Playing Survivor

When my sister Amy was in town three weeks ago we watched Season 1 of a show called "Out of the Wild" about 9 people who volunteered to be dropped off in the middle of Venezuela and backpack out with no assistance.  The goal was to survive and find civilization. It made a great impression on me.  I think I spend an excessive amount of time thinking about survival and preparedness, even though I would not consider myself a very eligible candidate for one who would actually survive some kind of disaster.  Anyway, I told the kids about the show and they decided they wanted to watch it so we turned on season two about surviving in Alaska.  After 3 episodes they decided they needed to play Survivor so we had to dig up the winter clothes (because Alaska is cold, right?) and get out Paul's hiking backpacks, which I made heavy by secretly adding gallons of Apple juice, and we set off to survive in the wilderness. The woods behind our house has become a great sanctuary.  It is magical back there.  We have built a pretty impressive little stick fort.  On our expedition we hunted moose and bear and hung them up to make jerky and we foraged for berries and nuts and made a stew over a "fire" we built.  I made a snare and taught the kids how to make their own too.  Then Paul gave us a Survivor 101 class.  It was a lot of fun and we made plans as a family to go on lots of real outdoor adventures.