Liz Procter's Blog

Hey there all,

Although it has been a while since my last post, there is actually quite a lot to put on here. I just need to get around to doing it that’s all. I will do soon, I promise.
In the meantime however, the most recent event was a weekend away in Dorset learning bushcraft with James white (whom himself was partly taught by Ray Mears!). This involved making a shelter, chopping wood, making fire and learning about what we could and could not eat from the trees around us, oh and playing mind games around the camp fire at night!

Here is my video:

We learnt many ways of making fire:

1. Flint and Steel: I had to rub the sharp edge of a peice of flint against some steel to make sparks. I did this over a sheet of charcloth. Once the charcloth had caught the sparks, I had to quickly place it in a nest of dried bracken, then blow into it to get it alight. It lit quite quickly so before we started we had to collect loads of wood. They called various sized wood 1′s 2′s and 3′s, meaning the smallest bits (kindle) and bigger bits of wood. We had to make a nest shape out of the kindle ready to place the burning bracken inside. So, once the bracken was alight I transferred it to the kindle. It would not burn straight away. It took a couple of attempts but once the kindle was alight we then placed the bigger wood on it to make the proper fire. There you go, hey presto!
2. Another way was to use a ‘fire steel’ which is basically a steel device that is small, light and very capable of lighting fires. Use this instead of the steel and flint. This is so easy to use and I will most definately be buying one of these. All I had to do was swipe a small flint stick against the small steel part and it sent huge sparks out immediately.
3. Cotton wool and vaseline: Yes, use a fire steel, matches or whatever you have to set  this alight pretty easily. Vaseline is literally petrol so plenty of cotton wool soaked in this to put under your number 1′s wood is great.
4. Matches: Obviously!
5. Bow drill: James made us a bow from a branch and some parachute string along with a thick stick with an end sharpened. We had to bascially rub the bow against the stick to get something we could light. This is the way that most people see on t.v, rubbing two sticks together and thirty seconds later having a fire!!! Well I can tell you it’s not that simple. It takes technique and strength to make this a success, oh and time! A lot of it! We as it happens, never actually managed to do it at all. We tried as a group and still failed. Our bow kept snapping and the string kept breaking. Oh well, at least all the other methods are much better.
6. The sun: Holding either a magniying glass or coke can polished with chocolate (yes its true) into the sun, we wait for an area we are aiming at to light. This can be quite quick too, so if you don’t have steel, matches or a knife to make a bow then as long as you have a magnifying glass on you (hmmm) or a can of fizzy drink and chocolate you will be ok. Oh and a sunny day of course, teehee.
7. Metal wool and a battery: Just holding a battery near the wool emits a chemical charge from the battery and it lights immediately.

Anyway, without going into detail on everything we also learnt ways of cutting wood. We tried various saws, knives and axes. I discovered that it was not as easy as it looks in films when you see a man swinging an axe over his head to cut a log propped up on a bigger log. We were taught a more energy efficient way of cutting it and even that was difficult. James showed us how to do it and he cut a log into imaculate chunks each time. I barely got half way through the log, I had very small bits of wood, ha ha:

Once we had cut the wood we were shown how to make tent pegs. Tims were bigger than mine:

In our spare time we also carved other things. I made a heart shaped wooden spoon that everyone said looked like bunny ears, ha ha. Tim half made a spoon (picture coming soon). It hurts your hands after a while  using the knife and other cutting tools. One man started to get a blister after an evening around the fire carving his items.

During the afternoon of our first day we proceeded to make our shelter for the night. We were told to bring a tent incase we ended up needing it. No one did. The shelter/den took three hours to build. We had it easy really, we collected wood that had already been used by another group on the previous weekend so at least we did not have to spend a day cutting branches from trees. That would have been quite an effort!

Anyway, to cut a long story short. Our den was a success and we slept in it without it falling on top of us!:

With our shelter built we could then go and sit around the campfire whilst dinner slowly cooked. Our instructor Ian cooked us a curry and very nice it was indeed. We had bananas with melted chocolate inside for pudding, classic! After dinner we sat in the dark and played mind games which took us until late in the evening until we went to bed.

I woke up at 3:30am freezing cold and in need of a wee, not good! I really didn’t want to venture out into the dark woods on my own in my underwear but by 4:30am I could bear it no longer. I put on my walking boots and stepped outside, literally, that was as far as I would go. I was a little scared to go any further, I don’t know what I was scared of exactly but being in the woods all by oneself in the dark is scary. Tim was kind enough to give me his inner sleeping bag but he laughed at the fact that I was using a three season sleeping and should in no way be cold. Well I was, and although his liner helped, a lot, I was still chilly. At least it helped me get some sleep though.

The next morning we had breakfast then went for a walk and learnt all about the things we could eat in the woods. Quite a lot apparently. The one that really sticks to mind though, it was NOT to eat, foxglove. Apparently it will kill you if you eat it. Tim and I are planning on trying nettle tea (very good for you) and burdock root (apparently tastes like sweet potatoe) at some point.

After this, we had lunch then had a go at the bow drills I spoke of at the beginning then played a game before everyone said their goodbyes and trundled off in their cars home, straight for a good shower I should imagine!