If you are in the BC area or anywhere really in Lower Canada/Lower Alaska around the shores of Lakes you get abundant wet lands where the Cat Tail Plant grows. It has a shape that looks like a hot dog on a skewer at the top...almost looks like water reeds from it's location but the top of the plant makes it clearly identifiable...as there are these thick sausage shaped heads. If you cut some of these down and get the head of the plant you can pull it apart and you get very down like fibres designed to be blown on the wind to enable the plant to propigate.

Collect this stuff and it makes a great "filling" for insulation...very much like down. Then all you need is to use a sewing kit and stitch the bottom and sleeves together on two tops...add the filling between the two...then you have a very warm lightweight top that works like a climbers down jacket. It also makes for great tinder...plus the roots of Cat Tail are one of the very few plants in that region which hold energy giving starch which is edible. The Canadian wilderness is very bereft of plants which give carbo-hydrate energy...to survive there you really need to eat meat and fish... and seasonally berries ... edible plants are hard come by...the root of Alpine Sweet Betch and the pith of Rosebay Willow Herb ( which makes a thick flower ) are all I can remember aside from Cat Tail Roots which are by far the best.

They say knowledge weighs "nothing"...but memory failure is hard to conquer I find... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />