Lighting Grandma's Fire

Rating:
Summary: Individual skills still important
Review: I think it is amazing, perhaps instructive, that as we enter the new millennium, with its high tech hardware and eye-glazing promises, there is a growing interest in learning skills that depend more on the individual and less on machines. This interest to be self-sufficient, indeed in some cases to survive, cuts across socio-economic lines and relies on the ability and resources of the individual and not so much on the much-touted 20th century technology and its attendant costs. The genesis of many of these skills may be traced to the early mountain men of America. Recent experience teaches us that many of these skills must be re-learned, or taught anew, to most Americans. Fortunately, there is a good teacher from western Colorado that has taken the time to pack a lifetime of learning and skills into "Lighting Grandma's Fire." Cunningham is a lifelong practitioner of early mountain man skills. He grew up in Maine and has become a recognized authority on basic survival skills of American Mountain men. The book is chock full of basic information that will vastly imporve the skills, and perhaps chances of survival, of anyone who contemplates ever going into the outdoors. In 16 easy-to-read chapters you will learn how to do everything from making a Slouch Hat to the basics of Scrimshaw. Also, you will learn to light a fire without matches; sharpen a knife; make leather trousers and Indian moccasins; build your own Bucksaw; make a gourd cantee; use a Dutch oven; make snowshoes and a host of other skills that will amaze you. Cunninghaw writes in an informative, highly readable style. Unlike other books dealing with these subjects, this book is written in such a manner that you feel you are in the woods with the author, learning together in a fun, non-technical setting. As a bonus, there is a bibliography, a comprehensive list of suppliers and some wonderful graphics. If the reader has the remotest interest in early day mountain men, outdoor skills, or learning to be more self-sufficient, and don't want to spend a lot of money on the basics, get this book. You can spend more but you cant buy better.