Walk notes

[Barney]

Does anyone make notes about the goodstuff on their local walk? I thought about it at the weekend when I found half a dozen apple trees hidden about in various places and I hadn't noticed them at all before, I might forget where they are come autumn. I am starting to find stuff all over the place and I think it would be a good idea to note what grows where and then keep adding to the map Kinda thing. Is this too Anoraky?

I am losing track of everything I find and trying to remember where it is, there is that much stuff about.

Any suggestions for a format or layout.

 

[Shewie]

I remember somebody saying you could create your own maps with Google Earth and add points of interest yourself, that might be worth looking into Wayne.

I do carry a small notepad which come in handy but don't use it as much as I should.

 

[Goatboy]

I have memory Map on my computer and a paper map in my attic, on both I'vebeen building up a "local" database of usefull stuff: - gooseberries, sloes, mushrooms, rabbits and such like. Also been plotting neolithic sites and the likes. When I'm ready I could share with other MM users (I think) so that we could create a Bushcraft map of where things can be found.
Is that what you're aiming at?
Goatboy.

 

[hiho]

I have memory Map on my computer and a paper map in my attic, on both I'vebeen building up a "local" database of usefull stuff: - gooseberries, sloes, mushrooms, rabbits and such like. Also been plotting neolithic sites and the likes. When I'm ready I could share with other MM users (I think) so that we could create a Bushcraft map of where things can be found.
Is that what you're aiming at?
Goatboy.

sounds like a plan... you going to make different graphics for the different plants? (like there is for geocaching)

 

[Goatboy]

Hey Hiho,
Memory map has pretty limited symbols for things, though you can link all sorts of files to locations, need to find someone else with MM to see what kind of info comes through when you send a map. If it's good we could build a large area map of resources that we all could use. Though some of us can be jelious about sharing things like the wonderfull red gooseberry bushes that I have on my patch that no-one else knows about lol. Will try to play nice though.
Goatboy.

 

[hiho]

i'm sure someone can knock up simple icons for fruit,mushrooms,nuts etc

you alos have pm goatboy

 

[Barney]

Some great ideas here. I am going to have to get memory map and have a play with it. Thanks

 

[hiho]

been having a play again today and realised how tedious the tiny graphics are
you also have another pm goat

 

[Bushwhacker]

I just put it all on my google earth.
Your personal placemarks are private so, contrary to popular belief, nobody else can see them.

 

[HillBill]

Yeah, i do. There are a few woods local to me, none of the huge but plenty of variation in tree/plant/wildlife species.

I have sections in a note book devoted to each. Its mainly for reference to trees and wood i have found for future carving projects, type of tree, location in the wood, reason for interest, in one wood there is a large stand of ash, maybe 100 trees, with two trees growing within 6 ft of another that have trunks totally straight and knot free for between 15 and 20 feet with a diameter of 10 and 12 inch respectively. I have my eye on these for bows. The owner has agreed to let me drop them when the leaves come off. Gonna cost me £25 each though. Still its worth it. I should get at least 12 good staves from each.
I also keep notes of edibles, unusual wild life, good campsites, warrens, dreys, sets etc, suitable hide locations, stalking routes all that kind of thing. Basically its a good quick reference guide for whatever i may need.

 

[sandbender]

Does anyone make notes about the goodstuff on their local walk?....Any suggestions for a format or layout...

Some years back I heard the following story from a man who has spent much of his working life in the Swedish Arctic.

Years earlier he'd gone hunting with a friend and that friends grandfather; during the trip the grandfather would occasionally pause to examine a tree that had caught his eye, if he liked what he'd seen he'd note something down in an old pocket book.

The reason for the note taking was revealed once the trip was over and they'd all returned to the old man's home. The man's house was a very old Swedish farmhouse, almost entirely built from wood, what the man was doing was identifying replacement parts for the building and its contents in the living trees of the forest around him, things he would need one day, door-handles, window shutters, floorboards and more were listed along with details regarding the age and location of the relevant tree, some of the entries were decades old.

Here are some layout ideas from my notebook...

More ideas for you on this thread.

 

[nigeltm]

Google Earth can export your personal points as a KML file. These could be emailed around and imported back into Google Earth by a different user. So it's fairly easy for someone to act as a clearing house for interesting points by collating info and passing the KML file on to others. The link below is to the Google user guide. I think it's also pretty flexible on the symbology.

http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_kml.html

A mate of mine is into railway signals (that aside he's a fairly normal bloke!) and keeps a record of the ones he has visited on Google Earth. I prefer to use a grown up ESRI mapping system Much better when it comes to finding the nearest pub!

 

[calibanzwei]

I'm making use of the decent camera on my Samsung.....I'm new to ID'ing stuff, so I spot something I'll take a picture, look it up, the rename the image. Its always with me then for reference then.

 

[Barney]

Some years back I heard

Sorry Sandbender I had not seen that thread, I feel a right wally now as it was only a few weeks ago.

 

[sandbender]

Sorry Sandbender I had not seen that thread, I feel a right wally now as it was only a few weeks ago.

I don't think the threads are exactly the same and the link is now there so people can find the earlier one.

 

[scrogger]

Barney I was just thinking the same thing. We have just got out first allotment so we are keeping a journal of that with regards to crop, how good, rotation etc. But last year we went foraging mad I think was when all th edoom and gloom started and I found been out in all weather picking berries , apples and pears etc very soul lifting. Since using this site more and with the information picked up off here i have now made notes on were birch trees are, Hazels, Sweet Chestnuts etc. as well as Sloe (made some Sloe gin and vodka and I was delicious). So I know what you mean its easy to forget what and where you have seen stuff. Its a brill idea and nice to look back on too.

Andy

 

[Goatboy]

Hi Hiho,
Have PM'd you and sent you a MM file of a wee neolithic sites overlay to see if it works. Hope it does as we could build up quite a map.
Goatboy.

 

[Goatboy]

Hi All,
whilst we're all on the cool tools vein I thought I'd share this http://www.geograph.org.uk/
Basically they're trying to build a photographic record of every grid square in the UK. If you're the first to post a picof a 1km grid square you get the "geograph" for that square, lots of folk can post for any given grid. I used it in addition to maps to "see" the terrain that I'm going too. You can also search by type of things pictured say "fungi" to build up a picture of where things may be. I recently did a search for "mortsafes" as I had an interest and it came up trumps. Could be another way for the group to build up a picture of items of interest if we all used "bushcraft" in the title of posts there. It also shows location and orientation of the picture on the map.
Cheers
Goatboy.