Being the Best

Whenever I make a video I look around to see what's already out there.  My goal is to always make the best video of its kind.  So, I was filming a how to on making glass arrowheads and it just didn't measure up to some of the stuff out there.  I didn't take the time to get the shots. I wanted to make it the best.  I had all this footage and I didn't want it to go to waste so as I sat there with a half edited video that was getting close to 13 minutes I decided to make it a summary of how this sort of thing goes.  I cut it down to less than half the original time and cut out every moment of blah footage.  I was ruthless!  I ended up with the below video so you can kind of get an idea of where to get the material, what the tools look like, and the different stages of making the point.  Anyway, I liked how it turned out and of course I will make a more in depth video on this process that will be the best!  Thanks for watching folks!

A Recent "Click"

The way I learn has clicks involved.  It's weird and it's always been this way.  What I mean by click is a moment in time when I spontaneously understand something and become proficient and comfortable doing it.  This recent click was with flint knapping.

This is stone age stuff.  Making weapons with sticks and stones and bones.  Clicks usually are caused by something minor but important happening.  In this case it was the way I was flaking.  Basically I wasn't putting in the time to build a platform by abrading before I tried to take a flake off.  Once I did this I greatly improved.  At that moment I realized the results were immensely improved.  So here are a few points and a few blurbs about them.

This is a novaculite point.  The red and gray isn't all that typical and I attribute that to why I went so slow and careful with this one.  This was also one of the first times I had notched a point like this.

I took this little piece of obsidian and worked with it some and this made a right sharp little point.  It's a little stout but the rock it came from wouldn't allow for a longer point.

This is a spear or atlatl point that I made.  It is by far the biggest point I've ever made and the only reason I attempted it was because I figured if I broke it there would be enough material to make an arrowhead left.

This is a small obsidian point.  I broke ears off a couple times accidentally but that's fine. It just has a nice long base for mounting to an arrow.  I gave this one to my cousin cause she thought it was pretty.

I visited an old nemesis with this point.  Glass bottle bottoms make beautiful points but before I had such a hard time dealing with the curve of the glass.  On this one it was like I had been doing this for years.  It just came naturally to me and I made this point to go on an arrow for a friend.

I was so happy with the previous bottle bottom that I grabbed a larger bottle and made another point to make sure it wasn't a fluke.  I guess it wasn't.  I made this one this morning and I tried to go a little quicker and it still took over an hour but I ended up with this point which I am pleased with.  I'll give this away as I don't plan to mount it to a hunting arrow.

Hunting

Having a successful primitive hunt is what I'm after.  The bows and arrows I've made are capable of taking game and they're made with natural materials.  The same materials our primitive ancestors had access to.  You'll realize quick how smart and athletic primitive man was as they only answered to the law of nature.  They were tough as nails and if they weren't they died.  Life was on the line every single day for these people.

Last week I went up to Georgia to learn to hunt.  The idea was just to get out in the woods and practice some ground hunting techniques and see how it went.  Hunting didn't go that well to be honest.  I got some squirrels in to about 5 yards but I was after pigs.  I saw one pig and several deer but the moment I saw them they saw me as well and that doesn't really do me any good.  I learned a lot about the nature of hunting though and that is important.  I came away with a lot of questions too and I have a good friend who hunts like this so I berated him with questions.  It's good to have good friends.

Between the morning and evening hunts I worked on some archery stuff and had a pretty good time with that.  Make sure to check out the next blog to hear a little more about that.

Instincts

I think there are two kind of instincts.  The kind we're born with and the kind that must be built.  An example natural instinct would be to avoid something that smells bad and built instinct would be that of an athlete that can't help but chase after a ball.  Instinct also couples well with an understanding of whatever it is you're using your instinct on.  

The oaks in the yard are dropping acorns like crazy.  I went out and gathered some with the goal being to leach the tannin out and use it as a stain.  Well, then I figured I might as well process the acorns and get the calories out of them.  This is something I had never done before but it seemed simple enough.  I'd read a little bit about it but nothing too extensive.  I went for it.  I boiled the acorns until the water was just real dark and milky brown then I transferred the acorns into clean boiling water until that water turned the same color as before.  At this point a lot of water had boiled out of the both pots so I poured the second pot into the first pot and refilled the second pot and got that water boiling again.  Anyway, I boiled the acorns three times in clean water until the water was really dark and milky.  This was all loosely based off of some stuff I had read.  

The next part is where instinct kicked in.  This was natural instinct and it came in when I had to shell all the acorns.  I'd never really shelled many acorns but just started going at them like a squirrel does.  Split it with your teeth then tear it open to reveal the nutty core.  It was funny how the method just developed on it's own naturally and how I go so proficient at it.  I sat by an open fire and shelled away until they were all done.  Maybe the fire helped keep me focused.  After you finish shelling them then you mash them all together and it's ready to bake.

Now when I figure out the primitive method of all of this I'd definitely make a video on it as it is of great interest to me to follow in our ancestors' footsteps and retrace to see and feel what their lives were like.



Late night stream of consciousness....

The Good Stuff (stream of consciousness)

It's all around us.  Sometimes it smacks us in the face but more often than not the good stuff is very subtle and we hardly notice it unless we pick up on the subtlety and focus on it.  It's different for all of us and for me it almost always pertains to nature in some way.  Today I was burning off an old wood pile and it was mostly oak but there was some cedar in there and when I threw it on the fire that sweet smoke wafted here and there thrown by the wind and I got a big whiff of it in my face.  Memories came back to me of the last time I burnt cedar.  It was way the heck in the middle of nowhere last Summer back in the woods with a good friend.  That trip into the woods was pretty miserable but it was also a ton of fun.  After a night sleeping in the woods you start to get a wilderness high.  That's when friendships are formed and I made a good friend on that trip.  It's a blessing how an odor can bring back such good memories.  The mind is an amazing thing!

Season Finale on AnimalBytesTV

Well, this last Friday was the season finale of Primitive Tim on AnimalBytesTV.  It's kind of nice to have the first season done with and I can take a minute to focus on other projects that I've been neglecting.  Anyway, so I talked to Brian (the dude that heads up ABTV) the other day and he said some interesting things that I'm really excited about.  Basically most of the hosts now do pretty similar things in their shows; presenting animals and telling a little bit about them.  So for this next season it's going to be more of a backwoods nature show where I take y'all along on some adventures into the backwoods of the southeast.  There will likely still be some animal presenting and handling but what I really want to focus on is giving the viewers an idea of how to go on extended excursions into the wilderness.  For the most part these will be multi-day excursions and most of them will be done solo.  I'll show what kind of stuff is important to bring and how to pack light and still be fairly comfortable.  

I'm starting to plan trips and think through all the details of the trips and it's getting really exciting.  I'm planning to do some really big routes through the middle of nowhere, mostly via kayak.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed my season finale so until next time find a new way to appreciate nature!