I want to do an intro to one of the the first things that really caught my attention: bushcraft. It intrigued me for a number of reasons, but if this term is unfamiliar to you, let’s start with a rough definition.

“Bushcraft” can mean a lot of things. To some people it means hand-forged Scandinavian axes, rugged and durable outdoor clothing, looking as close to a lumberjack as you can, belt knives, coils of rope, and building log shelters. It can mean being prepared for survival no matter the circumstances. To some, it’s foraging for wild foods like roots and mushrooms, producing fire from natural elements using a bow or hand drill you made from materials right in your vicinity, acquiring and cleaning water, or tracking and trapping animals using primitive traps.

And again to others, it means living in harmony with nature. Respecting nature and taking only what you need, concerned about survival but also preservation of what exists—A simpler life concerned with only the necessities.

For me, my definition lives amongst all of these things. I love bushcraft because you can take whatever you want from it. It really sits at the heart of what Better Than Average is. It’s knowledge, it’s skill, it’s perspective, and it’s enjoyment.

Bushcraft has grown vastly in popularity over the past few years, and as a result there are more and more people producing content for it, learning about it, and naturally, more people selling stuff around it. There’s definitely more commercialization around it than there was a few years ago, but overall thanks to the internet, there is so much more information and content to enjoy on bushcraft than ever before, and it’s never been more accessible.

Bushcraft on YouTube

The simple life; the grind.

There’s a few reasons bushcraft was so interesting and enjoyable for me.

A few years ago, I was at a place in my life where I had begun to feel stagnant and unfulfilled in my work. While software development can be enjoyable and fulfilling, there are moments where you question what real impact your work is having. It can be so disconnected—so void of human connection. You’re staring at a screen of blinking lights. Especially working remotely, even your coworkers are represented by those blinking lights, and their voices a computerized version of themselves. The customers don’t even know who you are, and you rarely if ever interact them over more than an email or a support ticket. It’s quite the contrast to even a normal office job. Sometimes it makes you wonder, if you stopped doing your job, or the company you worked for vanished—would anyone care? Are you making any tangible impact on people’s lives?

Over the past few years there have been numerous articles about “the rise of BS jobs.” To me these are jobs that feel as though they are without meaning and have lost the element of human connection.

I found myself watching hours upon hours of bushcraft videos—people camping in the middle of nowhere, chopping down trees with axes and processing them into firewood, and trapping and cooking fish on the fire they had made just a few moments earlier. I don’t know why, but it was just so surreal. You might think that watching three hours of someone paddling around a lake, talking by a fire, or chopping wood would be incredibly boring, but in a weird way it was almost meditative. In a world of political posts on social media, traffic, and constant bombardment by emails and notifications on your phone, watching these people carve out a simple, focused, and quiet life for a short time in the woods was simply hypnotic.

I mean come on, look at this guy. How cool is that?

For those few hours I felt calmer. I felt like life was simpler—like it was how life could or should be. The only concern of the day was the task at hand. Gather food. Purify water. Create a shelter. There wasn’t anything extraneous about it. Everything was simple but necessary. It’s how people for thousands of years lived. To them it was just everyday life, but I would bet they were happier and healthier than a lot of us are today.

So that’s one part of it. Watching, learning, and practicing bushcraft was a type of retreat for me. It brought simplicity, focus, and quiet into my life. Now, I don’t want to pretend or suggest that this topic will imbue your life with purpose or solve all of your problems, but for me it did help shift and re-align my perspective.

A knife, a match, and a canteen.

Have you ever wondered if you had what it takes to survive in the wild? To enter the forest with only a knife and a canteen? Or do you have a little bit of a “Prepper” vibe in you, and you’ve thought about just disappearing into the middle of nowhere and living off the grid? I’ve had both of these thoughts, and by digging into bushcraft I have a few more tools in the toolbelt if stuff ever really goes down.

But aside from being paranoid, for people who like to take in a vast amount of information and train what could someday be very useful (or essential) skills, bushcraft is the place for you. Just to name a few things, you might want to know how to:

  • Build a shelter
  • Create fire from natural materials
  • Collect water, filter, and purify it
  • Locate and harvest edible plants/fruits/fungi
  • Navigate unknown terrain or signal for help
  • Track or trap game
  • Create and maintain tools
  • Administer first aid and maintain your health
  • Identify useful plants or trees
  • Catch, prepare, and cook an animal

And the list goes on and on. Turns out, just surviving can be complicated, and as a species we’ve acquired a lot of knowledge that has been passed down throughout the years on how to do it. And luckily, with a little creativity almost all of these skills can be learned and practiced in modern society.

A call back to nature.

Without getting too hippy-dippy about this, learning and practicing bushcraft increased my enjoyment and appreciation of nature. If you look closely enough, you’ll find diversity and interesting outdoor life all around you.

Even sitting in my ordinary, suburban backyard I began to notice what types of tree were around me: various oaks (a hardwood great for effective firewood), cedars (which contain stringy and fluffy bark which can serve as tinder), and a wide variety of birds which frequented the backyard and had their own personalities, quirks, and habits. Even that dandelion sprouting up in the corner wasn’t a weed—it’s actually food.

By realizing what nature has to offer us and by respecting the cost of taking it, we learn to appreciate it.

Conclusion

Bushcraft is a vast topic, and I won’t even attempt to cover near the breadth or depth of it, but I hope even just this intro has peaked your curiosity about it. It really contains something for everyone. As I’m no expert in this, I will share my favorite resources for learning and practicing this stuff along the way. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do and have.

Thanks for reading.

- John