The following are true accounts of Hermits Who Survived Years In The Killer Wilderness. These hermits deliberately separated themselves from the outside world and all its comfortable amenities of plenty. These hermits deliberately separated themselves from the outside world not for months but for decades.
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They survived wilderness threats that would kill regular people in just hours. Let’s start with Lone Hermit Survivor Fights Off Killer Hypothermia For 3,240 Days!
Before we carry-on, let me give you the definition of a hermit:
“one who retires from society and lives in solitude especially for religious reasons.”
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Lone Hermit Survivor Fights Off Killer Hypothermia For 3,240 Days!
You already read Davy Crockett Hypothermia Remedy. Killer cold conditions that would kill most regular folks (99%) – back then and today, but not YOU. Go ahead and go back and re-read those segments right now.
OK, you’re back – here’s a modern day Real Survivor that would make Davy Crockett and all other bad ass mountain man real proud. Let me give you some background information on this man that repeatedly survived killer cold conditions. We can all learn from this intelligent survivor.
His name is Christopher Thomas Knight. He’s called the North Pond Hermit and the Backpack Burglar. In 1986 at the age of 20, Mr. Knight decided to abandon society, leave everything behind and live in the wilderness.
He just left everything and not even saying goodbye to family members. The last thing he says he remembers was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (26 April 1986).
Mr. Knight found a secluded spot in the area of North Pond, Maine. He settled at his survival site with no long-term supplies. So for his 27-years in deliberate isolation, Mr. Knight turned to stealing. It is estimated during his 27-years of survival, he committed approximately 1,000 burglaries from houses in the surrounding area.
In the 27-years of isolation, Mr. Knight had only 02 contacts with other humans. One was a hiker (1990s) and approximately 02-weeks before his capture, he had contact with a fisherman and his son (February 2013).
During his 27-years of survival in the wilderness, Mr. Knight survived killer cold temperatures that were as cold as 27-degrees Fahrenheit below zero. How did he survive approximately 3,240-days of killer cold temperatures?
He woke-up at the coldest part of the night and started pacing around his camp till he got warm. Very similar to what Davy Crockett did when he was threatened with killer hypothermia. This one survival trick saved Mr. Knights life THOUSANDS of times.
Note: It is my estimation that Mr. Knight survived the coldest part of the year (November thru February) which comes to 120-days times 27 years which comes to 3,240 coldest days. Amazing!
A book was written on Christopher Thomas Knight titled “The Stranger In The Woods.” Here are some YouTube Videos on Mr. Knight.
- 149-The North Pond Hermit (00:29:32)———YouTube
- Michael Finkel On The Last True Hermit (00:38:03)———YouTube
- Stranger In The Woods 1 of 2 (00:39:47)——YouTube
- The Last True Hermit (00:26:42)——–YouTube
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Military Poncho Liner: Back in late 1973, when assigned to the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, NC, one of my many items of military equipment was a camouflaged military poncho liner. The infantry, especially the airborne infantry is a miserable job. But that poncho liner helped make it a little bit less miserable many many times.
I don’t know exactly what that thing was made of but it was a LIFE SAVER. That baby kept me warm when it was cold, when I was soaking wet and EVEN when I was soaking wet and the poncho liner was soaking wet!!! If you can get ahold of an authentic military poncho liner – get one. It weighs next to nothing and that baby will keep you warm and last decades. I kept and used mine thousands of times for the 20-years I was in the US Army.
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Lykovs – The Taiga Hermits!
In the Summer of 1978, pilots flying deep in Siberia over the Khakassia Mountains complimented with a dense forest, with 04 geologist as passengers were looking for a landing pad. The geologist were confirming deposits of iron ore in the mountainous area (Volkovsk). They were located in true isolated wilderness territory, approximately 250 kilometers (155-miles) from the closest settlement, known as the Taiga.
The pilots spotted what looked like a garden, a huge garden on the mountainside. The many rows of something growing on the slope. Descending in altitude, the pilots spotted a man-made structure near the garden. The pilots were shocked to see anything out here. The entire area was supposed to be uninhabited. To confirm what they spotted, the pilots made a racetrack – coming back on their initial location. They confirmed the garden, the man-made structure and now a beaten path that led to a nearby stream. The also spotted slit logs layed-out for drying for firewood. But the pilots sighted no people. This home-made structure wasn’t on their map so they recorded this spot on their map for a future return.
The pilots carried on with their search for a landing site and found one 15 kilometers (09.3-miles) east downriver (Abakan River) from their new discovery.
The 04 geologist onboard the helicopter were more intrigued than the pilots. Galina Pismenskaya, the leader of the team of geologist decided that the team visit the isolated site. The geologist’s camp was located 18 kilometers (11.1-miles) east, downriver from the old cabin they sighted.
They picked a nice day from their schedule and hiked to the old cabin. In hopes of meeting somebody, they loaded up their hiking gear with some gifts. And in case there might be trouble, Galina Pismenskaya carried his pistol.
According to the pilot’s map, the site they were looking for was approximately 05 kilometers (03.1-miles) up the side of a mountain.
Trekking up the side of the mountain, they came across a beaten path. Trekking on this path, they sighted a 07-foot staff leaning up against a tree.
Then they sighted 02 small storage sheds on stilts. Inside they found containers of cut-up dried potatoes.
Continuing their trek uphill on this path, they came across a warped tuesok (cylindrical birch-bark container), a home-made bridge across a stream, old campfire,…
Continuing their trek up the path, they found the ‘hut’ they were looking for. They noticed taiga bark, poles and planks were piled-up on all sides of the hut. There was 01 small opening in a wall used for a window.
Next to the hut, was a well-maintained green garden, growing potatoes, onions and turnips.
The door to the hut creaked open and an elderly barefoot man stepped out dressed in patched-up pants and shirts made from hemp sacks. His grey hair was long and so was his beard.
It was soon revealed, the elderly hermit had 02 daughters and 02 sons who had lived in complete 34-year isolation from the modern outside world.
The 04 real-life hermits known as the Lykovs included:
- Father (81) – Karp Osipovich
- Son (54) – Savin
- Daughter (44) – Natalia
- Son (38) – Dmitry
- Daughter (37) – Agafia
- Cats – 02 grown cats & kittens
The following are the Lykovs own unique survival applications, techniques and tricks they employed to survive the unforgiving Siberian wilderness for 34-years till they were discovered in the Summer of 1978.
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Lykovs Art of Suffering: The Lykovs survived 34-years in the unforgiving Siberian wilderness in the Taiga mountains with absolutely:
- no modern devices
- no modern tools
- no modern accommodation
- no modern conveniences
- no outside support
- no outside foods
- no outside medical attention
- no protective clothing
- no protective footgear
- no modern weapons
- no modern hardware for shelter construction
- no fire-starting devices
- no communication devices
The mountains of the Taiga, the snow started falling in September and didn’t stop till the month of May. And in some years, the snow fell till the month of June. The Siberian snow was waist-deep and complimented with killer cold winter temperatures. Average temperatures in January clock-in at 58-degrees Fahrenheit below zero. On 13 January 2018, a temperature of 58-degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero was recorded.
The Taiga was absolutely packed with forest. The only open area was a swamp near the Lykovs huts.
The Lykovs learned the Art of Suffering. Their killer threats to miserable conditions that would send most ordinary people to the morgue or at best to the Emergency Room. But tolerating hundreds to thousands of killer threats to miserable conditions had them address these threats and conditions as simply tolerable and an everyday occurrence. In other words, they learned to IGNORE their killer threats to miserable conditions. They learned the Art of Suffering.
Keep reading for examples of their Art of Suffering.
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Lykovs Clothing: All male members of the Lykovs family wore hemp sack shirts and pants clothing with natural materials for belts. When their hemp sack clothing was torn, it was patched-up using more hemp sacking. Both females wore black gowns down to their feet.
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Lykovs Shoes: All 04 members went barefooted during the short summer months (June, July & August). During the winter months, they manufactured their own shoes made from birch-bark.
The birch-bark galoshes (boots) were stuffed with dry swamp grass for comfort and warmth.
Savin, was a self-taught expert in making leather from elk and Siberian deer. He made leather boots for himself and family members.
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Lykovs Storage Sheds: Winters were long and brutal in the Taig. So the Lykovs had to have food supplies to last at least during 01 winter. But sometimes the winters were early and destroyed their crops. So the best plan was to have a 02-years supply of stored foods.
The Lykovs built storage sheds that stood on high poles. The storage sheds protected their stored foods from bears and mice (gnawers).
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Lykovs Celler: Potatoes were stored in their cellar. To increase the shelf life of potatoes, they need to be stored in a location with minimal or no light.
However, I have to interrupt here and tell you about Killer Potato Gases.
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Killer Potato Gases: I bet you like salted French fries just fried like I do. But did you know potatoes could be killers – namely Killer Potato Gases.
The Killer Potato Gases are called glycoalkaloids and glycoalkaloids from rotting potatoes wiped out an entire family except for the lone survivor, a 08-year old girl. Here’s the true story.
Most of the Chelysheva family living at Laishevo, Russia was wiped out from the Killer Potato Gases from rotting potatoes. These gases accumulated in the Chelysheva’s celler where potatoes were being stored. These potatoes were stored past their expiration dates and rotted. The rotting potatoes formed killer gases called glycoalkaloids. And over a period of time these killer alkaloid gases accumulated in their cellar.
Approximately 03 September 2013, law professor and head of the family, 42-year old Mikhail Chelyshev went into their home cellar where potatoes were being stored for the winter. After a few minutes, Mikail didn’t return. He was overcome from the Killer Potato Gases and suffocated. Not returning with the potatoes, his 38-year old wife was Anastasia went to the cellar to investigate. She too was immediately overcome by the Killer Potato Gases and suffocated to death.
Neither Mikail nor Natasha returned from their cellar and now their 18-year old son Georgy went into the cellar to investigate the status of his parents.
Georgy entered the cellar and he too was immediately overcome from the suffocating glycoalkaloids gases. The only two remaining members from the Chelyshev family are the 68-year old grandmother Iraida, and little 08-year old Maria Chelyshev.
Iraida knew something was wrong in the cellar and wisely called a neighbor for help before she ventured into the mysterious cellar where 03 of her family were located but never returned. Iraida alerted her neighbor but failed to wait for help and went into the cellar by herself like Mikail, Anastasia and Georgy. 68-year old Iraida went into the cellar and again was immediately overcome and suffocated from the Killer Potato Gases like her family members.
The neighbor arrived keeping little Maria from going into the cellar. The neighbor called their local police and they secured the Chelyshev home and investigated the loss of the 04 Chelyshev family members. Now you know the facts of Killer Potato Gases so You’re Ready Anytime Anywhere.
MOST IMPORTANT NOTE: Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids which is a chemical compound also found in poisonous plants called Nightshades. Under the right conditions, glycoalkaloids increase in the potato and could be a killer threat when inhaled and / or eaten.
OK, let’s carry-on with the Lykovs survival applications, techniques and tricks.
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Lykovs Insulating Beds: Their beds were simple. They gathered swamp grass from the nearby swamp and dried it out. The swamp grass was piled-up forming their beds on the floor. I’m sure the bed of swamp grass acted as insulation against the cold.
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Lykovs Storage Containers: Throughout history, birch bark has been used in many ways to include:
- Animal call devices
- Canoes
- Clothes
- Containers
- Fire-Starting
- First-Aid (splints)
- Letters
- Shelters
- Shoes
- Torch
In this specific case, birch-bark was used to make containers and for packing to store foods. Lykovs made small boxes, large boxes, cylindrical containers (tuesoks) and used it to pack meat for storage (see Lykovs Pit Traps). And see Lykovs Birch-Bark / Branch Uses.
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Lykovs Pitfall Traps: In the Taiga, the Lykovs hunted elk, Siberian deer and musk deer. To hunt these animals, the Lykovs dup pits on game trails and built fence lines to channelize the animal to the hidden pit. The pit was dug according to the animal it was intended for so it couldn’t jump out of the pit. At the bottom of the pit were anchored sharpened stakes which the animal fell on, impaling it. I’m sure the pit traps were covered with camouflaged blinds. The game was dressed and cut into thin strips and air dried. To store the meat, it was wrapped in birch-bark and noted to last up to 02-years!
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Lykovs Fishing: During the Summer and Autumn months, the Lykovs fished for food. They fished using rods and using fish baskets woven from osier.
The Lykovs grew hemp and they knew how to make thread – fishing line from hempen thread. Fishing nets were also fabricated from the hempen thread.
The fish were eaten raw, baked in a fire and air dried for future use. They fished for grayling, lenok and Siberian trout.
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Lykovs Emergency Foods: The Siberian winters are unforgiving and the Lykovs knew this so before the winter, they built-up their food supplies. But some years the winters were early or lasted longer than expected which resulted in the exhaustion of food supplies. In this case, the stubborn Lykovs were forced to eat emergency foods like:
- Birch bark
- Birch buds
- Leather shoes (deer & elk)
- Lining from skis
- Straw
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Lykovs Emergency Dental Care: The Lykovs were absolutely isolated so they doctored themselves. When it came to dental work they employed the following steps:
- They prayed to God for a remedy to their tooth pain
- They held their mouth open over a hot potato
“By prayer. If prayer did not help, we held our open mouth over a hot potato.”
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Lykovs Greatest Taiga Torture: The author of “Lost In The Taiga”, asked Karp Osipovich “What is the greatest hardship for your family?” Karp answered “Going without salt. True torture.”
On their first encounter with the Lykovs, the team of Geologist offered them several gifts. They refused most of them but readily accepted the salt gift.
Till that day, he Lykovs had not consumed a single grain of salt since 1935. Since then, everything they ate had a sprinkle of salt on it.
Let me interrupt here real quick and tell you a secret treat that helped me make it through US Army Ranger School. This is a direct quote from my book – “American Elite Fighters – Are US Tax Payers Getting Their Money’s Worth?”
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Ranger Crackers: Now believe it or not, food helped me make it through Ranger School. Eating at non-prescribed times throughout Ranger School was BIG TROUBLE whether in garrison and especially on patrol.
When I went through Ranger School the Army still issued C-Rations (see photo below). I’d take them salted round crackers out of the can, put em’ in an empty shiny brown accessory packet (water-proofing) and put them in my left shirt pocket.
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A picture of 02 C-Rations meals I bought at an Army Surplus store back about 1996.
While on patrol, I’d make sure the 02 RIs (Ranger Instructors) were nowhere near me because I knew they could smell them crackers, then I’d be in trouble.
With no RIs anywhere near me, I’d reach in my pocket real quick, go into the baggie and break-off a section of the cracker and quickly put it in my mouth and slowly crunch away.
That crunchy salted cracker was so DELICIOUS DELICIOUS DELICIOUS!!!! What a motivator. I’d do this every 04 or 06 hours, something to keep me going and have me look forward to the next secret snack time!
In Ranger School you only get 01 meal a day while on patrol. But winter classes like mine due to the cold temperatures, you get 01 ½ meals a day. And that’s still a starvation diet compared to the HUGE amount of calories you’re burning-up 24-hours a day.
As a matter of fact, if you got hurt and sent to the hospital, you were a gonner. They could patch you up but more times than not, the doctors would keep the Ranger student for a diagnosis of malnutrition. Except in one case – you must re-read Mass Casualty Medivacs. And see Ranger Pudding.
Note: So I can honestly say I got a taste of how the Lykovs felt when they had their first taste of salt in decades.
To this day, I can still remember the great taste of them C-Ration salted crunchy crackers while on them frigid cold patrols.
OK, let’s carry-on with the Lykovs survival applications, techniques and tricks.
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Lykovs Self-Doctoring: Here are a few self-doctoring applications used by the Lykovs.
a) Skin Sores: Skin sores were treated using fir pitch. The Lykovs made fir oil by steaming fir needles.
b) Kidney Disease: Kidney disease was treated with an infusion of rhubarb root.
c) Common Cold: The common cold was treated using nettles and raspberries and lying on their stove.
d) Strain: The Lykovs called it the ‘strain.’ It’s not known exactly what the ‘strain’ was but it was treated by what the Lykovs called ‘correcting the stomach.’ Here’s a quote: “the sick person lay on his back and another person ‘with his ability’ massaged his stomach.”
Could the Lykovs be using a form of Reiki (Laying of the Hands)?
Let me interrupt here real quick. Reiki is real and really works. Here’s my own proof. This comes from my Survival Book – “How I Saved My Cat Sylvester – When 05-Months Of Vet Drugs Failed!”
Here’s a direct quote from this book.
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Your Own Healing Hands!
I’m very confident you got your money’s worth in this Book huh! But to make sure you get more than your money’s worth I want to relate another TRUE healing story to you with respect to my cat named Obsidian (black male cat).
In the afternoon of 06 July 2011 (Wednesday), I attended a Reiki class and received a Certificate Of Attunement, meaning I now possessed the healing powers of Reiki.
Reiki means universal life force energy. An energy that is around us all the time. And to grasp – (channelize) that healing energy and transfer to another person or animal to a specific part of the body for healing, that’s using Reiki via your hands because there are things called Chakras in both of your hands. To activate this healing energy like me, you must see a Reiki Master.
I wanted the Reiki qualification in case I needed it in an emergency situation Anytime Anywhere when no professional medical care is available.
Anyway, that evening I returned home. Doing the usual house work, I finally rested a bit in the living room. Ol’ Obsidian came up to me and jumped on the recliner next to me and started meowing wanting some food.
Then I got the idea to try my new Reiki training on Obsidian. You see, Obsidian has always had problems with his skin / fur. He doesn’t have a shiny smooth coat of fur like his twin brother Obama. He’s always scratching his itching fur.
Well I activated both hand chakras as taught in class. I grabbed Obsidian and placed him in my lap and secured him with my left hand. I then hovered (not touching him) my right hand over Obsidian’s back. Instantly Obsidian kept looking back behind him like I was touching him or pulling on his fur, but I never touched him.
I kept hovering my right hand over him (not touching him) and he kept looking back to see what was going on. This was my proof that the power of healing Reiki really works because Obsidian could actually feel the energy flowing from my right hand into his body. He repeatedly kept turning around because he could feel something happening on his back. You might fake it with a human but not a cat!!!
I highly recommend that you get a book on Reiki and read the whole book. If you think it’s for you, look-up a local Reiki Master and make an appointment. I think I paid only $50 for the whole initial process and you’re Reiki qualified forever.
Agafia (youngest daughter) prepared several more herbs they used for their own doctoring but they were left behind when the team of Geologist were in a hurry to depart the area.
OK, let’s carry-on with the Lykovs survival applications, techniques and tricks.
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Lykovs Tinder Fire-Starting: Here’s a tinder you have never heard of before so here it goes. To start fires, the Lykovs used flint & steel. The flint they had to go look for throughout the Taiga.
The tinder they used was fungus (moss). You may already know that sparks against fresh moss ain’t gonn do nothing but piss you off. The moss has to be dry dry to be ignitable by sparks. But you probably already knew that.
I told you I’d tell you about a tinder you never heard of before. Here’s how the Lykovs prepared their tinder so it’s ignitable by sparks.
They took their fungus (moss) and here’s quote: “You have to boil the fungus in ash water from morning till night and then dry it out.”
Well, this is a new one on me. In the near future (Fall 2018 / Winter 2019), I’m going to go get me a bunch of moss, boil it (simmer) for 12-hours, drain it and dry it out for several days. Then I’ll throw some sparks at it and see what happens.
Note: Years ago, I did plenty of Emergency Fire-Starting R & D using cold dead ashes from a cold firepit. My R & D was a great success when it comes to emergency fire-starting. I annotated everything in my Survival Book – “Basic, Advanced & Ultra-Advanced Emergency Fire-Starting TOTAL Package” Book.
When I learned of their technique to prepare their tinder with a concoction of ashes and water, I knew their fire-starting application worked. But just the same, I’ll do my own R & D in the near future.
Important Note: They said ‘fungus.’ Lichen is a type of fungus and so is moss. Lichen versus moss. The main difference between lichen and moss, is lichen has no stems nor leaves. Moss has stems and leaves. Lichen is not a plant.
There are 10,000 species of moss and 13,000 – 17,000 species of lichen worldwide.
Both are moss and lichen are found all over the world. Lichen is used more as a food source (animal & man) than moss.
Note: One of the many gifts offered by the Geologists to the Lykovs were matches. But the Lykovs refused the matches because the matches were a ‘sinful thing.’
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Lykovs Best Wood For Torches: The Lykovs had plenty of time to conduct their own R & D on many many survival projects. One of them was finding the best wood for torches to light-up their hut.
Their torch was nothing more than a sliver of lit kindling. And the sliver of kindling was put in a holder which was set at the best angle (45-degrees) so it burned slow but wouldn’t go out (vertical). But which sliver of kindling burned the best? Which kindling burned the best for light and lasted the longest? The Lykvos tried alder, aspen, birch, fir, larch, pine, Siberian pine and willow. They found the best kindling wood for torches (brightness & duration) is birch wood.
The Lykovs made plenty of birch kindling torches beforehand, standing-by to be used for lighting-up their hut.
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Lykovs Thanking Prayers: Karl Osipovich was overheard numerous times thanking God for hemp, potatoes and pine nuts.
Years ago, I conducted my ‘Intensive Research’ on the famous Donner Party of the winter of 1846 / 1847. In my humble opinion, pine nuts SAVED the Donner Party. Here’s a quote from my Survival Book – “199+ International Survival Tricks Used By Expeditions, Explorers & Lone Survivors!”
The Forlorn Hope weakly continued on. They were so weak, to just step over a downed log, they had to roll over it! The last few days they came across a few Indian tribes and they didn’t care if they were hostile or not. Some tribes felt pity for the ragged group and did in fact help them with navigation, and food (raw acorns, prepared acorn meal loafs – November 2000 AASN). On 17 January, the chief of one Indian village gave Eddy a handful of pine nuts! After eating them, Eddy “FELT WONDERFULLY REFRESHED!”
Let’s pause again. “As a matter of fact, 01-pound of pinon nuts contains a whopping 3,000 calories! Pinyon nuts are found in the western United States (Colorado and westward) at elevations of between 4,000 to 7,500 feet. And they’re easy to get – just pick em’ up off the ground by the handful during the fall and early winter! Different tribes of American Indians gathered the calorie-rich nut. And some tribes like the Navajos traded the fat-rich pinyon nuts for much needed supplies from distant Indian tribes to the east that had no access to them. Pinyon nuts (white in color and almost the size of a kernel of corn), could be eaten as they are or roasted so they last a long time like during the winter months.”
Those pine nuts probably saved everyone’s life for Eddy had a new strength. Foster and the 05 women couldn’t go any further. They stopped dead in their tracks and Eddy went on!
17 January 1847, at about an hour before sundown, in the Sacramento Valley, William Eddy being aided by one then two Indians reached Johnson’s Ranch of several make-shift cabins where the Ritchie’s cabin was located. The others were several miles (06-10) up the trail.
Immediately Eddy was put in a bed and cared for while 04 riders set-off with the 02 Indians following Eddy’s blood trail to find the other 06 up the trail. The other 06 were found about midnight that night and were finally brought to the settlement on the night of 18 January. Other riders set-off to spread the word that the Donner Party were still alive! The Forlorn Hope accomplished their mission! Of the 15 that started their trek to find help on 15 December 1846 only 02 men and 05 women survived their trek to find help.
Now is that proof enough for you of the super energy provided by pine nuts! Karl Osipovich had good reason to thank God for pine nuts.
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Lykovs Birch-Bark / Branch Uses: Birch-bark has been proven to be used throughout history and pre-historic history by survivors all over the world.
The Lykovs counted 40 items they manufactured using birch-bark and birch branches. Here’s a partial list of birch bark and birch branch items manufactured and used by the Lykovs:
- Barrels
- Bottles
- Boxes (tiny to large)
- Buckets
- Dishes
- Footgear
- Jars
- Meat Storage Wraps
- Spade handles
- Torches (see Lykovs Best Wood For Torches)
- Trunks
- Washbasins
The Lykovs home-made birch-bark containers were durable, long-lasting and light-weight. When used for food containers: “nothing spoiled, nothing overheated in them, nothing was lost to mice.”
The only thing you couldn’t do with the birch-bark containers was use them over a fire. However, you could heat-up water by placing hot rocks in the birch-bark filled containers.
Large sheets of birch-bark were stored away in their hut waiting to be steamed and made into more useful products.
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Lykovs Tasty Potatoes: In the Summer of 1978, pilots flying deep in Siberia over the Khakassia Mountains complimented with a dense forest, with 04 geologist as passengers were looking for a landing pad. The geologist were confirming deposits of iron ore in the mountainous area (Volkovsk). They were located in true isolated wilderness territory, approximately 250 kilometers (155-miles) from the closest settlement, known as the Taiga.
The pilots spotted what looked like a garden, a huge garden on the mountainside. The garden was the Lykovs rows and rows of potatoes.
The Lykovs never had to re-seed the potato garden like most garden plants. As a matter of fact, and here’s a quote: “Seeds from the potatoes had not been replenished for over forty years.”
You want more proof. The Spring of 2017, I planted a variety of vegetables using my own Vegetable Garden R & D. I was testing a new way to grow vegetables on a slab of concrete. I never published my Vegetable Garden R & D because it was a complete failure. Except…
Except the potatoes. I let everything die off and never cleaned off that concrete slab in my backyard (I live out in the country). Guess which vegetable grew back this year on its own? Yep, you guessed it, the potatoes.
So this coming Sping (2019), I plan on transferring all those potato plants in some good nutritious soil and grow some great tasting potatoes.
Now let me carry-on with Lykovs Tasty Potatoes. The Spring of 1986, the Lykovs gave a sack of potatoes to the Potato Institute in Moscow. After their own R & D, the Potato Institute named the potatoes the ‘Lykov Potato.’
The Lykovs made a ‘gruel’ they ate all the time – potato soup.
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Lykovs Nearly Poisoned To Death: Agafia, the youngest daughter, revealed how all the Lykovs were almost poisoned to death by mushrooms. The Lykovs knew which mushrooms were edible and which mushrooms were poison.
In this case, the Lykovs were poisoned eating EDIBLE mushrooms. Here it is in her own words: “We ate only one apiece.” The mushrooms turned out to be chanterelles. In the past they had always cooked them. Now, with their wealth of salt, Agafia had decided to pickle them. “But before you do that you have to cook them. Those are chanterelles!” “So. Now we shall know.”
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Lykovs Staple Of The Taig: Every 04-years, the Taiga provided the Lykovs with a bounty of pine nuts.
To gather the delicious pine nuts (‘go nutting’), they knocked off the lower pine cones using a long pole made from the spruce tree (see Lykovs Weapon). The pine cones housed many delicious pine cone nuts. To get to the upper pine cones, they took turns climbing the tree and shook the branches so to get the pine cones to fall to the ground.
The hundreds and hundreds – thousands of pine cones were gathered and shook over a carved tubs and then the pine cones were peeled over a wooden graters. Then the pine nuts were retrieved and cleaned.
When the Lykovs prepared their pine nuts properly and stored them properly, they lasted up to 04-years till the next harvest.
“They will not bitter for four years.”
The pine nuts were shelled and dryed and stored in birch-bark containers and stored in their hut and storage sheds. The storages sheds were rodent and bear proof. And they were built above the ground to prevent humidity from ruining the pine nuts.
The Lykovs ate the pine nuts as they were (“We gnaw on them like squirrels”) and also added them to their potato bread. See Lykovs Potato Bread.
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Lykovs Pine Nut Milk: Agafia, the youngest daughter, made the team of Geologist portions of Lykovs Pine Nut Milk and here’s how she made it.
Step 01: A bunch of pine nuts are de-shelled.
Step 02: The pine nuts are pounded into a paste (fat-rich).
Step 03: The pine nut paste is placed in a small birch-bark container and cold water added.
Step 04: The concoction is thoroughly stirred.
Step 05: The stirred concoction is poured into a cloth where it is strained into birchbark containers.
The result is Lykovs Pine Nut Milk that looks like tea with milk and according to the author, “actually quite tasty.”
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Lykovs Clothes Washer And Soap: The Lykovs rarely took baths because “We are not allowed that.” On rare occasions when they did wash their clothes it was in a hollowed-out trough and for soap they used cold ashes from their firepits.
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Lykovs Time Keeping: The Lykovs were ‘right on the money’ with 100% accuracy when it came to time-keeping. Here’s how they kept their own daily & yearly calendar.
Year: The year itself is measured by the seasons of Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring.
Month: The month can be indicated by the moon, the waning of the moon.
Day: The day is indicated by morning, noon and night.
Time of Day: Time of day is told by the casting of the shadow of a certain pine tree. For example, in the Summer, when the pine tree cast its shadow on the Lykovs storage shed, it’s noon.
Exact Dates: Exact dates, weeks, months and years were important to the Lykovs so they could celebrate their religious holidays, fasts, their own ages,… To do this they used the pre-Petrine reckoning.
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Lykovs Flea And Bedbug Deterrent: The Lykovs knew the hemp they were growing, was a flea and bedbug fighter. Hemp has been used as a flea and bedbug deterrent long before the Lykovs used it.
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Lykovs Small Game Traps & Snares: Each year, the Lykovs harvested their crops. A few of the crops were hemp, peas and rye. But they had a competitor for their harvest. Karp Karp Osipovich called them the “…divine scrounge. Truly worse than a bear.” He was talking about the mice and squirrels (gnawers). The hungry mice and squirrels managed to steal half of their harvest.
To combat the mice and squirrels, the Lykovs placed traps & snares all around the garden. They placed what they called ‘presses.’ I’m sure he’s talking about Figure-4 Deadfalls using flat rocks to fall down on the prey.
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Figure-4 Deadfall
But they solved the problem with the mice and squirrels. The team of Geologist brought them 02 female cats and a tomcat. The cats took care of the problem real quick.
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Lykovs Weather Forecasting: The Lykovs knew when bad weather was coming. They relied on 02 ravens who had a nest downriver from their hut. When the ravens started crying, it was their alarm that bad weather was coming.
The ravens also alerted the Lykovs when an animal was in one of their pitfall traps. The ravens would circle over their hut.
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Lykovs Potato Bread: Lykovs had their own bread – Lykovs Potato Bread and here’s how they made it.
Step 01: Dried out potatoes by slicing them into thin disks and air drying them.
Step 02: The dried-out potatoes were pounded into a powder form.
Step 03: 02 or 03 scoops of ground rye were added to the powdered potatoes.
Step 04: A few handfuls of hemp seeds were added.
Step 05: Water was added to this concoction and kneaded into dough.
Step 06: The dough is flattened-out to pancake forms.
Step 07: The potato bread pancake forms were cooked on both sided over their stove.
The result was a flat black-looking pancake they called Potato Bread. Sometimes, the Lykovs also sprinkled in some delicious pine nuts when making their home-made bread.
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Lykovs Potato Chips: Each year, the Lykovs harvested hundreds of sacks potatoes. The potatoes had to be processed so they had a long shelf-life and this is how they did it.
Step 01: The potatoes were harvested and washed to get rid of all the dirt.
Step 02: The potatoes were sliced in thin disks.
Step 03: The thousands of thin potato disks were placed on sheets of birch-bark to air dry under the hot sun. The potato disks were also spread-out on planks on the roof of their hut.
Step 04: To finish up the drying process, the potato disks were heated over a fire.
Step 05: The dried Lykovs Potato Chips were placed in their hand-made birch-bark containers for long-term storage. The containers of were then stored in their hut and in their storage sheds. See Lykovs Birch-Bark / Branch Uses.
Because the unforgiving Siberian winters were long and unpredictable, the Lykovs tried to build a 02-year reserve of Lykovs Potato Chips.
Regular round potatoes straight out of the garden were stored temporarily in their cellar.
You MUST RE-READ “Killer Potato Gases!”
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Lykovs Weapons: The Lykovs had no modern weapons to defend themselves. In the Taig, bears, wolves,… were known to roam the area. When the Lykovs trekked throughout their area, they trekked with a 07-foot pole made from the Spruce tree.
Their weapon wasn’t deadly but it would keep any predator at bay till other Lykovs family members arrived to help.
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Lykovs Passing Away: One-by-one, the Lykovs passed away.
Dimitry: Dimitry died on 06 October 1981.
Savin: Savin died on 20 December 1981.
Natalia: Natalia, 44, died on 30 December 1981.
Karp Osipovich: The father of the household, 87-years old, passed away on 16 February 1988. His wife, Akulina passed away 27-years earlier on the same exact day.
Agafia: Agafia, the last of the Lykovs, Agafia, the youngest daughter at the time of this writing (11 Oct. 2018) is still alive and still living in the Taig.
“Lost In The Taiga” by Vasily Peskov. The book was made into a movie.
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