Well the SurvivorDude weekend was a success. The low temp was 32 degrees, so we got to see how our skills held up to the freezing weather. Here's how we did on our goals...

• Shelter - Built a shelter out of natural materials. Probably wasn't rainproof, but was a nice windblock and held the fires warmth in.
• Food - We foraged for food and found dandelions, wild onions, insects, and fish. Also made Chicory coffee, but the chicory was foraged from my yard before we left in case we couldn't find any on site.
• Cooking - Built a hobo stove out of a tin can and also cooked on the fires coals.
• Fishing - Made a fishing pole from a green branch. Used floss for the line and brought a hook with us. Also made a fishing net from an old clothes hanger and a plastic bag.
• Water - We filtered water using the charcoal/sand method. We also boiled water in an aluminum can using a tripod we built from limbs.
• Fire - Attempted the bowdrill method, but had no luck. We used chemicals and also used flint and steel and were successful.

I've posted a few pictures and a video below. And am giving a little more description for anyone interested. I definitely feel like I could survive for several days in the wilderness here in the southeast US. Winter would be a challenge, and surviving on small amounts of food would also be a challenge.

The shelter took some time. I'd say 1 hour to get the frame cut, built, and assembled. We used vines and then some cord we salvaged from the trash to tie the structure tight. We used stones to support the two legs on the front and sharpened the ends of those poles and jammed them about 4-6 inches into the ground. The covering is made of small limbs with leaves and some moss and leaves. The bed inside the shelter was made of dormant grasses and some leaves. These finishing touches took another hour.

We found a place to camp near a creek. This proved invaluable and we spent about half an our fishing. We made a net using a salvaged subway sack (clear) and an old coat hanger. Nomad75 caught about 10 fish using this net. I caught a whopping.... 1. But the method worked, and with some patience you can make a small meal of these little fish which ranged in size from your pinky to middle finger.

We foraged and found onions which we boiled with the fish. We also found dandelions we boiled as well. We also found acorns but only tasted them and decided not to spend the time to cook the bitterness out. Nomad75 also cooked a grasshopper and ate a cricket which jumped into our shelter as we were eating. Bad timing little cricket... bad timing. I skipped the insect feast and made some chicory coffee. Which wasn't too bad, but was a bit on the bitter side.

3leftsmakesapar and myself also made a fishing pole. Which actually looked pretty sturdy. He fished with it for half an hour to an hour but had no luck. With more time we may have been able to catch something. We used a piece of Styrofoam we found as a bobber.

The hobo stove worked well but I couldn't get it to boil water. I did get it to simmer things and tiny bubbles formed on the bottom of the cooking pot (an aluminum can). I made a door to put coals in the stove and fed small sticks in for fuel. I ended up boiling on the fires coals by pulling a little channel of them out from the fire.

We filtered water using sand and charcoal then boiled it. This was done on a tripod which we used later to hold an aluminum can over the fire to boil water. The filter worked well, but was a slow process. So, after the first batch of water we boiled ongoing. It is recommended that you boil water for at least 5 minutes to kill the possible bacteria in it. We boiled for about 10 minutes each time.

All in all, a great trip. No ill effects from the food or water, which we were very safe with. I wouldn't recommend doing this yourself unless you have read up on it and are very sure of the things you are eating. We did quite a bit of research for this trip coupled with books we have read in the past and techniques we've actually had to use before. It is also key to find items you can get clean to cook with. Several of the tin cans we saw were rusty and we couldn't use them. But once you've studied up, this is a great way to make sure you know how to handle yourself if you became lost or stranded in the wilderness.

And last but not least, a little video of us eating the Dandelion Fish Wraps. MMMM, weeds and boiled minnows, everyone's favorite....

Thanks to Nomad75 for all the research and prep work. Thanks to SherGrayWin for all the firewood gathering. And thanks to 3leftsmakeapar for the fishing expertise and help documenting the trip.

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