Woodlife

Again, it was very cold when I ventured into the woods this weekend. I was quite well prepared and took a flask of tea as I knew I wouldn’t have time to make a brew. The reason for this was the main reason for my outing and that was to test out my new Bushcraft Van! Well, I actually bought it for transporting band kit about, but it’s ideally suited for carrying bushcraft kit about as well. I know that some hardened bushcrafter’s will say it’s defeating the object of walking and carrying kit, but the van I think will enhance the experience. It will extend the versatility of nature watching and bushcraft by having the ability to transport kit and select the appropriate kit at the access point. Besides, one still has to get to the woods in the first place.

I think the van will be more useful in summer, when the warmer weather would extend outings. In the meantime, the van is used for storing bushcraft kit strapped in the back in a box. The most notable item being the hexy burner, mess tins and packet soup. I now don’t have to make the decision to select this at home.

I walked through Airfield woods, this time starting at the the east end. As last time, there was very little movement although I thought I saw a fox briefly running away to the west. This was confirmed later when I came across fox spur, which was very fresh and still warm.

At one of my favourite rest points, I contemplated on other nature watchers comments about the strange winter we are having. Although there’s been a couple of harsh frosts, there have been some of mild days. Some have observed catkin and and other trees budding. I’ve noticed that leaves have fallen later this year, and I noticed that there are still some stubborn oak leaves high on the trees. The temperature today has just crept above freezing, but it is still a very bright and sunny day.

I had two other projects to do today, one was to choose between two bino’s. One was 8×21 the other was 10×25. I chose the 10×25′s because they were slightly better for observing birds at a distance, but they did seem harder to focus properly.

The second mission was to test out a hatchet. I have a very old rusty hatchet, and had read that this was an essential part of bushcraft if you were to build shelters and fires, as even the sturdiest bushcraft knife would not suffice for these tasks. I tried clearing a few branches around my rest point. Of course the hatchet was more effective and I could see the potential for a good sharp non-rusty version. This was something that I had not tried when I was bushcrafting 15 years ago. This will certainly be on my wish list for summer bushcrafting. A Granfors Bruuks Wildlife hatchet or small forest axe appears to be the best buy on the net. I cut myself a walking stick with the axe and the clipper knife and I didn’t even cut myself! Not a bad attempt. Even worthy of taking home. Wife said, “Nice stick. How many times cutting yourself did it take!”

My 3 hour excursion finished with a walk back to the west side of the wood, looking for any decent loose wood to chop! I fancy having a go at making something out of wood, but will only chose wood that’s fallen. I’m still not sure the best wood to use and will explore this at a later date. A philosophy of Mears’ bushcraft is to utilise anything preferably without killing or destroying it unless absolutely necessary. I sincerely agree with this and therefore I will only utilise fallen wood. I found the hatchet sat well tucked into my belt and wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Any larger size probably would be.

My final task today was to have a cuppa in the van on my fold down stool. I watched the rabbits and the crows (the only abundant wildlife today) in the relative comfort of the van!