So a friend asked me to accompany he & another guy on a "knife only, PRIMITIVE skill full survival immersion." Okay says me!
Our gear: shorts, pants
t shirt, light long sleeve shirt
foot wear
hat
knife
I advised the fellas that despite our "knife only" gear maximum I planned on bringing some asthma meds.
The other two guys had small backpacks containing emergency gear in case of an emergency.
We had a light breakfast together and embarked on a hike into the depths of a vast national forest.
Monday walking in we collected:
Solomon Seal root
Lady Thumb
Stinging Nettle
Hog P nut
Cleavers
Chick Weed
Bass Wood tree leaves
Ox eye daisy flowers
and we were fortunate enough to collect two large black rat snakes.
Another bonus was I found 30' of real 7 strand 550 para cord tied between two trees at an obvious stream side camp site whose tennants had littered the place up.
I also found an old lamp cord I collected to make copper snare wires out of.
By early after noon We found a good place to camp with nearby safe wild water flowing right out of a mountain side.
I skinned and gutted the snakes retaining the innards for bait.
We found some dry box elder and made a large two man bow drill kit. The woods were quite damp and there was a good chance of rain this day and a very high likley hood of rain tomorrow. I left the fire ring & fire making details to my comrades and went out to scout the area and set some dead fall traps.
On my scouting I found some old gatorade bottles and glass beer bottles I scavenged to become our water bottles. I set a figure 4 trap and made a minnow trap out of a littered 2 liter soda bottle using snake intestine as bait. I also had collected a good tinder bundle from various rock out crops that made just enough shelter to keep the first 2" of woods litter at the rocks base dry. I found a few game trails as well as some nice holes in a small stream that should hold fish.
I headed back to camp to make sure it was in order & to see about bedding. I kicked up a high pile of leaves to make a debris hut out of later. On another look about I found a large piece of rolled up thin plastic. I told the team about it and they immediately decided to take advantage of it for shelter as it seemed just barely big enough to keep the three of us out of precipitation. I erected the plastic sheeting lean to style with 4 of the inner cords of the para cord. I looked at my pile of wet leaves and was not elated at the thought of sleeping in it, but wet, buggy and scratchy & slimy trumps freezing and not sleeping at night with me every time.
The one guy with us that I did not know let out a happy hoot and holler as he headed back to camp. Here is was not even late afternoon on the first day of a knife only trek and he walks into camp with two NICE cat fish. We had collected the two snakes in two seperate locations as they sunned themselves, but that was not skill- it was dumb luck!! But this guy already has two cats???? I was really impressed and glad I was with a primitive skills master guru- and already having thoughts of learning lots from him. I asked him how he had collected the fish and he told me with a hook and fishing line from his pack, using worms and grub for bait. Out goes the guru thoughts from my cranium. He must have identified the look on my face as he exclaimed "<span style="font-style: italic">well.....I had them, so I used them.</span>"
*I got nothing against more modern survival techniques, but I did not understand how it fit into our "knife only" scope of this trip or, nor, did I identify an emergency for which to use the emergency gear from their packs...... I was not pleased but *I let it go.*
We bow drilled up a nice fire and poached the snake and cats and veggies in the "emergency" cook pot. ** Eventually I was to learn this stranger had set out two steel coon traps and 8 limb lines for cats!!**
It was nearly dark when I learned this.
Per them telling me """emergency""" gear was permitted to be brought along, I had pitched in ONLY a gps and a bivy/ water proof thin sleeping bag cover. Begrudgingly I too dropped our original theme of "knife only" and slid in my bivy bag, wormed into my wet leaves and was off to sleep here our first night.
My friend slipped into a bivvy bag and the stranger whipped out a nice large US wool blanket. **
Tuesday:
It got QUITE, unseasonably cold in the night and I woke cold and restless several times equating a poor night's sleep. My compadres wanted to move and look yonder for resources and a new camp, so we struck camp and were on our way east after having dinner left overs for breakfast.
Enroute to we really did not know where we collected:
5 box turtles(!)
Solomon Seal root
As much Stinging Nettle as we could practically haul,
Spider Wort
(small) Poke leaves
Cross Vine leaves for tea
And some reishi (sp) & Ear of the Woods mushrooms off a couple of old logs.
We had found another source for safe wild water and a moderately decent place to camp near some more rocks that gave minimal dry tinder materials, but unfortunately the water source and camp spot were about a quarter mile apart. We had scavenged another two liter soda bottle which upped our bottling capacity to about a 1.5 gallons so we went with it and deemed it good'nuf.
I again erected our plastic sheeting lean to, and we made a fire ring. We were on a larger flow now and I often heard geese honking. I went to see if I could rabbit stick or rock a goose. The suckers were quite wary and maintained a 70-100 yard safe zone betwixt me and them regardless
of my approach angle or how sneaky I was.
Back at camp water was in 3/4 gallon cook pot ** and my friend was getting the meat from 3 of the turtles.
The stranger who was a nice guy and becoming a friend had been absent for several hours and he eventually came in with 5 little small mouth bass snatched out of the water by modern hand line.
One of my team mates had found two 4'x4' ish pieces of black plastic sheeting and they planned to use them for blankets.
Here tuesday I was tired from not sleeping well and feeling the weakness of reduced calories. Headaches were light and dull I imagine from my morning coffee withdrawals.
8 limb lines were placed for fish. We bow'd up a nice fire, cooked our vittles and I was first off to bed.
Wednesday:
Another cold and therefore restless night. I would come upon a camper later in the day that informed me it had got down to just below 40* in the night.
Just prior to daylight I heard some serious splashing at the bank, but with no artificial light source I let it go and tried to get a little more shut eye. At first light my buddies went to where the splashing had been and sure enough there was a Cat fish on a limb line. As my bud was pulling him in he almost had him to hand and the line broke and the cat got away. This was evidently the reason for the out burst of profanities from my camp mates I overheard from the stream side as I was working in camp. They came back over to camp and cursed that "a catfish, over two feet long- had just got away." We eventually just laughed our butts off and had what little dinner left overs there were for breakfast.
Then the sky cut loose with a really heavy rain. We hunkered down under our lean to. I drifted off in a much needed nap as my buddies sat and chatted away. Threeish hours later the rain slacked to a drizzle and 6 more limb lines were put out. My new friend went off to find a good spot for hand lining. My buddy went and checked the limb lines and returned with a cat we caught only two hours after placing the lines. He and I bow drilled HARD in the wet dampness and humidity and was rewarded with a large coal. However we had stuffed our tender material and small twigs in a hollow log to stay dry, but the torrential rains and relentless humidity had there way and our pyrolysis provisions were obviously damp. Even our tinder fungus had gotten damp. But alas we did get flames after much frantic work, attention and nurturing of the struggling little flames.
It takes me three days for my body to adapt to the low calorie diet and I could tell my body had adapted and my energy and endurance levels had come back some, but the two restless nights were still keeping me in a lull despite adaptation.
My new friend eventually came back with a cat fish, a little small mouth and a little sucker fish. We cooked it all up and ate well, saving the sucker fish for trap bait.
Now I know my body pretty well. I know my weakness is that I sleep REALLY cold wether in the woods or modern house. It is a quite odd condition as your hard pressed to over heat me or freeze me out during the daytime hours- I hang easily with the best of them. But come a sleep state- I get unnaturally cold! Even in the night during dog days summer.
So, after dinner I began to heat large flat rocks and place them in my leaf pile. This in short order made a steaming pile of leaves. I have never smelled steaming leaves before. The smell tried to turn my stomach. I did this with 4 rocks eventually drying my leaf bedding pile out by about 50%. I wanted to steam dry the pile dryer but the light was failing so I raked the ground where I to sleep back bare, positioned the rocks in a line that I would sleep over placing the freshest, hottest rock at my chest area and piled all the semi-wet leaves back over the rocks and laid atop this arrangement in my bivy bag. It made for a bit lumpy but tolerable mattress. In short order two rock began to scorch me. I remedied this easily by adding more leaves between me & the hot spots. I was super warm and cozy! I slept nice and cozy!
Until about 1:00 am. My rocks had run out. I woke up <span style="font-style: italic">fearfully & anxiously</span> cold. I pulled all the rocks out from beneath me and the one that had a bit of heat left I pulled into the bivy with me and cuddled against my bare chest under my nylon "t" and my light nylon long sleeved shirt. In an estimated 20 minutes I was mostly warmed up again and drifted off to sleep and slept good enough!
Wednesday night into Thursday:
For another hour or so. With the rock now less warm than I I disposed of it and lie shivering- miserably cold with an appreciable fear and vigilance against hypothermia. I decided to rekindle the fire and play it safe by warming myself up; I could sleep in the warmth of the mid day sun the following day if need be. But then it dawned on my we had no artificial light source and had made no primitive lamps or torches, and despite banking up the coals there had been no coals that had made it through the night.
So ultimately I decided to just tough it out, and not sleep and if My shivering stopped I would alert my sleeping comrades I was showing entry levels symptoms of hypo. A few times I nodded off. I awoke just prior to first light. At first light My wool blanket equipped friend got up and stood with his blanket in hand. I silently pleaded desperately for him to throw it over me as I watched him fold and pin it about him in "match coat" style and he said he was off the check the coon traps. He was quickly out of sight. I willed myself to verbally rouse my friend and then willed myself to get up, get him up and us bow drill a fire. It was all two large framed strong men could do to violently shiver their way through the primitive fire making process... But oh those flames. Thank GOD for those flames as we warmed up. As we warmed sleepiness tightened it's vice on us, but we had much to do.
I had found a "tall" beer can in good shape. I cut the top out, packed it with Cross Vine leaves (which is good meds for long term endurence)
And heated it by the fire. We shared several cans of the tea.
No coons in the traps but We had a good sized cat fish on a limb line. We raked back the fire and slapped the catfish on the coals. I worked on & around camp, and discovered a Bass Wood tree, from which I harvested MANY leaves for the pot. We rotated duties tending the fire as everything including combustibles were all quite damp. The day was slowly warming and clearing at seemingly the speed of glacial flow.
On one of my fire duty rotations I barely heard two shots fired. I raised an eye brow but dismissed it. Ten minutes later my friend came running into camp bare foot wearing only boxers, wet head to toe holding a nice big wild goose. He threw it down and said he was running back to get to redress, pack up his "take down survival .22" and come back and warm up. Obviously this little rifle came out of one of the emergency only packs. **
After he was back the new friend came back curious of the shots. They went to dress out the goose which ultimately was boiled in the pot for 4+ hours with the Bass Wood leaves thrown in near the end.
We ate at the plentiful meal throughout the day. I placed all my leaf pile in the sun & wind to dry out completely. I forget which of my comrades but one of them came in with an additional catfish which was roasted right on the coals. We at that point had an abundance of food.
That evening the sun & wind had dried my leaf pile out by 85%. I packed my bivy with them. I piled many more wet leaves on the ground for an insulative mattress and laid the bivy ontop. I snacked on a little more goose Then went to bed at just the start of dawn. I was quickly almost too warm in the stuffed bivy, but fell off to sleep.
A few times in the night I woke cold. I discovered I had thrashed the leaves off the top side of my body and compacted them down into the leg and foot area of the bivy which had me sweating from the knees down. (I flop like a fish in my sleep) I'd rake the leaves back out of the foot of the bivy back up to my abdomen and shoulders and place the bulk of them back atop me and fall back to sleep nice & warm agian. A process I'd repeat three times in the night. Lesson learned: Pack the bivy TIGHT with leaves and sleep like a king all night long.
At one point in the night I was awakened by what I believe was large ant sprinting laps around my brow line. He'd go all out fast across my forehead hook a hair-pin curve around the end of an eye brow and then make it through the jungle of my eye lashes as quick as he could, hair pin around the end of the other brow and once again it was full throttle sprint across the plain of my for head. He raced alone, so either it was a timed trial race as his buddies watched and timed his runs, or perhaps he was merely practicing along for some coming event. Whichever it was, I laid there in the pitch black darkness for 5 full laps trying to rid my self of him with facial contortions and verbal threats, reluctant to use my hands as it would mean I'd end up having top resort the leaves atop my body one again. I eventually smacked myself several times and he was gone. I won... I think. Or was the joke on me?
Friday:
We woke dry having slept pretty well. We made a final fire, heated all the abundant left overs and had a nice breakfast. We released the two remaining live turtles, packed up, struck camp and gathered all the trash we had scavenged and made the hike out nibbling eatable plants and drinking wild water along the way back to my new friend.
All in all We had, I feel we a highly successful "modern survival outing."
Disclaimer: Anything depicted in this story that would be in any way unlawful or illegal are completely fictitious add-ins to make the story more rounded as well as a more enjoyable read.
Our gear: shorts, pants
t shirt, light long sleeve shirt
foot wear
hat
knife
I advised the fellas that despite our "knife only" gear maximum I planned on bringing some asthma meds.
The other two guys had small backpacks containing emergency gear in case of an emergency.
We had a light breakfast together and embarked on a hike into the depths of a vast national forest.
Monday walking in we collected:
Solomon Seal root
Lady Thumb
Stinging Nettle
Hog P nut
Cleavers
Chick Weed
Bass Wood tree leaves
Ox eye daisy flowers
and we were fortunate enough to collect two large black rat snakes.
Another bonus was I found 30' of real 7 strand 550 para cord tied between two trees at an obvious stream side camp site whose tennants had littered the place up.
I also found an old lamp cord I collected to make copper snare wires out of.
By early after noon We found a good place to camp with nearby safe wild water flowing right out of a mountain side.
I skinned and gutted the snakes retaining the innards for bait.
We found some dry box elder and made a large two man bow drill kit. The woods were quite damp and there was a good chance of rain this day and a very high likley hood of rain tomorrow. I left the fire ring & fire making details to my comrades and went out to scout the area and set some dead fall traps.
On my scouting I found some old gatorade bottles and glass beer bottles I scavenged to become our water bottles. I set a figure 4 trap and made a minnow trap out of a littered 2 liter soda bottle using snake intestine as bait. I also had collected a good tinder bundle from various rock out crops that made just enough shelter to keep the first 2" of woods litter at the rocks base dry. I found a few game trails as well as some nice holes in a small stream that should hold fish.
I headed back to camp to make sure it was in order & to see about bedding. I kicked up a high pile of leaves to make a debris hut out of later. On another look about I found a large piece of rolled up thin plastic. I told the team about it and they immediately decided to take advantage of it for shelter as it seemed just barely big enough to keep the three of us out of precipitation. I erected the plastic sheeting lean to style with 4 of the inner cords of the para cord. I looked at my pile of wet leaves and was not elated at the thought of sleeping in it, but wet, buggy and scratchy & slimy trumps freezing and not sleeping at night with me every time.
The one guy with us that I did not know let out a happy hoot and holler as he headed back to camp. Here is was not even late afternoon on the first day of a knife only trek and he walks into camp with two NICE cat fish. We had collected the two snakes in two seperate locations as they sunned themselves, but that was not skill- it was dumb luck!! But this guy already has two cats???? I was really impressed and glad I was with a primitive skills master guru- and already having thoughts of learning lots from him. I asked him how he had collected the fish and he told me with a hook and fishing line from his pack, using worms and grub for bait. Out goes the guru thoughts from my cranium. He must have identified the look on my face as he exclaimed "<span style="font-style: italic">well.....I had them, so I used them.</span>"
*I got nothing against more modern survival techniques, but I did not understand how it fit into our "knife only" scope of this trip or, nor, did I identify an emergency for which to use the emergency gear from their packs...... I was not pleased but *I let it go.*
We bow drilled up a nice fire and poached the snake and cats and veggies in the "emergency" cook pot. ** Eventually I was to learn this stranger had set out two steel coon traps and 8 limb lines for cats!!**
It was nearly dark when I learned this.
Per them telling me """emergency""" gear was permitted to be brought along, I had pitched in ONLY a gps and a bivy/ water proof thin sleeping bag cover. Begrudgingly I too dropped our original theme of "knife only" and slid in my bivy bag, wormed into my wet leaves and was off to sleep here our first night.
My friend slipped into a bivvy bag and the stranger whipped out a nice large US wool blanket. **
Tuesday:
It got QUITE, unseasonably cold in the night and I woke cold and restless several times equating a poor night's sleep. My compadres wanted to move and look yonder for resources and a new camp, so we struck camp and were on our way east after having dinner left overs for breakfast.
Enroute to we really did not know where we collected:
5 box turtles(!)
Solomon Seal root
As much Stinging Nettle as we could practically haul,
Spider Wort
(small) Poke leaves
Cross Vine leaves for tea
And some reishi (sp) & Ear of the Woods mushrooms off a couple of old logs.
We had found another source for safe wild water and a moderately decent place to camp near some more rocks that gave minimal dry tinder materials, but unfortunately the water source and camp spot were about a quarter mile apart. We had scavenged another two liter soda bottle which upped our bottling capacity to about a 1.5 gallons so we went with it and deemed it good'nuf.
I again erected our plastic sheeting lean to, and we made a fire ring. We were on a larger flow now and I often heard geese honking. I went to see if I could rabbit stick or rock a goose. The suckers were quite wary and maintained a 70-100 yard safe zone betwixt me and them regardless
of my approach angle or how sneaky I was.
Back at camp water was in 3/4 gallon cook pot ** and my friend was getting the meat from 3 of the turtles.
The stranger who was a nice guy and becoming a friend had been absent for several hours and he eventually came in with 5 little small mouth bass snatched out of the water by modern hand line.
One of my team mates had found two 4'x4' ish pieces of black plastic sheeting and they planned to use them for blankets.
Here tuesday I was tired from not sleeping well and feeling the weakness of reduced calories. Headaches were light and dull I imagine from my morning coffee withdrawals.
8 limb lines were placed for fish. We bow'd up a nice fire, cooked our vittles and I was first off to bed.
Wednesday:
Another cold and therefore restless night. I would come upon a camper later in the day that informed me it had got down to just below 40* in the night.
Just prior to daylight I heard some serious splashing at the bank, but with no artificial light source I let it go and tried to get a little more shut eye. At first light my buddies went to where the splashing had been and sure enough there was a Cat fish on a limb line. As my bud was pulling him in he almost had him to hand and the line broke and the cat got away. This was evidently the reason for the out burst of profanities from my camp mates I overheard from the stream side as I was working in camp. They came back over to camp and cursed that "a catfish, over two feet long- had just got away." We eventually just laughed our butts off and had what little dinner left overs there were for breakfast.
Then the sky cut loose with a really heavy rain. We hunkered down under our lean to. I drifted off in a much needed nap as my buddies sat and chatted away. Threeish hours later the rain slacked to a drizzle and 6 more limb lines were put out. My new friend went off to find a good spot for hand lining. My buddy went and checked the limb lines and returned with a cat we caught only two hours after placing the lines. He and I bow drilled HARD in the wet dampness and humidity and was rewarded with a large coal. However we had stuffed our tender material and small twigs in a hollow log to stay dry, but the torrential rains and relentless humidity had there way and our pyrolysis provisions were obviously damp. Even our tinder fungus had gotten damp. But alas we did get flames after much frantic work, attention and nurturing of the struggling little flames.
It takes me three days for my body to adapt to the low calorie diet and I could tell my body had adapted and my energy and endurance levels had come back some, but the two restless nights were still keeping me in a lull despite adaptation.
My new friend eventually came back with a cat fish, a little small mouth and a little sucker fish. We cooked it all up and ate well, saving the sucker fish for trap bait.
Now I know my body pretty well. I know my weakness is that I sleep REALLY cold wether in the woods or modern house. It is a quite odd condition as your hard pressed to over heat me or freeze me out during the daytime hours- I hang easily with the best of them. But come a sleep state- I get unnaturally cold! Even in the night during dog days summer.
So, after dinner I began to heat large flat rocks and place them in my leaf pile. This in short order made a steaming pile of leaves. I have never smelled steaming leaves before. The smell tried to turn my stomach. I did this with 4 rocks eventually drying my leaf bedding pile out by about 50%. I wanted to steam dry the pile dryer but the light was failing so I raked the ground where I to sleep back bare, positioned the rocks in a line that I would sleep over placing the freshest, hottest rock at my chest area and piled all the semi-wet leaves back over the rocks and laid atop this arrangement in my bivy bag. It made for a bit lumpy but tolerable mattress. In short order two rock began to scorch me. I remedied this easily by adding more leaves between me & the hot spots. I was super warm and cozy! I slept nice and cozy!
Until about 1:00 am. My rocks had run out. I woke up <span style="font-style: italic">fearfully & anxiously</span> cold. I pulled all the rocks out from beneath me and the one that had a bit of heat left I pulled into the bivy with me and cuddled against my bare chest under my nylon "t" and my light nylon long sleeved shirt. In an estimated 20 minutes I was mostly warmed up again and drifted off to sleep and slept good enough!
Wednesday night into Thursday:
For another hour or so. With the rock now less warm than I I disposed of it and lie shivering- miserably cold with an appreciable fear and vigilance against hypothermia. I decided to rekindle the fire and play it safe by warming myself up; I could sleep in the warmth of the mid day sun the following day if need be. But then it dawned on my we had no artificial light source and had made no primitive lamps or torches, and despite banking up the coals there had been no coals that had made it through the night.
So ultimately I decided to just tough it out, and not sleep and if My shivering stopped I would alert my sleeping comrades I was showing entry levels symptoms of hypo. A few times I nodded off. I awoke just prior to first light. At first light My wool blanket equipped friend got up and stood with his blanket in hand. I silently pleaded desperately for him to throw it over me as I watched him fold and pin it about him in "match coat" style and he said he was off the check the coon traps. He was quickly out of sight. I willed myself to verbally rouse my friend and then willed myself to get up, get him up and us bow drill a fire. It was all two large framed strong men could do to violently shiver their way through the primitive fire making process... But oh those flames. Thank GOD for those flames as we warmed up. As we warmed sleepiness tightened it's vice on us, but we had much to do.
I had found a "tall" beer can in good shape. I cut the top out, packed it with Cross Vine leaves (which is good meds for long term endurence)
And heated it by the fire. We shared several cans of the tea.
No coons in the traps but We had a good sized cat fish on a limb line. We raked back the fire and slapped the catfish on the coals. I worked on & around camp, and discovered a Bass Wood tree, from which I harvested MANY leaves for the pot. We rotated duties tending the fire as everything including combustibles were all quite damp. The day was slowly warming and clearing at seemingly the speed of glacial flow.
On one of my fire duty rotations I barely heard two shots fired. I raised an eye brow but dismissed it. Ten minutes later my friend came running into camp bare foot wearing only boxers, wet head to toe holding a nice big wild goose. He threw it down and said he was running back to get to redress, pack up his "take down survival .22" and come back and warm up. Obviously this little rifle came out of one of the emergency only packs. **
After he was back the new friend came back curious of the shots. They went to dress out the goose which ultimately was boiled in the pot for 4+ hours with the Bass Wood leaves thrown in near the end.
We ate at the plentiful meal throughout the day. I placed all my leaf pile in the sun & wind to dry out completely. I forget which of my comrades but one of them came in with an additional catfish which was roasted right on the coals. We at that point had an abundance of food.
That evening the sun & wind had dried my leaf pile out by 85%. I packed my bivy with them. I piled many more wet leaves on the ground for an insulative mattress and laid the bivy ontop. I snacked on a little more goose Then went to bed at just the start of dawn. I was quickly almost too warm in the stuffed bivy, but fell off to sleep.
A few times in the night I woke cold. I discovered I had thrashed the leaves off the top side of my body and compacted them down into the leg and foot area of the bivy which had me sweating from the knees down. (I flop like a fish in my sleep) I'd rake the leaves back out of the foot of the bivy back up to my abdomen and shoulders and place the bulk of them back atop me and fall back to sleep nice & warm agian. A process I'd repeat three times in the night. Lesson learned: Pack the bivy TIGHT with leaves and sleep like a king all night long.
At one point in the night I was awakened by what I believe was large ant sprinting laps around my brow line. He'd go all out fast across my forehead hook a hair-pin curve around the end of an eye brow and then make it through the jungle of my eye lashes as quick as he could, hair pin around the end of the other brow and once again it was full throttle sprint across the plain of my for head. He raced alone, so either it was a timed trial race as his buddies watched and timed his runs, or perhaps he was merely practicing along for some coming event. Whichever it was, I laid there in the pitch black darkness for 5 full laps trying to rid my self of him with facial contortions and verbal threats, reluctant to use my hands as it would mean I'd end up having top resort the leaves atop my body one again. I eventually smacked myself several times and he was gone. I won... I think. Or was the joke on me?
Friday:
We woke dry having slept pretty well. We made a final fire, heated all the abundant left overs and had a nice breakfast. We released the two remaining live turtles, packed up, struck camp and gathered all the trash we had scavenged and made the hike out nibbling eatable plants and drinking wild water along the way back to my new friend.
All in all We had, I feel we a highly successful "modern survival outing."
Disclaimer: Anything depicted in this story that would be in any way unlawful or illegal are completely fictitious add-ins to make the story more rounded as well as a more enjoyable read.
