My weekend in October

[John Fenna]

Well once again I headed up to basecamp ..
Friday was a solo day and night and I did a bit of work,tweaked the new toilet walls and roof,

setting the chute with its new Ring-rope guying

,
dug out the spring,

fetched firewood etc and had a quiet evening - apart from the wildlife!

The best bit was hearing some disturbance around the Badger set and going down for a look I saw Brock shifting bedding material. After a while he went down his hole and I wandered back up to camp, only to have the shock of a decade as Brock suddenly was moving just feet from me having popped out a different entrance to the sett. I am not sure which of us jumped the highest!
Sat I was joined by Roly, Stuart and Dave and we tried out the saw that Quietone gave us ... it needs a sharpen!

Lots of chat lots of food and drink (not all boozy) and lots of relaxation...
Sunday dawned and after a bit more sawing we packed up and drifted home.
Another good one

 

[GGTBod]

Thanks for sharing John, looks like you've got a great campsite there and sounds like you had a nice chilled weekend

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice report John, a saw file needed for the next one.

 

[quietone]

That is a homely looking site John. Glad you got to utilise the saw, be great once it's sorted.

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[huntersforge]

Great report John. Thanks for sharing

 

[Dreadhead]

cracking stuff!

 

[John Fenna]

The site is on the farm I work on and just before we left I saw one of my workmates who was busy juicing apples (one of the things we do is press and bottle applejuice freakin gallons and gallons and gallons of the stuff!) and she commented on how bright and shiny I looked... but she agreed that "refreshed" was a better description
It is what the woods do for me...
Anyway - all the gear is airing or cleaned and put away and I am off to bed - 6am start tomorrow to get some of the Domiciliary Care guys up and ready for their day on the farm

 

[Goatboy]

Great report as always Mr. Fenna. The camp is looking good and it's nice to hear that you're "refreshed" after your time up there. Nice to see a crosscut being used, rare sight these days, but a good communal thing to do in camp.
Cheers for posting up, always enjoy them.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Smyth]

Heaven and Badgers too! What a great lifestyle you got going on there John. Thanks for sharing that. I learned something too (whispering; I didn't know saws could be sharpened... Being a newbie, I forgive myself )

 

[Ferret75]

Nice base camp and what a brilliant sounding weekend Jon, very envious of you mate!! I've not been badger watching in a long time, you lucky bloke!!

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[markheolddu]

Good to hear you had a good time ,gutted I missed it. The arm is on the mend though.

 

[dewi]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned the size of the toilet area... blimey John, that is one big space!! Can I ask, and I realise this is probably not the most talked about aspect of our outdoor life, how do you go about using it? Have you a portable seat, or is it a squat situation?

Sorry, I know its not something we British talk about, but its an aspect of the outdoor life that makes me wonder... I struggle with the squat... I need some sort of support. Makes me ask more and more unfortunately.

 

[John Fenna]

Good to hear you are mending Mark!
We are trying to tie down the date for next month ... the general opinion was "The Second Weekend" - but then which is that? 6th 7th &8th or 13th 14th 15th?
Dewi - it is a large area as there have been many trenches - once "full" the trench is back filled and a new one dug close too (due to drainage issues and the farms water supply coming from near-by we are limited to where we can dig).
The trench is simple to use - one foot each side, squat, perform, burn paper, cover evidence with loose soil. For the hard of balancing there is a a blue polypro rope for hanging onto. We did have a commode seat up there but it seems to have disappeared....