An afternoon in the woods.

Hi all,

Myself and a friend spent a few hours in the woods yesterday.

We did a bit of bow drill practice with a hazel drill and willow hearth. It worked very well indeed. Paul "master bowdrill" was on hand to give well needed tips to make the process quite easy!

A fire was started with natural materials and fire steel. Dried Goose grass, nettle stems and a bit of birch bark were the tinder!
Then the muffins and cream buns were eaten. We need to keep our energy up and of course they were gathered from the wild.

We also had a go at making an atal atal spear thrower. The set was made from hazel. The spear had a fetching of birch bark bound with willow bark and wool. We gathered the wool from nearby bushes which sheep had rubbed against. The binding was set with pine resin. Resin was gathered by gathering a fresh branch then sticking it on the fire. The heat pushes the resin out of the branch.

The spear threw well but the technique is one we will have to master and is not as easy as some people make it look.

We also gathered some wild food, birch sap and a few pignuts. The birch sap was ice cold and tasted excellent. I could live on the stuff!

All in all a good day out!
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