Winter skills course with Woodland Ways - Feb 2012

[Elines]

A week or so ago, with three others Ross (= Geordie9), Jamie and Sean (don't know their BCUK names (if they are on BCUK that is), I went on a Winter Skills Course near Oxford with Woodland Ways.

Just wanted to give you a flavour of what it was like and what we did.

I thought the course was excellent. Kev and Adam - plus apprentice instructor Dan - were very good and worked well together to create an open atmosphere where everyone felt comfortable.

Most of the stuff we did was new to me and included (pictures courtesy of Ross/Geordie9 as my mobile:laptop cable has not yet arrived):

BUILDING A SHELTER
People worked in pairs and built a shelter opposite each other to help conserve heat
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We had a fire down the middle
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The fire certainly made a difference. On the first night we slept on the ground in sleeping bags.During the second day we created a bed of poles and spruce windfall
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Note that - as visible on the bed to the right - there is a pole running down the side of the bed to contain the spruce. We added this after the bedding caught fire during the day!! We had water nearby and could easily put it out. But we didn't want the same thing to happen at night.
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The second night was much colder and we tested the shelter/bedding by sleeping in our clothes without use of a sleeping bag - just to see what it was like. Pretty cold! I for one had a poor night's sleep and next time would make the doorway to the shelter much smaller.
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FOOD PREP - included in 'Fair Game' at http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87249&p=1053417#post1053417
to accord with forum rules (I think)


We also covered:

• night time navigation - and had a brilliantly clear sky to look at; and
• elementary tracking - useful when trying to catch animals to eat (now that we had some idea of how to prepare them)and
• bow drill.

On the bow drill I had previously succeeded in getting an ember but it was still a more than useful revision and for me a new thing was to have a go with limpet shells as the bearing block. I hadn't realised how much easier it was than with wood - but also hadn't realised that you need TWO limpet shells to reduce heat - I hadn't picked up on that before.


Before the course some people had suggested that there was little point in doing a 'Winter Skills' course in England when, for example, there was no snow. I don't agree with that argument. The aim of the course was to teach us useful skills for winter use - and that is what it did. Having snow on the ground or sub-zero temperatures (for example) for all the time we were there would have added unnecessary difficulties to us learning what we needed to know.

So a good experience, covering a load of good stuff and can recommend it to anyone.

 

[MartinK9]

Chris thanks for the thread, looks like you all had a great time.

 

[Corfe]

Great pics - can I ask whereabouts near Oxford?

 

[Elines]

Can't see why not - the nearest village is Appleton.

 

[woodspirits]

looks like you had a great time Chris, thanks for the heads up

 

[Elines]

Yes it was good - and I forgot to say that a good 90% of what we did was new to me - especially preparing game at night with no table and just a head torch!

Oh - and I now have a better idea of how much force to apply when despatching a partridge without ripping its head off! (in this case the bird was already dead, having been shot and then frozen.)

 

[Geordie9]

Thanks for doing a write up Chris.

I thought it was a great weekend course and alot of the course was new to me as well.

For me the second night was a great wake-up call as we didn't have the comfort of a sleeping mat or bag. It was a shock at just how vital a small fire was to keep off the cold in the shelter or how much work it would take just to keep it going.

I also enjoyed getting my hands dirty, having eaten Partidge before it has always been pre-prepared so getting to prepare both a partridge and pheasant was a great experiance but the squirrel had to be the best meal and of the weekend.

I have never eaten squirrel before and I was surprised at just how good it tasted even though it was tougher to skin than a rabbit. I have even asked a couple of the local butchers if know where I could pick a few up :yikes:

This is the second course that I have done with the company and have always had a great time and learnt alot and would recommend it.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Thanks very much for sharing
this company is on my to go a course with list and looks like you had a great time with them