Woodcraft in Poland

Back in Poland

2010-03-12T19:38:00.002+01:00

We're now living back in Warsaw.

I'm no longer updating this blog but have left it up as it has 3 years' worth of posts.

My current blog is at http://woodcrafterslog.blogspot.com/

The End is Near

2009-06-19T08:45:00.001+02:00

Today is our last full day here in Poland, we fly out tomorrow afternoon. Feeling pretty sad about going and still got a lot to do.

20 Years of Freedom

2009-06-04T14:40:00.002+02:00

Today is the 20th anniversary of the end of communism through the solidarity movement. Poles have a rather different view of how and why things happened then but this date is still one of great significance for the world.
So raise a glass to Solidarnosc and the end of communism.

European Elections

2009-05-25T09:12:00.003+02:00

The European Elections are rapidly approaching and I'd like to make one comment on them.

If you vote for a party which is anti-EU, then don't go complaining about the EU for the next 5 years. Electing someone who is determined to see the institution fail is hardly likely to bring about anything positive. This is not the time to register your displeasure with your government or the EU - that's for general elections. This is the time to choose who you think will do the best job in Europe.

One Month

2009-05-20T10:39:00.003+02:00

We've only got a month to go here in Poland and then we'll be off to England.
This blog's successor is well under way at Woodcrafter's Log.
I've spent a fair bit of time on it so hopefully it'll be a better blog and more widely read than this one.
To try to gain a bit of circulation I've also set up a Twitter account and you can follow me here.

The Top Ten Things about Living in Poland

2009-05-11T13:33:00.002+02:00

As my time in Poland looks like it could well be coming to an end here I thought I'd put up some of the reasons I've enjoyed it so much.

As you may have noticed I have a bit of an obsession with the weather and Poland has enabled me to see real winter. Minus temperatures and weeks of snow are the norm here and more than make up for the lack of spring. Most Brits move looking for the sun whereas for me it was the cold I wanted.
Bank transfers. No one in Poland understands the idea of paypal as there is no need for it here. Cheques came in too late and never caught on so the bank transfer system is very easy, very secure and basically free. On allegro.pl, the Polish version of E-bay, almost every transaction is by bank transfer as giving someone your bank number and name is no big deal here. It is an excellent system and should be exported throughout the EU.
Public Holidays. In England the bank holidays are usually when school is off anyway and are always on Monday. Not so here as they tend to be on a fixed date. The benefit of this is that when you have a Tuesday or a Thursday off people tend to take the extra day and make a longer weekend. There are too few public holidays in Britain and fixing them all to Monday takes the fun away.
The food here, that is Polish food, is generally great. It may not have the strong flavours and exotic tastes that some people might want but it is good, honest food. Although some things like pierogi and zurek have no English equivalents it isn't food which would really shock or surprise anyone. I shall really miss some of the pork dishes and meals when we leave.
The trains. Polish people always laugh when I say this as the trains here are slow and the toilets have probably not been cleaned since the fall of communism. However, if you can get by the drunks and the kebab shops the stations are not very different to those in Britain (just uglier) whilst the prices are much lower (about £3 for 100km) and are charged only by type of train (there are basically 3) an length. Very simple compared to the British system and much better value. The network is also wider and I have never had a train fail to arrive or get to its destination here, something I've suffered on a few occasions in Britain.
Although state health care here is rather byzantine the private system is great. The level of technology in opticians, private doctors and dentists is far above and beyond anything I've experienced in Britain and appointments can be organised the next day. Whatsmore, doctors actually try to treat their patients rather than saying "come back next week if you don't feel better" after you've already waited over a week for an appointment. you may have to pay for the services but they're not that expensive and the price is value for money.
I no that no one Polish is likely to agree with me but in my experience I find Polish streets safer. It may be largely because of the British love of drinking and fighting on Friday night but I've seen very little trouble anywhere in all my time here. Even running a pub for 6 months (before this blog) I saw only 2 fights. I've never had to dodge around piles of sick or look for a cash machine without blood all over it here either.
The Polish countryside consists mostly of forest, most of it nationally owned. You can go and walk there and it makes travelling real fun. Sadly, state control means there's not a lot you can do but at least there is a place and the right to access it. Train journeys show this off to its best and keeping on the lookout for storks always adds to the fun.
Poland still has all the small shops and markets, bakers, butchers and grocers that have been slowly turning into hairdressers and take-aways in Britain. This means you've got a better chance of finding real food tha in the UK. Added to this, in Poland cooking means cooking. Not re-heating, boiling in a bag, microwaving or phoning out. It's easy to be tempted by ready meals but they barely exist here keeping me safe!
Attitude, a lot less of it. It shocked me, even when I was at school, to see small children wandering around swearing and being antagonistic to adults. Poland does have its own chav problem, largely associated with football hooligans, but it is by no means as all pervading as in Britain. They cannot terrorise town centres or shopping centres as they just get kicked out. The lack of lots of attractive benefits also makes them more inclined to get out and do something rather than do nothing but smoke drink and pop out kids.

A rather long list, but I hope it shows you some of the things I've enjoyed whilst I've been here - and some of those I'm sure to miss when I move.

Weekly Update

2009-05-06T10:53:00.002+02:00

I've got an inspection in school at the moment so I am fairly busy this week. Hasn't stopped me from applying for a few jobs though and we're continuing the hunt for work in the UK. I'm looking for anything in ESOL/EFL, Classroom assistant or education. I'm also in the process of working out an application for PGCE.
On the bushcraft side I've not had a lot of time to get out for a while due to work, travel and family things. I've started work on this blog's successor when we move - it's going to be over at Woodcrafter's Log. I'm still in the process of building it so there's not a lot to see there as of now.
I think I'll keep this blog up as there are 3 years' worth of posts on here.

Stupid E-bay

2009-04-29T14:42:00.001+02:00

I wanted to buy a knife on E-bay today, a CRKT M-16 in this case, only for the website to go all crazy and tell me I couldn't buy it because it thought I was trying to circumvent their "weapons policy".
1. It is a knife, it is legal.
2. I live in Poland, not Britain or Ireland
3. The knife was in the USA, not Britain or Ireland
4. The My account was registered in Britain but has since had the postal addresses changed, multiple times, as E-bay and paypal sometimes screw them up.
As of today, I officially hate E-bay.

Hunting for Jobs

2009-04-27T13:10:00.002+02:00

We're in the process of looking for summer work at the moment. The joy of being TEFL teachers is that we're pretty sure of getting work for 2 months in the summer. We're not sure quite what we'll be doing after that though!
It isn't easy to see what type of jobs would suit someone with a degree in International Relations and Security and 4 years teaching experience?

Happy St. George's Day!

2009-04-23T13:15:00.002+02:00

Today, the 23rd of April, is St. George's day.

As well as being the patron saint of England he is also the patron of archers and scouts as well as several other regions and countries. It is also the day on which Shakespeare died and was born as well as being world book day.
I shall be wearing my St. George's cross tie to work today, I hope all my readers have a nice day!

Woodcraft in .........?

2009-04-18T09:06:00.002+02:00

Well, there hasn't been a lot of action here of late due to a variety of mundane reasons.
The only exciting reason is that my wife and I are beginning to think of leaving Poland and heading to the UK. There are various reasons, mainly to do with the nature of our jobs, the difficulty in getting things done and the absurd level of bureaucracy here. With Britain becoming more affordable, in terms of house prices, it does make the country more attractive once again if work can be found. We're not 100% that we're going but we're pretty sure of it.
So there we are, we shan't have Woodcraft in Poland all that much longer!

I don't believe it!

2009-04-05T16:21:00.000+02:00

Two weeks ago there was snow on the ground, today it is 21 degrees and I've been sitting out on the balcony in shorts and we've got all the windows and doors open to give the place a good airing.

Spring Time

2009-04-04T20:32:00.002+02:00

As usual for Poland spring is a little odd. Less than a fortnight ago we had snow and minus temperatures, now we've had several days of +20 degrees.
There is, by English standards of variable weather and gradual change, almost no spring here. One minute it's still winter the next you're in shirt sleeves.
As the weather has changed we've spent the afternoon tidying and cleaning so we can get out on the balcony again, had to scrub a load of dirt of the bricks, windows and floor but it's good now.

Not up to Much

2009-04-01T11:48:00.002+02:00

That basically sums it up, we're hurtling through 2009, now into the fourth month, and I realise I haven't really kicked on and done much on here.
I've been hard at work as ever although the 2 weeks before this were and improvement and now we have more daylight hours, due to the clocks changing and the onset of spring, I have more energy. As usual I have lots and lots of ideas but very rarely see any of them through to their conclusion. This can be a little frustrating but at least I've always got something new to start!
I guess spring's a good time for starting things but I'm not really sure what to do next.

Spring???

2009-03-25T09:23:00.000+01:00

Officially spring starts with the 21st of March here. I guess that's why we had 5cm of snow fall last night.

Quote

2009-03-18T18:51:00.004+01:00

I was reading one of the Bradford Angier books on the Metro today and I came across a nice quote regarding making things - in this case furniture for a cabin.

"Things should be born of the woods not borne there"

Simple, I know, but a nice quote and one that has insipred me throughout the day.

Don't Consume, Create!

2009-03-10T21:48:00.002+01:00

With all the talk of crisis and recession at the moment it makes one think about the nature of economics and trade. Through woodcraft I have come to a few realisations that may be of interest here. I hope that the idea that we can create prosperity or capital through shifting numbers and papers will be properly challenged. I warn you, I'm no economist but as seen as everyone else has written their opinion I thought I would too.

Reusing items is a great way of creating value. A bottle in the landfill has no value, it costs. Whereas a bottle, reused as a canteen has created a value from this void. It might not be the the best way of topping up an endless cycle of production and consumption but it does create.
Harvesting natural resources is one way of releasing value from the world. Our economy is in many ways built on this very principle, through the extraction and use of fossil fuels but bushcraft teaches us that there are so many other resources, many of which are a great deal more renewable than squashed dinosaurs. Be it wood, bark, leaves, roots or skins there are a lot of resources which, with the aplication of time and skill can be used to create lasting, valuable, objects.
Teaching and practicing a skill is one of the greatest ways of multiplying value. By teaching another a skill you are effectively doubling the amount of potential value. By practicing and developing your own skills you may not acheive such a drastic increase but there is still an incremental increase in the potential value.
Growth is nature's way of making value. It can be through planting crops, rearing animals or even producing your own :) As a natural way of producing capital it is hard to beat, though it does bring with it its own serious consequences and complications

That's all for now - what are your thoughts?

Take Nothing For Granted

2009-03-09T18:33:00.002+01:00

Despite my predicitions for the end of winter we still got caught out. We were in Radom to see my in-laws at the weekend and when we went into the restaurant for a meal there was a bit of sleet, when we came out later there was 5cm of snow on the ground!
I've found it almost impossible top predict wether the precipitation will be snow or rain, in general though we're now having positive temperatures most of the time so I expect it to be rain.
March in Poland is truly the spring month, spring tending to be short here. I've seen it go from 10cm of snow on the 1st to t-shirt weather by the end of the month (20 degrees plus).

Whittling Away

2009-02-25T22:00:00.001+01:00

After the joys of Ostatki (the last party weekend before Lent) I've been having a quiet week. It's especially nice enjoying the snowy vista from the balcony but it's starting to warm up and with sleet and rain this evening it'll only last a couple more days.
I've been using the indoors time for whittling practice - making a small carved dog for my wife. It is always good to work with a knife in hand and brush up on your skills. One of the biggest changes I notice is how I develop different and better grips on the handle and blade which make it a lot more agile and more controllable.

The Last Snow of Winter?

2009-02-17T08:50:00.002+01:00

Since Saturday we've had snow, now up to about 6 or 7 cm on the ground.
It's scheduled to be about -5 degrees all week so I'm trying to get out and enjoy the weather as much as I can. There's always a chance that this will be the last cold snap of winter - it has been an up and down winter and we had one day at plus 10 degrees about 10 days ago. In years past the thaw would come in early to mid March but the snow has come and gone this year rather than been on the ground for a couple of months.

Back Again

2009-02-13T22:11:00.001+01:00

Well I've got most of the reports done on time, just 2 more sets next week.
I'm feeling almost 100%, just a bit of a cough in the morning and we've had about an inch of wet snow fall today. It looks like things are looking up for next week

Recovering

2009-02-07T19:13:00.002+01:00

I've been busy at work all week which has rather slowed my recovery but I'm not feeling too bad now. I'm a little worried I might have an infection in my right ear but otherwise I'm ok.
At the moment, work is busy with reports and tests at the end of semester - the net result is less time out in the woods than last month and less posting. I hope I'll be able to be posting more regularly again in about 10 days.

Sick

2009-01-30T15:38:00.001+01:00

I've ended up losing the second half of this week to a stinking cold. Blocked sinuses mean I can't hear much out of my right year so I'm bored and depressed by it.
Hope I can get sorted by next week as I can't afford to have time off work

Cree Hunters of the Mistassini

2009-01-27T12:00:00.000+01:00

I watched this film last night and was incredibly impressed by it. Great scenes of snowy spruce forests along with genuine bushcraft skills and an insight into some Cree beliefs.
Luckily the video is free to watch and the website also has a fair few other videos which have also piqued my interest. Whilst searching for it I also came across another worthwhile blog on paddle making.

A Muddy Walk

2009-01-26T17:55:00.002+01:00

Spent three and a half hours walking around the woods today, mostly off of the beaten track in order to avoid the quagmire that was on the main paths. Aside from the daft Nordic Walkers - women over 50 who drag a pair of poles behind them rather than putting weight on them - the woods were mostly empty.
There wasn't really a lot of movement in the woods today, far more "dead" than it was at minus 10 with all the snow. Apart from hearing woodpeckers, seeing a few magpies and bluetits there wasn't a lot of life to be seen.
I picked up a couple of bits of birch bark as usual, you never know when they'll be useful! I could have got a lot more as I found a fallen birch which had been kept up off of the ground. However, on closer inspection it was none too safe to be near as it was rather wobbly and I don't really fancy having a tree falling on me.
I also picked up about a foot long length of pine, wrist thick, that'll be for some carving practice with over the coming days. Sawing through it with the saw on my SAK took around 15 mins and gave me hand cramp - not very efficient and I think I'll get a folding saw next time I go to the garden centre. I stripped the inner and outer bark off quickly with my Mora so it'll dry faster and I can get on with splitting and then carving it.
I finished carving a whistle I started last week from a piece of alder whilst waiting for a bus. The whistle looks great but doesn't whistle! Rather a failure there to be honest, time to look for a bit more info and try again. As with so many bushcraft skills - it doesn't matter how nice it looks - if it doesn't work it is no good.
I covered a fair distance - it took me 35 mins of continous walking to get back to near Tesco (last building before the woods) - by my reckoning this should equate to about 2.5km and this was only one side of a triangle.
I did take a few pictures of some fungi that I was surprised to find after the snow and cold. I found a small colony of dried out puff-ball type fungi which were all between 1 and 2 inches across (mostly towards the smaller end) and prodded them so as to produce the lovely whispy clouds of mushroom smelling spores - not only is this fun but also encourages them to grow next year.
I also found an old horse shoe mushroom somewhat covered in moss and saw quite a few birch polypores on the downed birches.
The poor condition of the paths has made me consider putting off Wednesday's trip - going to a wetter area when a dry one is very muddy seems a daft thing to do.

Kampinoski Park Narodowy - Trip Planning

2009-01-22T12:27:00.000+01:00

Whilst I'm on my winter "break" I'm going to take the opportunity to get over to the Kampinoski National Park to the North West of Warsaw. Some English information is available on wikipedia.
I don't plan on doing much woodcrafting there - you need permits for fires and rules are usually quite restrictive. However, there's always the chance to pick up some raw materials for various projects.
I'm pretty excited about going as there are beavers and moose in the park, neither of which have ever been in any areas I've been to before.
I've got my map and compass sorted so that should be ok and I'm checking a few emergency back ups - spare knife (Bark River PSK), space blanket, matches, fire steel and tinder.

Blog Polski - Puszczaństwo

2009-01-21T20:24:00.000+01:00

I've had the Puszczaństwo blog bookmarked for a few weeks and as he has a new and fairly original post on there, for a tripod bush-chair, I thought I'd introduce you all to it. You may not be able to read the words but the pictures are all pretty clear.

New Blog - Scoutmaster

2009-01-18T20:37:00.002+01:00

Just came across the Scoutmaster blog today whilst looking for things Nessmuk related.
It is a nice blog written by a scoutmaster in the US containing some reviews, recommendations and general comments.
As someone who works teaching teens I think this kind of self-sufficient child led learning is a great idea. Mostly kids learn stuff in order to be tested upon how well they understand and recall it. Not because they are interested in it or will use it.

Axe Handle

2009-01-17T16:05:00.002+01:00

I've been playing with the scales that my in-laws gave me for Christmas and now have two bits on important information.

Scandi knives, even a Leuku, are pretty light
My axe head is a 2.5lb head

Looking through some of the books I've got this suggests a handle length of between 24 and 36 inches, 600-900mm. I'll be going to the local tool and DIY shop next week to look for handles and hopefully will be able to get something nicely grained towards the top end of this range.

Winter Break

2009-01-16T14:22:00.001+01:00

Today is in theory the last day of term before winter break. Due to someone's bright idea this means we were only back 2 weeks after Christmas before stopping again. This will of course make next term more arduous and also means that many people still want lessons next week.
The net result? I'll be working almost as much as normal in the day, less in the evening and have too much to do in February and March! Sheer genius.

Optics

2009-01-15T22:43:00.001+01:00

Although I've got a pair of binoculars they're pretty low magnification. As I am looking to get more into wildlife observation and looking at the stars this year I would like to upgrade them.
I've been thinking of getting either a bigger pair (bigger lens for more light coming in) or possibly a spotting scope as this would give greater magnification. As I'm strongly right eye dominant without my glasses using one rather than two eyes wouldn't be a problem.
Does anyone out there have any reasonably priced recommendations?

Rook Watching and Walking

2009-01-14T09:03:00.002+01:00

As I was walking home from a lesson yesterday I came across a group of Rooks. Not easy to tell the difference as crows are more social in winter but they had greyer beaks which is meant to be an identifying sign.
I also had time for a walk through a small field next to a stream whilst waiting for a bus. It was interesting to see the bird footprints showing up like keyholes into the snow or reversed arrowheads. Despite it being -7 degrees the willows were still fairly flexible and I managed to find the remains of a mouse nest in the long grass.

Alone in the Wilderness

2009-01-13T13:55:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I watched this DVD for the first time as I'm in to all things Alaskan during our current cold snap.
You can find more information about the film at the Alone in the Wilderness website whilst facts about its star, Dick Proenneke, can be found there too.
The film was great to watch; a skilled craftsman building his tools and his cabin with astonishing speed. To see someone wield a double bit axe like that was really interesting.
The wildlife photography was great too with wild sheep, reindeer, ptarmigan and bears all starring.
I thoroughly recommend watching this film- if you're interested in hand tools, woodcraft, the northern climate or wildlife you'll be sure to enjoy it.
There is also a book based on his journals - One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey, which I don't have (yet!). Reviews are available in PDF format from the old outdoor magazine website.

"Waxy" Snow

2009-01-12T22:44:00.002+01:00

The snow which is currently on the ground has a very odd appearance. Having got up all the way to +1 degree at the weekend there was a very slight thaw but it froze again over night. This has given it a strange shiny, almost waxy appearance. It sounds like walking on cornflakes!
The weekend has snow scheduled so it should be good tracking weather; fresh snowfall over a harder under layer should make some nice prints.

Chicken Thrift

2009-01-12T12:30:00.000+01:00

Having been given the River Cottage Meat book little over a month ago I've begun trying to put some of the lessons from within its pages into practice.
On Saturday I went to the local market for some food for Sunday lunch. Polish markets tend to mostly be small producers and farmers coming to the city to sell produce rather than specialist traders. The question of organic food, rearing conditions etc. is not so vital here as outside the supermarkets food is still "real". Within the supermarkets, most notably the meat section, the quality is incredibly low. Indeed, buying chicken from the supermarket is almost always false economy as the meat will smell bad almost instantly.
At the market I picked up a 1.5kg for 14zl - equivalent of about £3.50 I guess but food is generally cheaper here. Polish chickens are always sold with the full neck attached but no feet. There wasn't a full set of giblets but a bit of offal left in. Also managed to get a kilo of potatoes (1.20 Zl) a kilo of carrots, a couple of handfuls of sprouts (everyone else was ordering by weight and I got an odd look when I asked for 20 sprouts) and some bits of more exotic fruit such as tangerines and bananas.
We put some herbs and oil on the chicken and left it to marinate overnight. Roasted it, along with the spuds, Brussels and carrots Sunday evening. There was plenty enough meat left for another meal of chicken or a few days worth of sandwiched.
The carcass and leftover oily bits were all put in a big stockpot and then onto the balcony - it is bigger, colder and cheaper than the fridge so makes a pretty good substitute in winter.
I'll be having a go at chicken soup later and let you know how it goes. It'll be hard to win over Agi though as Polish chicken soup is its own speciality and done as much as a way of cooking raw chicken as a way of making soup.
I'm impressed with myself though other this - maybe there's hope for me in the kitchen yet!

Free Book - We Have a Winner

2009-01-12T09:30:00.000+01:00

Gunslinger, you were the first with the e-mail so I'll be posting it over to you when I get your addresss.
Congratulations!

Free Book

2009-01-11T14:08:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned earlier - I have one copy of "101 uses for Stinging Nettles" which is free to a good home!
Whoever e-mails [sam_acw(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk] me and asks nicely can have it.

Backwoods PDFs & BP Scouts

2009-01-11T12:42:00.000+01:00

I came across this whilst looking for some backwoods cooking info the other day. It is the resources page of the South African Scouts and has some useful PDFs there.
While on the subject of scouts, if you are ever short of bushcraft inspiration then have a quick look through the Baden Powell Scouts' Association website. Check out the requirements for a Senior Forester or why (k)not have a go at the traditional scout knots, courtesy of inquiry.net.

Weather Article - Update

2009-01-10T14:04:00.000+01:00

I've finished writing the first sections of the article, on sky colour, senses and pressure and I've got three sections left to go - a bit of a bibliography, general rules for cloud types and winds.
It shouldn't take too long to get done now I'm organising my time better!

Woodlife Network - Tracking Library

2009-01-09T12:07:00.000+01:00

I've been spending a bit of time over on Pablo's woodlife network recently and I must say, it is really impressive now. The network has an array of sub-groups, forum and competitions. The jewel in the crown though is the track library that they are developing.
There are tracks from various different animals, in various different surfaces, which are all tagged so they can be searched through. It should be a phenomenal resource when it is finished and as far as I know is one of a kind.
Feeling confident? Check out this very detailed (and tough) tracking quiz on the Maine Primitive Skills Survival School website.

Quick Walk

2009-01-08T13:37:00.001+01:00

I managed o get about an hour in the woods this morning, had a really good time and it wasn't too cold at about -7. I've managed to get some more tracking photos (some nice rabbit prints) and also played with some Nuthatches.
I'll post the photos later but it was a well worthwhile excursion - I'm doing well keeping to my New Year's goal of more woods time. It was just a little odd to meet skiers in the woods!

Call of the Wild - Guy Grieve - Review

2009-01-08T11:26:00.000+01:00

I've just finished reading this book and thought I'd put up my thoughts here.
The writer is a bit of an odd guy leaving his wife and young family to go and live the best part of a year in the Alaskan interior, what's even odder is that he does it without ever having a really good reason for doing so. This element is what has led to some of the more negative reviews of the book on amazon.
If you can get past the guy's charachter, and it is by no means a big problem, then you have quite a good book on your hands. Some of the things he is taught by the locals and natives are really interesting and although it isn't really an instruction book there is a bit you can learn from it.
So what did I learn from this book?

A Sandvik bush axe is a fairly important tool when it comes to establishing portages and paths to a base camp.
A dog is pretty useful for retrieving, stopping you going "bushy" (kind of crazy) and for warning you of bears
Most people eaten by bears (which can take over an hour before they kill you as they start eating from the bottom up!) are people with no dog and no gun
If you don't listen to local knowledge then you're going to suffer
At -60 and miles from help death is almost part of life - you're never that safe.
Not listening to the voice inside your head and being overconfident are the fatest ways of dieing
Commercial gear isn't really up to day-in, day-out bush living

He did have a couple of odd seeming ideas like using an axe handle to knock off small branches when limbing a tree - he claimed it was safer but it sounds like a good way of breaking an axe handle.
There is an appendix of all the equipment he used and a few comments about how well it worked at the back of the book.
Overall, if your interested in cold weather bushcraft it is well worth a read. It is no-where near as useful as the Snow Walker's Companion but it is a nice book anyway.

Bushcraft Almanac Project

2009-01-07T13:14:00.000+01:00

Following on from a discussion over at BCUK, I've been looking further into the possibility of writing a bushcraft almanac for 2010.
I've done a little work already, trying to put a bit of information down on paper (or hard drive) and have a few ideas.
It would be rather a piece of work to do it within the next nine or ten months and then publish or produce it. It could be published through some kind of on-line publishing company though I would prefer it to be produced in a similar style to a small pocket diary with a ribbon for keeping page. It would likely be biased to a British perspective as that is where the bigger market of bushcrafters seems to be. It is also a great deal easier for me to research.
I've also been reading Schott's Almanac for this year, in part for inspiration, in part as it is actually a pretty fascinating book - though more of the bedside variety. I've also perused the sites of some of the older almanac's such as the Old Farmers'
I've been trying to come up with a list of useful bits of information to include but it is far from easy. So far I've come with a fairly short list of things to include:

Tracks of common animals
Weather signs
Basic first aid for cuts, hypothermia (I'd need someone else to write this)
A few common edible or useful plants
Some common trees and their uses
Astronomical events

I may have a go at doing a demo version for a couple of months of this year so watch out for that!

20 Below - How Does it Feel?

2009-01-06T22:31:00.003+01:00

The biggest thing to note, if you're properly dressed is that most of the effect is on your head.
Remember, first of all that

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

When you've got enough layers on you should be plenty warm enough. In my case that means

Feet : 2 pairs of thin socks, inner soles and boots
Bottom Half: long underwear, pants and trousers
Top half: thermal T-shirt, lumberjack type shirt (cotton blend), jumper, wool gillet and coat
Head and neck: elasticated tube scarf, wooly scarf, corduroy hat
Hands: wool gloves - if you have long wrists on them and your hands get cold just pull your fingers out of the glove's fingers and get your whole hand in the palm section

That'll do for clothing. The big problems can then be your nose and ears.
A hat which goes over your ears is pretty much essential as if there is any wind you're going to have bright red ears after 10 or 15 minutes which can be pretty painful.
Your nose is pretty easy to warm up - just put your hand over it! The oddest sensation of the lot though is your nose freezing from the inside out. The moisture in your nose freezes making your nose go stiff and feel very dry. It is a very odd feeling not really painful, just weird.
Below minus 20 is somewhere I haven't spent much time (not since being in Moscow in February - I think in '97). From what I remember, a second pair of gloves - or big pockets is a great idea. You did see an awful lot of fur hats and coats at the time too. I also had problems with my breath making my glasses freeze.
There you go - just thought the cold snap made it a good time to post this with a severe weather warning due to cold in Britain and many people no doubt unprepared for it. I remember seeing people in jumpers without coats wandering round when it was 2 or 3 degrees over Christmas - not something bright to do in the minus temperatures!

Books as Presents

2009-01-06T18:24:00.001+01:00

Most of the presents I was given for Christmas were books, I've even still got an Amazon token left to spend.
We got lucky with the weight of our bags and were able to bring back a few more in the cases too.
So here's a list of those to look forward to reviews of over the next few months.

The River Cottage Year
The Field and Forest Handy book by Dan Beard
Schott's Almanac
Oathbreaker and Outcast, the latest 2 fiction books in a series about a mesolithic boy-shaman
Basic Wilderness Survival Skills by Bradford Angier
Ray Mear's Vanishing World
Wilderness Survival: Living Off the Land with the Clothes on Your Back and the Knife on Your Belt
The Scout's Companion (Scouting)
Outdoor Pocket Bible: Every Outdoor Rule of Thumb at Your Fingertips (Pocket Bibles)
Walker's Pocket companion
Call of the Wild by Guy Grieve

A few more to note as well, Agi gave me the River Cottage Meat Book as a present for Mikolajki (St. Nicholas' day). My Gran also let me take one of her gardening books, How to Enjoy your Weeds which is rather an interesting book about the properties, laregly edible, of various common wild plants.

The final book on the list is 101 Uses for Stinging Nettles. The joy of this book is not just that it is interesting but that I also managed to end up with a spare copy. It is free to the first person who sends me an interesting e-mail, and their address, about why they should have it!

Cold Snap

2009-01-05T22:37:00.003+01:00

Well it is now -15 degrees out there (update -20 on Tuesday morning). There's also about 3 inches of snow down where it hasn't been wlaked on or swept into a pile. To make myself warm I'm doing one of three things

Wear more clothes and shut the curtains
We bought a real whistling kettle, it makes the kitchen look homely and makes making tea much more fun
Reading about Guy Grieve's adventures in Alaska, -60 degrees make it seem positively balmy here.

On the serious side, wrapping up well is vital. The most important extra bit of kit is a polycotton scarf thing. It is basically a loosely elasticated loop which you can pull over your neck. It makes a massive difference to your head and neck temperature despite doing little more than keep the wind off and seal your collar. It is truly worth its weight in gold when you're out in the cold.

Summer Time Edibles

2009-01-05T12:06:00.000+01:00

Another set of photos from the summer, this time from a walk just after the rain.
I managed to find a huge number of snails.

I also managed to discover a lone wild strawberry. Quite a find as I'm sure others had been out looking for them and I hadn't seen one for many years. Sorry for the blurry pictures; they were taken on my old camera which has no macro facility.

Quadrantids Update

2009-01-05T08:09:00.001+01:00

It was too cloudy last night to see any meteors so it looks like I'll miss out on this one. They should still be visible tonight but at a lower intensity.

Eyes to the Skies - Quadrantids Meteor Shower

2009-01-04T18:13:00.003+01:00

Keep your eyes to the sky tonight and there's a chance you could see some of this meteor shower.
This page has some nice information but it'll mostly depend on the weather - last night it was snowing so too much cover to see what was going on.

Birch Bark Container

2009-01-04T12:00:00.000+01:00

Another one from earlier this summer today, I've been a little slow in uploading all the pictures.
It is simply A bit of bark taken from a fallen tree with a pine root lace; the bottom is just pressed in pace. Currently it is doing duty as a pencil holder!
The holes where made with the awl on my SAK and the rest of the work was done with the SAK too.

Zubr - European Bison

2009-01-03T12:00:00.001+01:00

Here are a couple of photos I found from our trip to Warsaw Zoo in the summer, they are of the European bison there. Rather famous in Poland with both beer and vodka brands named after them.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland - Tracks in Snow

2009-01-02T20:35:00.002+01:00

I got out into the woods again today and it was time well spent. With the temperature being between -2 and -4 and very little wind again it was good weather for being out. Today it was joined by a snow fall which got heavier whilst I was out before stopping at about half three.
It was a good chance for tracking, though of course not all the tracks were of wildlife!

I came across this rather impressive growth on a birch tree not more than 200 metres into the woods

This was no small tree and the growth was probably 80 cm across.

The woods are criss-crossed with trails, it is hard to tell if they are made by walkers, dogs, cyclists or other animals.

I'd love for these to be deer prints but I've no idea, not very big and I didn't manage to find a trail so I may just be seeing things.

Even with the snow there was still some greenery about - this lot looked to be beech shoots for the most part, very common in the underfloor in Polish forests.

Whereas yesterday's tinder was a trapped branch with dried pine needles today I came across a birch branch with the papery branch peeling off. Always worth keeping an eye out for these trapped branches as the tinder in question is nicely air dried

The snow fall got quite heavy when I was near the Southern edge of the woods.

I had a go with making fuzz sticks using my control free method and what I think was a bit of beech wood. The lack of control meant that quite a few curls fell off and the blast match proceeded to knock more of the rest off. I am coming to the conclusion that the blast match is best for man made tinders. I managed to singe a few curls but not fire sadly.

I went slightly off the path to play with the feather sticks I tracked my self back to the path. Pretty easy but this shows how much a print degraded in only twenty minutes.

One of the interesting things to observe in snow is how clothing reacts. Modern materials tend to either shed snow or see it melt. On the other hand wool causes the snow to stick, indeed I have ended up with quite a crust on myself before now. A shot of my arm shows you what I mean.

I dressed up warmer today with a spare shirt on underneath and my thermal leggings on as well as an extra, thin, pair of socks.
Just before leaving the woods I came across the biggest red squirrel I've ever seen - I think we startled each other. The prints it left were rather odd, almost like a one legged pogo moose!

It was leaping on all fours and covering around 2 metres per leap. Fairly impressive for a little animal.
Finally a self portrait of me enjoying myself in the woods.

New Year's Day Walk - Photos

2009-01-02T19:30:00.002+01:00

Here are the photos from yesterday's walk in the woods.
First up is a nice shot of a birch tree covered in little Birch polypore fungi.

Next is a photo of the sort of thing you need to keep an eye out for - tinder! This pine branch had fallen and got held up by another branch allowing the needles to dry in place and make good tinder.

Third we have a picture of a the snowy floor taken on Macro mode.

I managed to get a good photo of the snowy foreground running up to the trees as well.

Another one shows a dog print taking centre stage.

New Year's Day Walk

2009-01-01T19:33:00.002+01:00

I took advantage of still being on holiday to get out into the woods for a couple of hours today. Being about -4 with a lot of frost it was necessary to keep moving to stay warm as I didn't put on my under-trousers. Added to this it started to snow, fairly lightly, only half an hour after I got there.
I managed to stay warm until I sat down for a bit to do some carving - whilst carving I was fine as I was concentrating on what I was doing but after I got up my legs were a little cold so I had to walk quickly to keep them warm. It was an odd feeling to have to take off gloves, scarf and hat to stop myself overheating whilst still having cold legs and warm feet!
The carving I made was a little wood sprite out of a thumb thick branch, done in about 20 minutes with my Mora. It can't have been that bad as my wife actually recognised it was a face!
I managed to spot a few feeders full of hay which I believe are there for the local deer so should provide a good start point for tracking one day. I also saw a couple of woodpeckers; they're easy t spot as after you hear them you just need to slowly circle the tree where the noise is coming from until you can see their head bobbing back and forth. Sadly, I've never managed to get a decent picture of one as they are always too high up for the zoom on my camera.
There wasn't a lot of life and until the snow started to fall the woods were very quiet except for the odd tree creaking in the breeze. It being a holiday there was a reasonable umber of people in the woods but once you'd walked a few hundred metres in then you had got past the point where they were yelling into their mobiles and you could get on and enjoy the woods.
I managed to get a little lost on the way back having walked about a kilometre further West than I should have done which meant I then had to spend about 20 minutes skirting around the Metro depot to get back home. It did mean that I got to watch darkness descend across the white woods which was very picturesque. Unfortunately, the camera's batteries had, as usual, died by this point. My wife keeps wondering why I want a new digital camera where for me the fact that you can rarely manage to take more than 20 pictures on a set of batteries is evidence enough that a new camera is needed.

Happy New Year!

I'm Back

2008-12-30T13:52:00.002+01:00

Great as it was to see my family again and to get out and go shopping in Cambridge it is good to be back home again. The weather here is a good few degrees cooler, hovering just in the minus numbers and we managed to bring back an awful lot of reading material.
By flying through smaller airports we kept the stress levels down - if only they started enforcing the rules regarding hand luggage again. We were delayed taking off as at least 30 people had brought small suitcases on as hand luggage which barely fitted in the lockers. As such the stewards had to spend about 20 minutes juggling these oversized bags between different lockers.
Hope you all had a good Christmas!

Off for Christmas

2008-12-22T10:21:00.000+01:00

We're heading off to see the family in England for Christmas today.
In case I don't get to post again before the day I'd like to wish all my readers out there in blog-land a merry Christmas!

Temperature Drop

2008-12-09T22:06:00.003+01:00

On the way home from work tonight I saw a fine frost on all the cars parked in the street, this means a drop in temperature over night. I'm hoping for it to get a few degrees colder in order for us to get more snow - recently it has been hovering around 3 degrees making it a little warm for the white stuff.

Progress

2008-12-03T13:24:00.002+01:00

I've been making progress on my weather article over the last week. Now about 2500 words typed up, the formatting is sorted and I've written about 3 of the six sections I'll be discussing.
Sadly, even though I've got a couple of mornings a week off for now, I've got tests to write and mark which is a big waste of time.
I have been watching a fair few videos and youtube bits in the background though. I can feel more ideas for projects forming! I must have the highest ratio of ideas to unfinished projects of anyone I've ever met!

Mora Love

2008-11-27T13:43:00.003+01:00

I came across this post on Ben's Backwoods blog this morning. That's right, aside from being the web's best supplier of bushcraft kit they also have a blog.
They were discussing sharpening the back of the knife square with a grinder. To be fair I'll probably just do mine with a file as I don't have a grinder and my Leuku may well have the end nearest the blade rounded a bitas the edges on the spine can cut into your hand when you choke up on the tip or use it as a drawknife in longer blades.
You can check out the full Mora range from Frosts here.
You can see the one I've got (well, actually I have two) below in a picture I've borrowed from Ben's Backwoods for now.
Northwest Woodsman likes them too but prefers the model with a guard
I wrote a bit about the subject about a year ago: Spines and Backs
I was using it to strip the bark off of pine roots.
I've also tried soaking the blades in vinegar, mustard and ketchup to get a patina and protect them from rust. It has the added effect of making them look a lovely steely grey colour.
I've also had a go at braiding a neck cord for the sheath. This worked out quite well and I'll try to post it when get some batteries for the camera.
Aside from making sure the drain hole is unplugged I've come to realise the Mora sheath is one of the best, if not ugliest, on the market. It is secure, hard but not brittle, lightweight and drains well. I've never wished to replace it at all.
As they're cheap you can get a few to play with - try a hard plastic handled one and modify it for snow use like Mors Kochanski did.

First Snow of the Winter

2008-11-22T17:51:00.001+01:00

Kind of a give away from the title but over last night and up to lunch we had the first snow fall of winter. It ceased falling at about 12 bu has hung around most of the day on the grass, trees and flower beds.

Sunday Update:
Not especially cold but we've had 2 inches of snow (5cm) Mostly snow in fairly firm grains like snowy rice!

A Couple of Good Reads - Online

2008-11-20T12:30:00.000+01:00

A few blogs have been added to the reading list or have resurface of late.
Firstly, Decado is back posting again with his excellent bushcraft blog.
Another new blog which shows some promise is Hodgeman's Thoughts on the Great Outdoors. This blog. Not a regular poster yet but I'd love to read more about a real Alaskan winter.
Robin Wood, a real master of woodcrafting, has a blog too. It covers his exploits carving and turning wood and all manner of interesting links and historical information.
The Backyard Bushman has a lovely looking blog and some great info on axes. I've not seen much elsewhere about Snow and Neally axes and he does seem to have a talent for getting the most from his tools.
Finally, spare a thought for poor old Pablo, who managed to cause a fair bit of damage to himself in the woods the other week. The reason I've written three posts this evening, but put different publishing times on them is to keep him entertained through the day!

Traditional Home Skills

2008-11-20T10:00:00.000+01:00

Kind of hard to think of a name for this one, but I think home skills may be the best bet.
By this I mean the making, mending and cooking that are traditional home skills. It isn't homesteading if you live in an apartment, nor is it really preparedness as there isn't a set goal to it. Luckily the pair of us have been able to reduce our workload a little and are beginning to have more free time. This means we can get on top of domestic things and try to expand our range somewhat.
The dehydrator will begin to see more use, sadly it'll most likely be with store bought fruit though. Dried apples do make a good snack though. I've also been shown how to pickle gherkins in brine by my mother-in-law. Don't need to do this yet as we've still got a jar or two in the kitchen.
Back when I lived with my parents I also turned my hand to crab apple jelly as a condiment for pork and home made cider - rather dry with quite a kick!
I'm hoping we'll be able to get on track with all these things now we have more time - to help us along the road we bought an oven of sorts at the weekend.
As our flat is rented we only have electric hobs - pretty poor especially for real home cooking and stir frys! We decided to get some sort of plug in oven as there isn't space for a full unit so we bought what is known as a prodiz. This is a type of electric dutch oven, traditionally used for making cakes and roasting things.
It is reasonably quick heating and efficient and we managed to do some good roast chicken in it on Sunday. The next step along the line is to make homemade pizza in it. Agi loves Pizza and homemade ones, depsite being time consuming when you make the base, are a massive saving on bought ones and allow you to choose the exact toppings you wish for.
I'll let you know how I get on and I hope to make more posts on this theme in future.

Chemy Psa - We Want a Dog!

2008-11-19T21:58:00.002+01:00

To be fair I've wanted my own dog for a while, just needing to be settled enough for one and not travelling about or working too much so I'd have enough time for it.
Now, of course, we're pretty much settled down and every time Agi sees a dog, of any description, she tells me she wants a dog. Having tried to my desire for a real dog we're gradually narrowing down the field. I'd either want a working dachshund (also known as a Teckel) or a working terrier. I'm keen on wire coated dogs as not only do they look good but they also should bear up to the weather well. Unfortunately, Agi is rather keen on a miniature Schnauzer.
The reason for working dogs, even though I am not a hunter (yet :-), is that personal experience has taught me that dogs intentionally bred for a function are easier to train, healthier and happier than either their show bred or randomly bred cousins. Luca, my parents black working Labrador, is a wonderful, intelligent and healthy dog.
To this end I've been searching for information trying to build up more information - winter is a time for research rather than puppies, they'd struggle going for a walk in snow up to their chin!
I've come across one very well written blog which is well worth a look at if you're in any way interested in working terriers. It is called the Terrierman's daily dose and has been added to my reader for a week or so.
I'll keep you informed as I gain more information, this is one to follow in the long term I feel.

Winter Woolens

2008-11-18T14:59:00.002+01:00

Today brought with it the first real frost of the season. Over night the low pressure and cloud of the previous few days left us to be replaced by clearer skies and higher clouds.
This meant we had quite a heavy frost which was still hanging around until 1.30pm in shady areas. Another thing of note in the sky was that the moon was still fairly high and visible at 11am today, it must be travelling well over 180 degrees around the sky at this time of year.
The wintry weather of course means time fro the hats, scarves, jumpers and gloves to make an appearance again. I do keep an eye out in the shops for woolen clothes of some use, for daily wear and woods wear. However for some reason wool, a renewable, environmentally friendly, washable, fireproof and warm fibre is pretty hard to get a hold of. Instead most of those woolly clothes you see in the stores are actually acrylic. As wikipedia says

Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer (Polyacrylonitrile) with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. To be called acrylic in the U.S, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile monomer.

Doesn't sound quite as nice as wool does it?
I shall let you know how I get on with the quest for quality wool clothes, the most important item this year being a pair of trousers for those cold days in the woods.
The morale of this story is that if you want performance or environmentally friendly clothes then you'd better check out the label!

Thinking out Loud - A Bushcraft Almanac?

2008-11-11T21:34:00.003+01:00

I was looking through my bookshelf the other day and leafing through a couple of the better, yet somehow less well known, books. The first of these is a book I came into contact with via the JMBU weather course which is Eric Sloane's Weather Almanac. This is a fine book, it contains a lot of information about rural life, New England, weather forecasting and the almanacs and traditions of yesteryear. It is a good book to read dealing with the year one month at a time and recording the events and weather patterns therein. If your in any way interested in this area or the weather I would thoroughly recommend it. It is one of my main reference books for my ever ongoing bushcraft and weather article.
The second book which I've been reading, largely on the train journey to my in-laws, is another gem from the so called "golden-age" of woodcraft. Cache Lake Country again takes this month by month approach and describes life in a cabin, working as a timber prospector. The book is a mixture of anecdotes, woods lore and instruction. There are tutorials on sleds, moccasins and recipies. It is without a doubt one of the best bushcraft books I've ever read and would definitley make my top ten list.
What links these books is their monthly approach. The idea of a seasonal bushcraft books is by no means original, indeed Ray Mears' Outdoor Survival Handbook follows a seasonal approach and remains one of his best works.Despite the black and white illustrations there is far more information and inspiration in this book than in some of the more coffee table style tomes he's produced more recently.
Having been thinking about the idea of an annual book I turned, naturally enough, to the old style almanac (a heavy shove from Eric Sloane's book helping here) I would love to have access to a bushcraft day book but what on earth would it need to contain? I think moon phases are a given, along with seasonal weather predictions. A list of seasonal plants and their expected flowering/sprouting times would also be of use. Aside from that anecdotes and observations as well as recipies and maybe a "knot of the month" type section would all be of use.
What do you think, what would you require in such a book and would it be of use to you?

Ultimate Bushknife - Part 1

2008-11-11T21:24:00.002+01:00

The title of this section is meant to be taken with more than a little pinch of salt. However, I am involved in another knife making project at the moment which will hopefully pay dividends. I've got hold of some reindeer antler along with a Lauri Hiking blade from birkashop.pl who are the Polish distributors of Brisa's wares. The idea is to build a knife which fits between the typical puuko and leuku sizes. The blade is seven inches but a little over an inch wide and only around 3mm thick (odd mix of measurements there!)
The idea is that it would be able to chop reasonably should it need to whilst also being nimble enough in hand for carving. I've found the Leuku's deep blade stops it making tight cuts and the stunt point, for pierceing, prevents you cutting across the grain as well as is ideal.
Currently the plan is to have an antler bolster and pommel with birch bark spacers in between. To be fair though I've little enough idea of how to go about this but it'll be a good learning experience.
After this, of course will be a companion whittler (anyone know a good stick tankg scandi blade around 50mm long?). The final knife design I've put down on paper is more of the typical "survival knife" style. Not all saw teeth and Rambo bits but full tang with a sort of extended tang as a scraper/pry end. The plan for that one would be a similar blade, if I get on with this one that is, as well as some nice orange micarta handle slabs!

What am I up to?

2008-11-02T09:38:00.002+01:00

Just realised I haven't posted on here for a while. That's largely due to lack of energy and time through too much work - every time I reduce the number of classes I've got someone gives me another one! I'm basically working two full time jobs at the moment, one in the morning and one in the evening. Hardly ideal but it should pay for all the wedding bits (finally) and Christmas too.
I am still working on the article concerning weather prediction in bushcraft and it's going quite well. As with everything I do it is taking too long but that's kind of standard.
I haven't managed much in the way of woods time in recent weeks and I'm not really sure why. I think everything else just kind of gets in the way which is a little sad but I should eventually make some progress.
I have recently ordered some new knife bits from Brisa's Polish distributor so look out for those being mentioned in future. It should be a sort of slimline leuku when I make it.
I've also got several books and PDFs that I should eventually put up and review.

Dehydrator Experiments 2- Follow Up

2008-10-08T13:33:00.003+02:00

Well my first few items in the dehydrator didn't work out as well as I'd hoped they would for a few reasons.

The dehydrator makes a bit of noise so my wife doesn't like it being on all the time
It takes several hours (like a whole day) to dehydrate wetter or thicker items
I've not been at home long enough to leave it on very often.

The corn dried quickly and well and I'm going to try frying it as I've seen that as a recommended recipe somewhere for a parched corn style food. There are so many definitions, recipes and ideas as to what parched corn is I think you're best off just finding one you like.
The apple went quite well, drying a bit slower but still tasting good and looking ok.
On the other hand the banana was a bit of a failure - they discoloured almost instantly, refused to dry well and look rather horrible, I'll be on the hunt for a better set of instructions for this one soon!
I hoped to spend a little more time out in the woods and blogging soon but for the moment I've ended up working 2 jobs, both almost full time. Teachers typically teach about 20-24 lessons a week here and I'm on around 35 which means there are some long long working days; from leaving the house at 6.30 for a 7.20 class to getting home a quarter of an hour after a 9pm class! Should help settle everything money related but it means putting some hobbies on the backburner for a while sadly.

Dehydrator Experiments

2008-10-01T15:13:00.001+02:00

My wife gave me a dehydrator on Monday for my birthday, one of those rare things you see and want then remember about in time to get as a present! As I've got a lull between lessons this afternoon I bought some fruits off of a market stall and I'm trying them out today.
I've got some nice, large, apples which I'm trying out (not spiced this time) as well as a few bananas (I never know when to stop spelling that word) and also some corn I'm going to try.
My goal is threefold, one I should be able to make some snacks. Secondly I should have some decent, lightweight trail food available. Thirdly I should be able to eventually put together some sort of reserve of various foods.
I'll let you know how I get on and what it all tastes like.

26 Today!

2008-09-29T11:14:00.002+02:00

Well it had to come around sooner or later and here it is. My birthday once again on Michaelmas day. I was given a fair few books on bushcraft which will all make an appearance here in due course (I did get some earlier when my family came over for the wedding) including Ray Mears' "Goes Walkabout" from my Gran. Agi is also getting me a food dehydrator which should be fun to pay with. So thanks for all the presents and wishes. Sadly I'm off to work!

Caveman Films : 10,000 BC

2008-09-24T18:50:00.002+02:00

I finally watched this film the other day and thought I'd put up a quick review. Not really much for the bushcrafter - a few nice shots of ice age people in the first half of the film and some nice landscape photos.
The film however goes downhill into absurd fantasy there as the hero ends up trying to free slaves from an Atlantean refugee trying to build the pyramids. It was sadly a little disappointing even allowing for the rather frequent historical gaffes. Sadly I've yet to see a cave man film that was a patch on "Quest for Fire".
I've still got "Homo Erectus" on the watch list which should at least be funny whilst I remain on the lookout for a version of "Clan of the Cavebear" in English.

Hunter Gatherer

2008-09-24T18:47:00.002+02:00

I'm currently coming over all primitive again and getting down to doing some reading about the hunter gatherer way of life.
In particular I'm interested in their way of moving about and how often they would hunt/gather. Most people on the web seem to view groups foraging as they go whilst I think a feast and famine approach is more likely. I hope to get more information on this in the future and then try out my theories.
Does anyone know of any good resources on this - I'm especially interested in historic hunter gatherer groups.

Technology for Country Folk

2008-09-18T18:18:00.002+02:00

A nice cartoon for those rural web users.

Autumnal Onset

2008-09-14T17:21:00.003+02:00

Over the last 3 or 4 days the temperatures have dipped from around the mid 20s to the low teens. Added to that the sky has been noticeably less bright and the wind has picked up. This is not simply a period of unsettled weather (although I do expect it to warm up in a week or two) but is heralding the beginning of autumn.
There are a few leaves about and various fruits visible (rose hips for one) but the only trees to have turned so far are the horse chestnuts. Interestingly enough they had huge amounts of blossom back in May and June so I expect a bumper conker harvest.
For me this is a favorite time of year. Aside from the depression that is caused by the start of the school year and the annual scramble for classes (only paid by the class so no financial security) this period has many bonuses. At the end of the month comes my Birthday, an opportunity to pick up various goodies. What a shock - it looks like books this year! On from that would be Halloween and Guy Fawkes' Night - naturally no Guy Fawkes here and Halloween is a relatively recent introduction.
This is the longest term by far in the Polish school system as there are not really any holiday breaks. It makes it quite a drag to Christmas and having taught without a real break since last September it is proving to be a different from the usual September hype.
As for the woods; yesterday was spent shopping for seasonal clothes whilst today was for food and updating my CV (joy of joys). Work, or rather trying to get enough of it, looks like taking up a fair amount of my time. Rest assured though, when things settle down I'll be back out under the birches!

Red Sky at Night and Dew on the Grass

2008-09-10T19:33:00.002+02:00

With the daylight hours getting noticeably shorter over the last week or two it has let me try out another element of weather lore.
The item in question is the saying that "if there's dew on the grass no rain will come to pass". The idea of this is the presence of dew indicates a temperature difference which is key to good weather. Essentially, more cloud cover means higher overnight temperatures and less dew. As far as the rule goes it seems to be mostly accurate. I've seen some light rain in the day after a dewy morning but nothing serious. I'd say this rule is accurate in general for dry weather, sadly though, you have to be up pretty early for it to be any use in high summer!
The second rule I've been observing is the old concept of a red sky at sunset presaging good weather the following day. The phrase being "red sky at night shepherd's delight" where I grew up. It is important when looking at sunsets to discount the sun simply being red but the whole sky. I think this rule, in its myriad versions, is clearly accurate but you must be honest with yourself if the sky is genuinely red - not simply orangeish or with a red sun.
A third rule which has given me some good results is the presence of "halos" around the sun or moon. These occur when the light is diffused through damp air and are a portent of wet weather. If the moon has nice, clear, sharp edges then the air pressure is high so clear weather will follow. It isn't a good idea to damage your eyes by staring at the sun.
The fourth rule I'll mention is one which has arisen from my own observations which I'm still working on. From what I have observed vapour trails from planes are most prominent on days of good weather. There are no doubt some reasons for this (concerning cloud altitude, visibility and air humidity/temperature) but for the time being I'd be interested if anyone else has ever noticed a correlation.

Survival Manuals

2008-09-06T20:35:00.003+02:00

Lets face it, there are times when the world and its wife seem to feel that they can produce a good survival manual yet they end up producing the same, tired, old rubbish. Mostly they are thinly disguised copies of old military manuals, often Lofty Wiseman's, and to be frank they offer nothing new or helpful.
I've recently been given a manual which is something of a break from this -
Cody Lundin's 98.6 Degrees - The Art of Keeping your Ass Alive!This is a manual which not only strips away all the unneccessary but also concentrates on what you need. Gone is a reliance on food; instead we concentrate on water, temperature and psychology.
Indeed, the mental aspect is dealt with very well in this book. In general the author looks at what is likely to kill you in a stereotypical 72 hour survival situation and then on how to combat it.
The style is informal and a probably a little crude for some tastes but it gets the point across well. It is probably a book of interest for any bushcraft bibliophiles such as my self but I think would be of most use to the adventure sports crowd. The tone and down to earth approach would likely strike a cord with them.
Some of his tips, how not to die, can be seen on this clip.
For the more traditional approach we can look across the pond to the Maine department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. I know it is a shock but a government agency actually managed to do something of use for the bushcrafter! They produced a downloadable manual entitled
"You, Alone in the Maine Woods"Primarily aimed at hunters it contains lots of sensible but traditional advice and I first saw it recommended, partly due to the bright orange colour, by an article in Tactical Knives.
Definitely worth a download but remember the advice is both seasonally and geographically specific to Maine in the Autumn and Winter.
The final manual is more of a mixed bag. It is called the "Complete Illustrated Book of Survival" and is wide ranging in the extreme. It goes from long term survival techniques to using stone tools to how to fight off an attacker.The bushcraft bits with stone tools are great and really fresh and original. A chunk of the material has appeared in other books though - the book admits to 2 others with similar content in the cover but I'm sure I've seen some of the pictures in knot books and other places over the years. I'm really against putting self defence advice in books - you need to practice and learn in the flesh. If you want to do this find an instructor who knows what you want and has similar size to you - there's no merit learning from a 6'4" 17 stone instructor if you are 5'5" and 10 stone - what works for him isn't going to work for you.
Overall it is a book which will mostly stay on the shelf - not sure quite where to pick up a copy as it was a present. My parents said they got it in a garden centre!

Archive Books

2008-09-04T18:46:00.002+02:00

I've been through the Jack Mountain Students hand book and their bibliography (this PDF) and I've managed to download a few of the books mentioned in it from archive.org which is an online search for various media.
You can search via author or keyword easily and I now have another load of articles to read when I get some time. I juts need to find a sensible way of printing them out as I find on-screen reading a little hard on the eyes.

Wow, what a Weekend, what a Wedding!

2008-09-02T14:53:00.002+02:00

I'm back in Warsaw after what can only be described as the happiest, most emotional and one of the longest weekends of my life.
Firstly I'd like to say thankyou to all those who have sent us wishes, both here and in other places. I also want to thank all our guests and our families for helping to organise things.
All in all it was a fantastic event and I'll try to put some photos up in the near future when we get them!

The Big Day Arrives

2008-08-29T13:06:00.002+02:00

Well, here we are- a little over 24 hours from my wedding. At 5pm tomorow I shall be walking down the aisle.

Wish me luck!

Wedding Time

2008-08-24T08:47:00.001+02:00

The reason for the lack of updates recently is that we've been busy with wedding preparation. Be it dance lessons, work, shopping, phone calls, learning the vows, tanning sessions or chasing people up one thing or other has kept us busy.
We're now only 6 days away from the big day and from tomorrow onwards we'll be in Radom staying with Agi's parents to get everything sorted out. Kind of stressful but a relief as it has been a lot of work for the entire year. As a result there won't be much in the way of posts for the next ten days.
This time next week I'll be married!

Lightning Storm

2008-08-15T22:34:00.000+02:00

We've had a rather exciting lightning storm this evening, big flashes lighting up the sky and the sort of eye-burningly bright streaks that fork out of the sky. A fair volume of water has come down too leaving a lot of water on the ground.
The storm was easy to see approaching as the sky slowly clouded over followed by the wind increasing and the temperature dropping a few degrees. In a summer of many storms I can now pick out when they are coming with quite a high degree of accuracy.

Weather Lore Article

2008-08-04T21:39:00.001+02:00

I have re-started work on my article about bushcraft and weather this week. No sneak previews yet but a quick question for my readers - what sort of information would be useful to you? What would you want to read about within the article?
Any input would be appreciated, the initial scope of the article looks worryingly sprawling!

National Geographic Adventure Magazine

2008-08-02T18:32:00.002+02:00

I picked up a copy of August's issue of this magazine the other day because there was quite a good article on survival in it entitled "How to survive (almost) anything". The article concentrates on some of the psychological aspects of survival as well as a few first hand accounts; in general it is pretty good and some things were new to me. The idea that helping others gives you a better chance of survival, as does having a sort of mantra, is not something I've particularly come across before. I recommend reading this article if you get a chance, you'll probably find something new.

If You Can Smell It....

2008-08-01T18:36:00.002+02:00

I've had a very easy time of it with my hayfever recently having essentially given up dairy products over the summer, I've even been able to stop taking any medication. This has opened up , or perhaps just reminded me, of how important and interesting following your nose can be.
In the development I'm living in I've noticed that I can smell when people are watering the grass and that this has a subtly different smell to watering flowers. When I was in the woods at the weekend I noticed a strong smell of pine, even though it is not a major part of the woods. I guess the volatile vapours in the sap carry quite a way. This was combined with the hot damp smell of the forest floor when moisture is trapped by the canopy and the whole environment heats up like an oven.
Even weather brings a change in smell - it isn't so much that you can smell thunder but the change in wind, air pressure and air temperature do help you realise when a storm is on the way.
Of course, there are many uses of this sense in food gathering and possibly in hunting or tracking too. What has really come home to me though is how it can help you find water or tell what's going on.

Survival Story

2008-07-30T22:44:00.001+02:00

Just in case you missed it - a survival story courtesy of the BBC
Bug Feast Saves Outback Pest Man

Petrol Prices

2008-07-23T07:07:00.002+02:00

Many of the sites I read are American and there is a trend to grumble about petrol prices at the moment. Without going into the whole issue of prices being subsidized there I thought I'd post some information about the prices in Poland for you all to look at before complaining.

Prices for 1 litre of 95 Octane
4.80 Zl = 2.34 USD=1.18GBP
Prices for 1 UK Gallon (just scaled up)
5.34 GBP
Prices for 1 US Gallon
8.88 USD

So before you complain too much, remember that the prices where you are may not be the highest. In relation to an average local wage here the prices are incredibly high (average being about 2000 zl per month)

Some Matches are More Equal Than Others

2008-07-17T19:23:00.002+02:00

Recently I've spent some time in the evenings sitting out on our balcony. Naturally, to make the most of the warmth we have a couple of candles to add some light, atmosphere and to keep the biting beasties away.
Lighting them with matches has made me realise a few things, firstly that most matches are pretty poor. Even when lit, angled well and out of the wind they are not great. What often happens is the flame doesn't transfer from the head to the stick itself. Either through damp or them just being poor quality.
One way to improve this is to lightly did the whole match in melted wax. Not only does this seal the match against moisture but it also adds something flammable to the stick.
So, before simply adding matches to your survival kit - check them out and wax them over!

Woods Access

2008-07-09T17:30:00.002+02:00

Just back from the woods. As with the majority of Polish woodland it is state owned and therefore open access. The trouble this creates is that virtually everything is banned. No collecting wood, plants, fruits or mushrooms, no fires, no camping and at times no entry to huge sections if I've understood the rather unprofessional looking notices stapled to a few trees!
It is a pity that there isn't some sensible plan of allowing people to use the woods. I guess they feel that woodland is for transit type activities, e.g walking or cycling, rather than actually spending time off the path.
Luckily there is some scrub land just nearby where I managed to pick up some odd bits, birch bark and pine roots which look to be of good quality.
In general I had a good time but it remains frustrating.

Allergies and Diet

2008-07-03T15:35:00.001+02:00

Having suffered since the age of about 12 with pretty terrible hayfever I've gotten used to a summer of sniffing and sneezing every year. I'm also pretty familiar with the various standard medications which are meant to prevent or alleiviate it.
This year was one of the worst until last week - fed up with the constant irritation I decided to try something I've read about and gave up dairy foods. This has proved harder than I realised, I'd forgotten how much cheese I eat and I'm pretty sick of ham sandwiches and missing yoghurts. However,the difference has been incredible. I no longer sneeze more than a couple of times a day, a far cry from the 10 minute attacks I used to get. I don't spend my time blowing my nose of coughing either. I haven't yet stopped the medication but it is something I'm considering.
If any other hay fever sufferers are reading this I urge them to try a dietary change. You've nothing to loose and an awful lot to gain!

300th Post!

2008-06-26T16:46:00.002+02:00

Here we are at Woodcraft in Poland's 300th post.
It all started before I moved back to Poland, ever so slightly under 2 years ago. Since then I've posted on topics from food to history, travel to reviews and from links to personal information.
If I remember rightly then the site is now in its third version with colours that should prove easier on the eye and a nice banner - courtesy of Mungo.
Of course the bushcraft blogosphere is now fairly big - some of the sites where people started off have fallen by the wayside and there is a current trend for bushcraft community pages such as Pablo's Woodlife and the JMB Network.
Personally, everything is going well. Although the wedding is a little over 2 months away were not too stressed yet and just finished off the paperwork and church lessons over the last 2 days in Radom. Back in Warsaw, our new flat is hooked up to the web with shiny 3MB broadband so I can continue to post here for your and my pleasure. I shall be working over the summer but probably not too many hours. In my previous job I used to work about 24 "teaching hours" (45mins - crazy?) per week but this added up to around 40 real hours on-site per week due to incessant meetings, stupid company policies and some very odd management attitudes. If anyone ever wishes to work in an English language school in Radom I'd be to share my experiences with them! The new job provides better money, management and contract along with spending less time on-site and less time wasted. I should definitely, finally, get more free time.
As far as the blog goes, I shall be returning to the weather observations for another fortnight - I've got 27 days in the bank and would like to get up to an even 40. Expect the finalweather project to be posted this summer too.
Currently, I'm in one of my "primitive technology" moods, though not living in a flint area nor having access to hides, leather, antlers etc. does put a dampner on things.
To conclude, I'd like to thank all my readers, especially the regulars, and to say hope you all enjoy a summer in the woods!

Nearly Back

2008-06-21T14:23:00.002+02:00

Although I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Wassaw train station I do hope to be back in the next 2-3 days.
We've moved successfully and are just about to start the new jobs so that's all good. We've delivered most of the wedding invites but we still have to go back to Radom a couple more times for meeting priests, "Catholic Marriage" lessons and more invites.
Should have the new flat online Monday though, in time for a 300th post extraveganza!

Weather Break

2008-06-13T09:16:00.001+02:00

I shall resume writing weather reports as of next Wednesday. At the moment I just don't have time as I've got the last days of the school year, sending out wedding invitations, visiting the Embassy, moving house and going to and from Warsaw 5 times all to do!

Weather Observation 09/06/08 - Radom

2008-06-10T20:05:00.002+02:00

The weather today was pretty stifling and no-one really managed to get a lot done as it was too hot and sticky. Through the course of the day you could even feel yourself, especially your feet, swelling up with the heat. There was a Westerly wind, which got up to force 4 at times, but it did little to reduce either the temperature or the humidity.
Temperatures were just under the 30 degree mark most of the day and I was suffering in the heat due to my having to wear semi-formal clothes at work. This is not great weather for trousers, shirt and tie! Once again it wass a dry day with no apparent passing of fronts or change in weather conditions visible at any time. However with this level of heat and humidity there is always a need to keep an eye on the sky to look out for clouds growing vertically. If the normally fluffy and sheep like cumulus start developing upwards then you need to be wary of a coming convection storm. These are caused when moist, heated air rises into the sky and cools.
However, today there were no storm clouds and those that were visible were generally only the good weather type of cumulus which are relatively soft and regularly shaped. None of them showed any of these build-up signs.
When this type of consistent weather is seen it seems hard to predict the next day in any interesting way. It is very much likely to be similar; hot, with a few clouds and the possibility of thunderstorms. I shall remain on the look out for any approaching front, and also for storms. Indeed, with all this hot weather I'm stunned how little thunder we've had so far.

Weather Observation 08/06/08 - Warsaw

2008-06-09T19:41:00.003+02:00

Another day which got up to some pretty stunning temperatures, with all the heat reflected on our balcony the themometer was reading 40 degrees at one point although I expect the aim termperature was genuinely about 10 degrees lower than that.
The sky was partly clouded most of the, starting off around the 20% mark and getting up to 90% around lunch. The clouds were mostly cumulus throughout the day.
However, around 1200 a dark cloud covered us, I'm guessing a cumulus cloud which "blew its top" and become a storm cloud. I slightly mistimed the rain fall and we still got damp on our way to the shop - there were big spots of rain and thunder for about 10-15 minutes.
After the storm the clouds cleared and it was back to 10-20% cover for the rest of the day although around 8pm the light made it hard to tell sky from cloud in the South. There were a few very wispy cirrus clouds and some slightly lower and more substantial cirrus visible.
In the evening at about 8pm the moon could be seen more or less due East, about 20% of the right hand edge being visible. The "horns" were pointing up , sadly not a reliable sign for good weather, but tomorrow's prediciton is for the weather to continue in the same vein. There will probably be some cloud cover and it will be important to watch out for both the humidity and "texture" of the air and storm clouds. We'll also be in our final week at work then!
Today's final two photos show how hard it is to judge cloud types when the sky is getting darker towards dusk, not an easy task! The first one is the the NE, the second one SE.

Weathe Observbation 07/06/08 - Warsaw

2008-06-09T19:30:00.004+02:00

After packing the majority of our things into boxes and heading of to Warsaw we woke up to a hot sunny day in Warsaw. It was truly sunbathing weather as the temperature got up over thirty degrees. The wind looked to be coming from the South and with a reasonable amount of cumulus cloud of the fair weather variety.
My hayfever was naturally terrible with it being a weekend and I spent most of the day having sneezing fits. Although some of the clouds built vertically and got dark they didn't do so until they were past us - the wind was moving the clouds across the sky pretty briskly.
All in all it was a dry and hot day with some degree of humidity but not unbearable, the lower pressure, bright sun and wind made my allergies worse which kind of stopped me doing much.
I predicted the next day to be the same, hot with some cloud build up and possible storms.
Today's photos show some of those threatening clouds, moving over us at speed;Also a view to the Northern edge of our view showing some clouds silloueted by the sunsetAnd the same view about an hour later;

Weather Observation 06/06/08 - Radom

2008-06-09T19:00:00.000+02:00

There was a fair wind about today, maybe as high as force 4 but it appeared to be blowing in different directions in different parts of the city. By our flat it was coming from the South whilst out at one of my business class' offices it was coming from the East. Hard to get a true fix on the position of it.
There was a fair amount of good weather cumulus all day and it never really built up into anything much. Although it was hot, up close to 30 degrees, it wasn't too humid and there were no late storm clouds. We saw the sunset on our way to Warsaw and it was yellow again with a red sun.
As for predictions - I expect more of the same tomorrow; hot and good weather clouds. This temperature always brings with it the chance of storms and moving 100km to the North, to a far more densely built up area, makes predicting winds and convection clouds a lot harder.

Weather Observation 05/06//08 - Radom

2008-06-06T15:30:00.005+02:00

A little more of note to be seen in today's skies. In general the cloud cover was much greater than previously with around about 25% cover at 10.30 am and building to 70% by 5pm. Most of the clouds were cumulus humilis but there were some bigger and more dense cumulus formations to be seen.
The wind was a high force 3 from the West and helped freshen the day, not much of a sunset was visible as I was working on the other side of the building but from 8pm onwards the clouds all disappeared and gave us a clear night.
The temperatures were in the mid 20s falling to below 20 by 9pm; with the wind it felt decidedly cool.
For tomorrow I anticipate a generally similar pattern - hot weather with clouds, humidity depending on the wind and keeping an eye on the sky in case the clouds start developing vertically for a thunderstorm.

Weather Observation 04/06/08 - Radom

2008-06-05T09:15:00.003+02:00

Finally some sort of weather to report on. When I left the house at 11.15am it was already up over 25 degrees but with a force 3 wind and about 15% cloud cover which made it more bearable than the last few days. The clouds were mostly fractured cumulus and weren't heading in any particular direction or grouping at this time. The wind appeared once again to be blowing in from the West.
By 3pm there was a bit more cloud cover and by 5pm one cloud showed a lot of vertical development and looked quite threatening. Fortunately the wind blew this away over the next half hour. The cloud cover was about 30-40% during this time.
Sunset was a nice pink colour which hopefully indicates good weather tomorrow and all of the cloud cover had disappeared completely by 9pm.
I expect tomorrow to be similar, though with the cloud cover there could be a storm at some point if it grows up again.

Weather Observation 03/06/08 - Radom

2008-06-04T09:22:00.003+02:00

Another dry, bright hot day. Not that humid and basically zero cloud cover again. The temperature had already got up to 22 degrees by 8 am and was reportedly as high as 29 over lunchtime.
With this little visible weather and basically no wind today it is very hard to predict anything other than more of the same weather. There isn't even a lot of "weather" to observe.
I've added a satellite picture of the overnight weather - it looks like there might be something to report on tomorrow!

Weather Observation 02/06/08 - Warsaw and Radom

2008-06-03T20:06:00.002+02:00

We came back from Warsaw Monday morning on the train, quite a struggle as we really wanted to stay in our new flat. The weather has remained hot and rather dull to write about.
The wind was from the South East today and about force 2. Temperatures in the high twenties (20 degrees at 8am) and cloud cover very low.
It is hard to predict anything but a continuation of this weather as there is virtually nothing of note in the sky! It is is just blue as far as the eye can see and even the TV weather man, ever optimistic though he is, is predicting a further week of this weather.
If you're reading this from North America and are wondering why an Easterly wind hasn't brough bad weather then a quick look at the map will help explain things.
A wind from the East comes across the Atlantic to get to the Americas, picking up moisture to drop at the first opportunity. On the other hand a look at the map of Europe and Russia reveals 7500 km of land to the East before you hit the coast again. Hence any wind has had plenty of chance to drop its moisture.