suggestion Kudlik, Inuit stone oil lamp to heat snow shelter [POLL]

[SteveP]

It has been observed that the snow shelter is not warm enough during the worst of the winter storms that occur on highest difficulty level. Normally a snow shelter should be a warmer and cozier place than inside an unheated building when the weather outside is -60C. In order to stay warm inside a snow shelter, you need an adequate calorie supply to avoid hypothermia and your caloric consumption should reflect this extra stress on the body. Being able to acclimatize to cold weather should be a skill which you achieve either by surviving a number of hours outdoors or by sleeping outside in a snow shelter or cave for a number of nights. This should resolve the problems of Cabin Fever. It should also be possible to keep the snow shelter at a high enough temperature to be able to sleep comfortably with adequate clothing and hides. You need two hides or one hide and lots of dead grass for insulation under your snow bed and another hide to serve as a blanket. A green hide should serve just as well as a cured one. Hides would have the penalty of being heavier than the equivalent bedroll that you fashion from them.

Fuel for the kudlik should be rendered animal fat. Ideally this would require seals which would have a high percentage of fat. Currently you can get rendered oil from cooking fish. You should also be able to harvest and render fat from large animals like the deer, moose and bear. Rabbits lack body fat hence the problem of rabbit starvation or ketosis caused by lack of fat in the diet.

Not that the kudlik permits you to melt snow for water and renders fat into oil during the process of burning the fat directly. You must save the oil rendered in the bowl of the kudlik for next time or it would be lost. You need a sea shell to use as a kudlik or a piece of soapstone that you shape in some fashion. It might also be possible to craft a kudlik from scrap metal using a heavy hammer at a work bench. You would need a small piece of cloth to make a wick which you could craft at anytime from a single piece of cloth to get perhaps 5 or 10 wicks. A wick might be used up if you allow your kudlik to burn out without extinguishing it before the fuel is exhausted. A wick might also be made from cordage, if cordage is added to the game at a later stage.

The kudlik is a small lamp which cannot be lit except inside a cave, building or snow shelter or perhaps in the lee of a rock shelter. It is a small flickering light source which can be used to melt and purify water (slowly) although it is very efficient at conserving fuel. An equivalent amount of kerosene would last much longer in a kudlik however the amount of light is not as good as a lantern. It is very sensitive to drafts. Smoke from the kudlik might be useful for navigating in caves as there will be a gentle breeze in caverns that connect to the outside. Any dead end tunnel won't have a draft.

If you permit your kudlik to run out of fuel in a dark cave, you run the risk of tripping and loosing your wick and possibly even the kudlik itself unless you put it away immediately. Tripping can cause bruises and cuts which require medical treatment. You cannot perform this medical treatment without light of some form however the condition loss from a minor cut is very slow. There is of course, the risk of infection.

The kudlik can be lit only if you add fat or oil or fuel to the lamp, lay in the wick and have fire of some sort. Fire can be of any form including stove fire, camp fire, torch, brand, match, striker etc. Obviously the larger the fire, the better your chance of lighting the kudlik. Inside a snow shelter, I don't think you can make a campfire although you might be able to have one outside near the mouth of your shelter, if it's not windy. You could make fire and bring a brand inside your shelter to light your kudlik and this would be the preferred method of lighting. A match may not provide enough heat to light the fat. The fat would need to be pounded a bit to get the oil unless it were already rendered. Fire making skill is vital for making and using the kudlik. On the highest difficulty level, you have to use matches or other methods to start fire before you get enough skill to use the kudlik. This coincidentally is probably about the time you are running short of matches and the weather is getting fairly extreme. There is thus a bonus for making many fires early in the game as the additional skill helps with primitive fire making using flint, bow drill or other means. Proper tinder is very important for making primitive fire. Tinder degrades rapidly unless kept dry in a storage pouch of similar protective container. You can sweat and ruin your tinder if  you run and do not have a crafted pouch for your tinder. The pouch can be made from rabbit skin or similar small animal such as the wolf. The pouch can also be important for safely stowing the kudlik as well as your supply of fat and oil. You will thus need several pouches each with limited capacity. It also raises the possibility of weather proofing the pouch by adding the first amount of oil or fat to it. A cured pouch is thus very important for keeping the tinder dry, the kudlik dry and clean and for keeping matches from degrading too rapidly. I suppose the suitable container for matches is a separate subject for debate.

The kudlik is useful and vital for drying your clothes especially your leather boots. The rendered oil from fat is useful for preserving your hide boots and mittens. Rendered oil from the kudlik can be used to decrease or reverse the effects of wear upon boots and mittens and perhaps even your hide clothing. On advance levels above Pilgrim, drying boots and winter clothing should be an important activity each night before bed. They can be dried by hanging near a stove or camp fire. Hanging too close to the flames can ruin your clothing. Use care and beware the vaguery of wind which can blow your clothing into the fire or blow the fire into your clothing. Wind and fire are not good mates.

The kudlik is useful for heating food or even for cooking raw food more slowly than with a fry pan. Shouldn't we need to carry a small aluminum tin or fry pan or cast iron pan? The larger cast iron pan should be common in houses but heavy for carrying. The larger the fry pan, the more meat you can cook at a higher rate especially with a wood stove. With kudlik, you can only roast pieces about 1/4 of a kg at a time on a stick. Sticks could be used for cooking on outdoor campfires too. Again the food must be cut into smaller pieces.

Food stored out doors will be frozen and thus require additional cooking time to thaw. You need to cut the raw meat into small pieces before it freezes or it will be a problem to cook on a camp fire. You can skewer the frozen meat on a stick but then it must be thawed before cutting and then cut up before it can be safely cooked all the way through. Eating partially cooked meat has the risk of parasites or food poisoning.

 

[SteveP]

Watch the video to see how the kudlik is used for melting snow and heating water and for cooking. Probably you would need a small sled to transport various pots, pans, hides and sticks for living outdoors in a snow shelter. I think we will need to add a further resource to be harvested from carcasses: animal fat. Harvesting Fat is very important for surviving under the worst weather conditions. It is also vital to prevent ketosis or rabbit starvation.

[SteveP]

Could we also have seals or possibly old whale blubber found at Desolation Point? Seals can only be found in the ocean, not in inland lakes. Seals can only be killed by waiting patiently near a seal air hole using harpoons which require a bone point with a tang or barb. The hunting skill must be at an advanced level by trapping or otherwise hunting game before one can be successful at killing a seal. Seal hunting could be a mini-game requiring a degree of dexterity and timing. Beware of bears, when you have seal blubber on you. They are drawn upwind for a long distance by the scent of a freshly killed seal or by raw fish or raw game. Dropping seal blubber is one of the good defenses in case the bear charges. It may be the only way to stop the bear charge!

The harpoon for hunting seals is crafted from a stick, and bone or antler for the point. It also requires thin rope or cordage to avoid loss of the  harpoon if your seal dives back into the water. You have to pull the seal back up through the ice hole if you harpoon it and it does not die immediately. The tip of the harpoon is attached to the cord and detaches from the animal. Don't loose your grip on the harpoon shaft! It must be driven down forcefully!!

If you could craft an umiak or kayak, you could possibly hunt small whales. Very risky proposition but big pay off from blubber which is rich in all sorts of vitamins essential for avoiding several nutrient deficiencies such as rickets, scurvy and so forth.

Inuit Kayak

Inuit Umiak

 

[SteveP]

Snow shelter survival. How are you planning to do it on maps like the Forlorn Muskeg when you must either continuously maintain a resource hungry fire? Yay for snow shelters and Forlorn Muskeg!

+1 for Canadian content for the kudlik!

[SteveP]

Has everyone had the opportunity to read about and vote on the Kudlik poll?