Hunting The Real France

Last time I was in france I left just before the season started (Aug 15th) and i reported on the European hunting tradition known as Battue - where whole villages hunt and feast together in a cooperative effort. This time I was a little nearer the mark, and I left only a couple of days after the season began. Bah!

I met these chaps by the side of the road one morning while I was cycling through vineyards and fields of sunflowers on my way to the bread shop - freshly made bread every day is still an article of faith in france. A proof that the modern world can be held at bay by sticking to your guns.

I may speak very little French but reading a couple of hunting mags had given me a start. I wont attempt to recreate my attempts to escape my shocking monoglotism in print, but it went something like this:

SBW: Good morning Gentlemen

Wotcha sunshine

SBW: I see you are hunting, how goes it?

We're chillin'

SBW: Where's the line? The beaters?

Boff. They're miles off

SBW: What are you Hunting today?

Boar, Deer, and if the Fox passes he's getting one too

SBW: When did you start?

Well yesterday was the 15th, so we had a big dinner to wish the season well...

It's been a while since I was last in France, and I still come away thinking; 'you've got to admire anyone who really doesn't care what anyone thinks about them'. The french are in equal parts authoritarian and freewheeling which creates some bemusing contrasts.

They do rude and stuck up every bit as well as the english. The look of horror on a middle aged middle class french persons face as our unruly kids trample on their sensibilities is worth the price of admission alone. However they don't temper stuck up and rude in the way english people do. They just don't seem to do 'self deprecating'. Any country where people feel the need to start a society to keep foreign words from getting into the language needs to learn to laugh at its self, and any country where such a society is taken even remotely seriously by publishers and politicians needs to get used to the sound of us laughing at them.

For all their uptightness they're also so good at sticking together against the sates interferences that they remind me of the USA's founding fathers.

Tax hike? Close the roads.

Change to working practices? Shut the ports.

Shorter lunch break? Is nothing sacred!!!! Set fire to the mayors office.

In france you can't really be a national hero with out having been to jail for deifying the courts.

As a nation the passion they show for a proper meal during the day is nothing short of magnificent. In my book if you were going to take something seriously, lunch would be a good choice. It's not a myth, you really can find restaurants that have closed for lunch. I find it quite appealing, that and the grub.

Your pal

SBW

Adventure!!!

Nuff sed!
SBW

From BoB

Just got this tip from BoB, Wired magazine has a poll to see what readers reckon should be in a survival kit. There are some pretty silly things on the list and you can add your own suggestions. Remember folks your vote counts!
Thanks for reading
SBW

Dig For Victory

I've just seen a really interesting blog post over at Earth Connection a bushcraft school in northern Virginia. It set me thinking............

Looking out of the window, towards my my sit spot at the far end of the garden, it's really high time I got to digging over the garden to plant a vegetable patch.
Last summers apple crop was massive, but our month in France came at the right time for us but the wrong time for effective harvesting. We left unripe apples on the tree and returned to overripe wind falls on the ground. apples aside this year I want to get into it a bit more than last summers tomatoes and chills on the kitchen window sill.

During the second world war the efforts people could make at home were a valuable source of both morale and nutrition. The concept was sold to the public as 'doing our bit' on 'the home front'. The project proved to me a huge success - the British haven't been as health since! A fact that's always worth pointing out to fatties when they moan 'its my genes' - the nation had pretty much same genes '39 through '46 as we do today but the availability of processed foods was massively restricted by rationing. So people grew their own vegetables and hunted rabbits, hares and pigeons with a previously unknown vigour and were healthier and slimmer.

I once read an interesting account of a German woman's post war experiences in Berlin, after the war food and pets were thin on the ground. She said she became something of a local celebrity due to her skill at trapping! Oh and she confirmed, dog is a lot better eating than cat.

The climate change, food miles, rising food prices, and city air quality issues (lets gloss over my need for mass reduction)are compelling reasons to take up a little suburban smallholding. Could I really live in the suburbs by the estuary, on garden grown veg, and the proceeds of shotgun, rod and ferret?

I proposed as much to Mrs SBW
'Stop blogging and go back to work'

Thanks for reading
SBW.

Saw Feelings

Axes may give you more of a ‘woody woodsman’ feeling, but in most situations saws are a lot more practical. Especially if your trying to introduce the little people to the big outdoors. Saws let kids make a sizable contribution to the woodpile without scaring the living crap out of adult observers.

It’s been a while since I’ve prattled on about the horrific cost of living in ‘Rip Off Britain’… and its also time for your pal the bushwacker to help himself to a nice fat slice of humble pie.

A while ago I sang the praises of the BCB commando saw. Well I’ve had a change of heart. I couldn’t tell you why, but when outdoors I’d always preferred saws where both ends of the blade are secured. I don’t know why but I’ve taken it as an article of faith.

In support of this belief I have painstakingly filed the teeth of a cumbersome bow saw to vicious sharp (took ages) and wrapped the blade in cardboard for transportation. Then I moved over to the BCB saw, dumping its brittle blades for a wire saw that either stretched or clogged and most of the time did both. It was light enough, but frustrating.

When I was given that well loved staple of British bushcraft the Bahco Laplander saw for crimbo (it arrived a little after) I got to put my own BS (belief systems!) to the test. The scales fell from my eyes. This is one design classic that is actually worth its reputation. Really, it rocks!

Here in northern europe many of us have a built in preference for Swedish kit, it’s the land of top notch outdoor tools and clothing. Its tools like the Trangia, Laplander and fallkniven’s F1 that reinforce the prejudice.

First impressions of the Laplander:
The design is beautifully obvious, the Laplander convincingly locks shut as well as open. No more cardboard to protect the contents of my bag.
It weighs the sum total of ‘nack all’ (I couldn’t find the kitchen scales but it really is light).
Very, very sharp teeth, cleverly set to avoid clogging and binding. I once read a review that claimed the blade was made of two different thickness of steel wielded together, with the teeth cut from the thicker piece. I’ve not been able to verify this, but the teeth certainly leave a wide cut. I’ve not tried it on bone yet but I’m expecting great things.
The teeth nearest the handle are redundant, and if it were my design I might have chosen to put a choi there instead. The handle has a bit of flex to it but two things reassured me; its cold enough in Sweden to mean that plastics have to be chosen for their resilience in the cold, if a little flex is the price of not becoming brittle it’s a fair exchange. The other thing that gave me confidence is they sell replacement blades! When a tools is this cheap it usually just means disposable, I’m starting to suspect that in this case it mean that users have found that the handle lasts.

In the UK the best price I’ve seen is £20 inc delivery from Camelot Outdoor with the average being about £23 plus delivery. As usual being ‘just down the road’ from Sweden has no bearing on the prices we pay.
The good news if you’re in north America (or you’ve sorted out a means of shipping) is Bushcraft North West have the same saw made in the same factory just with a red Kershaw logo. It comes in at a measly $25 (£12.50p)! At that price you don’t have to take my word for it.

EDIT NEW BEST PRICE IS ONLY £13.49

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker

PS for a side by side comparison
PPS my cameras out of batteries, picture from camelots website

Bushwacker Des Res

How cool is this!

It took 1500 man hours to build and it only cost £3500 or $7000!!
The pictures of the inside are even more amazing.

I'd like to build one for myself but i'm worried it might be 'Hobbit forming'. Sorry.

Bushwacker

Why Weight?

The morphic resonances of the bloggersphere never cease to amaze me. Just as the American Bushman was posting ‘unloading superfluous gear’ BoB and I were having a conversation along similar lines. As well as using his visit as an opportunity to give me the Opinels he told me the location of a long-time-no-see Trangia stove that he didn’t have a need for. As things do, the conversation rambled round to talking about the lightening the load, travelling with as little kit as possible, while still having everything you need to look after yourself. I showed BoB the amazing Anti Gravity Gear site and the caldera stove system, which is basically a Trangia that’s been seriously slimmed down.
BoB said he’d seen an article from the 1950’s where guys going on a climbing expedition carrying framed rucksacks had wielded up the holes in the frames, enabling them to use their frames as fuel bottles.

As even the most cursory look at the scouting and hunting technologies of the first nations shows, the need-for-speed in backcountry travel is as old as backcountry travel itself. Saxton Pope took instruction from Ishi’s in the art and science of travelling light.

‘In our early training with Ishi, the Indian, he taught us to look before he taught us to shoot. "Little bit walk, too much look," was his motto. The roving eye and the light step are the signs of the forest voyageur.
The ideal way for an archer to travel is to carry on his shoulders a knapsack containing a light sleeping bag and enough food to last him a week.....This will weigh less than ten pounds. With other minor appurtenances in the ditty bag, including an arrow-repairing kit, one's burden is less than twenty pounds, an easy load...... If you have a dog, make him carry his own dry meal in little saddle-bags on his back...

Nessmuk was also an early devotee, taking it as a focus in the classic Woodcraft and Camping.

While I was looking for a downloadable copy Nessmuks book for you I found Nessmuking, a site about super lightweight canoeing with this interesting ‘gear list’ challenge.
How light can you get a 35-day pack?

Last word goes to Mors Kochanski
"The more you know, the less you carry."
Bushwacker.

Those Thirteen Little Words Every Dad Wants To Hear

If you read the discussion boards on the Outdoor and Hunting/Fishing sites you’ll be familiar with the problem so many of us are wrestling with: how can I pass my enthusiasm on to my boy, get him to share in my obsessions?

During our recent adventures in the Languedoc region of France Bushwacker jnr and I wandered down to the bank of the Canal du Midi which connects the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France. While we were feeding the ducks we sat on a drain outlet were rain water (and being France probably other kinds of water) ran into the canal. A four-inch perch (?) swam into view, exposing itself in about three inches of the clear warm water. It looked just like you could reach in and grab it.
My lad kept trying to, and to his frustration Mr Fish kept swimming off.
His frustration built up as Mr Fish kept taunting him by coming back, and swimming off, coming back, and swimming off.
On our third visit he said
“Dad, I don’t care what I have to do, I’m catching that fish”

I know that feeling little dude!
Bushwacker.

Canal du Midi on wikipedia

Hitch Yer Skateboard To The EcoTech Bandwagon

A while back The Northern Monkey and myself were in Venice beach CA for a few days, and were very impressed with some of the locals, and their commitment to finding new answers to old problems.

TNM is big into EcoTech and he pointed this store out to me, unfortunately it was shut when we passed by, so this isn't so much a review, as a pointer

“Bamboo is an amazingly renewable, environmentally friendly material. It’s incredibly strong; yet light, flexible, and resistant to compression. The natural bamboo deck-ply improved return and resilience, while adding a clean, Zen flavor.”

Arbor Sports also do a clothing line. I’m not sure if I’d endorse their fashion sense (“you know nothing about fashion” Mrs SBW) but their 70% bamboo 30% cotton blend is a great idea.

www.arborsports.com