UnBoxing - Light My Fire Lunchbox

The days have dragged by but my new designer lunch boxes have finally made their way to me. I was going to get us all the same colour, then I found the Dan from JRE industries had a whole mix of colours, but not enough for eight of one colour, he also told me he had one set in pink.
TLB (my daughter The Littlest Bushwacker) has already been asking for a pink Spork so knowing how important 'style' is to any trip outside, I had to order it for her.

First thoughts
They look bigger in the pictures, but I've anecdotal evidence that having bigger plates makes people (OK me) have bigger dinners, so maybe that's no bad thing.

The design is way cool - after you've scarfed your lunch all the bits disappear back into the big box so you've less clutter to take home

The main box is a reasonable size and depth for eating wet foods, and its lid has quite a lip to it so it will make a practical outdoor plate.

The little pot is a little pot.

The chopping board-colander hybrid is a really good innovation, with just kettle water i can now prepare noodles at work! Afield it means i can rinse blackberries and other gatherings. Best of all i now have somewhere safe to slice things, slicing has been the death of many a plastic plate and the lid of the occasional Tupperware box.

The plastic cup with lid - is, well, a plastic cup with a lid. Handy.

The Spork - despite Pablos Spork anxiety inducing comments the Spork is still a convenient way to cuttle whilst out and about


The true test of any lunchbox - does an oil and vinegar dressing leak out of it?

Is it really 'dishwasher proof' as Light My Fire claim?

This has been an UnBoxing review, only time will tell..........

Thanks for reading
SBW

Bushwackin' vs Glamping?

I've got a foot in at least two camps here; I'd really like to follow in Gary from Bearclaws Bushcraft's tracks and take to the woods with only a blade, a pot and a blanket. As that's so much more in the spirit of Ishi and Pope who are a big part of my inspiration for this blog. It would do me good and take me further towards being able to travel lightly across the wilderness, dulled senses awakened, to my moment with Mr Elk.

However.

Mrs SBW is more on the 'Glamping' side of things, where she takes hair straighteners with her and chooses her wellie boots not on the grounds of design or build quality but because "those are what Kate Moss wears to Glastonbury". If she knew you could buy a portable microwave she'd have one already!

Tom from Trout Underground is sure that any form of comfort afield is weakening the gene pool to an intolerable degree
'Glamping is the fast-growing segment of the travel industry where people pretend to interface with nature while a staff of servile lackeys hover in the background, keeping the food coming, the heated tents clean, the private bathrooms in tip-top condition, and (presumably) the animals at a nice, safe distance.'

Go on Tom, don't sit on the fence tell us how you really feel!!

“forget checking for numbered birthmarks. Look to glamping for a sign the Cloven Hooved Deceiver is on the way.”

But (and it's a perfectly formed butt) Mrs SBW looks a lot like Ms Moss, and if a little luxury is the price a purist like myself must indure to snuggle up next to her in tent, then (sigh) so be it.

So what is a suburban dad to do? Sometimes it's going to be 'dump camping' by the side of the car, one day it'll be just me and you Mr Elk.

Sigh! Such is suburban life
Thanks for reading
SBW

You Look Delicious, And You Don't Run Too Fast

Another of his pix, from where we're SO not the top of the food chain
More news as it happens
SBW

UnBoxing - Greys' GLA 80 AKA LL Bean's Quest

Unboxing is either:
A review at the time of delivery
OR

The ritual opening of a box - recorded and broadcast on Youtube. The auteur director CheapyD is credited with being the first Unboxer with a staggering 694,390 viewings of his seminal work

'CheapyD Gets His PS3 - Unboxing'

The fishing trip with Jeremiah was all the encouragement I needed, I thought I'd like fly fishing, now I know I like fly fishing, so I've been cobbling together some kit of my own. On a strict budget.

Fathers day was keenly anticipated at the lair of the bushwackers this year, despite her much repeated (and dare I say ludicrous) claim that "You have more than enough fishing equipment to last a lifetime" Mrs SBW, SBW jnr, and The Littlest Bushwacker chipped in to buy me a fly reel.

I'd got a fly line, travel rod (essential for the urban fisherman who travels by bus, train or scooter) made a rod tube for it and all I needed was the reel.
There seem to be two rival camps when it comes to fly reels; first there are those who believe the reel is a place to store the line and then there are the advocates of 'low start inertia drags' who feel that no reel could be worth mentioning (let alone taking to the water) if its drag takes more than the weight of a single cigarette paper to spin into action and cannot withstand testing against the off the line acceleration of a 1000 cc sports bike.

So having been baptised in the waters of confusion by the magazines and websites, I made a few calls. As usual with fishing (or any new pastime) advice veered wildly between 'any old crap will do', and 'you've got to spend at least £500-£1000 to get anything worthy of the name'. Fortunately Jeremiah seems a level-headed sort of chap and recommended 'drop £30 on ebay, buy a brand you've heard of and see how often you actually use it before you spend any more!'

Fly reels are another of those guy things, like watches and firearms, where we go all misty eyed at the way metal has been worked, believing that the god of the forge and goddess of the hunt will somehow allow us special favour if only we drop a bit more cash, shave off another two grams and use some space age technology. Yeah right!

I own a couple of Magnesium bodied spinning reels, sound great don't they? They're certainly very light but Magnesium is slightly porous, so they have to be coated in special paint, which can be scratched off. The same reels also have hype features which make them sound more 'technical', they have 'infinite anti reverse' sounds good but all it means is the spool only turns one way and the thing that stops it turning back has no play in it. Still 'infinite anti reverse' sounds more 'cutting edge' than 'it does what it's supposed to'.

In comparison to spinning reels fly reels are incredibly simple things, but can be huge money. I've seen one on sale for £5,000 YES that's $10,000!! No not gold, just titanium. As theses are toys for boys, no amount of money is considered too much to spend. I spent an enjoyable few hours clicking around on the net looking at reels that cost as much as a holiday. After I'd spent a while ooh!-ing and ah!-ing over the reels on offer I started looking at the cost of a combined desktop mill and lathe and some aluminium bar stock; for the price of a nice looking reel with a pair of spare spools you could set yourself up with a real cool home machine shop.....

Enough already! Get to the Point! What's it like?

Greys are a well known brand in the UK (part of the House of Hardy empire) and their missionary rods are for many people the default travel rod. That fitted in with Jeremiah's advice, and the price was bang on £30 too. So I put in my fathers day request for the 4 weight reel.

As coincidence would have it during the writing of this post I was re reading an old copy of Field and Stream (Dec06-Jan07) when I saw the self same reel recommended. In the US LL Bean sell them as the Quest range - Loads cheaper $29-$39. The F&S guys gave it best for the money status.

The reel is polycarbonate (gasp sacrilege) and here's for why. Aluminium is very easy to scratch even when its been hardened and as most of the places where I'm after those urban trout are in concrete canyons I thought a hard wearing plastic would be a better bet than a cheap aluminium. It's immune to corrosion and after all the heartache that I've expended over cleaning and rinsing those spinning reels I felt like getting something 'wash 'n' go'. I was tempted by a supposedly more up market version of the same idea in clear plastic, but it would have meant doubling the budget and I later saw this post on UrbanFlyFisher revealing the design to be 'mince'.

The drag
I've caught big mean fish with reels considerably less refined than this one. In comparison Jeremiah's Orvis' were a lot quieter clicking - will that make a difference? Only time will tell.

Finish
With cast plastics there's not a whole lot to go wrong, it isn't going to make you drool, but then my rods no great shakes either.

Fit
The one area where the maker has really let themselves down is the cage and spool fit.
Where the spool meets the spindle the fit is fine but there is a 2mm gap where the cage meets the frame of the spool. Most of the time its fine, but if you have the drag set quite loose, the line often appears on the outside of the cage. Which is not what you want. At all.

I've been thinking of way to correct this and at some point I'll do a post called Pimpin - the GLA 80/Quest.

Hmm where's that machine shop catalogue again....?

Thanks for dropping by, leave some comments - I'd love to know what kit you're using and whether you reckon it makes any difference to the fish.

SBW

PS F&S are still recommending this reel!

Pot Hunting And More Bushman Bargains

While I was looking at the American Bushman's gear sale I noticed that he has these light my fire meal kits WAY CHEAP. I've never seen them for less than £15 ($30) so I was delighted to see that he has them for $10 (i.e £5) The last time I bought a Spork on it's own it was £2.50. I've wanted a set for a while now, but because I really need to by four sets - one for each of us, I'd always found something else to spend the £60 ($120) on. The way the postage worked out I could buy that knife and ship two sets of these for free. Silly not to I told myself.

Now let the justification begin!

1. What a handy set up - bowl and plate, cup with a lid , another bowl-cup-tub thingy, a chopping board/strainer and a spork to eat it all with.
2. I could use them to take a packed lunch instead of going to the curry hut - nutrition,weight loss, cost saving. All good things.
3. Mrs SBW could use them for her lunch too.
4. They would be handy for family days out -picnics and educational trips
5. They were a bargain
6. They last a long time.
   
7. They pack up neatly, much less fuss than what we use at the moment.
8. Joachim Nordwall has done such a good job - they really are a great piece of design
9. Have you seen the price of Sporks?
10. Did I mention that they float?

I'll do a full review on arrival
Thanks for reading
SBW

A Tale Of Two Bushmen AKA Bargain Alert

I've been reading the blog written by the American Bushman for ages and marvelling at his knife collection - he doesn't just think 'that looks cool I wonder what it's like to use' he buys one and finds out just exactly how cool each design is. As you probably know after a while it's easy to end up with more stuff than one bushman can practically carry so he's decided to lighten his load by having a bit of a clear out.

Good news for us!

Inspired by the Backyard Bushman's posts about his EDC I've snaffled the Mikro Canadian II by the Bark River Knife and Tool Co. and a few other bits which I'll review as usage allows.
There are still loads of handsome blades for sale - take a look.
Happy Hunting
SBW

Trota! Rod? Line? Nah!

Our friend who is yet to get his TLA (three letter acronym) lets call him jon, has just sent me this picture from his place in Italy. Apparently he was standing by his trout stream (you think that's jammy - he has Boar and Deer too!) wondering weather or not to take up fishing (I know! Some people!) when he saw this one had invited itself to lunch by marooning itself in a shallow pool.
So he picked it up and took it home, as yer would!
Thanks for reading
SBW

Adventure!!!

Nuff sed!
SBW

Surf's Up! Or Should That Be Surfs Down?

Once again not a lot happening here in the suburbs, so I've taken to dreaming of a trip to Namibia. Where amongst other attractions you can cardboard box surf down the biggest sand dune on earth. Aparently the walk up is 'only' 50 minutes, and after an invigourating glass of Champagne the trip down lasts a full 5 minutes.

Did I mention you can catch Bronze Whaler sharks from the shore?
Now that HAGC has pointed out that surplace of chum I'd be a fool not to (well at least think about it)!
(wistful sigh) Such is suburban life....
Thanks for reading
SBW

I Want One - A Not So Occasional Series Pt3

I saw this on The Gear Junkie. What a great idea! Available soon from Black Crater Gear

Thanks for reading
SBW

Can Trout Laugh?

"When the beginner can cast his fly into his hat, eight times out of ten, at forty feet, he is a fly fisher; and so far as casting is concerned, a good one."
James A. Henshall, MD, 1881

In the spirit of 'what gets measured, gets done' I thought James Henshall's criteria could be tracked. I mulliganed the first two casts, but as you can see from the landing sites of one through ten, I'm still falling some way short of the hat. When you deduct the length of the rod (eight feet) it's even worse! I keep telling myself the Chalksteams are only ten to fifteen feet wide and that the fresh Trout aren't the only reason I'm doing this......

"Unless one can enjoy himself fishing with the fly, even when his efforts are unrewarded, he loses much real pleasure. More than half the intense enjoyment of fly-fishing is derived from the beautiful surroundings, the satisfaction felt from being in the open air, the new lease of life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of all one has seen, heard and done."
Charles F. Orvis, 1886

SO TRUE.

But then he would say that wouldn't he? He's got an agenda to push, and fishing gear to sell!!

I'm lovin' spending time outside, but the Trout are perfectly safe.

Any pointers gratefully received!

SBW

Fishing In A Barrel

Am I psychic? Or are the public just extremely predicable?

One day a week I spend at home with The littlest Bushwacker; generally we drop Bushwacker Jnr. off at school and make our way home via the bakery, or weather permitting we take a walk in the park. As my fly cast is still in its embryonic stage I'm trying to get as much practise in as possible so I take my fly rod with me and practise on one of the ponds. Half an hour once a week isn't much but its better than no practise at all.

I use a short leader tied to to a feather from that pheasant. I don't need a hook, I don't use a hook. I knew this was going to happen, and this morning it did.

While I was happily thrashing at the surface of the water a black Labrador bounded up scaring TLB into hiding behind my legs. Ever one for instilling confidence (tempered by realism) into the kids I said 'you're all right honey, that's a friendly dog'. Then looking around the pond to its approaching owner I added 'It's the owner I'm frightened of'.

I was going to describe the woman as having a face like a Bulldog sucking on a Wasp, a face only a mother could love. When my own mother used to see faces like that she'd tell me and BoB 'stop pulling that face, the wind'll change and you'll be stuck like that'. The wind is obviously changeable on Blackheath.

I could feel her rage before she pulled up alongside me, her eyes ablaze with indignation as she shouted "this is not a fishing pond" to which I replied "I'm not fishing" I let a pause hang in the air while she gulped like a feeding Carp before adding, "this is casting practice". Spying her chance to feel justified she waded in a little deeper "you're leaving hooks in there, there's Ducks in there, and you're leaving hooks in there!" she went to turn away in a huff, no doubt intending to report me to the park maintenance guys, further round the pond, who were busy using a small John Deer thingy to drive the six or seven feet between individual pieces of rubbish.

Restraint, Respect, Control - whoever has the slowest heartbeat wins....

"Madam, maybe you'd like to take a look at this" by this time I'd hauled in the line and was presenting her with the end of the leader, "And if there's a hook on it you can report me, and if there isn't a hook you can apologise".

She muttered "I apologise"

Her withdrawal was made all the less dignified by my laughter.

I know, I know, no points for fishing in a barrel, but you've got to make your own entertainment. Such is suburban life.

Thanks for reading
SBW


photo credit (some very good pix)

Namibia!

WoW!!

Further in the spirit of living vicariously through others, this is the first in a series of photographs taken by a friend of mine. He gets out a lot more than I do!
Thanks for Looking
SBW

This Weeked I'll Be Reading

Maybe you've noticed in recent months I've developed an interest in the gentle art of fly fishing. Why? Well opinion varies; Skippy has it 'you're so lazy no wonder you've chosen fishing as your sport, if you can call it that'
Thanks Skip.
Jonah (who taught me to fish) "you've got everything! When are you going to do some actual fishing?
Well Jonah I might say the same about your 'adventures' in carpentry.
Regretfully I must concede, our chubby coastal dwelling friend has a point - I don't really manage to get to the water that often. But I do enjoy reading about/living vicariously through, those who do.

I found This Is Fly a few days after my trip with Jeremiah. As we'd sat outside the pub we both noted the way the fishing media have failed to keep up with the times, where was the magazine aimed at us?
Fishing magazines are pretty dull, written by and aimed at an older crowd. Which is strange when you think about it, as the canal sides, river banks, beaches and piers where I meet people fishing are enjoyed by all ages. Teenage louts, and grumpy granddads are well represented, as are paunched hipsters in the full flush of middle youth (like myself and Johna) with young children in tow.

If even golf can be 'reinvented' - w'appen?

Where there's an obsession, there's a niche, and where there's a niche, there's an audience, and where there's an audience, there's the potential for ad revenue... ....and at the end of the line there'll be a bunch of obsessives with long suffering wives, dreaming of someone else paying for them to pursue their obsession, and a laptop. Starting a magazine.

There are loads of 'online only' magazines most of them not worth the paper they're printed on. But every so often something happens which defies the natural order of things, confounds inevitability, and surprises.
This Is Fly is just such a magazine. A fishing magazine that starts with 'mixtape': what we were listening to as we put this edition together. It looks like the graphic designer was previously working on a skating magazine, and reads like it was written by guys who'd be good value around the camp fire. The editorial style is brave enough to say "you wistfully dream of 'A River Runs Through It' if you like, this is our time, this our thing and this is how we do it".

So this weekend, if you like fly fishing, or have ever been puzzled by the rules of understatement and reverse snobbery that the English live by, be sure to read 'A Duffers Guide To The Chalkstreams' by Rufus Cartwright in issue 9!

Thanks for reading
Your pal the bushwacker

Jus' Like That!

After my recent outburst on the comments section of Andy's Blog, and this weeks exaltation of the biscuit there are two reason to show you the picture at the top of this post.

One: Tra-la! They really are as easy as I said, and if you get down to the shops later today you've still got the chance to be a hero tomorrow morning.

Two: Andy's point about the farm shop being the best place to buy your eggs from is so true. Look how flat the yolk is on that egg. It's perfectly cooked, but being from a supermarket, it's not really fresh and so instead of being a perfect hemisphere the yolk has sagged.

Such is suburban life
SBW

PS Here's how I poach eggs

Breakfast - It's All Good This Weekend

This one you gotta try!!

American readers will already know this, so this post is really for those of us not residing in the USA. America leads the world at breakfasting, really, and here's for why...

It's not just a legend, there really are special breakfast beers brewed in Germany, a wonderful idea, shows real imagination, but no. It's not quite what I'm looking for.
A croissant, even a chocolate stuffed croissant or pan au chocolat, washed down with a bowl of hot chocolate is good. But not good enough.
The 'full English' while a fine thing in itself could do with a few additions. Those additions hail from the US. The American take on the pancake, all risen and fluffy is a wonderful thing too, and may well become the subject of a future blog, but this post and this weekends breakfasts are dedicated to the majesty of the Biscuit.

By biscuit I don't mean the English word for cookies, I mean the half way house between bread and scones that ANYONE can make in TEN MINUETS. Transforming themselves at a stroke from kitchen lummox to culinary hero in less time than it took me to write this post. TRUE.

I've eaten biscuit with American family's and in dinners loads of times but it never occurred to me just how easy they are to make.Until I read A Proper Breakfast by GWH (the Great White Hunter). His recipe cannot over state just how easy they are to make!

Shortening isn't that easy to come by in the UK so I use vegetable suet which all the big supermarkets sell. You'll find it in the baking section it looks like this


The only things I would add are;
Don't make them too thin. At first I was nervous of making them too doughy and rolled them a little thinner than the recommended three quarters of an inch, as soon a I started to roll them out a little thicker I got a perfect biscuits.
A sponge tin (round and not very deep) is perfect for making one large biscuit which you can serve slices of.

This weekend you're a hero, even if it's only until the end of the meal!
Thanks for reading
SBW

PS This summer while camping out, at the music festivals or later in the year at deer camp, this recipe makes a good alternative to banock -you can mix and bag the dry ingredients and take them with you. While the others are lamenting the state of the squished, soggy loaf they brought with them, you can bake your biscuit in a Dutch oven over the fire. How bushwacker will you look then!

I've Got A Sample For You!

The other day my office neighbour, she has the space next door to us, popped her head 'round the door saying 'I've got a sample for you' as she handed me this bottle.
You should have seen the look on the interns face!

Of course it's Elderflower cordial, and so delicious even the kids liked it!

The elder flowers in our garden have all gone now, roll on the elderberries!
Any elderberry recipe ideas gratefully received!

Thanks for reading
SBW

Two New Blogs - Well New To Me

Hiya

The feedback from my OBS interview has exposed me to a couple of blogs that are well worth a mention.

First Rabid Outdoorsman's The Maine Outdoorsman
"Greetings fellow outdoor fanatics and welcome to the Maine Outdoorsman Blog. I started this blog as a way to share some of my favorite hunting, fishing and outdoor experiences with the general public. My goal for this endeavor, is to work to improve my writing skills so positive comments and suggestions are much appreciated. With that said please sit back, make yourselves comfortable and join me in conversing about a few of my favorite outdoor memories."

And Fish Hunter's Hunting Knive
"When you are in a position to indulge in it, hunting is one of the activities that can provide both a great deal of physical activity and bragging rights, not to mention an impressive amount meat and a truly epic trophy at the end."

Both struck a chord with me, hope you'll enjoy them too

Thanks for reading - leave a comment or two
SBW

Road Kill Rules

A little while ago the three ring circus that is the clan de la bushwacker were driving through the leafy lanes of Kent. As we entered a village I implored Mrs SBW to pull over. Bushwacker Jnr. and yours truly ran back down the road and recovered this delicious hen pheasant that had recently meet its demise at a passing vehicle's wheel and had not been there long.

How do I know it was safe to eat?

Well I'm no Tom Brown Jnr. but there were a couple of tracks that even I could follow:
1. It was about 11am and reasonably sunny - her blood was fresh and no flies had gathered.
2.It was about 11am and she was still there, if she'd died during the previous evening a fox would have had her during the first available cover of darkness.
3.Hung game has a strong smell and is still completely safe to eat. This one had hardly any smell.

At the butchers shop/game dealer you can buy a nice plucked pheasant (looking a lot like the one pictured bellow) that was shot on a shoot near by, it then sat around in a field for a few hours before being taken to the chilled game larder where it resided until at least the next day, when it continued its journey to the butcher/game dealer, where it sat in the chiller until it was plucked. Only then did it make it onto the shelf of the shop. We're talking £5.50 or eleven bucks from the butcher nearest my house, cheaper if you live out of town and up to a tenner if you live somewhere really swanky.

Mine had probably been clipped by a passing car that morning, took ten minuets to pluck (it would be less with practice) cost me nothing, and I got a really cool bag of feathers to use later.Bushwacker jnr. and I tucked in after Mrs SBW came over all squeamish and pushed hers to the side of her plate.Sucker!

Thanks for reading
Bushwacker.

SBW Interviewed Again

The Outdoor Bloggers Summit have interviewed me!

Why did you start blogging and why do you keep blogging?
What is your "vision" for your blog - how do you see it developing?
Do you have more than one blog? Do you have another website?

1) Why did you start blogging and why do you keep blogging?

I've had a growing interest in wild food and hunting for it over the last few years, I'd seized the opportunity to hunt a whitetail 18 months before i started the blog but had done nothing since. I started blogging as a way of tracking my motivations, activity levels, and most importantly as a way of goading myself into getting on with it, as opposed to just talking about it.
As a wily old sales director once told me  "What gets measured gets done".

What keeps me writing the blog has been two things; its given me massively increased confidence with my writing (my grasp of grammar and spelling may be poor but at last I've found a 'voice'). The feedback I've received from my friends and complete strangers has been amazing.What I hadn't expected was the number of people who have dropped by to read it. I was over the moon to have six readers and gob-smacked when six became six thousand! Being an attention seeker by nature i, of course, feel compelled to keep writing the blog for my audience.

2) What is your "vision" for your blog - how do you see it developing?

That depends from day to day. Sometimes i see Brad Pitt playing SBW in the movie (we look so alike its uncanny!!) and sometimes I'd just be happy to shoot my compound bow at a target instead of watching it gather dust in my shed! I'm still a long way from my ultimate aim, but the journey has so far proved to be most entertaining, i've met some really cool people online and in person; James from Sporting Shooter magazine and Jeremiah from Jeremiahquinn.com have been kind enough to give me some lessons. It had never occurred to me that I'd hunt rabbits with Ferrets, or learn to FlyFish within the confines of the city! As for the future further adventures beckon and I'll be updating the blog with my preparations and the trials and tribulations as i go. 

3) Do you have more than one blog? Do you have another website? If so,
what are the URL's of the additional blogs/websites.

With a group of friends I have been making and collecting everything needed for a suburban smithy. The forge has been welded up and I've been collecting scrap brass to smelt and steel to work.http://suburbansmithy.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading and be sure to have a look at the other OBS blogs, some of them are really good!
SBW