Trip away with the boys

[Kepis]

Have spent the past couple of days up the woods with my boys, really enjoyable, did a bit of tracking, eldest one wanted to hone his knife skills, both boys enjoyed the firelighting tasks, although they are both pretty good at starting fires anyway, plus we did some awareness & stealth excercises, ie one of them is blindfolded and the other one and myself have to try and sneak up on the blindfolded one without being heard, teaches them to use their ears to sense their surroundings, plus when you are the one creeping up it teaches them to tread carefully and to think about the next step to be taken.

I also tasked the boys with finding an item in the woods or around the camp that begain with each letter of the alphabet, they came up with, and this is taken from their hand written list:

A - Acorn
B - Bracken
C - Cartridge (shotgun)
D - Dung
E - Equipment
F - Fungus
G - Ground
H - Holly
I - Ivy
J - Jay
K - Kestrel
L - Leaf
M - Moss
N - Nettle
O - Oak
P - Plants
Q - Nothing Found
R - Rabbit Poo
S - Stick
T - Trees
U - Nothing Found
V - Vine
W - Wood Pigeon
X - Nothing Found
Y - Yew Tree
Z - Nothing Found

Not a bad excercise at it the got the boys thinking about what they were looking at, and it got them looking further than the end of their noses , i found out when we got home that the youngest put the Rabbit dropping in the eldest ones sleeping bag

Few pics of the trip

The Woods

The woodland i have permission to use is a nice broadleaf woodland comprised mainly of Birch, Hazel, Oak, Beech, Chestnut, Ash and Holly.

Camp Area

As there were three of us onthe trip i took my Hex3 with me and dispensed with the central pole, deciding to suspend the set up from a rope tied between two trees.

General shots of the area we pitched up in

Eldest cutting fire wood

Building a bench

Eldest set about making a bench for us to sit on, the whole thing was made from dead wood, lashed between some uprights and a couple of trees, topped off with a covering of bracken for comforts sake

the completed bench, must admit it was very comfortable

Having expended all that energy, it was time for a bit of nosh,

Boys tucking into their dinner, there wasn't much left after the gannets had attacked it, twas very tasty though

After dinner had been cleared, plates etc washed up and put away it was starting to get on a bit, the youngest one decided he was too tired to stay up any longer and went to bed, on the way he thought he saw a UFO, in reality it was the reflective tapes on the Hex 3 reflecting the light

a few shots from the evening

Youngest getting ready to hit the sack

and in the sack, poor little bugger was knackered after his day in the woods

Eldest enjoying the peace and quiet, now his brother has gone to bed

and before too long he was starting to nod off as well

Really enjoyable couple of days away, best thing is they want to do it all again next week in a different part of the woods, I can't wait.

 

[tommy the cat]

Great post ,great to see not all kids are completely addicted to ps3/ Xbox!!!!
Looks like you had a great time
Dave

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Lucky old you. I bet they will have to drag you back to the woods kicking and screaming, lol.

 

[Paganwolf]

Fantastic Maver, thats what its all about, .....wicked

 

[fred gordon]

Fantastic Post Great to see kids have a great time enjoying real life.

 

[Steve27752]

What a fantastic way too spend time with your children.

 

[verloc]

that looks like a cracking time - and after a knackering day at work - seeing the inside of that hex3 looks o very comfortable

great pics and a lovely record of a great time!

 

[Prophecy]

Brilliant thread!

The Hex looks good there, and Im sure a decent night's sleep was had with the pole out.

 

[SimonM]

Excellent shots - looks like you all had a fantastic time.

Only problem is, now I'm jealous and need to get out with my two!

If your two are anything like mine, they are probably already asking "When are we going again, please Dad, you know you want to!

Simon

 

[Kepis]

Brilliant thread!

The Hex looks good there, and Im sure a decent night's sleep was had with the pole out.

The boys slept really well, i was in the middle and the carp kicked out of me most of the night as the boys are restless sleepers, note to self, sleep on the edge next time the eldest decided to use my shoulder as a pillow at around 3am, oh and the youngest scared the carp out of me at whatever time it was, when he just shouted out "WHAT" in his sleep right in my right ear hole, did i jump or did i jump.

Great fun was had by all though, and yep they are already planning their next trip out, this time though they want to sleep under their tarps, at least i will get a good nights kip this time.

 

[Ozhaggishead]

Great post mate!

 

[lostagain]

Nice post, woods and site look great. I must find a nice landowner round here with a few spare acres.

 

[dwardo]

Looks like you all had a great time, lucky boys to be getting out and about with a father who obviously adores them

 

[stovie]

Maver said "Really enjoyable couple of days away, best thing is they want to do it all again next week in a different part of the woods, I can't wait."

I know exactly how you feel. You can't beat it. We can all take selfish pleasure from our chosen interest, but it blossoms into humble satisfaction when the enthusiasm burns in those we hope to inspire.

Well done maver

 

[Kepis]

Cheers Stovie

 

[mortalmerlin]

Looks like a beautiful spot and a great way to spend time with your sons. I'm sure they will treasure those memories for a long time to come.

 

[spamel]

That is a beautiful piece of woodland to spend time with your kids in. I am quite envious! There is woodland near me that looks similar, although it has been let go somewhat and the coppicing that was obviously once used to great effect has been left to overgrow, to the point that the stools have ripped out as they cannot bear the weight of the branches that have grown out of them, and so they are dying. It is a great shame, as another side effect is the lack of light to te woodland floor, so there is very little growing there other than creeping brambles and the odd patch of bracken or ferns.

The Hex is a whole different tent when you suspend it isn't it! It feels like there is twice as much room in there, which is silly really as it is just a small pole. It really does make a difference though.

 

[Wayne]

Looks like they are really at home in the woods Maver.

Nice patch of woodland too.

 

[Kepis]

Looks like they are really at home in the woods Maver.

Nice patch of woodland too.

Yeah, they love it Wayne, they are itching to go away again and wont let up going on about it, but i have a few other things to do, like finding a job for one , at the moment, still the landowner is back from his hols this week, so i'll give him a shout and see if we can get back up there for a few days in the next week or so.

The woods are really nice, not as big as yours , but big enough that we are not a drain on the resources that are there for a few days stay, you'll have to come up for a weekend with some of the other chaps when things calm down for you.

 

[Kepis]

That is a beautiful piece of woodland to spend time with your kids in. I am quite envious! There is woodland near me that looks similar, although it has been let go somewhat and the coppicing that was obviously once used to great effect has been left to overgrow, to the point that the stools have ripped out as they cannot bear the weight of the branches that have grown out of them, and so they are dying. It is a great shame, as another side effect is the lack of light to te woodland floor, so there is very little growing there other than creeping brambles and the odd patch of bracken or ferns.

The Hex is a whole different tent when you suspend it isn't it! It feels like there is twice as much room in there, which is silly really as it is just a small pole. It really does make a difference though.

Cheers Spam, these woods are not overly large, but have a bit of history to them, the Canadians used them during the war for god knows what, target practice was one thing they did use them for though, on very rare occasions you find a spent round in a log, last one i found was by total accident, i chipped the face of my SFA, looked at the wood to see what i had hit thinking it was a small stone or something that had gotten embedded in the wood years ago and there it was a spent round

Your right about the hex, take that central pole out and you have a mansion, you wouldn't think that small pole would make so much difference to the space you have available.