Winter do'ins and projects?

[Leifer]

A bit late, but, Happy New Year! Hope you all are wintering well. I've just posted a write-up on a recent project for everyone. What projects has everyone been working on this winter? What kind of things have you been doing out on the ground? I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to and sharing some myself.

Leifer

[Pare]

I finished this bag up the other night. Its 12x13" and based off of an Apsaroke bag from the 1870s at the Buffalo Bill museum of the West in Cody, WY. Different region than me, but still the same concept.





Original. 17x17.5".

Pare-

[john]

Looks excellent.  Braintan?  Where is your region?

[Pare]

Thanks. Yeah, its brain tan that I got from a guy in Montana, who is also from Seminole County, Oklahoma; the east central part of the State.

Pare-

[TurkeyCreek]

Nice pouch Pare.
I'm working on several things in between remodel projects on our house.  My son and I are making a forge anjd I'm trying mmy first time brain tanning a hair on elk hide. Not my first brain tanning but my first hair on hide and my first elk hide. And it's a BIG bull.

[john]

Here are a few pics from my winter camp here in the mountains of eastern Idaho last weekend.  This is my first experiment with attaching pics so let's see if it will work.  Ok, not sure if this worked at all.  Gotta be a better way....I'll look for instructions   Winter camp 1.pdf (458.29 KB)

[john]

Guys,
Let me know if the pdf I attached to my previous post is viewable.  Any suggestions on posting pics would be appreciated.  This was from my winter camp last weekend, an AMM requirement that i did as part of the effort to move up to the Bosslopper level. Only non-period gear  was my snowshoes.  I started on a pair of period snowshoes but didn't like where it was going so I need  to start over on that project.  This was a pretty epic snowshoe in the Big Hole Mountains up a tributary of Pine Creek, the stream valley that the Blackfeet took to cross over Pine Creek pass and into Pierre's Hole on their way to the battle of Pierre's Hole, 1832 I believe.  Numerous snow-bridge crossings over the creek, and  some bad  sidehilling.  The trail had totally drifted in since i was in there a few months ago, then had glazed  over with a hard crust due to the crazy warm weather we've been having.  The steep slopes were really treacherous, but I finally made it up to bench and a nice campsite I had found a few months ago  under some huge Doug Firs.  The snow looks pretty thin in my camp pic, but just outside of the branches was crotch to waist deep.  A number of lessons learned from this camp, though mostly it went pretty smoothly.
John

[Old Solitair]

Yes sir John, your attachment opened. Nice camp! wish I was on the ground there too! I like your comment " lessons Learned" that's truly how to look at it, what I need don't need and do better next time. Always ask yourself, how would they do it in the field with what they had only?


Please show us your primitive snow shoes, those are a challenge to do for sure when you ask that above question. It is so easy to look at older type snow shoes and try to copy at home with tools and our modern ways of though.


Great journeys to ya!

[scottc]

Picture came through fine - thanks John.

[john]

Hello Old Solitair.  Those snowshoes I started weren't going to work so I converted them to beaver sticks.  I used chokecherry and cut my frames from stuff that was a little too thick and consequently too heavy.  I'm going to take another stab at snowshoes at some point and will probably try a simpler design that should be more period correct.  There's an interesting crude pair in the museum in Pinedale WY that is essentially of the ojibway design.  I agree with the thoughts of others in the AMM on this subject, that being that elaborate, finely crafted and finished snowshoes were not common, as it seems that it would have been very unlikely that the mountaineers would have hauled them all over the west until the following winter.  They were probably making strong but essentially disposable snowshoes, just well built enough to do the job at hand for that winter.

I finally connected on a beaver this weekend using Allen Hall's double spring Bridger's (modified to be more period correct), and the wood stake in deep water method. Got that dude skinned but ran out of time on fleshing and hooping.  Hopefully this pdf works.  Beaver pics.pdf (371.16 KB).  I froze the pelt but should have time to process it this weekend.