When I first heard the news that searchers found trousers belonging to James Kim, I thought: hypothermia.

It breaks my heart that I was right. I don’t go anywhere without the basics of my pocket survival kit. I also have emergency supplies in my car.

Shelter is paramount in a survival situation. I’m not judging this man. I went bushwhacking the other day and ended up in a swamp. I knew I was within 2.5 miles of my car; I had more than four hours of daylight on a partly sunny, warm afternoon with no wind.

Still, an injury could have changed my afternoon. I had headed west off the trail and knew that I wanted to travel north. I was just looking for a little loop; what I thought was an abandoned field was in fact a wetland.

I like exploring and the idea of house sitting makes sense to me.

I recently published this article on the housecarers.com website.

A new television program aired on the Science Channel last night – Survivorman: Surviving Urban Disasters. It’s running again at 9:00 AM EDT.

Les Stroud did say he had nothing to do with post production. I found the editing confusing and wish CBS editors stuck with one scenario at a time, rather than rotating from home to office to car.

I’m sure this program was intended for release on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to get people thinking.

Viewers were also treated to reruns of two SURVIVORMAN episodes. I’ve attempted some of what Les Stroud is demonstrating; he’s right, it’s
difficult enough to develop competence – or even mastery – if you are
among friends, well fed and well rested. But he is burdened with
equipment that weighs almost as much as I do while surviving by his
wits – alone.

Watching is a terrific first step. Taking a survival skills class is an excellent investment. But nothing beats practice.

A reader thought my inclusion of a cricket recipe in my Wild Foods Recipes was a turn-off. If she takes her children to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, they’ll find crickets sold as candy in the gift shop.

I was traveling in Israel last year at this time.

I have been struggling to comprehend what is going on and why. I received an email with two letters that left me asking the question: Could I survive in this environment?

For me, the difference in attitude between what each woman thinks is possible is key. I bolded the text that impacted me when I read these letters.

Here’s what was on my mind this past week while (mostly) immersed in nature.

My heart broke as I listened to one NPR report this morning. A man describes trying to put his devastated house in New Orleans back together, while city leaders debate whether his neighborhood should instead be turned into open space.

My heart ached for the man, who has only known this home. He speech suggests a hard-working, poor, and unworldly individual. I couldn’t tell if he’s elderly – but that would make his predicament even more daunting. I have no clue if he was white or black.

My heart ached as I thought about the first law of wilderness survival – a good shelter in a bad location is a bad shelter.

Did you ever wonder how birds built their nests? Here’s a chance to be a bird and find out.

Look at nests built by different kinds of birds. If you don’t have any nests near by, exhibits in a nature museum or even photos of nests will work.

Make notes on the shapes, materials used, how they are placed in a tree, shrub, or on the ground, whether they are woven together, lined with mud, or just loosely piled up.

Make a list of materials birds use:

How many more can you discover?

Materials:

First time setup of ultralite tarp.

The sacred order is: Shelter first – then water, fire, food. In a survival situation, it is critical to conserve energy and resources. Panic and frustration get in the way of success in any situation � they can be deadly in the outdoors. If it’s late in the day or you are in a place with limited resources, what you do first matters.

The point of building a shelter first is that for the outlay of energy it takes to gather branches and leaves, you can build a debris shelter without tools and ensure a way to maximize your body heat. The worst thing that can happen in the woods is not starvation or animal attack � it�s hypothermia.

Barbara Kingsolver writes:

Wilderness puts us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in those cases in which our plans might influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet Earth, we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of lives that are not our own.