User Panel
[#1]
Great movie.
Most" preppers " make me giggle. Best tool we have sits between our ears. |
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[#2]
Fantastic movie about some really tough people. I watched it the first time with my daughter when she had to take a sick day from school.
I like it so much I bought the DVD. |
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[#3]
They put most preppers to shame because intimately knowing the resources around them and how to leverage all of them for ones own benefit is a LOT harder than pulling out a credit card and buying up preps-in-a-bucket.
Impressive people. |
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[#6]
I've watched it a few times. It proves you don't need a ton of gear to survive.
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[#7]
Wonderful film about some damn cool people. You can do a lot with a good rifle, a good axe, a good dog, and some brains.
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[#8]
Great recommendation. I just spent the whole evening with the family. Binge watching all four seasons.
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[#9]
Great movie, been out for a while.
A couple older threads: https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_17/666936_great_Netflix_documentary_Happy_People__A_Year_in_the_Taiga.html https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_17/669549_A_movie_for_survivalists__Happy_People__A_Year_in_the_Taiga__2010_.html |
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[#10]
How many marten skins is a bottle of 95% deet bug spray worth ya think?
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[#11]
watching it now... amazing, hard people. Remind me of the Lapps in N Finland. Hard as nails.
Watching this show makes me realize I'm severely deficient in one major area: Axe. I have a couple good camping hatchets, but those guys do so much with their axes. Pretty impressive actually... |
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[#12]
It reminded me a lot of the "Yukon Men" series. Same basic premise, although the narration in Yukon Men adds drama that isn't really there.
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[#13]
What kind of axes do they use? Where can people buy them? Books on how to use them well?
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[#14]
Quoted:
What kind of axes do they use? Where can people buy them? Books on how to use them well? View Quote They use what's available and does not cost much. Most likely a cheap Chinese head and a home made handle or a Russian made axe (usually worse quality than Chinese). The rest is their skills. It's nothing special, really. The movie narrator makes it sound like they live in the extreme conditions. Yes, they have skills but a lot of these skills are taught in Russian schools. Boys learn how to use basic hand tools and how to build things with their hands. Girls learn sawing, cooking and housekeeping skills. Well, it was like that when I went to school over there, 35 years ago. I would not have graduated if I did not know how to use an axe. |
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[#15]
The whole "prepper" thing is really kind of funny.
Don't get me wrong. Having a good larder, water and means to keep it is a no brainer. Most anything you need to "get through" is going to be 2 or three weeks. So for 95% of what tragedy may befall, that'll suffice. The American Mountain Men (the group not the demographic) started as a survival group in the late 60s iirc. The more they got into "survival" the more they realized you can't stock enough to make any meaningful go at indefinite survival over catastrophic events. The only way is to have the knowledge and skill to carve out what you need. That's not to say you're going to have a shot at living off the land. That is to say, you're going to need a lot more knowledge and skill than beans and bullets. Shows like this one reinforce what can be done with meager goods and a lot of skill and knowledge. |
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[#16]
Quoted:
They use what's available and does not cost much. Most likely a cheap Chinese head and a home made handle or a Russian made axe (usually worse quality than Chinese). The rest is their skills. It's nothing special, really. The movie narrator makes it sound like they live in the extreme conditions. Yes, they have skills but a lot of these skills are taught in Russian schools. Boys learn how to use basic hand tools and how to build things with their hands. Girls learn sawing, cooking and housekeeping skills. Well, it was like that when I went to school over there, 35 years ago. I would not have graduated if I did not know how to use an axe. View Quote It's been a while since I saw the show, but I'm almost certain he had a nice Scandinavian pattern axe. Thin bladed for carving those sable traps. And cheap steel isn't going to hold together well in those temps. The part where the .gov left him and his friend to over winter with what they had (and his friend didn't make it) leads me to think he had a bit more than what he would have learned in school as far as outdoor knowledge. I'd enjoy hearing your stories about living over there. What part of USSR? Socio econo class? Availability of goods, food, entertainment, etc? Interesting stuff. |
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[#17]
I found this screen capture online from the movie:
More stills from the movie, including another shot of this axe, and the adze he used t hollow out the canoe, are on this page. |
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[#19]
Quoted:
Great recommendation. I just spent the whole evening with the family. Binge watching all four seasons. View Quote Four seasons? Are you talking about Werner Herzog's documentary or Yukon Men? I would love to see the worlds collide in Siberia, with only body cams, no camera crews. I'm sure the Ruskies would probably get tired of their shit and "repurpose" their adze. |
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[#20]
I work outside all year round in Wisconsin and those cold temps and mosquitoes make me cringe. We have some cold temps and some bad mosquitoes but those conditions are brutal.
I love solitude but that's a bit much for me. The fishing looks amazing though. |
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[#21]
Quoted:
It's been a while since I saw the show, but I'm almost certain he had a nice Scandinavian pattern axe. Thin bladed for carving those sable traps. And cheap steel isn't going to hold together well in those temps. The part where the .gov left him and his friend to over winter with what they had (and his friend didn't make it) leads me to think he had a bit more than what he would have learned in school as far as outdoor knowledge. I'd enjoy hearing your stories about living over there. What part of USSR? Socio econo class? Availability of goods, food, entertainment, etc? Interesting stuff. View Quote That part of the story left me thinking he ate his friend. |
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[#24]
Quoted:
That part of the story left me thinking he ate his friend. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted:
It's been a while since I saw the show, but I'm almost certain he had a nice Scandinavian pattern axe. Thin bladed for carving those sable traps. And cheap steel isn't going to hold together well in those temps. The part where the .gov left him and his friend to over winter with what they had (and his friend didn't make it) leads me to think he had a bit more than what he would have learned in school as far as outdoor knowledge. I'd enjoy hearing your stories about living over there. What part of USSR? Socio econo class? Availability of goods, food, entertainment, etc? Interesting stuff. That part of the story left me thinking he ate his friend. Hadn't thought of that but I'd certainly allow for the possibility. |
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[#25]
This documentary and "One Mans Wilderness" are classics on self reliance.
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[#26]
Quoted:
I've watched it a few times. It proves you don't need a ton of gear to survive. View Quote or gas for the generators, or the shipped in wheat for bread. Oh wait The show was great, but they were not self sufficient (to which some are implying). They were hard ass people who did a lot with much of nothing, but they have outside support. I would offer a goat herder in AFG on the side of the mountain is more self reliant. |
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[#27]
Quoted:
I'd enjoy hearing your stories about living over there. What part of USSR? Socio econo class? Availability of goods, food, entertainment, etc? Interesting stuff. View Quote |
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[#28]
Quoted:
watching it now... amazing, hard people. Remind me of the Lapps in N Finland. Hard as nails. Watching this show makes me realize I'm severely deficient in one major area: Axe. I have a couple good camping hatchets, but those guys do so much with their axes. Pretty impressive actually... View Quote In my early 20's, I was living in the Northeast. I did a tree job with an old farmer from Oklahoma. We were at a yoga resort where a big white pine was leaning over the building, and they wanted it taken down. I got a rope up, started dropping limbs, and this old lady came running out, yelling that she was teaching a meditation class inside and we were being too loud. No more chainsaws. So this old Okie went and got his axe and handed it to me. I did my best, but it was pathetic. I was boxing, lifting heavy, running hills, and mountain biking, and I was gassed in a couple minutes after doing nothing more than making a few little gashes in the side of this tree. The Okie took that axe off me, and immediately starting splitting out fist-sized chunks of wood from the trunk with every swing. And he was barely working. He showed me the basics that day, but the main thing I learned is that I suck with an axe. Take away my chainsaws, and I'd be faster gnawing that tree down with my front teeth. |
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[#30]
Quoted:
Four seasons? Are you talking about Werner Herzog's documentary or Yukon Men? I would love to see the worlds collide in Siberia, with only body cams, no camera crews. I'm sure the Ruskies would probably get tired of their shit and "repurpose" their adze. View Quote YouTube has four "episodes" for Happy People broken into the four seasons. It has a good bit of content that I didn't see in the Netflix version. |
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[#31]
the four seasons version is nearly 4 hours of content. i have enjoyed watching it. alot of good stuff that wasnt on the netflix version
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[#32]
I want to be able to make a deadfall trap out of scratch in 90 secs lol
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[#33]
Quoted:
I want to be able to make a deadfall trap out of scratch in 90 secs lol View Quote This was right about that. Not set up, properly, though. Just for a quick pic. They're not that difficult once you get the hang of it. Attached File |
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[#34]
Saw it, liked it a lot and sure is worth watching.
Cant say they look very happy though. FerFAL |
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