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

SubUrban Harvest

After my own efforts with chestnuts and blackberrys I'm pleased to report that one of my friends has taken the urban foraging in a new direction, with delicious results.
Last night I popped in on R&E of Stoke Newington and was delighted to try their Sloe Gin. Made with Sloes gathered on Hackney Marshes and gin gathered in from the off-license (liquor store) at the end of the road. Much better than the commercially available stuff. Interestingly E has booked herself on one of Ray Mears' six day courses. And after a bit of arm twisting WILL be writing a guest review of proceedings.

She also under taken a bit of guerrilla gardening, well more guerrilla small holding actually. She came to know where the local council were planting ornamental plants in areas where the public could see them but not walk all over them. These beds are weeded watered and fertilized by the council, she has already harvested her first crop of gooseberrys with more variety's on the way this summer!

Well Played E!!

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker

James' New Bloggers

James has been up to his old tricks ferreting out fascinating new voices for the bloggersphere and they are up to his usual high standard.

Well I would say that wouldn't I, he discovered me!!

The latest addition to his sporting shooter blog network is a chap called Andy Richardson with two blogs; one about the hunting outfit he runs north of the border, and for the other, when not afield he's writing up his adventures as a smallholder raising, growing, cooking and pickling his own foods.

As the wild fowling season has come to and end on both sides of the pond Andy has an interesting post on shooting pigeons with an over the counter air rifle and turning them into a goulash, and on the west coast Hank (HAGC) has been cooking up some barn pigeons he shot at the start of the year.

Like most city dwellers i loathe 'flying rats' unless they're on my plate, so while i was looking for a picture from 'Stop The Pigeon' I found kill the pigeons, as you'll see it's a remarkable website!

Well worth a look
Thanks for reading
Your pal the bushwacker.

Hunting Kiwis

The Kiwi hunting culture has been in my thoughts lately, (better buy a bigger couch BoB), partially prompted by the aforementioned writings of Mr Crump, and by the copy of NZ Outdoor Hunting our mum brought back from a recent visit to see BoB, Mrs BoB and the Princess E (AKA the Littlest BoBster).

There’s an adage in bushcraft that ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather – just inappropriate clothing’ reports seem to suggest that these words may if fact form part of the New Zealand constitution. As they say on the south island ‘if you can’t see the top of the mountain it’s raining, if you can see the top of the mountain it’s about to rain’.

If ever there was a country generously endowed with mountains it’s NZ, they have their own Alps where Sir Edmund Hilary trained for his successful attempt on Everest. If you’ve seen The Lord of the Rings you’ll have a good idea of what the place looks like. If you’ve seen the ads currently running on UK TV you’ll know why I’m so keen. Viewed at a distance of half a world away the place seems to have a romance the suburban bush just lacks - I go fishing across town by scooter; they go fishing across mountains by helicopter. The hills they hover over are alive, not with the sound of music, but with the thunderous hooves of Red Stags and Elk. It’s so alive with them that the Rut is called ‘The Roar’ and the Kiwi’s have their own collective noun for deer – ‘a mob’.
There are other linguistic differences ‘Alright mate’ is a greeting not a proposition, and all utterances sound like questions, with rising intonation at the end of the sentence. BoB has enthusiastically taken on this linguistic tic, much to the amusement of his family and friends. Despite being a native daughter of New Zealand Mrs BoB speaks perfectly normally.

To read about it the place sounds like a nation founded by hunters, the Maori people brought pigs with them during their invasion and colonisation of the islands, and so did the British. These creatures have re-wilded themselves in the bush and grow to some pretty impressive sizes. Deer, Elk, Hare, Turkey, Pheasant and Mountain Goats have all been introduced and with no other predators are putting unsustainable pressure on the environment. So once again the ‘culinary solution’ must be deployed to save the environment! Yummy!

The contrast to life in the city was brought home to me when I saw that NZ Outdoor Hunting had published some pictures from the memory stick of a camera that was found in the back country, secure in the knowledge that someone would recognise the guy in the pictures and organise its return to him. Are these the nicest people in the world?
Maybe the old joke isn’t so much a joke as an advertisement

What do you call a polite Australian?
A New Zealander!

Will these crudely drawn stereotypes prove to be true?
Stay tuned.
Your pal
SBW

Photo credit

Crumpy’s A Good Keen Man

A few years ago I was managing a frustrating sales team, and had foolishly taken to bringing my pain home with me at the end of the day. One Saturday morning I was moaning about the lack of enthusiasm my guys were showing for selling lacklustre advertising opportunities to disinterested regional small businesses when Bushwacker Jnr. treated me to a dose of the wisdom and clarity that a five year old has, and the rest of us would be wise to relearn. ‘’Daddy if you don’t like your guys, you should get different guys’’. Ahh! from the mouths of babes and sucklings! Talking a good fight at interview and actually having what it takes to treat daily success and failure as being part of a larger process, excepting the limitations of the terrain, and to making do with the kit available is quite another. The endless search for talent continues, if only there was a foolproof way to find a good keen man…

I’ve been away travelling with work for the last few weeks so apart from (unsuccessfully) hunting road kill from the car window I’ve not had the opportunity to do anything even remotely blog worthy, apart from catching up on some reading. Mrs BoB has long been telling me how much I’d love the work of Kiwi legend Barry ‘crumpy’ Crump(1935-1996) and was kind enough to send me a compendium of his works. How right she was. Crump has a sparse writing style (big type - not many words on the page) and manages to sound as though he’s sitting next to you by the crackling camp fire. He undoubtedly would have made great company.

I want to make Crump the patron saint of making do with crap kit. This was the age of canvas tents that weighed more that a suburban dad after a big lunch, waterproofs that weren’t, boots that were ‘half way to worn out before they were worn in’, and help that was more trouble than it was worth. At the time of writing his first book ‘A Good Keen Man’ he was a youthful deer culler on New Zealand’s south island during the early fifties, when deer numbers reached such epidemic proportions that the government had to send guys armed with war surplus 303’s (iron sights – no scopes) out into the back country to dramatically thin out their numbers before they ate the vegetation down to the rock.

Support and training were merge to say the least;
‘Do you know how to bake bread in a camp oven?’
‘Three rounds per skin you bring in, after that you pay for them yourself’.
As for leadership while actually doing the job it was,
‘I’ll be along to see how you’re doing in a couple of months, weather permitting’.

Before hunting could commence Crump and who ever he was working with at the time would have to cut their way through the bush to get to ground they were going to hunt that season. So it was only after a few weeks limbering up with a little ‘light’ forestry that the actual work they were paid for could begin.
Leaving camp before dawn and returning in the dark often with only his dogs for intelligent company, enduring the south islands notoriously changeable weather and rough terrain. The job would certainly be a tough and lonely endeavour, so it’s not surprising that the deer cullers of this period have an almost mythical place in Kiwi hunting lore. This was hunting on a scale, and in a style, that is almost unimaginable today. All deer were fair game and once there was enough meat for the table, only skins were brought back to camp as proof of kills. I’ve never met anyone who has got twenty deer in a year, Crump and his more effective co workers were getting twenty in a day. Each. A different kind of conservation effort to what we’d practice today, but without it New Zealand would now be bare rock.
The way he tells it, from his first season Crumpy was something of an asset to his manager, by the time he’d been in the job a couple of seasons he was shooting so many deer that he burned through a rifle barrel in a season!

As usual top performers must be kept on their toes so despite his Herculean (or should that be Sisyphean?) efforts he wasn’t allowed to rest on his laurels. When he put his reports in he was expecting some modest recognition of his efforts only to be told ‘you could have done a bit better if only you’d put a bit more effort it’. Same old same old!

His boss was the kind of shameless huckster that would have been at home in any of the sales offices I’ve worked in; always trying to get more numbers out of young Crumpy, and issuing empty, yet beguiling, promises of help on the way (if only he could ‘get the *&^@:$% numbers up’ in the meantime). The ‘help’ promised would occasionally be waiting for him when he returned to camp at night. Fresh faced and ill equipped both between the ears and in the rucksack.

Legs: “The only wood legs brought into the camp was on the butt of his rifle”

Wilmer: That evening, while I baked a couple of loaves of bread, Wilmer proved beyond all dispute, by brilliant deduction, that queen Victoria was perverted, that one of his own ancestors wrote under the name Shakespeare, that Winston Churchill was an impostor, and that the present birth-rate in Indo-China would make the world so top-heavy that in ten years it would start to wobble and eventually spin in a north-east by south-west direction. I believed all this and finally went to sleep with my head reeling from all the startling bits of information that had been poured into my unaccustomed ears ………[ I’m not going to spoil this bit for you - its hilarious] ………….If this was one of Jim’s good keen men I was going to ask him for a woman next time.

A succession of these ner-do-wells, dreamers and egotists rock up at his camp, only to find that they don’t really have what it takes to be a poor lonesome deer culler a long way from home after all. Any complaints about the time he’d wasted on their basic training would of course be met with further promises of having found just the guy to replace the last bloke, ‘totally different story - you’ll like him, he’s a good keen man’. Hilarious!!

Thanks for reading
Your pal
The Bushwacker.

Feed Me

Just a quick note to tell you I'm on the road and having trouble getting online to add to the blog. This would be a great time for any of you who are still interested to add me to your RSS or Feedburner, then you'll know as soon as i'm able to type up a full report on my adventures.

Hope your keeping well
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.

Thoreau's Journal: 9-Feb-1852

I've added a historical blogs section to my blog roll, having taken great delight in reading Thoreau's Journal I thought it should be the first to appear.

Met Sudbury Haines on the river before the Cliffs, come a-fishing. Wearing an old coat, much patched, with many colors. He represents the Indian still. The very patches in his coat and his improvident life do so. I feel that he is as essential a part, nevertheless, of our community as the lawyer in the village. He tells me that he caught three pickerel here the other day that weighed seven pounds altogether. It is the old story. The fisherman is a natural story-teller. No man’s imagination plays more pranks than his, while he is tending his reels and trotting from one to another, or watching his cork in summer. He is ever waiting for the sky to fall. He has sent out a venture. He has a ticket in the lottery of fate, and who knows what it may draw? He ever expects to catch a bigger fish yet. He is the most patient and believing of men. Who else will stand so long in wet places? When the haymaker runs to shelter, he takes down his pole and bends his steps to the river, glad to have a leisure day. He is more like an inhabitant of nature.

His simple unobstructed way with words, never fails to conjure up the peace of a world seen without pretension. The list on Wikipedia of people who took his life and work as an inspiration is stunning. A real who's who of great thinkers and writers influenced by this most succinct of advice:
'Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined'

Thanks for reading
SBW

Free Range Camping And Hiking In The UK

I saw this internet petition on Aktoman's blog and thought I'd sign up and ask you to consider doing the same.

If you're in Blighty or are an expat please take a moment to sign your name to this petition.It is important that we win back any and all of the liberty's that we've seen eroded over the last few years.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to legalise wild camping in England and Wales.


I'm not sure it will do any good, but as a point of principle I feel we should make an effort to be heard as its us who will lose out if we don't make the effort now.

Thanks for reading (and signing up)
SBW

Witch Blades? Nice Work If You Can Get It!

As you know I usually shy away from the 'draw queen' end of the knife making world.
But rules as they say are made to be bent until they're broken.
Having done a bit of school boy forge work myself in the past, I'm a huge admirer of the work these guys do, but fear of loss or damage, and the kind of money that they have to charge for the time they put in, stops me from buying this kind of tool.

Somewhere along the way, surfing the internet, I came across witchblades where the design ethic sits so perfectly between 'artisan recycler' and the 'serious craftsman' that I thought I'd share it with you.
The top half of the blade is from an old railroad spike and the cutting edge is made from a Damascus steel that the maker Rik Palm beat, twisted, and wielded himself.
Rik has published some pictures of the process here and some excellent pictures of what it takes to make Damascus here.Have a look at the gallery where there are too many neat design ideas to shake a stick at. I particularly like the maggot knife and this totally authentic Nessmuk, with it's blade forged from an old file. Without wishing to sound like some new age loon claiming to 'channel' the spirit of bushcraft's grand old man of letters, I reckon it's pretty much what the old chap would have been looking at when he did those drawings of his perfect camp knife.

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker

The Uplanders - Yet Another Kind Of Bushwacking

I've recently added a new voice to my blog roll. Upland Feathers is a site dedicated to the thrills and spills of bird hunting on the other side of the pond.
Robert (half of the husband and wife team who put it together), says it's 'for sporting adventurers who have a passion for grouse, pheasant, quail, woodcock, and wild turkey hunting'.
Here in blighty the game bird season has just finished, (the pigeon season never ends) and doesn't start again until the autumn (fall). I was hoping (PLEAEEEESE BABY) to get back to South Dakota this summer to take on the challenge of Ringnecks.
If (yes dear 'when') that plan fails I'm hoping to get back to the eastern US later in the year to hunt that legendary American game bird, the turkey.
That's how I came to have read Upland Feathers. The sites a very useful clearing house of information for the visiting hunter.Featuring Where-to hunt on public lands - Public Lands! there is NO PUBLIC LAND in the UK. NONE. They also introduced me to the term 'Unboxing' which is basically the joy of taking new gear out of the box - and who doesn't love that? They follow it up too with 'In the field' gear tests and reviews the services of the guides, lodges and outfitters who can put a trip together for you. Interestingly they cover the political climate for hunters by keeping up to speed with the latest regulations from state and federal wildlife agencies and the local habitat Conservation programs.

Worth a look even if you're not planning on being there any time soon
Thanks for reading
SBW.

Picture credit dakota-pheasant-hunting.com

Centenial Bushwacker

Really 100 posts already! 50 seemed like a lot.
I thought I'd mark the occasion by giving some long overdue thanks to the people who have encouraged me along the way.
Starting a blog is very easy, actually 'blogging' is a little more challenging. To start with it was just me mumbling into cyberspace. Then all of a sudden people started to comment, best of all it was people whose work I've enjoyed reading.To say I was delighted is such an understatement. Your comments and emails have made the blog so much fun for me to write, and I hope fun for you to read too.
Starting at the beginning in the order in which they added comments:

The American Bushman:
I really like reading your blog and was SO delighted when you commented on my first post.

Kelly:
I still stand by what I said at the time 'cute is just another way of saying delicious!'

Mungo:
I'd been reading your stuff for a while, your comment was all the encouragement I needed.

Mrs L AKA Lucy: I was a really great surprise to see that you were actually reading the blog.

Cuz L AKA Lorin:
You're a voracious reader and can actually write yourself. meant a lot when you commented.lets get that camping trip together soon.

The Editor AKA Rex of the Deer Camp:
Wow I exist, Rex from the deer camp knows I'm blogging! I was really blown away that you'd read my outpourings.

boudica of suburbia:
SBW Compared to Ray Mears, you're too kind, I was a fan of your blog and then you commented!

Philip from the hog blog:
You gave me another of those 'I've arrived - someone's listening' moments.

Pablo:
I'd followed your posts on BCUK for ages I was made up that you liked the blog. Thanks.

Dana AKA The Wild Woods Woman:
You've posted some great posts and your comment was so apt.

The Hobo Stripper:
I love telling people about your blog, their assumptions are written all over their faces, hilarious! I still think you have the most unique voice of any of the blogs.

Sam AKA woodcraft in poland
I'd been reading your stuff for ages before you commented. Thanks

Darrell AKA the alpha trilogy:
Hope things are getting better, thanks again for your support

Don AKA buck hunters blog:
Another milestone, i had no idea my blog was reaching so far. thanks for commenting.

Kristine AKA gunslingergirl AKA the first lady of outdoor blogging
What can i say? Without your efforts so many people wouldn't have connected. By founding the Outdoor Bloggers Summit you've done more to promote writing about outdoor adventures than anyone. Massive thanks.

Othmar Vohringer:
Another 'I exist' moment, I'd been reading your blogs for ages and there you were reading mine!

viridari AKA the Utility Belt:
Really glad to see you posting again. Thanks for your kind words.

Barkfoot:
Great pix, great blog thanks for getting in touch

Decado:
You will forever be my favourite blogger. When you said I was an inspiration in starting your blog, well let's just say I had to buy a new hat! Thanks.

Todd AKA privative point:
I've enjoyed you blog immensely, cant say I'm not a little disappointed that you moved to the backyard smithy. PS you intro to the rasch chronicles was inspired!

Jamie The fishing blog:
I've really found your blog useful, and was very flattered that you liked mine, thanks.

The Urban Fly Fisher AKA Alistair
Inspirational tales from fly fishing the Kelvin in Scotland

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles AKA Albert A Rasch:
You sir are a living legend.

NorCal Cazadora:
I've really enjoyed our conversations,no one can hold a candle to you for enthusiasm.

Hank AKA Hunter Gardener Angler Cook:
What can I say hank you're my wild food hero!

drew dunn
Keep posting and commenting - I'd miss you if you didn't

Kevin Kossowan
I really like your blog as I live in the 'burbs it's not likely I'll be a full time hunter who cooks, so reading the blog of a cook who hunts has been an inspiration to me. And it was nice to know you looked in

The Deptford Dame AKA Knit Nurse:
Thanks for dropping by

comfortablynumb AKA son of Hackney
See you soon

Mrs BoB
Thanks for letting me know your thoughts!

Ken Harris
Glad you like it - tell your friends!

B.O.B
Bruv - how many posts did it take before you commented?

Falls-Down-Laughing
Great blog man! thanks for stopping by.

Nordic Bushcraft AKA Johan:
Thanks for dropping by - I'm pleased you've started your blog its good.

James Marchington of Sporting Shooter:
James you deserve special thanks for services to Suburban Bushwacking. As I'm sure you noticed I really liked the rabbit hunt. See you soon.

Thanks for reading everyone - if you like it or if you think i should be investigating some aspect of bushcraft, hunting, fishing, gathering wild food, or have thought of a new way of me making a fool out of myself in the open air
POST A COMMENT!
If you've given me a mention on your site or blog and I've not reciprocated is most likely that its because technorati hasn't listed you yet - so drop me a line.
Your Pal
the suburban bushwacker

Show The Bushwacker To The Rabbit

Sunday morning dawned cold and transport-less, so I dressed up in a base layer of nylon sportswear, hoping the static generated would act as on-board central heating, with a layer of cotton work wear on top to keep out the thorns. I chose a bag that I'd be able to hose down if I needed to and said goodbye to the kids. As I was leaving the house I could hear Mrs SBW sniggering and singing Simon and Garfunkel's well known ode to successful rabbit hunting

'Bright eyes,Burning like fire.Bright eyes,How can you close the pain. How can the light that burned so brightly Suddenly burn so pale? Bright eyes.'

After three changes of train due to engineering works I was finally on my way to meet James for a spot of old-school rabbit hunting. With Ferrets.

And what a great way to spend the day it is,James and Sara met me at the station and we drove through the Sussex countryside. For readers in the US - it looks just like the farmed parts of my adopted home of Northern Virginia, except the roads are narrower and the cars are smaller.

James's dad's place is big enough to have several warrens all in different states of occupation. The biggest coney conurbation we investigated had been flooded out by the recent rains and was unoccupied. Of the five warrens we tried, two yielded a total of three bunnies.

The Ferrets are charming, they have an animated curiosity about them and while I'm sure rabbits view them as dangerous thugs, to me they look very pet-like and from what I've been reading are easy to keep as companions and hunters. Here in the UK their role in feeding a hungry nation is quite well documented with references in court papers going back at least as far as the twelfth century when a ferreter was listed as part of the Royal Court. Today Ferrets ownership and hunting counjours up an images of working class countrymen in flat caps and long coats (to hide the booty) with bulging trousers using them for poaching for the pot or pest control for the land owner but it wasn't always the case. In the 1300's you'd have needed an annual income of some forty shillings (I'm not exactly sure of the exchange rate - but it was quite a lot of money) to own a ferret and the penalty for unlicensed ownership would have been harsh. King Richard II issued a decree in 1384 allowing one of his clerks to hunt rabbits with ferrets and they're mentioned again in 1390 with a law prohibiting the use of ferrets on Sunday when feeding your family wouldn't be allowed to interfere with marshal archery practice.

Ferreting is very simple, at the end of the afternoon I asked James if there was anything more I needed to know and he replied 'that's about it'.
First you need a business of ferrets, two seems to be the preferred number. I'd recently read that one male one female was considered the best ratio, with males being more aggressive and females being more through, James reckoned that whatever you had would do at a pinch. We used the modern locator collars which certainly made things a lot easier when it cam to the digging. In days gone by you'd have had to tie a tread to your Ferret and let it pay out as the Ferret went down the hole, when the Ferret stopped taking line you'd know that it had either killed a rabbit and was taking a nap (something they're notorious for), or it had backed the bunny into a hole with no exit and wasn't letting it out. Either way it would be time to start digging along the tread until you got to the action. With a locator you're spared a hell of a lot of digging as you can find the spot from above ground and dig directly down. In the wet clay laden soil it's still hard work. If your lucky and it all goes according to plan, you've put you ferrets into the right holes the rabbits bolt out of the warren into 'purse' nets that you've secured over the exits. As the rabbit barrels into the net it's own momentum pulls the drawstring tight capturing it. These bolted bunnies are the most highly prized as without teeth marks from the Ferrets their flesh is untainted by coagulating blood and the make slightly less gamey eating.

On the subject of eating special thanks and a commendation must go to Janet (james's mum) for the huge, hearty country lunch she served us that kept out the cold and the AMAZING bread and butter pudding she made.

James has posted a video of our hunt here.

As Ferrets usually come in pairs, they offer up some amusing naming opportunities.
James had a pair called Dead and Buried and a lad called Robin who lives in Scotland and has a Ferreting blog calls his business Purdey and Kalashnikov!

At the school gates I ran into young R, (well he ran into me) a lad in bushwacker jnrs class, he's absolutely fascinated with everything 'survival' and was proudly showing me his copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys when his mum showed up. She'd heard about the forthcoming trip from Mrs SBW and wanted to know if I'd been. I told her we'd gotten three rabbits
S. 'where are they? in a shed in the garden?
SBW 'No! they're in the freezer!'
S. 'NO!!!'
She scuttled off dragging young R behind her leaving me wondering is she still speaking to us or are we now a family of evil rabbit killing hillbillys?
As they say up north 'there's owt as queer as folk'
Thanks for reading
SBW

PS If your interested in getting started yourself Deben have a DVD, sell the locator collars and net making kits.

Picture Credit
Stained glass, Long Melford,Suffolk. Picture by chris chapman
Have a look at his fascinating site about the motif and it's appearance in medieval art across the world.

Been A While Hasn’t It?

Sorry for the lack of updates, my laptop is no more and I’ve lost access to quite a bit of stuff I’d been putting together for the blog. In the meantime I’ve been catching up on a bit of reading. As I searched for new bushcraft blogs I found some that are a great source of information and entertainment, and quite a few that fit into the ‘good intentions being cast into the tides of everyday life’ section where a great start is made, and then it becomes an abandoned ‘ghost blog’.

Laplandica has proved a fascinating read, with its mixture of hiking trails and a historical perspective on the clash of cultures between the settled Swedish people and the nomadic Sami of the Arctic Circle. Stunning photos too.

A new voice in outdoor blogging is RJ Mosca author of common outdoor survival skills. He been a prolific poster so far and as a former instructor at an outdoor skills school he’s put the stuff he recommends to some pretty tough tests.
(I would say something like ‘keep posting’ but who am I to talk?)

Falls-Down Laughing blogs a mixture of cringe-inducing puns, historical north American recipes and folk lore. A very silly man. Check him out

Only two days to go until I take to the field with James from Sporting Shooter, in a heroic effort to rid the ancestral lands of the Marchingtons from the delicious curse of the bunny rabbits.
wish us luck
Bushwacker.

Uncles Like Snakes Have Tales

The SAS survival trainer and all round legend Lofty Wiseman said 'where there's a snake there's a steak'.
Here in Blighty our best known native snake is an virtually an endangered species so I'm waiting until I'm stateside before i find out if the herpetofauna is succulent or chewy.
I'm hoping my wild food hero will post a comment and let us know.
In the meantime Nor Cal Cazadora has an uncle, the uncle has a hilarious turn of phrase, the turn of phrase has an outlet, the outlet is a blog, the blog has stories about snakes

"Torremolinos, Spain, 1975. I met a great white hunter at a party. He complained that by the mid-70s the great white hunting business wasn’t what it used to be. Thanks to unfriendly poachers, vigilant rangers and inflation, there just weren’t that many safaris any more. Things had come to such an ugly pass, he continued, that he was available for almost any reasonably legal employment. Consequently, when a British movie company came to his part of Africa on location, he signed on with them as an assistant animal handler."

And thereby hangs a tale........

All the best
SBW.
picture credit ( i've only seen one a couple of times and never this near to my house) © Lee Brady

Nordic Bushcraft

I've read posts by Johan of Nordic Bushcraft on one of the bushcraft sites, he knows his stuff so I've added him to my blog roll. For those of you you who always feel a the need for more cutlery (you know who you are) he has some really nice traditional knives for sale amongst other cool bushcrafty stuff. Well worth a look.
Thanks for reading
SBW

Undercurrents - The A to Z of Bushcraft

Undercurrents is a production company with a focus on social and environmental justice issues. Specialising in films reflecting the global counter-culture. They are a non-profit company working with video makers from communities who have been marginalised or overlooked by TV broadcasters.
They've been working with the charismatic Andrew Price, founder of Dryad Bushcraft to create this series of short films. I like them and think their efforts deserve a wider audience. See what you think.
Thanks for reading
Bushwacker.

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 Edu. - A Knotty Problem

As James pointed out the other day, unless you come from a family who hunt or live in a small community where everyone knows everyone else, your chances of getting involved in hunting in the UK are relatively slim. The net result is that there are a few holes in my education.

John: Hey, Jeremy, what do you know about holes?
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: There are simply no holes in my education.
Paul: You mean you haven't composed a "hole" book?
The Beatles - The Yellow Submarine

James has invited me to go Ferreting in a couple of weekends time. As you can imagine I’m fairly excitable at the best of times, so he’d no sooner invited me than I was starting my preparations.
“Apart from my hat & coat what will I need to bring?”
“We’ll need some Purse Nets”
“Where do I buy them?
“Your making them – a kit’s in the post”
“ How difficult is it?”
“ Just one Knot, tied lots of times!”

So I’m about to start making some purse nets that we’ll stretch over the exits to the rabbits warren, before sending in his business of ferrets to flush the bunnies out.

Wish me luck - thanks for reading
SBW

Really Actually Tasty?

Much to my surprise the office has yielded a lesson in preparedness and survival this week.

Due to the early January lull when the rest of the world seems to still be on holiday. Last weeks office life was at a much slower pace than could be productive. The morning football conversation extended beyond its mandatory 20 minutes and peaked on Friday at an hour and a half.
Work, as it was, centered around half-hearted researching, most of the day went on teasing each other and reading stuff out from the internet.
One viral email caught everyone’s attention and made me think about the nature of our dinner and our expectations of it.

LOOKS GOOD

EASY TO COOK

PLENTY OF THEM ABOUT TOO!!


As we watched to squeals of horror, the question everyone was asking, well more shrieking than asking, was ‘Would you? – Could you!”.
Mr. Bojangles (the resident song and dance man) has lived in Senegal for ten years so he speaks with an authority the others cant muster.
“In lots of the parts of the world people eat all kinds of stuff”
Would you? Have you? You didn’t!
“I wouldn’t be surprised if I had, in a lot of places people just need to eat, you never know what you’re being served ”

In the Southern US and much of eastern europe squirrels are well known as good eating, a few people shoot them to eat here, and a couple of the more adventurous London restaurants have them on the menu.

Well they call squirrels ‘tree rats’, maybe these fellas should be re-branded as ‘ground squirrels’. Hmmmm?

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker.