Enjoyed a day up the woods with the two boys again today, was a bit damp to start with and we had a few light showers through the day, but nothing too bad, we set a tarp up for shelter just in case it decide to rain - but it wasnt needed in the end.
Anyways, in line with our philosophy of each taking it turn to light the fire and by using a different method on each trip, it fell to youngest today to get the fire going, today's method was PJ Cotton balls and a ferro rod.
couple of quick strikes and we are away, i got the boys to prep all of the kindling & fuel wood as well.
once the fire was set, i had a coffee and then went for a wander round "the estate" so to speak, found a couple of nice Birch Polypores, one of them pictured below
and then i saw something flapping around on a hazel branch, so i went over to investigate
This is what i found
Yes, we are gong to send it back, with a few photo's of the area and im going to put a few things in there that we have made from, and in these woods, probably a spoon and a small bag of the charcoal we made the other day, something tangible that the kids can relate to
After finding the tag, we figured it was time for lunch, after which i went for a wander in the other direction, and purely by chance i looked down a rabbit hole and saw a cylinder that was far too smooth to be a piece of wood, so i bent down and picked up this
to give you an idea of size
It's in fair nick and has two sets on markings on it, one set says WII the other set K41 or K47, cant quite make it out, now we know these woods were used during the war by the Canadians as there are still some of the old slit trenches around as well as all manner of other things, like concrete bases and big lumps of iron sticking up out of the ground, anyway, measuring the top of the case the shell diameter was half an inch, most probably anti aircraft or something like that id guess, ive sent off pictures, dimensions & markings to a chap i know who is the bees knees when it comes to identifying shells & shell cases, so will see what he has to say.
Back to the woods, during the afternoon the boys saw something move in the leaf litter, turns out it was a mouse, but it fascinated them to watch it go back and forth.
apart from the finds, we spent time just chilling out, watching the bird life, did a bit of carving but most of all, had fun and lots of it, how could you not have fun in a place like this
We let the fire burn down to Ash
then extinguished it with water, cleaned the site (fire & general) up and headed home, having a day off tomorrow but will be back out and about again on Sunday in some different woods
Anyways, in line with our philosophy of each taking it turn to light the fire and by using a different method on each trip, it fell to youngest today to get the fire going, today's method was PJ Cotton balls and a ferro rod.
couple of quick strikes and we are away, i got the boys to prep all of the kindling & fuel wood as well.
once the fire was set, i had a coffee and then went for a wander round "the estate" so to speak, found a couple of nice Birch Polypores, one of them pictured below
and then i saw something flapping around on a hazel branch, so i went over to investigate
This is what i found
Yes, we are gong to send it back, with a few photo's of the area and im going to put a few things in there that we have made from, and in these woods, probably a spoon and a small bag of the charcoal we made the other day, something tangible that the kids can relate to
After finding the tag, we figured it was time for lunch, after which i went for a wander in the other direction, and purely by chance i looked down a rabbit hole and saw a cylinder that was far too smooth to be a piece of wood, so i bent down and picked up this
to give you an idea of size
It's in fair nick and has two sets on markings on it, one set says WII the other set K41 or K47, cant quite make it out, now we know these woods were used during the war by the Canadians as there are still some of the old slit trenches around as well as all manner of other things, like concrete bases and big lumps of iron sticking up out of the ground, anyway, measuring the top of the case the shell diameter was half an inch, most probably anti aircraft or something like that id guess, ive sent off pictures, dimensions & markings to a chap i know who is the bees knees when it comes to identifying shells & shell cases, so will see what he has to say.
Back to the woods, during the afternoon the boys saw something move in the leaf litter, turns out it was a mouse, but it fascinated them to watch it go back and forth.
apart from the finds, we spent time just chilling out, watching the bird life, did a bit of carving but most of all, had fun and lots of it, how could you not have fun in a place like this
We let the fire burn down to Ash
then extinguished it with water, cleaned the site (fire & general) up and headed home, having a day off tomorrow but will be back out and about again on Sunday in some different woods
