you realize that the cattail can be eaten? The Indians knew this and historians have told us they usually would set up camp around a waterway which was abundant with the cattail. The cattails are 46 percent starch and 11 percent sugar. This is why the Native Americans ate parts of the plant every day. The roots of the plant are the most nutritious part.

The root...



...is covered by a sponge like layer that needs to be peeled off; this is easy to do with the fingers. The roots can then be eaten raw or boiled. After boiling for 30 minutes,



they taste much like potatoes, as I am told. The roots can also be sliced thin and dried for future cooking or ground into a white flour. The pollen of the sausage like head of the cattail is full of protein and may be eaten raw in a survival situation!

Let's hope this information is never needed!

(By the way, every 700,000 years the supercaldera has blown and it's about due...the clock is ticking.)



I'll give the person who can name where this clock stands a present..be the first individual to name it!

Bog?

Hopefully, a place where Hunter and Dancer will eventually play around and venture into the wilderness with adult supervision is the bog. A bog is a wetland that has no FLOWING water running to it. Through rainfall, and runoff, the place continues to have a shallow depth of water year round. At times it's depth is up to 4 feet deep, depending upon how much precipitation has fallen!



We have a bog that has its own ecosystem. The bog has many different plants growing in and around it. One being the cattail, along with other various plants and grasses.



This grass grows near the water as well...



The bog allows ducks, geese, and other wildlife have a constant water source to drink from and live on or around. My dad loves to hunt ducks and geese from his duck blind.





It's a mosquito haven in the summertime, but the benefits of having a constant water source is a great natural resource for all kinds of wildlife. If you sat quietly and motionless by the bog for a couple of hours you'd see an amazing amount of flora and fauna...diversity at its best!

Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry

In Indiana, nearly 600,000 of our neighbors go to bed hungry each night. This figure represents approximately 10% of Hoosiers; 190,000 of them children. Given the leadership of Indiana’s agricultural production and our food-processing capacity, these numbers are staggering! ( taken from www.feedingindianashungry.org )



One great program to help alleviate this crisis is Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry (FHFH.) The program is set up so that when you harvest a deer you take it to a butcher for processing, but instead of buying the meat back from the butcher, FHFH will pay the processing fee and donate that meat to feed 200 meals to people who are hungry. I was fortunate to help out some people around the area last year when I took a doe with my bow. It was very gratifying to help out so many people!

Here is the history of Farmers and Hunters feeding the hungry: (taken from their website: www.FHFH.org )

I was driving down a Virginia highway in late September a few years ago to meet with some friends. We were planning to clear a little brush at the farm where we hunt and celebrate the landowner's birthday with a barbecue. About five miles before turning down the gravel farm lane I spotted a woman standing by her car with the trunk open. I was a little late and tempted not to stop. I'm glad I did.

From her dress and the appearance of her old car of many colors it was obvious she was not doing well. When I asked if her car was broken she said, "No could you please help me over here beside these bushes.’’ What was waiting for me over beside those bushes? Hesitantly, I followed until I spotted a fat but slightly battered 6 point buck beside those bushes. She slowly asked , "Could you please help me put it in my trunk?"



When I asked if she had hit it with her car she said, "No." Next I explained that unless she reported the deer to the State Police or a Wildlife Officer she could be issued a citation for transporting an untagged deer. She looked into my eyes and slowly answered, "I don't care...my kids and me are hungry." Too much talk and too little action...we loaded the deer into her trunk.

As she closed the lid of her trunk I asked one last question. "Would you like me to field dress it for you?" Her reply answered all, "No, since my husband left, me and my kids are gettin` good at it at home... and they don't bleed all over my trunk anymore." Standing there as she drove away I knew I had just looked into the eyes of Jesus.

Rick Wilson




So that's how this great program was started and hopefully will continue to be around until we stop starvation in Indiana!

A great tool for the avid nature lover

If you are a deer hunter, you know you have to put in a lot of time before the season, scouting for signs of deer, glassing a far off field, and preparing for the opening day by getting all the extra gear ready and in place. One excellent tool that has really eased a great deal of time in the field is the trail camera.

( The above pic is not my brand that I use, but I didn't want to get sued with using a pic without permission; this picture was copied from flickr.com)

When they first came out, they used a regular camera in the compartment, but now how technology has even entered the sport of hunting. Small compact flash cards that you put into the camera device allows the hunter to leave the camera out in the field all year, depending on how long the batteries last.



However, because of trespassing persons and the possibility of theft, I only keep mine out a few months out of the year. My Cuddeback trail camera is password protected...sort of like a pin number that you have to enter into the ATM bank machine in order for you to work with it, and view the pictures. If my trail camera were to be stolen, whomever would take it, would never be able to use it, because of this password code. The new models of Cuddeback Digital Trail Cameras are not password protected. I wonder why they eliminated that feature. Oh well...

I have all sorts of wildlife pictures taken on this trail camera...here's a silly picture I've taken in the field while I was sitting back in the recliner drinking a Coke, watching my daughter dance around, and Hunter running around chasing Dancer.

Deer Antler sheds

After the season of hunting whitetails, a great way to combat the winter blues is to hunt for the fallen, prized deer antlers. After the rut and into late January to late March, male deer lose their antlers, hoping next years antlers will be even bigger through digesting proper nutrients and abundant amounts of food. If you were to look for dropped antlers, where would you go? Today, my cousin and I went hunting for sheds.

First, as I told you in a previous post, their survival skills kick in and the deer hunt for food, water, and security. Hence, that is the place to look. An area where they feel secure but yet have food close by, and water. I can go to such the place. Now we just need to go down the right trail coming and going from their hiding place or bedding area. We didn't find any antler sheds, but we did find some items:

We found a lot of scat...

It might be too early yet; however we did see some sign that maybe they are wanting to get their headware off for this spring. The deer have once again started to rub on trees, and here are a few examples...



Even though we didn't find anything that we were searching for, we did enjoy the woods and seeing the different wildlife around. Here was a deer heading in our direction:

Velvet

Take a close look at the deer's rack of antlers and what do you see? Take a closer look (Yeah Double Click) The deer is shedding its velvet. This small buck was happy to pose for a trail camera picture last fall. You're not going to see this too often, because when they shed their velvet, they drop it quickly.




While an antler is growing it is covered with skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the fastest growing bone found in nature (not even a tumorous growth grows faster.) Once the antler has achieved its proper size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler. Antlers come in all different sizes and configurations. Depending upon the amount of nutrients and food the animal eats, the bigger the antler size.




This photo was taken from Flickr.com *not mine*



The biggest factor in producing the largest antler size though is age. If a Buck reaches full maturity which is 5 and half years of age, the deer will have it's largest rack. After the rut, a.k.a. **mating season**, antlers are shed, and survival mode kicks in. They have lost a considerable amount of weight through chasing those "hot" does; all they think about is food consumption.