Survivorman

“I KNEW I had seen it before...Bill insisted it was a new one....”

“Good news Les Stroud fans and multi-tool freaks. Les will start shooting a program in the Amazon in a week or two for the long-awaited second season. After that, he says, "I am expecting to go to the Australian Outback, the African desert, the African bushland, the Alaskan coast and the rough scoured rock of northern Labrador."

He said the shows will start airing in February.”

“Cool, thanks!”

“Glad to hear he's doing another season...I admire him more for hauling around his own camera gear than anything else...I think I heard him mention that it weighed something like 65lbs...I probably misheard...”

“I tried to download his show, but all I ended up with was porn, ICK!”

“i became a survivorman fan this year. why doesn't the show survivor ever do anything in the mountains or somewhere theres snow?”

“Because then the girls couldn't wear bikinis and thats why 45% of the men who watch Survivor tune in each week. It would be very interesting wouldn't it? A real, uncomfortable, not warm, survivor situation.”

“Survivor Andes.
Our two teams are the Dahmer Party and the Donner Party. It’s all fun and games until someone gets eaten.”

“Thats the Dinner party”

“He did a mountain show in the premier season in the Canadian Rockies. He was dropped by helo on the peak and had to cross a glacier to get down off the peak. If you missed it, keep watching. It'll turn up.”

“I notice that he is always dressed very well, but he never talks about what clothes to wear. In the cold weather ones, or borreal forest, he's in wool (arctic) and synthetic clothes. He also can always get a fire going. He has used an axe and a rock, but somehow he also had a piece of char cloth to catch the spark and catch the surrounding tinder on fire. One time he used a magnifying glass, and I wonder if he didn't have a char cloth that time.

He also has very poor luck in catching food. He sets figure 4 traps and doesn't put the bait on the point of the stick, and it gets robbed. Duh. He catches a rabbit once, which is the only food I've seen him catch.

He waded out in ice cold water to gather tubers from the bottom of a pond. Yikes. That was a net loss in energy! I didn't see him eat mushrooms. I wonder if they were a kind that he knew what it was?

The message is, carry fire starting gear (char cloth), have about 25 pounds of fat you can live off for a week, and wear good clothes and boots, because you are going to be walking for 3 of the 5 days. Interesting show.”

“I watched him last night in Ontario in winter and he made his own char cloth in the fire for his travel out. That was the episode he got the rabbit. In that same episode he talked about his clothes which he said he always goes with wool in winter. I then saw him in a Georgia swamp and he caught frogs and turtles to eat and started a fire with a "prison match" (tp with sock lint starter) and an empty bic lighter.

I think the production limits him some. He has to spend soooo much time messing with the cameras. Plus he seems to switch up a bit with his techniques probably because he needs to give as many different ways to do things to keep it fresh and informative.”

“I don't have the time to watch but I would love a weekly update on what he is DOING wrong. If he and the other Bear guy (not Bearmagnet or Buddah Bear) have the same effect on wanna bees as CSI has had on wannabe investigators....it will be significantly dangerous.”

“Hi Everyone,

Well, Les is back from the sweltering plains of Africa, where he faced some of the deadliest wildlife on earth. Thankfully, he managed to keep his cool in more ways than one! His final entry is now included in his blog, as well as his complete Kalahari Desert experience. Check it out. You can read it now at www.lesstroudonline/blog/ .

And you've asked for it. Survivorman attire is on its way! Hats and t-shirts will soon be available!

Take Care,

Wendy”

“wonder if he will get some liquid to drink from elephant dung like the guy on Man vs. Wild did”

“Bear Gryls is full of that stuff, so it doesn't bother him. His body accepts it.”

“Start Aug 10th.

The advert says he's going around the globe! I am looking forward to this season!”

“Les will be on Larry King at 9 EDT tonight, along with others, to discuss shark attacks.”

“i don't expect les has ever been attacked by a shark. i hope they have someone from the uss indianapolis on the show. real perspective.”

“I stayed up waaaaaaaaay to late last night to watch a few of reruns. I really like this guy. I like how he includes his screw ups and unsuccessful attempts at something in the show. This show seems less contrived than the Man v. Wild show. Both are entertaining though.”

“Yeah, I dig survivorman as well. I like how he goes for 3-5 days without food sometimes, deadfalls don;t work, etc. More realistic for sure.”

“I watched it last night too. I like the show. He didn't seem to have a lot of warm clothing on in that one show, where he was in Canada. It was -18 and staying out in those temps with no food for a few days had to be tough.”

“I like survivorman waaaaay better than Bear Grylls. Les is way more realistic and does in fact appear to be alone. Bear does too many "stunt" type things that seem to be more for dramatic effect than for survival.”

“Les is in the Khalahari desert. And just explained that urine is 92% water and the rest are toxins that would hurt him if were to drink it 'straight'. He made a urine still.

He dug a depression in the sand and peed on the sides of the hole he dug. He put a cup in the hole and a piece of plasic over it all. He anchored the plastic down with the sand and made sure that the plastic came down to a point inside the cup. He said the water in the urine should evaporate and go up onto the bottom side of the plastic and fall down into the cup.

He also just started a fire with a pop can and chocolate. COOL!!!”

“watched the africa episode yesterday. i think the thing that most struck me was how relatively easy things were for him. then i realized the diversity and volume of life around him and realized how rich this part of south africa really is. i mean there are so many resources that life has sprung up to struggle for their use.

also, the balloon he was using was a treasure trove. he normally doesn't have all those goodies (biners, rope, ripstop, wool, first aid kid, etc, etc).

he made fire with chemicals. that is always cool.

also, his attempts at hunting were feable (not that i could do better). he always seems to starve in every eposode. still, he makes better use of wild edible plants than i would. i bet before he goes out on one of these things he eats like an entire deep-dish pizza or something! haha!”

“I like this show & it is funny the hubby has gotten hooked on it! I missed the African one but did you see the one this week were he ate the roots of the waterlilies..he had a hard time even getting those down!”

“What type of waterlilies did he eat? Some are very tasty, some are purgatives.”

“he ate cattail stalks (the soft base) in the africa episode.”

“With the north American varieties you don't eat the stalks, but the tubers. Whatnever.”

“Yeah...it was the tubers...I THINK it was the Canadian Rocks..but don't hold me to it. I can't remember what kind. They were very bitter.”

“If you can boil them they are better...boil twice and dump the water...

keep waiting for one of these guys to show "Queen Anne's Lace"...(Member of the Carrot family...).”

“You can eat Queen Anne's Lace???? Is it good???

He finally took water and but it in his hat, added hot rocks and the tubers...they were a bit more edible that way.”

“pull the plant up, the root is white...break one and smell it..."Carrot" cut 'em up and cook 'em because they are a little bitter, not much, but a lot better if they're cooked.

http://www.auburn.edu/~deancar/wfnotes/q_a_lace.htm
last edited: 9/14/07 7:41:54 AM”

“I may try that! Thanks!”

“Queen Ane's Lace seeds are a rather tasty garnish for things if you find them in seed.

Very early milk weed pods can be edible too. They have to be young and you soak and boil them several times to remove the milky sap which makes them very bitter.”

“cattails have rhizomes”

“queen anne's lace has a root like a white carrot. the boy scouts i used to hang with were always pulling up the stuff and trying to eat it. you have to catch it at the right point in time or it's like chewing wood. forget it! otherwise if i recall it's a little sweet and somewhat astringent in taste and smell, perhaps a tad bitter.”

“Queen Anne's lace root is best if you get it before the plant has set seed. After that its like chewing on boiled twigs.”

“There's a bunch of cattails in the ditch just outside, I should go grab a couple and come back into the office chowin' down - just to see what happens.”

“i recommend ranch dressing”

“To add to what treebait said about Queen annes lace...

Its best to get the first years new growth (recently disturbed areas and borders of vegetation are best) quite tasty. But get old stuff and its high fiber to say the least, like eating rope.

You can eat the stalk base on cattails too, the portion that remains submerged, its like a slimy cucumber that taste bad.

Ground sorel, plantain, dandelion, fiddle heads all are edible though not tasty.

I used to carry a wild edibles book on every trip and we would try at least one native plant while out.

I think the fact that he rarely scores big for food is quite realistic. He is trained and does this routinely whereas we are hobbiests. Think how much harder this would be without any knowledge.

Makes me recall that Nigal and I use to want to do a summer trip where we would have to forgae,fish and catch all of our food for a 2-3 day trip. We could carry only what was in a band-aid container (plus a can for boiling water). We never did it, maybe a TT survival trip mid summer?”

“hehe I used to eat the wild carrots (queens ann's lace) when I was a kid.

hey, FYI, wild grapes and elder berries are ripe for the picking right now.”

“I beg to differ about the fiddleheads. But again you have to get them early and boil the snot out of them. The sap is extremely bitter and the fiber needs to be broken down real good.

We tried doing a quick saute on them once and they were horrid. I could not understand why any one would want to eat them. Then I had them at grange dinner. They had been made by a little old Mainiac lady. They were delicious. They need to be boiled til they can do no harm, pour the cooking water off and rinse them well.”

“How long did you boil em?”

“20-30 min full boil....

I mean really boil the snot out of them.”

“that was our problem, we boiled em for maybe 5-10 minutes. Thanks for the info Rev, I will try them next spring.”

“I'm up for the Band-Aid Box Boogie! We'd be the Boogie Woogie Band-Aid Boys of Good Ole TT! (Groan....)

But how about mid to late spring, so we don't freeze or sweat....ande we can concentrate on learning from each other?”

“hey, i could go for that survivorman trip thing. it would be fun.”

“Birch... the wife says the boil time is more like 15-20 minutes but still that's longer than you did. And you need to rinse them well too. the sap is extremely bitter.”