Autumn

Autumn has arrived.  There are some beautiful colours on the trees and the mornings are cold and a mist often sits over the water.

On Saturday morning I found a very obliging Moose which was so interested in me, that it came closer and closer.

I have a great job working for the council, which involves being out in the forest a lot.  It is nice to be able to make a fire and boil coffee and grill sausage for lunch.

I have been using my titanium mug for almost 10 years now and will hopefully have it for another 10 years!  https://naturallore.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/lifeventure-titanium-cup

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I’ve bought a hammock

I have been thinking about buying a hammock and had decided to buy a Warbonnet Blackbird XLC

because it is possible to lay flat in this hammock as it is a-symmetrical.  However, I could not find a supplier here in Sweden, or even in the EU and as the shipping and import taxes would have been very high, I did not want to order direct from the States.

I then decided to buy a Dutchware Chameleon Hammock, but they did not have any outlet in the EU either.

Then a friend told me about a guy he knew who has started making hammocks.  He had been to a Bushcraft UK meet and shown his products and my friend thought they were very good.  The company is called Easy Hammocks and the guy who runs it is called Matthew.

I had a look at his website and liking the idea of supporting a small, growing business, I decided to order a Bushcraft/Survival Hammock which unlike his other models, does not have a built-in under-quilt but instead has two layers of material that allow you to put your own insulation or insulation mat inside.

More information here; https://easyhammock.co.uk/p/bushcraft-survival-hammock

Matt is hoping to get the hammock to me within three weeks, so once I have received it and tested it, I will write a review.

 

Sleep out

On Saturday night Kelly and I decided to sleep in the playhouse.

Although the playhouse is not insulated and the temperature went down to 0, we were not cold.

I was given a garage tent by a friend, but unfortunately the cover was damaged. However, I had previously been given a very large tarpaulin

Which I used to make a new cover.

I have also been out for a walk with Kelly, collecting colours from nature and we have mounted them on paper.

On Monday I started a new job with the council which involves building and repairing outdoor facilities and developing outdoor learning for children. Today I have been collecting small trees so that children can build shelters.

And painting tables and benches

Bushcraft Festivalen 2018

I have had a very enjoyable weekend at Bushcraft Festivalen 2018. I have with and met some fantastic people.

I arrived on Thursday morning and set up my camp.

There wasn’t a great deal that happened on Thursday this year, but on Thursday evening with some beer and vodka, the party started.

And went on long into the night.

Friday morning however, the work began setting up tents and preparing food.

There was a group Bushcraft Estonia there and they gave some really good demonstrations during the weekend.

They made friction fire by rubbing a piece of Chaga up and down a dry stick until the Chaga began to burn.

Another method of making fire by friction that I had never seen, was to roll some ash from an old fire into a cotton pad. The rolled up pad was then placed between two boards

And the cotton was rolled very fast backwards and forwards between the boards until the ash started to burn. I will be experiencing with this method.

As I was working behind the scenes helping to prepare food most of the time, I did not get to see much more of the festival, but still had a great time!

Bushcraft Festivalen

I am currently sitting in the night train travelling to the south of Sweden to work at the annual Bushcraft festival. I will be writing more about the event next week.

Kelly has now outgrown the toilet that I made for her at the cabin.

So last weekend, I made her a new toilet.

My job working with teenagers during the summer has now finished, but the council have now given me another job for 8 months working with developing outdoor and wilderness facilities within the county.

The boat is back in the boat house.

Last weekend we found an old cabin by the side of a river not far from where we live.

Kelly really liked the cabin

We made a fire inside and of course grilled some sausage

We also spent last night at our cabin so that I could complete the floor in the boat house

I have screwed two 4×2’s along the floor as runners to make it easier to pull the boat up and this works incredibly well.

Blueberry cake.

There has not been so much happening recently, which is why I didn’t write anything last week.

The weather is changeable at the moment, with warm,sunny days and then heavy rain and even thunderstorms. Last Friday lightning struck just outside our house. Destroying our street lamp and melting the inside of our washing machine! Fortunately no one was hurt.

I have made myself a new neck-knife, which has a longer blade.

I can have the sheath around my neck or on my belt. I have an extra press stud on the front so that I can attach a a small pouch or sharpening stone. I might even be able to use it as a bearing for the bow-drill.

I am considering buying a hammock now my back is much better and would be interested to know what readers think are the best hammock to buy.

Teres made a really nice blueberry cake yesterday.

4 eggs

400ml flour

400ml sugar

Blueberries

A teaspoon of baking powder.

Plus 150g of butter over the mix