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JADE STARS Time Travel Diaries© Thal's scouting - Kostenki, Russia (original Lion Camp) Thal's scouting diaries- Kostenki, Russia, part 1

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Author Message   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 316 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 7:26 am:        These are diaries from a scouting mission. Find out more about the project and apply here: Time Travel Time Travel Diaries April 1st, TT0 So this is it, I am on my way and there is no turning back ... I was crouching in the tiny compartment, hoping that my backpack and clothes would travel and, more importantly, arrive with me. As soon as the door closed behind me, I started to ask myself why and how I had gotten myself into this. I am not an adventurer by nature. But as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it, and hopped into it feet first. I know that this is supposed to be a scientific diary, but I will also add a few personal thoughts and impressions, if only to remind myself in the future to think first and act later.... The journey itself was short and uneventful. None of the multicolored psychodelic tunnel effects that so many Science Fiction movies associate with time travel. No eerie sounds or feelings. A rapid change in air pressure that was slightly painful on the ears, a brief feeling of free fall, a short bump - and I was there. The door to the compartment opened and I was propelled outside. I was in a cave and it was cold! So far so good. This should be 30,000 years in the past, the warmer stage of the last ice age before the latest glaciation maximum. 1st of April under these conditions is expected to be cold. After a bit of muttering about the unfriendly way of booting me out I got up, stretched, and looked around. The cave was about twice as high as I was, the opening was fairly small and the morning sun was sending brilliant rays into the dark interior. Looking further back, I saw a solid rock wall with an opening, my travelling compartment, and next to it, to my relief, a pile with my clothes and my luggage. When the compartment was closed, the wall would look solid and natural. For a brief moment I considered stepping outside, naked as I was. I wasn't convinced that this whole thing wasn't a gigantic hoax, something like the hidden camera or such, and if that had been the case, the spectators would have deserved the show. However, the cold started to bother me and I started to tremble violently. This didn't exactly add to my dignity, so I decided to get dressed before going outside and facing the world. There was nothing to face, no one was there. The opening of the cave led to a comfortably wide ledge that spread about two meters to the right and left of the opening and then tapered off. The view from here was breathtaking. According to plan, I was scheduled to arrive in a cave on the central russian steppe, somewhat North of an important archaeological site in a village named Kostenki. Both, my cave and Kostenki, were located in the Don river basin. The place where I arrived would be known as Galichia Gora nature reserve in our time. The reserve preserves a rest of the steppe and tundra forest and contains many rare plants and animals. I had seen pictures of the reserve and was impressed - a very interesting area. The right bank of the Don river here has a steep cliff of limestone, a high rugged wall, full of cracks and holes, one of them being my cave. The left bank is flatter and rises gradually up to the plains. From here I could look out over the river and saw something resembling a forest on the opposite side, a bit stunted and twisted, but still a forest. Image modified from http://www.vsu.ru/dept/science/scidept/galgor/comm on_p_e.html I spent some time standing there, drinking in the unfamiliar view, and trying to get some orientation. The morning sun was shining right into the cave, so the opposite side should be east. Maybe I should have taken a compass with me, but I had decided against it, since I didn't plan to ever roam far away from the river. The Don river should be my landmark and guide. After a while I reminded myself that I had more important things to do, and would have ample opportunity in the near future to enjoy the beautiful view. I wanted to unpack one of the cameras and attach some pictures to the diary entry. In fact, I should unpack all my stuff and go through the stored goods and tools that were provided for me. To make a long story short, all that was promised to be provided was actually there, together with the 20 kg of equipment I chose and brought myself. Everything except for the fresh reindeer meat that had been promised. One of Dr. Creb's crew apparently chose to have reindeer roast for dinner. There was even a small pile of wood, stacked neatly in one area of the cave which would be the logical place for a storage area. I will list the things provided and the stuff I brought in a more systematical way soon. Before making a fire, I was looking to find a suitable place for a hearth. A careful examination of the cave revealed that it had no cracks in the roof, there was no natural chimney. At times, the cave might fill with smoke and become rather uncomfortable. I didn't notice a considerable draft at the entrance, the wind swept towards East, opposite of my cave. This might be a coincidence, a particularly nice day, and not typical for the area. Nevertheless I thought that close to the entrance might be a good place for a hearth, then the air in the back might be somewhat free of smoke. Furthermore I remembered what I learned about the russian plains of our time, rich in black soil, based on loess, which had been blown there with the continuous west winds. Later I would bring in stones and make a proper hearth, but for now, just a fire on the ground should suffice. I wanted to warm up the space and myself a bit before leaving the cave and getting familiar with the area. Since I had matches in my luggage, and Dr. Altsteinzeit's team was kind enough to provide me with some dry wood and kindling, starting the fire was no problem. For now. The matches wouldn't last forever, and I would have to use flint and iron pyrite for fire starting, but in the beginning I was going to take it easy. As expected, the smoke was accumulating under the cave's roof before it escaped through the entrance. I was glad that the roof was so high. Although it would be more difficult to keep the space warm than with a smaller cave, the high roof would make breathing easier. I had no idea when the air would warm up and spring arrive, but since I would not only experience cold weather in spring, but also in fall before I would be going back, I decided that I would need a heat reflector for the hearth and something to close the cave's opening to keep out drafts. But that could wait. I still wasn't convinced that I actually had made a time jump to the remote past, but in any case I was transported to a harsh and cold environment, where I would need all the survival skills I could muster. While I was busy with fire making and looking through my stuff, the sun had continued its path across the sky, and the semi-darkness in the cave reminded me of my tasks and the need to go outside and get an idea of the area before it got too late. I had already mentioned the ledge in front of the cave that tapered off left and right. There was no easy way down, or up, the cave's mouth was situated in the middle of a very steep part of the lime stone cliff. Although this was just what I wanted, climbing up and down wouldn't be easy. Dr. Creb had again shown kindness and provided a thick rope with several regularly distributed knots, a simple rope ladder that even I could climb. But if I wanted something more comfortable, I would have to make it myself. I took my empty backpack and the cleaned and dried reindeer bladder that would serve me as a water container, and climbed down. I didn't have hopes to gather much food, the ground was still frozen, and the temperature would have been around -8 to -10 C, according to what it felt like to me, but I wanted to get some cooking stones. There was no plant life yet, but there were indications, dry stalks of grasses and herbs, and dormant shrubs. One of my main tasks would be the cataloguing of the plant life in the area, but I would have all summer for that. First of all I would need to get as comfortable as possible, and to go about and plan my tasks and research. The river was sparkling clear, frozen at the edges and looked rather deep. I managed to break some of the ice, filled the bladder with the cold water and looked around for cooking stones. Since I had declined to take a stove and metal cooking pots with me, I would have to cook with heated stones. In theory I knew what was required: "don't take stones from the river, they will have cracks, contain water, and explode when heated" - but there was only the rock from the cliff and pebbles from the river to chose from. The limestone from the cliff didn't look all that inviting for cooking stones, so I decided to collect some large pebbles, smooth and even stones without inclusions. Since the limestone broke off in layers, I decided to take some flat stones as well, maybe they could be used for baking. I loaded my backpack with the stones, grabbed the wiggly water container, and brought it to the rope ladder to take up later, since now I wanted to go for a short walk to explore the area. First I wanted to go downriver. The sun was standing high, it should be around midday. I thought that I should start marking the length of the shadows to determine the precise direction and time of the year. but I decided to wait and start this on another day. If - *IF* - I had travelled through time, and wasn't brought to some remote place on the southern hemisphere, then that river was flowing straight south. My cave was on the west bank, the opposite side was east, and that was already confirmed by the morning sun that had sent its rays straight into the cave when I arrived this morning. The area was beautiful. The steep cliff continued downriver, but I didn't see any other caves. Gradually, it tapered off in height, and the access to the steppes became less steep and bothersome. In one place I saw falcons coming from a place in the cliff and flying over the river, hovering over the steppe on the opposite side. The valley had widened, and in the same way that the cliff had lost height, the opposite bank had become less forested, opening unrestricted view over the vast and endless steppe. It was also colder here than in the more sheltered area of my cave. Image modified from http://www.vsu.ru/dept/science/scidept/galgor/comm on_p_e.html This was almost sufficient to convince me. If this was Russia, it wasn't the Russia of our time, where this area of rich black soil was considered the country's bread basket, the wild steppe vegetation having been replaced by huge grain fields. I decided to go as far as the cliff went and then turn back before it got dark when I stopped in my tracks. I saw something move in the distance, a large herd of animals. They were too far away to see what they were, and I wasn't experienced enough to make an educated guess, but the herd was huge. I also heard strange and scary sounds in a distance, a deep grumbling, roaring, and a sort of cackling laugh that could only come from the spotted hyenas that should be abundant in the area if this was the right time and place. Or could that be South Africa? No, I didn't think that it got that cold there... Suddenly I felt uncomfortable and scared. The wind had become sharper where the cliff had tapered off, and the sharp wind from the West made my skin sting. I realized that I was all alone, in a harsh and unforgiving environment, and this made me feel even colder. I couldn't say if the sudden shaking came from the cold or the fear that was creeping down my spine. I turned around and walked back, indifferent to the beauty of the landscape, my only hope being of getting back to the cave quickly and safely. I didn't have a spear, or even a stick, absolutely nothing to defend myself with in case of an attack. I would have to learn to be more conscious of what I was doing if I wanted to survive. The sun was already low, when I reached the cave. I was feeling cold and uncomfortable. But instead of just boiling a little water or warming something up to eat, I would have to get those stones and the water up to my cave, and then learn to boil water with hot stones. Maybe I shouldn't have loaded my backpack with quite so many stones. I almost fell over backwards, when I climbed upwards with the heavy load. I thought that I would have to find an easier way to get loads up there... The water was another matter. The full bladder fell over all the time and spilled half of the contents when I tried to put it into my backpack. I had closed it with a leather thong, but I found that I couldn't trust that closure when the bladder fell over. Finally I decided to return to the cave, get one of the wooden bowls, fit them into the backpack and then put the water bladder inside. It worked - I finally got the water safely up that way. I filled the water into the cleaned and dried reindeer stomach that was going to be my water storage container, and went down again to get more water. The fire in the hearth had died down, but surprisingly there was still some glowing coal that I quickly rekindled. I used the firewood generously, since my first short walk had already shown that there was plenty of driftwood around. There were also piles of bones accumulated at the bends of the river. When the fire was burning evenly, I put the stones in to heat up. I planned to throw them into the smallest of my three wooden bowls, and make some herb tea, the right thing to get me warm inside. Apart from that, I wanted to use some of the dried meat, roots and bulbs for a stew. I had tried to chew on the jerky, but wasn't excited about taste and texture of it. For seasoning I used some of the dried bears garlic, sage, and other herbs, I would save the little salt I had brought with me for later. By now, I thought, my stones should be hot enough for getting the water to boil. The next problem was: how to get them into and out of the bowl. I didn't have carved pliers that could be used with one hand. I used two sticks that were rather flat and broad on one end, and decided to carve them into a more practical shape for that purpose later. I remembered vaguely of having read about a technique of using something made out of fresh conifer branches, but would have to look that up in one of my survival manuals. I angled the first stone out of the hearth, blew on it to get the ashes off (I would have needed a third hand to brush them off - and I had no brush anyway), and carefully put it into the small bowl. It hissed and steamed - and that was it. Now I had to get that one out again, and put the next one in. More hissing and steaming. And so on. One cracked when I threw it into the water, but I thought I could live with a little gravel in my tea and didn't bother to start with fresh water. It took quite a while and a lot of angling to get my tea water sufficiently hot. I threw the herbs in to steep while I started heating the water for my stew. I didn't like the idea at all that I would have to fish for the stones among the roots and the meat, what a messy way of cooking! Maybe I could make something like a basket or ladle to insert the stones in the liquid, and get them out again. I had read about that in the survival manual, and thought it would be worth a try. Where boiling the water for the tea seemed long-winded, making the stew was endless. This wasn't good, I couldn't always spend so much time to prepare my food. With that angling and heating of stones, there wasn't time to do anything else in-between. I would have to come up with something less time consuming... The tea was good and warmed me up nicely. The fire warmed me as well, although it presented the typical campfire effect: a hot face and a cold back. By the time the stew was good, it was completely dark outside. I am very glad that I could speak my diaries on tape, that way the time I needed for cooking wasn't quite as boring. While I drank the bland tasting stew ( why didn't I bring a spoon?) I had time to think and make plans. I had survived the first day, and even felt fairly comfortable, although I couldn't get completely rid of feeling cold. Tomorrow I would have to make something to keep the wind outside. Either I would sacrifice one of the few large hides to make something like a curtain, or I would try to make something like a thick woven mat out of the dry cattail leaves that I had seen grow in several swampy areas close to the river. A project like that would need time, though, so maybe I should start with the hide, and replace it with something else later.... My train of thoughts was interrupted by the sounds coming from outside. Wolves howled. An eerie sound, one I love in our day and age, but here it sent chills down my spine. Something roared, groaned and cackled. Shrieks and squeaks. An owl shoo-hooed. Suddenly I felt very, very alone. I have been alone before - but I had never been so far away from other people, in the wilderness, without the benefits and gimmicks of our civilization. If I had really travelled 30,000 years back in time, then my friends and loved ones would be farther away than I could start to imagine, and all of a sudden I started to wonder if I would survive this adventure and ever see them again. The night sounds scared me. I was glad that the cave was so high up and had no easy access. What would I do if a predatory animal suddenly appeared? The fire should keep them away, but could I keep it going all night? Could I sleep with that paralyzing fear? Once again, as so often during past endeavours, I started to question my motives and cursed my spontaneity. I decided to put a few thick pieces of wood on the fire and trust that it wouldn't die down completely until morning. Then I set up my sleeping place, I put one of the hides underneath my sleeping mat, and the reindeer fur on top of my sleeping bag. I would sleep in my thermo underwear. I had decided that the farthest end of the ledge in front of the cave should be my free-air toilet, a reasonably safe place, even at night, and that would save me from using a night basket in the cave. When I crouched down to relieve myself, I looked at the sky. There were no clouds, and the stars were shining in a brilliance that I had never seen before. I looked for familiar constellations, found one - and then it hit me with full force. Staring at the constellation, I knew that I was on the northern hemisphere - and that I had indeed travelled back in time tens of thousands of years. The final confirmation came as a shock. Trembling wildly, I crawled back into the cave, buried myself in sleeping bag and furs, cried a little and fell asleep. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 317 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 9:40 am:        Dr. Creb and I were fighting a bit, since he is of the opinion that every traveller should think about what to take by themselves, but nevertheless I got his permission to publish my list of equipment I took with me. After all, we are all learning from each other, that way we can make more progress in our research. Here are the 20 kg I took with me: down sleeping bag - 2000 g 2 sets of thermo underwear - 460 g underwear - 200 g sports bra - 50 g hiking boots - 1320 g sports shoes - 380 g goretex parka - 800 g thermo mitten, 1 pair - 290 g hiking socks, 2 pairs - 270 g normal socks 3 pairs - 150 g 2 regular bars of unscented soap - 250 g 2 packs baking soda - 500 g hiking sandals- 640 g two hiking pants (zip off - 3 pants in one) - 640 g two cotton shirts - 230 g 1 fleece sweater - 275 g rain parka - 400 g tent with equipment (Hilleberg) - 2500 g 2 pairs of glasses, sunglasses - 100 g contacts to last 7 months. (April-October) - 50 g sleeping mat. - 1000 g swiss army knife -100 g as many matches as can be stuffed into the backpack salt - 500 g pencils, coloured pencils sketch blocks first aid kit - 200 g antibiotics (broad band, surface, etc.) - 2000 g small arctic flora and very small survival guide - 1000 g binoculars - 250 g --- total : 17,75 kg, rest to be filled with sketch blocks, colored pencils, matches, more socks and underware, a tooth brush and a hair brush. Equipment on site: A small variety of furs of small game - rabbits, squirrels, hamsters etc. 2 large tanned hides and smaller pieces of leather from deer and small game, to be made into thongs, shoes, etc. 1 reindeer hide with fur 1 raw hide from deer clean and dry (air filled) guts, stomach and bladder of reindeer. Some of the cleaned guts are filled with the fat of the reindeer dried meat from reindeer and deer, supposed to last a bit longer than a month. a few well made baskets full of dried berries, nuts, acorns, starchy roots, emmer wheat and rye, amaranth, goose-foot, dried fruit like crab apples, cherries, rose hips, blueberries etc. A small collection of herbs: chamomille, sage, fennel, elder flowers, coltsfoot, plantain, yarrow, marigold A tool kit made from stone: 5 knives, 2 scrapers, 2 awls, 2 stone axes with handles. Dr. Creb could say what tool period they represent, I'm not certain. A few flint nodules 2 large wooden bowls in different sizes. 2 small wooden bowls, can also be used as cups 1 thick rope ladder, attached to the rock (thank you, Dr. Creb!) A small assortment of leather thongs of different length I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 319 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - 2:57 pm:        April 2nd, TT0 I woke up early because the sun was tickling my nose. Surprisingly I had slept well, and felt warm and comfortable. So this was not a dream, I was really here - I felt a little ashamed for my outburst of last night. After all, I had been nagging Dr. Creb to let me go for quite some time so I shouldn't feel sorry for being here now. But the realization of really having made such a time jump was mind-boggling. What I saw in the night sky that made me realize where and when I was, was this: image from a simulation at http://www.syz.com/DU/index.shtml The difference is minor, but clear for people who know about the constellation shifts over the millennia. I knew what Ursa major (the big dipper) looked like today, and had looked at simulations of the past. This was a clear evidence that couldn't be tampered with. The air outside my sleeping bag felt cold. Reluctantly I got up. My attempts at banking the fire had failed, so I would have to start it anew, but first I would go outside. It was another brilliant day, and I was eager to plan my routine. Back in, I quickly got dressed and started the fire again, to heat up some stones and get some hot tea. While I was boiling the water, I was making plans. I would have to find a daily routine that would allow me to explore and make my life in the cave as comfortable as possible. Everything I was doing took a much longer time than I expected. I would probably need all day to get that windscreen up at the cave entrance, and I hadn't figured out yet how I would attach one of the larger hides there. There were no hooks or nails. I would need some wood, the trunk of a small tree perhaps, and try to wedge it in place. I had no idea how it had been done by the people in prehistoric times (now!) and didn't even think of looking that up when I was making my preparations. I won't describe the whole procedure of making my tea and munching on some luke-warm left-over stew (I didn't have the patience to bring it to a boil again), but the tedius procedure caused me to think about making something that kept my food warm over night, or helped it cook over the day. If I managed to get food.... I wouldn't really be the best of all hunters. I am a clumsy person and have poor aim, thus relying on hunting small game with a sling or bigger game with a spearthrower wasn't very realistic. I had studied means of trapping smaller animals and wanted to try that out as soon as I found tracks and burrows. But first I would make that screen, and that cooking box. My grandmother had used something like that, a wooden box, stuffed with a thick layer of straw and a pot inside. The content of the pot was previously brought to a boil and then the pot was put in the straw, covered with more straw and a lid was placed on top of the box. I didn't have the means to make a wooden box, but I would try to weave something from willow and roots, and maybe use some parts of the hides. There was enough dried steppe grass around to substitute for the straw, maybe I could make it work. Unfortunately the cave's floor wasn't covered with a thick layer of soil, so making an earth oven in the cave was out of the question. I would make an earth oven down by the river eventually, but I wanted to have something that helped me with cooking up here in the cave, too. In the meantime I got ready, grabbed my backpack and climbed down the cliff. I had measured the upper part of the cave's entrance with a leather thong and marked the length I wanted for my wooden beam with a knot. I also took one of the precious two stone axes with me. I would have to get familiar with these tools, so why not right away? This wasn't as easy as it sounds. The forest was on the other side of the river, and the ice was too thin to walk across. I had no boat or raft and no desire to cross it swimming in these temperatures. I decided to go downriver, to the place where I had found a larger amount of driftwood yesterday. I was rather relieved that I didn't see any tracks that indicated predators. The sounds I heard last night must have come from above, from the steppe. Still, I was looking around carefully, always alert. That spear... I still didn't have a spear or even a stick to defend myself when attacked... I was realistic enough to know that that wouldn't be very efficient in any case, but I hated the idea of becoming victim to some beast without fighting back as good as I could. I think that spear would be a psychological weapon mostly - but still, I wanted to have it. For the North Americans among the readers this may all sound wimpy and overly afraid. Maybe it helps when I explain that I grew up in central Europe, where most of the larger predators had been hunted to extinction around 1900. When I hiked and camped in the North American wilderness for the first time, i was very scared of all the wild animals that roam around there. It took me a while until I understood that encounters are rather the exception and not the norm, at least in places where the animals don't have access to human food and garbage. Still, I never lost my fear entirely. And here it weren't only bears, wolves and cougars, there were cave lions, hyenas, snow leopards, lynxes and whatnot. I simply didn't know enough about the life and behaviour of these animals to feel reasonably confident to avoid them. So I would have to deal with that nagging fear. When I arrived at the river bend with the drift wood, I started to collect smaller pieces for fire wood, and looked out at a smaller trunk, but couldn't find any. Would I really need to cut a tree to get that piece of wood? Maybe not. There was also a pile of bones, probably swept downriver with a recent flood - that was also something I needed to watch out for - and accumulated at this bend. Some of these bones were quite large, and I thought that they might have belonged to a megaloceros, but they didn't measure up to the length I needed. I would have to chop down a tree after all. I wasn't excited about that idea at all. There were a few stunted conifers growing on the right bank of the river, one of them would have to do. It took a while until I had decided on one that matched the required length and was reasonably straight. So I started to chop with the stone axe. Did you ever chop down a tree with an axe? Hooray for the invention of the chainsaw. And chopping with a metal axe is easy compared to chopping with a stone axe. The wood chips that were cut away were tiny. You have to admire those beavers, cutting thick trees in one night, just with their teeth. I was grinding my teeth, not willing to prove less able to fell a tree than a beaver and chopped away. It was a great workout, I could take off my outer layer of clothes and was still sweating. Luckily that tree wasn't too thick, so it didn't take too long. Proudly I watched it fall and then measured the length and started chopping away the branches. Since it was a small spruce tree, there was a lot of resin coming out of the wounds, I decided to gather some of this for making a kind of tar, and to get some of the fresh branches for torches. I thought the smaller branches tied together might also make a nice broom to sweep out the ashes.... I made a bundle out of the branches that I wanted to take, and attached it to my backpack. The log itself was rather heavy, but I managed to lift it up on my shoulder and carried it like a club.. I started to giggle about the image. Here I was, cavewoman Thal, swinging her club. I started to mutter Uga-Uga... but fooling around on my own wasn't much fun. I missed someone to laugh with. So I reminded myself that I was here on a serious scientific mission and only sang a little ho-hum while I was walking home. Yes, the cave had already become 'home', a safe shelter, a place to return to and wind down. Back at the cave I was busy filling up my water containter and getting the load of fire wood, the branches and the log up to the cave. Then I munched on some dried berries and nuts and planned the rest of the day. It was only midday, there was still some time to explore and get material back to the cave. I had seen several willows along the river and decided to cut some of the flexible thin branches and start my weaving projects. That done, I called it a day and started working on the windscreen project. Wedging that log into place was rather tricky. I didn't want to break my precious axe and used a stone as a substitute for a hammer. I decided to make a stone hammer later that could also be used as a club. I tried to tighten my log with splinters of wood and stone, and was only satisfied with its stability after I tested it with my full weight. It would do for the moment. Making the windscreen and attaching it to the log was fairly easy. I punched holes on one side of the hide with the stone awl, a work that made my hands blister, since it was quite tough to punch through the leather. I then cut some of my remaining thongs to the needed size and pulled them through the holes. I tied the hide with these thongs to the log, and my curtain was up. A few stones on the lower edge should hold it in place when the wind came from the east. Quite happy about my achievement, I started to make tea and prepare dinner. My bones and muscles started to hurt from the unaccustomed hard work, and I would have enjoyed a hot bath. Hah! There was no hot bath, not even a shower. Next time, I thought, I wanted to go to a place with hot springs... Anyway, I was too tired to repeat the tiresome stone cooking of a soup, and just heated some water for my tea. I looked through the food and thought I would try baking some crepes. I grabbed a hand full of grains and started to grind them with two of the stones I had brought up yesterday. It was sufficient to mash them roughly, grinding them to to flower would take too long. I cut up some of the dried meat (tough like leather!) and added it to the crushed grains, added some fat and water, crushed a few berries, and added that to the gruel as well. I would let it soak for a while. In the meantime I placed one of the flat stones for baking on two smaller stones, high enough that I could push some glowing coals underneath, and started to heat up the stone. While the stone was heating and the gruel was soaking, I viewed the treasures I had brought home today. I was eager to start weaving, and started to debark the willow branches. I had decided to take one of my first weaving attempts, that would most likely not turn out very well, and exchange it against one of the well made baskets where the dried fruit were stored. I planned to try making that one watertight with the resin from the freshly cut spruce tree. I also wanted to make a rawhide pot, and start that cooking box I had described earlier. I really wouldn't have time to get bored around here. When the stone was hot enough for baking, i greased it with a little fat, and ladled a small amount of the gruel out with the small cup, I spread it out somewhat with a stick and waited. After a while I turned it, not without difficulties, with the stone knife. Carving some kitchen tools would be another project to keep me occupied, I thought that the bones downriver would be the right material for that. When the first cake was done, I ate it, burned my tongue, and baked the next one. This didn't even taste all that bad, a bit bland, but palatable. When I was full, I baked the rest of the gruel for breakfast and for eating during the day. In the meantime I had debarked quite an amount of the willow branches, and put them into the large wooden bowl filled with water to soak for a while. By now I was very tired. I went through my evening hygiene routine and went to bed. I fell asleep immediately. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 321 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 2:12 pm:        April 3rd to 5th, TT0 Too bad- I have no feedback from Dr. Creb on future applicants, so I have no idea if this project will be continuing or not. I am actually starting to enjoy myself here. Anyway, I will just continue with my project, and keep my diaries. I have been so busy the last few days that I will only give a summary of what I did here. First of all, I started to sketch out a map. For an overview of the whole Don River area (to get an idea where in Russia this is), there is a map at http://www.auelfans.ca/maparea.html This is a combination of maps found at multimap.com Before I went on my journey, I started sketching the relevant part of this area, and now have continued with these sketches. I will add to them as I discover more. Here is my first version: You will see where my cave is, and what I found so far. Now on to my diaries... --- edit: I had complaints about the width of this image, thus I try to put in a shorter one. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 322 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2003 - 3:04 pm:        When I woke up the third day, I could hardly move because of the stiff and aching muscles I had from chopping down the tree. Luckily today my banked fire had kept some coals glowing, and getting it to flare up again didn't take long. My windscreen had also stayed in place, which was particularly fortunate since the wind had changed and with it the weather. Looking outside, I was surprised to see thick dark clouds and a mix of icy rain and snow. It was warmer than the days before, but more humid, and a lot less comfortable. I hurried up with my morning routine outside as much as I could, and was glad to return to the fire. I had no enthusiasm to go exploring that day. I decided to spend the time of bad weather with continuing my domestic projects. That was just as well, since I was in a hurry to get settled and comfortable. I expected Spring to arrive in about a month, and when the plants had started to grow, I would be too busy outside to do much basket weaving or tool carving. While I was waiting for the stones to heat up to make my morning tea, I made that coal stick I mentioned earlier. I took one of the green spruce branches, about 10 cm in diameter, and about 1 meter long. I split this down the middle from one end about half way with my hefted stone knife, which sounds easier than it was. Would I ever get rid of these blisters on my hands? At the bottom of the split, I tied the stick off with a leftover leather thong from my curtain-making. This keeps the split from continuing down the length of the stick. I now have a tool that is springy, and can transfer hot stones, and also coals with it without burning myself. I tried it out immediately, it worked very well. I had breakfast of leftover cakes and a hot tea, and felt content. The wind that came from the east was pushing heavily against the curtain, but kept nicely outside of my living area. I was relieved to see that the cave still didn't get too smoky despite the smoke being pushed back into the cave somewhat by the wind. A storm with winds from the east might be another matter, but for now I felt my windscreen had passed the test. The rest of the day I spent weaving my first basket. There isn't much to say about that, I had had an introductory lesson during my preparation time, sufficient to understand the techniques, but of course, experience was lacking. The work went along slowly, but I did make progress. The third day after I started it, today, I had finished it (the weather was still bad). It was a simple basket for storage, supposed to be round, but skewed to one side a bit. Still, it would serve its purpose. I poured the berries out of one of the provided baskets into it, and would try to make that 'good' basket watertight tomorrow. I needed a larger container to heat water in. I wanted to wash. Of course I could have washed in the river, but why risk a cold, if I don't have to? I could still swim and wash in the river when it was a bit warmer outside, but at the moment I was simply too afraid to catch a heavy cold and then sit here with a running nose, a cough or worse. When I went on extended canoe trips in the wilderness in the past, I had always a bucket with me, and could take a 'bucket bath' regularly. For that, you only need to bring a small amount of water to a boil, and mix it in the bucket with cold water. This will be just right for washing. Of course I could have done without, but I started itching already and felt that I stank - why should I feel uncomfortable if I didn't have to? I would wait with washing my hair, although that also started to itch, but for that I wanted to go outside if the weather was better. I would then also wash some of my underwear in the river. I had a little bit of soap with me, but would try to make more later, and also hoped to find soap plants. As towel and washcloth I would use pieces of the remaining hide. Another project I started was making a fur hat from the small furs that were provided. I had started to use a bone needle that Utika gave me last year when we met (and that I hid in the frist aid kit from Dr. Creb), but soon found that I wasn't patient enough for that kind of sewing. I needed thin sinew strands to sew with the needles, and thought that thin leather threads would do well enough for that fur hat. I tried the method described in Auel's books, making holes with an awl and pushing the thread through, but I must have been at least as clumsy as our favorite heroine, I got too impatient with that, too. So I invented the crocheting hook. Quite frankly, I never understood why the people in Auel's book didn't use one for sewing, it makes everything so easy... but from what I know, there were never any found, or recognized. Maybe chrono police wouldn't like this, I wasn't certain. But what should happen if I made one of wood and burned it before I went back to our time? I took a piece of smooth driftwood, and started to carve. This worked like a charm. I could punch the holes, and pull the thread/thong easily through the holes. Quickly I finished the hat and tried it on. I didn't care what it looked like, as long as it kept my ears warm. I used the same method to make a short fur scarf. How did I keep ears and throat warm those past few days? I seriously hope Dr. Creb doesn't tell anyone... I brought two pairs of thermo underwear with me. While I wore one pair as underwear, I used the pants of the second set as toque and scarf. It may sound ridiculous, but it works. However, now I found it was time to change into fresh stuff, and could do that since I didn't need it as scarf and toque any more. Maybe I should tell a bit more about hygiene under these conditions... of course there was not toilet paper. I used dry grass and water, I always took some water with me when I went outside. This works. I brushed my teeth with baking soda in the evenings, but in the mornings I had started to chew on a birch twig. Small stunted birches were abundant, and I had collected some of the twigs. The plant compounds in the birch wood are actually good for the gums, and when you chew the end of the stick thoroughly before you brush, you won't make your gums bleed like I did in the beginning. The taste isn't unpleasant either. In total, things could be worse. If it wasn't for the loneliness, this would, so far, have been a rather enjoyable experience. I only hoped that the weather would get better soon, I was tired of the dried food and wanted to look out for animal tracks. I also wanted to get more willow branches, and hay from the steppe, to make my cooking box. I just noticed that I started to talk to the tape recorder like to a person. Who cares... it's more fun that way. This is it for now, more tomorrow, Your cavewoman Thal I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 330 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 2:41 pm:        April 6th, TT0 Over night the wind had moved to the South. The light that came in through the cave opening (that deer hide only covered a bit more than half of the entrance) was blindingly bright. It had snowed! The whole area looked magical, with a soft white cover and blueish shadows under an endless blue sky. I took a deep delighted breath, and planned to go exploring that day. Alas! All my plans almost fell down the ledge when I went for my morning routine. The icy rain, returning cold, and snow had made it extremely slippery and I fell on my knees as soon as I stepped out of the cave and slid elegantly towards my free air toilet. Luckily I came to a halt just before the end of the ledge. Cursing violently, I continued with what I had to do, and very carefully shuffled back to the cave. While I had breakfast, I tended to my bruises and the scratches on my hands, and found that I would live. With new enthusiasm I set out for my day trip, backpack packed and dressed warmly in my new fur hat and scarf. This time I would go upriver. The area between cliff and river widened soon, and the cliff tapered of to the steppe, just like downriver, but much closer to my cave. Steppe access would be easier and faster that way. I decided to look into that further on my way back, because I had started to worry about rains and melting snow when the temperatures would rise. I wasn't certain, but I thought I had seen signs of flood on the cliff and plants, and many of the areas close to the rivers were slightly swampy and showed an abundance of birch, alder and willow, all indicators for and tolerant to regular flooding. However, without looking at the roots of plants growing further up, I couldn't be certain, and that wasn't possible since the ground was still frozen solid. The part of the valley with my cave was fairly wide, but I had no idea about the extent of the floods that would be coming in spring. I didn't really expect my cave to be flooded, the dirt layer on the floor would have been thicker then, but a sudden flash flood may not know about my theory, and flood the cave anyway. Better safe than sorry, I thought, and decided to look for a quick escape route, just in case. When the cliff ended, I came across a small tributary, a small creek really, easy to cross. There were some more pines, birches, willows and hazels. modified, from: http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/landscap/novos ib/novosib.htm This actually shows a small rivulet Zyryanka, typical for surroundings of Novosibirsk, in early spring, its floodland is grown up with wilows, the valley borders - with a mixed fortest of silver birch ( Betula pendula Roth. (= Betula verrucosa Ehrh.)) and pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.). Akademgorodok [Academy Town], Novosibirsk, West Siberia, Russia. 11th April 1997. O. Kosterin, with friendly permission. I was delighted to see the hazels in full flower, that would make a good harvest in Summer. Further upriver, the open steppe was often taking turns with smaller cliffs and soft hills. Finally I found what I was looking for all that time. There were tracks in the fresh snow. One of the hills showed tracks that looked suspiciously like rabbit to me, and further up there were the little snow shoe tracks of ptarmigans in winter plumage. Now, with a little luck, I would finally get some fresh meat for the pot. Around mid morning I went back to my cave and gathered pine resin, willow branches and birch bark on the way back. I also looked for sturdy sticks among the driftwood that could be found in the bends upriver as well. The rest of the day was uneventful, I continued my basket weaving, and studied my survival manual. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 331 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 2:46 pm:        April 7th, 8th and 9th, TT0 I did it! I'm sitting here, munching happily on my roasted ptarmigan that I caught in a trap. I used the 'pine sap and birch bark trap' that was described as simple trap for birds in the manual. You use birch bark, from a cone like an ice cream cone and tie some chord around it to keep it together. With a stick, you smear some of the sticky pine sap on the inner side of the cone (ask me how I got that off my fingers, since it didn't stay on the stick...). Put the cone on the ground where you know the birds are. Make a bait from seeds, like a small trail leading right into the cone. The birds will eat the bait and the feathers of its head stick to the pine sap. Since they now think it is night time, they lay down and sleep. I thought this sounded too easy, but when I went checking, there really was a ptarmigan lying on the ground, the cone on its head like a hat. You're now supposed to wring the bird's neck quickly, something that also sounds easier than it really is. I hated to do it, but if I want to have fresh meat, I need to kill. Back in civilization I am dead set against traps and snares, because of the ordeal the trapped animals have to endure. Unless you need the animals for survival, I think this is unnecessarily cruel. If you have to kill, then kill as quickly as possible. The way of life I am leading now, though, is too unforgiving for much sympathy for the prey. However, I would not use snares. I would try to kill some rabbits with dead fall traps. How I would kill the required larger game I wasn't sure yet. I also expected to find plenty of fish in the river and was looking forward to fishing as soon as it got warmer. Anyway, I managed to kill the bird without too much of a fight and took it home to clean and pluck. I slowly roasted it over the coals and even used a bit of the salt, to celebrate my first fresh meat. Needless to say that it tasted like heaven. The rest of the time went along uneventful, I wove some more baskets and started out my 'cooking box project'. And I washed. The basket that I had covered with resin was indeed fairly watertight. There was a little seeping, but it was good enough for me. I brought some water to a boil, mixed it with cold water in the basket, and got rid of sweat and dirt and grime. Wonderful! Tonight (the 9th) it started raining heavily. I also noticed a change of temperature. I think Spring is in the air. (Message edited by Admin on October 16, 2003) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 332 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 2:49 pm:        April 10th, 11th and 12th, TT0 It rained and rained and rained. I worked and went to the entrance to look at the river, and worked and went looking... The river was swelling significantly. I packed my backpack with emergency supplies, a bundle of firewood and my tent. If the water would rise too high and come too close to my escape route, I would leave the cave and camp out up on the steppe. I would be scared, even though by now I had made my self-defense spear/walking stick, but I thought if a hyena or cave lion wanted to get me, they would get me eventually anyway. Between the chance of being eaten or being drowned I chose being eaten. I'm getting increasingly nervous, I don't think I will sleep too well tonight, I hope camera and tape recorder won't suffer if the cave gets flooded... I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 333 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 16, 2003 - 2:52 pm:        April 13th, TT0 It is still raining, and over night the level of the river raised some more. It's not looking like the friendly peaceful Don I am used to any more. It's a muddy, brownish, violent torrent. I wonder where all this water comes from... It is still morning, and the water is coming dangerously close to my escape route to the steppe. I will leave now, I only wanted to make this last diary entry. This will be the last one for a while, I hope it won't be longer than a few days until I can come back... So long... I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Lois storyteller Username: Lois Post Number: 158 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Sunday, October 19, 2003 - 9:04 am:        Thalion, just by the fact that you are able to tell the story, we know you went and came back safely, so we know you made it through the flood, but I'm interested to know what happens next. Your diary so far is enthralling. You're a very brave lady . I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains...   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 338 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Monday, October 20, 2003 - 12:35 pm:        Thank you, Lois. Here goes... ************************************* April 20th.... or 21st??, TT0 I'm back - finally. And I'm far too tired to tell much so this will be short. The cave wasn't flooded, there really was no need to leave it, however, I would have been trapped since the easy access to the steppe had been flooded. I could have climbed, perhaps, but with my clumsiness and without a rope for reassurance... The flood wasn't all too bad, the valley is rather wide, and there really is no reason that the water should rise as high as the cave. Still, as long as I wasn't absolutely certain, I thought it was better to leave. Anyway- all is well with the cave and I am looking forward to a nice and comfortable sleep. I didn't sleep at all well this past week. I told you about the night sounds that I hear every night in the cave. They are a lot closer when you camp out on the steppe, and it feels almost like being in the middle of it. I didn't notice tracks or saw predators, just the usual herd of grazing animals in a distance... but those wolf songs sound different on the steppe... and that cave lion roaring (at least that's what I think it is) makes my teeth clatter. I don't hear them every night, thus I think they don't live close, but they probably come by regularly for hunting. I don't really want to see them... but maybe that's not the right attitude for a scout. After I left the cave, it rained for two more days. I couldn't do much during that time, mostly sat in the tent and looked outside. My good old tent is great, I was warm and dry, however, it is a modern tent and not designed to make a campfire in it. I would have welcomed a fire for comfort. I could have made one, I'm pretty good at starting fires under all conditions, but sitting in the rain and staring at the fire wasn't exactly what I wanted. If it weren't for the weight of the tent, I would prefer a tipi-like structure, or a 'campfire tent' made from sturdy cotton fabric. But that would be a huge load to carry around. The two days of heavy rain were boring. I did take the survival manual with me, and read in it a bit, looking up the methods for making a dead fall trap, and also refreshing my knowledge about skinning and brain tanning. The rain gradually got less during the following days, and the last two days were brilliant and bright as in the beginning, only warmer. I should have marked the passing days through marking a stick, but I didn't, and I lost track. I used the time for a little scouting on the steppe, only day trips while I was sure that the sun was shining. I would have hated to get lost, and there weren't any conspicuous landscapes that I could use to find my way back. There isn't much to tell about these trips. Walking was tricky, since the ground was wet and slippery. I saw some more herds in the distance, one of them might have been reindeer. I also saw tracks and got an occasional glimpse on small animals which I thought were hamsters and great jerboas. I looked for their burrows but couldn't find them. I didn't even try hunting them, they were fast. There were a few small creeks, easy to cross, and not much more. This will change dramatically after Spring has really started, I expect, but for the time being, there isn't much to see. I collected a few withered but not too brittle bones that can be found lying around and spent my evenings carving a few kitchen tools. I am very glad to be back now, though. I will make some dead fall traps tomorrow, I am craving for fresh food, the last days' dinner was munching on nuts and berries, and chewing on dried meat. I'm hungry! Apart from that, I'm running out of binding material. The leather thongs that were provided are almost used up, and I am reluctant to cut the 'good hides' up for that. If I can get a few small animals, I have fresh food and can practice brain tanning. The leather can be cut up in stripes, it won't be so important if the tanning turned out well or not. But now I'm too tired to go on, I go to bed now. Good night. I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 343 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 10:37 am:        April 22nd, 23rd and 24th, TT0 And I thought the flood was over. When I woke up, it was raining, and the water level had risen again. I was trapped. This is no fun. A cave in the rain is anything but comfortable. It is dry, but it is cold. The fire doesn't heat the cave up enough to make it really comfortable, I guess for that you'd need more than one hearth, and a better wind screen at the entrance. I now understand very well why our ancestors (well, right now my contemporaries) used tent-like structures in their caves. They would have raised the comfort level significantly. I didn't have enough resources here to make something similar, though. Those earth lodges built by the people downriver would be more comfortable and warm in this climate than a cave, too. In general, a group of people would create more warmth and comfort than a lonely cave dweller, they would share the work, and they would share the hunting efforts, the danger, and help each other. Living alone under these conditions sucks! A weather like this can make you depressed. Fortunately I had gathered enough dry grass and wood before the rain started, so I spent the next three days making a rawhide pot in a frame, and making a second and third frame to be covered with woven grass and willow mats. The space between the frames was tightly stuffed with dry grass. The pot was covered with a woven willow lid (I'm getting better at basket weaving although I'm still very slow), the lid covered with grass, a piece of leather and another woven mat. It still rains, not heavily, but persistent. I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 344 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 10:38 am:        April 25th, TT0 Rain. Rain. Raiiiiiinnnnn..... I made a stew in my cooking box. It works very well, that is a huge relief. I can now start a stew in the morning and eat it, all nice and warm, when I come home. Did I mention rain? I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 345 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 10:41 am:        April 26th, TT0 Cave Dweller's Blues (with apologies to Ella Fitzgerald and the 'Gulf Coast Blues') Doo, doo- dooh-de-dooh... I've been blue all day Rain's not goin' away Leavin' this mama cold For another day, I'm told I've tried to keep me dry I thought stuff would be water-tight But there's water in my shoes That's why mama's got the blues The man I respect has left me in this cave The man I respect has gone and left me in this cave And if it keeps on rainin' this cave will be my grave River passed but he didn't leave no news The river's passed but he didn't leave no news I tell the world he left me cryin' those Cave Dweller's blues The rains up north honey sure do make me cold These rains up north they surely do make me cold They've made my shoes full of water, and leave me lookin' pretty old dooh-dooh-de-dooh, oh yeah! I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 346 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 - 2:14 pm:        May 3rd, TT0 I know I know - I should report every day.... I have an excuse. I was so busy this past week that I barely found the time to eat, and just collapsed into bed every night. On the 27th, the rain finally stopped. I ran out of stuff to do in the cave, and just watched the river flow by, and the water level fall gradually. I made short trips down into the valley, as far as I could go. Naturally the ground was muddy and walking was awkward, making my trips not very productive. But then I found a deer. It was dead, its antlers entangled with one of the sturdy alder bushes that was resisting the regular flooding of the river bank. The deer looked fresh - the belly wasn't expanded, it was probably still too cold for decay to set in rapidly. I thought that it might have lost footing maybe a few hours ago and drowned in the torrent. This was too good to let go. Mind you, I had no intention of eating it - after all I couldn't know for sure how long it had been dead - but I wanted the hide. First I needed to get it out of the water - not an easy undertaking. I had to get into the water up to my waist. Should I get undressed? What if I lost my footing and got swept away? I would die of hypothermia quickly. My clothes would keep me alive a bit longer, even if they were wet. After all, I had a second set of dry clothes up in the cave and could wrap myself into the reindeer fur. I would only take off my boots and keep them high enough not to get wet. I would have liked to tie a rope around my waist and attach that rope to a tree to get back to safety even if I lost my footing, but I didn't have a leather thong that was long enough for that. Why didn't I bring some rope with me? Dr. Creb and Scott suggested I take rope - I declined. Now I would have to do without... Very carefully I went into the water and shuffled towards the animal. I held on to every branch and bush I could reach. The water was very cold, my hands got stiff, and the ground was slippery. Still, I made it. I had to cut part of the branches off because I couldn't entangle the antlers and then almost lost the deer because it started to drift away in the current. Holding on to the deer and the tree, I managed to drag it to the bank of the river. Then I crawled out of the water. I hauled it further up, with my last reserves of strength until I thought that the current wouldn't take it away, then I curled up in a ball and tried to get a bit of feeling back into my legs. Alas, my yammering and whining didn't help, so I got up again, grabbed my boots, and dragged myself up to the cave to get dry and warm again. After I felt better, I took the tools I thought I would need, a basket full of ashes, and went down to start the work. Skinning a deer is hard work. Skinning a deer with a flint knife is even harder work. The wet animal was slippery and I had no frame or beams to tie it up and make the work easier. It took a long time to get it done, and afterwards I was all bloody and grimy. I cursed myself for my foolishness, since I now had a set of wet clothes at the cave, and was wearing a second set of dirty, soaked clothes - nothing to change into after I was finished. The sun was shining, though, and I felt that it had gained some strength. Working in the midday sun actually made me feel warm. Finally I had the hide. Now I needed the brain. Breaking the deer's skull also took a long time and was hard work. When I was done, I dragged the deer's body back to the river and threw it in as far as I could - even without its skin that animal was heavy, but I didn't want to attract hyenas and other carrion eaters to a place so close to my cave. What I should do now would be scraping the hide, soak it in lye, rinse it, brain-tan it, dry and work it and then smoke it. No way to do all that on the same day. I decided to make a mixture from water and the wood ashes, and just keep the hide in there until the next morning. After a while this mixture would become alkaline and actually make scraping easier. I had no container to make this and put the hide in. What now? A bucket would have been perfect... I decided to experiment and dug a hole in the soft mud close to the river. I would not need to worry about carrying water there, since it filled up almost immediately with ground water. I threw the ashes and the hide in and covered everything with branches, grass and soil. The brain was in a small bowl and would hopefully keep a few days. After cleaning myself superficially at the river, I took it up to the cave with me. The next days were spent rinsing the hide in the river (I took it out with a stick, since I had no idea how strong the lye was) and then scraping off the flesh and the membranous parts. This took a long, long time, I had to work carefully since I had no experience and didn't want to cut the hide. While I wasn't finished with this, I kept the hide rolled up over night and soaked it a bit in the mornings. I know that's not the way it's done, but I neither had enough salt nor a freezer to preserve it. After it was finally scraped clean, I wanted to brain it. The brain had not preserved, it stank. I mixed the stinky mess with hot water, using the water tight basket I used for washing (you can't have enough containers when you lead this kind of lifestyle!) and then soaked the hide in that stinky mixture. Taking it out, wringing it out with two sticks, soaking again, wringing, soaking, wringing..... In the meantime I had used the leftover thongs to make a frame to dry the hide. I had also smoothed one end of a thick piece of driftwood. When I thought I could stop soaking the hide in the brains, I laced it to the frame and started stretching it with that piece of wood while it dried. This, again, is hard work that takes a long time. To my surprise all my efforts turned out fairly well, and in the end I got an almost evenly soft piece of buckskin. As a last step I smoked it to make it watertight. The second surprise was that I didn't catch a cold. In the meantime the air had warmed up some more, and tomorrow I will find a way to clean myself and my clothes. I found that I had accomplished something important, and that was worth the week of labour - and the time-out with my diaries. I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Lois storyteller Username: Lois Post Number: 160 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 7:57 am:        Oh Thalion, why didn't you eat the deer? If it smelled fresh, I would have eaten it, but then I'll eat almost anything. Great stuff! I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains...   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 347 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 2:10 pm:        I'm chicken, Lois. Dr. Creb has edited out half of my whining, otherwise you'd be swamped with 'I'm scared, I feel alone, I'm scared' tirades from me... So much for being intrepid... ***** May 4th, TT0 Spring will come. I went down to the river and started to wash my stuff and myself, which still is an ice-cold endeavour. Not very efficient even though I sacrificed some more of my precious soap. I would try making some, but fat is scarce. You need fat and lye for making soap, but that reindeer that had been provided, had been hunted in late March, still winter here, and the anmals are very lean at that time of the year. The little fat I found in the cleaned guts I will save for 'bad times', and add a little to my food when I feel very cold. The bird I hunted wasn't fat either. If I should succeed to trap animals with my dead fall traps-in-plannig, I can't expect much fat either. I could have taken the little there was from that deer I skinned, but I was too exhausted and confused from the cold to think that far. Soap will have to wait. I expect to find some saponin-containing plants as soon as the growing season starts. Wearing my still damp stuff that I had on when I went for the deer, I made a short walk along the river bank. The water has gone down to its normal level now, and apart from the mud everywhere, everything is back to normal. I saw fish. They must have been trout, or maybe some other kind of the salmonidae family. I will go fishing very soon, I think. I will start carving some small hooks for angling, and a large hook for spearing. A net would be good, but for that I would need fibre to make cords. Maybe I should try making some with the inner bark of some trees... There should be nettle later on, I could make some cord out of that. I saw flowers. Coltsfoot flowers, to be precise. They are among the first plants to grow in early spring, and they bloom before the leaves come out. Here is a picture: Tussilago farfara, Colts Foot. From: http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/plants/plant3/ farfara.htm I will collect some of the flowers soon, and many of the leaves later. They not only make an efficient cough treatment, they also make nice seasoning and the leaves can be used to wrap food in them. Too much of it is damaging the liver, though. I spent the rest of the day in my sleeping bag, none of my clothes were really dry and warm, and I couldn't get rid of the cold. Soon I will go for longer hikes and really start exploring. Spring is fun. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Utika bear cub Username: Utika Post Number: 7 Registered: 9-2003 Posted on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 2:30 pm:        Cataloguing the available flora is certainly much more enjoyable than retrieving a deer from a freezing river ! I can't wait to read what you found during your explorations   Lois storyteller Username: Lois Post Number: 162 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 7:54 am:        I never bothered to find out what Coltsfoot looked like before, so thanks for taking that snap. I hope you took some photo's of the plants containing saponin, I've always wondered about those . I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains...   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 348 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 2:22 pm:        May 5th, TT0 I'm busy. The weather is gorgeous. The area is gorgeous. I walked on the steppe (clothes are dry by now, though not clean), saw more animals from afar, and found some wool/hair tufts in some places. I was walking all day, thus got quite far. The animals must be shedding right now and change into their summer coat. I have no idea from which species all that hair and wool comes, but it is just what I need. I collected as much as I could, and when I walked back froze in my tracks. A bit upriver from the place where my cave is, the cliff is tapering off and is more a steep hill than a cliff. On top of that cliff was a bear, grazing like a cow. I may have forgotten to mention that the grass is coming out, and everything is getting a lovely green hue. Anyway, I just stood there and watched, the bear seemed not to mind. He/she was far enough away anyway. I don't think it was a cave bear, to me it looked rather similar to a Grizzly, so it would have been a brown bear. They must have come out of hibernation just now. Watching the animal at the same time elated and scared me. Yet another danger to watch out for, but what a wonderful sight! After a while I turned the other way and went back to my cave. I started twisting cords out of the wool, and will look out for more tomorrow. This will make a nice net, I guess. Fish watch out, here I come! I will take some more pictures from the area around the cave. Spring here is as expected, everything seems to 'explode' at once. I am a lot more optimistic now than I was a few days ago... I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 351 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 2:02 pm:        May 6th to May 20th, TT0 Summarized by the Time Travel Team The first fish I caught with a hook carved from bone and line twisted from some fibers from the inner bark of conifers mixed with some of the animal hair I found was pike. I know how to fish for pike, I did catch pike in the past (or should I say future?) on lakes, from a boat, from the shore, in rivers, even through the ice. I know pike, and that was my advantage here. I chose an oxbow of the river with a lot of phragmites, cattail and other large grasses as my hunting ground. I was pretty certain that there had to be pike, and my only worry was that my self-made fishing line wouldn't hold up to the drill. I had attached a piece of naturally polished fresh water clam shell to the hook and tried to use this as a blinker. This critter must have been hungry! As soon as I threw the bait, something got at it and got hooked almost immediately. Luckily I had attached the line to a piece of wood, otherwise it would have cut my hands. The fish immediately took off, however, I was confident, a pike wouldn't fight for all that long. I was right. Despite the difficulties in giving line, I managed to tire the fish, and then started to carefully pull it in. As usual, it just had rested for a while and gave me another run, almost pulling the fishing rod out of my hands. So we repeated the whole thing, pulling in, running out again, pulling in - until I got it close enough to hook with my fish hook (where is a net when you need one?). There was some more fight, and slipping through fingers - you need to be extra careful here, those pike bite! - but finally I had him on the shore. A hit over the head, a cut through its heart with the knife - and that was it. I degutted and scaled it where I landed it and proudly brought my catch home. It was a nice pike, about 50 cm long, and would taste marvellous. Winter pike usually do, they only taste muddy in summer. I was right, wrapped in grass and cooked over the coals, it was delicious. The head, some of the meat, bones and tail made an excellent stew. I caught some more pike, and also rainbow trout. A rainbow trout However, my line ripped apart more than once, and I needed to replace it frequently. I would have to think about something more durable than animal hair. Maybe some plant fiber... but the only plant I could think of at the moment was nettle, again. Anyway, it was not too difficult to get fish, and I smoked some over a smouldering fire of alder wood. While I was cave-area-bound with fishing and smoking, I also set up several dead-fall traps on the steppe, and on the hills upriver, where the cliff became less steep. I was successful with that, too, I caught rabbits, a few great jerboas and steppe marmot. deadfall trap; from: http://www.geocities.com/roo_two/deadfall.html steppe marmots © Hendrik Zeitler (http://www.wild-russia.org/html/hendrik.htm) They brought fresh meat, and I was busy working the hides into leather, I wanted to cut them into stripes of different width and length to stock up on binding material. The deer hide I had tanned was still mostly intact, I had only cut away a few stripes spiralling from the outer edge to get a long and sturdy line. Anyway, there was enough meat to eat, and also to cut up and dry. Which I did. I dried and smoked it together with the fish, after I cut it up into thin slices. I wanted to be adequately familiar with the procedure by the time I would be going on the hunt for larger game. I still had no idea how to do that, though. Time would tell if my dried meat and fish kept well. I had made some more baskets, still a bit lopsided but usable, and stored the meat in those. I did make a second watertight (well, somewhat watertight) basket, since I didn't want to wash in the other one any more. I had used that first basket to tan my hide, and couldn't get the stinky smell of the rotten brain out of it. I didn't want that smell on myself or my clothes! I would use that basket for tanning only. All this kept me very busy, and in-between, when there wasn't a hide to dry or fish to smoke, I went for further excursions on the steppe. By mid-month, the greyish-brownish wasteland had transformed into a colorful sea of flowers. It started out with purple pasqueflower (Pulsatilla patens) brightening the brown backdrop of dead grasses, followed by cowslip (Primula veris) and pheasant's-eye as well as the rare cinquefoil species (Potentilla pimpinelloides Potentilla pimpinelloides growing in the Galichia Gora nature reserve, Don river basin, Russia Adonis vernalis growing in the Galichia Gora nature reserve, Don river basin, Russia In the river valley the bushes were starting to flower, like blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), highbush cranberry (Viburnum edule and hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna). The emerging leaves gave the whole landscape a special charm, you can almost forget that you live in an ice age. This is a view of the Don river in the valley just below my cave (Galichia Gora nature reserve) That's what the way up and down to my cave looks like. I was holding on to the rope while I made this picture. (Galichia Gora nature reserve) A view downriver, where the cliff ends. (Galichia Gora nature reserve) The next few days I will go on a longer excursion on the steppes and stay over night. I want to get closer to some of those herds and get an idea about the animals here in general. The diaries will be continued when I am back. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 355 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 1:30 pm:        May 21st, TT0 Spring has progressed nicely, everything is in full bloom and it has become quite warm, except for the still cold nights. I enjoyed my excursion, which was rather uneventful. I walked South and Southwest, and came closer to some of the herds, close enough to take pictures and watch them a bit. There is a small herd of horses coming to the area rather frequently, I have seen them from afar, and closer up. They don't seem to move to a certain place, just roam around the area. There was a large herd of reindeer moving North, they are handsome large animals, and it would be great if I could hunt some of them. Not too large for one person to manage, I guess. I still don't know how to go about the hunt, though. Caribou, from Don's maps - Ice Age animals I also saw a herd of musk oxen, impressive animals with a very strong smell. I remembered that the secretions of the male's facial glands caused the smell, and that those impressive animals were almost hunted to extinction in our day and age. Musk Ox, from Don's maps - Ice Age animals Apparently they didn't view me as a threat and went about their business of grazing and wandering. They are far too large for me to hunt anyway, no way to get that meat back home. In addition, it would be quite difficult to hunt one of them, since they don't run when they feel threatened, they form a protective circle. And if they have an injured or even dead animal in the herd, they try to protect it. I considered myself lucky to see them and tried not to disturb them. When they had passed by, I noticed a huge amount of wool that they had shed. Now I felt really lucky, because that wool is shed in huge amounts in spring, and was/is used in our time by native Americans for warm clothing. (Time travel grammar gives me a headache...). I stuffed my backpack with as much of the wool I could find, and made a huge bundle to carry attached to the backpack. I will talk about the plants some other time, I collected the edible ones I found, and stuffed myself with them on the go. I really had a craving for fresh plant food, probably partly due to vitamin deficiency. You may have wondered why I didn't take some vitamin C with me, but if you know what you're doing you can get along without, and stay healthy. Vitamin C isn't very stable, and cooking will destroy much of it. Still, rose hips contain a lot, and there is still some in a tea made of rose hips, and that was part of my tea mixtures every day. There is some in the dried berries, when they are dried carefully. And I frequently munched on buds of trees, like birch and poplar, and especially the young shoots or tips of conifer branches. Still, having fresh dandelion leaves and other greens available made a difference. I also found large patches of flowering strawberries, and look forward to harvesting them in a few weeks. Apart from the fresh greens, my travelling food was rather disappointing. I took some of my new dried meat with me, planned to chew on it... but it was tough as leather. I must have overdone the drying and smoking there... maybe it could be made edible again when pounded and soaked for a long time.... but for chewing... I might as well have chewed on a piece of leather. When I came back to the cave I was glad to have some smoked trout for dinner. (Message edited by Thalion on December 22, 2004) I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 356 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 1:31 pm:        May 22nd, TT0 I really don't want to talk today. I'm so disappointed and desperate... I can't talk, I'm going to bed now.... I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Thalion storyteller Username: Thalion Post Number: 357 Registered: 5-2003 Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 1:36 pm:        May 25th, TT0 I did not feel like reporting those past few days. I was just sitting around, brooding. But there is no use, no one will help me, I will have to help myself.... What happened? Part of my dried meat was like leather. Another part smelled very rotten and was spoiled. So was a part of my dried fish. I didn't expect these techniques to work for me immediately, after all, I only know the theory, and reality is quite different. I would need to practice some more. However, when I went to the storage area and looked through my dried provisions, I found the largest part of it spoiled as well. Are you familiar with Plodia interpunctella, the Indian Meal Moth? The larvae must have been waiting for warmer weather to emerge, and they started eating my berries and nuts, and spin their cocoons. The humidity they create caused a large part of the stored food that wasn't infested to mould... It was such a mess, I couldn't help breaking into tears. I threw the rotten stuff out, and there is hardly anything left. I would need a natural insect repellent for storage pests... I don't know what to do now, I'm still clueless... I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they pass by - Douglas Adams   Eco bear cub Username: Eco Post Number: 14 Registered: 9-2003 Posted on Monday, October 27, 2003 - 6:19 pm:        I always wondered about Auel's food storage descriptions. She talked about some cached/stored foods rotting, and she brought up rodents and scavengers getting into stored supplies, but I don't remember her ever writing about any insect infestations, and I always thought that would have been a major issue for people back then. Well, as spring blooms and fresh food becomes easier to get, hopefully you will have less need of dried foods. Tupperware does a good job of keeping foods fresh... what you need is some ice-age Tupperware . Too bad you didn't have a good selection of cured bladders, stomachs, and intestines to store foods in (would those work, I wonder?). Or maybe some large drawstring leather "bags" that could be closed up tightly. Hmm... can't wait to read about your solution...

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