A tubby suburban dad watching hunting and adventure shows
on TV and wondering could I do that?
This is the chronicle of my adventures as I learn to learn to Forage,
Hunt and Fish for food that has lived as I would wish to myself -
Wild and Free.
The lovely people* at Red Ram have sent me a Merino Base Layer for testing, but frankly the weather is still a warm to be able to tell you anything about it's thermal efficacy. Red Ram is a fair bit cheaper than my current favourite brand, which is no bad thing. The saving seems to come from not having the spiral seams of 'technical' underwear, after one days wear I'm yet to detect a difference. I wore the top last weekend on a Pheasant shoot where I was over dressed for the weather and under dressed for the thorns and brambles I fought my way through, I was boiling the whole time. As soon as I get round to slinging on a wool wash on I'll let you know how well it survived the rigours of the washing machine, but a true test of the longjohns will have to wait until the mercury falls.
For those of you not afflicted by 'kit-tart-ness' sorry if that's the way the blog seems to be going at the moment - normal service with it's tales of feral failure will resume shortly with a cold weather adventure, a look at the english class system afield, some book reviews, and I may even get the time to finish some craft projects that aren't based in other people houses.
Keep well, your pal
SBW
*Lovely People status is available to pretty much anyone who wants to send me useable stuff
Caught sight of this, and well, it was was love at first sight, at last something truly new in air rifles. Just single shot at the moment but that maybe about to change....
Your boots and your bed: if you're not in one you're in the other.
Regular readers will know that up until a while ago I was a firm believer in wearing 'approach shoes' and waterproof socks or Muck Boots for deerstalking (hunting), and was dismissive of proper clomp-clomp walking boots, that was until I woke up one morning and walked downstairs, as yer do. I've now got a bump in my achilles tendon that still hurts over eight weeks later. More ankle support is called for. Not that I'll be wearing them in bed, so they won't prevent a similar incident - but here's hoping they'll be a aid to recovery.
I really want a pair of handmade bespoke boots, but alas many many things are between here and there, all of them clamouring for money. So for the time being it'll have to be off-the-shelf. I flirted with the idea of this brand and that, I toyed with Kevlar instead of leather, but ultimately my dreams return.
There is a boot you see, ever since I first saw them in the long departed Survival Aids store in London's Euston station I've wanted a pair. Every nation has it's national boot maker, Sweden has Lundhags.
Born in the Swedish wilderness region of Jämtland, Lundhags are a simple un-lined boot. I've heard about the wonders of Thinsulate linings, but the quick drying practicality of the un-lined boot has always made more sense to me. At the moment they are hard and smooth; where one day they'll be soft and wrinkled, the Nubuck is pale and matt, soon it'll be dark and greasy with treatment. The other side of those first hard-yards they'll be a dependability that the much promised 'improvement' of plastic boots never seems to deliver. Dare I say it - they'll have soul.
I'm not the only one. There's something about the love a blogger has for his boots, that has brought forth some great writing.
From The Buffalo Digest, where the outdoor media is called as it's seen 'you can tell a lot about a man by his boots. I read an article by someone who was billed as some sort of expert backpacker, which I suppose is someone who is just really good at camping. I guess that’s just a weird distinction, because if you can set up a damn tent, not starve, pick up your trash and return uninjured, you’ve pretty much nailed it.'Boots
And the ever-wonderful Mouthful Of Feathers I have to be honest – I rarely ever think about you. Which, I suppose, is the ultimate testament to how good you are at what you do. At times, however, I know this may come across as ingratitude, and for that, I’m sorry. You’ve accused me of being a fickle S.O.B. and I know there is a certain amount of truth to that. I expect a lot in a lamentably short period of time, and offer little more than neglect the rest of the year. Dirty Love
More Soon
SBW
PS in part two we'll see how they got on after some dirt time
Dumpster Dived Kitchen Knife Of Unknown Stainless Steel
Sometimes there are benefits to this Blogging thing, if you post enough about a subject sooner or later you get offered stuff to review. Although contrary to popular belief I'm not sponsored by Patrick Smith of Kifaru, in fact when I look into the empty void in my pockets, it feels more like I sponsor him!
Every once in a while someone writes in and asks me to review a piece of kit. Sadly most of them are vendors of crap I wouldn't have in the house, let alone take afield or recommend to you. Every once in a while it's something I've been meaning to buy so when Scott from Lansky popped me an email I was thrilled. I've known lots of fans of the Lansky Sharpening System so I was very happy to have one of my own to play with.
Straight out of the box it's a pretty well thought out piece of kit with enough grades of abrasive to take a knife from used-and-abused to damn-that's-sharp. I know lots of you have struggled with freehand sharpening, and to be honest its taken me a lot of time and effort to get even reasonably remotely good reasonable at it. I'm still no where near as good at it as I want to be and it takes a lot of time to get a credible edge.
Most sharpening systems that actually make a durable edge are bloody expensive. It's very easy to make a knife sharp for a few cuts, most of those little 'pull-through' sharpeners will give you an edge of sorts, but it won't stay sharp. What they create is a very very thing 'wire edge' which soon flattens or breaks off leaving a dull edge behind. What helps is a fixed sharpening angle. So as a first step to sharp and durable the Lansky seems like the logical choice.
So how does it work?
The Lansky is a blade clamp with a series of slots which guide the hones as they contact the cutting edge, every stroke is the same as the last one, meaning that you're avoiding the classic beginners mistakes of mis-estimating the angle and you're always taking material off the blade without the odd acidental 'off angle' strokes undoing of the work you've already done. Works well.
Stay tuned for the next part where I'll show you some tips I've compiled for getting the most out of the system as I take a truly used-and-abused Mora Clipper back to hair-popping sharp.
Here's one I've wanted for a while, but always sucked a lemon at the price, at the Midland Game Fair I saw one on the remainder rail of an army surplace stall, it was reduced, but not enough, so I tried it on then repositioned it on the rack so I'd be able to tell if anyone else had taken it down.
The Midland finishes at 4pm on the sunday, so as the paying punters were trooping out. I thought I'd do the other kind of 'Trying It On' and made a bee line for the stall. I was defiantly the last person to so as now they had no prospects or customers they were packing up. I asked the owner bluntly "are you interested in selling this before you go home?" as he took a breath to answer I gave him the other barrel "What would you really take for it?". After some face pulling and sharp intakes of breath we began the good natured haggling - he claims to be able to sell it for more online - I point out that it's less hassle to reduce the cost of sale and sell it to me. We reach a figure where honor is served on both sides. I now have a Ventile smock.
So what's so special about this Ventile stuff? Like so much of the UK's history, our tale starts during the dark days of WWII. As a way of guarding the arctic convoys that brought food to the UK aircraft were launched from the decks of merchant ships using catapults. Sadly once their work was done there was no space for them to land on the decks. When the pilots ran out of fuel they simply 'ditched' their Hurricanes into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic and swam for it. Understandably the mortality rate was pretty high.
Scientists from the Shirley Institute in Manchester (a northern town with pretentions) developed the cloth known as Ventile as a way of keeping the pilots alive for a few precious moments more, life expectancy in the sea soared from 'no chance mate' to around 20 minutes and many rescues were affected. 80% of the anti-submarine pilots who made a splash landing lived to fly again.
Ventile works by using the finest cotton possible (the top 2% of the worlds crop), woven as tight as possible (30% more cotton per sq yard). Woven so tight in fact that as the first threads make contact with water they swell making the weave tighter still. Ventile isnt technically waterproof, but is near as damn it. It allows vapour to pass through but unlike Goretex and its ilk, its breathability isn't affected by dirt or pressure (ever noticed how the first place water comes through is where your rucksacks straps press against your jacket?). Its also so naturally flame and spark retardent that it's used to make the suits firefighters wear. The reputation Ventile has from its use in arctic exploration comes from its tight weave being almost totally windproof. Quiet too.
Gotta be able to post a better picture than this
West Winds make a whole range of jackets and other clothes from it, but I've always wanted the simple smock - it's a real bushcraft classic. Very little is perfect out of the box, and while the smock is pretty good, I'm thinking of it as a work in progress. The logo(s) have got to go, for some reason there's a strap that goes between your legs with is just plain annoying. The pockets are big enough, but the noisy velcro closures have to go. I'd like it to have a big chest pocket for a pair of binos, but in fairness I'd like my other pockets to have enough cash in them to buy the binos I want, so I guess that's a mod that can wait.
Rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated, but I have been very busy so apologies for the dearth of posts in the last couple of weeks. On the up-side lots of new kit has been arriving and testing will commence as soon as the weather worsens and time permits.
In the meantime this Lansky Sharpening System has arrived and was scheduled for testing this weekend, until I remembered Skippy's wedding. Opps!
Bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
Ahh the sights and sounds of the river bank; the flutter-by of butterflies, the magic of the rods flex as it loads with the energy it's going to use to flick the line out, the babble of the river, the misanthropic mutterings of the Andy, and the delightful scent of DEET on the breeze. Ahhhhh.
The last of my adventures afield in the Kingdom of Fife (for the time being) took us in search of that magical fish the Sea Trout. Andy and I drove to a river he's fished for years, where water tumbles down from the hills breaking through the soil and out into the Firth of Forth. Our quarry is making the journey in the other direction, having once spawned in the same waters we patrolled, the Sea Trout are returning to complete the cycle, some of them having attained truely impressive sizes. On arrival we caught up with Gordon the Water Bailiff - armed with a spinning rig and soft lures in the style of Sand Eels. His reports were encouraging; He had already landed his 'toon-fash' of the season, and witnessed a twenty-pounder caught by another chap. We held high hopes of a trip to the smoking service with our bounty. Yeah right.
Wether it was my; poor technique, general englishness, or 'sheer-suburban-uselessness' Andy wasn't sure, so he alternated between them and threw in a few other forms of blame for good measure.
Alas I was once again unable to close the deal with the wild foods of Fife.
As usual our kit pendulumed between the home-made and the high tech, Andy pairing an £800 super rod with one of the skanky-ist spinning reels its been my displeasure to see/use in a long long time. Ever keen to reenforce national stereotypes Andy indignantly leapt to its defence "what do you mean? I paid Ten Pounds for that!"
Other Bushcrafters had been there before us
Almost 16C [aka 60.6F] measured with the plumbers non-contact thermometer.
How's that for kit-tart fishing tackle!
It was the kind of idyllic afternoon that fly fishing is made for, the cares of the world were far far away, occasionally a Brown Trout would jump from the water, and despite Andy's prediction I actually came back with one fly more than I set out with!
"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World," said the Rat. "And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all."
Following on from the last post, this is what i spent a little less than the $200 on
I am my father's son; what ever I do, how ever much I see myself as evolved through my own nurture, nature will out. Or as MOB (mother of bushwacker) says of my Dad "gods gift to anyone offering a bargain - whether he needs it or not". Putting Ma's cynicism to one side for a moment the summer is the best time to buy winter equipment. I am a very sad man so I have an ever growing pile of gear from high end small volume manufacturers, and because the kit isn't made by imprisoned democracy protesters it aint cheap. I can't afford to buy it new but I keep telling myself there's no saving in buying brand new crap that falls apart within a year, when for 10-20% more [ I tell myself again] I can buy stuff my kids kids will be using as they forage the post apocalyptic wastelands for rats to eat.
I've got the Arctic 27oz version with the 'optional' armour on the Knees and Seat
I could never have justified buying these at full price so it's nice to see first hand what the really high-end gear is like. In a word Awesome. For your eye-watering $452 + shipping + import tax + VAT you get a pair of RhinoSkin trousers that are seriously stuffed with Climashield 6 Oz per sq yard insulation, and 500D cordura patches on the high wear areas. As usual with Kifaru there's the clever little design tweeks that make the difference. They sew a patch, inside and out, on to the back of the pants where the belt of your pack will sit that is - I don't know how to explain this - sort of adhesive without being sticky. Which is designed to reduce the effect of your pack moving about on the layers of your clothing. Feels like it'll work well. But obviously only a thorough field test will answer that. I've not managed to track down anyone with a sub zero meat locker yet so the field tests of these and my Kifaru Sleeping bag may have to wait until the weather gets a lot colder.
In the meantime, more of the usual nonsense, kit reviews, and tales between here and Elk hunter
Your pal
SBW
So picture the scene: you've got $200 bucks, AKA £120, not that I've got $200, or that I'm by some act of blogger magic able to give you $200, just an imaginary $200 of 'mad money' not bills money, not body and soul money, just $200/£120 of 'mad money'.
What Outdoor Gear Would you Buy With It?
Answers in the comments section please, and you never know where this one might lead us.....
A couple of you have written in to ask me about the rioting in London over the last few nights.
The first bit of this footage takes place about 10 minutes walk from my house, and literally on MCP's doorstep. The second section is down the street from R&E's place.
Looting got a bit nearer the next day, but after the appliance store had been cleaned out there was nothing left worth stealing so the running battles moved back down to Hackney central.
More Soon
SBW
EDIT PS
Two bits of reportage that I thought were worth repeating, the first a call to arms from some of the 'yoovz' purportedly taken from Blackberry Messaging:
"If you're down for making money, we're about to
go hard in east london tonight, yes tonight!! I don't care what ends you're
from, we're personally inviting you to come and get it in. Police have taken
the piss for too long and to be honest I don't know why its taken so long for
us make this happen. We need a minimum of 200 hungry people. We're not broke,
but who says no to free stuff. Doesn't matter if the police arrive cos we'll
just chase dem out because as you've seen on the news, they are NOT ON DIS
TING. Everyone meet at 7 at stratford park and let's get rich."
And from the excellent psychology blog MindHacks, some coverage that looks a little deeper than the tedious knee jerk reactions we've all read elsewhere.
'In the coming weeks we can expect to see politicians and pundits lining up to give us their smash-and-grab clichés for the recent urban riots in the UK. They’ll undoubtedly give a warm welcome to our old friends economic decay, disengaged youth and opportunistic crime, and those of a more psychological persuasion might name drop ‘deindividuation’ – the process where we supposedly lose self-awareness and responsibility in large crowds.This belies the fact that we crowd behaviour is a complex area that is surprisingly poorly researched. READ MORE HERE interesting stuff.
This 'Trophy Rupert' was first glassed in the car-park and then stalked to this magnificent shot in the vegetable section of Morrisons in St Andrews.
Rupert (s) are the mature males of the English upper classes: often seen in their distinctive out-of-office plumage of red strides and check shirt, this partially fine example has the additional pink shirt.
Although there are records of earlier sightings, Rupert Stalking in the UK was first popularised early in the 21'st century by the blogger known as Bambi Basher. Mainly a summer sport, most Rupert Stalking takes place at game fairs and country shows, although domesticated examples can sometimes be seen tethered outside horse shows, country interiors showrooms, and boutiques selling twin-set and pearls.
Reports have reached us that there have been numerous sightings on the east cost of America where they are colloquially known as 'Nantucket Pinks'. It is not yet known if these a purely domestic species or the result of migratory interbreeding.
More soon
SBW
PS I'm hoping to bag a 'Tarquin' the juvenile male of the same species, later in the season.
PPS I dont usually edit posts but this blog deserves a mention
"The rod is a bamboo weighing seven ounces, which has to be spliced with a winding of silk thread every time it is used. This is a tedious process; but, by fastening the joints in this way, a uniform spring is secured in the rod. No one devoted to high art would think of using a socket joint."
Way back when I set out on my mission to take Wild Brown Trout from waters within the M25 (the orbital ring road that incircles London) I hooked up with [sporadic] blogger and Fly Guy, Jeremiah Quinn who had offered to act as my guide. He oversaw my first clumsy efforts to flick-a-fly as we explored the Darenth a river in Kent once fished by Charles Dickens. You can read all about it here.
Jeremiah is very well traveled and deeply committed to no-money-down fishing in rivers and streams, disdaining 'stockies' from the pay-to-play reservoirs as tame fish for the uncommitted. Often this means arduous travel by planes, trains, and public transport. He uses Greys Missionary rods to avoid that horrible moment when you're waiting to see if the ramp-monkeys have bent your rod tube into a U shape. As something of a wanderer myself I've always bought take-down or travel rods for spinning and beachcasting so I needed little convincing.
Everyone I asked said a six weight was the all-rounder for fresh water, I've got the 5/6 weight. You can fish a fly rod one up or one down so it's biggish for the chalksteams of the Darenth and Wandle, and smallish for the Thames. The rod of a suburban fly fisher. The rod of mountain stream bushwhacker.
You can spend all kinds of money on fly rods, but frankly there are limits. Sad kit-tart though I am, I'm just not in the market for an £800 rod. But my £25 rod sucked; if I'd given it a flick before writing this post it would still be vibrating now. Happily fly rods are both deeply subjective and subject to the whims of fashion. So there's often the chance to buy rods from people who've changed their minds about last weeks must-have. When a deal steal came up I took Jeremiah's advice and pounced on my current rig which is based around the Greys Missionary.
8.25 feet long; handy when trying to get between the trees linning a chalk stream
Slower than the fast 'technical' rods, faster than the sloppy slow ones, it's made a HOOJ difference to my casting.
Mid-to-Tip action makes it pretty forgiving
The tube it comes in is much better made than the Shimano tubes, though not as nice as the metal tubes the £800 rods come in.
One of the afeild pastimes we played at was both fun and fantastic for the diversity of the environment. Andy lets his front yard grow totally wild with loads of different grasses, sedges and pants growing to seed, the birds are drawn to his garden in impressive numbers. We spend a great afternoon collecting seeds from a meadow to introduce to the his mini nature reserve. It was loads of fun to keep adding to the tally of different plants we'd gathered. I stopped counting at twenty and reveled in being ten years old again.
We spent the morning anxiously searching the Kingdom of Fife for Sciurus carolinensis AKA the Tree Rabbit, who has an urgent dinner invitation for some celebrity chefery. Further details are embargoed...
When inventor Michael Pritchard saw the asian tsunami on TV he wanted to do something to help people in the third world rebuild their lives, when he saw hurricane Katrina devastate a first world country he re-evaluated the scale of the problem, and developed Lifesaver as a solution. This truly is game changing technology, by carrying one instead of carrying water you save a massive amount of pack weight AND get far cleaner water than any other available system.
Up until now even the best filter has only removed bacteria 200 nanometers long from water. Viruses are typically only 25 nanometers long and would pass through the filter. Lifesaver filters right down to 15 nanometers means instant access to safe water whatever the circumstances.
The instructions said you have fill it with clean water and let it stand for 10 minutes
Once you've got the lid off!
Mockery: Andy says it's better to give than receive
Pump it up to prime the charcoal filtre
Fill with water of questionable quality
You can also use the pre filter as a scavenging sponge
Make sure you've closed the waterproof cap to keep the drinking and filling ends separate
OK perhaps the lid is a bit stiff
Pump it up to make the water flow,
if the water only trickles out give it a few more pumps.
“The ‘Lifesaver bottles’ were tested using micro organisms in far greater numbers than could ever be found in natural water sources. This is the worse-case scenario approach recommended by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and their guidelines have been used to draw up our own protocols for testing of all Microbiological Water Purifiers. As well as using modified tap water for our tests we use samples taken from a pond or stream as our challenge test water to simulate ‘real-life’ situations as per EPA guidelines.”
Under the conditions of testing in our laboratory as shown in this report, our results show that the ‘Lifesaver Bottle’ removed all bacteria and viruses from a contaminated water source in excess of legal requirements and as such, complies with all British, US and European Drinking Water Regulations for Microbiological Reduction. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
For a full explanation here's the inventor Michael Pritchard giving a demonstration for TED Talks
I'm not as smart as Michael Pritchard but as ever, my blog my rules, so here's what I'd do differently:
In this size it takes up a bit of pack space, I'd like one half the size, half the weight wouldn't be a bad thing either even if, as it's for recreational use, it only had half the service life.
The strap is add-on design - by the time you've filled the thing with 'orrid water the strap has soaked some up and the risk of cross contamination is doubled. I'm going to make a replacement out of something non-absorbant.
In summation: wether you're hiking, camping, traveling in the third world, or preparing [see the Jerry Can size here] this is an excellent bit of kit.
Lifesaver also do a really cool purchase option, where you pay a little more for your bottle and another bottle goes to someone in a disaster zone. The link is HERE the USA site is HERE
The traveller fancies he has seen the country. So he has, the outside of it at least; but the angler only sees the inside. The angler only is brought close, face to face with the flower and bird and insect life of the rich river banks, the only part of the landscape where the hand of man has never interfered.
The car park at Rock-A-Nore in Hastings. East Sussex
For THIS!
Andy's private mini-loch.
Grin caused by massive improvement in casting [thanks Andy].
We're going back to work tomorrow afternoon, it's hard life being a celebrity adventure guide!
