First Overnight Camp With My Daughters

The following is transcribed from my field journal. There are typos, misspellings and editings as there would be for transcriptions of other period journals. This entry is from an overnighter I did with my daughters in October, 2014

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014
FIRST DADDY/DAUGHTER OVERNIGHTER – FT. UNION
     The girls, Signe & Brynja, & I finished packing after school & then headed out to Fort Union. This is the first overnighter that the girls & I have done together. Tommorrow I will be portraying a fort hunter for a group of Boys Scouts coming down from Minot, ND. As I understand there will be four or five stations they will go through. The girls & my brother Haans will be assisting me when we talk to the boys about Indian Sign Language.

     When the girls & I arrived tonight the sun was starting to set so we had to hurry. One of the hand carts our local muzzleloader club built was brought up to the fort to use at my hunter camp demo. The girls & I loaded our gear into the cart & brought it into the fort over by the carpenters shack. Our camp consisted of ground cloths, our blankets all together & a ground cloth on top of us. Supper was to be a small stew of meat & potatoes but I need to quickly make a fire. When I opened my fire kit I realized my error. I had onlyl two small pieces of char cloth left. I had intended several times over the past month to make more, but I never did. So much for being prepared. I tried my darndest to get some brome grass to catch flame, but to no avail. I think it could have been too damp. Maybe I just choked. Either way, I had fail to start the fire with flint & steel & had failed in front of my daughters.
     Fortunately I had a small match safe inside of our small lantern & quickly got a fire going. While we waited for the stew to come to a boil I read to the girls from a book I found in the back of the library work room at school that was no longer a part of the regular inventory. It was called “Jerry the Muskrat”. Before I new it we had been reading for over forty minutes.
     The girls & I wolfed down the stew as it was now past nine in the evening. After we finished eating

we cleaned all our cookware & got water for coffee tomorrow morning.
     The moon & stars were bright tonight & we talked for awhile. The girls & I saw a meteor, which they were fascinated by & lead to a discussion on wishing on falling stars. We talked about coyotes & how they can’t climb the fort’s walls, how tall the walls were & how they want me to take them bird hunting. They asked me an onslaught of questions & were then finally ready for bed, which was good because I was rapidly running out of words. We crawled into the bedding & lay down to sleep. The girls were out in short order. The was a good evening. I really enjoyed the good one on one time away from distractions with the girls. They’re troopers for doing this with me. Hope it doesn’t get too cold for them tonight.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014
FIRST DADDY/DAUGHTER OVERNIGHTER – FT. UNION
     Lastnight got down to 34 deg. F & stayed about 72 deg. F under all the blankets after we readjusted things in the middle of the night. We ended up snuggling close to each other, me, Signe in the middle & Brynja on the other end, all sharing the blankets. I also tucked the top ground cloth under our feet & around us. After it was tucked under it made a big difference because it kept the wind from entering through the blankets & helped keep heat in. The girls did great. We were up & going before staff arrived.
     We first set to roasting coffee beans in a small pan & I then ground them in the pan with the back of my axe head. I dumped them into the kettle & set it over the fire. I was able to get a fire going from the few coals that remained from lastnight’s fire. We slept with our feet under the cart.

     About the time I had a well established fire going, Ranger Carr, Taylor, Kris & my brother Haans arrived in short order, followed by Sawyer & Ranger Sanden. The girls talked Kris into reading them more from “Jerry the Muskrat” while I began to fry up our bacon for our breakfast of bacon cheese & flat bread. We always have to have bacon now since they started to learn Indian Sign Language. Dave F & Mike arrived as well.
     Taylor was able to use the fire for his cooking demo station. He made cow tongue & collared beef. Both were very good.
     We made a second fire, where I had my hunter camp set up to roast “hump ribs”, “buffalo stew” & actual buffalo meat.
     When the scouts arrived at my station we talked about the duties & benefits of being a fort hunter, how they hunted buffalo & ways they cooked it. We had the boys prepare willow branches to roast the ribs. Then one by one they each got to roast a piece of the real buffalo meat. The Scout leaders really

enjoyed that. From comments we got later that was their favorite part of the hunter camp. We also showed them how to roast coffee beans, grind them & make coffee & worked with them on short phrases in Indian Sign Language & also how to sign the Scout Oath. When their time at the fort was done they thanked us all for putting on today’s stations for them. Some of them took pictures with us & of me & my girls.
     When it was all done Taylor & I set up a buffet line on the wooden bar for all the staff & volunteers

with food we’d prepared today. If anyone went hungry it was their own fault. Kim & Garrick made it out & got to eat with us.
     Even though it was a short outing I really enjoyed the time with my girls. I hope this is the beginning of many more daddy/daughter campouts.
--Leifer

October 2014 Aux Aliments Du Pays

The following is transcribed from my field journal. There are typos, misspellings and editings as there would be for transcriptions of other period journals. This entry is from a three day, 2 night Aux Aliments Du Pays in October of 2014

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16^th, 2014
WILD GRAPE AUX ALIMENTS DE PAYS

     The last food I ate was about 8:30pm yesterday. This morning the only thing I have consumed has been water. By 10:30am today I was on the trail. Things were wet & misty out with cloud cover. It was about 50 deg. F.
     By good providence I came across wild grapes. Amazingly there were still some that were still grapes & hadn’t turned into raisins yet. Considering this area has frozen a few times this was a great find & boost to morale. I would have something to eat today. I picked a bunch & put them in my blue check scarf & tied it to my braces. I picked both the grapes & the ones that had turned to raisins.
     About an hour later I dropped my manty pack & began to pursue a quarry of pheasant I had stumbled upon. It seamed to not matter that I was trying to be slow & quiet while taking off the pack. I loaded my 1790s contract rifle with #4 shot & pursued the bird for several hours. I fired three times & slew no birds. At least I had the grapes. Tommorrow will be another chance. I backtracked & got my pack.
     I came across the stream that is fed by a spring & crossed it. I found the clearing that I had found while scouting the area some months back & set up camp in a sheltered spot underneath some trees.
     Taking my rifle with me I scouted the area more & found some pippins! A crab apple

tree! They weren’t to tart. That’s now two food sources I can return to over the next two days if I can find nothing else. No signs of rabbit or squirrel. I did find some large cactus. A third food source.
     Collected water from the stream in my lidded copper kettle & filtered it with a SAWYER filter. The water tastes good. I now have roughly a quart of water, not counting what is in my guord canteen.
     I started collect wood for a fire. There is so much available dead fall that I really don’t need my axe. A half axe or large hatchet would have been sufficient & lighter. I don’t have one of those yet. One of those tear down buck saws would have been great to as they are smaller & lighter.
     I pulled out my fire tin & retrieved a piece of char cloth & some strips of dry bark tinder I had collected earlier. Used a piece of flint & my oval fire steel hanging from my belt I quickly got a small fire going.
     I opened up the scarf that held the grapes & began to pic the raisins off the bunches &

put them into my tin cup until it was about a quarter full. I then filled the cup with water & sat it next to the coals to warm up. While I waited I slowly ate the small grapes off of the little bunches with my mouth. They tasted good & contain two seeds, which I ate as well, chewing them up finely. I also ate some of the pippins. The raisins reconstituted themselves well enough in the hot water. They now took up half the tin cup. The water was now purple & the hot diluted grape flavor water felt good as I drank It.
     I built a small tripod over the fire & hung my pants on it to dry. Then my socks & mocs. When everything was dry got redressed & let the fire burn down to coals. I then pulled my rifle, bag & horn into my bedroll & hunkered down for the night. My gloves & extra shirt I used for a pillow.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17^th, 2014
WILD GRAPE AUX ALIMENTS DU PAYS
     It got down to 38 deg. F lastnight. Was nice & warm & comfortable. I would wake up roughly every hour to the sound of animals. I was able to identify the sounds of: dogs, coyotes, owls, birds, deer & even a feral cat. The coyotes woke me up three times. They got within an 1/8^th to ¼ mile of me. #4 shot loaded in the rifle & only needed the pan primed to be put to use. I know I was most likely safe, however, when you are alone your mind can have a tendancy of running wild. Throughout the night I would end up playing my jaw harp, singing loudly “Over the Hills and Far Away”, “The Regular Army O” & “God’s Own Child I Gladly Say It” as well as spending many moments in conversation with my creator asking for protection, peace of mind & bravery if I should need it. I awoke again at early dawn, it just starting to get light. I said one final prayer & slept soundly for several straight hours.
     I awoke to sunshine! Such a happy change from yesterday! I ate a several small bunches of the wild grapes & some pippins. I really haven’t been eating all that much & seem to be doing well thus far.
     I decided to scout the area more to try to draw a crude map of the are & the places I had

been. I found a downed willow & was able to cross the stream without getting my feet wet. I picked another batch of pippins & put them into my blue scarf tied onto my braces. I ate some while I walked. The area is pretty with the fall colors. Took several shots at pheasants but they eluded me. Finally I got one! However, it landed on the other side of the water so I hat to backtrack to be able to cross it. I searched for half an hour or so & could not find him. Did he float down stream? Was he only winged & hobbled away while I made my way to the other side? I’ll never know.
     Mid afternoon I made my way back to camp to drink some water. After I drank my fill I grabbed the lidded copper kettle & the SAWYER & filtered another canteen full of water.
     I scouted more of the area for my map.
     When I made it back to camp I gathered additional wood & started a fire to make another cup of hot grape tea for supper. I put the remainder of my wild raisins into my tin cup, filled it with water & set it next to the coals to simmer.
     I decided to see what kind of a spread & pattern my rifle was doing with the #4 shot I was using by firing at the trunk of a dead tree. After I fired I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. At the top of the hill, not one hundred yards from me a coyote darted, stopped & looked at me & sauntered away. “Ok,” I said out loud, “time to evade the enemy.” I pulled my tea off to the side of my gear to let it cool & grabbed my kettle. If I acted now, within forty-five minutes I could pack my camp, douse the fire & be a mile down the trail.
     After several trips to the stream with my kettle had my fire thoroughly saturated. I quickly packed my gear, downed my tea, mantied the pack, loaded my rifle, donned my pack & was down the trail.

     It can be an eerie thing, headed down the trail, it almost dark, trying to make as little noise as possible. While I rather have a confrontation with coyotes than biped pursuers angered by my presence, I’d rather have no confrontation at all.
     It was dark when I finally stopped about a mile from my previous camp. I found a low hanging tree & made my bed under its branches. Looking up at the sky & seeing the stars shining brightly, I had a good idea tonight was going to be a lot colder. At this point I was sweaty pretty good & my hair was drenched. I quickly got my bedding sorted & tore off my shirt. I dried my hair as best I could & wiped myself down. I stood in the cold for several minutes trying to air dry off before I put on a dry shirt & fresh dry socks. I aly on top of my bedding until the cold was too uncomfortable & then crawled into my bedding, rifle beside me, only needing to be primed to be put to use.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014
WILD GRAPE AUX ALIMENTS DE PAYS
     After a long while I finally fell asleep lastnight. While I was feeling more secure in my hidden location I did not fair any better for sleep in comparison to the previous night. About once an hour or so I would wake up. The wind blew off & on all night. It was noticeably colder & the fact I had began to sweat on my evasive hike lastnight had not aided things. It got down to 29 deg. F.
     I got up at early dawn & donned my capote & mittens. I was glad I had brought them. I

headed off on last time to hunt & scout the area.
     The birds eluded  me again. Sever times geese flew overhead, & I think I may have had an honest chance, however, I did not have a stamp for geese.
     I came across a large bird on the ground. It was a hawk. Yesterday I heard shot gun shots from this area. Had they accidentally shot him? Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? It couldn’t have been there more than a day.
     Came across sign of beaver activity. Two dams across the stream, slides & a possible castor mound. Didn’t see the beaver.
     While on the trail I discovered there was a person on a horse with two dogs. Maybe I could avoid interaction. About the time I decided to step off the trail & into cover to avoid being detected the rider turned the horse & started coming at me. I figured I may as well continue on down the trail at this point instead of possibly creating a negative situation. When the dogs got closer I stopped & took a knee & held my hand out. I made sure that the muzzle of my rifle was pointed behind me as it rested on my knee. When the rider, a woman, got close enough I stood, began to walk again & said, “Looks like today is much nicer than a few days ago.” The rider responded with,”Yep. Today is gorgeous.” As we passed each other by the encounter ended. I wan’t sure how anyone would react to seeing me, dressed as I was & was glad I caused no apparent alarm.
     Mid morning I stopped & picked more pippins the last I would have on this trip. I ate them while I continued to scout & enjoy the scenery, knowing my time here was about done.
     I ventured down into the lowlands & followed a canal that went through a friends farm land. There were a group of men working on a garage. I attempted to avoid detection initially, but decided I would follow the canal the whole way down before I head back to pack up camp. I difiniately caught those poor boys off guard. “What the hell is that?” I heard one of the men ask followed by conversation I couldn’t discern.
 

    I kicked up some pheasants along the canal. When I reached the end I returned back to my camp where I packed my gear & then returned to my vehicle. It was a good experience. I fared well enough. I should have drank more water thant what I did. I was feeling weak from the sleep deprivation but good enough to make it home safely. I am proud of how things went overall. I would do some things differently next time, however, I survived. Which is good. I wouldn’t have to worry about my wife killing me for dying on her out in the woods.
-- Leifer