I guess we all have it, that place we always return to time and time again. It can be the beauty, remoteness, silence or any number of things that draw us there time after time.

Whenever I feel the need for a few days of isolation, just me and whatever skills I have aquired, I head off for a very special spot in the heart of Wales. A quiet and remote valley, totally unspoilt and rarley visited. I have my spot there. I take the bare minimum with me and my biggest luxury is a Katadyn waterfilter

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Okay, I've just taken my Mackeral fillets out of my smoker, and I must say they smell lovely, I'm going to resist temptation, and let them cool down and chill before eating them, so it'll be tea for tomorrow!

I mentioned earlier that i'd been making a chair for my neice, the chairs  I make are based on a Cape Cod chair I saw when my  wife and I went to Boston and Cape Cod a few years ago. The chairs are made in wood, and are one of the most comfortable designs

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I've been a bit busy lately, haven't had much time to log on let alone write my blog, but here's an update..

 Been trying my smoker out, it's currently smoking some mackeral fillets, and seems to be going quite well, nice and slow, with a little charcoal fire smoldering with alder chips on top! Should be nice and tasty!!

Thanks to Rommol for the tips, I like the idea of the damp potatoe sack! and would be keen to know a bit more about the ale method??

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Yesterday at ten to two in the morning I arrived home from an overnighter in Orkney, staying at the Ayre hotel.  At this time of year the sun doesn't fully set and so I was able to go for an evening stroll at 11pm and the sky looked pretty light.  It never got darker than twilight even in the small hours - I kept waking up just to look outside.  It reminded me of the line in that song in the Wicker Man "would you have a wondrous sight?  The midday sun at midnight

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Further to my ramblings of a few days ago. I'm now officially recognised as unemployed - its a bit new for me as I think I've only been not-working for four days since I left school - scary eh! Didn't get the job mentioned a few posts ago - not overly worried, something will come up when the time is right.

I said before leaving work that idealy I'd like to take a few weeks off to pay back the children for being a bear with a sore head. I worked permanent night shifts for

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My First Bushcraft Knife Complete! - (well 99% done :p) I've got some final sharpening and then some polishing left to do.

Specs
Steel : Made using an old file (01 Tool Steel)
Blade : 3.5mm thick. 95mm long.
Handle : 105mm
Overall : 200mm
Handle : Oak from the log pile, 4mm brass-bar. The

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So this is what its like, not to have a job. Feels pretty similar to being "Off shift" at the moment - that'll probably change over the next few weeks. Friday night was my last shift in work before getting my redundancy - it had been a long time coming and I was starting to resent the place, though I won't bore the reader with my rantings on that subject.

It would be nice to think that I could take a few weeks, even months, off work to get some bits sorted around

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Just a quick one to let you guys know I've setup my own blog on my server.

This one is great but you know me, always wanting to mess about with new things.

I'll still put a few things in here, but the

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Heck time flies by, it’s been an age since I’ve written anything in here, lots have gone on I know buy I’m getting old and it’s hard to remember J

We’ve just started the process of buying a house after selling our old one, although I think that I’m just being pulled along by my wife and kids as I was quite enjoying not having the responsibility of house

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Just come back from another round of blood tests. While the white blood cells are holding their ground, the platelets have been forced back. So not great news. And a few more small skin hemorrhages as well. So feeling a bit disheartened today.

The irony is that this tropical fever was not contracted (strange word that - I don't remember agreeing to get infected!) in the jungle proper but in an urban area. We are now pretty certain I got it at a squatter's camp

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