Читать книгу How to Send Smoke Signals, Pluck a Chicken & Build an Igloo - Michael Powell - Страница 6

The vast majority of people enjoy the natural world, but many of us are unaware just what an incredible natural resource awaits beyond our front doors, or we are intimidated by our lack of knowledge of the wild places. However, everyone is capable of learning traditional skills to tame the wilderness and to deepen their understanding and enjoyment of nature. We would all benefit from a crash course in outdoor living.

Most of us haven’t got the first clue about the easiest al fresco tasks, let alone how to track animals or build a dry stone wall. But nothing is more important than getting back to basics! Nothing! That’s why you’ll love this book. It’s an indispensable collection of practical, straightforward advice—everything you need to start facing the challenges of the great outdoors.

It is a pocket compendium of more than seventy wilderness skills to boost your open-air basics, from plucking a chicken and collecting maple syrup to shoeing a horse and opening a coconut with a stone. Keep it handy so that you can refer to it whenever you need to start a fire in the rain, read a compass, forage for food, sharpen a knife, or survive a bear attack. It’s reassuring to discover that many seemingly complicated tasks are quite simple when broken down into their basic, essential steps.

Some of the skills in this book require a bit of practice, but in the words of Eighties pop band The Korgis, "everybody’s got to learn sometime" and everybody’s got to start somewhere too. Even an expert has to begin with the nuts and bolts. Despite this, the hope is that you could actually study topics like "make a dugout canoe" or "pan for gold" and disappear for a few weeks to turn a fallen tree into an open boat or find your fortune in a local stream.

Reading this book won’t make you a master of primitive technology overnight but it will certainly put you ahead of the game, point you in the right direction, and show that some of the skills you considered beyond your reach are extremely accessible.