Day 3, Saturday, May 21st.
Today was the first full day of our "Survivorman" campout. What is a "Survivorman" campout you may ask. Well, our Survivorman campout was a campout where the Scouts were to build a wilderness survival shelter (as part of a requirement for the wilderness survival merit badge) and sleep in it. They were to cook all their own meals over an open fire, and were to finish the requirements for the wilderness survival merit badge.
When we got here last night several of the Scouts started to build their shelters while others simply made a shelter from their tarp. I let the Scouts that made a tarp shelter go ahead and sleep in them, but reminded them that for the requirement to be fulfilled they needed to make one from all natural materials.
While the Scouts were making their shelters I started making one for myself. I figured that if the Scouts were going to sleep in shelters I should sleep in one too. I made mine by leaning a large tree limb that had a fork in it up against a tree and then adding tree limbs all around it to form sort of a tepee shape. I finished it off by laying my tarp down on the ground for a ground cloth. Then with my sleeping pad and sleeping bag I was ready to go. I could have made it waterproof by adding live branches with leaves, but we didn't want to hurt any live trees so we just used dead branches that we picked up off the ground. The purpose was not to make one that was waterproof, but just to learn how to make one so that if the situation ever was there, we would all know how to do it.
I also built my fire. I started by digging a fire pit and cleaning the leaves and other debris from around the area to form a safe fire ring. I then built a small cooking fire and gathered enough dead firewood off the ground to keep it going all night long.
I laid down to sleep around 11:00 pm, but got up every couple of hours to feed my fire and keep it going all night.
I woke up around 7:00 am this morning and started with my breakfast. Since I had kept my fire going all night I had a really good bed of coals to cook over. I used my small "mess kit" to cook with. I started by spraying my little skillet with cooking spray. I then fried an egg, added some Canadian bacon and a slice of cheese and put it on a bagel. I also boiled some water for my instant cappuccino. So, for breakfast I had a bagel sandwich and some cappuccino to drink.
We spent the morning learning different ways to make fires. We used a magnifying glass and some dryer lint, we used a 9 volt battery and steel wool, we used a hot spark and some lint, and we tried making fire by friction with my son's Firecrafter fire set.
For lunch I make sloppy joes. I browned my hamburger in a cast iron skillet over the fire and then added the Manwich mix. I also had some chips and a bottle of water with a peach tea mix packet added for flavor.
We spent the afternoon playing kickball and frisbee. Then before it started getting dark several of the Scouts that had only made tarp shelters made their actual wilderness survival shelter. It rained for a little while, but it only lasted about 1/2 hour or so.
For dinner I made beef stew with biscuits on top, in a dutch oven over the coals.
It was a really fun day, and I think the Scouts really learned a lot about survival shelters and cooking over the fire. Some of the boys struggled a little, but overall they all made their food and they all ate good. Hopefully they learned that they could do it.
For my 100 Days Strong:
I couldn't weigh myself at camp, but I think I'm about the same weight as yesterday.
I ate 3 decent meals all cooked over the open fire.
This is my 100 Days Strong. What's yours.
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