Ore Smelting in the Antrim Hills

 We had an absolutely cracking day up in the Antrim hills smelting ore into iron in a primitive clay furnace, I had never seen it done this way before except in YouTube videos, so this was a completely new experience for me.. I'm not even going to say anything about the day, you will gauge how fantastic it was from the pictures alone!! Enjoy..

Rainbows on a Midgit Digit

 I love old lures, well I love lures in general but the older ones tend to get neglected for all the modern fancy ones we use. 

So I presented myself with a challenge, I had to use a lure that was at least 50 years old on my recent fishing escapade, no modern lures allowed!

It actually took a while to cycle through some lazy ikes, creek chub pikies and river runts until I found one that worked, the good old midget digit, first made in 1948 and last production run was 1974..

This little baby did the job and cleaned up for me!

But now comes the messy part, 

 

Quite a bit of work to clean them all out, but we now have plenty of fish for smoking, brining and whatever else we might need it for in the months to come.

Making Hazel withies

 At this time of year, young fresh growth of certain trees like willow and Hazel can be made into a rough, tough form of cordage or binding material called withies.

To make these, hold the end of the young branch in both hands and twist in opposite directions, this starts the internal fibres breaking, 

As you work along the stem start twisting it in a cranking motion almost like you are peddling a bike with your hands, the bark may start to break off at this stage but that doesn't matter

Once it gets too hard to crank anymore cut it from the tree and put it to its intended use, either fence making, shelter building or basket handles, if you've done it correctly you should even be able to tie the branch in a knot!

Get out and practise those skills!!

Buzzard Bushcraft in the top 25 again.

 It's that time of year when Feedspot list their top 25 Bushcraft Blogs and Buzzard is very pleased to announce that we again made it into that list, as a matter of fact we came in at number 6! 

Considering we are up against some of the best Blogs in the UK we are incredibly proud of this achievement.

So a very many thanks to Feedspot and to everyone who voted for us, we greatly appreciate it.

Getting to know your greens

 At this time of year all the lovely greens are sprouting, but the issue can be that if they all come up at the same time they can be tricky to distinguish from one another when they are young.

So here's a test for you, 3 new leaves, 3 different plants, ground ivy, herb Bennett and lesser celandine.. but which one is which?

Eowyn and the fall of the Ents

 I meant to put this post up a few weeks back but it slipped my mind and I only remembered after our recent visit to our permission.

Storm Eowyn did some serious damage to the forest and brought down quite a number of trees, the scary thing was, 3 fell right over one of my favourite camping spots. I had often heard the trees knock against each other in high winds and it was always in the back of my mind that one could come down on me, I'm very glad I wasn't there when the storm hit...

And the donimo effect, this beech toppled taking an oak and a sycamore with it, not all trees get hung up when they fall, I will have to be incredibly careful when camping there again, the trees are all so shallow rooted there's no telling when they'll drop. Be safe out there folks!

The beauty of new life

 It's awe inspiring to see all of creation start to come to life at this time of year, the colours and scents of the plants are wonderful and they fill my heart with the wonder of creation. How anyone can look at nature and say it is all a random process that happened by chance is totally beyond me, they must be willfully suppressing the truth. Here are a few pics I took while we were out today, I hope you too can see the Handiwork of God in them..

Willow

Hazel

Blackthorn

Salmonberry 

Wild Garlic

Colossians 3 v10

Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him.

                             

From Billhook to Big knife.

 In the temperate environment I live in an axe is of less value than a large knife. I don't often have a need to cut down a tree but I regularly need to cut back on brambles, bracken, salmonberry canes, scrub willow, gorse bushes and the like. This cannot be done with an axe, so a big knife [the Sami call it a Leuku] is a much more effective tool to have around.

I did recently buy a couple of cheap billhooks and thought they'd be good for modifying into Big knives.

As you can see they are rather rough and ready but for a tool that will be heavily used in the woods I don't need anything expensive, just effective.

The handle was in particularly bad shape and needed quite a bit of work. So out came the angler grinder, a series of files, sandpaper and linseed oil and after a little bit of profiling I ended up with these

The steel is decent and the edge easily maintained with a chainsaw file, they work well on thick brush and can take limbs and saplings up to about 4 inches down with ease. So for those who often ask what the best tool is for our native environment any big knife similar to those above will be your best bet.

The hands that made it all.

 The purpose of Buzzard Bushcraft is to show the wonder and majesty of God through his creation, so imagine my pleasure when we connected with an incredible blues rock composer who agreed to create a song for us based on the Handiwork of God that can be seen in nature. Russell asked us to send him some of our favourite bible verses regarding the outdoors and creation and he would create a song using them for inspiration..less than a week later he came up with "The hands that made it all" this will now be our official Buzzard anthem.. Thank you so much Russell and as you often say, "its all for the glory of God"

All credits and copyrights are owned by Russell w Delbridge.

Oyster mushroons

 It was certain that one day I was going to have to eat my own words regarding mushrooms, as you all know I normally think they are seriously over rated, slimy and taste like feet. Well out this weekend and we found some oyster mushrooms, I've found them before but never eaten them so this time, just for sake of it I took a few and brought them home

Just fresh off the stump and in perfect condition

Coarsely chopped 

And in a pan with what's left of last year's wild garlic butter (remind me to make twice the amount this year!)

About 5 minutes of cooking and they'd absorbed most of the butter, and the taste.. drum roll please.. was actually lovely, texture was firm and steak like, garlicy, sweet and delicious..couldn't believe it, after all these years I've found a mushroom I actually really like..

Never to old to find out something new.

Fire and Ice

 I absolutely love fire, there is something warming, comforting and encouraging about it, I could stare into the flames all day and not get bored, 

At the same time I love Ice, and there's nothing I love more than being in the woods overnight as it freezes, waking up in the morning with a cold nose, my breath visible in the air and ice all over the tent

Nature gives us beauty at both ends of the spectrum and which ever way you lean towards, hot or cold, there is always an appreciation for the opposite end that keeps all of creation in balance.

PS, whomever has kept the Buzzard base camp tidy recently has done a grand job, it really is appreciated. Thankyou.