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From an email dated July 12, 2007
Dear Mike,
Thank you so much for, once again, providing us with phenomenal programming. Mal Stephens was a wonderful instructor. Our NOVA leaders gained much from the wisdom and experience he had to share. We look forward to having guest instructors at the two upcoming Primitive Skills NOVA trips.
May this be the beginning of a continued partnership between our schools!
In peace always,
Nicole Caruso
Director of Adventure Experiences
Unity College
Unity, Maine
From an email dated April 23, 2007
Hey Mal,
I wanted to thank you and the MPSS crew for a great workshop. Having
participated in a friction fire course last fall and now with
MPSS, I found this past weekend's course structure and instruction very
professional. This is obviously evidenced by the level of success
demonstated by each of the participants. And of course, none can ever
argue with a sunny, dry day! Thanks again.
Deneen
From Living in Place blog posted October 4, 2006
This weekend I attended a class at the Maine Primitive Skills School. The three day experience taught me a lot about my current skill level and the importance of practice. The agenda was simple -- what does it take to survive in the wilderness without the fancy trappings of modern civilization?
Friday night, the class was kicked off with a version of the thanksgiving address, told by Mike Douglas, the director of the school. Then we introduced ourselves and went over the Order of Survival: Attitude, Shelter, Water, Fire, Food. We ended the first night with a string stalk. The activity consisted of fox walking barefoot through wet woods with a blindfold on and only a string tied to trees guiding the way. It was a great exercise in trusting oneself and the land.
After going over awareness exercises on Saturday morning, everyone in the class pitched in to construct a debris hut. The amount of leaf litter needed to build an adequate structure was astonishing. It took eight of us working for nearly three hours to build it, with the help of plastic rakes and a tarp. It was a lesson in endurance.
Later, we went over water collection and disinfection methods, which boiled down to this: boil practically any water that you find in a survival situation. Fire making was next. We learned about the most practical primitive method for our environment, the bow drill. Each student was given a cedar bow drill set to practice with, though only half of the group was able to get a coal within the hour (myself not included). I need to practice this skill if I plan to have fire without matches.
Saturday night we had a collective meal cooked on a campfire. Sausages browned on flat rocks, cattail biscuits baked over the coals, smelt cooked in clay from the Kennebec River, comfrey leaves boiled in a burned out stump filled with hot rocks, and a bison and black bean chili. After our grand meal, we spent some time making cordage out of foraged milkweed stalks.
Sunday Lou Falank showed us how to use throwing sticks, and Mal Stephens demonstrated a few snares and traps that could be used in survival situations to kill small mammals. Lastly, Arthur Haines taught us a bit about foraging. We identified cattail, autumn olive, hog-peanut, oak and pine trees, plantain, wild carrot and even got to sample a few of them. I look forward to learning more at a foraging class in 2007. Not only do I have a passion for plants (and eating!), but Arthur seems like a great guide to the world of useful plants.
I was very impressed with the class. We ended in a similar way as we started, with Mike sharing a version of the thanksgiving address with us. Mike's commitment to mentoring was evident and frankly, he is fun to spend time with. I found myself laughing, learning, and longing for more time spent practicing primitive skills in the north woods of Maine.
This is a letter written to us by Nicole from New Jersey
Dear Mal, Mike, Lou and Nick,
I wanted to thank you for a very informative and fun weekend. I was a little nervous at first when my boyfriend said he wanted to go on a survival weekend in Maine. I reluctantly agreed and am very glad that I did. I was surprised to learn how much I don’t know about the great outdoors. I have been camping before and thought I would be able to handle myself if I needed to. How wrong I was.
Thanks to a weekend with you I will never take matches and lighters for granted again. Anytime I go anywhere I now look at the lawns and trees differently. I look at them and no longer see weeds or shade but plants that will be able to help me make cord and provide nutrition and shelter.
I am now recommending Earth Living to my friends. It is just a wonderful weekend spent getting closer to nature and making one think about our surroundings. I am looking forward to coming back next year for another class.
Kind regards,
Nicole
From a letter written to us by Chris from Maine
MPSS rocks, this is the real deal, no bullshit here. I learned more in the few hours I spent with you and your staff than in the last ten books I read. Earth Living 1 is a true tutorial on how to make it in the wilds. However I find myself with answers to questions, but with a whole set of new questions, due to new ideas I had not previously been exposed to. Thanks, this is a good thing, the intuitive mind is never content, but searches for life's truths.
Your Friend,
Christopher
The following is a post on KNIFEFORUMS.COM.
KNIFEFORUMS.COM
Location: Main Index » Forum Index » The Great Outdoors » Outdoor Survival Forum » Winter Survival Skills Class Review Feb. 10-12, 2006
Username Post: Winter Survival Skills Class Review Feb. 10-12, 2006 (Topic#761412)
Estela216
Master Member KnifeNut!
Posts: 462
Age: 25
Loc: Bristol, CT
02-17-06 11:46 AM - Post#864383
I took the Winter Survival Skills course with the Maine Primitive Skills School in Augusta, Maine this past weekend of February 10-12th. I was very pleased with the instruction and coming from a teacher, my recommendation should carry with it some weight. By the way, pictures will follow once they are sent to me.
The class began on Friday around 7 p.m. and arriving around 6:45 p.m. I had time to drop my gear off in the "dorm" and sit around the workshop talking to the guys in the class. When all showed except for one (Armand literally walked 40 miles to attend the class. He started at 12 noon and arrived around 11 at night), we did our introductions. Afterwards, Mike Douglas, the director started off by explaining the Iroquois "words before all else" which provided respect for all of our surroundings. Our surroundings would allow us to survive the elements and it was proper to pay respect to them. We discussed what we would do this weekend and how we would do it. We looked at the necessary requirements of shelter in the Maine woods and the three types able to be made. I found it particularly interesting to hear how Arthur Haines, an instructor and a very experienced and well-recognized expert in botany, would have a hard time surviving in the winter in Maine if he had to live on plants alone because edible plants are not as abundant as we would like them to be. This was a humbling statement for all of the students with little or no knowledge of what is edible and what is not. The idea of Maine as a desert landscape in the winter was brought up several times and this was no further from the truth.
We recessed and slept for the night in the "dorm" which is a room with cots and walls covered in posters featuring local flora and fauna as well as poisonous snakes and so forth. After the long drive, it didn't take long for this guy to pass right out. I slept like a rock and as you'll hear later, probably was snoring away.
When we woke, we used the wood stove to cook our breakfast. After breakfast, we received instruction on the arctic lean-to in the "class room." Our first full day outside started off with the construction of this arctic lean-to. I would end up sleeping in this lean-to and it was sufficiently warm with a fire. Our group of 8 or so worked for an hour and a half to construct it and had it been one person, the shelter would have taken close to 8 hours to build. We used folding saws that were wicked fast and allowed us to cut the trees to size. It was not long before our work paid off and our effort became noticeable. In the end, the shelter was very substantial and the bed comfortable.
We then worked on a winter debris hut before breaking for lunch. Nick Spadaro, one of the students, would sleep in this hut and I felt bad for him. I'm not claustrophobic but this shelter was tight! A tight shelter will save your life though since it is more efficient warming the air around you. We cut swamp grass from across the street and this is where my Fehrman Extreme Judgment really shined. 9.5" of beautiful recurve sliced right through this fantastic insulation. The shelter was stuffed with it and it became even tighter. I'm glad I didn't sleep in this one.
We broke for lunch and after lunch we received a lecture on how many calories you must consume to stay alive. Lets just put it this way, for me to survive, I'd be eating over 4200 calories to continue strenuous activity in the winter. The idea of drinking a lot of water was also reinforced. We were told to shed layers to prevent sweating and we were offered other preventative measures to ward off dehydration. We then worked on our snare and deadfall making skills. We used mainly the Piute trigger on our snares and it worked great. We didn't snare anything due to hunting/trapping regulations but I have no doubt they would have worked. We learned new ways to set up spring arm snares and snares with counter-weights. All in all, a really cool afternoon setting up devices that could bring yours truly some din din. After the snare making class, we watched a PowerPoint presentation in the classroom by Arthur Haines. This guy really knows his stuff. He pointed out common plants we should become aware of and then before we knew it, it was dinner.
We all ate well this night and there were going to be three of us to sleep outdoors. I know I ate like a mule and loaded up on calories since I would be under the stars. One student would be in the snow debris hut, one in the Mandan and me in the arctic lean-to. Before we could react, Mike charged us with the responsibility of getting a fire going for the lean-to but it had to be prepared in under 5 minutes and we could only use one match. We got it done and my resting place was nice and warm, almost too hot!
Around 9:30 pm, everyone went their respective ways and I was left at the lean-to. This night under the stars was one of the most amazing experiences in the woods I've had. Other than Nick sneaking up on me (that was funny!) while I was snoring away and scaring the crap out of me when a random guy was standing next to my fire, I had a peaceful but methodical night. I didn't get much sleep since I had to constantly stoke the fire but it was a good experience. Apparently it dropped to only 3 degrees that night but with the fire and a wool blanket it felt much warmer. Unfortunately, the firewood ran out around 4 am and I jumped into my sleeping bag I brought along in case of an emergency.
Our last day was a mixture of ice fishing "how to" and bow drill creation. Isaac and Ira taught us the basics of primitive ice fishing in the classroom and how to tie a gill net. We then moved onto fire by friction and were told to make a bow set off the land but try and do it primitive. We paired up and used flat rocks to sharpen the spindles and sharp rocks to carve the sockets. For cordage, we were given dogbane that had been debarked and treated and was incredibly strong but not that abrasion resistant. Some students got coals and others did not. After breaking the cordage, I grew a bit impatient, broke out my Bark River Northstar and started carving what I call "my ultimate bow drill set." That little knife is one hell of a carver and it made short work of Fir and Ash wood.
The snow started falling and we were about to leave but not before Mike had us pay respect again to the woods around us. It was a fitting end to a great weekend and I had no problem thanking my surroundings for providing me so much satisfaction and fun.
I could type on and on about the weekend but I don't like to procrastinate that much. My only advice is to check out the school and take a class. They are great instructors, friendly and a lot of fun. Their site is www.primitiveskills.com
Hope you enjoyed this report, PT or E-mail me if you have any questions.
Kev
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