Advanced Friction Fire and 'seeing'

Winter is almost over and it's time to start doing some workshops. The next Advanced Friction Fire workshop will be March 24, 2018, a Saturday, at the Scheier Natural area in Fluvanna from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. You can go to the 'workshops' tab for more details. Primitive Skills 101 will be scheduled soon. 

I want to talk about 'seeing'.  Have you ever noticed that as soon as you get interested in something you start seeing it everywhere. Buy a motorcycle, you start seeing bikes around every turn. It is the same way with nature. If you get interested in something it just seemingly starts appearing everywhere. My passion is friction fire. Once I was at Shenandoah River State Park and found a dead snag off of a Cottonwood tree. I tried using it for the fire board in friction fire, it worked amazing!!  It is now one of my top 3 native ( out of 16 so far ) woods for the fire board. Now I see Cottonwoods in Fluvanna, there are several on I64 W heading up Afton Mountain, I81 exit 225 has several on the left of the exit ramp. I would have never taken the time to study/get to know the Cottonwood if it wasn't for fire making  The best spindle ??  Yucca flower stalks by far, once you start using them you will see yucca plants everywhere. BTW, remember Fire, Soap, Food and Rope when thinking of yuccas. The flower stalk is the #1 spindle, the roots will make a natural soap, the white flowers are edible and the leaves make one of the best natural cordage materials. While hiking, I constantly find the remnants of squirrels nests, the shredded cedar bark, since cedar bark is the best tinder. 

My goal is to get kids ( and their parents ) involved with nature, that is the only way that they will develop the desire to understand and protect it. If you can hook them on friction fire, and what kids of any age don't like fire, then you have taken a huge step in getting them outside. When you start seeing all these 'just plants' as useful, whether food-fire-shelter-cordage, then you will be more likely to protect them and the habitats that they live in. Your drives/hikes will never be the same !!

Thank you for reading and like us on Facebook.