Bushcrafting, the weed addition: Bugout patch

Larry {the} Gardener

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Or maybe weedcrafting? I will admit to being one of those guys with a small pack of beans, rice, coffee and a hobo stove in all their vehicles. If you were to look behind my truck seat, you would find enough tarps and paracord to set up a decent camp.

But today I was using my woods skills digging holes. Since I already had plenty of holes dug, I decided this would be my bugout patch. In case a heavenly body collides with earth, or more importantly, me, I want to have some smoke for the party at end of the world.

I grew on this land 25 years ago when the planted pines on it were young. They were thinned a few years back and have grown up in brush nicely. Back then you had to drive by my old 70 year old cousin's house to go by the land to drop off your shovel and whatnot. He has died and another {much younger} cousins lives in the house now. But he works, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't run into anyone when I was dropping off my supplies. And I didn't. I took the truck back to a safe location and walked in.

A few words on trails. Don't make them. When possible, always go a different way. Where I'm at, I have to be super sneaking, or some of my thieving cousins and their friends will help me harvest. I just can't check on my patches very often, or I run the risk of losing them. Alright, back to my hole digging.

There are two kinds of pines on the land. There are older Sand pines on about five acres. They were old enough before they were thinned to drop seed, so it is grown up in 6-8' pines, which make great cover because they are close in color to weed, and they stay green all year. I was using 5 gallons of my "I'm too old to carry this heavy ass dirt" mix to go in three holes. I did three holes in the Sand pines, mostly going from east to west {this is a note to me, so I can find them later} and one extra hole {a little north of the other three} with 6 cups of 13-13-13 I had found in the truck. Since this is a hard to get to location, the plants will be on their own through much of the summer. But I will bring in a little mushroom mulch to put in the 13-13-13 hole. I have found it will help your soil overcome the shock of using bulk farm fertilizer.

I try to find a major deer trail and use it getting into and out of the woods. Crashing through briars and underbrush will leave a trail every time. Once in the woods and far enough from the trail, I start looking for good light. I try to stay on the trail, but look for sunny spots 15-20' off to the side. That way the only new trail you will be breaking is to the patch itself. Bring a compass.You want good southern exposure. The sun will never shine from the north {unless you are Down Under}, so don't waste your time growing on the north side of cover. Find a nice sunny spot with an evergreen tree on the north side. Dig your hole there.

Always rake back the leaves and pinestraw from your area before you start digging. Make your holes plenty big, and leave a big area for working. You will scatter the leaves you rake up here, as well as more raked nearby. I love growing in pines because it is so easy to hide your hole.

I like to use my 5 gallon bucket to put dirt in as I'm digging, so I backpacked the soil mix in. {and I really am too old to carry this heavy ass shit. The lid blew off my soil storage trashcan in a thunderstorm and it got a couple inches of rain in it, so it was really heavy} 1/3 of a bucket is 3 of the coffee cans full.

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You can't see it too good in the picture, but I like to keep the sods I take out intact so I can put them back over the hole when I'm done tilling. I break them up and take out the roots when I bring the plants in to transplant. This just makes it easier to hide the hole.

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With the leaves that were raked back, plus a few I gathered nearby, the hole is pretty hard to see. When you dig lots of them, it is not out of the ordinary to lose a few.

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I will post this, then show some of my light altering methods.
 
Larry {the} Gardener

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Some times you will find a location you really like, but there is a tree growing where you want sun. I only cut whole trees as a last resort. Smaller trees can be topped to let in light over them, and they will still serve as good ground level cover.

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With tall limber brush, you can bend it to your will. I try to use logs to weight them down, but you can tie them off if no logs are around to use.

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Sometimes you have no choice, and have to cut a tree.

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Again, I like to cut it off around 4-5' tall so it still provides some cover.

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I drag the cut tree over the hole to provide some cover until all it's leaves fall off. And the forked limbs can be used when it's time to tie her down.

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I got 4 holes dug in the Slash pines too. Three of which are in a triangle with the northwest one being the 13-13-13.
 
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Larry {the} Gardener

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
I forgot to mention the symbolic hit on the sparkleberry bowl for every hole dug. When I was younger I dabbled in the Creek Indian religion. One of the things I liked about it was blowing tobacco smoke so God could see your prayers. Indians are long winded, and took 6 puffs on the pipe per prayer. One for each of the four directions plus the earth and sky. I gave up the religion years ago, but still ask the Grandfathers to bless the union of shovel and earth. Just to make sure they see my prayer, I send it with a puff of smokebongsmilie

I try to smoke the kind of herb I'll be planting. When I reached into the stash bag today I came out with some Slo2. {the 2nd tallest plant in the Slo patch at the start of flower. Slo1 was the male I used in all my breeding last year} Since I have plenty of seeds from that cross, that is what I will put in the bugout patch. But I will need to Jazz those names up a bit just in case there really is a party at the end of the world. SloToo X The Slow One has a certain ring to it. I did pick him because he was the last {of 3} males to show sex, so he was the slow one.
 
Larry {the} Gardener

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
Back when I started growing, there was no Google Maps {or internet ftm} to assist you. You had to walk the woods to look for sunny spots. Not true these days. The GM sat photo of my area was updated a few days ago. I figured out it was made last November {late in the afternoon}. That is pretty new as GM photos go. There is a lot you can learn from looking at the area you want to grow in with GM. Old three trail roads will show sand in the ruts if they are used very often. If there is grass or leaves in the ruts, you can safely assume there isn't much wheeled traffic in that area.

As a general rule, people don't go where they can't drive, so I never plant where it would be easy to drive an ATV up to my patch. If I do see ATV trails, {after you actually go to walk the woods} walk them out and see if they are a regular trail, or someone was just freewheeling. If there is enough cover overhead, ATV trails can be a good way to get near your patches.

But back to GM. I gave another e-look to some land where I have already dug a few holes. It is easy to walk by sunny spots and miss them, so the sat photos are a good way to scout the area before you go in. This dark spot {where the little white arrow is} is a shadow. When tree tops in the canopy are even, you can't see a shadow, so that means there is a open gap in the canopy. {when looking at planted pines, you can actually see the ground in places. That is always a sunny spot}

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I hiked in yesterday to check out the spot, and found this downed tree was the reason for the break in the canopy.
Looking north:

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Looking south:

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This is the best possible kind of downed tree.It fell toward the south, so I will be clearing all the dead brush and planting where the rootball was. That means you have a ready made wood bark mulch. You can turn it in, or rake it back and use it on top of the holes after you get them dug.

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You can see {on the GM photo} the spot is real close to farm land, and that is a red flag for a possible patch. What I do when there is a doubt about how much someone on a tractor can see, is to hang a red flag {or bandanna if you left your red flag at home} on my shovel, and walk out to the fence row and see if you can see it. Keep in mind that you know where it's at and you are looking for it. And it's red. So if you can catch a glimpse of it from a certain angle, that is not a show stopper. Plus it is February. Things will be a lot greener in spring. But you still have to be careful of noise when you are checking on the patch. It is rare to see a farmer without a tractor way back there, but you have to assume one day he might be walking his fence or something. Back in the day we used to call this Moscow Rules. That is always assume the worst that can happen is happening, and act accordingly. These days it might be called Baghdad {or some other sandy place} Rules.

I decided since I went to all the trouble of walking back there, I will do it again with some soil. I foresee three holes with soil around the downed tree and one with 13-13-13 in a more open spot nearby. I already have one hole that is so far out the open that I named it Crazy Eddy. The new one will be just as exposed. They may become CE north and south.

Happy digging,

Larry
 
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Larry {the} Gardener

Larry {the} Gardener

Well-Known Member
I forgot to talk about the counting backwards and forwards. This is an exercise in time travel. {If you see an old guy near a blue Police Box. . . . }

Count the days of Winter, that is the number of days since the Winter Solstice. Yesterday {2-5-16} when I was woods walking, it had been 46 days of Winter. Now count backwards 46 days of Fall from the Solstice and you get October 15th. So yesterday when I was judging what kind of light I would have, I knew where the sun would be on that day.

If frost is as late this year as it was last, I should have been checking on November light.
 
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