Weekend in the Woods

Seven of us went out last weekend for an impromptu trip into the woods, at this time of the year it gets dark quickly so we only got a few small projects accomplished before night fell, anyway as usual with us food and fire formed the basis of a great camp..

Steven lit the fire this time with a ferro rod and Pampas grass, quite a good tinder actually.

We made some charcloth

Succeeded in boiling water in a plastic bottle without it melting.

Yes, those are bubbles going nuts in the bottle! This was after just 3 minutes!



The bottle lost about 1/3 of it's capacity but was otherwise unharmed.

Dinner was served!

Not much left after it was shared around!!



A great time was had by all, thanks for making it a great trip!

Chemical fire..

There are a number of ways to light fire using different chemicals and Stephen showed us a great way using a particular substance that had some great results..

First a little sprinkling on a non combustible stable surface.

A quick spark from the ferro rod and away she goes..

Getting hotter and bigger

Then stand back!!

Winter Tinders

I have no doubt that our ancestors carried prepared tinder with them, however I'm sure that rather than exhaust their stock they would use whatever they could when it was available, and this includes tinders in the dead of winter..even at this time of year there is still plenty to find that will do the job. These tinders all took light from a spark from a ferro rod, a great many others will work from a match.

Fireweed, as the name suggests it works well provided you really fluff it up and allow a lot of air around it, the hogweed stems are a favourite of mine for helping the fire establish itself.

Buffed up grass, as you can see this works brilliantly.

That good old favourite of mine, Birch bark.

Buffed up Cleavers and dried bracken stems.

All these were found over the recent couple of trips and proves that even when it's raining or snowing  you can still find good tinder at any time of year if you know what to look for.





The boys of summer...

I love looking back at the fun trips we've had over the past year and it makes it more special when you share them with the little ones in your life..There are some people out there who believe that bushcraft is for adults and kids shouldn't be allowed, but Davy and I completely disagree and find that some of our most memorable trips are ones we have shared with our kids. It is only fair that they have as much fun outdoors as we had when we were kids and it's something we should all encourage..

Matthew, Adam and Logan toasting their weiners, bushcrafters in training!!



Logan with his catch of mackerel after a day out, we took them home and smoked them and they were the best mackerel I have ever tasted !

And Ryan with an absolutely wonderful Ballan wrasse that fought like the Kraken!!

Well done kids, you make us all very proud!!

Flint Forage

Davy and I went out for a little flint forage, something that isn't in very short supply along the Antrim coast, and there is every grade and colour you can imagine, I have a fondness for the rose coloured variety and Davy likes the really black stuff..I'm no geologist but the sign at the site said that slow erosion can cause a red coloured flint and thats about as much as I know about it..

Looking North along the coast





Looking south along the coast

Looking directly behind us to the west

There are often Landslides along this part of the coast, indeed a small one actually happened while we were there, it was quite noisy and quite an event.

This had mostly happened before we arrived, but the fall that we witnessed was still quite impressive

And this was the bounty, lots of lovely rose red flint..



Backyard Quinzhee

I have always wanted to make one of these, but in Northern Ireland we rarely have the snow to be able to attempt it but recently we've had quite a good fall, so after duely being well inspired by Andy's snow caves over on Belfast Bushcraft Blog I decided it was high time to give this a go. First I piled the snow as high as I could, I was only using a small entrenching tool and anybody who says they can build one in 45 mins is lying through their teeth!! It took a good 2 hours to get a pile about 4 feet high and about 7 feet in diameter, this was to allow a wall thickness of about 12 inches and allow me room to sit in but not be big enough to stand up, this all aids in warmth allowing your body heat to warm up the still air inside and keep the chill off..

Once the pile was high enough I poked bamboo skewers through the wall so that when hollowing it out I could tell exactly how thick the walls were. I left the snow to set for about 4 hours , this is called sintering, and once set I started to hollow out the inside, this was relatively easy and I quite enjoyed this part. With the snow I dug out from the inside I used it to form protective wind walls outside the entrance to stop the wind from blowing inside from each side of the quinzhee. I dug out just enough to allow myself and the 2 dogs inside and no more and the entrance was big enough to just allow me to wiggle inside on my back. Once inside it actually felt a little claustrophobic and I don't normally feel this way, but I really think it was having to crawl in through such a small tunnel and door that was causing this so I widened it a little and it felt much better!! I would rather sacrifice some heat to allow a more mentally relaxed atmosphere inside. I was very surprised by the comfort it provided inside, there was no air movement at all and it felt very still and relaxing, it was also very silent which really surprised me, I could hardly hear any sound from outside at all and it is a completely different feeling from being inside a one man tent with only a fine nylon wall between you and the outside world.

I  sent the 2 dogs in to get a depth of scale, unfortunately they wouldn't take any pics of me once I was inside!!

Here is Copper inside, Pebbles is inside too just round to the right behind the door..One strange thing happened the following day, after it had been built for about 36 hours the thing seemed to have shrunk!! I could no longer fit inside comfortably and it was quite a squeeze to get in, it had probably lost a good 8 inches in diameter, I don't know if this is a common thing or not or whether it was because the tempteature dropped significantly after I built it but if I ever have to build one of these things for real, I will make sure I build a little extra room in it, just to allow for shrinkage!

A Very Merry Christmas

A very special christmas to all the Buzzard Bushcrafters out there, thankyou for taking the time to visit, and I really hope everything comes together for you all this year, and you get what you wish for.

 Remember that the most beautiful pictures are always painted by mother nature!

A view from Lord Conways old estate facing south over the Lagan..

       Lord Conways Limes