Different "branches" of bushcraft.

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,297
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
I do not want to beat my own drum, but I think people like us are the ones that have realistic ideas of using nature, conservation, and so on. We see what is happening. Both good and ( sadly, mostly) bad.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
I used to put up a tarp in the garden, and sleep in it with my son when he was very young.
Cook on a Trangia. Listen to scary night sounds.
Bushcraft?
Yes.

I took mine foraging, carried in a sling. They ate what was seasonally available just as I did. As they grew older they toddled after me, gathered fruits with me, picked herbs, cut willows and rushes, and they still relish the seasonal changes, look forward to things like elderflower fritters and presse´, bramble jam, cranachan with wild fruits, beechnuts and hazelnuts, the sweet sticky yew arials, chicken of the woods, jelly ears and chanterelles. Rowan jelly and wild strawberries, and interesting salads of wild greens.
I taught them to make fire, I taught them to read the land, how man changes it to suit himself, to watch the trees and be aware of the animals and birds around us. Climbed hills, ploutered through sphagnum moss soaked moors, wandered down burns and along rivers and shorelines, and always there were woods. We're very lucky here, we're surrounded by woodlands. Rich lowland woodlands, incredibly diverse.

Basically I just helped fill, and open up, enquiring little minds :) and encouraged them to make and use tools. They spent most Summers sleeping in the garden. The back lawn needed re-sown every year when the schools went back.
Does that make it bushcraft ? It certainly ticks the boxes.

I miss having children around.

M
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
I do not want to beat my own drum, but I think people like us are the ones that have realistic ideas of using nature, conservation, and so on. We see what is happening. Both good and ( sadly, mostly) bad.

I don't know, I'm inclined to be optimistic. It's pretty much accepted now that being outdoors really does do wonders for mental and physical health. Children are greener than their parents, they're aware of the pollution, the over population, the extinction of animals, invertebrates, etc., and they're rich in easy access knowledge. They just need to push a little more for practical application :D
 

Billy-o

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 19, 2018
2,039
1,027
Canada
We are the rural branch of the resistance, the last vestiges of John Ruskin's Arts & Crafts movement in this disposable non-user serviceable age of plastic. Keepers of the old ways, problem solvers , dreamers and misfits who just don't feel quite right in the modern world.

I don't think Ruskin would have been comfortable in any age :lol: I enjoyed reading his stuff for the prose and some of the intentions, particularly around education, but thought Morris's Useful Work vs Useless Toil a good read as a brief statement of a social/aesthetic philosophy and News From Nowhere is just a lovely romance. Not anti-Modern, just a different idea of what it might be.
 
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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,120
68
Florida
I took mine foraging, carried in a sling. They ate what was seasonally available just as I did. As they grew older they toddled after me, gathered fruits with me, picked herbs, cut willows and rushes, and they still relish the seasonal changes, look forward to things like elderflower fritters and presse´, bramble jam, cranachan with wild fruits, beechnuts and hazelnuts, the sweet sticky yew arials, chicken of the woods, jelly ears and chanterelles. Rowan jelly and wild strawberries, and interesting salads of wild greens.
I taught them to make fire, I taught them to read the land, how man changes it to suit himself, to watch the trees and be aware of the animals and birds around us. Climbed hills, ploutered through sphagnum moss soaked moors, wandered down burns and along rivers and shorelines, and always there were woods. We're very lucky here, we're surrounded by woodlands. Rich lowland woodlands, incredibly diverse.

Basically I just helped fill enquiring little minds :) and encouraged them to make and use tools. They spent most Summers sleeping in the garden. The back lawn needed re-sown every year when the schools went back.
Does that make it bushcraft ? It certainly ticks the boxes.

I miss having children around.

M

Two words: Grand Children!
 
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Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,534
698
Knowhere
I don't think Ruskin would have been comfortable in any age :lol: I enjoyed reading his stuff for the prose and some of the intentions, particularly around education, but thought Morris's Useful Work vs Useless Toil a good read as a brief statement of a social/aesthetic philosophy and News From Nowhere is just a lovely romance. Not anti-Modern, just a different idea of what it might be.
Another fan of William Morris here.
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,798
3,745
66
Exmoor
We are the rural branch of the resistance, the last vestiges of John Ruskin's Arts & Crafts movement in this disposable non-user serviceable age of plastic. Keepers of the old ways, problem solvers , dreamers and misfits who just don't feel quite right in the modern world.
You have described me to a t. ! I realy dislike modern life. I live in a house but have no tv microwave etc. Health issues make it nessasary to be in a house most of the year, but as soon as it starts to get lighter and warmer in the spring I need to be away from indoors as much as possible. I get what I call gypsy feet :) as with others who are getting older and less able than in my youth I have to constantly refine my kit and length of time I spend out and the weather is a major factor too. I never thought I'd say it but hurrah for mobile phones as I can get weather updates and decide too go home early, fit (ish) and dry instead of aching and wet.
 
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Wayland

Hárbarðr
Modern life has it's advantages. Medical science and technology are just a couple I can think of.

I don't think of my camping trips as escapes from modern life but something more like a holiday.

Part of getting away from it all is the fact that you appreciate what you have far more when you get back home.

A long hot bath for example.
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
4,798
3,745
66
Exmoor
For me I think it's that most of my working life was outdoors in all weather's and my time off was spent outdoors camping aswell.
Yes I can appreciate my electric kettle and washing machine and hot shower when I get back home (my only real concessions to modernity apart from my mobile phone)
But I still feel better when I'm living under my tarp in the woods. I get stagnant indoors.... and I hate housework! I don't mind camp chores though. I'm just one of modern life's misfits. My best pal reckons I'd have made a good pioneer in the good old wild west... and If I do watch films it's usualy westerns. I think I'd have made a great cowgirl :) :)
 
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Wayland

Hárbarðr
Wayland-at-Steam-Tent-Co-operative-Goldrush-Camp-Faded-Glory.jpg


I do have my wild west moments sometimes...
 
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