Finding Your Way by the Sun...©

 

A picture taken at 2:13 pm, on a sunny day in the Canadaway Creek gorge.  So what direction was my wife walking?  Photograph by the Author.

This is another addition for the Oelslager Files, I hope that you enjoy it – Author’s Note

 

In our high-tech society today, many of us have become so dependent on our modern tech and toys that we no longer remember, if we ever bothered to learn, how to find our way from the clues that nature leaves for us.

 

Maybe you are taking a daylight stroll down a city street, maybe you wandered out of camp on a short daytime hike and now you find yourself “misplaced”, in either case how do you tell north from south without a compass?

 

Why by the position of the Sun of course!  You can use the Sun’s position in the sky and the time of day (the approximate time, if you also don’t have a watch) to get a general idea of the direction of north, south, east and west.

 

An excerpt from Bushcraft, Scouting & Woodcraft Notes, Volume I, page 210 to 211, by Dr. R. W. Oelslager, this volume can be found HERE.

 

A better version of “Figure 357 Position of the Sun at Equinox and Solstice”, from Outdoor Survival Skills: How to Survive on Land, Sea and Ice!, page 2-86, showing the Sun’s position on the equinoxes and the solstices.  Author’s note, 23.4 degrees is the same as 23 degrees, 24 minutes.

The Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, everyone knows that , right?  Well sort of, the Sun only comes up exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west twice a year, on the spring and fall equinox.  It is close enough to the truth though, that you can use the travel of the Sun through the sky to get a general sense of your direction.  On every other day but the equinoxes, the Sun rises either a little south or north of true east and sets either a little north or south of true west, for more on this read “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part One, Orientation By The Sun ©”, HERE.

 

Adapted from Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, by The Infantry Journal, 1944, p. 41, Fig. 16, by the Author.  Another way of looking at the Sun’s position on the equinoxes and solstices.

So, if you know the time of day and the position of the Sun, you can get a general direction of where north, south, east and west is.  The Soldiers’ Own Note Book and Diary For 1918, has a great illustration which shows the general position of the Sun in its journey through the sky and if you are towards the Sun, what direction you are facing. 

 

An excerpt from Soldiers’ Own Note Book and Diary For 1918, page 30, showing the position of the Sun at different times during the day in the northern temperate zone on the equinoxes.

In the northern temperate zone, which is from 23.4 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Circle, the Sun is always south of you, rising in the east, traveling through the south, and then setting in the west.  So, if you are facing south and it is between sunrise and an hour or so before noon the Sun will be shining on the left side of your head, between 11:00 am to 1:00 pm the Sun will be mostly overhead and ahead of you, and from around 1:00 pm to sunset the sun will shine on the left side of your head.  All this reverses if you are facing north, so from morning to about 11:00 am the Sun will shine on your right side, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm the sun will be mostly overhead and behind you, and from 1:00 pm until sunset the Sun will shine on the right side of your head.

 

In the southern temperate zone, from 23.4 degrees south latitude to the Antarctic Circle the situation is reversed, with the Sun always north of you, as it rises in the east, travels through the north, and then sets in the west.  So, if you are facing south then the rising Sun will shine on your left side, around noon it will be mostly overhead and behind you, and in the afternoon the Sun will be on your right side.  If you are facing north the Sun as it rises will shine on your right side, around noon it will be overhead, and in the afternoon, it will be on your left side.

 

In the area from the equator to either 23.4 degrees north latitude or 23.4 degrees south latitude, things are more confused with, of course, the Sun rising in the east and setting in the west, however at noon the Sun can either be north or south of you, depending on the time of the year, in these latitudes.

 

The arrow in this picture points towards the sun, photograph by the Author.

So what direction was my wife walking when I took the picture of her in the Canadaway Creek gorge?  Do you know?  I bet you can figure it out.

 

The correct answer is my wife was walking north.  If you didn’t get the answer right, here is how you figure it out.  Okay, the first thing that you need to know is, that I took that picture on September 19^th at 2:13 pm in the northern temperate zone.  The first things you need to remember is that in September your watch is probably set to daylight savings time, so subtract an hour from the time on your watch to get standard time.  So, in standard time the picture was taken at 1:13 pm and the Sun is just a little past its zenith or highest point in its daily travel across the sky (for more information read “Daylight Savings Time in the Wilderness ©”, HERE).

 

When you look at the picture, it is clear from the shadow that the Sun is directly above and behind my wife’s head.  In the northern hemisphere, at noon if the Sun is above and behind you, then the Sun must be close to its most southern point in the sky.  From this you can tell that my wife was walking north! 

 

A portion of the Earl Cardot Eastside Overland Trail, from Chautauqua County Parks.  The red arrow shows the approximate location where the picture was taken.

Just to prove to you that this is the case, the red arrow on the map shows the approximate location where the picture was taken, and the Canadaway creek at this point flows mostly north.  Since we were walking downstream along the creek, when I took the picture, we were walking north.

 

This method of determining north and south is not as exact as the shadow-tip method¹ (for more information on this method , read “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method©”, HERE) and will only give you a general idea of your directions, but hey, a general direction is better than no direction at all! 

 

So, if you ever find yourself “misplaced” or even simply curious as to where north, south, east and west are you can simply look to the Sun.  You should still, always carry a compass with you, though, because it is hard to find the Sun on a cloudy day!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ The shadow-tip method was devised by Robert S. Owendoff in 1959.  This method was adopted by the U.S. Army as a field expedient way of finding your direction on January 26, 1962.

 

From a review of Better Ways of Pathfinding, by Robert S. Owendoff, [Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, PA, 1964], by Major William C. O’Connell on page 62 of the March-April 1965 Infantry magazine (Vol. 55, No. 2)

 

Sources

 

Department of the Airforce, Outdoor Survival Skills: How to Survive on Land, Sea and Ice!, (originally published as Survival), [Info Books, Toronto, Canada, 1980] p. 2-86

 

Gibson, J.; Soldiers’ Own Note Book and Diary For 1918, [Charles Letts & Co., London, 1918], page 30, http://heritage.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Archives/OSullivan/Clutterbuck/Diary/PDF/0050.pdf, accessed August 16, 2018

 

O’Connell, William C., Major; Infantry, March-April 1965, Vol. 55, No. 2, page 62 (page 147 on the PDF), https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadY2HyR7rtXN-uioWEUpk97F9F0CgT4dSkl9SoxeL8m42Bjr5jqB3Fj046OBs3RGLuNRKqntX0fkTQXK5te9FhDV73UBmkafb_JeiRQerGrIjDndlcwiT2OKH21ZzH3WQ3H0zeapMh-VfXOnMF0tzd0bm2M_2uZjFawsNErdY64HlI9w2s8Ak1Cng9awgMN232ijuoAjvZz2ZsUpVA-wjqvtxQJ8a74P18We-KRSVDxyNdAN7U, accessed January 13, 2021

 

Oelslager, R. W., Dr.; Bushcraft, Scouting & Woodcraft Notes, Volume I, [privately published], https://ia801603.us.archive.org/27/items/BushcraftNotes/Bushcraft%20Notes.pdf, accessed January 8, 2021

 

Airlines War Training Institute, Survival: Land, Sea, Jungle, Arctic, [The Infantry Journal, Washington, D.C., 1944] p. 41-42

 

So, What’s in Your Possible Kit!? ©

 

The author’s possible kit, photograph by the author.

This is the fourth installment of the Oelslager Files, articles inspired by the works of the late Dr. Robert William “Doc” Oelslager.  Also, since everyone around the world is dealing with COVID-19, I thought something lighter and non-virus would be a good thing. – Author’s note

So, what’s in your “possible kit”!? 

Have you even ever heard of a possible kit?  It’s possible you might be asking yourself right now, “what’s a possible kit?”  And maybe you are thinking, “isn’t that just another name for a survival kit?”

In my mind a possible kit isn’t a survival kit, it is more like a toolbox, or maybe, depending on your level of organization, a junk-drawer, full of a little bit of everything.

Personally, whenever I head out into the wilderness, I always bring my possible kit, my personal first aid kit and my survival kit.  I always have both my personal first aid kit and my survival kit on me, and I keep my possible kit in my pack.  A possible kit should complement your survival kit and it should be available for everyday use, while a survival kit is for emergencies only¹.  Think of it as a kit for “it’s possible it might happen” or “it’s possible I might need it”

“So, What’s In Your Possible Kit!?”

My possible kit only weighs 8 ounces (227 grams) and here is what I keep in it.

 

The author’s possible kit, enumerated, photograph by the author.

1)     A zippered pouch to hold all the “possibles”.

2)     A LED flashlight, a spare in addition to the one in my survival kit and first aid kit.

3)     3 spare AAA batteries for my headlamp and the flashlights in my first aid kit, survival kit and possible kit.

4)     A Swiss+Tech®, multi-tool, with needle nose pliers, a saw, a Philips head screwdriver, can opener and knife.

5)     A flat head and a Philips head screwdriver for repairing eyeglasses.

6)     An eye glass repair kit: screws, spacers, nose pads and a cleaning cloth

7)     16 feet (almost 5 meters) of 15-pound test, braided nylon line, for use as heavy sewing thread.

8)     2 feet (.6 meters) of 22 gauge (.73 mm) galvanized steel wire.  I have used wire like this in the past to reattach the sole of a water shoe to its upper.  Wire can be used for repairing just about anything.

9)     2 large eyed, heavy duty sewing needles: the smaller one is a # 17 carpet needle that is 2 inches (52 mm) long and the other one is a #14 darning needle that is 3 inches long (78 mm).  Both are stuck into a piece of heavy-duty nylon patch cloth.  The large elongated eyes on the needles make threading them, much simpler.

10)   4 large safety pins stuck into another piece of heavy-duty nylon patch cloth.

11)   A pencil.

12)   A pencil sharpener.  This is also very useful for making fine tinder to help you get your fire started.

13)   A file to sharpen my axe with, an axe without something to sharpen it, is just an oddly shaped hammer

14)   A whetstone to sharpen my knives.

15)   A 5 foot (1.5 meter) long tape measure.  I have used this to measure and diagram an old logging blaze on a stump on the shore of Lake Louisa, Algonquin Provincial Park (for pictures of the stump and my drawing, see “The Madawaska River Loop: Whitefish, to Pen, to Harry and Louisa…And Back Again! Part One ©”, HERE)

16)   A thermometer, emergency whistle, magnifying-glass, pocket compass, all in one all-purpose tool.

17)   5 mini-zip ties.  When I reattached the sole of the water shoe to its upper, I also used some small zip ties to complete the repair.

18)   3 heavy-duty rubber bands.  These originally came wrapped around celery stalks from the grocery store, they have literally 1,001 uses.

 

An excerpt from the 1969 edition of Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, page 1-4.  Notice how many of the items in this list are in my possible kit, which is why I say that possible kits can and should complement your survival kit2.

Now the nice thing about possible kits, is that you can put anything into them, whatever you think you might need at some point in your travels. 

 

An excerpt from Scouting magazine, March/April 1982, page Scout 3 Jul 82, also reproduced in R.W. Oelslager’s The Winter Experience, figure 639, page 325

The possible kit shown in Scouting Magazine, March/April 1982, which was also reproduced in R.W. Oelslager’s The Winter Experience, included aspirins and band-aids, which are things that I keep in my personal first aid kit.  Since, I always keep my personal first aid kit in my pocket when I am in the wilderness, I don’t include first aid supplies in my possible kit.  Additionally, this kit included matches, a razor blade, fishhooks and tape, which are things that I keep in my survival kit.  It also included a dime, which for all of you who were born into the age of cell phones, was needed to make an emergency phone call home from a pay phone.

 

An excerpt from a Ziploc® advertisement, found in Field & Stream, May 1988, page 124

And you don’t have to be to fancy with the pouch for the possible kit either, many people simply keep their possible kit in a Ziploc® bag. 

So, what’s in your possible kit!?

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ In case of emergency, there is a good chance that I will end up separated from my luggage and my possible kit.  And even though there might be some duplicated items between my possible kit and my survival kit, as long as I can carry the extra weight, I’m OK with the overlap.

² A good PDF copy of the 1969, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, is available at https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QafWD_tnrQah_123Vdzf3cUpFscGc1tFZ-mbT-8cLuvT6d1JOFoeQlpZjQbXWlXEO-JRFjM2zPz-X6Onjky9dyQvtAsro4vU1ZyTDJZU2lPkGAIbXdRTWZjN_ADI4wxK69JTKD-WtXPfLP_9sXVUEJgUJUgaNEHZBDz_cCT8MAu1Gh2rvykD-jv0vtmQtE1Lk6RTR3yH4u_3X1lFrKXyAqoFohpKGI1xiMRoW0iOYD3g5JH6DHIjKdb6uFLL07Ijf42tXamK

Sources

Department Of The Air Force, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [Air Training Command, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., August 15, 1969], p. 1-4

“Possible Kit”, Scouting Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 2, March/April 1982 [Boy Scouts of America, Irving, Texas], p. Scout 3 Jul 82, https://books.google.com/books?id=XSsbxPzAVfUC&pg=RA5-PT21&lpg=RA5-PT21&dq=scouting+%22we+ought+to+take+a+minute%22&source=bl&ots=vxOmVqq7Ak&sig=ACfU3U02ibVcmaTtuT10LmaPJSeYRwcNWA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-s8PJxY3oAhUOTN8KHVNNDQcQ6AEwAHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=scouting%20%22we%20ought%20to%20take%20a%20minute%22&f=false, Accessed March 9, 2020

Ziploc® advertisement, Field & Stream, May 1988, Vol. XCIII, No. 1, [Times Mirror Magazines, New York, NY] p. 124

https://books.google.com/books?id=rX5eHMAsXywC&pg=PA120&lpg=PA120&dq=%22Field+%26+Stream%22+%22when+trout+that+are+surface-feeding%22&source=bl&ots=eBd84pjFcL&sig=ACfU3U0e6KRSK2iAO_uSCjKQIHALxzU6mw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-6uGdyo3oAhVKh-AKHSsNDtAQ6AEwAHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Field%20%26%20Stream%22%20%22when%20trout%20that%20are%20surface-feeding%22&f=false, accessed March 9, 2020

“Soaping Your Pot”: The Oelslager Files, Part Three ©

 

Figure 186, p. 54, Bushcraft, Scoutcraft & Woodlore, Vol. II, by Dr. R. W. Oelslager

There you are, out in the woods, by a fire, boiling a pot of water.  Your pot turns black with a layer of soot and when the fire is out and you want to pack the pot away, the soot rubs off onto everything, your hands, your pack, and your clothes and yet you can’t seem to scrub it all the way off the pot. 

During the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, camp kettles were carried in linen bags with slings or “cases”, in order to keep soot and grease off your clothes and to make the camp kettle easier to carry¹.  However by the early 1960s, a new wrinkle or camp hack had appeared, soaping your pots to prevent the soot from sticking to them.  I did a quick bit of research and the earliest record of this particular wrinkle that I could find, was first published in Bill Riviere’s The Campers Bible, in 1961.

The Campers Bible, Revised Edition, by Bill Riviere, Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, NY, 1970

“Rubbing soap on the outside of a utensil will make the soot much easier to remove when washing… Rub the paste on the pot or kettle on the pot or kettle before using over an open fire and when you wash the utensil, the soot will almost float away”

The Campers Bible, by Bill Riviere, 1961

This camp trick was one of the first things I learned when I joined Boy Scout Troop 131, out of Lakewood, NY, in 1976 and it was also taught by Doc Oelslager, who recorded it on page 54 of his book Bushcraft, Scoutcraft & Woodlore, Vol. II.  I still use this bit of campcraft today. 

Oh and this is very important, when you teach someone else this, be very clear that the soap ONLY goes on the outside of the pan.  Apparently, I wasn’t very clear when I was teaching this to someone in 1976, and, well, the SPAM^® was well spiced with Dawn^® dish soap.  It is amazing what you will eat when you are really hungry!

I hope that you have enjoyed this installment of the Oelslager Files, highlighting the writings and research of Robert William “Doc” Oelslager.  For more Oelslager Files, see “The Oelslager Files”, HERE and “Estimating The Time Till Sunset”, HERE.

Don’t forget to follow me on The Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.

Notes

¹  Rees, John U., "Properly fixed upon the Men..." Linen Bags for Camp Kettles

Sources

Oelslager, Dr. R. W., Bushcraft, Scoutcraft & Woodlore, Vol. II, Figure 186, [privately published] p. 54

Rees, John U., "Properly fixed upon the Men..." Linen Bags for Camp Kettles, The Brigade Dispatch (Journal of the Brigade of the American Revolution), Vol. XXVII, no. 3 [Autumn 1997], p. 2-5, http://revwar75.com/library/rees/kettlebags.htm, accessed June 22, 2019

Riviere, Bill, The Campers Bible, Revised Edition, [Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, NY, 1961] p. 97

Thank You to All My Readers

The author writing a post while in Deep Creek, VA.  Picture by the author.

  

It has been an exciting six months here at The Woodsman’s Journal Online, and I would like to take a moment to thank all of my readers for their support.  Thank you!  The Woodsman’s Journal Online is growing and we have surpassed 1,000 page views during the last month, so thank you again for all of your support.

I thought it would be fun to imagine being interviewed and answer the questions; I thought I would be asked.

“Why did you call your blog, The Woodsman’s Journal Online?”

During the late 80s and early 90s, I use to enjoy reading “fanzines” and other home-based magazines and newsletters, which had been written, typed and printed in someone’s kitchen, before being put into the U.S. Mail for distribution.  Fast forward to 2018, when I started The Woodsman’s Journal Online, as much as possible I wanted my blog to be similar to those “zines” from the 80s and 90s that I had enjoyed so much.  Obviously, the internet has radically changed every aspect of life in the modern world, and home-based publishing is no exception: everything is now faster, quicker and much, much easier!  It is hard to believe how much easier and faster it is today to research, type, publish and distribute your home-based magazine: no more cutting, pasting and photocopying pictures to create graphics.  Today the world is your oyster and you don’t need the U.S. Mail!  So the name, The Woodsman’s Journal Online, is a nod to all of those home-based “zines” of the 80s and 90s and with a wink at our ever expanding, worldwide, online culture.

Oh and I find that I do some of my best writing while I am sitting at the kitchen table.

“In your videos you call yourself The BandanaMan, why?”

There are two parts to that answer; first, as I have gotten older I have found that I have grown past my hairline.  I hate getting sunburned on the top of my head, about as much as I hate getting bitten by bugs there; and so, I always wear something on my head when I am in the woods.  Sometimes, when I am canoeing or hiking, I wear a brimmed hat, but I find it difficult to wear a brimmed hat when I am carrying a large pack or portaging a canoe, and so I usually wear a bandana tied around my head.

A picture of the author wearing his usual headgear, picture by the author.

And for the second part, in 2015 I taught a Birchbark Expeditions Shakedown class to a group of scouts, who I later met in Algonquin Park as they were coming off the water and finishing their trek.  One of the boys said to me, as I was uncharacteristically NOT wearing a bandana, “Hey! I know you, you are the bandana man”.  This is why I call myself BandanaMan and why I named my YouTube channel BandanaMan Productions.

“How and when did you become interested in the outdoors, bushcraft, survival and the history of the Old Northwest Frontier?”

I have always been interested in the outdoors, and when my brother, sister, and I were little, my parents took us tent camping often.  My favorite book, even before I could read, was my Father’s 1953 edition of the Boy Scout, Handbook For Boys.  I used to get up at first light, and during the summer, I would take this book off my Father’s bookshelf, take it to my tree fort and look at the pictures.  Later in July 1978, I went to Algonquin Provincial Park for the first time, with Boy Scout Troop 131, see “…First Time In Algonquin…” found HERE.  While I was there I became fascinated with wilderness survival, in fact when we stopped at Algonquin Outfitters to buy souvenirs, I bought my first two wilderness survival books: Wilderness Survival, by Berndt Berglund and Survival in the Wilderness, by Life Support Technology, Inc.

  

The Handbook For Boys, June 1953, Fifth Edition – Sixth Printing, by Boy Scouts Of America.  Picture by the author. 

Wilderness Survival, by Berndt Berglund, picture by the author.

  

Survival in the Wilderness, by Life Support Technology, Inc., picture by the author.

I have always been fascinated by American history, having heard tales of my Great Grandfather⁶ Daniel Ogden, who was a scout and a ranger in the Tryon County militia and his son, David, who was captured by Joseph Brant, who had been a family friend before the war, near Fort Stanwix, NY and marched to Fort Niagara, NY.  When I was about 16 years old, at a garage sale, I bought a copy of The Frontiersmen, by Allan Eckert, and from then on I was hooked and I have wanted to learn everything I could about life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.  In addition, when my oldest son turned eleven, we went to Fort Niagara to see a reenactment of the fort being captured from the French by the English.  He loved it!  He thought it was adults playing dress up, which in some ways it is, what he didn’t understand then, was how much research and learning is required to portray, accurately, what life was like 250 years ago.  He didn’t understand this, but I did and since I said I would help him with this, I dove even deeper into the world of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, specifically the history of what is today the northeastern United States.

Captive! The story of David Ogden and the Iroquois, picture by the author.

The Frontiersmen, by Allan Eckert, picture by the author.

“Why, when you are writing about history, do use really old sources, instead of more modern one?”

The answer to this question also has two parts.  First, I always try to use sources that are close to or current with the time I am writing about, so that I can understand how people of that time thought and acted.  Also, whenever I can, I try to use sources that were written by people who lived through an event that I am writing about: these type of sources are called ‘primary’ sources.  Primary sources are better than ‘secondary’ sources, which were written by people, usually a long time afterwards, who didn’t actually do the thing they wrote about or live through the event in question.  As Christian Cameron noted “reading primary sources is research … reading secondary sources is learning”¹.  These two distinctions are very important to me, since my mission for both The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions is to be the best researched resource available to the online user (for more on this see “The End of 2018 and the Beginning of 2019” HERE).

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and my videos at BandanaMan Productions and thank you again for reading and watching my content. 

Don’t forget to follow me on The Woodsman’s Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.

Sources

¹  The European Experience of Partisan Warfare, A Treatise for the Fort Ticonderoga Command Conference, March, 2008, Christian Cameron, https://www.academia.edu/839474/The_Eurpean_experience_of_Partisan_Warfare--a_lecture_for_the_NAM_Chelsea, accessed 6/15/19

The End of 2018 and the Beginning of 2019 ©

It is the end of 2018 and The Woodsman’s Journal Online is officially three months old.  It has been a busy three months, and I would like to thank everyone who has visited the Woodsman’s Journal and read my articles or has watched my videos at Bandanaman Productions on YouTube.  Thank you and I hope that the coming New Year is kind to you.

At the end of this old year and the beginning of the new, I want to take a moment to define and refine the mission statement for both the Woodsman’s Journal and Bandanaman Productions.  Over the last twelve years, ever since I started teaching wilderness and survival skills, I have found that that the part of this journey that I enjoyed as much as being out in the wilderness doing things or teaching people how to thrive in the outdoors; was doing the research. 

I am a voracious reader and researching how to do things in the woods or authentic woods lore from 18^th, 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries is something that I enjoy and is, if I do say so myself, something that I have gotten very good at.  So…

The mission of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and Bandanaman Productions is to be the best-researched resource available to the online user.  My articles and videos are intended to be a compilation of my research, this way you the reader or viewer, will not have to spend your time doing the research that I have already done.  So that you can gather more information for yourself, if you choose, I will always provide a list of the sources I have consulted and endnotes when and where needed. 

 

A note on Evidence and Positive Proof, a selection from Williams, A Compendious and Comprehensive Law Dictionary, 1816

To be the best-researched resource available, I will follow the rules and practices outlined below.  To provide proper evidence and conclusions, and to establish positive proof, I will always use at least three sources for every article, whenever they are available.  When three different sources are not available and there cannot be positive proof, which is very likely when researching antique woods lore from the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, since everyday skills of everyday people, were generally not recorded, as they were not deemed important; I will use circumstantial evidence and the doctrine of presumption.  The doctrine of presumption states that, “…when the fact itself cannot be demonstratively evinced, that which comes nearest to the proof of the fact is the proof…” (Williams, 1816).  I will always tell you when I am using circumstantial evidence and the doctrine of presumption.

 

A section from Miller’s Camp Craft, 1916, p. 168

Lastly I will always tell you when I have not actually done something myself and I am reporting someone else’s experience.  In addition, I will endeavor, whenever practical, to experiment with the techniques, methods and tips and then report to you on the results.

Again, a most heartfelt “Thank You” to everyone who has visited the Woodsman’s Journal and read my articles or has watched my videos at Bandanaman Productions on YouTube; I wish the best to you for the coming New Year.

Sources:

Warren H. Miller, Camp Craft: Modern Practice and Equipment, [Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, NY, 1916], p. 168 https://books.google.com/books?id=tdY1AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Camp+Craft+-+Modern+Practice+And+Equipment&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMpImer8XeAhUtvlkKHYEbAVgQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Camp%20Craft%20-%20Modern%20Practice%20And%20Equipment&f=false, (accessed 11/8/2018)

Thomas Walter Williams, A Compendious and Comprehensive Law Dictionary; Elucidating the Terms and General Principals of Law and Equity, [Printed for Gale and Fenner, Paternoster Row, London, 1816], EVIDENCE p. 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=sw8yAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, (accessed 4/18/2017)