Education

Education- Wilderness Survival School

Learning to make fire at an outdoor skills school in Madison, WI
Learning to make fire with sticks is one of many survival skills you can do. Here Duane gets his first bowdrill fire going!

Learn Primitive Outdoor Wilderness Skills in Wisconsin

You can meet me in one of the areas around Madison, Wisconsin where I am set up to teach bushcraft skills. Or if you have public or private land you want to know better, I can come to you.

My favorite classes are with friends, couples, spouses, parents who bring their children, or grandparents and their grandchildren. There is a unique bond that happens when people learn these skills together. I love seeing the connection and life-long memory between friends and family.

Families doing wilderness skills together grow and bond as they practice.
Practicing outdoor skills as a family creates life-long memories and brings people together.

Plus, these skills are just cool and good to know!

There are two options for people who are interested in learning at a wilderness survival school in Southern Wisconsin either for themselves or as a gift for friends and family.

1. You can enjoy a personalized and customized wilderness class for you or your group. This is the best, most reliable option by far.

2. You can come to a special class. There are not many of these “regular classes”.  In fact I have only had two in the last 10+ years. I am so busy with personalized, custom classes with people that I rarely have the time to hold a regular class. Your best bet is to reach out to me and schedule something with me.

Personalized Custom Outdoor Skills Classes

The most popular, easiest, fastest, most reliable way to learn bushcraft skills with me is to simply contact me and let me know what you are interested in. If you want some ideas on what to do, there are a few  popular things listed at the bottom of this page.

With this option, you’ll have lots of fun, choose what you want to do, and get my full attention.

If you know what you want to do and are interested in meeting up to do some outdoor skills, please send me a message and let me know that you are interested in.

If you know you want to try some wilderness skills, but aren’t sure what you want to do, this page has various outdoor skills has some ideas for you.

Back to top of page

Teaching wilderness skills to kids
Teaching at a Wilderness Skills Gathering. John loves teaching kids and parents together! It’s amazing to see the connections. 🙂

Special Outdoor Skills Classes

Some projects are season dependent and you never know exactly when that window of opportunity is going to be.

For example there is a 2 or 3 week window sometime in May or June when the bark peels off certain trees and you can make folded bark baskets traditionally used for picking berries..

Also, since fire-making is so popular, I might do a fire class once or twice a year.

Most seasons I will hold at least one class on making folded bark berry baskets. And the is always a chance, however unlikely, that I will carve out the time to do another class once a season. But, I simply don’t have the time since my schedule is so full with people who book private, customized classes with me. So if you want to make sure you can learn from me, it’s best to just message me about having a private class.

If you want emails to let you know I’m planning on doing a special outdoor skills class, please enter your name and email in the form below and click “Notify Me”. Then I’ll send an email to  you so you can sign up for the class if you’d like!  🙂






Enter your name and email in the form below, then click the “Notify Me” button to get an email when there are Special Classes available.

We respect your email privacy

Back to top of page

Cattail water bottles and deer figurines are just a couple of things you can learn at an wilderness skills school
Cattail cozies for water bottles and willow deer figurines are easy to make if you have the right instruction. These are a lot of fun to make and last for years.