2012 – Nose To The Grindstone

I know it’s the 3rd of January already but happy new year. Only three days in and the time’s flying already!

Since I started this site I’ve rarely had enough time to do it justice. I’ve just about kept my head above water and occasionally knocked out some writing I’m pretty happy with. I’m constantly happy to see regular readers have stuck around and new ones have joined the throng. Thanks to all of you.

In 2012 I will have enough time to devote to it and this means that this is the year to take our bushcraft to a new level together. I have some key themes I’d like to explore throughout the year. The content will tend to be driven by them:

Back to basics

2012 seems like a great year to go back to basics. If you ever find yourself in a sticky situation it’ll likely be the knowledge you carry in your head and an ability to improvise that will save you. We’ll visit some familiar topics but really dive deep into theory and practice.

Low tech kit

If you’re a regular you’ll know I don’t really discuss kit too much. Personally, I don’t think anyone should be given the idea that they need x y and z to travel or live outdoors. Catalogues and websites of shiny kit are an attractive thing to many of us and I’m no exception. However, unless you’re doing something technical like climbing you’ll be fine 99% of the time with 99% of what you have already. Trust me.

So no pizes for guessing that 2012 will continue this theme. There might be a slight relaxation of this while I cover a few things I’ve had for years and explain why they’ve remained favourites (more of a demonstration of what works rather than the new must-have item). There definitely won’t be any shiny new kit reviewed this side of hell freezing over.

Improvisation

I’d rate our ability to improvise as one of the key skills for living in the outdoors whether it be planned or unplanned in a survival situation. With all the kit we have at our disposal we often get hung up on it and forget that people survived for millenia without any of it. Now I’m not saying throw all the modern stuff out – we’ll just think about what we might do without it.

Knowing yourself

I believe another of the key skills for living outdoors is knowing yourself. You might call it knowing your limits although I’d suggest knowing what’s possible is a better name. The limits are always fewer than the possibilities.

Knowing what’s possible through a series of focused training exercises will allow you a great deal of comfort when it comes to doing it for real. Couple this with the knowledge and practice you’ve already gained and you have a formidable set of skills.

Other News

I’ve just set up a Google Currents edition of Skills For Wild Lives. If you have a smartphone, an iPad or other fancy tablet it’s a nice way to read. Note: It’s not yet officially available in the UK but if you run Android you can install it unofficially.

As ever, if there’s anything you’d like to see more (or less) of, please get in touch and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for reading. I’d better go and start writing something…

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