did your parents...

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did your parents do bushcrafty type stuff

  • not not at all

    Votes: 220 49.0%
  • yes a little bit bushcrafty but lots outdoors

    Votes: 193 43.0%
  • lots of bushcraft

    Votes: 36 8.0%

  • Total voters
    449

Mike Ameling

Need to contact Admin...
Jan 18, 2007
872
1
Iowa U.S.A.
www.angelfire.com
My folks both grew up as little kids during the Great Depression, and mostly didn't want anything to do with that outdoors stuff that wasn't directly related to the farm. About all we did was maw would have us kids go along to pick berries or nuts.

Now, several aunts and uncles did all the hunting, fishing, camping stuff. Occasionally I would get to go along, but kind of rare. So us kids went out and learned it all on our own on the farm and in the woods. Read a little bit, and then go do it. Tree houses, shacks, dugouts, bridges, dams, rafts, and on and on.

Since I grew up, I've learned the camping/hunting/shooting part. And then I got involved in the Living History stuff. So now everything tends to be done as it would have been in the 1600's and 1700's. That puts quite a twist on things.

The blacksmithing developed out of all that ... tinkering ... back on the farm. We ... tinkered ... to fix stuff all the time. And if we wanted something else, we had to make it ourselves.

So I had almost no input from my maw and paw, but a little from several aunts and uncles. That's just how things go sometimes.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
 

verloc

Settler
Jun 2, 2008
676
4
East Lothian, Scotland
had a typical upbringing on a council estate in North East England - I can honestly say that my folks did nowt like mentioned in this thread. Dad gardened a bit and that was about it. But my Granddad however gave me my first knife when I was about 9 (little 2 inch pen knife - which I was told to keep secret from my mum as she wouldn't like it and sure enough when she did find out she was none too impressed but my dad stuck up for us) when sitting in Saltwell Park and showed me how to keep an edge on it using the different stones just lying about. He also helped me to make a bow (it wasnt very good but I had a blast just giving it a shot).

Thinking about my Grandma also used to take me berry picking and we would spend hours making elderberry jelly and many jams, whilst we all would go at the end of tattie picking week and fill a couple of bags with the potatoes that the mechanical collector machine thing had left behind, getting all sentimental now as neither are with us no more but what a great time I had with them during the long summer hols as a kid :D

ps - we also tried making a boomerang from a "how to" in a ladybird book and it was rubbish,

Cheers from a now sentimental Tom
 
Jan 18, 2009
49
0
Northern Ireland
Bushcrafty stuff??? We never had any such thing when I was a lad as anything to do with the "bush" was either referring to the African Bush or watching Bushtucker Man on telly.

We went camping!!! We walked in a forest and lived in the countryside!!!

But actually, my dad was an instructor with the local Army Cadet Force and I was a member for as long as I could remember, so I got the opportunity to go camping quite a lot before the terms of "survival" and "bushcraft" became vogue.......lol

Alan.
 

Mooseman1

Forager
Dec 22, 2008
115
0
49
London UK
yep had to go with the third option, mom was native and as such lived a semi-inuit life odd for a QC i guess, and dad was a Soldier who loved the out doors and as a family spent all our free time in the bush. Cant think of a holiday when we didnt go into the wilderness to be honest.
 

reddy

Tenderfoot
Dec 28, 2007
76
0
Lancashire
Absolutely none of my family are into anything bushcrafty, so I'm completely self taught.

Which is probably why I'm so slow at it :lmao:
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
Bushcrafty stuff??? We never had any such thing when I was a lad as anything to do with the "bush" was either referring to the African Bush or watching Bushtucker Man on telly.

We went camping!!! We walked in a forest and lived in the countryside!!!

But actually, my dad was an instructor with the local Army Cadet Force and I was a member for as long as I could remember, so I got the opportunity to go camping quite a lot before the terms of "survival" and "bushcraft" became vogue.......lol

Alan.

Good reply :)
 

JoyR

Tenderfoot
Jan 31, 2009
72
0
North Devon
My parents always got me and brothers outside as much as possible - not just for interest, but also because it was relatively cheap! Every holiday we ever had was camping, we grew our own fruit and veg, and kept chickens (until we had to eat them...). One of my fondest memories as a young child was a bonfire next to the stream, toasting marshmallows, and being REALLY miffed that I couldn't wee on the bonfire like my brothers! Tis the small things :) However, I don't think my parents were ever that bushcrafty, though they both have a fairly good knowledge of natural plants and flowers. And make a mean sloe gin!
 

Barney

Settler
Aug 15, 2008
947
0
Lancashire
My Mum and Dad didnt do any bushcrafting whatsoever, They were to busy working trying to bring us up. However they did allow me the freedom to roam for the whole day and sometimes for whole weeks and pick up the taste for the outdoors. I wish I had met my Gradand, he died when I was only six months old, but my mum tells me stories about him, how he loved the outdoors and how he used to take all the kids in the street on bimbles across the fields. Just like I do now with my kids and their friends.
 

numpty

Member
Feb 7, 2009
14
0
51
mansfield
No Bushcraft lots of out door activaties camping walking cycling motorcycling. Dad tried growing veg in our garden but the then draught hit 76 then it flooded so gave it over to us kids . So to den building fire lighting etc fantastic play ground . ive never lost the love for the out door life . i got in to the horticulteral industry . had to work out side Got in to arboriculture and landscape design .Cycled to india in 97 wild camping as much as possible we got through two tents just from amount of use . For most bushcraft is an interest or hobby get out of westen europe and its just life . In Rumania we got wierd looks for needing a petrol stove . they didnt understand we couldnt just start afire at the side of the road in england . i could go on and on
 

Amon81

Nomad
Mar 9, 2009
368
126
42
Birmingham
No, my dad went camping alot in the 70's before he meet my mum. My mum isn't into any outdoors stuff.

In my life time the closes thing to camping was taking me to where I was camping in beavers, cubs and scouts.

Although her dad and uncle were very high up in the scouts, I'm not to sure but I think they were the top people in the area.

bit off topic but anyway: I know own my great uncles tent, good old green canvas job with logos all over it. It rolls up to about 15x40 inch bag, but weighs about 15kg so it's no good for bushcraft, camping though its fantastic, once I went camping with friends, them using your "dome" tents and me the old one. during a good thunderstorm we all ended up in my tent. Its a one man tend but its about 6x8 foot so its a big one man tent.
 

Air Pirate

Tenderfoot
Mar 16, 2009
92
0
46
Nashville, TN, USA
As far back as I can remember I was allowed to go on hunting trips. My dad took my brother and me camping a couple times, but he was more of a boating guy. We'd go to the lake alot. I got most of my camping experience with the Boy Scouts.

I did have the ability to improvise solutions in the outdoors and anywhere else passed down to me by my dad though. He called it "Jack Leg Incorporated" repairs.
 

firecrest

Full Member
Mar 16, 2008
2,496
4
uk
No bushcraft, no outdoors stuff. My mum liked nature but she never took us out to these places. I think we walked in the woods a couple of times and went to a pond twice.
 

addo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 8, 2006
2,485
9
Derbyshire
My folks weren't interested. Made it all up initially with mates and influenced by what was lying around. We did the house up when we moved to the country, so spent a few years building bigger a better dens from the extra materials left over. Also got into what are now called natural shelters.
Always enjoyed a small fire too. Never needed one rearly just liked the challenge of getting one going without help.
When better at this we used to cook stuff, and that felt like a big step, sneeking pans and food up to the small copse we practiced in.
 

nodd

Nomad
May 12, 2004
485
0
liverpool
My parents loved the outdoors I grew up in a village Essex which both my parents had grown up in.As a child I was encouraged to go out into the countryside in that we went for walks in the local woods I was taught field craft (as my father called it being an ex Royal Marine) ,setting snares, how to use a catapult, build hides,shooting,wildlife watching as well as fishing both course and sea.We use to dig our own bait,rake cockles and collect winkles as well.
My father and grandfather were both great teachers my Grandfather use to keep chickens and rabbits which he use to take to market. We could go pretty much where we liked as my had grown up with the local farmers a freedom I miss today when I go back to the village and go for a walk in the woods.
For holidays we use to go to the North West coast of Scotland staying in B&B's at first I was about Six or Seven years old the first time we went up even now I can remember the road from Fort William to Kyle of Lochalsh being single track with grass growing up the middle of it.
As I got older we switched camping an we use to camp on the beach go fishing wildlife watching cooking on open fire's.So all in all Mum and Dad thanks :)
 

Iona

Nomad
Mar 11, 2009
387
0
Ashdown Forest
My Dad is ex special services, and was a chef when I was a kid. I remember many trips out identifying things or (more often) when he'd use me and my sisters as free labour to do the carp jobs (sloe/nettle picking, we did not get gloves...) :D He also did overland driving (cross Sahara) before I was born and used to lead groups of people tracking in the bush in southern Africa.

In his more recent incarnations he has worked for the UN for 17 years and having recently retired he works with NGOs...
His most recent projects including being in charge of re-integrating 500 child soliers (all I got out of him was that it was exhausting and they gave him ticks and lice), Teaching villagers in Central African Republic how to make ploughs out of scrap metal, and flood/earthquake disaster management, not to mention various missions into war zones with many hair raising stories to tell....

I am incredibly proud of my Dad, and I feel I have learned so much about the world we live in from him, in so many many ways...

And he still won't hear me saying I "can't".
 

addo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 8, 2006
2,485
9
Derbyshire
My Dad is ex special services, and was a chef when I was a kid. I remember many trips out identifying things or (more often) when he'd use me and my sisters as free labour to do the carp jobs (sloe/nettle picking, we did not get gloves...) :D He also did overland driving (cross Sahara) before I was born and used to lead groups of people tracking in the bush in southern Africa.

In his more recent incarnations he has worked for the UN for 17 years and having recently retired he works with NGOs...
His most recent projects including being in charge of re-integrating 500 child soliers (all I got out of him was that it was exhausting and they gave him ticks and lice), Teaching villagers in Central African Republic how to make ploughs out of scrap metal, and flood/earthquake disaster management, not to mention various missions into war zones with many hair raising stories to tell....

I am incredibly proud of my Dad, and I feel I have learned so much about the world we live in from him, in so many many ways...

And he still won't hear me saying I "can't".

Sounds a top bloke. Could do with more people like that around.
 

Wayland

Hárbarðr
My Dad is ex special services, and was a chef when I was a kid.<Snip.

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;)
 

Purdy Bear

Member
Jun 5, 2009
46
0
SE London
My mum taught me some poisionous plants (Deadly Nightshade, Slipper, Toad Stools) and some edible plants (Clover etc), my Dad was into his allotment so we spent a lot of my younger years there.

My Grandmother was quite brilliant about most things, as she lived in the country.

I was very fortunate child to have a lot of adults as friends. One was a Woodsmen, and as we walked our dogs together he taught me a lot.

I still have a lot to learn.
 

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