Pine Needle Tea

Pine needle tea has very high levels of vitamin C and A.  It can have more vitamin C than 6 lemons.  First you need to pick the newest green pine needles you can find, they are normally located at the end of the branch and are lighter green than the rest.  You should use about a 1/2 cup of needles to about 1.5 pints of water.  You can either chop them up or just put them into the cup whole.  It is recommend that you bring your water to a boil first then add the needles.  Boil for about 20 minutes and then allow it to cool for another 20 minutes or so.  The tea should be a reddish color with a mild pine taste and smell.  Remember boiling the needles too long will cause the vitamin C content to diminish.  The longer you allow the tea to sit after boiling the stronger the tea will be.  Stir and Enjoy!

WARNING!!!  Do not consume pine needle tea if you are pregnant or even think you might be pregnant.

Bow Drill

WOW!!!  I tried starting a fire with a bow drill yesterday with the intention of posting a "how-to video".  I was just using some wood that I have around the house, but upon further review the wood you use makes all the difference.  It looks so easy but after a few hours of trying and sweating my butt off I came back inside and did some more research.  The best wood to use for a bow drill is Cedar, Willow, Fir, Poplar, and Spruce and I didn't have any of those types of wood handy.  I need to reassess my situation and find some different wood and try again.  There are 5 different parts to the bow drill: Base board, Spindle, Bow, Spindle, and Hand block.  I will keep trying to improve on my design and try some different types of wood.  I will upload a video shortly.

Fire Starting Made Easy

Check out the quick video to the left about how adding a little vaseline to your tinder can help you start a fire faster and easier.  I always carry cotton balls and lint with me to help start fires but from now on I am going to throw in some vaseline as well.  Not only good for fires, vaseline is also good for protecting chapped skin, blisters, or any other cuts or scrapes you might get while on your outdoor adventures.

Humphreys Peak

Here are some pictures from camping last fall with my friends Kyle, Keith, and Jarid near Flagstaff and also climbing Humphreys Peak.  Humphreys Peak is the highest mountain in Arizona at 12,637 feet.  I had a nice case of altitude sickness, I won't bore you with the details but you can look up the symptoms if you want (not real pretty).

Mesa Grande Ruins

My sister brought this to my attention and I thought it was worth sharing.  Plus there is a free pancake breakfast!!!

The 2011 Open House of the Mesa Grande Ruins Interpretive Trail will be held Saturday, March 19 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. The free event is the only day of the year this archaeological treasure is open to the public.

This self-guided tour of the ancient home of the Hohokam will give you the chance to tour this large prehistoric Hohokam temple mound, view prehistoric technology demonstrations and participate in ancient games at the archaeological site at the northwest corner of West 10^th Street and Date/Brown. Experts will be stationed throughout the site to answer questions. A free pancake breakfast, sponsored by the Mesa Grande Community Alliance, will be served from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

“Mesa Grande is a unique treasure for the City and the open house is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about what the Hohokam built and our efforts to preserve it,” Arizona Museum of Natural History Curator of Anthropology Dr. Jerry Howard said. The City of Mesa purchased the Mesa Grande ruins to preserve this cultural treasure with the goal of opening it to the public as an educational and recreational facility. Mesa Grande is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also an official Arizona Centennial Legacy Project. The City is building a new welcome center at Mesa Grande and the goal is to open it before the state centennial next February.

Lean-to Shelter

 

This is a lean-to I made while out camping the other day.  It took me about 20 minutes to gather all the materials and another 10 minutes or so to construct it.  If I would have been spending the night in this lean-to I would have kept adding materials throughout the day and continued to make the insulation better.  It is also a good idea to enclose the end where your feet are to keep the wind out.  Another good idea is to clear an area around the opening of the shelter so you can lite a small fire if you get too cold.

Basic Shelters

 In Arizona we have so many different landscapes that when it comes time to talk about shelters we have a multitude of choices.  In the winter in northern AZ we can build anything from a snow cave to a lean-to.  In the southern part of the state our choices are a little more limited and require us to be very resourceful.  I want to look deeper into making a shelter in the desert regions of the state.  If you have packed a good survival kit you should have the required materials available to set up a tarp lean-to or cuddle up under your space blanket.  But, if you failed to pack appropriately (shame on you) there are plenty of things we can use to build a shelter.  Our first concern in building a shelter is to get us out of the hot day time sun and second to keep us warm once the sun sets and the temperature plummets.

The first and most basic shelter is referred to as a cocoon.  You simply find as much debris and vegetation as you can find and cover your self with it.  The other option is to gather everything you can find make a large pile and slide into it like a snake.  Be sure to check for scorpions and big thorns when choosing material for your cocoon.

The second shelter I would recommend is a simple lean-to.  I like to use spines from dead saguaro cacti because they tend to be abundant, straight, and easy to break and stack.  All you need to do is find a boulder, tree, or overhang and start leaning the sticks against them at a 45 degree angle.  Note: the steeper the angle the better it will shed rain and water.  After you have a base layer of sticks stacked together you need to cover them with any type of vegetation or solid objects you can find.  This second layer is meant to help block the sun, wind, and rain.  Remember to make the shelter just big enough to fit yourself and your gear.

Other options you have for building shelters in the desert are tepee style and A-frame style.  Both of these are built just like the lean-to but instead of building only one side you have to have a center support and build your shelter on both sides.

Survival for the Rest of Us

Over the past few weeks I have read 4 different survival books, watched several videos, and read countless descriptions of how we are supposed to survive in the outdoors.  These "professional survivalists" throw around all these great ideas about how to survive, but my question is, do they really work?  Would the average person out lost in the wilderness really know how to use these techniques?  Under a stressful survival situation what techniques should the average person even attempt.  Over the next couple of months I am going to put all of these "techniques" into practice and see what really works.  Bear Grylls, making a wet suit out of a dead seal, come on!!!

Eating Scorpions

I wanted to add this to the post from yesterday.  Supposedly you can eat scorpions and some say they taste like shrimp.  All you have to do is catch them, cut off their tails and any poison sack and enjoy.  Out in the wild you can catch scorpions by finding their hiding spots and digging a steep sided hole right next to it.  Scorpions can't climb up steep banks so if you dig your hole steep enough it should trap the scorpions.  You can also bury a bottle or a can and use that as a trap.  One way of cooking them is to skewer and roast them over a fire until they are golden brown.  I would only recommend eating scorpions in a survival situation but if you are in to that kind of thing feel free to send me a video of your experience!  Next time I find one I am going to give this a try and I will post a video of it so you guys can make fun of my weak stomach.

Bark Scorpions

Since I found a scorpion in the garage the other day I figured this would be a good topic to talk about. I did a little research and found out that scorpion fossils have been found from over 430 million years ago.  There are a total of 1400 different species of scorpions in the world and a total of 40 to 60 different species that call Arizona home.  The species that is of most concern to us is the bark scorpion (officially known as Centruroides sculpturatus).  Bark scorpions are small, usually between 1 to 3 inches in length and are a light brown/tan color.  These scorpions can live to be 6 years old and prefer to live in bark, rocks, wood piles, or any dark crevice they can squeeze into.  In cities they are often found in the gaps of concrete block fences.  The reason they are found in homes because they are able to fit through gaps as small as 1/16 of an inch.  Bark scorpions ambush their prey normally at night and prefer to feed on crickets and roaches.

Bark scorpions are incredibly resilient.  Experiments have been done where they have frozen scorpions for weeks, and after thawing the scorpions emerge unharmed and unaffected. During nuclear testing scorpions, cockroaches, and lizards were found near ground zero with no recorded effects.

The bark scorpion is the most venomous scorpion in North America, and its venom can cause severe pain, numbness, and tingling.  The pain typically lasts between 24 to 72 hours. Temporary dysfunction of the sting area is common and the sting area can become immobilized or experience convulsions. It may also have an effect on breathing for a short period of time. Due to the pain many victims describe a feeling of electrical jolts after being stung.

Basic First Aid

Clean the sting site with soap and water

Apply a cool compress (cool damp cloth, no ice)

Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen to help with pain and swelling

Also rubbing the pulp from a prickly pear cactus on the sting site is said to help relieve the pain.

The best way to get rid of scorpions is to spray them with pesticides (it is better to spray at night when they are moving around).  Another popular way to find scorpion is at night with a black light.  Scorpions glow brightly under the UV light and are fairly easy to find.  Most stores carry UV flashlights and I am sure a trip around your backyard at night with a UV light will reveal just how many scorpions call Arizona home.