Richard's Final Video at ReWildU

Description

Richard completed 4 months at ReWildU in the Forest Monk program. Here is his last video with a few of his experiences from the last month and a half. We'll miss you Richard!

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods

Video Transcription

[Applause]

probably that next one I'm guessing good go through that Kolchak beautiful it's pretty thick yeah yeah it's just at the edge of bearing human weight now you're in a really small hole so you might even have to break some behind you to get your legs up but you'll see yeah Richard is building a primitive camp the concept of that out here revalue is that it's a area where you don't bring modern things and I think he's chosen to have as one Liberty a knife he has a really nice handmade knife that he's going to bring along but otherwise you just bring your clothes and and nothing else modern and he's trying to make a camp that has shelter and a really nice way to cook and ways to boil water so we're gonna go out today I'm going out with my family here we're gonna go out hike out and see what he's been up to here we go okay so what are you doing right now yeah making the bed so you know they'll be kind of a depression underneath me and then I'm thinking of doing the two big stick sort of like you said on the side here and then making your top are the hazel branches so then I'm out of the water when it rains and stuff like that and if I can get it to work out right it put a couple of hot rocks underneath me too on the colder nights of them you know I'd be able to stay warmer this is in a natural trail yeah yeah it was probably like this before and then I just kind of took out the humus and some of the bigger rocks oh and you're collecting more rocks as you go I brought a couple more but and then for the hot rocks too I thought those were all gonna be hierarchs I was like that's you love a hot rocks I'm super tourists you have a lattes

we measure them Oh Wow look at this then you put soil right up against yeah they just kind of pack down that edge besides because well you know just to keep them in keep them from rolling around and stuff because it's really easy to knock it over which is not I mean it doesn't take too long to put up but it's just kind of annoying well yeah if I do that then they stay down and this server is kind of hollow anyway underneath

oh shit soil on ours be symmetrical on the other side this is the oh I guess this is we'll try this but you know just a little hole and then a rope the Rope will go through that and then hopefully you know just get a couple more flat rocks so I can bring this off too like here and then put sticks along the sides so then it still ropes through okay indeed yeah and then the rope to pull the bag probably that'll work keep that I see in the front door here there's the hot rock area look at that sweet

blocking off that little air hole is a very tip of the debris hot wall at the end and that will be filled with insulation and skeet we'll start right there then we're gonna layer with bark there's an inner rain protector that is debris Hut

look at the inside this is a sleeping area oh yeah to get this layering debris these snakes I needles I was just sharing with Richard that as you're gathering materials for your debris your leaves and such I like to leave pretty broad circle around the shelter then I'm making and the reason for that is it creates kind of an alarm system if you leave all those leaves for let's say you know 50 meters out around your shelter and then you're gonna hear when is your human approaching or a deer approaching or you know if you're kind of paranoid then maybe you don't want that because you're gonna be checking things all the time and seeing all your squirrel friend again but I love to have that alarm system so I don't gather any leaves or debris from that today 50 meters around my 50 meters circle around my shelter [Applause]

here it is inside the room for the hot rocks and he made a door is all made with cordage he made looks like basswood oh wow look at this side and that door fits right up in here close it up [Applause]

just in time for the snow four months in the woods

x times a weird thing it's yeah like you kept feeling like oh okay this seems like regular time still and then when I cover a hit all of a sudden I was like I went so fast and then November November was slower at the beginning time kind of came back and then and then I didn't really know what happened after that like it it's like time turned off for a while yeah you said you got some really weird oh time extreme even like this morning I wake up in it bed and it's it's dark and then I I sit there and it feels like it's been a couple hours and it still dark like well I guess it's morning so I get up it's still dark for a really long time so the Sun isn't helping at all for the lacus up yeah and then it's almost worse when I do get little bits of time like when we go into town and stuff like that and then I see what time it actually is it makes me feel kinda like a child brother like 6 o'clock and ridiculous this is northern latitudes with it you know super long days in the summer and super short days and then ours aren't even that bad compared yeah right you can't probably you know some up life experiences in general but take away after four months well I guess a couple of them we're definitely just so humbling it it is all been you know especially November like the beginning of November there are end of October beginning of November that when it started become winter for that bit

I was that was tough because I was trying to I was trying to stay outside the whole time and after a while you know just being cold all the time admit I started going into survival mode you know that's that's important I think that was very very important to do sort of like the hypothermia challenge to dip into that a little bit feel what that was like but but to be like that for for an extended period of time you know like first of all like the immune system and just the body it just takes it takes it all but yeah it took about as long as I was out in it to recover from you know afterward and then I mean basically beginning in November for people that don't know it just turned into pretty much full-blown winter here we got snow and really cold temps and you probably down in this probably single-digit single-digit Fahrenheit you know and it was it was cool yeah yeah so just how humbling not all of us can't fight it you know it just it's been shit and then you know also humbling to go into it go into the cabin cuz I was sort of like like giving up at first you know because I thought I'd be able to do the whole four months outside outside and then to do that was sort of a letdown for me but then but then by doing that I was able to do a whole bunch of other things like finish my ball you know tanda leather and actually be able to enjoy nature instead of just be shivering in it yeah yeah that's I think you're hitting on something there whether it's you know modern house or ancestors would have had you know really nice warmer shelters by wintertime and to be in the tenure and that was school and you just can't you can't soak into life maybe in the same way when you're surviving right which is yeah that was also something because I always imagine surviving would be like when you soak in the most but it's really more like like the narrowest I've been as far as its senses going everything you're just gonna get from here to there as quick as I or not as quick as I can but efficiently as I can spend as much time not doing any yeah this is different very different from anything I've done before most of us will never spend four months in the woods standing in the in the forest looking back to our civilized world any message or or words to give to people you know before you step back into that this is just it's really surprising how much isn't necessary like it giving a bed isn't really necessary just necessary to be warm either either from you know some sort of building or or to be warm inside and from exercise or whatever

it's definitely nice to be around people community is a huge thing as well yeah just to be grateful because even even just the little things here that were more challenging than the rest of the time made me so much more grateful for for the less I have here then I would have had back in society so maybe maybe did just to do a little little challenge once a week or something like that for yourself you know some sort of spontaneous kind of crazy thing to make the room you know what what was sort of you you're boring bird are not necessarily boring but just gonna make the routines we fall in to make those to make those seem a little bit more exciting because there's a lot of stuff that it's just when you fall into a routine at least at least for me even out here falling into a routine start to forget about some of those things gratitude say gratitude is the word word of the four months got it what if we girls I had an insight that Charles Dickens is not related to Emily Dickinson I've always thought that and then not yet hey speaking of poem by Evelyn wait a second that's not the same last name Oh letters letter writing letter writing is huge that yeah because I well I've been writing letters to my family and you know some of my friends this image okay for me yes with with a pen Oh Stoops and they actually have to wait a couple days to get the receipt but it's the letters are so cool because at least for me I'm not super great at talking for being able to to write a little bit and then think about that and then kind of enhance that idea and keep going with it it's just it's just a lot more fulfilling of a way to send people a message and then to receive a message is especially handwritten because you get a seat you know it's like their personality in their handwriting sometimes you get some smells or like I don't know a little bit of spilled juice or whatever you know what and then everybody seems to have a different piece of paper they like to write on them and it's just it's really you know I'm sure letter-writing isn't ever gonna come back early but it's it's pretty special

so we're it's it's worth trying it again yeah yeah

yeah I'll try fucking trying with okay that's it thanks for watching thank you

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ReWildUniversity

ReWildUniversity

To aid and inspire you on your personal re-wilding journey, ReWild University brings you videos on edible wild plants, tree climbing, natural movement, ancestral skills, and much much more!

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