Author: Mieke

  • Food for survival

    Although food is not exactly high on the priorities of survival, it is on people’s mind a lot! It also pays to know some things about wild food for various reasons; it can stave off the boredom that is likely to set in, it can keep up the spirits as well as provide some sorely…

  • You are lost, cold, miserable and totally alone in the bush. Night is setting in and you have built a simple shelter that will keep you reasonably comfortable, you are okay for water and hunger has not yet set in.   If you have managed to keep a lid on fear and succeeded in obtaining…

  • lost children

    There are many, many things that you can teach your children about safety and survival in the wilderness. But the most important thing to teach your children if they ever get lost is to stay put. Most of like to think our children would never find themselves in a situation where they are lost and…

  • Imagine being lost, alone, possibly injured or in pain and having to face a cold night in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. How will you react? What emotions will you experience? Fear is a very common reaction to such a situation. Being in an environment where you have extremely limited control and only partial information…

  • Ever since we ‘rescued’ the chickens from a free-range farm, it has felt wrong to buy free-range chicken. Please don’t misunderstand, to those of you still buying chicken – please buy free range. It is definitely better than battery farmed. But not good enough for our liking. So we made a pact to only eat…

  • Ebola, the ongoing issue

    The Ebola scare has not yet gone away, if anything it is getting more pertinent for Western society with the first case now officially declared in New York. We don’t know if it will hit our shores, and if it does how wide spread it will be. Ebola is not airborne and, at this stage,…

  • Amazing Willow

    Spring is in the air and the Willow trees are getting their first leaves. I have a love/hate relationship with willow. Willow likes moist soils and temperate climates and has a large and aggressive root system. It is due to this extensive and strong root system that willows can be so problematic. They are known…

  • Wild foods not only provide free, nutritional food that bonds us closer to nature, many of them also have amazing medicinal purposes. Much of our modern medicine comes from knowledge gained from medicinal plants. Using medicinal plants instead of man-made pharmaceuticals is gentler on the body, cheaper for the wallet and potentially prevents you from…