Goodbye, WISE 2015

Just like everything else in senior year, WISE must come to an end. And just like everything else, its ending is surrounded by a mixture of emotions.

I am relieved. I've made it through my WISE project, my AP final projects and all the other stress of senior year. 

I am unresolved. Up until now, my project felt never ending, like 10 years from now I would still be sitting at my computer, researching survival. And I'd like to think that someday I will delve back into survival, and go on some bad-ass adventures. (I definitely won't be blogging about it though, that's the one thing I won't miss).

I am excited. To show what I've done during my WISE presentation, to graduate and to start the next chapter of my life. 

I am satisfied. With what I have accomplished for my WISE project and with every other aspect of high school.

I am sad. To say good bye, to leave behind this chapter of my life. 

Goodbye, WISE and Goodbye, IHS

Presentation Thoughts

Now that we've got our location set in stone, it's time to think more about the logistics and details of our presentation. Personally, I think there should be three different components.

1. Skills- During this part we will build a fire and demonstrate how we cooked most of our food in the woods. We will give samples to our audience. 
2. Documentary- The documentary is kind of a hidden, yet extremely important part of our project. In order to give it the attention it deserves, we will hopefully be able to show spinets of it. The only problem with this is figuring out how to do so since we will be outside. My problem solving idea for this is to set up a projector inside the pavilion, where it should be dark enough to see. There is electricity there so that shouldn't be a problem, We just need to see where we can get a projector and what we will project it on... Time to do some research!
3. Project Talk- During this portion, we will do much of the typical "what we did to prepare" and "how we've grown over the course of the project" type of stuff. We will definitely delve into our stays and talk about the challenges we overcame. 

Hopefully this Saturday Ellie and I are going to go to the Ellis Hollow Community Center and get our bearings. This will help give us an idea of what we need to do to prepare and hopefully solve some of our unanswered questions. 

Presentation Location!!

For a while now, I have known that I didn't want to have the typical classroom setting presentation for my project. Since my project is so outdoorsy and hands on, I thought it should be outside so that we could showcase some of the skills that we learned. In particular, we thought it would be interesting to build a fire, since this was such a crucial part of our survival stays. The problem surrounding this idea was that there are very few places that permit open fire, not too far from downtown and that are accessible. The best place I thought of was the Ellis Hollow Community Center, located about 10 minutes from downtown in Ellis Hollow.

On Wednesday I emailed the Ellis Hollow Community Center board describing our project and asking permission to use their grounds for our presentation. They got back to me today and were extremely kind in reserving the grounds for us on this day after 12:00PM. This will give us more than enough time to set up for our ~3:00PM Presentation. I am SO happy to finally have our location figured out, so much stress has been taken off my shoulders. 

April's WISE Presentation

Today my friend April gave the sample WISE presentation on her TV show, "Living with White Rice." I thought her presentation was absolutely phenomenal and it showcased all of the hard work she has put in over the last few months. I thought that the way she presented her work, in a timeline of sorts, was well fit to her project. To write and produce a screenplay requires so many different steps, which I think constitutes it as a journey. The first thing that comes to my mind when documenting a journey is a timeline, so I liked this aspect of her presentation a lot. 

Although I thought her chronological presentation was fantastic for her project, I definitely don't think that it would work well for every project. I considered it for mine, for example, and I think it would be terribly boring. I think for my project, I am going to spend much less time talking about what went into the project, like April did, and more of what I got out of the project. I think our hands on fire building component will definitely achieve this. 

All in all, I think April's presentation made me realize how different mine is going to be. She has set the bar high in several respects, and I honestly doubt that my project will be quite as clean as hers. Despite this, to me the most important aspect of my project is making it my own. I'm excited!.. And terrified.

'Uses of Stones'

Last night I continued reading from "Stones: Their Collection, Identification and Uses," by R.V. Dietrich. And although it was quite boring, I managed to skim through the entire 'Uses of Stones' section.

• Weights- More commonly used in the past as weights, but also used in modern day situations for on-the-spot temporary needs, or to satisfy aesthetic desire.
• Sports- Hopscotch, bocce, curling, tests of strength,
• Health (both in form of mineral and stone)- smooth stones are collected and sold as tranquilizers for "thumb therapy" 
• Rituals
• Tools and Construction

I'll be completely honest, this book bores me 100% of the time. When I first saw it on the bookshelf I thought "I had no idea there was enough interesting stuff to write a book about the collection, identification and uses of stones, cool!" Now, after reading (mostly skimming) half of it, I realize that there really is not. The main ideas of this section of the book I easily could have inferred on my own, and the supporting details just aren't that interesting. I think I am official giving up on reading this, and will now focus on my field guide more.

Summer

Earlier, Ellie and I were talking about how sad we are that our project is coming to an end. I feel that over the course of the project we have grown closer as friends, which after all these years means a lot to me. We were also discussing the possibility of continuing our project in a low key way over the summer. Possibly going back to the Adirondacks and camping, or going on an adventure in some new place. My dream is to walk part of the Appalachian trail, and I hope to do that for a week or so this summer, if I have the means to do so. I am excited thinking about all of the possibilities for future trips!

Mentor Meeting 5/18

Today I met with Mr. Morales to discuss my survival trip to the Adirondacks. I showed him some of the footage we got and talked about the things that went well or poorly. We then discussed what I am going to do for the next weeks in order to further my project and prepare for the presentation. The main things we decided I should do is:

-Organize a visit to a local girl scout troop to build a fire and teach fire safety

-Further macro & micro information, in particular, plant identification

-Find a location for our presentation

Adirondacks Day #3

Last night I got the best sleep I've gotten in a long time. The soft sound of peepers and wind blowing through the trees lulled me to sleep and, for the first time on these trips, the temperature remained above 45° all night, keeping me toasty and fast asleep. Ellie and I slept for nearly 12 hours and only woke up at 9:30 because a bird had flown into a tree directly above our shelter and was making a ton of noise.

One of the fishing rigs we built last night got a bite, but the fish got away and we were instead left with an extremely tangled line, oh well. We spent a large part of the morning building a fire and purifying water. We had a large pot of oatmeal with craisins, raisins and almonds for brunch, which was quite tasty.

We spent almost the rest of our day in the middle of the lake in our kayaks because the flies don't bother us as much out there. For a late lunch/early dinner we built another fire and cooked baked potatos in it's coals, which turned out quite well. 

Now we are going to try to pack some of our stuff up to get ready for tomorrow's early departure. So long!

Adirondacks Day #2

7:00PM

Last night was cold, approximately 30°F and our shelter was definitely not as weather proofed as our last one. It was also hard to fall asleep due to coyotes howling close to our site. Despite this, we ended up sleeping decently well and woke up at around 8:00.

First thing, we grabbed out kayaks and headed to go out fishing. We hardly shoved off when Ellie's kayak flipped and dumped her head first into the water. It was only 41°F at this point, so we decided to stay in a while and get a fire going so she could dry off. For breakfast we had some "Johnny cakes" (cornmeal and water) with some craisins and raisins. They were... interesting, but we were fairly hungry so we ate them happily. 

After breakfast, we packed up our fishing gear and a deck of cards and headed to the Green Pond portage (where the coyotes were last night). We spent most of the day there, talking, playing cards and fishing from our kayaks. We got a few bites, but they all got away. There was a Bald Eagle soaring about 50 meters above our heads, what a great day to be an American! At one point it swooped down and attacked a loon, hell yeah, 'merica! (Haha)

At about 3:30 we came back to our site (Ellie flipped her kayak again) and we ate a late lunch of craisins, an ear of corn and some nuts. Then we decided to take advantage of the last sun of the day and catch a quick "bath". It was quite cold, but also refreshing. 

For dinner, we ate some carrots, potatoes and onions. We then set up a fishing rig so we can fish during the night.   We've got another fire blazing and plan to spend our evening playing cards and watching the rig.

Until next time! 

A selfie from our "bath", Ellie's looking distressed. 

Adirondacks Day #1

Today we woke up at 7:45 and were on the road by 9:00. It was a short 10 minute drive to the boat launch, and at about 9:30 we were in our kayaks and on our way. Through a combination of portaging and kayaking, we traveled about 2 miles into a series of Adirondack lakes and decided Little Long Pond as our final destination.

We discovered that we were only allowed to stay at the designated camp sites, so our picking was more select then preferred. We ended up deciding on a waterfront, isolated, southwest site. 

Unlike back in Ellie's woods, there were much fewer resources for our shelter here. A lot of the wood on the ground was either rotten or too weak to use for our shelter and other than pine needles (which fall through a shelter frame) there wasn't much debris at our disposal. To utilize our materials the best we could, we made a latice frame out of wood, layered in pine boughs and topped it off with large pieces of bark. Due to exhaustion, we ended up leaving the front of the shelter entirely open. Compared to our last shelter, this one was quite minimal, however, we figured that since it is going to be warmer and drier, we will be perfectly fine. Despite being a less insulated and partially finished shelter, it took the same amount of time as the last one, because materials were more scarce. 

Below are pictures of our shelter:

The unfinished front

Back of shelter

Woods facing side of shelter

Adirondacks Day 0

Today we left Ithaca at around 4:00 and set out to the Adirondacks for our second survival simulation. For this trip, we packed similarly to last time, but due to predicted better weather, we didn't bring a tarp. We are additionally bringing kayaks (for transportation to our site), and fishing gear. On the way out of town today, we stopped at Dick's to get our fishing licenses.

Tonight, we will be staying at a cottage that belongs to Ellie's dad's friend and then we will head into the woods early tomorrow. Ellie and I are both extremely excited!

Until next time!

IC JE 5/11

My blog is lacking a great deal of depth. I think from my blog a reader would definitely not see 8 hours per week because I am an inconsistent blogger. There are spurts where I blog more, and spots where I didn't blog for a week. I think this itself is characteristic of my project because there is a lot more interesting hands on around the trips and more research oriented stuff in between which isn't as "bloggable". I think I document well my wilderness stays and buildup the week preceding them. I think in order to improve communication I need to be more consistent with my blogging, doing it directly after I do somethig notable. I think a good way to do this would be to include reflection and research. Maybe also a foreshadowing entry for the next trip as well.

Packing List - Adirondacks

Food:

• Cornmeal
• Oats
• Cashews & Almonds
• 4 Ears of Corn
• Craisins & Rasins

Clothes:

• Shorts x2
• Pants x2
• Long sleeve shirt x1
• Sweatshirt
• Rain Coat
• Socks x5
• Undergarments x4
• Baseball hat
• Cold weather hat
• Sneakers

Other:

• Swiss Army Knife
• Pot 
• Mess Kit
• Twine
• Fork
• Sleeping Bag
• Dry Sacks
• Camera Gear
• Life jacket
• Fishing Gear

Looking at all of this written out, I was terrified thinking of how I was going to fit all of this in a reasonably sized load that would fit in the Kayak. After packing however, I was surprised to only have one medium sized backpack, a dry sack with my sleeping bag and a camera bag.  

Mentor Meeting 5/8

Today I met for 45 minutes with Señor Morales and we had a productive talk. I showed him Ellie and my's newly released trailer for our documentary. He thought it was well done and encompassed many impressive characteristics of our survival stay.

We then discussed the logistics of my final presentation. We both agreed that some level of outside hands on is required, given that my project is almost entirely hands on. We discussed possible ways of doing this, and decided that building a fire would be the most impressive way. The only problem with this is that we will need to find a location that is central (close to downtown) that will allow us to build a fire on the property and where we can also show part of our documentary. After our survival trip next week, I will begin looking into options for this. 

Poisonous Plants

Toxicodendron Vernix (Poison Sumac): A woody shrub or small tree growing to 30 feet tall. The plant contains a resin called urushiol that irritates skin and mucous membrane . When irritated, inhalation of the smoke may cause the rash to appear on the lining of the lungs. This causes extreme pain and possibly fatal respiratory difficulty.
Toxicodendron diversilobum (Poison Oak): A woody vine or shrub that is widely distributed in western North America. It causes itching and allergic rashes in many humans, after contact by touch or smoke inhalation.
Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy): A poisonous North American and Asian flowering plant that causes itching, irritating and sometimes painful rash when touched. The rash is caused by urushiol in the sap of the plant, used to help the plant retain water.

Scheduling

Today Ellie and I met 7th period to talk about project logistics and dates. Below is a tentative schedule for the next few weeks for our hands on survival.

5/1- Survival Practice (survival skill focus: fishing)

5/6- Survival Practice (survival skill focus: plant recognition) 

5/7- Survival Practice (survival skill focus: plant recognition)

5/12- Shop and Pack for trip

5/13- Depart for/arrive in the Adirondacks 

5/14-5/17- Second survival trip

Documentary Trailer Work

Last week, Ellie began editing and combining clips from our first stay into a trailer for our documentary. This morning after crew practice I went with Ellie to Mr. Cass's room to help edit. This was actually my first time editing, and it was so much fun. I loved seeing the different components of videos all broken up into sections that could be moved around and changed. It also made me realize how much work is put into all film in order to create something that flows well and in the most interesting way possible. I think the project as a whole will be more fulfilling to me if I pay more attention to the raw footage that is condensed into the documentary.

In class 4/27 "Happiness Revisited"

1) When do you feel most happy?

I feel most happy when I am well rested, doing what I enjoy and surrounded by people I care about. I find this frequently happening on weekends, when I am given free time and a chance to sleep in, at crew or hockey, or when I am simlply just talking with a group of teammates or friends.

2) React/Respond to article.

One concept that I found interesting was that we don't understand what happiness is anymore today than we did hundreds of years ago. That despite many modern conveniences, just as many people will end their lives feeling unaccomplished. I also enjoyed his thoughts that "the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." Although I believe that these moments are often the best, I don't think these are the end all, happiest moments of our lives. I also think that we have the ability to be happy without using effort.

Flash of the Past: A Trip to Terra Island

Yesterday afternoon Ellie and I thought it would fun to go back into Ellie's woods and look at our old "civilization." We walked back what used to seem like such a long distance to the clearing in the woods known as "Terra Island" derived from Terabithia. Here we were surprised to see many of our structures still standing and we were filled with sentiments of the past. We walked down the old "Mall", (which was what we called the main passage through the civilization) and looked closely at our different forts. Thorns and weeds have overgrown the insides of them a considerable amount, and several boards/sticks have fallen down. It barely looked like a group of buildings, but as a child, it was nothing short of a town.

It was interesting to see what types of structures our ten-year-old selves thought of, compared to what we built on our survival stay. Most of them were nothing but a few sticks, marking off small plots of land. There were very few roofs, and the siding was quite lackluster. The shelters would provide no protection from precipitation and wouldn't conserve warmth at all. The reason for the lacking qualities of these structures compared to our shelter is that we made these with no drive for survival. We knew that if needed the house was a 5 minute walk away so there was no reason to build something so extensive that we could live in it.

"The Art of Manliness"

Today while researching a bit about fire building, I stumbled upon a very informative and interesting webpage, "The Art of Manliness." Here I found several articles that are applicable to my macro research interests. Things that I knew we probably wouldn't have time to try, but that I still enjoyed reading about them with the possibility of pursuing them in the future. One of the articles I read, '9 Ways to Start a Fire Without Matches,' included several obscure methods that I would've never thought of. My favorite was; filling a condom with water and using it to reflect the light of the sun.

Despite all of the cool things I learned, I thought the website was a bummer because of it's name. "The Art of Manliness" is pretty self explanatory for who it was meant to attract and because of the masculinity of it, it seems to exclude the entire female race. It makes me feel as if I didn't quite belong on the website, and that I was somehow being manly by reading it. I personally don't see myself as a manly girl at all, but rather, as a girl who enjoys adventure and ruggedness which is, unfortunately, stereotyped as a man's role. And just because I also like to wear dresses, doesn't mean that I can't fit into this category as well.

In Class 4/20

This podcast is about Brian Grazer who "produced more than 30 movies and 20 television series, and could retire to the golf course tomorrow if he wanted." Instead of doing this, he makes everything in his life difficult because he wants to challenge himself. To do this, he surfs in extremely difficult conditions and meets with several people to talk and expand his horizons.

For my project, I have gone outside my comfort zone in several ways. One thing that was out of my comfort zone was the interview process. Having to call the office and talking to somone who is highly skilled in the field of survival was very intimidating for me. I also consider my project in general to be outside my comfort zone because the survival trips involve no modern commodities including technology.

My favorite quote from the podcast:

"If you're not growing, you're dying"

-Brian Grazer 

"Stones: Their Collection, Identification and Uses" by R.V. Dietrich

I In order to further my micro and macro research for my project, today I began reading the book "Stones: Their Collection, Identification and Uses" by R.V. Dietrich.

Using a combination of skimming and reading, I conquered a large part of the section 'Places Where Stones May Be Found' 

• Rock to stone transition: Weathering- physical and chemical processes that take place as a result of exposure to the elements. Disintegration- loosening and breaking up or large fragments into o smaller ones without changing the chemical composition. Decomposition- involves chemical activities. 
• The size and shape of a stone is due to transport. The cycle of a rock breaking down is as follows;
1. Breaks off the parent bedrock
2. Makes it's way to the stream via gravity or other external forces
3. Transport along stream or by glacier
4. Deposition in a location that is far from start.Over 
• Abrasion, attrition and solution.
• Abrasion- mechanical wearing down produced as the result of friction or impact.
• Attrition-reduction of the tools of abrasion caused by impact breakage
• Solution- chemical dissolving of a substance by a fluid

In Class 4/13

Reflect on your project practicing - what are you doing well? What could you do to improve your practicing? 

While in the woods, all we did was practice. Every day we would go through the same required tasks; collecting our wood, starting our fire, cooking our beans, collecting and purifying our water, cleaning our dishes and preparing our shelter for the night. At first, all of these things were new and difficult, however, we did every task so often that by the end we were able to do them all with ease.

Reflection on the article "Need Motivation..." AND your motivation-- what keeps you going? Record a passage from that has a suggestion that you would consider. 

The thing that keeps me most motivated is my fear of failing. Although I do slack off sometimes, I always come through in the end because I'd rather put in the effort and succeed than waste my time and fail. A passage that stood out to me in the article by Phyllis Korkki was "First, divide the work into smaller tasks and set deadlines for every one of them. Then find a tough and reliable person to hold you accountable for meeting each one." I think this would work extremely well for me because it would give me incentive to get my work done, that isn't just to succeed in the end. I would also try hard to get my work done to save myself from the wrath of this person. I think one of my largest problems right now is that I am not afraid of my mentor, so what he says seems more like suggestions than demands.

Ithaca Survival Trip: Day 4

It's finally over!!

Today was the only day we got up at the crack of dawn. This was because we were so ready to get out of the woods and back into normal civilization, that we were willing to spare a few hours of sleep. With haste, we packed up our belongings, double checked the grounds of the site for any trash or forgotten items, took a few pictures of camp and then hiked the long way back through the woods.

It was hot, even at 8:00 in the morning, and we had to stop halfway in to delayer. The hike felt never ending because we were so drained of energy. The only thing that kept us going was the thought of a toilet, a shower and chocolate cake. When we finally made it back it was a little before 9:00 and nobody at Ellie's house was awake yet. We let ourselves in the back door and A-lined it for the kitchen, where we enjoyed a tall glass of ice water and some chocolate cake. Yum!

The END! (of this stay)

Ithaca Survival Trip: Day 3

It only rained a tiny bit over the night, nothing heavy enough to cause any more leaks, and we were warm and dry until this morning. We slept a hearty 10 hours, and only got up when we did because it was surprisingly cold, I definitely could've enjoyed a few more hours of sleep. It's funny that I can still manage to be so lazy while lying on the cold ground, testing my ability to survive.

We ate some nuts for breakfast which, when hungry, taste nearly as good as a piece of a gourmet chocolate mousse, yum, so good. For much of the day, we found ourselves aimlessly sitting and doing nothing but talk to each other. And as great as this is, the woods don't exactly give us much to talk about so it get's pretty boring after a while. Doing nothing also forces us to focus on our hunger and dehydration, which is not ideal. We even created a game called "What food would you eat right now?" during which we take turns describing in detail the food we want at the moment. It's quite fun, actually.

For dinner, we made our usual; kidney beans, corn and potatoes cooked over the coals of the fire. As hungry as I was, I couldn't eat much of it. I think it's because of the repetitiveness of the food and my dehydration, but it really made me feel like vomiting. Ellie finished off the pot herself, then we decided to go for an adventure across the ravine. This wasn't very eventful, but it was quite pleasant, and certainly broke the monotony of the day. It is getting dark now, and I have very little left to say, so long for now! 

  

Ithaca Survival Trip: Day 2

April 10, 2015
4:30 PM

It rained almost the entire night, however, our shelter kept us relatively dry with the exception of a few drips and some damp, cold feet. When we woke up, quite cold and damp, we tried to get a fire going, but EVERYTHING was soaking wet, making it difficult to get a flame. After an hour or two, we finally managed to get a blaze and by about 11:00 we had purified some water and cooked a large pot of oatmeal for breakfast.

It's weird to feel as dehydrated and hungry as we did, yet know that you won't be able to get food until you exert yourself to make it happen. Then, the food that you manage to produce (in our case, the plain oatmeal with some raisins and almonds), tastes better than anything you've eaten before. For me this was enlightening because it shows that in situations of pressing need, we value smaller things much more. As a modern, middle class, American citizen, I have been spoiled by the availability of necessities. Right now, we are living without many of these comforts we take for granted, and because of this it's easier for me to understand how privileged I am.

It is also the largest form of motivation. Take away something that literally keeps your body going, and all you will think about is replenishing that thing. At some points, however, your ability to do these things is overtaken by a feeling of hopeless drowsiness. 

Ithaca Survival Trip: Day 1

8:30 P.M.

I'll begin by saying that I'm in the middle of the woods. Ellie and I arrived this morning at about 11:00, and we will be here for the next 3 days. Currently it is raining heavily and approximately 35 degrees, conditions that aren't ideal for surviving, but definitely make it interesting. In order to prepare for the predicted bad weather, we spent all day building a durable shelter. We've been inside for about half an hour, and so far it has kept us dry and toasty. To build it, we placed a ~17 foot long log in the Y of a tree and laid sticks off of both sides of the log. Then we wove skinny, bendy sticks horizontally into the others. Next we insulated the shelter, covering it in about 1 1/2 feet of debris (damp leaves, mosses, etc.) and topped it off with lots of bark.

Although I've only been out here for 9 1/2 hours, I have already noticed a significant different in my and Ellie's behavior. I feel refreshed, clear and focused. Everything I do is for the purpose of our survival and things I wouldn't notice in everyday life, like gathering water and exerting myself to cook food, are the center of my attention. Things I would normally focus on, like my appearance, school or being places on time are entirely forgotten. 

I'm cold and tired, so I'm going to retreat into the warmth of my sleeping bag. Goodnight!

Survival Trip #1

This is it! In just a few minutes Ellie and I are going to be heading out into her woods for our first survival trip. Last night we both went shopping, Ellie bought extra memory cards and batteries for our cameras and I bought the food (2 potatos, 3 cans of beans, a small bag of rice, 2 carrots, 2 onions, almonds, cashews and raisins). We are now ready to go, dressed in our rain jackets and muck boots, and our bags loaded on our backs.

For the past couple of days, it has rained a considerate amount, so everything outside is soaking wet. For the next two days, we are expecting even more rain, but hopefully it will clear up by Saturday. Now it's time to go! So long until Sunday!

List of Med Kit Items

As previously recommended by Sr. Morales, I have made a list of items for a simple first aid kit. It includes bandages and other items that will alleviate minor injuries that may otherwise cause discomfort. I'm hoping to be able to find these items at my house so that we will not need to buy them. 

Sprains  

• assorted elastic bandage
• athletic tape

Cuts/ wounds/ blisters

• sterile bandage
• band-aids
• tape
• gauze
• blister band aids

Additional Items

• Painkillers
• Antiseptic
• Tweezers

Gleaning from the Past

Over the break I read and evaluated Tessa Parrish's WISE project. Although I did not see the final presentation, I got a good understanding of what a completed WISE project should look like from her journal entries, research commentary and information.

1. 2-3 things this student did well. One thing I thought she did well was the thoroughness of her journal entries. They provide a lot of information to readers and are quite informative. I also thought her final dressage show was a great idea because it showed the progress she made over the course of the project.
2. 2-3 things this student struggled with. One thing I thought could've been done better was more sources of information. Another thing she struggled with was having a large variety of posts. Many were similar, which made it a bit boring to read after a while.
3. 1-2 things you'd like to borrow from this student. I would like to borrow her informative journaling style. 
4. Qs that linger after reading this former WISE student's material. One question I have is whether or not Tessa plans to further develop her dressage skills?

Overall, I thought that Tessa's project was extremely well done, and after reading her blog entries, I realize I should be more thorough in my blogging. 

Easter

Today I woke up to a snow covered ground. For the middle of February or even March, I would shrug this off, but by Easter?! Come on Mother Nature, cut is some slack here! As annoying as it is to celebrate a white Easter, I am more worried about the fact that our trip is in 4 days. It is going to be challenging enough to survive in moderate conditions, however, snow and cold temps will make this so much more difficult. I am also annoyed by this everlasting snow because it continues to impede with our outdoor practice.

Here's to hoping for a bit of luck with the weather for our trip!

Supplies!

Tonight I ordered and collected various supplies needed for the trip. Below are brief descriptions of the items we have.

• One thing I ordered off amazon is a 2 quart kettle pot, which is pretty much just a normal cooking pot with a handle that crosses over the top like a bucket. This will be useful so that we can hang it from a tripod over our fire to boil water and cook. 

• The next thing I ordered is a portable cell phone charging box, to ensure that we always have cell phone capability. I also ordered a dry bag for our cell phones to protect them from water.

• For Easter, Ellie got some twine, and in addition to this, I found a lot jute twine in my shed. The jute twine is particularly good to use because it decomposes, so we won't be littering if it is left behind.

• I also have my extreme weather sleeping bag that is good for as low as 0 degrees or something. Ellie also has a sleeping bag, however, hers is made for temperatures as low as 30 degrees.

• We will be bringing a saw, hatchet, machete, shovel and knife. Ellie has the saw, hatchet, machete and I am trying to convince my brother to let us use his knife.

• I have a couple of dry sacks in which I will pack my things. We will also need to use these for camera gear. 

• We each have a pair of work gloves that we will use to prevent cuts on our hands. 

• We will be bringing in 1-2 tarps. Although this is not ideal in the hardcore survival aspect, looking at the forecast, we predict at least 2 days of rain so it will be nice to have these just in case.

Excluding our clothing and food, this is a pretty decent overview of our supplies. I'm sure we will add some additional things, however, nothing that significant. 

Shelter Building!

After reading a few articles on different types of shelter possibilities, I decided that the debris shelter, or any modification of it will be the most advantageous to our needs. This shelter is designed for warmth, and is easy to make.

• Wedge a large, sturdy stick in the Y of a tree, or anything equivalent, in order to create the base of the shelter.
• Lean slightly smaller, but still sturdy sticks against the side of the base stick. This will create a "wedge-shaped ribbing effect" which will be the base framework for the shelter.
• Now weave finer, bendy sticks crosswise in the base of the shelter in order to form a lattice for the insulation that will be put on top.
• Now that the skeleton of the shelter is complete, it is time to add the insulation. This should consist of light, dry, if possible, soft debris. Continue adding these debris until the the insulating material is at least 1 meter thick--the thicker the better.
• Place an insulating layer on the ground of the shelter, and around all the bottom cracks.
• When making the shelter, try to leave as small an opening as possible for the entrance. Also, craft a door the best you can using the materials at your disposal. This is not necessary, but will be desired if the weather is bad.
• Finally, add any shingling material or tree boughs on top of the debris to keep them in place.

Lists

After a minor panic attack yesterday, today Ellie and I decided to make lists of all the items we will need for our trip. We divided it into several different categories and only after finishing it, did we realize how much we need to get. We also realized that all together the supplies would cost several hundreds of dollars. Due to our lack of money, we are hoping to ask to borrow some of the items and we are also going to look to buy secondhand. 

Due to the fact that there is virtually no vegetation yet, we have abandoned our plan to collect food. Since we feel that it is kind of "cheating" to buy all of our food, we are setting a series of guidelines for our shopping. We can buy as much food as we can within a $15 budget, however, everything must be whole foods, things we don't particularly like, and non perishable. With these qualifying factors, we will put to test our abilities to survive on very little. 

Below is a picture of our handwritten planning from today.

A Day Outdoors

Today the nicer weather and free time in our schedules permitted Ellie and I to begin the hands on portion of our project. After my boys hockey banquet, at around 5:00, I went over to Ellie's house, we put on warm clothes (although the weather was nicer, it still was 35 degrees out) and trekked back into the woods with our machete and hatchet. 

The focus of today was to collect tinder, kindling of various sizes and larger wood for our fires. We began our search by looking for smaller sticks and tinder. These were both found easily, from dead bushes and various twiggy plants, and within about 20 minutes we had collected a heaping pile. We then set out to find larger wood, which was much more challenging because we couldn't just snap off a branch with our hands and the large pieces on the ground were rotten and wet, making them unlikely to burn. We decided the best way to find this wood would be by cutting down a dead tree. Since all we had was a hatchet and a machete, we found a couple of dead saplings (trunks with approximately 4 inch diameters) and chopped them down. 

We stayed outside for about 2.5 hours and by the end of the evening we had gathered a decently sized pile of wood, which we are storing under Ellie's dad's Adirondack shelter to keep dry. We will use this wood this Tuesday, when we practice our fire building and water purification, and we will possibly use some on our first survival trip, which is just 2 weeks away. 

Finalized Dates!

Finally we have been able to set in stone the dates for our trips! The first one, which will be back in Ellie's woods is going to take place April 9th-12 with the possible addition of the 8th, granting approval from the school. Our second one will be May 14th-17th, with the possibility of adding the 13th. This trip was previously set to take place in the Adirondacks, however, after talking with my mom, we may want to reconsider. Although Ellie's dad would be staying with us, our moms are a bit scared for our safety and would prefer if we stayed a bit closer to home. Because of this, I am looking into different options such as the Hector national forest.

How to Build a Proper Fire

Today I did a lot of research on how to start and maintain a fire. Although it doesn't seem like something that would be very difficult, in unideal conditions, such as rain, wind or snow,  it can be quite hard. In order to successfully build a fire, there is a specific sequence of how to do so.

1. Collect tinder and make a tinder bundle. Tinder is anything that burns fast and catches easily. This can be wood shavings, dry shrubbery, cattails, cedar bark, leaves or dry grass.
2. After the tinder catches, you must add pencil lead sized pieces, which are small grass and twigs, just slightly larger than the tinder.
3. Progressively collect and add larger sized pieces of wood. The best wood is dead branches that are still attached to the tree and not rotten. The branch should make a clean snapping sound when it is broken from the tree.
4. Now that the wood is collected, you must prepare the ground for the fire. If the ground is wet, you will need to make a platform of branches which will ward off moisture.
5. Light the small bundle of tinder, then immediately proceed to adding the twiggy pencil lead sized pieces, then the kindling and so on.

Water Purification (Info)

Last weekend, Ellie and I made plans to go out and practice purifying water, however Saturday morning brought, yet another snow storm. This impeded our ability to practice purification so we have rescheduled for this coming Saturday. Over the past week, I gathered information on several different methods that we will possibly use to purify water.

The first thing we will do is dig a hole 2-4 feet from a creek and gather the water that appears at the bottom. This water is generally pretty clean, however we will use further steps to ensure that it is safe to drink.

One thing we will do to further the purification is boil the water for 5 to 10 minutes to kill off all living organisms and some chemicals. This method will definitely be the easiest and most reliable. The only problem I see us facing is not being able to make a hot enough fire to boil the water enough.

The second option is a filter made from a cone of birch bark. This cone is then filled with layers of sand, charcoal, grasses and other sediments. The charcoal serves to remove chemical impurities, and the other layers help to remove small particles and sometimes even bacteria. I think this will be one of the most challenging methods we attempt because it is fragile and intricate. 

This picture (found on google images) is a completed birch bark filter.

2/18

Today I was feeling quite lazy so I spent a large portion of my afternoon watching the Alaskan Bush People a survival show on the Discovery Channel. Although entertaining to watch, it was much different from our project guidelines. First off, they used many man-made items such as cooking utensils, many tarps, rope, and extensive hunting items. It also differed from ours in that it seemed very posed and fake at times. I think this is because it is an aired TV show, however I think this really detracted from the survival aspect of it. For our project, I hope to make the documentary as genuine as possible, regardless of how embarrassing or revealing this may be.

Review of Peers' Blogs

Today I looked at Carrie's blog "CARRIE" and my partner Ellie's blog. Although both were written in different styles, they were uniquely great.

Carrie's contained a few slightly incomplete posts, however, those that she had completed were fully to the point, and full of her comical voice. She presented a lot of information on her project and it was entertaining to read it because she presented it in a funny way. I think she could benefit from adding video clips to show her progress and to update the aesthetic of her blog as well.

Ellie's blog on the other hand had many posts, which touched on other aspects of her life such as being sick, Alex Turner, and her future years in Germany. I hadn't really considered doing this, however, it definitely made her blog fun to read. I also enjoyed reading Ellie's blog because she is my partner in this project and it was interesting to see her views.

Planning in the Quarry

Ellie and I decided to meet up again after school to begin getting some footage for the documentary. We met in Brooktondale and decided to take advantage of the nice day by filming outdoors. We gathered the camera equipment, some snacks and our planners and headed out on a walk to find a good location. We decided on a nearby quarry (it wasn't in use), we set up our camera and had a videotaped conversation.

During this conversation, we introduced ouselves and the project, both for the sake of our documentary. We also discussed a lot of dates and other logistics of our project. We decided that our first 5 day stay will take place the second weekend in April. We have yet to choose a finalized date for our second stay, however, we figured out several tentative times that work for us and Ellie is working it out with her dad.

I thought that we made great progress during this meeting and I hope to have many more like these. I also really enjoyed doing this interview outdoors because it was great to take advantage of one of the first above-freezing evenings of the year.

7th Period with Ellie

Today, Ellie and I met during 7th period to discuss our project. I shared with her some information I have gathered from my interview and sources. I brought light to my concern that we aren't going to be able to learn all of the aspects of survival before our first wilderness stay and that we should focus on becoming masters of shelter building and water purification. I also discussed possibly bringing sleeping bags, a tarp, food and several other commodities on our first stay considering it is going to be quite chilly, wet and we will still be fairly inexperienced. She completely agreed and suggested that we limit the number of items we bring in by only taking what can fit inside of our backpack. 

We also discussed how peaceful and serene it will be in the complete isolation of the woods. Imagining the difference between this calm environment and our generally stressful everyday lives led us to discuss how we are going to feel and what we are going to do. We discussed our interest of bringing in notebooks and drawing pads so that we can use this environment to show our creativity and thought process with clear minds. 

Every time I sit down to talk with Ellie, I get so excited about our project. I cannot wait for the snow to melt so we can begin our hands on work!

Sacred Order of Survival

Today I looked back over my notes from my interview with Justin Sutera to gather information. I especially took note of the "sacred order of survival," Justin spoke a lot about. This explains the hierarchy of our primitive needs, shelter is the most immediate because you can only live 3 hours without it, water comes second and you can live 3 days without it, and finally food which you can live 3 weeks without. 

Due to our limited amount of time to prepare before our wilderness trips, I have decided that we will be focusing more over the next month before our first journey to learn how to build a shelter. I think it will be more fulfilling for us to become well learned and trained in one skill area, rather than having a lot of loose knowledge in several areas. I think we should also learn how to purify water, and gather plants, however we may not become as skilled in these areas as we will be in shelter building.

Beginning of Website Exploration

Over the past week, I have spent a lot of time poking around on many webpages, exploring the different aspects of survival. What I've been trying to do is gain a better sense of direction in terms of where I should begin to approach the learning and acquisition of skills. From this, I have discovered that a lot of the skills we are planning on learning are very difficult and require a large amount of practice. Additionally, a lot of the tutorials on how to do these survival skills used modern equipment, such as tarps, pots, and bottles in addition to natural resources. After discussing it with Ellie, we too have decided to bring in man-made items similar to these in order to facilitate something that is going to be a challenging feat even with these "comfort items."

First 2 Weeks

The first two weeks of my project are going to be entirely spent gathering information and compiling it into a Google document. As of right now I don't know the first thing about survival, I am starting with a completely blank slate, and everything I learn from here on out will begin building a new set of knowledge, perceptions and abilities. I will begin this hunting for knowledge by reading or watching non-fiction survival short stories, books, and movies. I will also spend some time browsing survival websites in order to obtain a large basis of knowledge. By the end of the first week, I hope to have a pretty good understanding of what major skills we will be focusing on and which skills will be too difficult to master in the time that we have. 

During the second week, I will be choosing one skill, most likely shelter, and researching everything I will need to know about it. I will organize all of my findings in a Google document and include step by step procedures on how we will make different types of shelters. I will be spending approximately an hour and fifteen minutes every day working on research over these two weeks.

Introduction

Hello Reader,

Welcome to my blog! To round off my four years at Ithaca High School, I will be spending the second semester of my WISE class working on an independent project. I will be partnering with an old time friend Eleanor Glahn to learn about wilderness survival and at the end of our journey display what we have experienced in a documentary. Along the journey, I will be focusing more on the survival aspects and Ellie will be mostly in charge of the documentation.

During the first couple of months of our project, I am going to be researching new skills and compiling easy to understand instructions on how to do these many skills. As soon as the snow melts, Ellie and I will begin to put to use the information I will have collected outdoors. This will be the most work heavy portion of our project as we try to memorize and practice how to do several different survival skills, all the while preparing for our ultimate project goal of two 5 day long survival trips. 


The first of these trips is going to take place at a close to home location, a mile or so back in Ellie's woods. Since this is our first trip and is going to be taking place in mid to late April, which is an unpredictable time of year in terms of weather and vegetation, we plan to bring several of outside materials (ie. tarp, food, pots, etc.) to complement our use of several natural resources.
Our second and final trip is going to occur in late May to early June and will hopefully take place on lower St. Regis, near the town of Saranac Inn, in the Adirondacks. Although we will be more experienced by this point, surviving the Adirondacks will be a challenging feat due to our unfamiliarity with it. For this trip, we will likely bring more supplies because it will be isolated, however, we will only use them if we need to. In this sense, the Adirondack trip will be more of a test of what we have learned and hopefully will be a great learning experience.

My inspiration for this project came from my love for the outdoors. Growing up in a more rural, wooded neighborhood, I spent a large portion of my childhood playing outside with my local neighborhood friends. On long summer days, we packed our lunch boxes and set out to find a secluded area in the woods. Once we discovered the perfect spot, we used materials from the land to make extravagant forts, all the while trying to be like the book Bridge to Terabithia. After several months or even years, the once unexplored corner of the woods would be a full-fledged civilization.

Despite spending much of my childhood outdoors, I am quite naive to the need of wilderness survival. We live in a world of electronics, cars, grocery stores and many other modern conveniences and because of this, I have never had to put in any serious effort to meet my basic needs. Anytime I want food, all I have to do is walk to the refrigerator or when I need warmth, I find a blanket and turn on the heat. I am ignorant to a life without these conveniences, and I feel that I will be until I can first hand experience a more primitive lifestyle. I think that while in the woods surviving, we will realize the importance of our lower level necessities, and focus less on the things that usually capture our attention such as our emotions, academics and self-esteem. 

I cannot wait to fully immerse myself into conquering this challenge and to see how it changes my outlook on the modern world. Follow my blog to see my progress along this journey and to learn with me what it means to survive.