Your 'ONE' thing

[Quixoticgeek]

Great idea Tony,

Glad I'm not the only one with aims for 2016.

Pottery.

I'm going to spend time with a really good teacher, and I'm going to use the clay from our own garden and see if I can't manage to make decent pots

I've done some, and they've lasted for years, but I used commercially produced clays. I want a set that I can use reliably in the fire, that I have made myself, from digging it out from the earth, to shaping the pot, to cooking my dinner in it

I have had a go at pottery a few times, and while I still consider myself a beginner, Once I got the hang of centring, that was the break through. The area I need to work on is my glazing, specifically when dipping pots in. I've 4 pots on my shelf, which have a very scrappy glaze job I need to get back in the pottery.

I would like to get into meat curing. Making bacon, building a cold smoker etc. Its one thing I have only played around the edges of and a skill that is necessary to our aims

I've made Bacon, Ham, Salami, Chorizo, & Bresaola. I made a meat locker in the garden for aging the meat in. When I lived in .nl I used to make proper sausages with a group of expat friends who missed proper British sausages. Since I've been back in .uk I've not made many, as the local butcher makes really good bangers. I would be interested in ideas for other preserved meats to try making.

I'm going to go all out on curing bacon, specifically that from Wild Boar; I love the meat and there's no end of it available hereabouts so it makes sense to get proficient in using and storing it in as many ways as possible.

You're making me hungry just thinking about it. Before I make more bacon, I think I need to save up for a slicer, the stuff I made was more bacon steaks, than thin rashers that fried well...

J

 

[boatman]

Pottery.

I'm going to spend time with a really good teacher, and I'm going to use the clay from our own garden and see if I can't manage to make decent pots

Pottery making goes better with grog.

 

[boatman]

Complete a boat project that has been hanging around for far too long.

 

[Toddy]

The pottery I fancy most is simply coiled Julia. The wheel I can manage, but my ability to make fine, even, thin walled coil pots needs more attention and practice. I want 'big' pots too. Ones that look real and not factory produced, but not 'arty' and useless.
Not a mile from where I live there were (and they're still in the local museum not 400m away from where they were found), urns found that are nearly 3,000 years old. They're made from the local river clay.
Some have been removed and are in the Hunterian museum in Glasgow.
Like this one.
http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi...s.fwx?collection=archaeology&searchTerm=A.131
There are older round bottomed, characteristically neolithic, found not far away too.

This very old thread mentions the kind of pottery that I fancy trying to make
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7195&page=13

M

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Pottery making goes better with grog.

Upto a point. Grog increases the pots ability to handle thermal shock. All of my pots for use in the fire are heavily grogged. *BUT*, A lot of grog in the clay makes it an UTTER pain in the posterior to throw. Like trying to throw a lump of course sand paper.

Historically as well as grog some pottery used sand and shell to perform the same function.

J

 

[Tony]

Some cool stuff there folks, I hope that 2016 is the year that you do these things and make sure that we're kept in the loop

My problem is that I have too many things I want to do, it's hard to pin something as 'the thing' especially when there's so much stuff I should be learning for work etc.

 

[santaman2000]

My grandsons. Passing on to them my love of the outdoors and my faith and values.

 

[Robson Valley]

Just to get one fire from my bowdrill. I know it works, I've seen it happen but I cannot do that yet by hand (electric drill power does work.)

 

[Macaroon]

Are these feral or farmed Mac?

These are as feral as it gets in the UK, Hugh. The opposite side of the Lower Wye Valley from me is the Forest of Dean which has reached it's saturation point in terms of Boar population; this we know from the fact that for the last couple of years we've been finding a lot of young solitary males over here on our side, and this year for the first time there's good evidence that young sows are now following them over. The Deer Initiative hereabouts is right on the ball and staffed by some very knowledgeable people who place, move and maintain a large number of cameras through the valley and they are spot on in passing their observations to interested parties, so we've had a good idea of movements and numbers of the hairy ones crossing the Wye.

As we know, pigs are highly intelligent animals and have now become inured to the lamp and are becoming harder for the guys to shoot; consequently they are working much harder to get them in numbers than they were a couple of years ago and I was asked a while back to butcher some carcasses and we arrived at a deal whereby for each four I do one is mine, so when they're shooting successfuly I've been having two or three animals a week. Everybody I know now has a full freezer so it's time to think of other ways of preserving, albeit on a small scale. I need to be very careful about the legalities of passing meat on to others though, very easy to fall foul of the rules and the penalties are onerous..............

 

[British Red]

Yes index on the care. Wish I was closer, I have a quarter tonne of salt going begging!

 

[Madriverrob]

I'm going to improve my fishing skills , develop my coastal skills and try to learn the art of fly fishing .

 

[Trencakey]

Get 6 pack abs at the age of 56.

 

[Chiseller]

repair my storm damaged canoe to get more river time....

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[bilmo-p5]

Trousers!
It was trousers this year, but it ain't going to happen now. Next year ...

 

[Quixoticgeek]

The pottery I fancy most is simply coiled Julia. The wheel I can manage, but my ability to make fine, even, thin walled coil pots needs more attention and practice. I want 'big' pots too. Ones that look real and not factory produced, but not 'arty' and useless.
Not a mile from where I live there were (and they're still in the local museum not 400m away from where they were found), urns found that are nearly 3,000 years old. They're made from the local river clay.
Some have been removed and are in the Hunterian museum in Glasgow.
Like this one.
http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi...s.fwx?collection=archaeology&searchTerm=A.131
There are older round bottomed, characteristically neolithic, found not far away too.

That's rather shiny. I made a biscuit jar using coiled construction in high school, I've dabbled with it a few times since, but have been concentrating on learning how to use a wheel more in recent years.

It's amazing how many pots historically didn't have a flat bottom. I had a potter make up a number of pots based on historical finds from the 10th-13th century. Ceramic is an amazing material. I have a fire jug that I love, it breaks many peoples brain that It can be sat on the edge of the fire, next to white glowing coals, inside the water is at a rolling boil, yet the handle can be picked up by bare hands. The hardest part of the project was working on glazes, historical glazes were largely lead based, and thus rather toxic. Working with a skilled potter to make non toxic approximations of historic glazes was really interesting.

I look forward to hearing more about your pots, it's a really interesting project.

Happy potting.

J

 

[Toddy]

We find loads of salt glazed medieval pots sherds though, complete ones too and the Greeks managed their red and blacks very well

This is the last biggish coiled one that I made, and it has been well used in the fires. I used it for boiling up dyes for years. These days it mostly gets used as a safe catch pot for glowing bits and pieces when demo-ing firelighting

 

[Palaeocory]

I need to get my flintknapping up to snuff - I did it a lot last year but really neglected practicing this year, and when I did some yesterday I could see I've degenerated to a pretty poor Homo erectus

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Nice looking pot. I look forward to seeing the pots you produce in 2016.

J

 

[Tony]

Get 6 pack abs at the age of 56.

Go for it and good for you

I need to get my flintknapping up to snuff - I did it a lot last year but really neglected practicing this year, and when I did some yesterday I could see I've degenerated to a pretty poor Homo erectus

Ha ha, I bet i'm awful now, it's been ages since I've done any knapping, I really enjoy it. Looking forward to seeing what you snap this coming year

 

[Palaeocory]

Ha ha, I bet i'm awful now, it's been ages since I've done any knapping, I really enjoy it. Looking forward to seeing what you snap this coming year

Thanks Tony! It's a fun and relaxing hobby, isn't it. This was my last creation a few months ago - the flakes were coming off predictable and large, but in side profile it's pretty chunky!