A Survivalists Tale (3 page)

As this would take, the group several hours to construct both myself and Jess went to the trees to strip bark to make cordage, we would then set traps for small game, however this didn’t go quite how we expected. We were deep in the woods when we saw a young deer it wasn’t to far from us and up wind so we hadn’t been scented yet, the group of around nine or ten slowly appeared. Luckily the first thing I had us make in the woods were spears and clubs, they couldn't see us for we were behind good-sized trees and in tall grass. I was just about to throw my spear when Jess, who had been maintaining eye contact with me indicated to my left, a good sized young stag had come out of the grass just so close to me I would have been a fool to miss out on such an easy kill. It had been injured there were claw marks down its haunches and it was limping. It would also pass me within six feet, I wasn’t going to take any chances though so with my eyes I looked at another deer about fifteen feet from Jess and indicated she should try for it. I slowly crouched down as the deer came level and I thrust forward just behind the front shoulder. I got it right in the heart, it went down dead before it hit the ground, just as the herd looked in my direction, Jess threw her spear and then ran at her deer, she had hit it in the right area, but it hadn’t gone deep enough. It staggered and that was its lose, she hit it hard just behind the head and threw herself on top of it, my one was dead so I ran as fast as I could to her, when I reached her I cut the deer’s throat. Between the two of us, we could have skinned and butchered the carcases no problem, however this meant stepping up certain things, so I asked Jess to nip back to camp and get the entire group, I laid the two carcases together and it was a lot of meat. When the group arrived, we only had enough cordage to hang one at a time, so I had Jess, show Mike and Peter how to strip cordage using the axes. The rest of the group I had them lift the biggest one into position while the others tied its hind legs apart, I checked with them who knew how to skin and butcher the deer, two said they knew so I gave them one knife and said, one skin and one butcher, you decide. I got on with the help of two others moving the carcase with me to better positions, I quickly skinned and butchered my carcase and the rest who weren’t now doing anything I had build a sledge, to carry the meat back. One of the guys I had find a branch to use as a rake and sent him to rake moss up and gather as much as possible. I showed Sharon how to make a bow and fiddle fire starter, and she assured me she had done it before, so I had her draw me it in the dirt.

She was spot on so I told her go back to camp and start two fires one good sized and the other about two foot by two foot, she asked how far apart. I said where you would want a smudge fire to be is the two foot one for smoking the meat that is spare, and the other should be long enough to take a carcase and about two and a half foot wide, she got the idea pretty fast.

I just finished the butchery of my carcase in time to see the end of the butchery on the other, the ones not doing the butchery were putting the meat on the sledge and covering it with good layers of moss, I saw two paying close attention to the butchering. I asked why and they gave me the right answer, so when we need to butcher we will know what to do, perfect. I noticed that Clair was missing so I asked where she was and Joe said she had gone back to camp to build a smoke frame for the meat to hang in and also a larger box type smoker for the main meat to sit in, to help keep the flies off. I liked this group better and better all the time, now it was back to camp with our prize, god there were a whole load of black type flies around and biting like crazy. The guys built a frame over the pit fire and once we had washed, the blood of I showed them the two ways we would cook the meat. We dug a long trench about a foot deep this we lined with hot rocks from the fire, we then placed in all the legs and some of the other cuts, then with more hot rocks on top of the meat, we placed green branches across the top of the pit and then covered the sticks with plenty moss. On top of this, we sealed the pit with soil I had left a single stick stuck into where the meat was, pointing straight up, once it was sealed, I removed the stick and poured water down the hole. Then sealed it, we then pushed the fire ashes and branches over the top and we would give the meat a couple of hours. Tom and Clair had found some fragrant leaves and fruit branches, which were giving of a lovely smell, they were also cutting some of the meat into thin strips to hang on a frame she had built. It was the shape of a very pointy pyramid and she had used lots of branches with leaves to help keep the smoke inside so that it would cook and smoke at the same time.

The group were working so well together, when they saw a job to do they just got on with it, I had the guts and sinew in the stream washing it, others were cooking the livers and kidneys and some of the meat so it had that nice roast taste. If anyone got a bit stuck they just either asked me or someone else who wasn’t so busy. We had seven of the shelters finished and a smoke house where the meat was being stored, even after cooking, Clair cut up the livers and kidneys also the hearts, and was going around with them on small sticks with their bark stripped, you have to strip the bark from any branch that comes in contact with meat. The bark is where the bacteria is, we were eating while working, when we were thirsty we would just go to the stream and drink, this was ok for now but we would improve it as we had time.

As night fell, it was a happy bunch of campers who sat around the fire, we caught up with who we were where we had come from and it was a brilliant experience, I think I got the best group possible for this challenge. I covered the next problem as we were sat around, I explained that the nighttime was the worst as you would be cold and miserable, so to avoid this we would have two people at a time awake for two hours, keeping everyone’s fires going well. We had everything ready for lighting them and each personal fire had a heat reflector to throw the heat back into the shelters. I had shown them how to dry the moss for their beds and the grass was nice and long so I showed them how to use the grass and moss, to make a type of simple blanket, to help keep the heat in. The next morning it was quite hard to get them out of bed, they were saying it was the best night’s sleep they had in quite some time. I showed them the advanced shelter we were going to build and they asked why, so I explained to them, when we make the cabins for the winter, we will want seasoned wood, unfortunately, the only way to do that is to season the wood and that takes time. These shelters will see us through the winter no problems, this will give us plenty time to build cabins and furniture, I also have plans for running water straight to the cabins. So these shelters will give us that time and comfort we need.

It’s a simple build but can take a lot of time, so we will build one at a time, at the same time we will carry on hunting and checking out the plants and roots around us, not just for food but also medicines.

One of the guys found a red berry type plant and as there were plenty of them, she asked if we could use them, they were a brilliant find as far as I was concerned. Wild chillies, or Pequins, these chilli seeds are dropped in the birds solids all over Texas, but mostly south Texas so we now had a better idea where we were. We would now have something to pep our meals up with, all year round, what a find, the next great find was in an open valley, the bottlebrush tree, this was a good find as the flowers and leaves could be used as a really nice tea. Also, flavouring in stews, if you crushed the flowers and leaves you could apply it to skin to keep off insects, also if you put it where you didn’t want insects it worked a treat. The plants just kept coming we found Chickweed, Indian strawberry’s, Blackberries, and our first true medicine plant the Pimpernel. They just kept coming our guys really knew how to look, which brought up another project, good clay for plates, pots and jugs.

Most of the team had noticed we were getting the smaller fish in the traps, along with some crayfish, they wanted to know how to get the bigger fish, as we didn’t have enough cordage for nets yet. I showed them what to do with the bones from the deer we had killed and some of the small animals we had started to catch in our traps. Like the fox, Gopher, Mink, and Muskrat, there were more but they wanted fish, and were quite right, fish is a very important part of our diet. So with the bones I showed them how to make a good fish spear.

The most important point of fishing with a spear is aim in front of the fish, due to the reflective quality of water, and don’t throw the spear, it is best used with patience and a quick jabbing motion, this way you don’t break the ends so quick.

While everything was going well, I knew there was risk in my next venture and discussed it with the team first, I was planning to check out the Barbary sheep, these had been brought in to replace the big horn sheep which has vanished from the area, while we were there we would set some traps for feral pigs. We would be after the sheep for their fleece and was also looking to pick up some young ones to keep and domesticate, we would do this with any young pigs also. The biggest danger was black bear for when I realised where we were it wouldn’t have been a grizzly I saw it would be a black, but most danger would come from the areas we would be climbing through.