This week was our first survival skills lesson with Tim MacWelch. We learned that the 2 most important things to do if you get lost are to stay in one place and to be brave! Knowing what to do to be safe can help us be brave so we talked about some things to pack in our hiking bags and learned some beginner skills. Tim taught us the Rule of Threes: you can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours in the cold, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. So our first skills were all about staying warm! Tim showed us a space blanket that folds so small it can fit in your pocket.
Next we learned that all knots are made of three basic parts: bights, overhand loops, and underhand loops. We practiced square knots (2 bights), and half hitches (2 overhand loops). Tim recommended looking at animatedknots.com to review knots if you find videos helpful. We used the knots we learned to build diamond shelters with a tarp, some rope, and tent stakes. Our tarps had rivets in the corners that made it easy to tie them up with rope, but Tim also showed us how to tie a sheet knot in case we needed to use a blanket or something else without a hole in the corner to tie through; he suggested trying that knot out at home.
