So we woke up to a little snow here in Manchester this morning so me and my boy headed out to the woods to try out my first ever drinks can stove that I made a couple of nights ago. I have also just finished making myself an underquilt so wanted to hang it properly with my weight in the hammock to work out how gathered the ends need to be to keep out any draughts.
We set the stove up first. It was made by following the guide on NightWalker's excellent "Natural Bushcraft" site (though I had to add another row of holes as I kept smothering the flame, though I worked out later the inner tin base was too high, when I trimmed it a little it worked well) and as he said, it is very hard to tell it is lit in the daylight. Still, in no time at all I could feel the heat from it so left some water to boil while I set up my hammock.
Now a while ago I made myself some tree straps using nylon webbing - which also have not been fully tried out yet. So there I was, getting comfy in the hammock and pulling the underquilt around me when I was unceremoniously dumped on the deck, much to my son's delight. When I picked myself up in that "I meant to do that" kind of way I found that the webbing had failed - right where the marlin hitch was.
I'm quite surprised as I thought it was much much stronger than that (though at least my slightly wonky sewing at the end of the tree straps held up).
So I will have to wait another day to get my underquilt set up properly. I think I'll use climbing sling type webbing for my next tree strap. Still, we had a good walk in the woods, enjoyed a hot chocolate together and met a very friendly robin.
A great day out, one of those types of days that you know you'll always remember.
We set the stove up first. It was made by following the guide on NightWalker's excellent "Natural Bushcraft" site (though I had to add another row of holes as I kept smothering the flame, though I worked out later the inner tin base was too high, when I trimmed it a little it worked well) and as he said, it is very hard to tell it is lit in the daylight. Still, in no time at all I could feel the heat from it so left some water to boil while I set up my hammock.
Now a while ago I made myself some tree straps using nylon webbing - which also have not been fully tried out yet. So there I was, getting comfy in the hammock and pulling the underquilt around me when I was unceremoniously dumped on the deck, much to my son's delight. When I picked myself up in that "I meant to do that" kind of way I found that the webbing had failed - right where the marlin hitch was.
I'm quite surprised as I thought it was much much stronger than that (though at least my slightly wonky sewing at the end of the tree straps held up).
So I will have to wait another day to get my underquilt set up properly. I think I'll use climbing sling type webbing for my next tree strap. Still, we had a good walk in the woods, enjoyed a hot chocolate together and met a very friendly robin.
A great day out, one of those types of days that you know you'll always remember.
