Learning From Failures Part 2

I have noticed that my failures seem a little more epic when they have an audience, and in this instance I had three.  These witnesses to my failure were Colleen, her daughter Jessi, and her son Sean.  We were going out to get a real Christmas Tree for our first Christmas together.  We were a family on a mission a to find a nice 8 foot tree for Colleen's living room.  We literally looked at a hundred trees to find the perfect one.  Little did I know the genesis of my failure was planted a few hours earlier in my selection of cordage.

Jute Twine was the culprit.  Colleen and I had gone to the hardware store to buy cordage to lash the tree to the roof rack of my ford explorer.  Jute twine was rated for 14lbs and it was only $3.99 for 100 yards. Also I like multi-use items for my bushcraft kit.  Jute twine is my second favorite method of tinder to catch a spark and start a fire.  It wicks well if you soak it in Vaseline.  You can use it for candle wicks as well.

This "birds nest" will really catch a spark

Pros: Cheap, makes good tinder,and it wicks.
Cons: If the twine compresses and is not held under constant tension, the strength of the twine weakens.  The braid comes undone for a second and when loaded again the strength is only the individual fibers not braided cordage.  It is the braid that gives cordage its strength.

Back to my story.  I secured the tree to the top of the car with four lengths of cordage, using solid double bowlines and hitches.  My knots were bomb proof,  I mean I am a rock climber and I am not dead... so my knots must be okay at a minimum.

Good knots = live climber. Bad knots = squishy goo at the bottom of a cliff.   


We drove with the tree for a quarter of a mile and hit a bump. The twine broke and the tree fell on the road behind us.  Thanks to the superb bundling job of the tree farm, no damage was done to the tree.  I know that the love of being right is one of my greatest faults, and my girlfriend is the one armed kid in the zoo who poked the bear with a stick.  She said, "I bet it was your knots."  This earned her a grrrr face, that she pretends to be afraid of, but not really.  I then, driven by my compulsion to be right, had to cut off all the twine to show her my knots were intact.  I then proceeded to retie the knots with paracord from Sean's bushcraft kit and we made it home without incident.  The girls did a gorgeous job decorating the tree.

What did I take away from this? Jute twine cannot be your primary cordage, and I need to be better about feeling I always need to be right.  So far I have managed to do away with the jute twine.

Until next time... keep your knives sharp and your powder dry.

Kenduskeag Stream Hike

Yesterday I went for a hike with the lovely Colleen. We started out behind my house on the snowmobile trail and followed it for a mile till it merged with the Kenduskeag Stream trail.  We covered 8 miles there and back.  It was a beautiful day to be alive, outdoors, and in good company.  I was able to try out the panorama feature of my iPhone and it is awesome.

Learning From Failure Part One

In my life I have learned more from my smallest failures than my greatest successes.  Over the winter I tried a few things Bushcrafting that failed and I wanted to share them.

I took my girlfriend's son out and I was excited to show him how to start a fire with potassium permanganate (KMnO₄) and glycerin.  I thought it would be neat to show him, although I never really held them in high regard as a fire starting tool, being binary, and a one of the components is a liquid that adds weight to a pack.  Potassium Permanganate is not without its virtues.

Pros:  It can start fires, it can make an antiseptic, it can purify water, and it can dye snow to leave help and other messages in the snow.
Cons:  The efficacy of potassium permanganate is questionable when exposed to air or gets old.  If you are relying on potassium permanganate  keep it in an air tight container and know if you open it its potency could degrade over time.  

Why do I bring this up you may ask?  Well I tried four times and potassium permanganate and glycerin did not even get warm.  This is not what you want to happen when you are trying to show a ten year old boy something cool.  At least writing violet letters in the snow banks near his house when we got home appealed to his inner vandal when we mixed potassium permanganate with water.  For me potassium permanganate and glycerine was an epic failure with a witness.

It was better to learn that potassium permanganate and glycerine is not always 100 percent and it is good to always have a back up fire making option (I did).  It is good to learn these lessons when out for the day having fun rather than when I really need a fire to stay warm.  Make redundancy the rule when making your bushcraft kit.  Learn from your failures and adapt. Until my next entry keep your knives sharp and your powder dry.



 

Why I Am Here

I am 38 years old and have been in love with the outdoors since my father took me fishing for the first time at two and a half years old.  Since then I have added a few more outdoor activities to my life that I cherish, like hunting, ice fishing, trapping, rock climbing, swimming, snorkeling, canoeing, snowshoeing, cross country skiing  and camping.   These two men in the photo to the left are largely responsible for my love of the outdoors my father and grandfather, three generations of woodsmen.  I have lived all my life in the state of Maine.  We have sayings like, "It is to cold to snow" in the winter and in the summer it can be oppressively hot and humid.  All my Buschcrafting experience is relative to Maine.  In my early 30's I developed a love of seemingly antiquated skills that I would hate to see die out like candle making, soap making, cast iron cooking, and shaving with a straight razor.  I am a person who likes being prepared all the time.

When I looked at my hobbies and how much time I was spending in the woods, acquiring Bushcrafting skills seemed like the next logical step for me.  I never knew that Bushcrafting would become my favorite way to spend my leisure time.  I love learning new Bushcrafting skills and sharing them with others.  I would like this blog to be a place to share what I have learned, what works, what does not, and some of my epic failures.
This blog is were I want to review gear and modifications I make to my gear to make it work better for me.  I also want to know what people think and their ideas. Until next time keep your knives sharp and your powder dry.