Sorry for the lack of posts recently, it’s been a busy time! I managed to grab a few hours out in the countryside over the past few weeks. Did some shooting with catapults (an article on these will follow soon) and rifles a few days ago, and I taught a friend of mine how to carve a spoon from what started out as a fairly unpromising piece of wood. I also showed him how and when to use feather sticks (pictured below). Feather sticks are used in several ways. One way is to carve them fine enough to take a spark when suitable tinder is not readily available, and another good time to use them is in wet conditions, as it is at times like these when good bone dry tinder can be hard to come by. The picture below demonstrates roughly what I mean by a feather stick. Quite simply, the stick is being shaved VERY finely, with the ultimate aim of making small curled pieces of wood which are easy to light. Sorry for the small picture, it was taken with a dreaded mobile phone as I didn’t fancy carrying my camera all day.
Feather Stick
I have been doing lots of writing for various magazines, websites and other sources recently, with my next article coming out in WHSmith and Tesco (not too happy about it being in a supermarket, but that’s out of my control) soon. I will add news on this at a later date.
I’m going to be teaching most of this week, several wild food courses, along with some bushcraft too. It’s all slowly winding down now, so hopefully I will get some time to sit back and plan next year’s line up. But before I know it the mushroom season will be upon me, and then I will be writing more than ever, and hopefully getting a chance to go out and bring a few home for the pot. When I was younger I thought that if I can teach the skills I love I will get to spend a lot of time doing the things I love, but the harsh reality is that along with the courses comes lots of paperwork and organising, which takes a lot longer than many people would ever imagine!
I hope to update the wild food section of the site soon, although it may be called something a little different (as the title is a little restrictive). Well, that’s it for today, but I will post again very soon. I’m off to prepare for the weekend's courses.
Catch you on the trail
Kris
