"Ok Tony now it's your turn to let me help you. You're a tech genius but out in the wild tech can't help you," Bo said as they stood outside the front of the house and he handed Tony a backpack with basic hiking supplies.
"What's in here?" Tony asked.
"It's basic supplies you take on a hike except I didn't include any food or water because that's part of what we will be doing today," Bo said.
"We're getting food and water?" Tony asked.
"Yes amongst a few other things," Bo said.
"Do you mind if we come along? Pepper asked with Dawn behind her.
"Sure why not," Tony said.
They trekked down the hill along with Dougie and followed Bo into the woods until he found a spot he liked.
"The first lesson today is learning how to make a fire. In order to make a fire you need a tinder nest. So go ahead and gather the lightest materials you can find. Look for bark, dried grass or jute twine," he said as he watched them separate and search the forest floor.
Tony was focused and gathering some good bark, he really wanted to impress Pepper. He didn't want to screw this up. One day he may have to protect her without the use of tech. He brought back the bark to Bo and Pepper and Dawn had huge piles of grass and twine and he felt like he failed.
"Great work but now, you want to rough up the material by rubbing it between your hands," he instructed.
He watched as they did what he said and explained to them how to mold and leave a depression in the center for the lightest materials.
"Now try and fluff it up a bit. Remember air has to be able to pass through it," he said as he walked around and watched them.
"Nice work Tony," he said, giving him a nod.
He then went through the various methods of creating a fire. He went through the hand drill method and the bow drill, or using a lens in the sunlight. He also mentioned the stone and steel method and a battery and steel wool. An hour passed and they were ready to take on finding food.
"One method is to carve this stick into a sharp point and spear some fish if you don't have bait," he said showing them how to carve it.
Pepper hobbled to the water's edge and for her spear ready.
"If you get one it's our dinner so go for a good one. Because there is no bait so we can't throw it back," Bo explained.
Pepper took a couple of stabs at the water and she was unsuccessful.
"Let me," Dawn said and she was able to spear one.
Bo took the fish and put it in the cooler he brought.
"You can also fish and make a hook using an old nail, a safety pin or the bones from another fish," he said as he demonstrated.
Dawn used a safety pin and she was finished in no time.
"How did you do that so fast?" Tony asked as he stared at her in amazement.
"My dad never had a son so he used to take me fishing as a kid," she exclaimed.
"Were going to move on to trapping now," Bo said.
Bo spent a good while showing them various trapping methods such as ground and tree snares, deadfall traps, and tension traps. This took awhile for them all to catch on successfully, but when he was satisfied they moved on to finding water in the ground and treating water to make it drinkable.
Making a shelter was the easiest for Tony since he was an engineer. Bo did a full review of all the survival skills and they were back to the house.
The girls cooked the fish that Dawn caught and made a salad from Bo's greenhouse. The boys were outside on the patio and Pepper brought them out some fresh lemonade that they made and Dawn followed with their dinner.
"I am confident that you could survive for a while in the wilderness if you had too," Bo said.
"I am confident that you could run this house on clean energy for years to come," Tony said in response and stuck out his hand for a shake. Bo took firmly and they shook on it.
"I can never repay you for what you did for Pepper. If you ever need anything just name it and I will make it happen," Tony said again.
"That was nothing. We don't get too many people in these woods so it was nice to have the company,"
"Well now you have a friend for life,"
"We're going to bed," Pepper said as she kissed Tony on the lips.
"Between my pregnancy and Pepper's injury were exhausted," Dawn said as she grabbed some dishes to bring inside.
"We should all get some shut eye. You guys have a long trip home tomorrow. I'm excited to play around with my email," Bo said with a laugh.
They all headed inside and went into their respective corners for the night. There was only one spare bedroom so Tony let the girls share the bed and he took the cot in the living room. Bo shut down all the technology Tony installed and went to bed.