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Bushcraft Club thread
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Another weekend at the IPNA and another weekend among some great people. We again had the pleasure of visiting the fast growing IPNA in Cahersiveen Co. Kerry. It has come along way since we first helped place the tarp over the classroom. Now complete with school house/kitchen, paths and facilities. It is good to see the guys/gals getting on so well.
I had the pleasure of meeting the first students on the residence program. Although I was disappointed not to be joining them, I am delighted to see them getting on so well.
Máires first ember spoon
Pontus one of the Res. students shared his passion for plants
Some of us managed to get our hands on fresh flint for our fire kits. Then I left it behind :-/
One of Aebhrics favorite lessons is the emergency fire. I wont ruin the lesson content. All Ill say is, if you do any of the bushcraft courses, you'll light plenty of these.
My Sincere thanks to Aebhric and Anna again for another fantastic gathering. My thanks also to Greg and Cat, with the Res students Ciara, Pontus and Bee. Their patience and time is greatly appreciated.0 -
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Well another great weekend in Co. Cavan and despite the weather we had a great time. Our thoughts were with those at Oxygen as we sat under Tonys tarp (thanks again Tony!) and drank tea and practiced some skills. We got a bit done and my wish for the weekend was to experiment with some tanning. I had some rabbit hides from a previous hunting trip that I wanted to play with. I hadnt done it before so it was all just a bit of playing around and seeing how I got on
Here are some of the pictures of the process. I tried a brain and egg mix and will smoke the hide when it dries. We'll see how it turns out.
Maire wanted to try make a salve for infections and bleeding, it turned out quite well with a lovely natural green colour. She was just needed one of us to cut ourselves to see if it worked. No volunteers obviously
We also had a go at firing some pots. I have done this in a ground over before but with the right clay and practice (minus one pot) they turned out fine.
Still for me the most impressive experiment was Kevins Scandinavian fire log. This one log with only a little fuel cook his breakfast dinner and boiled water for his coffee. Kevin did this with a very wet piece of timber, out of the cover of the tarp. Fair play and it worked so well even in the rain with only the canopy covering him.
We also managed to fit in another ground oven. This time a Chicken which was another sucess. Moist and delicious.
It was a great weekend and most made it out despite the forecast. I look forward to our next outing in August all going well.0 -
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Another weekend in Co. Cavan and the weather was much more cooperative. Although I was exhausted from work all week I had a great time. We experimented with lots of types of cordage. Kevin used brambles, the other Kevin and Flora gave the Willow a shot and I used a type of palm leaf that I think would be good enough for bow drilling with.
Maire made her first Willow basket which turned out very well
Myself and Tony also gave the hand drill a go. Given the difficulty of the hand drill in our climate, we teamed up. We got smoke, dust but were just short an ember
Kevin also brought down his Ash bow project which seemed to be coming along well
We also touched on bow drilling with wet, unseasoned material, making Rowan berry jelly (too early in them season for them) and also tested out our clay pots, identified different fungus and finished our debris hut.
All in all it was a great weekend. We did lots of exploring and had lots of experiments on the go. I cant wait for next month when a good deal of the berries, nuts and other edibles start to appear. Thanks to all those who came!0 -
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Well those who said bushcraft is all tea and bannock. This weekend was mainly concerned with building a winter shelter for the coming months. It was a good bit of work and took most of Saturday/Sunday to get this far. Thankfully the weather held off and all the heavy lifting and sawing is done. We will be filling the gaps as much as possible and making the door a little smaller. There is plenty of room for 4 people plus fire. We have debated on the size and are agreed that it is a bit big but we are going with it anway.
It will be quite cool when finished but there is still a good bit to go.
We also did some small food experiments including making dandelion more palatable and making some use of the elder berries. Robert also played with boiling an egg in an orange, interesting taste apparently
Robert also volunteered for sleeping in the debris hut
Apart from the bit of labour, it was a nice and relaxing weekend. It will be very interesting to sleep in the group shelter when the weather gets worse. We have decided on a rule for sleeping in it. Every time you sleep in it, you must do one piece of maintenance to keep the shelter in good order.
This is the badger sett I unwittingly slept beside when I set up in the dark on Friday. It was quite active
Luckily their reputation as fierce,ankle snapping, rabid lunatics seems quite unjustified. In fact I relocated the next evening and the sett was used that night with fresh tracks sitting at the entrance.
We will be back out next month so keep an eye on the site0 -
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Well in our pursuit of greater knowledge on edibles, myself and Maire decided to tackle one of the trickier areas of wild food. The Mushrooms. We went on a Mushroom identification course run in Avondale House in Co. Wicklow by www.mushroomstuff.com
It was very informative and highlights the enjoyment of Mushroom picking. This activity is statistically the most dangerous activity in Europe, causing more deaths than any adventure sport. In Ireland we have about 25 species of edible fungus, 2,500+ non edible species and around 250 poisonous species. So statistically it can be difficult in identifying edible mushrooms without the help of Bill O'Dea and his team of Mycologists.
If you are passionate about mushrooms and interested in wild food than I would recommend this course.
The day involves a lecture on the science of mycology and different edible, inedible and poisonous fungi. Then you hit the trail for some hunting
Your eyes have to be keenly aware of where mushrooms might be hiding and the old expression of 'Keep mushrooms in the dark and feed the ****' isnt neccessarily true, as they can be found everywhere.
After 2 hours of hunting we managed to collect a small basket, not just gathering what we thought were edible. There are some guidelines for collecting that are good to bear in mind when collecting them.... mainly if you have a mycologist that can fit in your pocket, bring them.
Some mushrooms you gotta sneak up on
Others arent so well hidden. Still it is a good idea to take note of what tree you are picking them off for identification purposes
I must say the knowledge of the whole team was very impressive and they were very good with their time. They are all very passionate about their study and wish to impart as much as they know upon you.
One thing I can really respect about anyone who shares knowledge like this is their ability to turn around and say 'I dont know' when asked about something they arent sure of. Even the experts can get it wrong. I came away from the course with a better understanding about this type of food and of it importance both in modern living and what it might have been used for in the past.0 -
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Another weekend up in Cavan and you can start to feel winter coming. The difference in temperature is obvious and the winter sleeping bag came in handy. We got some of the basics covered including making good old char cloth, made some bushcraft seats for by the fire and also made some progress on the shelter
I made a heat trap for to jerky some pork, it worked very well. The trap stood at the top of a tripod and was much more affective than leaving them over the open fire.
The jerky was very nice
I didnt get any photos of the seats but they were excellent, nice work lads! I didnt get any pictures of them because I forgot my camera.
A nice relaxing weekend. We also do a scout of the area and found that Lough Sheelin is a 5 minute drive away. Im hoping to get a canadian canoe and get some fishing going so we can get some fish for dinner next time. It also means that we can test out any fishing spears, lines or traps we make on the lake. So if anyone knows of someone getting rid of a canoe, drop me a line :-)0 -
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Great to meet you on the weekend Guys (and Gal!).
Very impressed by your respect for the site
And I learned a few new things in the short time I was with you!
Hope to meet up with you again soon!
But...Kevin....did you HAVE to eat ALL 3 of those sausages????
Peter0 -
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Another weekend up in Cavan and you can start to feel winter coming. The difference in temperature is obvious and the winter sleeping bag came in handy. We got some of the basics covered including making good old char cloth, made some bushcraft seats for by the fire and also made some progress on the shelter
I made a heat trap for to jerky some pork, it worked very well. The trap stood at the top of a tripod and was much more affective than leaving them over the open fire.
The jerky was very nice
I didnt get any photos of the seats but they were excellent, nice work lads! I didnt get any pictures of them because I forgot my camera.
A nice relaxing weekend. We also do a scout of the area and found that Lough Sheelin is a 5 minute drive away. Im hoping to get a canadian canoe and get some fishing going so we can get some fish for dinner next time. It also means that we can test out any fishing spears, lines or traps we make on the lake. So if anyone knows of someone getting rid of a canoe, drop me a line :-)
theres one on done deal at a good price0 -
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I was asked by a mate of mine to run a bushcraft/survival course for Limerick County Venture scouts last weekend. As executive officer he wanted to re-introduce a good outdoor program for the county and asked me to put together a Bushcraft basics course to start it off. I was happy to oblige although I had never instructed these skills before. Andrew also volunteered to instruct on the course which was a great help. The course was based around making shelter, making fire, finding water and an introduction to food.
I have to say that the Ventures were a pleasure to teach. They were very receptive, well behaved and enthusiastic. They all had a good bit of camping experience already so we concentrate more on wilderness living skills
Our first topic was shelter. We went through the different types and shelter and built a medium term shelter. I explained the principles of the shelter and scouts had some experience already but never built a completely primitive one.
We then we covered shetler we went on to fire. The uses of fire, different configurations and methods of lighting it. We went from the modern lighter and matches to the not so modern fire steel and eventually the bow drill. Nature once again taught us a valuable lesson. The forest was so damp after 2 weeks of rain it was very difficult to light fire using basic materials.
From fire we moved to water and had a go trying to boil water in objects other than metal pots, such as plastic bottles. The idea being to try and think of a different way of solving a problem.
Lastly we discussed food. We made some basic traps and discussed cooking. They really enjoyed the ground oven although it almost didnt happen due to the unsuitability of the local rock type.
Altogether it was a very enjoyable weekend. We got alot covered and The ventures and leaders were a great group. We promoted the activity of bushcraft and the schools in this country and hopefully made some people think differently about their time in the forest0 -
Well its very rare in life that you shake hands with a group of lads that you have an instant rapport with. The meeting between the Irish bushcraft club and the Northern Ireland Bushcraft Association was truly a meeting of minds. I have to extend my thanks and appreciation to Gary, Phil, Davey and Paul for their great hospitality and company. They invited us up to Carnfunnock for the weekend to finally get both of our organisations to meet. On our arrival the lads had cooked up a storm (special thanks to Davey on this) fit for anyone in or outside the woods.
We got a fantastic traditional Ulster fry the next morning. Lovely stuff
The evening was good craic and the banter was great.
The next morning we were up early to explore the area. The Antrim coastline is one of the most scenic around we spent part of the morning exploring it. After that the lads had an open day to demonstrate what they were all about to some of the locals
Then Paul brought them on a plant walk and demonstrated his excellent insight into many of the local plants and their uses. I picked up a few I didnt know of myself. All together it was a great weekend. Our hosts were generous with both their time and knowledge and the sharing of insight was great. I will certainly see more of the lads, sooner rather than later I hope
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Just want to add my thanks to the NIBA for the hospitality and the craic. From the minute we arrived to when we left we were well looked after. Davey was the head chef for the weekend and cooked us fantastic meals. All of the lads are experienced bushcrafters who were more than happy to share their knowledge with us over the weekend. I think we all learned a lot from them.
Thanks again Gary, Phil, Davey and Paul. Hopefully we will see ye soon so that we get a chance to repay the hospitality.
Andrew
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