Greetings everyone!
I have decided that I want to get involved in bushcraft after the idea has lain pretty well dormant for the past 30 years or so. I got one of the very early copies of "Food For Free" one Christmas in my teens and had dreams of living off the land (not sure when the term bushcraft came in, but this is what I called it then) but I never did anything about it apart from trying the occasional hawthorn leaf.
A comment someone at work made, and the recent Ray Mears program, made me think that life is passing by and if I don't do something soon then I may never do it.
We visited the States in 2000 and I had the opportunity to be able to shoot and to help prepare a deer - which proved to me that I can kill and eat meat. I tried unsuccessfully to make a bow-drill about 5 years ago (I made it but couldn't get it to light anything).
I've been starting off in a small way over the past few weeks, trying to see what is available on walks from home and work - logging where plants are, trying to identify the edible ones from books. I made a dandelion salad from plants in my garden, and dug up some of their roots and am drying them to try making 'coffee'. I'm going to try some experimentation in my back garden with a bow-drill and hand-drill (hopefully the neighbours won't complain about smoke). And I found a cramp ball fungus growing on the side of my compost heap! I have made some short lengths of twisted cordage from dried plant leaves - my cat loves playing with this.
My main questions at this stage are:
1. I think I would like to go on a weekend bushcraft basics course - I've found quite a number of places in the UK that do these but recommendations would be useful.
2. How do you go about finding somewhere do 'do bushcraft'? There are plenty of local woods I can go to, and countryside walks, where I can find plants, materials and go on walks during the day but I suspect that I am restricted in what I can do in these places, but if I want to try living out overnight (e.g. building shelter /fires) then how do I go about finding somewhere?
3. Is there much going on in Oxfordshire? I saw that someone got into the Scout Site at Youlbury, but I suspect that he was a scout leader and, although I'd be happy to do some instruction once I learned what to do I don't want to be a scout leader.
Anyway, I'd better stop before I bore you all.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Geoff
I have decided that I want to get involved in bushcraft after the idea has lain pretty well dormant for the past 30 years or so. I got one of the very early copies of "Food For Free" one Christmas in my teens and had dreams of living off the land (not sure when the term bushcraft came in, but this is what I called it then) but I never did anything about it apart from trying the occasional hawthorn leaf.
A comment someone at work made, and the recent Ray Mears program, made me think that life is passing by and if I don't do something soon then I may never do it.
We visited the States in 2000 and I had the opportunity to be able to shoot and to help prepare a deer - which proved to me that I can kill and eat meat. I tried unsuccessfully to make a bow-drill about 5 years ago (I made it but couldn't get it to light anything).
I've been starting off in a small way over the past few weeks, trying to see what is available on walks from home and work - logging where plants are, trying to identify the edible ones from books. I made a dandelion salad from plants in my garden, and dug up some of their roots and am drying them to try making 'coffee'. I'm going to try some experimentation in my back garden with a bow-drill and hand-drill (hopefully the neighbours won't complain about smoke). And I found a cramp ball fungus growing on the side of my compost heap! I have made some short lengths of twisted cordage from dried plant leaves - my cat loves playing with this.
My main questions at this stage are:
1. I think I would like to go on a weekend bushcraft basics course - I've found quite a number of places in the UK that do these but recommendations would be useful.
2. How do you go about finding somewhere do 'do bushcraft'? There are plenty of local woods I can go to, and countryside walks, where I can find plants, materials and go on walks during the day but I suspect that I am restricted in what I can do in these places, but if I want to try living out overnight (e.g. building shelter /fires) then how do I go about finding somewhere?
3. Is there much going on in Oxfordshire? I saw that someone got into the Scout Site at Youlbury, but I suspect that he was a scout leader and, although I'd be happy to do some instruction once I learned what to do I don't want to be a scout leader.
Anyway, I'd better stop before I bore you all.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Geoff
