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Contact: hermit@pithole.com
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This website the ramblings of one man, Edward D. Clark, Jr., aka The Pithole Hermit, living on his land in a cabin, off-grid, in northwest Pennsylvania.
Includes wild edibles, farming, primitive living and other off-grid subjects. And a few electronic projects along the way. -
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Category Archives: The Cabin
The Gathering
My cabin is located in the middle of mushroom paradise. Good for mushroom lovers but also means mold grows fast in the summer. This time of the year is great for gathering mushrooms. Here is about 15 minutes work.

Some of these I don’t yet know so I won’t eat them, but most of them are edible, even if they don’t taste good. The ones on the left of the basket are delicious. They are Chicken of the Wood and Black Trumpets.


I fried them a little bit in coconut oil and then mixed them in cream of chicken soup. It is delicious.

Chicken of the Wood actually has the taste and texture of chicken strips. Really. Black Trumpets have a smoky, woodsy taste.…
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A Dehydrator
Here’s something I have been thinking about for some time.

A dehydrator. The picture says solar but it can actually be used over a wood stove by just using the upper box. The lower sloping box is just an air duct with a glass top. The inside will be painted black and the absorbed sun rays will heat the air. The heated air will rise up to the upper food rack box. Then the air and moisture will vent out the top at the back. To use it over a wood stove I will put a small fan to keep the air moving.
In the photo the dehydrator is not quite finished.…
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The End of an Era
I haven’t posted in some time. I haven’t felt much like it. Well, last week on August 23rd my Dad died. He was ready to go. I was not quite ready for him to go. He was 87. I already miss him a lot. If it wasn’t for him showing me the wonders of nature, taking me hunting, camping or just laying out under the stars, I would never have developed my love of the forest. And so many other things.
…
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Indian Cucumber
Just a couple hundred yards away I found a nice, big patch of Indian Cucumbers.


The tiny roots are edible and taste somewhat like a cucumber. Or I compare it to the white part of a Day Lily or Cattail shoot.

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Fire Pit
I need a more convenient way to heat water for showers and laundry, and also to cook outdoors. I have started to piece together a fire pit. I’m sure the design will change a lot before I mortar it together.

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The Beaver Pond
I took Lily for a walk today down to a branch of Pithole Creek. It is the closest creek to my cabin, maybe 15 or 20 minute walk, but I have never been to this spot before. When we reached the creek I was surprised how large it was. I’ll be going back to go fishing. We worked our way downstream and it suddenly got wider. Then much wider.

It was a beaver pond.
This huge tree was a favorite target of the beavers.

The dam looks pretty old, but solid. And no freshly chewed trees seems to indicate the beavers are gone.…
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Plastic Siding
My plans for making siding boards for the shed fell through when I was unable to get the tools and the hand tools I have didn’t work well. Also, since my jeep’s suspension is pretty well shot I don’t want to haul too much weight, so buying boards was out. So I used plastic sheeting.


Won’t last long but at least it keeps the tools inside dry.…
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A Trip to Pithole City
It was very nice weather today so I thought that I could finally get some things done. But everything I tried seemed to go wrong. Wrong tools, no materials, injuries etc. So I looked over at Lily laying patiently in the sun and said “let’s go for a trip”. She jumped up and began her celebration run.
We didn’t go very far. Just a couple miles down the road to the Pithole City ghost town. It was the first place I let Lily run off the leash when I got her a year and a half ago. Unfortunately there were other people there (a rare occurrence since the “museum” there is rarely open) so I had to keep her on the leash. It was still a nice walk.

Then we went down to Pithole Creek by the old cemetery where she could run free. The old cemetery has been a favorite place of mine for over 40 years. But it is the 21st century so of course someone bought the land and posted it. Sad. Nothing uglier than land with posted signs all over it. Anyway, we could walk down to the creek. There are still some land owners who aren’t completely selfish. Not many.

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Camping out
So, you may be asking yourself, “Where does someone who lives in a cabin in the woods go to get away?”. Well, I go further back in the woods and setup a camp.



It’s down by the growing pond, so soon there will be lots of frogs when the tadpoles leave the water. And probably mosquitos.…
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Saw Mill
So I started using the Alaskan Sawmill. Sorry, no video. I snapped a couple pictures. Worked okay. I’ll use it mainly for small logs. I would have set up for video but the chainsaw wouldn’t start and I had to tear it down so by the time I was cutting I didn’t feel like filming.



For the first cut you are supposed to put a flat board on top. Since I was just checking it out, and the log was pretty straight, I didn’t bother.…
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