New England Colonial Living History Group FORUM.

http://neclhg.freeforums.net/

Survival Prepper Forum

I am constantly looking for a decent Australian survival forum, so far no luck. The Australian survival forums I have found so far are no better than the American ones. America is different from Australia in many ways, so the discussions on those forums are not of much use if you live in Australia or the UK. Australian forums have other problems, the forum managers & moderators are slack & do not control the forum members when they get out of line. The other factor with Australian forums is that they often look at someone's post, but do not comment. It does not take much to comment, preferably a nice comment. Fair enough if you think the post is totally pointless, just say nothing or politely point out where you think they are wrong. But to say nothing when in fact it was a good post is not very encouraging for the person who made the post.

Anyway, not commenting can be a problem on all forums, but some forums are better than others. I decided to register on two forums, one is an American forum on which I am a moderator, & the other is a UK forum on which I am a forum manager https://www.preppersforum.uk/  I find that on this UK forum we have more in common than any American one. For the most part members are friendly & the managers & moderators do a good job of keeping spammers out & controlling disagreeable people.

Anyway, if you are in Australia or America or the UK & are looking for a decent survival prepper forum, come & check this one out. Frankly I could do with a few more Aussies on this forum!

https://www.preppersforum.uk/

Regards, Keith. 

Digging for Witchetty Grubs with Dorothy Napangardi

Wild Edible Foods. Prickly Lettuce.

Prickly Lettuce.

Lactuca serriola, Prickly Lettuce. Emu Plains, NSW.

http://www.survival.org.au/bf_lactuca_serriola.php;

More Information Here: http://www.herbiguide.com.au/Descriptions/hg_Prickly_Lettuce.htm

PLEASE SIGN: Fair and sensible firearms legislation for muzzle-loader users.

Please sign my petition.

Keith.

https://www.change.org/p/members-of-the-legislative-assembly-of-new-south-wales-fair-and-sensible-firearms-legislation-for-muzzle-loader-users?recruiter=29128190&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

"To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in Parliament assembled".

PARLIAMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

Parliament House
6 Macquarie Street,
Sydney, NSW 2000.

assembly@parliament.nsw.gov.au

The Petition of Keith H. Burgess.
President of the New England Colonial Living History Group.

Brings to the attention of the House the matter of firearms licensing in relation to muzzle-loading pistols (percussion locks excluded).

At this present time, working replica (replicas of original 17^th and 18^th century antique muzzle-loading pistols) muzzle-loading pistols of the lock types matchlock, wheellock, tinderlock, doglock , snaphance, and flintlock can only be owned by a person possessing a category H gun licence, and these pistols can only be legally fired on a registered gun range. This requirement excludes the use of these antique replicas for Living History and Historical Re-enactment purposes. It also excludes the use of these antique replicas for use as a back-up safety for muzzle-loader hunters hunting on private property who are hunting with single shot muzzle-loading rifles or smoothbores.

Historical Re-enactment groups and Living History organisations have re-enactment rules which preclude the use of live ammunition and preclude the use of a ramrod during any and all re-enactment displays. There is also a permit requirement; this permit is for historical re-enactment organisations wishing to conduct an historical re-enactment event involving the possession and use of firearms by participants. Clause 61 - Firearms Regulation 2006.

Replicas of muzzle-loading pistols of the lock types mentioned are slow to load and require a good deal of knowledge and training to ensure the workability of this type of gun. Ignition even when used by a competent person can not be guaranteed. Therefore these muzzle-loading guns are not suitable for criminal use.

The undersigned petitioners therefore ask the Legislative Assembly to change the licensing requirement for these replica antique muzzle-loading pistols (percussion locks excluded) from the present category H class licence to the category B class licence.

Primitive Skills and Methods. Uses For Wood Ashes.

Cavern Scene By Firelight by William smith 1753

Uses For Wood Ashes & Charcoal.

1.    For removing fur from animal skins.

2.    As lye for making soap.

3.    I have washed my hands using water and wood ashes.

4.    Spread around plants to stop slugs and snails.

5.    As garden fertilizer.

6.    For controlling mites on chooks and other fowls.

7.    Charcoal as a water filter.

8.    For protecting dry foods.

9.    Using in the toilet pit.

10. For testing wind direction.

11. Laying down to catch animal tracks.

12. Bury a fire in ashes to keep it in at night.

13. Charcoal will attract moisture.

14. Charcoal as an antidote for poisons.

15. For drawing, writing, and marking patterns on animal skins.

16. For camouflage on your face and hands.

17. Charcoal used as a slurry in a poultice for insect bites.

18. Charcoal for controlling Diarrhea

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/255/1/Uses-for-wood-ashes.html

http://afrisciheroes.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/grandma-found-a-lot-of-uses-for-wood-ash/

http://www.frontierfreedom.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105

http://www.diylife.com/2010/02/12/unusual-uses-charcoal/

http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn5.html

http://healingtools.tripod.com/char3.html

Primitive Skills and Methods. Uses For Urine.

Diderot 18th Century.

Uses For Urine.

1.    Urine when it is fresh and free from infection, can be used to wash out wounds.

2.    Urine contains nitre. It can be used to soak plant tinders & it can be used instead of water when making gunpowder.

3.    Urine can be evaporated to produce potassium nitrate.

4.    Urine can be used as a garden fertilizer if diluted 8 parts water to 1 part urine.

5.    Urine used neat can be used as a weed killer.

6.    Used in the process of tanning animal skins.

7.    Scouring, cleaning, fulling & dyeing wool fleece to make cloth.

8.    Washing/cleaning cloth/clothing.

http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-use-urine-as-a-fertilizer

http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Using_urine_as_fertilizer_in_the_garden/

http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5345.php

http://www.bladeturner.com/pattern/leatherhides/leatherhides.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/10/unusual-uses-of-urine

http://health.amuchbetterway.com/urine-therapy-benefits-and-uses/

http://www.ayurvedic-medicines.org/ayurveda/urine-therapy.htm

http://myfivebest.com/five-strange-uses-of-urine-throughout-history/

http://www.witheridge-historical-archive.com/fulling.htm

http://www.iwhistory.org.uk/RM/fullingmills/ur.htm

http://www.classics.uwaterloo.ca/labyrinth_old/issue89/Pee.02.09.pdf

http://clothtrade.co.uk/index.php/processes/fulling_or_tucking/

http://haltwhistleburn.org/page512.html

Making Woodland Indian Center Seam Moccasins.

Australian Survival and Preppers..: Australian Government Tries To Block The Velvet Re...

It is vitally important to all Australians that we all join & back the Velvet Revolution, which is taking place in all major cities in Australia on the 10/7/2015. The Australian Government is illegal & corrupt, & is trying to block Velvet Revolution posts to the media on Facebook. PLEASE go to the link below & share widely & if you can attend the revolution rallies in the major cities & towns, please do so.
Thank you.
Regards, Keith.

Australian Survival and Preppers..: Australian Government Tries To Block The Velvet Re...: The Velvet Revolution intends to remove the corrupt Australian government. PLEASE share these posts widely, we need your support. ME...

Dried, Parched & Popped corn.

Dried Corn, Parched Corn, & Popped Corn.

There are several ways you can cook & preserve corn. Corn can be boiled, & it can be added to other vegetables & meat. Corn can be parched & ground into a meal or flour & carried on the trail as a trail food. This ground parched meal can have water added to it to make it more palatable. Corn can also be popped & eaten & this popped corn can also be carried as a trail food.

Left to right: Parched corn, dried corn, & popped corn.

Corn can be dried on the cob by hanging it from it’s outer leafy layer & it can then be stored. Or this dried corn can be parched & stored or ground into a meal & stored.

Dried corn can be made by cutting the corn from the cob & spreading it on bark in the sun, or it can be dried on the cob by hanging in the sun. Dried corn is just that, corn which has been dried. But parched corn is a super dried corn. To parch corn you can either: remove it from the cob & spread it on flat rocks in or around the fire, or you can place it in the hot ashes until done & then sift the ashes. When pottery came into use, a clay pot would be placed in the fire at an angle & hot ashes would be piled up & placed over the pot. Shucked corn would then be placed into the pot to parch. When parched, the corn kernels would be hard & crisp.

Another way to use the clay pot was to part fill the pot with hot ashes, & then add the shucked corn. Later when iron pots & skillets were available, the shucked corn would be placed in these & shaken periodically to make sure the corn kernels did not burn. I have found no mention of oil or grease being used in the parching process.

Popped corn was made with a different corn to the normal white, yellow or sweet corns. Popped corn is a type of flint corn, & to make it you can place it on a hot flat rock in the fire, or you can place it in hot ashes. When it pops, the kernels will jump from the fire or the ashes & must be retrieved. If placed in an iron pot with a lid, it may be wise to rub a little grease round the inside of the pot, but not too much.

Drying corn on the cob by tying the gathered husk & hanging.

AMERICAN INDIAN CORN DISHES By 1CPuriel H. Wright

Botah Kap.ussa (Cold Flour) : Shell corn from the cob when the grain has reached the stage where it is firm but not dry. Place the shelled corn in a large pot of hot ashes, keeping the pot over coals of fire until the corn is parched a golden brown, in the meantime stirring the grain to keep it from scorching. Put the corn into the fanner, and clean off the ashes. Next pound the corn in the mortar until the husks are loosened. Again clean out the husks from the grain in the fanner. Beat the clean corn into flour in the mortar. This parched corn flour may be sweetened with enough sugar to taste. Add enough water to dampen a small serving, and eat as a cereal. A small amount of botah kapussah will go a long way as food. In tribal times, the Indian hunter took a small bag of this unsweetened food with him on long expeditions, often traveling many days with nothing else to eat except botaic kapussuh, a little at a time generally mixed with water. This cold flour was a boon on a long hunting expedition because a small amount was nourishing, and a bag of it was light and easy to carry.

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v036/v036p155.pdf

Parched Corn or Nokehick
[Parched corn was called nokehick by the Indians, but the Englishmen called it nocake.]
 “Nocake, as they call it which is nothing but Indian corne parched in the hot ashes being sifted from it, it is afterward beaten to a powder, and put into a long leatherne bag, trussed at their backe like a knapsake; out of which they take thrice three spoonfulls a day, dividing it into three meales.”

Wood's New England's Prospects [1634]

 “Parched meal...is a readie wholesome food which they eate with a little water, not or cold; I have travelled with neere 200 of them at once, neere 100 miles through the woods, every man carrying a little basket of this at his back, and sometimes in a hollow Leather Girdle about his middle sufficient for a man three or foure daies: With this readie provision, and their Bow and Arrowes, are they ready for War, and travell at an houres warning. With a spoonfull of this meale and a spoonefull of water from the Brooke, have I made many a good dinner and supper.”

Roger Williams A Key into the Language of America [1643]

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mosmd/foods.htm

Maxi'diwiac (Buffalo Bird Woman) (ca.1839-1932) of the Hidatsa Indian Tribe

Originally published as

Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation by Gilbert Livingstone Wilson, Ph.D. (1868-1930)

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html

My Book. Primitive Fire Lighting. eBook. Written For Australian Survivalists, Preppers, Living Historians & Reenactors.

Primitive Fire Lighting-Flint & Steel & Fire Bow. eBook.

Title: Primitive Fire lighting.

ID: 9784776

Category: History

Description: “Primitive Fire Lighting”, is a hands on guide to how to make fire with flint and steel and fire bow. This includes some history, a variety of methods, tinder plants identification, and tinder production, tips on fire place construction and use, how to prepare and lay a fire, wet weather fire lighting and magnifying glass fire lighting. The skills and methods in this book will be of interest to a wider range of readers including survivalists, historical re-enactors, bush-walkers and campers, historical–trekkers and even historical novel writers. Although the plant identifications list is mainly Australian it also has some information for England, Europe and America.

Publisher: Keith H. Burgess

Copyright Year: © 2010

Language: English

Country: Australia

Table of Contents

Illustrations. 4

FOREWORD. 6

FLINT AND STEEL FIRE LIGHTING. 8

PLANT FIBRE TINDERS: 11

TINDER PREPARATION. 15

Tinder preparation-charring: 15

OTHER FLINT and STEEL FIRE LIGHTING METHODS: 16

Emergency methods: 17

A WORD ABOUT BLACK POWDER: 17

THE CAMPFIRE FIREPLACE: 18

READING GLASS/MAGNIFYING GLASS FIRE LIGHTING 20

WET WEATHER FIRE LIGHTING. 21

A FINAL WORD OF CAUTION. 23

FIRE-BOW FIRE LIGHTING. 24

Introduction 24

FIRE-BOW FIRE LIGHTING. 25

A Brief Overview. 25

The Parts of the Fire-bow. 26

The Bow. 26

The Drill Piece. 27

The Fireboard. 29

The Tinder-board. 30

The Bearing Block. 31

The Bowstring. 32

Tinder. 32

Making Fire. 32

Making Cordage. 37

The Step for making Cordage. 38

AFTERWORD. 40

Fire steel suppliers. 45

About the author. 45

Purchase orders to:http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/KeithBurgess

Or at http://www.lulu.com/shop/keith-burgess/primitive-firelighting/ebook/product-17366659.html

Now Also Available From Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/primitive-firelighting-keith-h-burgess/1113663647?ean=9781447567622

$4.99 US.

Australian Survival and Preppers..: CHANGE OUR AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL GOVERNMENT NOW !!!...

Australian Survival and Preppers..: CHANGE OUR AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL GOVERNMENT NOW !!!...: Now is our chance to change things for Australia. Our government system is no longer working for the average citizen. PLEASE take this opportunity to make a difference and give us the government we all want and deserve. 

https://www.communityrun.org/petitions/change-the-political-system-in-australia

One Blanket Winter Camping.

One Blanket Winter Camping.

It can get very cold here in New England NSW, but there are places where it can get much colder. So be mindful of the areas you camp in when applying my methods to your Historical Treks.

I only carry one wool blanket all year round. Rather than add the bulk & weight of extra blankets or furs, I prefer to rely on the warmth from a reflector fire built close to my open fronted shelter, and the use of extra clothing. In my blanket roll I carry a wool Monmouth cap, a wool waistcoat, and a woolen shirt. At night in winter I make sure that the clothes I have on are not damp from the day’s exertions, and then I put on these extra clothing items on top of the clothing I already wearing.

I also wear a half-blanket as a cape over my shoulders and pinned together at the front. This too is worn on cold nights, and if too warm to wear on the trail, then I simply drape it over my knapsack. Now I am not saying that this method is comfortable, or that it keeps me warm all night. I am simply saying that I can manage to live this way in the bush. I do not expect to be as comfortable as I would be in my bed at home, I am resigned to the fact that this simply is the way it is if I want to carry less weight and less bulk.

The same applies to my bed, which is simply made of sticks. If there is no snow on the ground, then I may collect some dead bracken to lay upon my bed of sticks. This method keeps me up off the cold ground, and allows any flowing water from rain to flow under me and out again. I store dry kindling inside my shelter just in case my fire should go out in the night, and I build up a good supply of firewood at the side of my shelter nearest my head so I can stoke the fire in the night without leaving my blanket. The close fire also allows me to cook food and boil water for hot drinks in rain or snow without having to leave my shelter and get wet.

Take care.

Keith.

Tools for Settlement.

Tools for shelter construction and food production were/are important if you are moving into the wilderness to settle. The more people there are, or the more stock animals there are the more weight you can carry. But let us assume to start off with that your family/group is travelling on foot with only chooks for stock. Let us take a look at the tools that are available, tools that you may need.
Some of these tools you may decide to carry complete with handles so they can double as weapons upon the trail. Others you may wish to remove the handles and just carry the tool heads in your pack. The handles can be made later.

The pruning saw has changed little since the 18th century, except to give this slight curve to the blade. These small saws cut very well.

I made this auger and gimlet from two old bits with no handles. These were used for shelter construction and the making of other wooden items.

A pick is a very useful tool for digging or just breaking up the soil.

A hoe is useful for digging rows and weeding.

The mattock is another excellent digging tool. If you can't dig a hole for a post, then you can dig a trench instead.

A sickle is used for cropping and for collecting reeds for thatch roofing. This tool is light and very useful. The handle on this one is a corn cob.

A larger auger for larger construction work where you need to join timbers with wooden pegs. The wooden handle is easily made in the bush.

This half-axe is much easier to carry than a full size felling axe and I have often carried it tied to my blanket roll.

Two larger tools are the adze and the felling axe. Useful tools if you have the people to carry them.

http://www.gggodwin.com/ProdList.asp?scat=16;

You can manage without a shovel, you can even fashion one out of wood. But if you can put a short handle on a small shovel head it would come in useful for digging post holes. You could even carry just the head and put a long handle on it when you get to where you are going.

If you only have a large shovel head, you can cut it down with a cold chisel.

Images from my Wigwam Camp in The Forest.

Inside fireplace in front of bed.

Bed of rolled bark. This is the inner bark I removed from the bush poles. I can also use this bark to make cordage.

Survival.

Survival.

Now I know for a fact that there are followers of this blog that are “survivalists” and or “preppers”. But this is an 18^th century blog, so although I consider myself to be a survivalist also, it is not a 21^st century issue that I can write about on this blog. However, you have obviously already worked out the link here, so I will continue to let you draw your own comparisons and reading between the lines.

From the word go in the 18^th century new settlers travelling to the new world found themselves in a survival situation; not only did they have to try and find tools and equipment that they would need in the new country, but they had to survive the trip to the New World. Self-defence and defence of their property was an issue, and if anyone became so sick that they could not look after themselves, there was a good chance that they would be thrown overboard to drown.

"I noticed particularly, one family of about 12 in number. The man carried an axe and a gun on his shoulders. The Wife, the rim of a spinning wheel in one hand, and a loaf of bread in the other. Several little boys and girls, each with a bundle, according to their size Two poor horses, each heavily loaded with some poor necessities. On the top of the baggage of one, was an infant rocked to sleep in a kind of wicker cage, lashed securely to the horse. A cow formed one of the company ,and she was destined to bear her proportion of service - a bed cord was wound around her horns and a bag of meal on her back. They were not only patient, but cheerful and pleased with themselves with the expectation of seeing happy days beyond the mountains"
Diary of Presbyterian Rev. David McClure. 18th century.

Once in the New World they may have to trade for or purchase other needed items for their survival. These tools and equipment were very basic but very necessary for their protection and survival beyond civilization. Not only were there dangers on the trail to their homestead, but there was dangers when they reached their destination. Wild animals were the least of their worries compared to the woodland Indians. These natives saw these settlers as invaders of their land, which they were! So they would kill, take prisoners and burn the settler’s homes if they could. The only way the settlers could avoid such a threat was through continuous vigilance and being armed at all times, even when working the land.

Women and children were not only trained in the use of flintlock guns, but they also knew how to mould round ball from moulten lead. The flintlock gun was particularly suited to use in a wilderness situation, far more so than the later percussion guns. The flintlock only required a sharp piece of flint or similar hard rock for the ignition, and this could often be found in the forests and fields. The spent lead could be retrieved from shot game and remoulded into ball or shot for reuse, so gunpowder could be traded for or purchased in larger quantities instead of continuously purchasing lead. This was particularly important when travelling on foot over long distances, as there was less weight in lead to carry. This also meant that the ammunition lasted much longer.

” The principle distinction between us, was in our dialects, our arms and our dress. Each man of the three companies bore a rifle-barreled gun, a tomahawk, or small axe, and a long knife, usually called a 'scalping knife,' which served for all purposes, in the woods”

John Joseph Henry in "An Accurate and Interesting Account of the Hardships and Sufferings of That Band of Heroes, Who Traversed Thru The Wilderness in the Campaign Against Quebec in 1775 "

Knives were very basic items; individuals often owned and carried more than one knife. Butcher knives were a trade item and the favourite of woodsmen and Indians alike. This light but sturdy and often quite large blade was well suited to skinning and butchering game, as well as being a good tool for self-defence. Often a larger butcher knife would be carried in a sheath under the waist belt, plus a smaller version could be carried as a legging knife and a clasp knife carried in a waistcoat pocket. These knives combined with a trade axe, also typically carried under the waist belt along with a flintlock gun and perhaps a matching caliber flintlock pistol were all the arms a woodsman or settler may carry for his/her defence and sustenance.

Foods were fairly plain, consisting typically of corn grown in their own fields plus perhaps beans and pumpkins. These were also known as the three sisters by the Indians, as these three foods were often grown together. Meat was often dried, which was the easiest way to preserve it without the use of salt. Corn or wheat flour for baking bread plus fresh meat hunted in the woods could sustain a family for a very long time. Excess farm produce could be traded for lead, gunpowder, tools, cloth, salt, needles and thread and perhaps some rum or coffee.

  “the squashes or pumpkins are cut in slices, drawn upon a thread , and dried.  They keep all year long, and are then boiled or stewed”. Peter Kalm 1749.

Fires were easily lit using a tinderbox. The term tinderbox not only refers to the actual box itself, but also encompasses the flint, steel & tinder that this box contained. In the city people were used to using charred tow rag or German tinder bought from street criers or from the apothecary shop. But in the wilderness there was a variety of wild plants that could be used to produce tinder, punk wood probably being the most common but also some species of bracket fungus and the fluffy heads of the cattail plant. This was a sustainable fire lighting method that was always available to the woodsman, settler and Indian alike, plus the lock of the flintlock gun could be used to make fire without the use of gunpowder.

Apart from all the basic equipment carried by the new settler into the wilderness the other needed items were tools to work the land and perhaps a spinning wheel. Some farming tools may have been carried with handles and stails attached so they could also be used as weapons for defence. Other tools such as picks and mattocks may have consisted of the heads only; the handles to be made and fitted when they reached their wilderness destination. This made them easier to carry in a sack or a bag.

“I gave orders to them to go home and fetch their arms whether guns, swords, pitchforks, axes or whatsoever might be of use against the enemy and for three days provision in their knapsacks” Letter to Gov. Morris, from Conrad Weiser, Esq. 10/27/1755

Water was a much needed item, and probably the heaviest item these settlers had to carry. It makes sense then that where they could, they would have followed a water course; a river or creek, and to actually settle close to that water supply. Some historians claim that most of the settlers travel was in fact by water, but period accounts of settler travel do not bare this out. Water courses were in some instances too low to accommodate a canoe, let alone a loaded boat. But I daresay where the waters were deep enough, this mode of travel was in deed an option.

So let us recap the situation of the settler in the New World. Having survived the trip to this strange land they were then faced with arduous travel over unknown trails through dark forests in search of land to settle. If they survived this journey they then had to settle the land by clearing trees, building a shelter for their accommodation whilst they worked on constructing a larger and more secure cabin. The cleared land had to be cultivated and planted, as did the garden in which they would grow some vegetables and herbs and perhaps some fruit trees.

Having built the cabin their chances of surviving were increased as this structure gave them much more security than their earlier primitive shelter. With a bar on the heavy timber door and shutters on the windows, the cabin was a veritable fort compared to the makeshift shelter. From inside this cabin they could defend themselves against Indian war parties. Only two things could threaten their security, their vulnerability when working outside, and fire. Wise settlers carried their arms at all times, even when working in the fields, and water was always brought into the cabin early each morning. Even so the whole family had to remain vigilant at all times. A good look round surveying the area around the cabin was paramount before leaving the security of these four walls to perform any chore, especially early in the morning.

The children too had their chores, fetching water, collecting firewood, tending and feeding any livestock, and perhaps checking a small local trap line. Cleaning chores were usually handled by the women and girls of the family, the boys and men worked the fields and hunted for meat. Sometimes the men were more hunter than farmer; such was the case with Daniel Boone. Whilst Boone was away hunting for deer skins, his wife and children run the farm. In the case of the farmer/hunter, the men do most of the farming, but occasionally hunt for meat for the table. Whilst the men are away, the women and children must be especially vigilant for any sign of danger from Indians or white renegades. The men too are in constant danger from Indian attack whilst hunting in the forest. This then is the life of the settler, ever on their guard day and night. Was there time for fun and leisure? Certainly there must have been. After a hard days work when they were relatively safe inside with the door and the shutters barred, especially in winter around a warm fire when the days were so short. Story telling was a great event for adults and children alike; a good time for carving spoons or perhaps shaving an arrow shaft, or making a snare or reading a book.

Living in the wilderness had its compensations for these new settlers. They came searching for freedom, for a place to call their own. Looking back we can see that their occupation of this new land was entirely wrong, it was already home to the native peoples. But then again can we blame them for wanting to leave their impoverished life back in the Old Country in search of freedom in the New?