Where do we come from - What are our backgrounds?

[cbrdave]

As a kid I was always outdoors, Always worked outdoors then found Ray mears on the TV and found it so interesting, got the bushcraft dvd set for Xmas one year and his uk one, I was hooked from then on, started doing out and about, collecting bushcraft gear, unfortunately I Don't get chance to get out much anymore due to health.

 

[Tiley]

Although born and brought up in London, I have always hated the city and felt far more at home in the countryside. My approach to bushcraft came as my climbing career began to fade because of family and injury. I loved - and still love - the mountains, which are somehow my natural, intuitive home, but the wonders of the woods and forests are now a daily focus for me.

It was a pupil at school who lent me a book by Ray Mears that really directed my interest. That, followed by a Woodlore Family Bushcraft weekend with my two (unsuspecting) sons, sealed my fascination in the possibilities of the outdoors in a completely new and exciting way that did not involve ropes, harnesses, slings, pro. and a healthy portion of fear. There was something much more peaceful, creative and, of course, seasonal to the activity which appeals to this day.

I am, in essence, a bushcrafter made, not born but, perhaps because of that, I still enjoy a child-like delight in any new thing or new skill I discover or learn. Then, of course, there is the pleasure of practice...!

 

[oldtimer]

Started camping at about the age of about eight with parents, continued as teenager solo bike and backpacking. Camped as means of cheap travel around Europe after marriage but before children. Then with our two sons in Europe and US. Pleased to report that both sons and older grandchildren are carrying the baton.

My bushcraft skills have been picked up along the way from many people I have met along the way and pre-date Ray Mears or Bear Grylls. I see bushcrafting as a central skill to be acquired by anyone who loves the natural world and knows that one is part of and not apart from it. They also foster my need for independence and self-reliance which are the foundation of self-respect.

 

[Madriverrob]

I grew up on the edge of the Peak District , playing out apart from mealtimes , joined the army after school and spent more time playing out ( BAOR) including mealtimes .Left the Army to raise a family and had to work 12 hour shifts in a factory..... Took up outdoor pursuits to keep my sanity...... climbing, canoeing and hiking gradually morphed into bush craft, wild camping and now lightweight camping .... the common denominator remains being outdoors

 

[John Fenna]

I was brought up in Herefordshire and Belgium. Played in the fields and woods around Hereford and then in the Foret de Soignes around Brussels. I found I enjoyed long walks in the wilds. Ran away from a career in computers after just 12 months and went to walk the length of Britain ...got 1/2 way before injury stopped me. I then became an Outdoor Skills Instructor as a career... climbing, hiking, kayaking, orienteering etc etc and got into the mind set of being ready to deal with the unexpected... which lead to an interest in Survival Training (as well as writing for Outdoor Magazines from Survival Weaponry and Techniques to The Great Outdoors, Gun Mart etc etc leading Youth Expeditions around the Globe for outfits like Raleigh and World Challenge, and designing realistic outdoor clothing for Craghoppers, Snowdon Clothing etc etc) and teaching skills to Scouts - mainly "Backwoods" badge stuff as a Scout Leader for 15 years... which all combined to lead on to Bushcraft ...

 

[Ray Smears]

I’ve just always lived in the country near woods and forests.
It all came naturally, as I conformed to my environment.
I guess that if I was born next to the sea,I would have been a surfer or a boat type.
All the Best.

 

[1 pot hunter]

The person who started me on this journey, and this is controversial with some, was Bear Grylls. I loved watching his Born Survivor series so I got interested in survival which then led onto wild camping and Bushcraft and I have never looked back.

I was pondering all the different types of people that do bushcraft, I came into it through a childhood freedom to roam about, a sense of adventure, making dens and shelters, camping out etc as a kid. I remember once camping out, I didn't own a sleeping bag etc, it was so cold, the whole night wad just shifting about shivering, a great learning experience. I also enjoyed military surplus stuff, kit in general and edged tools ( my first career was carpentry and cabinet making).
Then I went on a Woodlore fundamental course, me and my friend figured the we'd go, it would be fun in the woods and we'd not actually learn that much as we knew loads already, our eyes were open and I was a little hooked on Bushcraft from then on, that experience was the birth of Bushcraft UK.

So, I had a little background, some freedom, some hands on experiences, sometimes awful experiences, a course and then I arrived at 'Bushcraft'

How about you?

I had a evil stepmother who found it funny not to feed me growing up as a small boy luckily a old bloke down street taught me how to hunt n go poaching fish n game .

 

[demographic]

The building I was born in was a workhouse* and I've worked for the company that made the Millennium Falcons loadbay door**.
I live less than 50 miles from Moscow***.



*A longtime before it was turned into the City General hospital and I was born there.
**For about a week and not at the time when they built the door, that was later and might even have been the one that broke Harrison Fords leg.
*** Moscow farm, near Spadeadam.



Random true but highly misleading facts aside.
I lived in a hillfarm as a kid, youngest out of six, played on the fells, made dens and so on in the gorse and bracken.
My mother used ro make wines out of all sorts of fruit and so on.
Gorse flowers, gooseberries, damsons, plums, raspberries, blackberries, and loads more I can't remember.
We had the Food For Free book on the shelf and as a kid I was enthralled by a book called My Side Of The Mountain.
Camped out a bit, ratched about down one of the local mines.



Dunno really, usual stuff many people do I guess.

 

[ManFriday4]

My parents sent me to one of those schools like Gordonstone, where camping, climbing, D of E were part of the curriculum. We had a teacher who had been in the forces, terrifyingly fit & nothing was impossible. It was a school where knives weren't an issue. They taught us some basic survival and self rescue stuff & would take us on expeditions up mountains in winter and onto the Brecon Beacons- in winter too. It's started there...

Lots of wild camping followed & over time I developed skills and techniques. I travelled alot, worked with tribals Bishnoi in Rajasthan in the mid 1990 supporting activists with technology for campaigning. The Bishoi were the 1st tree huggers- to them every tree is a living conscious entity. In 1730 a significant number of people from 84 villages, headed by a woman named Amrita Devi, sacrificed their lives to prevent the trees from being cut down by instructions of the Maharaja of Jodhpur

I came back from there and joined the Battle for the Trees on various anti road campaigns in the mid 1990s. We lived in the trees and like the Bishnoi clung to them as we were pulled out of them. Napped flints were used for nefarious purposes on some bypass actions & were very effective..

I married after the protests (met my wife while campaigning), built my own boat and carried on living, mostly outdoors. I taught the children wilderness skills, my son is 21, spends his freebie mountaineering the Highlands of Scotland.

I spend long periods alone in nature, and my partner and I spend a lot of time watching animals, often in area I have already checked out. For me bushcraft is about a deep connection to the earth.

 

[Nice65]

I was pondering all the different types of people that do bushcraft, I came into it through a childhood freedom to roam about, a sense of adventure, making dens and shelters, camping out etc as a kid. I remember once camping out, I didn't own a sleeping bag etc, it was so cold, the whole night wad just shifting about shivering, a great learning experience. I also enjoyed military surplus stuff, kit in general and edged tools ( my first career was carpentry and cabinet making).
Then I went on a Woodlore fundamental course, me and my friend figured the we'd go, it would be fun in the woods and we'd not actually learn that much as we knew loads already, our eyes were open and I was a little hooked on Bushcraft from then on, that experience was the birth of Bushcraft UK.

So, I had a little background, some freedom, some hands on experiences, sometimes awful experiences, a course and then I arrived at 'Bushcraft'

How about you?

This, almost exactly. Growing up in a small parish a few miles outside Bognor Regis, when it ‘was all fields’. Lots of woodland copses to make shelters and play with knives and air guns. We had either blankets borrowed out of the cupboard or cheap polyfill Millet's sleeping bags and had seriously cold and uncomfortable camping experiences. I remember learning that it isn’t what’s covering you that keeps you warm, but what’s underneath, and finding it a fascinating concept. So we’d bundle up leaves, or nick a couple of bales and sleep on top.

Discovering army surplus and we were away, crappy black handled machetes and Opinels or SAKs at the ready, army shoulder bags and sleeping bags tied with baler twine on our shoulders. Survival tins at the ready with a length of line and a couple of hooks (never did use them). Dipping Swan Vestas in wax to waterproof them, and finding the dry stuff to get a fire going. The fire was the essential bit, it had to be done, everywhere we stopped, and whether it’s a stove or a fire it’s a constant for anyone outdoors. I’ve never been interested in stealth overnighters for this reason.

I think it was, and still is, living within wildlife that appeals. I remember climbing thick twisting Ivy up into a tree to have a big owl suddenly fly out right into my face and nearly knock me to the ground, buying corn cob pipes and puffing away on tobacco around a little fire, sausages and pork chops robbed out of mums freezer and threaded onto green Hazel sticks for precarious cooking.

 

[draybo]

Military background started me off, funny thing was my brother was in the army too, he hated the cold and was always in colder climates I hate the heat and was always in hotter climates. I really enjoy being outdoors and find it a good way to get away from a world I can barely function in. All I ever need is my dog a fire starter and some snares, oh and my wife waiting for me at home with a hot meal. I was in the scouts for a while so maybe it started when I was really young.

 

[C_Claycomb]

@demographic
My Side of the Mountain
Read any of her other books?
Sam Gribley was something of an inspiration for me. I even lived in the same part of the US.

 

[Tengu]

I dont know really; I am just Me.

I never grew up in the outdoors. But I read a lot.

I have always been interested in things like crafts and archaeology.

Im not thrilled by the idea of living in the middle of nowhere with no museums or archives. (It saddens that there are folks with no access to such delights).

I am going to live in the Iron Age so my skills (what I have, which is precious little compared to many of you). will stand me in good stead.

You cant but help have adventures everyday in Heritage.

And, as Derrida said, "No Archive without Outside."

 

[gra_farmer]

I was born in to the outdoors, coming from a farming family that can trace our roots in farming back to the 17th century.

But being brought up as a farmer aside, I used to have a blue poly tarp, to rough camp and hunt on my own from the age of 6 years old. I still remember my first time hunting, preparing and cooking my first rabbit at 7 years old.

Like many others, knives, saws, axes, guns, bows and arrows were the norm, and playing in woodland and making things was a given.

It was not until I saw a young Mr Mears on the TV show tracks, that I realised a lot of what I was doing could be classed as bushcraft, and I already had a interest in 18th to 20th century agricultural practices and stone and bronze age tools and practices.

 

[demographic]

@demographic
My Side of the Mountain
Read any of her other books?
Sam Gribley was something of an inspiration for me. I even lived in the same part of the US.

Not read any others, oddly enough I've never even looked for others, I'll have a ratch now though.
Another book that made an impact at an early age was Survival by Russel Evans about a Soviet prisoner who escapes from a gulag and has to learn to survive in Siberia.


More or less a kids book but I still took to it and remember it fondly.

 

[Tengu]

I remember that one too.

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

Great thread! (Edit: Yeesh, Goodluck if you make it through my post! )

For me I had a fortunate childhood, as a family we lived abroad for dad's work, hut always had a base in the countryside in the UK we'd return to for school holidays. This meant that the UK countryside was a very special place as I didn't have it for most parts of the year. My Dad absolutely loved the outdoors and we spent many hours in the woodland.. but he also worked hard to maintain the areas which gave me an appreciation to the outdoors not always being "easy"... but when you've been doing the grubby horrid stuff, it makes you appreciate the nicer stuff like listening to the birds, trees etc. Dad was a big black powder enthusiast (amongst many other more conventional firearms), so again there was another outdoor hobby that we did together including airguns etc.

Mum and Dad always had tales of camping trips and whilst not "bushcraft" they did an epic drive across Europe and the Middle east (on which they eloped) in an landrover pop top camper back in the 70's and the stories of that really inspired me to find adventure even in its smallest forms.

For me, my Dad is certainly a role model for the outdoors, but equally I can't credit my mum enough for being an adventurer... I suppose she showed me a true life version that women can do anything, which I guess when it came to the girlfriend scene I soon realised that the societal definitions weren't for me and that "townie" girls just ain't for me.

My wife, although still extending her comfort zone, is great fun and loves the outdoors, she seeks adventure and honestly I couldn't ask for more.

I think in the traditional bushcraft sense, I'm not well versed in it, to me I find the bushcraft avenue as another avenue in which to have an adventure and make adventures more exciting with applicable skills.
You guys are inspiring with your skills and I like to learn snippets in which I can apply to my own alternative trips... kayak camping, van camping or camping camping etc. I haven't yet ventured into bivvy bags or hammocks or just living off the land, but I love to read about realistic options open to me.

Thanks all!

 

[MrEd]

Mine has been a bit of a convoluted journey.

All started in Kent, my dad was a (naughty) poacher, and then later a game beater and a professional archaeologist, as a result he never had any money so was always scavenging/foraging etc to put food on the table. He also did a lot of traditional crafts and traditional living as part of his paleo studies - and that rubbed off on me to

One of my earliest memories was him taking me rabbiting. I vividly remember him coming home regularly with a pheasant in the back pocket of his Barbour - he would never say where he got it from. So I spent a lot of time playing outside with stick etc or walking kent with my dad. I was quite a poorly child (problems that still plague me in my adult life) so I had plenty of time at home in the garden or my dad taking me foraging on the coast as an education.

Sadly he died when I was 8, and all this stopped for a few years - my mum remarried and I went to a private school and with this new found financial freedom it was there I really got to explore more formalised outdoor pursuits - particularly shooting and orienteering/map reading/hiking which I loved. My step dad was also some what of a big wig in the agricultural world so I inevitably was dragged into some of that.
Sadly he and my mum died while I was in my very early 20’s and since then I have embraced ‘bushcraft’ (really outdoors) as a way of a) remembering those times and b) just because I find it amazingly good for my head space and mental health.

It all blurs, I love being outdoors, I love inclement weather, I love nature - both watching it and photographing it and I love the simple ‘slowing down of time’ when outside just surrounded by the natural world and I like the concept of a symbiotic relationship with the natural world, and respect.

I haven’t done any courses or anything like that (maybe one day) and most of my (limited) skills are self-taught or taught by people I have met along the way. The journey is wonderfully fulfilling and I have met some wonderful and generous people through the whole ‘outdoors’ hobby

EDIT. Here is some photos of my mum and dad at a paleo event in 1970’s/early 80’s - they did stuff like this a lot

 

[Keith_Beef]

I was born in Sheffield, in the area between Hillsborough and Malin Bridge (look at Google maps) and spent a good part of my early years wandering through the Rivelin valley. My grandparents were of the agreed to remember the Kinder trespass and had been keen ramblers (so long as the ramble began and ended at a pub).

Joined the cubs and later went up to the scouts, did overnight and weekend camps, 12 miles hikes, then later longer overnight hikes (New Mills over to Wadlsey, for example).

I've always been interested in steel, metallurgy, edged tools (Sheffield, again), and ended up discovering BB, and then BCUK, started fishing a little bit, and I've always been interested in food... Which led me to an interest in foraging, outdoor cooking,

Helping my grandmother with the washing line, when I was very small, gave me an interest in knot work: the first knots that I learnt were the bowline on one end of the line and what I thought, for over a decade, was a "clothe hitch" on the other. Scouting and later sailing led me to further study knots.

 

[Laurentius]

Returning to this thread, if anyone had have mentioned "bushcraft" to me when I was growing up, I would have thought of Ned Kelly, bushwhackers and billabongs. I would say I am more Jack Hargreaves than Les Hiddens, though I do confess to having a fine Akubra and what Crocodile Dundee would refer to as a knoife, even if I cannot play a didgeridoo to save my life.