The wrong way to tap a Birch

I went for a walk in one of my usual haunts and came across this rather poorly camouflaged attempt to tap a birch.



I could tell straight away by the duck tape, copper pipe and poor attempt to hide it using hydera that whoever was doing this knew they shouldn't be and also didn't know what they were doing.
I dismantled the contraption to find they'd drilled into the tree a good 2 inches much farther than necessary



So I took out the pipe and cleaned the hole and sealed it up. To be honest I'm not too sure if the tree is going to survive after this but I'll keep a check on it.
I've no problem with people tapping a birch as long as it's done correctly, I just hope I bump into the person who did this.

Buzzard gets an Award

Buzzard Bushcraft was recently voted one of the top 40 bushcraft blogs on the net by Feedspot. So a mighty big thankyou to Anuj and all at Feedspot for their award, it's very much appreciated.

Whilicks with garlic butter

Over here we call them whilicks, often pronounced 'whileeks'. These are the common periwinkle, a sea snail commonly found around our coast, and they taste very nice.



Simply boil them for a few minutes then add them to some garlic butter



Get a needle or toothpick, hoke them out of the shell and eat, quite delicious.

Ceramic rod sharpener

I've found over the years that people often sharpen the entire bevel of their knife when all they rwally need to do is refine the very edge.
I often do this with a ceramic rod.
They can be brittle but the heftier the rod the more resilient it is, so..



I found one that should last a while



Not exactly packable but it certainly helps realign the edge on your knife quickly rather than spend time removing metal that doesn't need removed.

Bone fish hooks.

I had some pieces of camel bone left over after a project and instead if consigning them to the rubbish bin I thought I'd make a couple of fish hooks.



The first thing was to scribble a basic pattern on the bone after I had flattened it out.



Then with a coping saw carefully cut out the pattern



Then the sanding and the finishing



Of course these hooks aren't meant for fishing but are based on the Maori pendants I've seen.
These are worn as good luck charms but also as an indication that the wearer is able to provide from the wild to feed himself and his family.
Very apt indeed I think.

Hair Ice

Hair ice or sometimes called beard ice is an unusual phenomena that only occurs in very set climatic conditions and only with dead wood with a particular fungi in it.

Unlike other forms of frost which we know about and see often, like hoar frost in the pic below



Hair ice only forms at certain temperatures and in certain conditions but the result can be spectacular



From a distance it can look like a plastic bag or other discarded trash



On closer inspection it looks a little like a fungus, but really close up..its pure ice and it's wondrous when it forms like this







You'll never see sights like this for real if you don't get out into the woods..

Stormbringer

We've had quite a few storms recently and they're causing even more widowmakers and hung ups..





These were down when we went out yesterday, always look up and around, be careful where you set camp and take precautions.
Let's be careful out there.