How do you "bushcraft"?

[Adi007]

I guess that most of us are here because of out love of the outdoors, outdoor living and life and the great feeling of satisfaction that comes from being able to live in the outdoors in comfort.

I'm interested though in "how" you bushcraft. Do you go on specific trips/expeditions into the outdoors with bushcraft on your mind or do you take the opportunities that short trips offer as well? Do you equip yourself specifically for trips or are you the kind of person that already has a lot of the basics in your pockets?

I'm not trying to suggest that there are right or wrong answers (I don't think there are), I'm just interested in how you "bushcraft".

:chill:

 

[Fallow Way]

I`m always "on call" Working in forestry there are infinate chances to bushcraft, for which I feel very lucky. I always have a knife, saw and axe in the Landy so if anything catches my eye I can go play

Also living next to a very large wood i can go out in the evening and weekends to play. Just got back from a nice navigation practice walk and found the best tasting blackberries ever!

 

[ScottC]

I am the only person in my family/friends who is interested in this, i guess that I take advantage of nature when ever i can for example, If I had to go to a football tournament with my brother and there was woodland around I would spend all day in it foraging around for tinders, fungi, food etc. I don't get to spend as much time in the woods as I would like to so I try to persuade my dad to take me camping or out into the woods at every available oppurtunity and sometimes it works! Heck I've even managed him to take me on a course!
I wish I have some of the oppurtunites that the children of the adults on here get but I guess I just have to wait until I'm old enough to go out and do my own thing with my own earned wage.

btw, great thread :super:

 

[TheViking]

Hi...

Each year, my dad and I goes to Sweden to hike or canoe in 6 days. Last year it rained all day, the last day. We paddled 34 km. in a canoe that day, to get to a hotel and have a roasted chicken. That was the best roasted chicken I've ever had. On each trip we practice bushcraft skills.

So when home, I go out to one of the small woods nearby and practice whatever I may like that day. Tearing up spruce roots, making fire, cooking a little maybe, carving a lot and making camp gadgets. I have built a shelter as a 'base' for all other activities and to store gear, I need later.
Sometimes i collect edible plants and cook them. But the best is to find a blackberry bush. We have lots of them closeby. Also practice lashings and knots. :biggthump

Been on several outdoor trips with my old class, to woodschools, learning about wildlife, foraging etc. :biggthump

Cheers :uu:

 

[Carcajou Garou]

"Bushcraft" is a way of life for us, always go out with a "day rucksack" with the essentials "plus". Even when we go to another town or city we always have our daypack in the vehicle with us. When we quad it is equiped with gear and such.
we don't "practise" bushcraft in as much as we set up hunt or fish camp.
just a thought

 

[Adi007]

"Bushcraft" is a way of life for us, always go out with a "day rucksack" with the essentials "plus". Even when we go to another town or city we always have our daypack in the vehicle with us. When we quad it is equiped with gear and such.
we don't "practise" bushcraft in as much as we set up hunt or fish camp.
just a thought

Sounds absolutely idillic! We have nothing that comes close to that here in the UK ...

 

[RovingArcher]

O'siyo Carcajou, :wave: sounds like I need to move North then eh?

Myself, I take as many short hikes as I can get in. I walk 3-5 times per week and cover about 5 miles each outing. I usually have the gear in my pockets and on my belt and just grab a liter bota bag for water and an empty shoulder bag for gathering plants, rocks and most anything that catches my attention. I practice craft on occasion, but usually on these short walks I will just find a quiet place away from the people and say some prayers that need to be said and commune with Nature for a few hours. Once or twice a month I will go for 10+ miles and on these occasions I carry a shoulder bag kit just in case I have to spend more time than I counted on. Depending on the time of year, I am gathering herbs that grow wild in the area as well as maping watering holes and game trails that I happen upon. A few times a year I manage to get out for a two nighter and carry a small German ruck with all the gear I'll need to make myself comfortable and keep me busy doing crafty stuff. Once a year I take 7-14 days and my larger and better equipped German ruck and do some hunting and fishing, as well as practice my style of craft. On many of my outings I will have my bow and do some roving and small game hunting to keep my eye sharp and my muscles toned.

 

[MartiniDave]

Good question Adi,

"Bushcraft" started for me as a sort of logical extension to other outdoors activities I was doing, namely shooting, fishing, off roading and camping.
The off roading at the time was in a pretty beat up Series 3 landy that you simply couldn't or shouldn't trust (not the one I use now!) After getting stuck a few times with plenty of tools but not much else, I started keeping things in the vehicle to inprove my comfort, as well as do repairs.

The habit kind of grew on me. About the same time I started seeing Ray M on the box, and was hooked.

Now I no longer live out in the flat fens, but quite close to Cambridge. I'm fortunate (in an odd sort of way) that we live next door to my wife's former inlaws, on a block of land that is known as "The spinney", which logically was once a spinney, but over the last few hundred years has had 2 houses built on it, and has had bits cleared for garden. The rest is grown out a bit. I can go do what I want in this pretty mush anytime. It's not huge, triangular with a road on each side, but fairly quiet all the same.

As for kit, I'm like the rest of you, too much and spoilt for choice. I seem to have duplicates of most things, from rucksacks to firesteels, and still buying, but nothing like as much. Oh - and making more of my own stuff too.

I'm rambling on now so I'll stop.

Dave

 

[jamesdevine]

I do my Bushcrafting in loads of different ways from the walks and ramble up the coast or in the local park to the trips away with the scouts or on courses.

An available opportunity like young bushman to improve my skills or just plan have fun.

I plan in the next year our so to do some extended trips not just with bushcraft in mind but I will of course be using it and practising the skills I have.

james

 

[JFW]

I take a long walk with the dog 2 or 3 times a week and always have the essentials in my jacket or a gas mask bag - knife, water, paracord, poncho, lighter and a couple of gem guides for trees, plants and food for free. You never know what you might come across so I like to "Be prepared". I sometimes go out just to practice my bushcraft skills and do a mini expedition with rucksack with the above and a few extras. I'm quite lucky as I live in a good rural location with mountains and mixed woodland 5 minutes walk from my house.

Cheers

JFW

 

[jakunen]

For me it's a case of 'when soemthings been organised'.

There isn't anywhere near to me that I can just walk to and do some stuff, so it's always a case of when Womble arranges something or guys from the fourm do.

If I had a car, I'd be out EVERY chance I got.

Consequently, every trip is planned, but some basic stuff is stored in the pack (Puuku, fire kit, FAK, Wetterlings, snack stuff, cord, poncho, DC4, bladder, Twister stove) so that I can just chuck in any extra stuff and be ready to go.

Wish I was out there now...

 

[ScottC]

I take a long walk with the dog 2 or 3 times a week and always have the essentials in my jacket or a gas mask bag - knife, water, paracord, poncho, lighter and a couple of gem guides for trees, plants and food for free. You never know what you might come across so I like to "Be prepared". I sometimes go out just to practice my bushcraft skills and do a mini expedition with rucksack with the above and a few extras. I'm quite lucky as I live in a good rural location with mountains and mixed woodland 5 minutes walk from my house.

Cheers

JFW

Sorry to go off subject abit here but I was wondering what you would do If you were found to be in possesion of a knife by the police while you were out walking your dog.

 

[alick]

For me an interest in bushcraft just fits with enjoying getting away from the beaten track and working with the wild, not against it. It began with backpacking in the cumbian fells, travelling to other parts of the UK and Europe, adding climbing, watersports, MTB and shooing to my list, then seeing good old RM on telly !

These days I do bushcraft on walks in the local forest. Sometimes on my own, often with one or both of my kids (8 & 10 years). I read and experiment at home between outings and try to apply it on longer day walks in the hills too.

Foraging, setting a tarp quickly for shelter and having something hot to eat or drink has become a bit of a game for the girls (it's not only the army that marches on its stomach !). This way I can usually sneak a little bit of bushcraft into short walks that are only meant to get the kids out into the fresh air and give my wife a few hours of peace & quiet. I think this works well because (to use the Americanism) it's become associated with "quality time" between dad and the kids.

I also reckon that BCUK counts as "doing bushcraft". Learning, swapping stories, planning is all part of the package to me and BCUK provides a wider, more active community than any club I've belonged to over the years.

:wave:

 

[Keith_Beef]

For me an interest in bushcraft just fits with enjoying getting away from the beaten track and working with the wild, not against it. It began with backpacking in the cumbian fells, travelling to other parts of the UK and Europe, adding climbing, watersports, MTB and shooing to my list, then seeing good old RM on telly !

These days I do bushcraft on walks in the local forest. Sometimes on my own, often with one or both of my kids (8 & 10 years). I read and experiment at home between outings and try to apply it on longer day walks in the hills too.

Foraging, setting a tarp quickly for shelter and having something hot to eat or drink has become a bit of a game for the girls (it's not only the army that marches on its stomach !). This way I can usually sneak a little bit of bushcraft into short walks that are only meant to get the kids out into the fresh air and give my wife a few hours of peace & quiet. I think this works well because (to use the Americanism) it's become associated with "quality time" between dad and the kids.

I also reckon that BCUK counts as "doing bushcraft". Learning, swapping stories, planning is all part of the package to me and BCUK provides a wider, more active community than any club I've belonged to over the years.

:wave:

Dead on!

Give the wife a bit of time off, from looking after the kids in the house, get the kids outdoors, what more reason do you need?

Sometimes, I need the wife to get our kids away from under my feet, 'cos I have things to do (grinding, computing, woodwork, whatever). so she takes them out somewhere. Somtimes, she needs to breathe a bit, so I take them out. Sometimes, we all go out together (though with the bad back she has at the moment, she's a bit lmited as to what she can do)...

I've still not seen Ray Mears on DVD (I'm overseas, so I don't get UK television), but the River Cottage DVD I bought inspired me to doing a few things.

You're right when you state that

it's not only the army that marches on its stomach

... In-laws also march like that. And neighbours. And friends. (and strangers are just friends that you don't know yet).


Keith.

 

[sargey]

afternoon and evenings out with the dog mostly. just recently i've been teaching a mate map reading and navigation, with a bit of bushcraft/survival/plantlore/tracking thrown in. for some reason he's a deer magnet, we always see deer when he's out.

i think that bushcraft is where you find it. a small fire and a coffee in the woods, whittling a pointy stick, or just sitting quietly and feeling the countryside/nature around you. it doesn't have to be a major overland expedition everytime.

cheers, and.

 

[bushblade]

I usually prefer to be out for at least 4 days at a time.
I find that its only after 2 or 3 days that you start getting into the rhythm and fully appreciating it. I find time to relax and take things easy outdoors very important, there is just simply not enough time with weekend stops and day walks to fully appreciate it and do what I want to do.

I am lucky in that I work for a large outdoors company and they are sympathetic to this, once a month we get 4 days off in a row to do these sort of things and I usually add 2 days holiday to that.
In between I do get 2 days off a week (usually week days, so outdoors are free from public) and these days I quite often use to scout out new areas to visit on my 4-6 days off, usually with an overnight stop.

My favorite location for Bushcraft has to be where I used to live in Scotland, I haven't found anything as good as this place in England so far. Those places in England I have liked are usualy frequented by other folk, whereas my location in Scotland you can go for days without contact with the public.

It is more about the time (nights out) for me, just relaxing, being in a remote place, and enjoying the time spent.
I'm usualy on my own though, its not often my mates can get the time off to tag along.

 

[JFW]

Young Bushman
Quote "Sorry to go off subject abit here but I was wondering what you would do If you were found to be in possesion of a knife by the police while you were out walking your dog.
__________________
Cheers,
Scott"

In twenty five years of dog walking and knife carrying I have, as yet, never been stopped by a policeman. I live in a relatively rural area and there are not Police everywhere so even seeing a policeman is a bit of a novelty for me. However in the unlikely event that I am in conversation with a Policeman I would speak politely and courteously and give him absolutely no reason to ask if he can search me or my rucksack/bag. In the event of being searched I would explain what I was doing (going to the woods for a day - to find a piece of wood to make a spoon, a new handle for an axe, going to catch and cook a rabbit whatever) and hopefully end our chat with an informed Police officer telling me to enjoy the rest of my day.
I always carry my knives in either my rucksack or possibles bag and never in my pocket or on my belt untill I am well off the beaten track.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

JFW

 

[Adi007]

That's the big difference ...

Carry a knife in the country/rural area, not only are you unlikely to see a police officer but also you are much more likely to have a good reason.

Carry a knife to a pub, football stadium, disgo ... well, not much to whittle there, is there!

 

[Womble]

I try to put what I know into Scout activities and camps, and try at least once a week to get into the woods, even if it's just to chll.

 

[Hogan]

I mistakenly thought that bushcraft was an 'all or nothing' deal, and so thinking, read as much as I could on all things bushcrafty (if there is such a word) and navigation and camping and all the technical doo-dahs about tools, tents, etc etc etc.
Jumped straight in at the deep end, going off for a lone wild camp in the hills. Made every mistake possible, nearly killed myself pushing myself to exhaustion with full pack, tent and all the accessories :icon_redf , got caught in the middle of an amazing lightning storm :lightning..... but loved every minute !!.

Now, wiser, and with the excellent advice from other members of BCUK :respekt: :notworthy I realise that (to quote an earlier post - "bushcraft is where you find it" (love that quote!)).

So now, I take woodland walks, (initially I disappeared up into the hills, not realising that I am no more than 2 minutes walk from miles and miles of woodland :embarasse ) and am building up competence and practising skills almost daily. I still intend to go on an extended outing (long weekend) soon, but this time I will know more of what to take, what to expect, how to pace myself and how to enjoy the experience a lot more.

I don't just 'want' to practise bushcraft, it is a real physical need. To explain, I work in an office environment with 1700 people in the building. I am not what you would call a 'people person', therefore work = hell.

I NEED the solitude, the peace and quiet, the time with my own thoughts, doing things at my own pace, and failing or succeeding at perfecting these skills and techniques on my own terms.

....and finally (which coming from a non people-person, with "limited people interaction and social skills" [it said in my last assessment at work], means a lot.)

Regards