primitive lamps

[ohiogoatgirl]

okay so i sent in an email to be on the TV show "the colony". now i know it is unlikely that i will get on the show. but lately i've been modivated (spelling?) to really learn stuff. i mean i'm always reading and looking stuff up but i've been actually trying this stuff.

so i made a lamp. i used a shell from the creek, a dried mullien leaf (commonly known here as toilet paper plant), and vegetable oil.
~pour some oil in the shell,
~cut a strip of mullien leaf for your wick,
~let the leaf soak up some oil,
~lay the leaf-wick along the shell (one end in the oil leaning up the side of the shell with a little hanging off the edge)
~light the leaf-wick (the part hanging off the edge)

my shells dont even hold 1/4 cup of oil and it burned for about 4.5 hours. the leaf-wick was about 1/2 inch long and about half as wide as a pencil eraser. but you have to keep putting a little oil in it or the wick will burn down real fast.

i'm going to make an atlatl soon.
anyone else make any primitive stuff like this?

 

[rebecca100]

Dh just rented the 1st season of "the colony". He wanted to see how they survived and I wanted to learn how they made the gassifier.
Someone had posted this link, but I couldn't find the origional thread so I am just posting the link too.
http://www.primitiveways.com/index.html

I like the pine pitch fire thing they have.

 

[Denim Deb]

I need to try that. It really sounds interesting. We have a ton of mullein growing in this area. I've also seen it called flannel leaf.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

ya, i've like memorized that website. lol! and there's worldwideflood.com

ya, the show is great. i'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[FarmerDenise]

That is a great website. I am going to have to try some of those things out. A lot of it is about the peoples from where I live. My stepson is Pomo and Miwok. I have already done a lot of research. This site gives me so much more to work with.