friction fire lighting - bow drill #descattys

Deer stalking survey

At the weekend quite recently i was invited to do a bit of stalking , not of the creepy type (chuckles) but myself and fellow outdoorist (jp from woodlife trails) had to carry out a survey on the wildlife that fall into the category of Cervidae so that was fallow deer and muntjac that frequenced the wood.
The woodland was responsible to the national trust (NT), and a fence was erected to give the wood some protection but in the meantime such mammals remained in the area , there is a plan to plant new growth and clear some of the old wood matter and foliage to rejuvinate the area with new tree saplings etc.
Which a new tree sapling to deer and the like is the equivalent to a red rag to a bull or chocolate to a sweettooth.
So thats where we stepped in to assist with the survey, we arrived reasonably early on a very chilly icy but sunny and bright blue sky day.
On parking the vehicle we carried out a recconaisance of the forest area mainly the fence boundary first of all to establish where access gates where as the wood was regularly frequented by dog walkers.
On our first walk round we never sighted any deer or muntjac, the wood had a number of water features -ponds and possibly sodden ground and with the heat of summer would possibly dry out.
There was an array of footpaths , badger access points, oh yes nearly forgot about the trees in the woodland,,, there was a real mix of birch, hazel, ash, hawthorn, oak and hornbeam - i must mention here that i really love the amount of heat this wood kicks out (hornbeam that is), which really made our camp area cosy that evening.
Anyway after we walked the perimeter there was other areas of the enclosure that had bushes of brambles , bushes etc and in one of the areas there was a high chair for use by the stalkers.

One stick challenge

Very recently i was up my local woods for a spot of injection of the green stuff, considering that most of the uk was getting a slight kicking by good old Jack frost and Mr. Snow it was oddly mild and a rather pleasant morning.
Im bit of an early bird and when im out on just a day excursion i like to take advantage of the days opportunities. I found a nice spot which has a lot of alder trees (alnus  glutinosa) in the area which is often an indication that the ground is either located very close too or in and around water or even marsh ground  an interesting fact to know that alder thrives in water but decays quickly outside the wet stuff which is why a lot of alder was used in Venice and historically was used in the fabrication of boats, sluice gates and even water pipes. Oddly enough alder is great for the making of charcoal and i have used the wood in my bow drill friction firelighting.
Anyhow there were other woods too willow, birch and not forgetting white poplar.
There was an alder tree wind damaged so that was my perfect spot for my bench and i knocked up an impromptu table .

I knocked this up in a couple of minutes i used alder to construct it. Ikea eat your heart out. No longer had i just finished it and the rain fell so i set up my aussie tarp .

After a couple of brews i wanted to have a go at this "one stick fire challenge ", for those of you that dont know , you must select a length of wood that is as thick as your wrist and as long as your arm, thats it -you then must use the materials to cook food or boil water for a brew for me i made a brew.

It was only slightly challenging for me but thats not to sound big headed but after a quick evaluation i fluffed up the some of the wood with the back of my knife the rest is history. I have a video on my YouTube channel -descattys showing my efforts.

So until next time thanks for stopping by stay safe and have fun.

Sleeping on the daysack Challenge

The weekend recently gone saw me  galavanting off to Kent for a couple of days on a daysack challenge that I had suggested with a few likeminded chaps. Being as it was the month of January carrying just a daysack with all the minimal but camping and bushcraft necessities can be a challenge in its self. But I will say it's fun and a personal challenge working out what to carry into such a reduced pack volume.

I personally find that the number of items that take most of your packing space is your sleeping system- (whatever it may consist of).For me I opted for :

A lightweight sleeping bag 

A bivi bag

A merkalon inner

A Dutch army matt.

Finally I added my edc hammock but not to lounge about in, I wanted to take a kochanski angle and utilise it as an extra layer inside my sleeping bag but also as i like to use it as a scarf.

The first night it was -2 degrees..did I sleep ok? Well it was ok to say the most.But I slept in my clothes too which I'm not that keen on really, kinda takes me back to my days in the mob(Army) when you sleep in everything boots and all plus your weapon close by and sometimes your webbing too. 

But hey ho that's how it goes. So as far as sleep went, I would say it was okay but a broken sleep pattern isnt always an issue some people can sleep through the night, it could be said that i don't  sleep through the night in a warm bed and a bosom on my back so dont over think it and think its the end of world just suck it up sweetie and get on with it. The insulation mat probably gave me the most jip. Why ? Well I have cut this mat down to the length of my back for such challenges. But I have for many years owned a three quarter length inflatable variety which served me well. Then a friend of mine introduced me to a full length down mat well the rest is history, but unfortunately I opted for the foam mat. Im not sure that this gave me enough insulation, yeah i could have put more natural materials on the floor but i didn't so thats that.

So i plan on purchasing a fleece liner and adding the down mat in place of the roll mat , this i hope will be a better option.

The last item i almost forgot to mention was the pillow i use by seatosummit that works well.

So until next time folks take care.