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So you don't have time to devote a weekend to going and training? "I'm so busy blah blah blah", yep everyone is now a days.
But don't overlook the learning possibilities in your back yard or the back 40.
Yesterday mid afternoon the boy comes and asks can he go out and play.
"Sure" I reply getting back to my work. "Wait a second. Why don't you take your bug out bag, go over by the hill with the waterfall and set up camp, I'll be there in a bit."
So he went out with his bag. After about 20 minutes we went over there to see how he was doing.
He was doing pretty good, had his shelter up- a Protus tarp. I helped a little bit in changing a little bit of the setup and explaining the differences between how you would rig this in the summer versus the winter, expected rain and not, etc.
He got a fire started and more importantly, learned to maintain it. He built a raised bed by stacking pine needles for some additional comfort and for a little more ground barrier.
We learned that his bag didn't have nearly enough 550 cord in it. We've rectified that. The USMC 3 day assault pack is just a little long yet for his torso, but he handed the pack well.
The Kat got involved and she worked with the magnesium fire starter a good bit and did well with it. She improvised a holder for the cans we scavenged so we could boil water and make the pine needle tea.
For the most part I just sat around and it was AWESOME!! :) No seriously, it's nice to see things take shape and watch confidence grow. It can be good family time also.
The boy learned to keep his stuff packed in the pack, not strung out. Basically nothing out of the pack your not using right now. This helps keep it "ready to run" with. I recounted many of the times in training 20 years ago how we would be awakened at 2 or 3am to the sound of gunfire and have to break and run a couple miles to a rally point. Those that had their stuff strung out either lost half of it or navigated to the rally point on their own. Basically you didn't want to be "that guy."
Don't know if you can see it in the pics, but we scavenged some cans, boiled water and made pine needle tea. Which was a nice treat cause it was starting to get cold.
We discussed a lot of situations where a fire wouldn't be an option, and where it would be helpful. He learned a lot about his gear and developed a lot of confidence in what he was doing.
Lowdown3
But don't overlook the learning possibilities in your back yard or the back 40.
Yesterday mid afternoon the boy comes and asks can he go out and play.
"Sure" I reply getting back to my work. "Wait a second. Why don't you take your bug out bag, go over by the hill with the waterfall and set up camp, I'll be there in a bit."
So he went out with his bag. After about 20 minutes we went over there to see how he was doing.
He was doing pretty good, had his shelter up- a Protus tarp. I helped a little bit in changing a little bit of the setup and explaining the differences between how you would rig this in the summer versus the winter, expected rain and not, etc.
He got a fire started and more importantly, learned to maintain it. He built a raised bed by stacking pine needles for some additional comfort and for a little more ground barrier.
We learned that his bag didn't have nearly enough 550 cord in it. We've rectified that. The USMC 3 day assault pack is just a little long yet for his torso, but he handed the pack well.
The Kat got involved and she worked with the magnesium fire starter a good bit and did well with it. She improvised a holder for the cans we scavenged so we could boil water and make the pine needle tea.
For the most part I just sat around and it was AWESOME!! :) No seriously, it's nice to see things take shape and watch confidence grow. It can be good family time also.
The boy learned to keep his stuff packed in the pack, not strung out. Basically nothing out of the pack your not using right now. This helps keep it "ready to run" with. I recounted many of the times in training 20 years ago how we would be awakened at 2 or 3am to the sound of gunfire and have to break and run a couple miles to a rally point. Those that had their stuff strung out either lost half of it or navigated to the rally point on their own. Basically you didn't want to be "that guy."
Don't know if you can see it in the pics, but we scavenged some cans, boiled water and made pine needle tea. Which was a nice treat cause it was starting to get cold.
We discussed a lot of situations where a fire wouldn't be an option, and where it would be helpful. He learned a lot about his gear and developed a lot of confidence in what he was doing.
Lowdown3
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