This weekend in Chopwell Wood; we held our first training event of the year.
Partly due to a mix up with the FC booking arrangements and equally due ( I hope
) to late advertising locally, the turn out was low, with only six "students" turning up.
As always; sincere thanks to Eric Methven, who supervised the camping on Saturday night
We set up the 12 x 12 tarp that Eric made for me, as a reflector/windbreak, with three birch poles, cut from the boundless saplings just below our site.
It's a heavy piece of kit but extremely strong and well made You can also see Erics homemade Capote, or blanket coat hanging here.
We used the oil drum fire pit, ( Eric's handy work again ) which made for easy tidying and prep in the morning and also made a brilliant centrepiece for the "crack"
I had to leave about 9:30pm, it was a crystal clear night and cold with it. I had a close shave with a roe buck as I passed the main car park on my way out but got home safe and more significantly; warm.
I returned in the morning for about 8 o'clock, to find poor Eric still in his tent, shivering like a jelly, proclaiming; "It's my hammock for me, next time!" I sorted him out with a hot cup of coffee and he was soon up and about again.
In no time at all, we had struck camp and returned to the classroom to begin the proceedings for the day.
A couple of lad's were travelling up from Middlesborough and as soon as they turned up, we were ready to start; A quick intro and safety brief, then we were off for our first practical session of the day.
On the way, I took the party up onto our "tree trail". This is a brilliant asset, which has dozens of different species of tree's along it's 150m length, including many mature tree's as well as younger ones. The beauty of this trail is that each species is identified with a small plaque, allowing you to learn to id the tree's at any season of the year.
I explained some of the uses for resins and barks, as well as things like honeysuckle for fire lighting and cordage making.
We arrived at our new training area and set to with shelter building;
Totally by accident/chance, we ended up with a three man SoTP team and a three man BCUK team!
both teams worked really well and in less than an hour had the basic shelters up
Then they began to improve on the basic design;
This is the completed SoTP shelter with extended front.
The results were really very impressive:You_Rock_
I think it was partly due to the fact that we had no "outdoors newbies", all the lads being familiar with the outdoors but myself, Eric and Ken were amazed at how little guidance or supervision the group needed.
The weather was perfect for the task; virtually no wind, brilliant blue sky and sunshine but cool.
All too soon it was time to dismantle the shelters and move on; all the materials being scattered again to leave minimum trace.Our route back to the classroom, took us through an area of numerous dead birch, where we collected enough bark to help our fire lighting for the afternoon.
After lunch; I explained and then demonstrated; the simple basics of lighting and maintaining a small camp fire. Then it was the lad's turn;
As with many skills associated with our hobby; practice makes perfect and some of the group had their fires going no bother at all while one or two took a little longer, not being used to the kit.
having mastered firesteel and birch bark, it was time to try flint and steel;
everyone succeeded, in spite of a few lung fulls of thick smoke and the odd dizzy spell
Then it was time to put out the fires and minimise the traces;
We tidied up and retired to the classroom for a coffee and a bit of a chat and then we all went home.
Thanks to everyone who came, it was a really enjoyable weekend, if a tiring one as always but we hope to see you all again soon.
kind regards
Steve
Partly due to a mix up with the FC booking arrangements and equally due ( I hope
) to late advertising locally, the turn out was low, with only six "students" turning up.As always; sincere thanks to Eric Methven, who supervised the camping on Saturday night
We set up the 12 x 12 tarp that Eric made for me, as a reflector/windbreak, with three birch poles, cut from the boundless saplings just below our site.
It's a heavy piece of kit but extremely strong and well made
You can also see Erics homemade Capote, or blanket coat hanging here.We used the oil drum fire pit, ( Eric's handy work again
) which made for easy tidying and prep in the morning and also made a brilliant centrepiece for the "crack"
I had to leave about 9:30pm, it was a crystal clear night and cold with it. I had a close shave with a roe buck as I passed the main car park on my way out but got home safe and more significantly; warm.
I returned in the morning for about 8 o'clock, to find poor Eric still in his tent, shivering like a jelly, proclaiming; "It's my hammock for me, next time!" I sorted him out with a hot cup of coffee and he was soon up and about again.
In no time at all, we had struck camp and returned to the classroom to begin the proceedings for the day.
A couple of lad's were travelling up from Middlesborough and as soon as they turned up, we were ready to start; A quick intro and safety brief, then we were off for our first practical session of the day.
On the way, I took the party up onto our "tree trail". This is a brilliant asset, which has dozens of different species of tree's along it's 150m length, including many mature tree's as well as younger ones. The beauty of this trail is that each species is identified with a small plaque, allowing you to learn to id the tree's at any season of the year.
I explained some of the uses for resins and barks, as well as things like honeysuckle for fire lighting and cordage making.
We arrived at our new training area and set to with shelter building;
Totally by accident/chance, we ended up with a three man SoTP team and a three man BCUK team!
both teams worked really well and in less than an hour had the basic shelters up
Then they began to improve on the basic design;
This is the completed SoTP shelter with extended front.
The results were really very impressive:You_Rock_
I think it was partly due to the fact that we had no "outdoors newbies", all the lads being familiar with the outdoors but myself, Eric and Ken were amazed at how little guidance or supervision the group needed.
The weather was perfect for the task; virtually no wind, brilliant blue sky and sunshine but cool.
All too soon it was time to dismantle the shelters and move on; all the materials being scattered again to leave minimum trace.Our route back to the classroom, took us through an area of numerous dead birch, where we collected enough bark to help our fire lighting for the afternoon.
After lunch; I explained and then demonstrated; the simple basics of lighting and maintaining a small camp fire. Then it was the lad's turn;
As with many skills associated with our hobby; practice makes perfect and some of the group had their fires going no bother at all while one or two took a little longer, not being used to the kit.
having mastered firesteel and birch bark, it was time to try flint and steel;
everyone succeeded, in spite of a few lung fulls of thick smoke and the odd dizzy spell
Then it was time to put out the fires and minimise the traces;
We tidied up and retired to the classroom for a coffee and a bit of a chat and then we all went home.
Thanks to everyone who came, it was a really enjoyable weekend, if a tiring one as always but we hope to see you all again soon.
kind regards
Steve
