A mud-brick oven, or horno, is a great way to bake things while in a primitive living situation. It also offers a nice solution for bringing fire into the shelter. A fire is built withing the oven. The bricks or rocks heat up and retain the heat for hours. A few pies or two pizzas can be made in a properly heated horno (in this hungry camper’s experience). By heating the oven, the shelter may be heated for quite a while without the risk of smoke exposure through the night. Just heat the oven and let it burn out.
First, lay the foundation with scavenged bricks or stone
Leaving space for a door, start building the horno up in beehive shape.
Create the doorway
Build the rocks up
And leave a hole in the top for the fire to breathe and to feed fuel through.
Fit the door onto the opening
Fill in all the spaces with mud and clay. This will seal the oven and prevent heat from escaping
Firing the oven will help the mud and clay dry faster and allow the finding of any holes in the mud layer as smoke will billow out.
Get a roaring fire going for about forty-five minutes to an hour and the oven will be ready to bake a few items at least. Covering the smoke hole with a rock after firing will allow retention of more heat. Be sure to seal up the door when cooking.
Any number of methods are employed to cook with this oven. Some cultures scrape out the coals and cook with the radiating heat, other cultures will cook using both the coals and the radiant heat.
The birch basket is an expedient way to make a water-tight container. One may never need take the bark from a living tree except in dire circumstances for often times birch is available on the ground with the wood rotted out. The birch basket, or any other type of bark that you may find capable of folding such as cedar, will provide excellent containers to carry water, supplies, collect maple syrup, or boil water in with rocks.
First, find a down birch log and score a cylinder out on the log. Cut the scoring through and remove a cylinder.
Next is to remove any wood that has managed to stick to the bark to fully reveal its pretty pink-red color.
Cut a diagonal slice from each of the corners. This will all the bark to be folded.
Begin to slowly fold the sides upwards to meet with a second side.
Wrap the edges and punch a whole with either an awl or a knife when the two sides are joined.
Fit a twig through to secure the folded bark together.
Proceed to do the same with all sides.
From here, any tears or holes in the bark may be mended with pine pitch. To further add stability and shape to the basket, a rim may be sewn on. This basket is simple to make and is a quick solution to not having a container to boil water in during a survival situation.
A hoko is a simple yet practical knife being easily made in the bush. The first one was found in an archaeological dig near the Hoko river in Washington.
A green stick is used so that the sharp stone flake may be hafted easier. Here, a live branch from a Northern White Cedar is used.
The bark is removed as it makes excellent cordage and will be used to hold the hafted rock flake in place.
Split the stick halfway down
The sharp rock flake is placed between the split portion of the stick
The outer bark is then used as cordage to tie above, below, and across the stick so that the rock flake is held securely.
The hoko is now made and is a great tool for adding control over rock flakes for skinning or wood working with larger flakes.
Char cloth is a simple tool used by many who enjoy the use of flint and steel fire making. The charred cloth readily receives sparks from flints and steel or ferro rods. It is then placed in a tinder bundle and blown into flames. Char cloth is natural material that is created through a process known as pyrolysis, meaning it is burned without oxygen to produce a carbonized piece of material.
What you need:
100% cotton cloth (In this case I used an old t-shirt)
a metal tin (Altoids tins work great)
cutting tools (scissors and/or knife)
a fire
Take the metal tin and poke a hole in the middle. This is where gases will escape from when you place the materials in the fire.
Cut up the 100% cotton material into about one inch x one inch squares
Place the cloth loosely in the tin. If they are packed too tight, they may not burn properly or may burn too much.
Close the tin and place it in a fire. It doesn’t take too much heat or too long to produce results.
The gases expelled through the hole in the middle may ignite, this is fine.
After the gases are no longer coming out, which you will know as they are visible and tend to ignite, remove the tin from the fire and allow it to cool. This entire process doesn’t take very long, perhaps ten minutes plus time for the tin to cool off. When the tin is opened, a black and fragile material should be inside. This material is known as char cloth.
Char cloth readily takes a spark and allows the transfer of a coal to a tinder bundle and be blown into flame.
When it comes to backpacking the most important thing is using gear that you enjoy and know how to use. From my experience in minimalistic camping and bushcrafting, I have found that bucket style mess kits, or as our English friends call them, “Billy cans” seem to work the best compared to the traditional boyscout or USGI mess kit for minimalistic camping.
By all means, it is best to use what you like and know how to use, but here are some reasons why I have fallen in love with the bucket systems.
When we look at many of the true survivors in the world, the primitives and refugees found throughout the world, we see that the cooking pot is primordial to survival. The Billy Can system lends all the abilities of the cooking pot in a condensed version offering, what I feel as, more advantages than that of the smaller capacity BSA style mess kits.
Here in the North woods, for more than half the year, water is unavailable except through means of melting ice or snow. The bucket system allows more ice and snow to be melted than the shallow pans and pots of the traditional BSA style mess kits. This makes acquiring an essential resource to our survival much easier. Not only for snow and ice, but for the collection and boiling of any amount of water for drinking purposes.
Once, while debating the advantages of the Billy Can systems, someone retorted with “Yes, but you cannot fry a fish in a bucket!” My first thought about this was mostly a knee jerk reaction. Of course, you can’t fry a fish, if only I could do that! But after the initial shock of the idea passed and some thinking on it, the advantages of the bucket system became obvious once more. While bucket systems don’t lend much to frying, how often do you have butter while in the bush to grease the pan to begin with, preventing sticking and a loss of vital nutrients?
Secondly, the bucket system lends to the essence of what eating in a survival situation is about: maximum nutrient uptake. Through the method of frying foods, many nutrients are lost through the mechanics of cooking the food. The bucket systems promote the use of boiling, which will save more nutrients, grease drippings, marrow, and the other good things that would be otherwise lost and hold it in the water. All cook water in a survival situation should be drank as it will then impart these nutrients, extra calories, and hydration unto the imbiber.
These simple listed advantages are what I feel weigh so heavy in choosing a bucket system over a BSA style mess kit. They both can serve you well, and as said absolutely use what works best for you, but it seems that the many real life uses of a pot over a pan highly add value to bucket systems and make them indispensable for wilderness living.
The straw mat is a simple and effective method of staying warm in the bush. It can be made out of virtually any dried and nonpoisonous plant. It is may be used as a poncho, a blanket, or an insulating pad to keep the cold earth from sucking the heat through your body.
First, one must collect proper amounts of the material.
More straw than expected will probably be needed. Here, three large bales are collected and tied off with a root found growing nearby the collection process.
Natural cordage can be used for this process, but for sake of expedience and commonly available material, paracord is stripped of its outer shell and the seven inner strands are used to conserve resources.
Find the middle of string and lay it out. Take a handful of material and lay it on the string at the middle point. Keep in mind, the more material used, the more insulating but the less available to complete the project.
a simple square knot is tied to hold the straw together and create dead-air space.
The process is continued down the line. Grab more straw, place it between the two strings, and tie it off tightly, keeping each bundle close as possible to the last.
With a bit of work, soon the workings will begin to pay off. About half way finished, the straw mat hasn’t taken too much time at all.
When the string runs out, simply wrap another string around the last bunch of straw.
Tie it off just as the other bunches. Continue the process until it is of the desired length.
It’s now ready to be used as a blanket or insulating ground pad
An Otzi style poncho
And even rolls up to storage size!
The fiddlehead is perhaps one of the most well-known wild edible. It is very tasty and cooked like asparagus.
Usually, when one says fiddlehead they mean the Ostrich Fern fiddlehead. This time, we are instead harvesting the bracken fern, an incredibly common fern in the north woods. The fiddlehead is shaped somewhat like an eagle’s talon with a silver-grey hair covering the stalk.
Harvest them when they are about 6-8 inches tall and not maturing, meaning, not yet uncurling and showing their leafs.
To cook them, give them a wash and rub the hairs off of them. It doesn’t take too long and the hairs come off easily. The bracken fern must be cooked before being consumed. They can be steamed for 30-45 minutes in two changes of water until tender-crisp or fried with butter or olive oil. They taste and are used much like asparagus.
Once they start unfurling, they become inedible as they tend to get more bitter. This is an example of a maturing fiddlehead that I would not consume.
They can be gathered in abundance and make for a delicious meal from our own forest and prove to be way cheaper (just a little time and work) than buying them at gourmet prices at restaurants or at the store.
Mmm, a great and tasty wild edible!
Harvesting Cattail Shoots
Cattails are a nutritious plant that are packed full of starches and in a survival situation, that means a good find.
The cattail is found throughout most of the US near slow moving or standing water. Almost all parts of the cattail are edible at some time of the year and were depended upon heavily as a main source of food by Native Americans. Currently in the North Woods around late April and early May, the cattail shoots are just coming up and are ready for harvest. They are very tasty at this time of their growth and exceptionally tender.
Here is a cluster of old growth cattails and new shoots growing near a lake.
This time of year, we are looking for the younger, new growth plants which are typically the green plants among the dead brown.Here is a young cattail
And another young cattail to show you the variation in sizes and to further illustrate that plants don’t always look text-book.
The goal is to reach down and dig a bit through the muck at the base of the stalk and pull up the white shoot, starchy bulb, and/or the starch filled rhizome. This early in the season we are focusing on the tender white shoots.
With a little bit of swishing in the water, the white shoot should become prevalent and it is this white part that you are after.
These cattails are plentiful and quickly gathered.
To be a responsible harvester and make sure that there are new cattails for you to harvest later, only harvest a third of the available cattails at the most.
The outer leafs are separated from the stalk, leaving the tender shoot to be cut up into chunk sized pieces. They then can be fried up with a little butter or otherwise cooked in the same way one would do with asparagus.
As always, check with your local laws before using bushcraft and primitive methods in a non-survival situation.
The Paiute Deadfall is a fast acting kill-trap that uses cordage rather than solely sticks as seen in a figure-four deadfall. For the kill weight, it must be around five times the target animals weight. Remember, deadfalls are not toys and cannot make distinctions between targets that may set it off. If something sets off the deadfall it may be killed or injured without being the target animal.
The Paiute Deadfall requires two sticks, a piece of cordage, a trigger mechanism, and a heavy weight to crush the prey.
The two sticks should be about as long as one’s pinky to thumb in the “Hang-loose” gesture.
Next, carve a flat surface to rest the rock upon. This is carved on what is to be the top horizontal stick. With a flat surface, it will be much easier to stabilize the rock as on the horizontal stick.
Carve the vertical stick in a similar fashion as this narrowed portion will act as a swivel.
It is now time to take the horizontal stick and carve a notch into it. This notch acts as the female part for the male part of the vertical stick.
The picture above is the bottom side of the horizontal stick. The horizontal stick will balance on the male portion of the vertical stick like such
The trigger mechanism is the next to be built. This stick is the bait stick. It presses against the trigger mechanism and pressures against the rock. It is where bait will be placed to draw in prey.
The trigger mechanism to witch cordage shall be tied
With a piece of cordage, tie a tight knot around the trigger mechanism.
This is tied to the back side of the horizontal stick on the far end away from the female portion.
It is then pulled down and wrapped around the vertical stick and held in place by the bait stick. If you study the pictures closely, it will become apparent how the trigger is set.
Take the horizontal stick and fit the male part into the female socket. The flat portion of the horizontal stick should be facing the direction of the rock as it will bear the weight of the rock. Finding a good flat rock to use is very important. Going out of the way to find such a rock and carry it to the trapping site may very well be worth it for sake of even getting the trap to balance.
Carefully place the weight of the stone on the horizontal stick and begin to set the trigger by wrapping the trigger piece around the vertical stick.
The trap is ready to be held in place by the bait stick, but because the rope ended up being a little too long and not providing enough tension to hold the rock up, I wrapped it around the vertical stick once more.
The bait stick was then positioned to pressure against the rock and the trigger mechanism. The bait is placed on the stick as close to the underside bottom of the rock as possible.
The trap, when done correctly, shall now be free standing and ready to make a kill while you are off foraging.
A front view to better see the trigger mechanism
A food that has to be tugged at and pulled makes an excellent bait on the bait stick as this will cause the trigger to be set off. Notice the hungry wandering stick about to go for the bait stick!
The stick goes for the bait causing the trigger mechanism to release and topple the supporting structure!
The throwing stick is one of Man’s earliest weapons and was found throughout nearly all primitive cultures. Many people are familiar with the throwing club in the form of the returning boomerang used by the aboriginal peoples of Australia.
The throwing club is intended to to be used as a method of acquiring small game and water fowl. Thrown at the target with the intention of killing or maiming, the throwing club tends to be weighted heavily at the top to carry momentum through the target. Curved throwing sticks may be weighted or unweighted with the intentions of the curve to allow the throwing stick to bounce and skip across the ground at its target.
Easily one of the most simple weapons to make or acquire in the bush, the throwing club could present the wielder an opportunity to actively hunt small game in a survival situation. A stick may be used as a club as is, but to optimize the effectiveness of the club it needs to be shaped and weighted.
First is to acquire the piece of wood that is wanted. For my purposes, I wanted a straight stick to use as a club
Next is to begin shaping it. I take off the limbs of the branch and cut it to around two and one-half to three feet.
Next is to begin shaping the throwing club. To make it the most effective weapon possible, the top of it should be weighted. I begin to shape the shaft and the portion where I will hold the club. I also add a pommel at the end for some flare as well as to prevent unintended slipping when using the club in a final blow.
Beginning to shape up
To make the throwing club more comfortable, the wood may be sanded to smooth it out and prevent slivers entering the hand. A coarse rock or a rock and some sand may be used for this. Some sand is sprinkled on the throwing club
Any number of carvings could be done in the stick to turn it from a tool to a work of primitive art. Here is the final and primitively sanded throwing club.
When it comes down to it in primitive hunting, we don’t care how it looks but how it works. Having a few carved throwing sticks at the ready will greatly increase the chances of hitting the target as well as giving the chance for a followup shot.
Happy Hunting!
Leaving space for a door, start building the horno up in beehive shape.
Create the doorway
Build the rocks up
And leave a hole in the top for the fire to breathe and to feed fuel through.
Fit the door onto the opening
Fill in all the spaces with mud and clay. This will seal the oven and prevent heat from escaping
Firing the oven will help the mud and clay dry faster and allow the finding of any holes in the mud layer as smoke will billow out.
Get a roaring fire going for about forty-five minutes to an hour and the oven will be ready to bake a few items at least. Covering the smoke hole with a rock after firing will allow retention of more heat. Be sure to seal up the door when cooking.
Any number of methods are employed to cook with this oven. Some cultures scrape out the coals and cook with the radiating heat, other cultures will cook using both the coals and the radiant heat. 
This time of year, we are looking for the younger, new growth plants which are typically the green plants among the dead brown.Here is a young cattail
