Bushcraft – Modern Anachronist

Food Forest (pt. 1)

I love the idea of foraging for food. Ever since my friends and I used to gorge ourselves on blackberries & raspberries in the woods as kids.

And there’s a little bit of woods behind my house.

This weekend my wife went to an event to collect seeds from native plants and she came home with some Paw Paw seeds.

If you’ve never heard of it, the paw paw is the largest fruit native to North America. I’ve heard of them, held them, but never tasted them.

So I planted 13 paw paw seeds in the woods behind my house.

Hopefully some of the seeds germinate and survive long enough to grow fruit.

I learned after I planted them that I’m going to have to wait five to ten years before they yield fruit.

Ridge line in detail.

The ridge line is a critical, but fairly simple part of the tarp setup. I started with a 50’ length of reflective paracord. Some people use a 30′ long line, this one may become shorter in the future.

Some people don’t like paracord, but it’s a known quantity for me and I’m not convinced that the alternatives are significantly better.

My ridge line starts with a bowline. The bowline never gets untied.

The bowline. Probably my most used knot.

12×12 Tarp Configurations

What I like best about the tarp is that it’s infinitely adjustable. You can pitch it high off the ground to get lots of ventilation or low to trap warmth inside.

Played with it in the yard today to try out some different pitches. I threw a single sleeping pad inside to give a sense of scale. The 12×12 is giant for a single camper.

Plow point interior. Plenty of room to stretch out.

Still another tent (but not really)

For some reason I started shopping for backpacking tents. But I couldn’t find one I liked. They all had one or more fatal flaws –

Too heavy
Too small when pitched
Too large when packed
Too expensive

But I think I may have found the perfect solution.