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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Lynda wrote:
> I think we need another name for Bob's kind of "survivalist."  Back in the 
> 70s I knew, and was recruited by, a bunch of *real* survivalists.  They 
> weren't about fear, hoarding, guns and ammunition.  They were about being 
> able to survive using their own talents and the talents of those they 
> surrounded themselves with.  Yes, they had guns, to hunt.  They asked my 
> best friend and I to join them and if we weren't interested in joining them 
> (we weren't), they wanted us to teach them the stuff we knew -- canning, 
> weaving, dying using plants, etc., candle making, soap making, butchering, 
> gardening, etc (which we did for about a year).  The guns they knew as most 
> of the men were retired military (Green Berets, Special Forces and a couple 
> of SEALS).  They got a local farrier to teach them how to shoe a horse and 
> how to work in metals.  Terra and I hooked them up with a friend who was a 
> potter and he taught them how to find the right clays and how to throw 
> dishes and bowls.  I got one of Elsie Allen's granddaughters to show them 
> how to find and cure and weave baskets.
>
>   They bought a couple of thousand acres and moved up in the Sierra 
> foothills.  Last I heard, they were living completely off the grid, doing 
> sustenance gardening and living off the land.


EXACTLY!!!
Finally, I feel like someone gets it!
When I say I am a survivalist, I mean I am one of those people who wants 
to make cordage from vines, learn to make fire using ice, etc. etc. 
There is a magazine called Wilderness Way that I subscribe to and LOVE. 
   It has nothing to do with fear, but everything to do with testing 
yourself and nature...

Bev

--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will 
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius 
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the 
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone 
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve 
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge