The teo boys and i went to one of our old haunts today, not been up here for a little while, so we decided it was about we rectified that, it's a wonderful bit of ancient woodland, that unfortunatley, like many other woods has seen it's fair share of abuse by hooligans, but hey, lets not dwell on the negatives, instead the positives of the day and there were many.
Firstly the woods
This is our little area we use here, we dont camp here, just use it for day trips, the log is our seat and the hazel over head forms a sort of canopy over the top, making it feel very welcoming
When we went out we didnt know what we were going to do, other than enjoy being out in the woods, but once we got to our spot the day kind of sorted itself out, the boys spent some time with their ferro rods, just practising
Youngest wanted to take it one stage further and he set about, off his own back, investigating the flamability of various natural materials he found about the place, from moss and leaves to plant and tree barks, he then decided he wanted to give it a proper go, only to start a fire, not to sustain it, so we did.
He built himself a platform on the damp ground to protect his tinder
then collected and shredded a load of Clematis bark
his tinder bundle and fire lighting set
I should point out the bark was slightly damp, but it didnt deter him in the slightest
[video=youtube;RgXl-ALJbGs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgXl-ALJbGs[/video]
Did pretty well i thought?.
While youngest was practicing his skill set, eldest was practicing his, he took a piece of Hazel and battoned a piece off and carved a rudementary spoon, no pics im afraid and while youngest was about looking for tinder materials, i made about 5ft of nettle cordage for an upcoming project im planning.
Time was getting on and we still wanted to collect some Hazel nuts, Cherry Plums and some Cramp balls, the cramp balls being used for fire lighting demo's at two forthcoming events im attending, got a good haul of Cramp balls in next to no time
including this beastie, pretty big for this part of the woods
at this point the batteries in my camera ran out, but we took a slow walk back to the car through the woods and then eventually to the car and back home.
Cracking day out, roll on the next trip
Firstly the woods
This is our little area we use here, we dont camp here, just use it for day trips, the log is our seat and the hazel over head forms a sort of canopy over the top, making it feel very welcoming
When we went out we didnt know what we were going to do, other than enjoy being out in the woods, but once we got to our spot the day kind of sorted itself out, the boys spent some time with their ferro rods, just practising
Youngest wanted to take it one stage further and he set about, off his own back, investigating the flamability of various natural materials he found about the place, from moss and leaves to plant and tree barks, he then decided he wanted to give it a proper go, only to start a fire, not to sustain it, so we did.
He built himself a platform on the damp ground to protect his tinder
then collected and shredded a load of Clematis bark
his tinder bundle and fire lighting set
I should point out the bark was slightly damp, but it didnt deter him in the slightest
[video=youtube;RgXl-ALJbGs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgXl-ALJbGs[/video]
Did pretty well i thought?.
While youngest was practicing his skill set, eldest was practicing his, he took a piece of Hazel and battoned a piece off and carved a rudementary spoon, no pics im afraid and while youngest was about looking for tinder materials, i made about 5ft of nettle cordage for an upcoming project im planning.
Time was getting on and we still wanted to collect some Hazel nuts, Cherry Plums and some Cramp balls, the cramp balls being used for fire lighting demo's at two forthcoming events im attending, got a good haul of Cramp balls in next to no time
including this beastie, pretty big for this part of the woods
at this point the batteries in my camera ran out, but we took a slow walk back to the car through the woods and then eventually to the car and back home.
Cracking day out, roll on the next trip
