I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like The Legend of Mick Dodge. There’s been some really great and informative episodes.
Mick is super folksy, but he’s entertaining. He’s got a good voice to listen to, and he’s pretty much nice to everyone he meets.
His lifestyle might not be for most people, but seeing how he survives and thrives while living in the forest is survival edutainment worth watching.
I’ve seen him do some amazing things that I never would have thought of.
HE SPENT THE NIGHT ON A MATTRESS OF COALS – literally, a mattress of coals. As in, he dug a furrow in the ground and rolled the coals from the fire into it. Then he covered it with soil and used that for his bed.
He used moss for a blanket. And clothes. And medicine. I had never realized how versatile moss could be until I saw him running around the forest surviving.
He lost his clothes while away from his home territory, but instead of letting it kill him, he survived a night that dropped to 38°F. And he didn’t just live through a dangerous situation, he got a good night’s sleep.
HE BAKED HARDTACK – the old-fashioned way. With a dutch oven, a hole in the ground, ashes and coals, bark, and sand. It looked so easy, but it was really clever.
He dug a hole deep enough for the pot to pit and threw in ashes and coals. Then he added the dutch oven and covered the top with bark to keep the following layer of sand from putting out the coals.
The man turned a hole in the ground into an oven.
The hardtack he made took an hour to bake, and once it was done he just pulled the dutch oven out of the ground by the handle he’d left sticking up, and BAM! Food from the earth.
His hardtack recipe looked to be:
4 cups flour
1/2 mason jar of water
dab of oil
honey to sweeten it
He mixed everything together in the dutch oven with a stick.
The man has some serious survival skills. And he’s willing to share them if you watch.
National Geographic has given us a great show with The Legend of Mick Dodge.
Keep dodgin’ it, fella.
