Jeff Cassman

One Track Mind: Craig Caudill’s Tracking Fundamentals

In my preparedness journey, I’m at a point where I have enough “stuff” and want to ensure that I have enough skills. As a prospective member of my county search-and-rescue (SAR) team and a budding hunter, one skill that I always wanted to learn was tracking. Sure, as a Boy Scout as a kid I learned some absolute basics, such as print identification for species of animals where I grew up, but I never got much further into it than that. While “read a book” is a valid path to prime the pump with many new skills, some things are better to learn in a class setting. So, when I saw that Fieldcraft Survival had not only added a tracking class to its inventory, but had scheduled one near me in Burnet, Texas, I jumped at the chance to get started. I signed up for Craig Caudill’s Tracking Fundamentals course in the Fieldcraft Survival headquarters store in Heber City, Utah, while on the way home from a family road trip.

Above: The Reveille Peak Ranch has a semi-outdoor classroom area where we initially met. It was nice to see a flag up to start the day.

Fieldcraft is a well-known brand with a wide variety of classes. This was my first time taking a class from them, however, so I was interested to see if it would live up to what I’d heard. I wasn’t disappointed.

The instructor for the class was none other than Craig Caudill, founder of The Nature Reliance School, who had been tapped by FCS to provide this content. Craig has written four books on wilderness survival topics and teaches tracking, among other things, through his school directly as well. So, I loaded up my day-in-the-sticks kit and drove out to Reveille Peak Ranch to start my journey towards becoming a tracker.

Getting Started

The class size was modest — about 10 people. Some people had taken several Fieldcraft Survival classes before; for others, this was their first. A few attendees were prior military service, others have always been civilians. To start out, Craig asked what we all hoped to get out of the class in order to tailor the approach, which I appreciated.

Above: The print has been identified and lines have been staked out to help determine key metrics about the track.

To be expected, a lot of people were there driven by their hunting passion. That was part of my purpose, but really tracking people to increase my skill set for SAR was my main driver. Luckily for me, much of the focus would be on man-tracking at first. This is because as people, it would be easier for us to make informed guesses about people tracks. It also doesn’t hurt that, as humans, we could create new human tracks rather than hoping to find animal tracks that may or…

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How To Build A Survival Winter Shelter To Get You Through the Night

How To Build A Survival Winter Shelter To Get You Through the Night tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]> Sorry, this product is unavailable. Please choose a different combination. ]]>

Homesteading: A Trapper’s Perspective. became a federal trapper.

This will be an instructional/how to article, though I feel the need to set the stage first as to how I acquired the skills I write about and how I implement them regularly. Before attempting anything described in this article, check local laws and regulations.

Introduction

About fifteen years ago, when I was a younger man and had an answer for everything, I overheard some cowboys call their Queensland Healer dogs as “tools, not pets.” As I listened to and watched the cowboys work their dogs, I scoffed at their comments about their animals being tools. I looked at a friend of mine who was with me and said, “They’re comparing their horses and dogs to hammers and screwdrivers.” My friend and I laughed at our irrational comparison, looked once more at the cowboys and walked away. Though I had grown up in a small mountain town, most animals I knew of, be it dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, goats, etc., were all pets to their owners. Before that day, I had never heard of an animal referred to as a tool. Every animal I knew of had a name, a cozy bed, countless toys, and were typically talked to like a child.

It was not until I became an avid hunter, a federal trapper, a “homesteader”, a husband and father that I truly understood, and greatly appreciated, what those cowboys said years ago. I did not grow up in a hunting household, yet, from my earliest memories I yearned to be a hunter, a trapper, a mountain man. Even in my youth, I wanted the freedom to provide for myself, be it through trapping, hunting, fishing, gardening or trading for what I needed. I romanticized the idea of producing my own food and “bringing home the bacon” for a family that didn’t need anything I couldn’t provide or procure.

In my early twenties, I became an avid outdoorsman. I took the skills I acquired from my many years in Boy Scouts and improved on them, challenging myself to shoot better, to set up better camps, and to become a more confident man in the field which in turn made me a better man at home. At first, I had more struggles and failures, but as time went on, and after I was hired as a federal trapper, my skills greatly improved, making me a more successful outdoorsman, tracker, and hunter. I try to learn from my mistakes, failures and even successes to eliminate future unintended issues. As Mark Twain once said, “I have never let schooling interfere with my education.” I have devoted my life to education and learning how to give my family, and me, a better life; a step up from those around me who are content believing what they hear and following the crowd. I have never followed the crowd, hence why I became a trapper in the 21st Century.

As I mentioned, I spent my youth and early adult years in the Boy Scouts. I earned…

Recordkeeping Is A Useful Tool On The Hobby Farm

Sometimes, the most useful tool a farmer can have isn’t a powerful machine or a tried-and-true hand tool. It’s meticulous recordkeeping.

Whether you keep a journal, scrawl key details in a notebook, scribble must-remember data on scraps of paper, or punch notes into your computer or phone, keeping detailed farming records can be helpful on so many fronts.

Exactly what your recordkeeping might entail will depend on the type of farm you operate. But to give you an idea of the possibilities, let me share a few real-world examples of how meticulous recordkeeping helps me with my annual farm, garden and orchard harvests.

Planting Memory

I have a lot of garden beds, and though I have a good memory for details, I can’t trust myself to remember with 100 percent accuracy which beds contain which seeds and seedlings. One year, I planted two varieties of pumpkins and forgot which was which.

Fortunately, the resulting pumpkins were different enough to tell the plants apart once they fruited. But that might not always be the case. Ever since, I’ve taken more care to note the location of every planting.

Seed Planting Dates

When I plant garden beds each spring, I write down the date the seeds went in the ground and then take note when they sprout. I also keep track of the estimated days until maturity listed on the seed packets.

Later, when the plants are mature and harvest time is approaching, I check my notes to determine when I should harvest—not too early, and not too late.

Note Blossom Dates

Every year, I write down the dates when my fruit trees blossom in the spring, and then mark down when the fruits ripen in late summer and fall. These dates can vary a bit from year to year, but keeping notes across multiple years gives me a good ballpark of when to expect ripe fruit.

Recordkeeping Is Just Handy

Some folks might get along just fine without all this farm recordkeeping. After all, the ripeness of an apple can be gauged by appearance and tasting, assuming you know what to expect from any given variety. And I know my beloved sweet corn is ready when the silks have dried to brown and popping a sample kernel reveals milky liquid rather than clear.

Even still, there are benefits to recordkeeping. If you’re a hobby farmer trying to grow a little of everything, maybe there are only a dozen pieces of corn on your handful of corn plants. Knowing when you planted them (and when they sprouted) can help you nail down exactly when they’re ready pick. From experience, I know that peak taste and quality can fall in a very narrow window of time.

Here’s another example: I’ve purchased many fruit trees from a nursery about an hour south of where I live, and the ripening dates they list for each variety tend to be earlier than the dates I experience on…

The State against Anonymity | Ryan Turnipseed

In the last century, states have had great control over channels of media. In most of the West, lobbying groups and cartels working with “liberal” and “democratic” governments regulated who could broadcast while governments, with their endless pools of money and political force, competed alongside private, or foreign, establishments. South Africa banned television entirely, and then after legalizing it in the ’70s, the industry was still controlled by the state.

All media in the Soviet Union was centralized and controlled by the state immediately after the October Revolution—the Bolshevik leaders understood the importance of media control. Every state in the last century has had some grip over the country’s media, propagating favorable narratives and restricting the unfavorable to maintain control over the population.

Traditional media centralization by the state was then rendered obsolete with the popularization of the internet. As the internet and its related technology developed, decentralization became more pronounced and widespread. When anyone can start a podcast on a plethora of websites with anyone else in the world who has the technology, or when miniature documentaries and video essays can be produced and uploaded by anyone to anywhere that accepts the format, the state-operated or state-supported media that dominated the last century becomes effectively out of date. The new competition was too dynamic, adaptive, decentralized, and evasive for the old system to outcompete, outproduce, or outright ban.

Traditional media wasn’t the only thing affected by the internet. Chat boards, forums, and other means of direct communication undermined multiple key legitimizers of the state, specifically academics and journalists. Barring local rules and guidelines, anyone was free to question and discuss any aspect of academia, usually under the freedom afforded by anonymity.

This innovation was disastrous from the state’s perspective. Total dominance of every channel of media was rendered impossible in the span of a few years. Some nations attempted to restrict the internet though whatever means were available, like with China’s Great Firewall, although there are multiple ways to circumvent the restrictions through VPNs or proxies. Western nations opted for subtler restrictions like working through private companies behind closed doors. A stronger and more insidious attack against the benefits to liberty provided by the internet, however, lies in the campaigns against anonymity. Eliminating anonymity, and privacy by extension, solves most of the state’s problems that were caused by the advent of the internet, which is exactly why states and their apologists have embarked on their crusade against it.

Solving the State’s Problems

Anonymity is very dangerous from the state’s perspective as it can no longer rely on its narratives, academics, journalists, and other sources of legitimacy to be publicly unquestioned. With anonymity, superior arguments (as determined by the onlookers) win out. While this does not necessarily mean that truth will prevail in every instance, it does mean that credentialism, a major crutch of the state’s defenders, is bypassed. Onlookers can instead view arguments where one or both sides have entirely removed…

How To Grow Oyster Mushrooms From Store Bought Mushrooms

How To Grow Oyster Mushrooms From Store Bought Mushrooms tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]> Sorry, this product is unavailable. Please choose a different combination. ]]>

Tips to Prepare Your Home for Extreme Weather – reThinkSurvival.com

The weather can be unpredictable at times, and regardless of where you lay down your roots, there will be the potential threat of extreme weather, be it earthquakes, blizzards, flooding, or anything in between. It can be scary to think about, but you can feel much better when you see a storm on the horizon if you plan and prepare your home for the worst. Below are some tips for preparing your house, valuables, and family for extreme weather so you can give your homestead the best chance of success.

Be Proactive With Updates And Repairs

Many preppers and homeowners say that the best way to handle extreme weather is to prepare in advance and anticipate it before it happens. You need to ensure that your home is in tip-top shape and that no vulnerabilities can make an extreme storm even worse for your home and your family.

Several home improvement projects can ensure your safety and comfort during extreme weather, like sealing or replacing your doors and windows if you’re expecting extreme cold or hot temperatures. Seal the windows so your heater and air conditioner aren’t creating unnecessary heat or cold air that’s leaking out. Otherwise, both systems could break down when you need them most.

[Editor’s note: It can’t hurt to have other handy repair items around, like heavy-duty tarps, plywood, nails, screws, etc. just in case a storm damages your home.]

Remember that the outside elements can also leak into your home if your windows and doors aren’t properly sealed. While you’re securing your home against extreme temps, take this time to have a contractor check the insulation in your walls and ensure it’s good enough to keep your home warmer or cooler for longer.

Don’t hesitate to add extra features to your home that can help in the case of an emergency, like a backup generator that can keep your lights on and the refrigerator running in the case of an outage. If your home is subject to flooding, invest in a sump pump to relocate the water away from your property.

[Editor’s note: And be sure you can power that sump pump with a generator or solar or whatever works for you!]

Prepare For Specific Threats

It’s essential that you’re aware of any specific threats that can impact your neck of the woods so you can put the proper protections in place. If your home is in an area prone to flooding and heavy rains, you can install floodwalls out of concrete to keep the water at bay. However, you should also beware of the threat of mud. The bacteria found in mud can be dangerous to humans and livestock and it could take the place of fertile soil, which can be particularly bad if you’re a homesteader who needs good earth to grow your food. You can lessen the possibility of excess mud by laying down mulch to create a barrier or installing drainage to funnel the…

4 Apps To Help Manage The Farm From Your Phone

If you grew up on a farm or, like me, spent time on a relatives’ farm when you were a kid, you probably saw them pull out a notebook and write down things like how many eggs they had that day, how many chickens they sold or how many gallons of milk the dairy cows were producing.

Back then, journals and notebooks were the best way to keep track of data over time. Some people, of course, still use them. But if you’d like a more reliable way to keep track of everything happening on your hobby farm, it’s time to take a look at the different farming apps you can find in the App store or Google Play.

Beyond complicated farm management software for your computer, there are apps that are easy to set up, easy to use and will lend a helping hand to anyone with livestock, gardens and more. If you’ve never used apps to manage your farm, here are a few you can try right now.

PictureThis

Many farms are passed down in the family from generation to generation. But if you’ve just bought or you own a generational farm, one of the first things you realize is that you now own a lot of different trees, shrubs and other plant life.Shelly Wutke

Unless you’re a pro at identifying different greenery, you’ll need a bit of help figuring out how to take care of everything on your property.

That’s where the PictureThis app comes in. To use it you’ll just take a photo of what you’d like to identify, open the photo in the app, and it will tell you what the plant is. PictureThis identifies trees, fruit, leaf plants and flowers, and it can even identify weeds. The app will identify toxic plants and let you know if the plant is safe for your animals, and it can identify insects and birds, and tell you how old a tree is by identifying the rings.

You can use it with or without a yearly subscription, and it’s been an incredibly helpful app that I’ve used daily.

Flockstar

If you have chickens and you’d like to track how many eggs they are laying every day, week or over the course of a month or year, Flockstar is a good choice. It’s a productivity app for all types of poultry, and you can organize your flock based on breed, egg color or species.

One of the reasons I like Flockstar is that it tracks your egg count on a daily basis. You can also use it to track expenses incurred and find out your profit when selling eggs or chickens. There’s even an option to take photos of receipts so you have your expenses on hand when doing taxes.

Cattle Market Mobile

If you have cattle and you’re wondering what the…

In Martinez v. ZoomInfo, Ninth Circuit Recognizes Privacy Plaintiff Has Standing to Sue

In a decision issued today, the Ninth Circuit recognized that Ms. Kim Martinez had standing to sue ZoomInfo Technologies, a “people search” website that she alleges misappropriated her identity by using her name and information to sell subscriptions without her consent. “Standing” is a legal term that essentially means a plaintiff’s right to have a court hear their case. It has become a roadblock for some privacy plaintiffs who try to have their day in court.

EPIC submitted an amicus brief in the case with the Electronic Frontier Foundation arguing that Ms. Martinez had standing to bring her case. The defendant ZoomInfo had argued that Ms. Martinez failed to establish standing because she had not sufficiently alleged that ZoomInfo harmed her. EPIC and EFF explained that misappropriating a person’s identity is a harm that creates standing to sue on its own, and that Ms. Martinez’s additional claims about the economic and emotional harms she suffered were also sufficient to allow her to have her day in court. Ultimately, the court agreed, writing “Martinez has plausibly pleaded that she suffered sufficient injury to establish standing to sue.”

EPIC often submits amicus briefs in cases involving standing.

How To Make Cream Cheese At Home

How To Make Cream Cheese At Home | Homesteading tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]> Sorry, this product is unavailable. Please choose a different combination. ]]>