Primitive Skills Weekend

On June 9 I put together a "Primitive Skills" weekend for my Scouts, a few adult leaders, and friends from other Troops. I knew that "outside instructors" would peak the kid's interest better than the same old guys they see all the time so I made arrangements with the guys at Great Lakes Bushcraft ( http://greatlakesbushcraft.com/ ) to come down and camp with us for the weekend.

I have to tell you these guys know their business and they held the Scouts (and most of the adults) spellbound for the entire time. Jamie Burleigh is from up by Port Huron. He's a real soft spoken guy but he gets his point across with demonstration and patience.



Jeff Kindy, there's no one better at knots, shelters, and other "stuff"



Dan Trumblee is sort of the pup of the bunch, this was his first run as an instructor but he was great with the kids and really knew his stuff when it came to fire...





After a meet and greet on Friday night they promptly showed the Scouts how to build a Flint and Steel fire which is what we used to cook our evening repast --- HOTDOGS!



On Saturday morning the 'schooling' began with knots and shelter building.






(con't)

We moved on to the ever popular Fire By Friction! Bow drill class began...





The kids really got into it, our newest Scout working up a coal...



After lunch it was PVC fishing kits where we assembled all the fishing components into a small PVC pipe with end caps. The darn things work as demonstrated by one of my Scouts (we were camped next to the St. Joseph River)...



Legally the smallmouth bass wasn't long enough to keep (and was released), but in a survival situation he would have made a fine meal.

That lead to the 'best part of the day' (according to the majority)... Bow Class!

Jamie provided kits for the boys to assemble their own PVC bows (at cost) along with two commercial arrows. At about 35 lbs they would make it possible to put game on the table in a pinch. Of course they were also FUN!!!





Even my wife got into the act...



There's one in every crowd...



Jamie and his 'Merry Men'...



(con't)

Somewhere I knew I had to get into the act, so I put up my tomahawk and knife throwing targets and let everyone have a at it. I'm no Mel Gibson or Daniel Day Lewis but I hold my own with a 'hawk...




First throws I've made in a year or so...





With a knife, my son Ruhl's a "chip off the old block"...



Lest you think that we were really roughing it we were fully prepared to survive on 5000 calories a day...

Dutch Oven Lemon Pepper Chicken with onions and mushrooms...



Dutch Oven Salsa Chicken with onions and mushrooms



A great time was had by all! My thanks to Great Lakes Bushcraft for making this weekend so special!

Thanks JJ for the report! We had a great time with your scouts.

Thank you for the kind words, i know i had a great time.

yes, we will have many more outings in the future jj. great bunch of scouts you have.