Night Out : Crafter Fisherman and the Hillbilly

My brother (Bevan), mate (Dave) and I made plans to get out into the woods for the night, so we planned to meet up and head into the woods for 2 pm, but due to some delays we never made it in until gone 4 pm meaning we had to set-up in the fading light. 

This is where practice makes perfect and I was able to set-up for the night with relative ease, thankfully the weather held up we all got our shelter up in the dry. 

Once settled we started gathering firewood for the night, it had been raining on and off for most of the week so pretty much everything was wet.  Once we had gathered what we required for the night and some dry tinder I started the fire using some potassium permanganate and glycerine.

The ground was soaking and Dave had soaked his boots though and we had the pleasure of him carefully  drying them over the fire.

The night was pretty warm, so the fire was kept a nice manageable size, enough to cook our dinners and keep us warm.

From about midnight it rained pretty much none stop until 6am, but we all reamained dry under the fantastic DD tarps.

Bev under DD XL tarp

Dave under DD 3x3 Tarp

My DD Superligth Tarp

We had driven into the woods in Bevan's truck, to get to our camp site, thankfully this meant we did not need to walk out in the now even more soaked ground.

We all had to leave early due to family commitments, so once packed up we cleared up the site to leave no trace.

Another good night out with family and friends and already can not wait to get out again.

Night Out : Noahs First Night Under Tarp

Once again Noah and myself attended the September meet at White Rose woods near Towcester with plans for it to be Noah's first night under tarp (the Vango Banshee 300 went along in the car in case Noah felt uncomfortable without the security of being in a tent)

I set up the tarp in a flying diamond configuration close to the communal fire pit, this way I would be close enough to hear him if there were any issues. 

Alex managed to get two rabbits during the day and demo his method for preparing the rabbit for the stew.  Noah watched with interest on what was happening, however he did not want to try the stew later.

I took the bow along with me for some practice and set up a target a safe distance away, after a while I was getting some nice clusters.

Anyone who wanted to have a go on the bow did, however not every one listened to instruction and preferred to come up with their own method of firing the bow.

Around the camp

Bunny Stew

Though out the day I spent time with Noah under our tarp and he seemed pretty comfortable with the idea of sleeping under the tarp.  We sat around the campfire for most of the night and Noah soon started to fall asleep after some hot chocolate.

Noah got into his sleeping bag and soon feel off to sleep.

Throughout the evening I checked on Noah several times, placing him back on to his sleeping mat after rolling off.

In the morning we both woke up early, Noah had a great nights sleep and woke up happy, especially when we were visited by one of the fellow campers dog.

Its moments like this where I really want a bushdog for myself. 

It was a very successful night out in the woods and Noah enjoyed his time in the woods.  Now we are both looking forward to the next night out. 

Night Out : First Night Out At The New Permission

After several years of trying to get a local permission for overnighters and general bushcraft activities it has finally happened.

Recently my brothers friend Dave has started joining us out camping, over a camp fire chat he mentioned he does some work for a guy who has some woodland. After a few phone calls we  got permission to use the woodland for what ever we wanted to do.

Turns out the guy owns 5 acres, but he wanted to confirm with another guy who owns the rest of the woods that it would be OK for use to be in the woods.

This week we got the green light.

Originally I was on a ban from nights out as my daughter was born only a few weeks ago, but with a bit of smooth talking SWMBO gave me the second green light of the week.

So 30 minutes later my brother Bev, Dave and myself were heading out to the woods.

Soon the tarps started to going up

Mine

Dave

As it was a late start to the day it soon became dark and dinner was cooked and eaten.

Firewood was plentiful, bearly having to move to get some.

For the rest of the night was camp fire TV and campfire discussion

The guys started some late night carving, I warned them to keep they eyes on their fingers as I left them too it, being a second time dad I was already tired.

6am I was up

And found my brother just about in his hammock (after feeling a bit restricted he made a late night adjustment)

I thought I better get back to my baby girl and mommy so packed up early and headed home, with strict instructions on how to deal with the remains of the fire.

Back to the cars (on a short walk due to getting to the woods late it didn't give much time to explore)

And I headed out

Stopping at Costa to get some croissant for SWMBO as a breakfast her letting me out on early parole for good behaviour.

Night Out : Eats Shoots and Leaves

This was my final night pass from SWMBO as we have a baby due in 5 weeks.  So I headed off to the woods for the night with my brother Bevan, fellow bushcrafter Jamie (BusbcraftBob) and my brother friends Barry and Dave who I have been out camping with before.

Jamie and myself turned up aroud 3.30 and setup and  the other guys turned up about 6pm.

My Setup

Jamies setup

That was all the setup as Bevan, Barry and Dave slept around the fire with just a foam roll mat and sleeping bag.

Around Camp

Dave has recently started to learn how to carve woodspirits, this was his first spirit and he was working on the second in the woods

Bevan Zeroed in his rifle

Jamie and I did some bow drill practice

Jamie burning the first hole in

Jamie had gathered some damp grass and dried it by the fire.

Jamie and myself then took the guys though the bow drill letting them have a go themselves.

Bevan was a natural and with his first attempt got an ember.

Barry struggled with technique but after a few adjustments got a smooth action going.

Dave when 1000mph using about 3 inches of the bow, but it worked

with a bit of help stabilising the hearth.

Thankfully the guys said you two make it look easy, but still always learning.

As we had permission to shoot Bevan and Dave went out with the air rifle and came back with a rabbit.

Jamie is an old hand and preparing the rabbit so took Dave though step by step.  Dave did a great job and soon the rabbit was cooking.

The rest of the night was spent around the campfire enjoying each other company and stories.
Night time marshmallow and choc hobnobs.  Yummy!!

After seeing a thread a while ago I tested a 35mm film canister on the Hugsby torch to turn it into a lantern. It worked really well and dispersed the light well.

Next day Bevan, Barry and Dave headed off around 10am, leaving Jamie and myself to sort out the place and having a brew before heading off around 12pm

Great time for my last night out in a few months and hope you enjoyed this report.