Woodlife

This is the continuation of my hard copy journal, recording the BCUK Bushmoot at Merthyr Mawr.

0730 – Up and a tin of all day breakfast. Worked on spoon and stick for a while. Re-sorted main pack.

1000 – Muster with everyone at the main workshop building. Decided to go and visit the ruins at Ogmore castle and find the river. It was a couple of miles walk but worth the visit. The castle is reached by the medieval stepping stones. On the way back, we cut a path through the wood to find the elusive track that runs along the river. Had lunch of home made beef jerky on the way. It was worth the visit as there the scenery along the river bank was excellent. No sign of otters, but plenty of water vole tracks.

1300 – Back to my area and a rest. I haven’t really had much time on my own and it was nice to have a rest, catch on my journal and do some admin.

1500 – Visited Mors’ axe workshop. He talked about basic safety and the different ways different trees fall. He refers to alot of technical jargon, and this promts me to buy his book when I get back home. A good tip he gave us was to soak the head of the axe in coolant. This assures a strong bond with the axe head and helve. He wanders off the subject of axes and goes on to talk about knife use including battoning and wedging techniques.

On the way back I visit the knife sharpening demo. A lot of good tips here including using glass, wet and dry, and cardboard (with autosol rust remover). I seem to be doing most things right, but when it comes to stropping, I was doing exactly what they said you shouldn’t do and that is stropping like I was in a barber shop! Apparently, you must strop in the same way as you sharpen the knife with a whetstone.

1700 – Looked into the food prepping workshop where Marcus was cooking his gathered greens. Judging by the expressions of some peoples faces, it didn’t seem the culinary delight that Marcus had insisted it was on our plant walk yesterday. I wander back to see what Mors is up to, only to find he’s spinning himself around using a bull-roarer he’d just made. Is there no end to this mans energy! The hangi is delayed, so I decide to lay my first fire and have a brew. It’s raining again so it’s quite difficult. It stays alight long enough for a cup of coffee.

2115 – At last the hangi. There’s huge amounts of pork and beef with potatoes, carrots and swede all of which has been cooked underground for the last six hours. This was washed down with a few beers. Now this is what a call a good final night. We stay up chatting, reminiscing and talking about all things bushcraft.

Obviously Mors is the centre of attention but I manage to drag him away for an autograph in my hard copy journal, an autograph on a piece of poplar bark (which I’ll carve at home) and a quick chat about his plans for retirement. After telling me that I should have sanded the bark to make a better signature (whoops) he says that he might retire next year instead. What makes me think that he would probably never retire.

As I thank him, he turns away and starts yet another discourse, this time on carving. He almost snatches a piece of poplar bark from someone and within 10 minutes, he’s carved what appeared to be an axe head and spear. In actual fact there was an atalatle in the carving as well. He passed it back to the lucky recipient and said, “Here ya go. 7,000 years of Bushcraft in one carving”. Outstanding.

2330 – I climb wearily into my hammock. This was going to be the last night. I seriously didn’t want to leave.

The last entry of the bushmoot will be in a couple of days time. More of Mors’ carvings are here.