Outdoor Living Skills

Axe & Knife:

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• Parts of the axe
• Parts of the knife
• Sharpening an axe
• Sharpening a knife
• Making a chopping block
• Sawing billets
• Swinging the axe
• Carving with a knife
• Passing an axe
• Passing a knife
• Axe safety
• Knife safety
• Walking with an axe
• Chopping without a chopping block
• Contact splitting
• Knife splitting
• Making shavings with a knife
• Making a fuzz stick
• Fire building
• Where to put a fire
• Where not to put a fire
• Laying a fire
• Using a backlog
• Fire from a billet
• Wet day fire
• Log cabin fire
• Tee-pee fire
• Putting out a fire properly
• Fire buckets
• Fire danger levels
• Fire permits

Knots:

• Square knot
• Bowline
• Taught line hitch
• Half hitch
• Full hitch
• Slip knot
• Clove hitch
• Secure clove hitch
• Butterfly loop
• Lashing poles together
• The difference between a line and rope
• Sheep shank
• Carrick bend (pretzel knot)
• Where does a line break
• Preparing the ends of nylon rope
• Secured bow knot

Shelters and Tarps:

• Shelter/tarp location
• Running a ridge line
• Different tarp shapes
• Using trenches for rain - LNT opinions
• Ground clothes
• Sleeping strategy for sloping ground
• Wind direction
• Latrine location vs. shelter location
• Use of the taught line hitch
• Tripping over ropes
• Ridge poles
• Making wooden stakes

Tree Identification:

• Hard wood vs. softwood for fires
• Deciduous vs. conifers
• Maple
• Sugar maple
• White birch
• Grey birch
• Yellow birch
• White oak
• Red oak
• Ash
• Striped maple
• Beach
• White pine
• Red pine
• Pitch pine
• Balsam fir
• Hemlock
• White spruce
• Black spruce
• Tamarack

Map and Compass:

• What is a compass
• N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, NNE ENE, NNW, WNW, SSE, ESE, SSW, WSW
• Degrees of a circle
• Point of a compass
• Magnetic north
• Declination
• True north
• Orienting a map "true"? "magnetic"? (loaded conversations on this!)
• Topographical maps
• Identifying symbols
  • Roads
  • Dirt roads
  • Trails
  • Streams
  • Rivers
  • Swamps
  • Man made structures
  • Towns
  • County/State lines
  • Lakes
  • Surface level vs. depth
  • Mountains and peak elevations
  • Contour lines and elevations
• Distances
• Map scale
• GPS
• Using an altimeter
• Triangulation

Cooking and Cleanup:

• A "fry" fire vs. a "bake" fire
• Reflector baking
• Baked in the coals
• Doing the dishes
• Cooking on backpacking trips
• Good sanitary practices

Campsites:

• Choosing a campsite
• Parts of a campsite
• Laying out a campsite
• Access to water
• Shelter from the wind
• Strategy for leaving campsite
• Digging a latrine
• Location of the latrine

Lanterns and Cookstoves:

• Coleman lanterns
• Coleman stoves
• Propane vs. Coleman fuel
• Hiking stoves

Sound Environmental Practices:

• Carry-in carry-out
• LNT (Leave No Trace…a huge and important strategy!)
• Access to water
• Special rules for the Allagash
• Purifying drinking water
• Springs
• Dug wells

Safety:

• Campsite safety
• Fires
• Fires and wind
• Chopping area
• Pots and pans
• Stoves and lanterns
• First Aid kit and contents
• Lightning