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  1. Toddy

    Plastic free camping

    I'm old enough to remember when 'plastic' was bakelite, and casein ( plastic made from milk...buttons, etc., used to be made from it) and otherwise wasn't very good stuff at all. Those early plastics decayed and crumbled. We got better at making it and now it's ubiquitous, it's the ultimate...
  2. Toddy

    What did you forage today?

    Today was dandelions and nettles. I'm going to pot up some dandelions and see if I can grow big roots. I like dandelion coffee but digging up the plants in our heavy clay soil is not fun. If I pot them in good home made compost though...... :)
  3. Toddy

    GOOD WOODS FOR BOW DRILL.

    You know how elder cracks off branches if you grab hard ? Well those branches usually split a bit too, and you can pull that split apart and break off a decent hearth board. It's pretty reliably good.
  4. Toddy

    GOOD WOODS FOR BOW DRILL.

    When I don't have to make it all from scratch, I use paracord :) I was taught on a bow that was strung with blue polypropylene rope...cheap as chips, site was on a very tight budget, and we could go through metres of that stuff for a couple of quid. In hindsight it was utterly carp stuff, but...
  5. Toddy

    GOOD WOODS FOR BOW DRILL.

    @Broch, sorry, I totally contradicted you there. Not intentional, but I've been using hazel as a preference for my drill for over thirty years now. I find it works well. It works on ivy, elder, pine.....the man who taught me how to use a bowdrill to make an ember and fire used pine and hazel, so...
  6. Toddy

    Ongoing care

    I had surgery a fortnight before Christmas. It was impossible for my husband to find decent dressings in the shops. In the end, I looked out the wrapping from the original spares that was given to me at the hospital, and googled that and bought them online from a sort of pharmacy supply; an...
  7. Toddy

    GOOD WOODS FOR BOW DRILL.

    My present one is an ivy hearth (astonishing how thick and branchlike old ivy stems can be. This came from one as thick as my wrist, and a hazel drill.
  8. Toddy

    Folding handle pan

    Now that's tidily done, and practical :D
  9. Toddy

    Ongoing care

    The link I added to the Clinical Learning Hub is pretty informative. I think it's worth a look through.
  10. Toddy

    What did you forage today?

    Pretty much anytime, but just now they're sprouting two leaves. The leaves are straight, about two inches long and the root is a long robust white thing. Sturdy sort of seed. If you catch them just as they're trying to uncurl then I think they're sweeter. M
  11. Toddy

    What did you forage today?

    Overwintering sycamore keys look dead and brown, but inside the seed end, there's a bright green seed...the pea :) Just now the blasted things are sprouting by the thousand around here. There's an eighty foot sycamore growing just over the other side of the path that runs along side the burn...
  12. Toddy

    What did you forage today?

    It's been miserable weather here for the most part today, but I had bittercress, tansy, sycamore peas, and some pignuts.
  13. Toddy

    Ongoing care

    I have a copy of Care of Wounds; a guide for nurses, by Carol Dealey. https://www.awesomebooks.com/book/9780632052370/care-of-wounds-a-guide-for-nurses/used?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2PSvBhDjARIsAKc2cgO4WCXOfJ6IpO9wH9su_uuFO_cpgsR_XxogctZNYb10qHOrBSbI_jYaAhNfEALw_wcB It's not a new...
  14. Toddy

    All poultry subject to compulsory registration

    Next street around from us they had a problem with rats. There were no problems before two people decided to keep chickens. They decided to free range them in their gardens but throw seed down for them too. Of course the local wild birds took the opportunity to feed too. Lot of folks fill...
  15. Toddy

    Mugolio

    No, I don't think so. Wintergreen is a small shrub from north America. Gaultheria procumbens, and though some of the native tribespeople used to eat the berries, the oil is most definitely not to be eaten. It makes a good skin antiseptic though. Mugolio is a syrup, one made from the extraction...
  16. Toddy

    Mugolio

    You can still get it. Buy as an essential oil and dilute it down in a carrier like sweet almond. https://www.freshskin.co.uk/product/wintergreen-essential-oil/?attribute_pa_volume=50ml&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2PSvBhDjARIsAKc2cgNQ25Eb-wJhpiDAZLOM5kjP3gBQTst-O4d9lzOcByHHySLR-x7KWfsaAvVYEALw_wcB
  17. Toddy

    Wood ear mushrooms

    Y'know ? I hadn't considered that @Tantalus We know to be careful about where we gather reedmace because it accretes heavy metal in it's roots, but I don't think I'd ever heard that about fungi.....well apart from the arguement about eating chicken of the woods growing on Yew. Interesting...
  18. Toddy

    Pignut

    I think of them as woodland edge sort of plants, in among the grasses there, the wood millet and the like, but I don't actually know if that's true..... @Broch might know ? They come up early, they're up now. Not yet flowering here, but the green ferny bits are up. Might do well near a hedge ...
  19. Toddy

    Pignut

    You mean like a crop ? Well the field we excavated was hotching with them....and it was just old farmland (early iron age) Honestly, they grow so slowly to create the nut that it's not a rapid thing. I get good crops, but that's relative, it's not like growing spuds, iimmc ? Best I managed...
  20. Toddy

    Pignut

    Grow them in pots as @slowworm said. It works, I've done it for years. Deeper the pot the better, sandy mix seems to suit them fine. I just scatter gravel on the top of the pot, shake over some of the seeds from that year's dried flowering stems and let them get on with it. First year it's not...