Hi all, I took the opportunity as the kids are on half term this week to take my two eldest boys on an overnighter at the paintball site.
In the past month the site has had some serious cases of arson on some on the playing fields and car park resulting in a few visits from the fire brigade so the guy who runs the paintball was glad to let me go up there during the week to act as a pair of eyes and ears to any mischief!
Anyways we got dropped off at 10am on monday morning and my ever suffering missus picked us up at midday on tuesday.
We had a couple of injuries suffered by the boys mucking about in a trench system, the eldest Daniel (10) nearly blinded himself after tripping over and scraping his cheek on a post. I did my usual 'i told you so' routine on him and an hour later his younger brother James (5) whilst shouting to me ' I'm careful aren't I dad?' managed to slip over and faceplant himself into an earth bank!
I really thought the poor sod had lost his teeth because he had a mouth full of mud and blood from a very swolled and grazed top lip.
All this and we had only been there for 2 hours lol
Heres the boys waiting for a cup of tea after finishing the shelter. (pre injury)
The boys eating their evening meal of fried sausages and macaroni cheese ( post injury). I cooked the sausages but Daniel cooked the macaroni cheese on his swedish army trangia set.
Ready for bed after James and I kicked Daniels butt at top trumps 6-0! He deserved it after he completely annihilated me at conkers a month ago lol
Autumn sunset on monday evening.
we encountered some niggly problems with kit failure such as Daniels shelter that i made from an IPK leaked like a sieve during an overnight downpour leading to some of the kit and the feet of our sleeping bags getting wet, I didnt notice my army issue goretex bivi bag had delaminated causing the bottom of my sleeping bag to become slightly damp, and most important of all the dried milk I brought along was absolute tosh and ruined at least one good cuppa!
I did manage to finally try out my millbank bag and pre mac water purifier on some rainwater that was running off the guy lines during the night, although because the water had effectively ran off the trees it had turned it the same colour as a good single malt! After filtering and purification it still held the same colour but was safe to drink as we all drank it and 24 hours after none of us have suffered any ill effects.
And Daniel furthered his bushcraft skills by making a 3 pronged holder for a tealight candle which he was really impressed with.
James bless him was just glad he survived the night because all he kept saying to me when it got dark was 'dad is there robbers in this wood?' He must have enjoyed it because all he has talked about today is how we went camping in a wood and when he can go again.
All in all a good overnighter with some good lessons learned in pre checking kit before a trip and not running around tripping over objects no matter how cool the injury looks the next day lol
In the past month the site has had some serious cases of arson on some on the playing fields and car park resulting in a few visits from the fire brigade so the guy who runs the paintball was glad to let me go up there during the week to act as a pair of eyes and ears to any mischief!
Anyways we got dropped off at 10am on monday morning and my ever suffering missus picked us up at midday on tuesday.
We had a couple of injuries suffered by the boys mucking about in a trench system, the eldest Daniel (10) nearly blinded himself after tripping over and scraping his cheek on a post. I did my usual 'i told you so' routine on him and an hour later his younger brother James (5) whilst shouting to me ' I'm careful aren't I dad?' managed to slip over and faceplant himself into an earth bank!
I really thought the poor sod had lost his teeth because he had a mouth full of mud and blood from a very swolled and grazed top lip.
All this and we had only been there for 2 hours lol
Heres the boys waiting for a cup of tea after finishing the shelter. (pre injury)
The boys eating their evening meal of fried sausages and macaroni cheese ( post injury). I cooked the sausages but Daniel cooked the macaroni cheese on his swedish army trangia set.
Ready for bed after James and I kicked Daniels butt at top trumps 6-0! He deserved it after he completely annihilated me at conkers a month ago lol
Autumn sunset on monday evening.
we encountered some niggly problems with kit failure such as Daniels shelter that i made from an IPK leaked like a sieve during an overnight downpour leading to some of the kit and the feet of our sleeping bags getting wet, I didnt notice my army issue goretex bivi bag had delaminated causing the bottom of my sleeping bag to become slightly damp, and most important of all the dried milk I brought along was absolute tosh and ruined at least one good cuppa!
I did manage to finally try out my millbank bag and pre mac water purifier on some rainwater that was running off the guy lines during the night, although because the water had effectively ran off the trees it had turned it the same colour as a good single malt! After filtering and purification it still held the same colour but was safe to drink as we all drank it and 24 hours after none of us have suffered any ill effects.
And Daniel furthered his bushcraft skills by making a 3 pronged holder for a tealight candle which he was really impressed with.
James bless him was just glad he survived the night because all he kept saying to me when it got dark was 'dad is there robbers in this wood?' He must have enjoyed it because all he has talked about today is how we went camping in a wood and when he can go again.
All in all a good overnighter with some good lessons learned in pre checking kit before a trip and not running around tripping over objects no matter how cool the injury looks the next day lol