Just thinking-losing interest

[rancid badger]

I've been sitting here, on an unexpected day off work, due to having "a touch of the skitters" and it came to me that, I've not been out in the cuds on my own for months!

I've been down the wood, for the odd walk with our lass, but that's usually only an hour's worth at best. I can remember the last time I was up at Cowclose but couldn't actually tell you when it was-last Spring I think-I know Chiseler was there too mind you

I'm definitely drifting away from "bushcraft" as such (what ever "bushcraft" is) but I'm not sure why exactly.

I've sold my two GB axes, as I simply wasn't using them and I'm looking at other kit and thinking; "I don't use that anymore, why keep it?"

I've also lost interest in canoeing over the last 6 months or so. I thoroughly enjoyed the last time I was out with the boat, sometime in May I think, but I've not felt like getting out again since

I've actually got myself back into sea fishing (shore mostly) again after a break of 35 years or more and, selling off my unused bushy/crafty gear has helped to fund my new fishing gear. This is great fun, reasonable exercise-due to the walking and carrying of kit involved- and is actually fairly cheap. I've spent quite a few days over the summer on South Shields pier catching mackerel and coalfish but perhaps even more fun; watching and listening to the antics of what the "proper" sea anglers, call "macky bashers" An eye opener and no mistake!



I just wonder if others have had similar shifts of interest over the years?

Back to work tomorrow-yippee!

 

[Riven]

I know how you feel but for different reasons. Mine is due to lack of places to carry out my interests due mainly to this countries lack of access to woodland etc and the attitude of the law makers towards people carrying anything sharp. Kind of puts a dampener on things wondering if your hobby could end you up before the beak.
Fishing is seen as acceptable still... and gets you outdoors too. Plus catching your own food is still part of the whole bushcrafty theme, so all good.
Riven.

 

[British Red]

Yep. I think Bushcrafting filled a void for me when forced to work full time in cities, a bit of fantasy and escapism - a great game of "lets pretend" if you like (and some retail therapy).I much prefer simple country living and feel less need to camp out now

 

[Chiseller]

I've been known to have that effect.....I've just seen some drums and a couple of lauvvus for sale on eBay ......main thing is your happy:thumbup:

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Dave]

[video=youtube;VxvVfgx9PBU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxvVfgx9PBU[/video]

 

[rancid badger]

That's absolutely brilliant-particularly the blooper at the end! but there's a lot you could add to the circles

I'm still not convinced that you really can define bushcraft but the diagram goes a fair way towards it for sure.

Thanks for the replies so far, I think to be honest, I've been involved in the outdoors, either for recreation or for voluntary service etc for so long, I'm just sort of drifting at the moment.

Happy enough mind you

Steve

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Good find dave and i think explains the different branches very nicely.

RB if you are happy then good for you buddy. Dont sell all your kit though

 

[Uilleachan]

I did a lot of soul searching when I quit climbing, although I didn't actually quit, rather I realised there's more to life than camping up in the woods for months on end living on a shoestring and my wits focusing me efforts on drafty crags doing something I was mediocre at, at best. It took a while to realise that I'd simply chosen to get a life, before I came to that realization I beat myself endlessly.

While you won't find me out surviving on parsnips in the wilds of outer mongolia, tiger wrestling in easter siberia etc you may see me through night vision gear fishing for sea trout in the wee small hours, or wandering the hills in search of the next un-fished hill loch. You may even encounter me sleeping lochside on a hill in just the gear I walked in there with (if you do, wake me and I'll get a brew on), you may see me doing any number of different things in the great outdoors that whist not strictly bushcraft, in the organized sense, all these likely activities are intrinsically linked.

Take fishing; fishing is great, and when out for a cast there's plenty opportunities to put those bushy tricks into practice. And what is fishing if it isn't catching your own food, whether you eat them or return them it's another string to your bushy arsenal of relevant skills.

I did lots of great stuff and learned a lot about myself over the years. For example; I like a warm hearth, but having a roof on top of the hearth is way better, and; I've been so cold in my time that I never want to be so again.

Never managed to quit climbing entirely though and I actually still earn a good living from climbing and have done since I stopped going off on mad trips.

What goes around, comes around. It's all in the head.

 

[Shewie]

Ah, you'll be back Steve

We go through cycles, I flit between lightweight backpacking and bushcrafty stuff with all the toys. But I still like the canoe trips because I get to explore places others can't get to. I like the adventure and the journey, the planning and the time out, growing up in the sticks I've always centred my hobbies around outdoors, I've even done a bit of fishing in my time

It sounds like you need some time away or a bloody good trip

 

[RonW]

I have.
I used to be massively interested in military history, armor and scale modelling, but ever since I seriously got into this outdoorbusiness, about 3 years ago, I completely lost all interest in the history and scalemodelling. Sold of most of my library and models, but kept a few things. The ones that had most of my interest. Maybe it'll come back soon, maybe it will not, but I am still trying to fill that void!

 

[John Fenna]

I have.
I used to be massively interested in military history, armor and scale modelling, but ever since I seriously got into this outdoorbusiness, about 3 years ago, I completely lost all interest in the history and scalemodelling. Sold of most of my library and models, but kept a few things. The ones that had most of my interest. Maybe it'll come back soon, maybe it will not, but I am still trying to fill that void!

That sounds like me!
I first got into military model making - eventually it became part of my income stream - and martial arts ... but interest died off a bit.
I played a lot of Rugby ...but that palled.
I got into climbing , long distance waking and light weight camping, canoeing etc and eventually it became my full time employment, leading to me becoming an Expedition Leader and being paid to travel the world and see interesting places ... but the body started hurting too much...
I have taken a lot of interests to the point where I am earning from it - immersing myself in it and eventually finding that it leads on to something new.
Bushcraft - being such a wide ranging catch all name - covers so many aspects of my interests from making stuff from knives to beds to shirts to my infamous Bushcraft Betty figurine, to hiking, camping, historical re-enactment, cooking, winemaking, etc etc etc that I have found that as I grow away from one aspect I do more in another!
I no longer make as many knives as I did - but I am doing more in the way of tarp and hammock making
It does not surprise me that folk enjoy an activity then find it palls after a while - this has been a recurring theme in my life.
Strangly enough I have been married to the same woman for over 30 years!

 

[Pete11]

Circles turn and they always come around. This is life.

Enjoy the circle, no matter what part you may be on.

Pete

 

[Juggernaut]

I glad it's not just me that flits in and out of hobbies lol I think i do my birds head in sometimes

 

[Robbi]

[video=youtube;_M9muYyYxhI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=_M9muYyYxhI[/video]Hey RB, it's the big wheel mate....it keeps on turning.

http://www.izlesene.com/video/massive-attack-hymn-of-the-big-wheel/5399597

enjoy.

 

[Tengu]

I go into and out of hobbies too.

 

[RonW]

Yet I must admit that this outdoorthing has turned into a lifestyle instead of a hobby.
Not much forestdwelling, but more homesteading, low impact living and such.....
So I guess that one is staying.

 

[Bowlander]

I treat doing bushy things as a means to an end rather the end itself. Getting all the gear together just to make a brew in the woods seems a bit of a faff, but if your on a full day hike and want a proper hot drink and food then it makes sense.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2

 

[Tiley]

After twenty or more years of climbing, including 22 Alpine seasons and a couple of big trips to the greater Ranges, a shoulder injury put paid to my antics in the vertical world. While waiting for it to get better, one of my pupils introduced me to one of Uncle Ray's books and the rest, as they say, is history.

I find that bushcraft ticks a number of the boxes that climbing didn't: I can walk out of my door and find woods in which to play and stay where previously I'd be driving for at least an hour; it still gets me out of the house; it satisfies the creative side of me; it doesn't scare me s***less; it has opened up a vast - and apparently limitless - resource to discover and learn about; it has brought me a much closer appreciation of and sensitivity to the natural world in which I live. Add to that the facts that, as I get older and less able to perform at altitude or in the vertical plane, bushcraft provides a calmer but just as stimulating activity AND, of course, I still have the friends, memories and photos from those twenty-or-so years playing on mountains - it all means that it don't miss that 'climbing thang' much.

I hope and think that bushcraft will last me as there is always more to do, more to learn and many, many places to visit and practise those skills. Time will tell.

 

[MacFeegle]

Spent 15 years in the Engineers so was always used to bivvying out on exercise, though when I went in in the 80's all the stuff we call bushcraft now went under the banner of survival and got you dirty looks. Didn't bother for a few years when I came out till my lad started asking me to show him stuff I'd learned in the army and he was a bit small for a SLR and the health and safety wouldn't let a 6 year old pin man on a Medium Girder Bridge.
Took a lot of it back up then, mainly to be honest for a break for myself and to recharge the batteries.
Love fishing but have felt the same way as the OP about the carp fishing over the last couple of years, have mainly packed it in and now fish my local River Calder for the small head of large barbel, I'm going to get a double before the end of the season.
Trying my hand at making more sticks, the last stag handled one I did for our lass turned out great.
I think Bushcraft is a massive subject that gives to anyone as much as they will put into it, personally at the moment I'm really into vintage kit. But it's horses for courses and each to his own.

 

[huntergathereralex]

Move to Canada, preferably the North, and I guarantee you will quickly regain your interest...it's like a tonic for what ails us these days. Come, you and all BCUK members are welcome, although I don't think I can put you all up...
Alex