# Food list from a book I read



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I just finished reading Winter Watch by James Ramsey, written in 1989. He spent 8 months in the Arctic, in a small cabin so he could experience winter there. The book is in the form of a journal of his daily activities. It was light reading and I didn't learn a whole lot from it, but it was interesting. The best part was at the end, where he provided a list of all the food he took in with him. I was impressed by the variety and lack of junk food, and mentally compared it to the things I have stored for my family. The main thing I noticed is that he has NO beef products in his stores, and that my food stores is a lot heavier in rice, lentils and beans. He only had four cans of tuna! We eat that in one night!


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

very cool...Arctic "living" books are some of my fav. to read especially non fiction...I'll have to find a copy!
Thanks for sharing!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

He was probably planning on hunting and fishing for his meat.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

I love lists! Freeze driend cottage cheese? Have to try that.... Thanks for posting.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Cyngbaeld said:


> He was probably planning on hunting and fishing for his meat.


He did have some caribou and moose meat from a friend who lived up the river, but I would be afraid to count on wild game for my meals.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

He packed m and m's...man after my own heart


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

it seems a little light but i like to have lots of food around , i would atleast have more beans and oat meal the bisquick , pancake mix and flour seem very redundant they are all basicaly the same thing but with a tiny difference of salt and baking powder , powdered milk , 

he had everything to make biscuits and pancakes before adding the pancake mix and bisqiuck.same thing for corn bread packages everything to make corn bread was already listed above.

did it make any mention of what he would have brought more of if he did it again also how long was this 2 months 3 months or more , i think that looks like 2 months food for 1 person, but i like food it may well be 3 months but i certainly wouldn't want to go 6 months on that 

but it sure would be a weight loss program


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

He had a case of canned ham, 6 cans of bacon and a side of bacon. That makes a lot more sense than beef as it's more versatile to go with the other products he had and it's much more digestible.


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## Dutch 106 (Feb 12, 2008)

Hey,
Oh somebody would die,
only 5 pounds or so of choclate!
Dutch


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

i find the quantities interesting. for comparison, i'm single, so quantities below are for 1 person, not a family. plus i don't do huge amounts of physical labor to build an appetite either, so i would burn much more in an extreme climate.

when i first bought wheat berries, i went thru 25 lbs of wheat in 3 months, and that was before i started making bagels for breakfast too. he has 75 lbs of flour, so about the same, but likely needs far more calories than i due to low temps.

also, 25 lbs of brown rice last me about 6-8 months (i rarely eat white rice). he only has 5 lbs of brown rice and 5 lbs of white rice. guess he doesn't eat it much compared to me, but he doesn't have tons more wheat than i have either. looks like he has some pasta and potatoes for bulk calories too. (not sure how much 5# of dried potatoes is equivalent to in regular potatoes, but probably quite a bit.) 

a couple years ago, i bought 5 lbs each of 3-4 different types of nuts. they lasted about 3 months, so about 5 lbs of nuts per month, about 1 lb per week. and that was mostly just for snacking, not specifically for meal ingredients. he has 2 #10 cans of nuts, which i don't know the weight of, and 3 lbs total of 3 other nuts, to last 8 months.

i haven't closely tracked my oil/fat consumption, but i'm pretty sure mine is much lower than his. he has 2 lbs oil, 10 lbs butter, 10 lbs margarine, 2x #10 cans of crisco (unknown weight) etc. plus cheese which is heavy fat also. that will certainly provide tons of calories, needed in a cold climate. 

i haven't got a good metric on my bean consumption, so i can't compare his consumption relative to mine. he seems to like navy beans a lot more than other beans tho! (my personal fav is black beans/turtle beans.)

very interesting to see supply lists, and try to reverse engineer what they're eating. seems his diet is a bit different than mine. not sure what i'd do with so much crisco!

--sgl


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

The list looks a bit sparse for my taste, but he has a lot of things on it that I don't use, so maybe that makes up for it a little.

I'd go thru that 1 gal of olive oil in 4 months or less. 1 lb of baking powder wouldn't last me very long either. 10 lb of butter would last me about 4 or 5 weeks! I guess I use a lot more butter than average. That 75 lbs of flour would worry me. I use about 500 lbs of wheat berries a year, not sure how that would translate to ready to use flour.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

For 8 months that is a bit low on calories for someone dealing with cold, cutting wood and whatever other work he would be doing. Might make it 4 on that, IMHO. I think he would need rather a lot of meat from game and fish.


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## Dutch 106 (Feb 12, 2008)

Hi,
I think he is making biscuts from a mix of margerine and crisco. What he is doing with the bisquick I'm not sure
Dutch


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Mom-of- four is sending the book to me....whom should like it when I'm done? ...Shall we sign and pass along? I think it would be fun....1st PM with snail mail gets it when I'm done  but you must promise to pass along!


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

my guess is crisco would be for biscuits and frying things


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

mpillow said:


> Mom-of- four is sending the book to me....whom should like it when I'm done? ...Shall we sign and pass along? I think it would be fun....1st PM with snail mail gets it when I'm done  but you must promise to pass along!


Great idea, Mpillow! I'll sign in side the front cover if that's what you meant, and then you can add yours and pass it along.  I've probably got another book or two lying around here that I didn't want to keep after reading. Let me check and I'll "advertise" to see who wants to read it next and pass it along.

Oh, I know! I have one called A Mile In Her Boots. It's a collection of stories written by women who have outdoor jobs - fire watcher, forest ranger, white water rafting guide, salmon fisher, field researcher, etc. It's a fun book that someone would enjoy. Just PM me with your name and address if you are interested.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

that's an interesting list, it doesn't look like enough to me either, for 8 months in the arctic, in the cold and vigor. Nice varied list though--it would be interesting to get a total calorie count of everything on that list, a grand total, then you could divide by # of days to see how much per day available.

I'm sure having that variety helps in the long winter days for something to do while you're holed up. Cook.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

INSTANT grits??? Guess this is an arctic list... 

The fun thing about lists like this is that they show personal preference more than food requirements. Ask a Chinaman or an Indian and you'll get an entirely different list (perhaps a lot tastier).


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I did think his list was a little light on the spices - I have a large stock of all kinds of spices and would really miss the variety if I only had curry, cloves, allspice, garlic, vanilla, onion and cinnamon. At least he had a bottle of hot sauce!

He spent a lot of the book talking about the food he fixed - he was heavy on baking cakes, cookies and pies. We don't eat a lot of desserts, but probably would eat more if we were doing the manual labor needed to live in the Arctic.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Having lived in the Arctic (not an entire winter), I can imagine he had plenty of time for baking... at a certain stage, an obsession over what's the next meal going to be gets to the top of the list.

The first time, I went light, and suffered the consequences... tighter notches on the belt. Was to the point where we thought about taking down a moose... but had no way to preserve that much meat, and it would have quickly been a bear attractant... would have been hard to explain why we had a dead moose and a bear in camp... seeing as we were the ones sent out to protect them in the first place.

Even if I were taking lot of game, I'd want spices to enliven it up... unless he was using Inuit spice (letting the meat ferment, rot,or get infected with skippers).


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

texican said:


> ... would have been hard to explain why we had a dead moose and a bear in camp... seeing as we were the ones sent out to protect them in the first place.


Now _that's_ funny!!


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Texican,,,"skippers"??


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_fly
They are called skippers because the maggots can jump or skip.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Skippers....Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

Only 1lb of yeast for 8 months? He can't like bread.


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## tamilee (Apr 13, 2005)

An interesting list indeed. Only 12 rolls of toilet paper. Hmm? That would be the toughest part.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

I missed that tamilee.....


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

Our Little Farm said:


> Only 1lb of yeast for 8 months? He can't like bread.


also listed is "one sourdough starter"

and of course you can always make your own sourdough starter too, altho you'd waste some flour that way.

--sgl


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Well, maybe he fed the sourdough....lots of us have had a sourdough going for years.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I regret a lot of things I coulda shoulda done...

one of my major regrets is not having eaten raw seal and raw moose (aged about four days at first), dipped in rancid seal oil... 

We were stuck at a cabin, with it's own hot springs, and a group of elders were flown out for a week. They nailed a whole seal on one side of the entrance door and a hind quarter of moose on the other side... a five gallon bucket of seal oil sat next to it, with a ulu knife stuck in the beam. The old folks would snatch a piece of seal or moose, dip it in the oil, and smile... I was offered, but declined... three days later, the meat was moving... a slice taken off would reveal the little skippers and some would fall out... I regret not taking a bite then too... at the end of the week, it was bone cleaning time, and I don't know if I could partake even now.... unless I was hungry! Traditional fare has very few spices (if any?), and in a bland diet, a little fermentation provided variety.

One of my uncles remembers skippers growing up... they didn't have a choice... they had 9 kids in the family... the one that got a full belly got more skippers, and a full belly beat an empty one. He's in his mid 70's and still eats in a tenth of the time it takes me. He was raised to eat fast if he wanted to eat... otherwise someone else at the table would clear his plate for him.

Hunger is something I've known for short periods, including the aforementioned Arctic season... go hungry for a couple of days, without hope of resupply, and food security becomes a higher priority.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Skippers can wreak havoc with your intestines. They are not killed by stomach acid. There is no way I could eat anything with skippers in it, but if you're feeling brave at least cook the food first to kill them.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

raw, rancid and wriggling....rufffghghhghghg......urp.:umno:


Me thinks I gotta work on my "survival mindset"..


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

Two more books of interest are Arctic Daughter and Arctic Son. The Daughter one is first chronologically...the son being her son (6 years old) maybe 15-20 years later.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I've read both of them, and while I loved Arctic Daughter, I was really annoyed by Jean Aspen's personality in the second one. She is such a big know-it-all! Aspen's mother was Constance Helmericks, who was a lifelong outdoor explorer. She wrote books called We live in the Arctic, Down the Wild River North, Our Summer with The Eskimos, and Australian Adventure (which I'm reading right now). Here's a website with some good photos of the authors:

http://www.helmericks.com/Constance_Helmericks/Connies_Alaska.html


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## RockyGlen (Jan 19, 2007)

What is pilot bread?

The amounts were interesting to me - wish he would have included meal plans. Only 1 #10 can of instant mashed potatoes and 1 pound of oatmeal, for instance.

What are skippers? ETA - never mind

Regarding the tp....remember he is a guy, so doesn't need anywhere near as much as a woman. I would imagine space was an issue, too.

I'll have to see if I can find the book, it sounds interesting.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I loved "Down the Wild River North"! I was young when I read it and was all set to try it myself.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Mom_of_Four said:


> He only had four cans of tuna! We eat that in one night!


4 cans of Tuna would be a lifetime supply for me and when I died, they would still be on the shelf. I have no idea how anyone can eat canned tuna or salmon - I can't get past the smell of either.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

RockyGlen said:


> What is pilot bread?
> 
> The amounts were interesting to me - wish he would have included meal plans. Only 1 #10 can of instant mashed potatoes and 1 pound of oatmeal, for instance.
> 
> ...


"Pilot Bread" is a big (size of a hamburger in circumference) cracker... plain jane cracker, hard as a brick. Lasts forever. I bought boxes of the things... great bread replacement in the Bush, and imagine bush pilots kept a couple boxes in their planes, for emergency rations... hence the pilot crackers (my take, if wrong, shoot me!).

A little butter and strawberry or whatever jam, and most palatable, esp. if you haven't seen a bakery or been close to an oven in a month or two.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Louise Dickinson Rich
*We Took to the Woods*
there are several more by her too...Middle Dam, Maine in the 1930's and 40's

If you are familiar with the books, Louise's son Rufus used to drive truck with my brother and lived with same brother for a time about 3 yrs ago, but went into nursing home.


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## RockyGlen (Jan 19, 2007)

texican said:


> "Pilot Bread" is a big (size of a hamburger in circumference) cracker... plain jane cracker, hard as a brick. Lasts forever. I bought boxes of the things... great bread replacement in the Bush, and imagine bush pilots kept a couple boxes in their planes, for emergency rations... hence the pilot crackers (my take, if wrong, shoot me!).
> 
> A little butter and strawberry or whatever jam, and most palatable, esp. if you haven't seen a bakery or been close to an oven in a month or two.



Thanks - I see Mountain House has some i #10 cans. Interesting....


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Pilot bread is a staple in the bush but hard to find outside of AK except in the PNW, where a lot of it is purchased to send to AK. It was originally used on sailing vessels as the main bread as it kept so long. It is basically white flour, salt and water. Very bland, but most Alaskan Natives have eaten it all their lives and you couldn't budge them with a stick into eating anything healthier.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Pilot bread is a staple in the bush but hard to find outside of AK except in the PNW, where a lot of it is purchased to send to AK. It was originally used on sailing vessels as the main bread as it kept so long. It is basically white flour, salt and water. Very bland, but most Alaskan Natives have eaten it all their lives and you couldn't budge them with a stick into eating anything healthier.


Unless they ferment it LOL....the ones I met were drunk most of the time.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

mpillow said:


> Mom-of- four is sending the book to me....whom should like it when I'm done? ...Shall we sign and pass along? I think it would be fun....1st PM with snail mail gets it when I'm done  but you must promise to pass along!





Mom_of_Four said:


> Great idea, Mpillow! I'll sign in side the front cover if that's what you meant, and then you can add yours and pass it along.  I've probably got another book or two lying around here that I didn't want to keep after reading. Let me check and I'll "advertise" to see who wants to read it next and pass it along.


I have just finished the book *Winter Watch* posted to me and I really enjoyed it. So who wants it next?

So far the people who have signed it are

Mom of Four
Mpillow
and me.

Who wants me to send it to them? When you have finished, we ask that you sign it, post it on this thread again, and send it to the next HT member.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Id love it, if you dont mind


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

You were first, so pm me your address and you can be the next one to read it and pass it on. :dance:


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

My cat brought me a rat....and made me think how useful a good kitty would have been to this guy!


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Very sparse....must have had a lot of game. Nice list though, thanks for sharing!


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

mpillow said:


> My cat brought me a rat....and made me think how useful a good kitty would have been to this guy!


LOL, I thought the same thing. If I ever stay in a cabin in the wilderness (I hope to one day), I would like a cat to keep the mice away!

Loved the book, really appreciate you and Lisa sending it on and sharing it. I think it will be wonderful to have such a book doing the rounds with lots of HT members having signed it. 

It's a wonderful relaxing enjoyable read. 

It will be on it's way to Beaglebiz at the beginning of next week.


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## ronron (Feb 4, 2009)

Has everyone watched the Heimo Kourth u-tube videos interesting..... I would like to read a book about them maybe one of the daughters who now live in fairbanks should write something about their lives...I would love the book that is being passed around.


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## ronron (Feb 4, 2009)

Never mind I just googled Heimo and I must be the last person to hear about him there are many books and articles about him lol


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

I have the book, thanks OLF, 
Who would like it next??


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

Not sure if ronron still wants it, but it was mentioned above.....

Its a very interesting read. I enjoyed it a lot and its fun to have a book passed on by many HTers, each signing it before it is sent on to the next person.

Wonder who will get it next Beaglebiz?


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

ronron said:


> Has everyone watched the Heimo Kourth u-tube videos interesting..... I would like to read a book about them maybe one of the daughters who now live in fairbanks should write something about their lives...I would love the book that is being passed around.


I have the book about Heimo - called The Final Frontiersman. I've read it twice and really liked it. It was written by one of his cousins who is a journalist. Very well done! Sorry, but that's one I want to keep on my bookshelf.


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## Honduras Trish (Nov 30, 2007)

mpillow said:


> Louise Dickinson Rich
> *We Took to the Woods*
> there are several more by her too...Middle Dam, Maine in the 1930's and 40's
> 
> If you are familiar with the books, Louise's son Rufus used to drive truck with my brother and lived with same brother for a time about 3 yrs ago, but went into nursing home.


Very cool! _We Took to the Woods_ is one of my all-time favorite books! I didn't know there were others. I'm off to go online book-hunting, thanks!


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Our Little Farm said:


> Not sure if ronron still wants it, but it was mentioned above.....
> 
> Its a very interesting read. I enjoyed it a lot and its fun to have a book passed on by many HTers, each signing it before it is sent on to the next person.
> 
> Wonder who will get it next Beaglebiz?


thanks OLF, i must be blind, but I missed that the first time ...sent ronron a pm


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## tomstractormag (Feb 23, 2007)

naturelover said:


> He had a case of canned ham, 6 cans of bacon and a side of bacon. That makes a lot more sense than beef as it's more versatile to go with the other products he had and it's much more digestible.


Pork does not digest well at all.
Pig DNA and people DNA are very close.
The human body does not know what to do with it.

Tom


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

tomstractormag said:


> Pork does not digest well at all.
> Pig DNA and people DNA are very close.
> The human body does not know what to do with it.
> 
> Tom


I've never heard that before - where did you read that? We eat pork all the time and I haven't noticed any digestive issues.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

mnn2501 said:


> 4 cans of Tuna would be a lifetime supply for me and when I died, they would still be on the shelf. I have no idea how anyone can eat canned tuna or salmon - I can't get past the smell of either.


Get stuck without nothing else, and you could learn to love it.

One of all time favorite spices is Hunger. Hunger IS the best spice... get hungrysome for a few days without a chance of resupply, and everything with calories looks good.

I could live off of tuna and pilot crackers.

Albacore is on sale again this week, with coupon for .39c/can.

I'm wondering if you had intestinal parasites, and downed some skippers, if they'd take care of em!


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

texican said:


> Get stuck without nothing else, and you could learn to love it.
> 
> One of all time favorite spices is Hunger. Hunger IS the best spice... get hungrysome for a few days without a chance of resupply, and everything with calories looks good.


 You're 100% right, but I ain't never been that hungry -- hopefully never will be.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

I just remembered another book that my S&EP friends might enjoy. It's called "Arctic Homestead: The True Story of One Family's Story of Survival and Courage in the Alaska Wilds" by Norma Cobb. I read this one some years ago and still find myself thinking of it from time to time.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

I'll have to look for that Mom of Four. If I find it, do you want to read it again?


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

OLF, if you find and read that one, please pass it on to someone else - I already have it here in my shelves. 

Another survival book I enjoyed was Wilderness Mother by Deanna Kawatski. This woman worked in a fire lookout tower and married a "hermit", had two children with him while living in a remote cabin in Canada. She eventually left him, when the "hermit" part of his identity made it too hard to stay. But there's a good amount of survival type info in the book.

Two others I really enjoyed from a survival standpoint are:

Alone in the Wilderness by Mike Tomkies - he lived on a remote Canadian river in a small shack for a year or two. He almost starved at one point, was lonely and had to learn to hunt and survive without income.

Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness by Pete Fromm - he spent a year living in a canvas tent caring for salmon fry for the Fish and Game people. He faced loneliness, food poisoning and some other challenges.

All good books - some of my favorites!


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## tomstractormag (Feb 23, 2007)

Mom_of_Four said:


> I've never heard that before - where did you read that? We eat pork all the time and I haven't noticed any digestive issues.


I first learned of this at the Natural Food store I work with.

Try this story, caution contains Biblical references.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Pork-and-More---Unclean-For-All-Stomachs,-Not-Only-the-Jewish-Kind 


FWIW I only gave up pork about a year or so ago... Feel much better without it.

Tom


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## ronron (Feb 4, 2009)

I just finished Winter Watch who's next?....p.m. me with your address


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## NBC3Mom (May 14, 2005)

I would like to read Winter Watch. I will pm you, ronron, if no one else is next in line.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

You'll enjoy it NBC3Mom! 

ronron.....did u sign it at the front?


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## Txrider (Jun 25, 2010)

texican said:


> Get stuck without nothing else, and you could learn to love it.
> 
> One of all time favorite spices is Hunger. Hunger IS the best spice... get hungrysome for a few days without a chance of resupply, and everything with calories looks good.
> 
> ...


Yup one thing I have learned is that how good something tastes is directly proportional to how hungry you are... After a few days with no food the sole of your boot would taste delicious.


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