Bushcraft-Camp

[TheViking]

I originally posted this as a blog, but I will give you the possibility to give comments.

Today I "made" a bushcraft camp. It's the place I will be hanging out when bushcrafting. Like a headquarter.
So far it has a fireplace, a sitting log and a small firewood shelter with firewood. I still need one thing and that is a stump, approx. 50 cm. in diameter and 50 cm. tall. I will use that as an activity table for splitting and carving and storing things, instead of doing it on the ground. :biggthump

 

[leon-1]

Andy are you going to line your fire pit? This will help to keep it a reasonable size and stop damp from coming up through into anything that you have pre layed. It will also to a degree provide an insulating effect so that you do not sterilise too much of the ground around the fire pit

 

[TheViking]

Andy are you going to line your fire pit?

What's that? :?:

 

[tomtom]

put something around the inside to keep it away from the damp ground...

 

[bambodoggy]

Andy...I've found a patio paving slab works just fine to line the bottom of the pit and it's just about the right size....
I'm building a similar camp in a forest near me...it's good fun as the forest is open to the public so I have to build it where it won't be found to stop it being vandalised....heck, I'm 30 next month and still building secret camps in the woods...lol...what a life! I've "burrowed" into a large thicket of pine and birch saplings, then made a couple of turns to hide the tunnel and am now clearing a 2 metre by 3 metre area for my camp...I'm then going to build a mini log cabin in there, a fire pit and chopping area.....then I'm going to be bushcrafty to my hearts content :rolmao:

Phil.

 

[leon-1]

Phil in your case lining a fire pit would be an essential.

Where the pine needles lay in layers like peat you can get embers spreading out from it under the top layers of needles just to flare up further out. So a properly prepared fire pit means that one day when you go home you are not leaving a small forest fire in the making behind you.

As stated earlier lining the fire pit is also to protect the surrounding ground and stop the fire from spreading. It helps keep the fire size more manageable, the larger the fire, the more you burn and the more you have to run around finding wood to feed it (novel way to keep warm, collecting wood rather than sitting by a nice warm fire) .

I am a big fan of starfire method as it is a more efficient way of controlling how much you burn and how much heat and light the fire gives off. It also dries the wood further back so you can also reduce the amount of smoke given off by your fire (you don't come home smelling like a smoked herring).

 

[bambodoggy]

Thanks Leon, you're dead right about the spread of underground fires, every year acre's of our local forest are burnt....some by vandels for "fun" and other parts where fires haven't been put out properly.
It's also so un-necersary as if you clear back the layers of pine neadles to about 8 inches then it's metre upon metre of fire retardant sand below so even if you don't bother with a solid lining (which I mostly do) you can easily dig up enough sand to line your fire in about 2 minutes!

I'm only planing a small fire anyway and will be building a log store as part of my log cabin so that the wood I cut can dry and therefore be less smokey....there's no point having a secret camp in the wildwoods and then advertising it's location with massive clouds of smoke! ):

I think this is still on thread if I ask what people suggest for roofing the cabin...I was undecided as to weather to use sticks and then cover in felt but I wanted it to be natural...or whether to go for a sod roof...what do you all think? I could also grass thatch it but that could possibly take me years to do!!!!

Cheers,
Phil.

 

[leon-1]

Well if you are in a wood then you could always find a fallen tree and strip the bark in layers (use in a way like shingles or tiles) for the roof or do what you would do with a debri shelter and use just about anything that is around including leaf litter bracken or ferns

 

[leon-1]

Just a thought, but you will require permission to light a fire, if it is privately owned then it would be from the land owner, but if it is a public area then you will probably find that it is illegal and as such you are not permitted to light fires.

 

[bambodoggy]

It's charity owned land so sort of public and private at the same time and I have the permission of our borough Mayor who also heads the board of trusties to use the land for collecting fire wood (I have a wood burning stove at home) and to burn on site the bows I do not want if I need to....although to be honest I tend to drag them away from the main paths and leave them to rot as I believe this is better for the forest than totally stripping it.
A lot of our local cubs, scouts and ventures also use the forest for their camp fires and camp cooks bages etc (I did mine there many years ago) so there isn't an issue with fires....only with local vandels lighting them for fun and seeing how big they can get them....

I might have a go at the shingles bark idea thanks