Almost forgot one of my favorites, much later in the time period but equally enjoyable, anything by Jack London; The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Seawolves.

Try some of James Fenimore Cooper's novels: The Last of the Mohicans, Leatherstocking and others. Aside from the tales themselves, they are footnoted with a slue of information gleaned from early census reports. It will bring a lot more life to the tales and to your knowledge of the timeperiod. Anot...

Looking good, Thanks for the assist!

Eric C wrote:Two words: dust mask.

Count on it! Not only am I going to use a dust mask, I was also going to do it outside, if no breeze I'll turn on the leaf blower. I don't need any problems.

I thought naugas were an endangered species!

When I was at the Renfair yesterday, there was a artistic gourd seller there. He wasn't the artist just her brother working the show. I discussed the gourd as a water carrying device and he mentioned the "canteen gourd" as being used extensively for that purpose. He said all you had to do ...

Cedric: The main issue I see is how to establish a ranking. If you or I are the best (in this small group) at one particular skill, that still doesn't mean that we are a 10 or even qualified to teach others. Just like other people, we all learn things at our own speed and have different interests wh...

kay at least that test worked so here are the photos again hopefully in the correct order: http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn46/remlingp/Renfairranger.jpg http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn46/remlingp/renfairmocs.jpg http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn46/remlingp/renfairsmithatwork.jpg http:...

I took a solitary trip to the NY Renfair today (a scouting mission for our assault later in the season) and took some pics of the smith and the bladesellers. I had orderd a pair of moccasins from a Peruvian shoemaker, that arrived about 2 monthes ago (I know I cheated, but not every ranger is a cobb...

Some of the old breads and bisquits are worth looking into. The difference between breads and bisquits is primarially that the bisquit contains little or no yeast and hence doesn't "rise" leaving yo a very dense hard or crispy cracker. ex: Saltines or Matza Hardtack had it's begining some ...

Andy:

As always, you give good practical advise. Being you are the person most familiar with all the aspects of this, I'd love to see what extra good stuff you'll come up with.

Many types of sausages will last a good amount of time. Even when they start to go bad you simply cut off the observably bad parts and then cut and boil the rest. Grains, veges, or tubers can be added to produce a more filling and balanced meal in the form of a soup or stew.

I'd start with utilizing the military ones that work. I'll see if I can edit out the ones that don't and repost them but it will be a while. Then we'd need a short list of ones that are relevant to a ranger in the woods. After that it's a short trip to devising them and adding to the list.

Hi Andy, The leather backpack depicted in Crafts and Skills is the one I did for Mike. I had promised him a cloak/blanket case and hadn't found a nice piece of tooling leather for a reasonable price ( the cheapest would have been for the entire backpack quote) so I used the same garment leather as t...

Most Native American foods have a comparable food in Europe. All manner of meats were eaten (dog was a popular treat at festivals), while the common Europeons would boil their meats (and only the wealthy would roast) NAs (Native Americans) would tend to roast more. In Europe porridges of boiled grai...