Re: Excerpt: The Log Cabin: An Adventure - Chapt. 4

> Gee Len,
> 
> What did ol Daniel Boone do? Leave his food outside.  Please answer if you
> have the guts?

Okay, young fella, I've got you figured out now.  You're about 16
years old, you live in a city, and you've doubtless never camped
beyond the boundaries of a state-run campground, if at all.
  I'll try just once more to explain the situation I excerpted from my
book, and I'll use simple language:  I spent 15 months alone there in
the wilderness building a log cabin with only an axe and hand saw,
digging a freshwater well 10' deep with a shovel, and essentially
living the life of a 19th century homesteader - in fact, that was the
point of this exercise.  I wasn't camping in the backyard, I was
homesteading in a wilderness.  There was no place to put my food cache
until the cabin was built, which is precisely why I took that heavy
polyethylene drum.  There was no option, for me or for our forebears
who lived such an existence, except to lay claim to the territory I'd
occupied, and to defend it if need be against marauding animals whose
raids on my food supply might well have serious consequences for me in
the coming winter.  A camper can afford to live in fear of marauding
bears; a homesteader has to deal with them outright, and he cannot
back off.
   Maybe I should've excerpted the rest of the story, as it seems your
sophomoric sensibilities have been affronted.  I didn't kill the bear.
 I would have, and I was prepared to, but apparently I do know enough
about bears.
   Now, I've had enough of your trolling, so if you want to know more,
read The Log Cabin:  You might also try typing my name into any search
engine and reading what others have to say.  I've got another book to
finish writing.

Len McDougall, author of the books: The Log Cabin: An Adventure in
Individualism, Self-Reliance, and Cabin Building, The Complete
Tracker, The Field & Stream Wilderness Survival Handbook, The Snowshoe
Handbook, Practical Outdoor Projects, The Outdoors Almanac, Made for
the Outdoors, Practical Outdoor Survival   
http://groups.msn.com/TimberwolfWildernessAdventures/home