did your parents...

[moduser]

My dad taught me to light fires (not friction) and taught me the difference between fires for heat or cooking, build shelters, use a knife and skin a rabbit as well a host of related stuff.

He encouraged me to join the Scouts

And because of slim finances nearly every family holiday was camping in the New Forest, where he was born and bred.

I was without a doubt very lucky.

So in essence I've been doing bushcraft for about 30 years.

Moduser

 

[jamesoconnor]

My mum's family came from rural Donegal in Ireland and never got electricity till the 70's so if they had to roast a chicken etc on Sundays, first thay had to kill it, then to roast it they would put it in a pot before covering the pot all over in turf then firing it up. They also used to fish for trout etc with a sort of night line that was called an otterboard. Basically it was a piece of wood with lines and bait hanging from it cast to drift then brought in the next day.
My dad was the person that taught me all the outdoors and bushcraft stuff. He shoots all the time and back in Wexford, Ireland where he's from his brother still makes boats to go fishing in. We used to go on holiday every year there ( we still have the house there) and go out on the boat fishing then find a secluded beach or cove and camp there cooking the fish with potatoes etc on hot rocks and firepits. Dad still goes out into the woods. His project just now is getting better at identifying edible mushrooms so he's out with his wee book all the time. He's also an amazing stick maker so there is always wood in the garage seasoning for more sticks to make.

 

[hollowdweller]

Hunting and camping.

Sassafras tea and making Paw Paw Whistles.

Lots of hiking.

I've expanded to backpacking, foraging for wild herbs and mushrooms and of course farming and gardening.

 

[longshot]

a whole lot of camping while i was a child but i learned a lot of bush craft on my own exploring the beaches and woods around where we used to camp and around our house.

dean

 

[Liath]

Lovely to read everyone's experiences - feel like I know you all a bit better now

I had a strange upbringing - in extended family, so there was a tribe of us who ran a smallholding and were as self sufficient as possible. Most of the time was spent doing the jobs that needed doing, but in the summer holidays I'd just spend my whole life outside, take the dog and go off for the day

I wouldn't say any of our lot were into 'bushcraft', but there was a lot of what I'd call 'country lore'. Reading the weather, knowing your plants, making do with found objects, laying fires etc. On a smallholding, you don't have the luxury of being able to take yourself off for more than a day, so it's only as I've got older and moved away that I've been able to indulge myself, getting out on camping trips and so on.

 

[Rod]

Nope not a bit.

The sad thing is that my Dad and his older brother were both in the boy scouts - when the Scouts 'did' stuff. I can remember the small sheath knife that my father had. A really patina'd carbon steel blade, and a handle made from compacted leather washers. I can remember being a small boy (about 6) and them cooking eggs in scooped-out oranges around the edge of a bonfire in the back garden. But they never really showed me anything.

My dad teach me to use an axe and how to forage for firewood - our central heating ran off a wood stove.

 

[Modigliani]

Well, my mother is from Amsterdam. (She doesn't have anything bushcrafty in her, not even a 0,01%.
My father was in the army, he managed to learn some survival there. And started to like it. If I have any questions, he mostly tries to help me out.

So he likes it, but does not dare to take the step to DO it.

Modigliani

 

[stonyman]

My Dad was a scout leader and when I was old enough to show an interes he used to show me little bits and pieces of camp craft and outdoors craft.

 

[leon-b]

my parents both love camping like me
my dad used to be a chef so knows alot about cooking, so he can teach me cooking skills
but are not really into bushcraft, although me and my dad always watch ray on tv
when i learn a bit more i will try and teach him various bits and pieces im sure he would love to have some new skills
leon

 

[SimonM]

I don't know who voted, but thanks for rediscovering this gem! It's really interesting reading (or am I sad?), what others folks parents did.

My Mum has no interest in the outdoors but Dad was a Scout leader when I was a kid. I had to work twice as hard for the same recognition as other kids!

Now both of mine are in the Movement, 1 a Cub the other a Scout and I'm the Leader. I try not to make the same mistakes as my Dad, but it is really difficult!

Simon

 

[ZDP-189]

My mum did some cub scouting with me.

 

[HillBill]

I had no such luck unfortunately. My dad had a breakdown when i was a baby. To this day all he does is work and lay on the couch watching tv. He even gets up at 6am when hes not working, only to go to sleep on the couch. My mum has heart problems and has had since she was in her 20's (angina, triple heart bypass). We did occaisional walks etc but only locally. My mum forced me to join the air cadets though when i was 13. At the time i hated her for it as she made me leave the football team i played for. Now though i know why she did it and she was right, i loved it. Camping hiking shooting flying weekends away with the TA, allsorts really. So it kind of made up for it all in my eyes. She joined the cadets too as a civilian instructor at the same time, shes a warrant officer in there now.

 

[John Fenna]

Urbanites to the core - though dad enjoyed a bit of gardening at one time.....

 

[Humpback]

In view of the age of this poll.
I was raised by wolves!
arrivederci

 

[John Fenna]

In view of the age of this poll.
I was raised by wolves!
arrivederci

That you Romulus?
Watch out - your brother is out to get you!

 

[inthewids]

I chose the 2nd one, they never took me bushcrafting but we done a lot of camping, usually in camp sites but still encouraged me to be outdoors, there are woods at the top of the street so when i was a kid i was always in them making huts, exploring, lighting fires :s

 

[drewdunnrespect]

yes and no bushcraft no but DIY and camping and caravaning yes hiking yes and the love of good open spaces yes and then i saw Ray and that was that

 

[Robby]

It was mostly my Mum. My Dad did a bit of fishing when he wasn't working or in the Pub. From we were really young my Mum would take us walks in the woods and swimming in the river (come to think of it she couldn't swim, was she trying to tell us something.) She started up the first cub troop in our area. I then went through the cubs, scouts and venture scouts. I had the advantage of living right on the edge of the town it was our flats then the fields and woods of the Clyde valley. I spent most of my time in them, helped out running around herding the beasts in the farms. Climbing trees jumping off of them into proper, old style haystacks (not these roll things) Scouts were great as well because most of my family were the leaders, and the Scout Master was my Uncle who was ex forces. Back in those days the Health and safety thumb scews weren't quite as tight. I learned to climb abseil, got to play in canoes. Though my Mum had enrolled me on a canoeing course before that so I got trusted to muck about on my own.

God I had a great childhood. Missed my Dad a bit, but made up for it otherwise. Actually now that I think about it, maybe my Mum was just trying to compensate. great times indeed.

Though must admit most of the craft skills I've got came from my Dad, so did the lathe that he made using of a washing machine motor

great thread.

 

[sandbender]

My maternal grandfather was a Perthshire gamekeeper and from him my mother learned how to prepare and store game birds and other meat, something I wish I'd paid much more attention to. My paternal grandmother hailed from the Shetland Isles and she taught me how to properly dress a crab and gut a fish.

My father worked shifts and wasn't around as much as I'd have liked, however when he was able he'd take me for walks in the Scottish Borders, he was never one for modern camping gear, in the 1930's at the age of fifteen he and two friends cycled from Edinburgh to Wales and back using a canvas sheet for a tent, woolen blankets for sleeping bags and an enamel billy can (that I still have) to cook their food.

On my eighth birthday he gave me my first knife (a small slipjoint with two blades and a small saw) passing on the following advice as he did so "never leave home without a knife, a few yards of string and a shilling". He never expanded on this advice other than to say that his father had said much the same to him when he was young (although he'd been told to carry a farthing or similar).

 

[traderran]

My Dad an Granddad are the ones who got me started at the tinder age
of 6 I was going on horseback hunting trips with them.
We continue this tradition today with my wife an I going for 6 weeks every year.This year will be 6 weeks in Idaho. If we can,t get it on horses we don,t need it