A Day Out with Alan

Our good chum Alan made the trek up to see us today and we had a nice wee time practising and chatting about bushy techniques and kit..I collected some resin to start the fire..

Gathered in a dry hogweed stem,the resin to be the accelerant and the hogweed to be the initial fuel, however Alan had set himself a challenge to get a fire with a single match, which can be a tricky scenario

He'd gathered a nice bundle of spruce twigs and put the flame to it

The flame well established he added dry hogweed and dead nettle stems and successfully completed his personal challenge.

He also made some very nice Bannock, very tasty indeed!!

A little impromptu tracking produced some great badger tracks



and finished the day practising knots and tarp set ups, good fun all round!!

Signs of an early spring

I haven't seen any snowdrops and yet the bluebells are already starting to show

and their arrival being attended to by all the Lords and Ladies of the wood

Won't be long till my favourite wild edible is up!

Pouch for my Tinderbox

My lovely son bought me a Hudson Bay tinderbox for christmas and I'm well pleased with it, so I thought I'd make an animal skin pouch to keep it in

Skin measured and cut to size to fit the tinderbox on the left

Bag finished with an antler toggle to keep it closed, all in all it's not too shabby and will keep the box plus extra tinder all neat and tidy

Hard day on the coast

We spent some time on a lovely stretch of the county Down Coast as a gorgeous wee place that has great potential for some seaside foraging in season, however it was really wet and we fought the elements as long as we could

There were huge swathes of sea beet,still quite small at this time of year but it tasted lovely and has great potential for later in the year when the leaves have grown and become all

the more cabbagey like that we're all familiar with

Lots of alexanders in all stages of growth, here you can see last years plants that have gone to seed and the black seeds are very recognisable

The weather was so bad and Davy looked like a soaking sponge that we ended up taking refuge in a lovely little cottage by the sea, and a brew was put on to keep us warm and toasty

View out of the cottage window over the Irish sea, we will be back when the weather is a bit more clement and the foraging has more to offer



Char cloth

I know most people know how to make this stuff but I'm still surprised by how often I see or hear someone ask for tips,it's the easiest thing in the world to make



It has been very wet and stormy of late so I thought I'd put myself to the test and get a fire by friction

Two attempts and no joy, getting plenty of dark dust but no ignition point, the damp air,surroundings and the wind were all conspiring against me, but the set was now warm, any residual moisture had been driven from spindle and hearth and I knew I had to bow a little longer and faster in such conditions to get an ember

third attempt and I had an ember,but..when I tried to get it to flame I lost it,seemed just too damp, but never give up!! fourth attempt produced an ember that I got to flame

Ember bundle down and covered with hogweed stems to get a small ember bed

An old tin with a small hole in the lid allowing the gases to escape and filled with old cotton cloth,here it's an old tea towel

Tin placed in the fire and you can see the gases escaping, don't let these gases ignite!

Once no more smoke is coming from the little hole, remove the tin and allow to cool, and here we can see the end result, this char cloth takes a spark easily and helps create fire the way the pioneers did!



A quick spark put to it with a flint and steel to prove it works well and we're all set to go

Fallow, Finally..

Sort of !.. We have been out 3 or 4 times over the past months looking for fallow deer and they have proven most elusive, now I know I could go to a country park and get great pics but thats not the same to me as a wild shot. Sometimes it's a matter of months or years for the right pictures ( like with the sika) and these pictures are not great either, I can and I will do better,eventually!

There certainly are plenty of game trails in this forest and it's quite easy to track the beasts

The bad weather had mudied the ground and provided very easy tracking of these animals and showing great prints,

as we made our way along we heard movement in the bush and as we moved towards the sound we found where he/she had been lying up, in the folds of a fallen spruce, it was well sheltered and even protected from cold from the ground due to her lying on the spruce boughs, a human couldn't have made a better shelter!!



A few feet further on we found droppings so fresh there was still steam coming off them,we knew we were close and probably pushing her on in front of us

As we came to the edge of the forest we heard the undergrowth breaking and just knew they were breaking cover and heading into open ground

Only then did we realise that the noise was made by two fallow!! and unfortunately we didn't have permission to follow onto this land so we had to leave them here, disappointing to come so close yet not close enough, one day I know we will do better,all it takes is time and a little luck.



Fire From Fir

When out in coniferous forest one of the easiest and most relaible methods of lighting fire from whats around you is to use the resin that comes from the trees, all resinous trees produce good quality fire making fluid and this Fir tree is one of my favourites

This particular Fir produces little blisters of resin on it's bark, this stuff is brilliant for lots of things including great medicinal properties which we will talk about at a later date, fire is the thing we want to discuss today

I've punctured the blister with my mora and you can see the resultant resin running out and down the blade

After taking the resin out of about 6 blisters we end up with about 10mls of fire starting sticky stuff, I've collected it in a green leaf to prove it's the resin that burns and not the leaf!

Get your ferro rod and strike a spark onto the resin and away you go

A few more seconds collecting some more resin and away we go again, the ground was soaking, it was raining quite heavily, dry tinder was hard to find but we can still easily get fire from whats around us, and there we have it, Fire From Fir.