Surviver Man...March's?

The girls, the dogs, and I will be going up to Silver Creek tomorrow for our second year at Survival Camp. Last year was just an absolutely incredible experienced. We built several fires starting with a basic "How to Start a Fire" and graduating to "After Three Days of Rain Using Only Wet Wood You Too Can Start a Fire." We never used matches for any of these. We built a shelter, leaned about edible plants, how to safely drink water in the wild, and many, many other things. My head was swimming for days after we got back.

This year Mike Lowe our instructor from Wilderness Way will be taking the training up a notch. We will be building a raft, snaring rabbits, building a shelter AND sleeping in it, and I am sure we will play with fire again. It's just so much fun!

The rabbit population is well established up at Silver Creek, due to the release of some domesticated rabbits a few years ago. White, black, carmel, silver, and a variety of other darling rabbits and young bunnies can be seen scampering throught camp constantly. The kids were able to catch them with bare hands alone last year.

Jo made the cutes rabbit snare. She tied a carrot to a string and hid behind a log. She waited so paitently for a rabbit to come. Then Beth, trying to be cute, crawled up and ate the carrot. Boy, was Jo ticked, she still reminds Beth about it!

Mike is one of those amazing people who can spin a tale and capture his audience. When he tells about eating banana slugs you can practically feel the chewy texture as it slid down his throat. Not only did Mike get the slug down, he made another guy throw up just watching!!!

Mike keeps the kids moving fast and having a blast which is a talent in and of itself. But he also encourages the guys to be gentlemen and the gals to be TOUGH! After all, there's nothin' tougher then a five year old girl with a knife striking flint, making sparks burst into flame and getting ready to snare a poor baby bunny!

I want to be on D.G.'s orienteering team again this year. That guy is a robot with a built in compass, he didn't care if there was a tree in his way, he made the tree move I swear! Besides, I just get lost, I need to be with someone who will get me back to camp even if I am "supposed" to be the adult.

So as you enjoy your comfy bed tonight, think of me outside, on the ground, with a bunch noisy kids and a whole lot of smoke....