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.

Tool : Bushcraft Self Made Bucksaw

When having a camping over night I feel you can get away with out the need of a saw, most of time you can simple collect dead standing or hanging wood from around your camp site and snap these in to usable lengths.

The buck saw is a extremely useful tool when camping in winter, when its cold an you need more firewood for the long night or its wet and you need to process larger logs to get to the dry wood inside. The bucksaw allows you to process a large amount of  wood with ease and relatively quickly.

As buck saws are very simple to make I carry just the blade with two bolts with wing nuts and make the saw when in camp.

Mors Kochanski  Bush Craft book has a great diagram and instruction on how to make a buck saw.

First job was cutting the hazel to length, using the saw blade with out an tension on the blade was a bit tricky.

Cutting a grove in the end of the upright for the blade to sit in.

Finally the grove was deep enough for the blade to sit in.

Cutting the notches for the horizontal bar.

and a notch for the bolt to sit in to hold the blade in place

The horizontal bar took a bit of adjustment to sit correctly in the notches.

After that it was the simple part of putting it together

Bimble : Tom Dick Harry Tree

For awhile my brother and myself had wanted to go find a local tree with which has some history behind it, so we took the kids out for a walk.

It was a nice eerie day as we walked to the tree we were looking for.

an this was the tree we were looking for.

 

The History
The Dunsdon brothers, Tom, Dick and Harry were from Fulbrook which is just outside Burford and part of the Burford Parish, they were also known as "The Burford Highwaymen". The brothers began their life of crime by robbing farmers of stock and money as they travelled to market, they would hide the stolen livestock in the local Wychwood Forest. 

They were rumoured to be responsible for robbing the Gloucester to Oxford coach. The oldest brother Dick disappeared after a failed robbery at Tangley Hall, 2 miles outside Burford. The brothers attempted to rob the place but the owners had been tipped off and as Dick put his arm through an opening in the door to remove the bolt the people waiting inside grabbed his arm and tied it to the bolt so that Dick could not pull it back out. Dick shouted to his brothers "cut! cut!" and one of his brothers drew his sword and severed off his arm at the elbow. 

As they fled they are rumoured to have gone to the Merrymouth Inn where their requests for help were refused and they then shot the innkeeper and left him for dead. The brothers fled and Dick was never seen or heard of again and is believed to have died of his injuries. Tom and Harry were captured after attending the Burford Whitsuntide Festival in Capps Lodge, after an altercation with a man called William Harding who was shot by Harry in the chest,  The landlord and several others apprehended the fugitives and delivered them to the Gloucestershire gaol (jail). 

Some weeks later Harding died and the brothers were tried for his murder and convicted. The sentence on these "desperate fellows who had long been a terror to the country where they lived" as the judge summed it up was death by hanging and their bodies to be hung in chains thereafter. Their bodies were hanged from a gibbet tree on the edge of the forest which was once their refuge. This tree is still there today. 

Text  from http://www.tomdickandharry.co.uk/othertomdickandharrys.html

H, T carved into the tree. (possibly a D below but could not say for sure)

The Gibbet Tree - Gibbet Tree, Capp's Lodge, Fulbrook

The Gibbet Tree a couple of miles beyond Burford, near Capp's Lodge, still stands today, gnarled and crooked branches reach out of the old oak like a witch's fingers pointing to the sky.

Text from - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1447209

Kids loved the walk as we found some Geocashe treasure on the way to the Tree.

Bimble : Introducing Bushcraft to SWMBO

Today I took the girlfriend out to the woods for lunch, I am slowly getting her into the woods. Last summer was her first time camping (family camping style loads of kit) But today we planned an afternoon in the woods for a bit of a bushcraft lunch.

Weather was not the best as it has been pretty non stop rain for the best part of a week.

And as you can see there is just a little bit of flooding down by the River Evenlode

The wind must have blown this down in the past 2 weeks since I was last down the woods.

it was only just raining, but just in case it decided to get worse I put the tarp up.

SWMBO was enjoying herself so much watching me do all the work and gathering firewoods she took a selfie.

Getting the fire in the honey stove was nice and easy with a magic biscuit. Drying the twigs in my pocket worked a treat.

The lunch was an easy pizza Calzone, made with a tortilla. some bbq sauce and ham and mushroom with cheese did the job.  Tin foil hat to keep the heat in.

Then I was told it was time for a photo.

And then it was ready.

Once enjoyed it was time to get the fire going again for desert.Banana and choc once again, one of my personal favourites.

On the hive with a coffee brewing up

SWMBO now loves banana and chocolate. Sadly no rum or whiskey, as Sam (SWMBO) is pregnant. I did forget about a spoon, but thankfully i had something that SWMBO was happy to use.  Not like i will need to use the card again.

Sitting and relaxing before its time to pack up and finish a walk and head home.

The path was washed out so had to head back the way we had come.

One happy SWMBO after enjoying a few hours in the woods. Next step is a night out before the bump gets to big and uncomfortable.

Bimble : Woodland Wandering

Another bimble around the woods with Noah and Ellie.  Both had great fun climbing over the logs.