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I just watched it.
The coolest character by far is the hard as nails colonel Miles guy. He needs his own film I think.
He drinks coffee as he rains napalm on a giant alien tree and exterminates a race of blue dudes.

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Testing hultafors

Hi,

During our scout training session we gave out 20 identical Hultafors stainless steel knives to use.

If you ever want to test a knife this is the way to do it.

During the course of the day this little knife gutted, skinned and boned 20 rabbits, split wood, made feather sticks, scraped fire steels, tapped pines and birches, dug holes was involved in knife throwing competitions ( when I was not looking!!!!) Chopping scouts fingers, poking fires, poking fox poo, digging roots, chopping wood, hammering, attached to sticks as spears, shelter making, stick sharpening, carving, hair cutting, ember carrying and many more when I wasn't watching.

Anyway 16 out of 20 are still in perfect order. The other 4 have minor dings in the edge probably from digging or cutting to close to the bone or who knows what.

Anyway the knife is highly recommended indeed and has a great handle and a good quality and sharp blade. The blade is well shaped and a good general purpose tool. The sheath is plastic and I stuck knife and sheath x 20 in the dish washer to sort out all the blood and rabbit bits.

Highly recommended.

Fun with the Scouts

Hi all,

Among other adventures, we had 20 Scouts with us at N.I Survival School over the weekend. They wanted to learn some bushcraft and survival skills. This scout troop was very outdoor orientated and spent most of thier time canoeing, hiking or camping.

The leader, Robert was very knowledgable, motivated and organised and it was a real pleasure to teach these kids in the outdoors where scouts are supposed to be as Baden intended.

Anyway the highest compliment of the day was when Robert the leader said in front of the group that he had been a scout all his life but he had learned more that day than he already knew.

Here is a few pics of the day.

Life as an arborist

Hi all,

Have a look here Arbography blog

An excellent blog about life as an arborist. This is a guy I study with at University and he is very knowledgable and a top bloke too. Go and check it out and get a glimpse into the mysterious world of tree surgeons.

the man from Tanzania

Hi all,

I just had a very interested conversation with a man called Elias from Tanzania. he told me all about his life as a child with his tribe. The tribes name is very difficult to pronounce let alone spell so I won't insult him by trying!

Anyway the only way he created fire was with hand drill and he regularly set primitive traps on the way to school and collected what he caught on the way home. From the age of two they were shown what snakes to avoid and which were best to eat. He often raided bees for honey from holes in trees and slept out in the bush with only a fire for protection. We talked for over a hour and I learned a lot from him about traps and hand drill.

A fascinating guy. I have invited him out for a weekend in the future to see my spin on bushcraft and see what he thinks. I think he was quite excited and really hope we can get something organised.

Its amazing what you learn if you just ask.

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Night sky

Some of the larger planets are very noticeable in the sky tonight.

Got the binoculars out.
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Great fun teaching

Hi,

We ran a great course the other week. Everyone was up for anything and throughlgy enjoyed themselves. A few pictures.

Juniper berries

Found these while walking around a hospital. A bit early how strange. Oh well I will save a load for use later.

The hardest place to survive on earth?

Myself and a friend discussed this recently.

Where is the hardest place to drop into with nothing and try to survive?

Answer-a cold ocean of course, everywhere else you can rest but an ocean just takes all the time.

Unless your in a raft of course.

I read an excellent book about a guy who was trapped on a raft for months and survived in all sorts of inventive ways.

That's what survival is about! Inventiveness.
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Ash keys

Even in winter food can be found. Ash are often covered in keys well into winter. They can be gathered and opens to reveal seeds which are edible and not bad at all.

Seep well.

I dug one of these the other day to illustrate the concept to some students. They seemed quite interested and were fascinated to see it refill over and over again.

Root plate shelter

Improv hooks

Hi,

If you find some wire or other metal try and make a hook out of it. Here is a few I just made. Very easy to do and fun.