A dander up Carnmoney Hill

I live in the shadow of an ancient inactive volcano.

There are lots of interesting things to find on the steep Hazel covered escarpments.

Pignut, delicious!

An old gnarled hedge row Ash

The ancient flint mine

The layers of flint are still visable

A fern grows in a mossy niche on the chalk cliff.

Wood sorrel. Looking  abit worse for wear. Still  nice to eat.

Jews ear. An edible fungus. One of the few I know for certain.

The cave hill overlooking Belfast.

The famous Harland and wolfe cranes

Boiling up water in a discarded beer can.

Sheep sorrel.

An early mature Oak. The thicker branches grow on the South side.

Some drainage works have been carried out. The result is that alot of flint has been brough to the surface. The place is littered with hundreds of bits like this. I had great fun knaaping a few blades.

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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A walk at Oxford Island

I went for a quick dander round the South shore of Lough Neagh.

A weekend in the woods

Had a good time sleeping out in a parachute this weekend. Roasting lamb chops and weiners.

Good times.
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Enjoying the winter woods

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November winter meeting

I met up with a few lads in a lovely peice of woodland in Co Down.

The craic was good as usual.

Bushcraft meeting 5th December 2010.

Hi all,

If you are interested in meeting a bunch of keen bushcrafters in the Belfast area on the above date please contact belfastbushcraft@gmail.com info. There are limited spaces.

Cheers

November bushcraft meeting

Hi,

I got together with a few blokes, some kids and a couple of dogs for a bit of bushcrafting in County Down this weekend.
There was a mixture of new and old faces there and plenty of laughs around the fire.

From left to right. Evan, mattew and Davy, Sandy, Phil, Nathan, Mark and Stephen.

The lads discuss Cheryl Coles latest Album

Lots of good food being cooked

Someone tells a funny story, well he thinks it funny anyway.

A tarp emergency stretcher with two excited boys in it!

Myself and a few others had a go at burning out a cup or kuksa from seasoned Birch.

The Birch came from a standing dead tree which we felled and sectioned into rings of about 8 inches in length. The sections were then split with either an axe or a Lueku and baton in my case.

A nice coal was selected from the fire and placed on the wood to burn the bowl. You need a constant flow of air to keep it hot and burning. We used old pen tubes which one of the guys had brought along. Of course you could use an elder wand with the pith removed too.

We stopped burning every now and again to scrape the burnt material out and check for cracks and other problems.

Over all this is a job you could do over a few different sessions as it can make you quite dizzy contantly blowing down a tube for a few hours. I intend to try and finish mine this week and I look forward to seeing the other lads efforts next time too.

This dead Birch was hung up in a Beech tree about 10m above us. We cut trhough then walked the stem back and out of the hangup.

Using my new Bow saw, which was excellent and the perfect size for a pack.

Batoning with my Leuku. This give an accurate and controlled split.

The two halves. The wood has some spalting which gives a lovley grain.

People saw i am full of hot air and it came in handy here.

A close up of the bowl being burnt out.

A seat made from an A-frame and a hammock. Great for old boys like mouldsy.

Our best tracker practising. Or maybe someone dropped a sausage.

One of the lads sons learning safe fire practise. And doing what all boys young and old like to do....poke a fire with a stick.

Other projects where also on the go. Spoon carving, camp cookery and camp funriture making all got a run and everyone had a good time.

Looking forward to the next meet.

Abo