Although I was working on Friday the day morphed into the weekend without a seam...
I do some of my work at a Care Farm, where I also have a Bushcraft Basecamp and on Friday I had 3 of the service users come and play.
The access path and path to the toilet trench, not to mention the general site and my bivvi area, had become VERY overgrown during the weeks I had been on holiday and initially the team set to clearing those of brambles Willow herb etc while I and a helper rigged the parachute shelter.
But the weather had other ideas and before the shelter was half way up the rain came down - in swimming pool loads!
So - we had a session on flint and steel firelighting and charcloth making. The look on a couple of their faces, as the tinder exploded into flame, was a picture. I eventually ended up clearing the paths myself after work... and most of Saturday!
Friday evening was spent alone , cooking up loads of charcloth for future demos at various locations and wearing out my billhook, machete and right arm clearing brambles as thick as my thumb (how did they grow so much in 4 weeks? ) except for a brief visit from some other service users staying at the farm over the weekend and their support workers - both the support workers are getting keen on the idea of trying bushcraft themselves
. After everyone had left I was visited by some Tawny Owls who seemed to be an adult instructing the young ... I saw a couple of them flying short stretches and talking to each other at great volume and one seemed to still have some fluffy feathers.
A taste of Sloe Gin in front of the fire and then it was bed for me!
Sat dawned pretty fine and after a breakfast of fried Haggis (Breakfast of champions!) and another visit from the Owls, it was back to path clearing and during a late lunch some of the service users came up for a visit and had a good look around. The PM was time for me to chill out and I went for a bit of a stroll. After my evening meal a couple more of the service users came up for a visit and we watched Owls and Bats for a while then they went back to the cottages and I turned in early.
Sunday dawned wet and then - after I had packed up !
it turned fine again and I used the farm's carpark as a ropewalk to twist some balertwine into thick rope.
A couple of service users saw me doing this and after they had finished feeding the animals and collecting the eggs, came and watched and then had a quick session on making nettle twine. They were amazed at how strong the twine was - and how hard it was to snap!
Then home (literally 5mins in the van) and time for clearup and writing my daily reports for the Friday session.
[
For more info on Clynfyw Care Farm visit http://www.clynfyw.co.uk/
permission to use the photos of the service users was obtained
I do some of my work at a Care Farm, where I also have a Bushcraft Basecamp and on Friday I had 3 of the service users come and play.
The access path and path to the toilet trench, not to mention the general site and my bivvi area, had become VERY overgrown during the weeks I had been on holiday and initially the team set to clearing those of brambles Willow herb etc while I and a helper rigged the parachute shelter.
But the weather had other ideas and before the shelter was half way up the rain came down - in swimming pool loads!
So - we had a session on flint and steel firelighting and charcloth making. The look on a couple of their faces, as the tinder exploded into flame, was a picture. I eventually ended up clearing the paths myself after work... and most of Saturday!
Friday evening was spent alone , cooking up loads of charcloth for future demos at various locations and wearing out my billhook, machete and right arm clearing brambles as thick as my thumb (how did they grow so much in 4 weeks? ) except for a brief visit from some other service users staying at the farm over the weekend and their support workers - both the support workers are getting keen on the idea of trying bushcraft themselves
. After everyone had left I was visited by some Tawny Owls who seemed to be an adult instructing the young ... I saw a couple of them flying short stretches and talking to each other at great volume and one seemed to still have some fluffy feathers.A taste of Sloe Gin in front of the fire and then it was bed for me!
Sat dawned pretty fine and after a breakfast of fried Haggis (Breakfast of champions!) and another visit from the Owls, it was back to path clearing and during a late lunch some of the service users came up for a visit and had a good look around. The PM was time for me to chill out and I went for a bit of a stroll. After my evening meal a couple more of the service users came up for a visit and we watched Owls and Bats for a while then they went back to the cottages and I turned in early.
Sunday dawned wet and then - after I had packed up !
it turned fine again and I used the farm's carpark as a ropewalk to twist some balertwine into thick rope.
A couple of service users saw me doing this and after they had finished feeding the animals and collecting the eggs, came and watched and then had a quick session on making nettle twine. They were amazed at how strong the twine was - and how hard it was to snap!
Then home (literally 5mins in the van) and time for clearup and writing my daily reports for the Friday session.
[
For more info on Clynfyw Care Farm visit http://www.clynfyw.co.uk/
permission to use the photos of the service users was obtained
