Birch Forest Schools

The run of good weather persisted for the Marsden Family Bushcraft day, which was fortunate as we were doing fire lighting. Always a thankless task in the wet especially if one is heaving and sweating over a bow drill.

After a meandering discussion (with many side tracking interruptions) about fire, what it is and how we can make it, we set to.

As I explained to the group at the start. Bushcraft is really about messing around with sticks and making tea. In short order, everyone had used their sticks and made tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

Other fire lighting methods were experimented with. Electric and solar being very popular. Perseverance paid off in the end as one dad achieved a friction ember and brought it to fruition.

I usually approach a fire session in which I am demonstrating bow drill with some trepidation as it is usually a while since I have practiced. But, that session was fun and made me realise just how well we had been taught at the Woodcraft School by Messer’s John Ryder and Nick ward.

As you can see from the photos, this was quite a rainy morning. Ideal for shelter building as it gave everyone the chance to see just how waterproof their shelters might be.

We started small. Having looked at pictures of debris shelters and discussed how they are made, everyone set to making use of  spaces in tree roots, stones, sticks and moss for camouflage. J. Put a big stick in the ground to stop anyone from standing on his mini shelter and M. Made his for the hedgehog who was visiting from Marsden Infants School.

As there was not too much debris around, we used tarps for the full size shelters. Families made all sorts of shelters in a variety of shapes and all of them seemed to keep the rain off.

To finish off we split down a log and made tent pegs with sheath knives. Children worked safely under supervision of their parents, Lisa and I.

A wet day, but a lot of fun all round.

This was the first of three planned Family Bushcraft sessions at Tunnel End woods in Marsden.

The day was so wonderfully warm and sunny that we decided not to put up the parachute so sacrificing bushcraft allure for the joys of sun on our faces.

The group was slightly smaller than anticipated but with safe tool use being the focus for the session, less is often better. Many of the families attending had worked with us before either at Babes in the Wood, previous Family Bushcraft sessions or private birthday parties and were very adept at the tasks required.

We worked through a range of tools that we might use in the outdoors to make things, focusing on keeping safe and how best to use the tools effectively. By the end of the session, everyone had made a mallet, used at least three different tools safely and had a lot of fun working together in the woods.

In an attempt to help progress this type of provision in the Colne Valley, we will be sending out a survey to capture peoples thoughts and ideas. With any luck we can take the next step and offer sustainable local provision in the outdoors where families can come together to play and learn and be together.

A clear mild winter’s day in the woods beckoned families to come and join in with bushcraft activities like fire making, shelter building, woodcraft and a story. It’s been a while since we had a full day of activity at Dipton Woods and it was good to be back.

Simon kept a roaring fire and kettles boiling all day, and we had fresh soup and pitta pizzas for lunch followed by fruit crumble – renamed ‘Forest Floor Crumble’ after a bit of an accident unwrapping it! Stainless Steel Stacey kept the domestics going for us.

Alan provided the usual brilliant activities including making robins from wood cookies and telling the story of how the Robin got it’s redbreast. As usual the group was fully engaged and really relished everything on offer.

It was good to have a visit from Dave Adams from Northern Bushcraft who dived in to help with carving pegs for shelters amongst other things. Dave and his students from Newcastle College have been helping to sort out the footpaths into the woods which will make a big difference to the access in the future.

A highlight of the day was Alan being taught the Woodland Gangnam Style dance. Say no more!

Once again some lovely outcomes from the day – one auntie telling me that her little nephew was entralled with the day and was calmer than he had ever been seen, as he suffers ADHD. Makes it all worthwhile!

What a relief to have a whole session take place without the rain coming down! With clear blue skys overhead, I asked Jakob if we ought to bother putting up the parachute. “Oh yes” he said ”you never know” And so we did while while Stan, Jakob’s dad repaired the legs on benches to make seating. So ate overgrown bit of garden under a magnificent sycamore was prepared for Jakob’s party.

A few weeks ago had discussed what kind of activities we might have at the party and with plenty of extra options, there was always going to be a lot to do. “Bushcraft is mainly about messing about with sticks and drinking tea” and with that in mind adults and children filtered some rather muddy water and boiled Kelly kettles to make their hot drinks. After a round of pizza and marshmallows, we retired to the field to throw darts using atl atl and once again the women showed the men how it was done!

It is quite challenging to offer a range of bushcraft activities while doing so in enough depth to do them justice in only three hours. It is possible to skim across the surface a little and have a light touch but Jakob struck me as the kind of boy who relished detail and knowledge.

One of the most pleasing comments from the NCFE course last year was that in my delivery to children and young people, I did not dumb down the subject just because they are young and with such enthusiastic participants, there was no need to dumb down at the party either.

My thanks to Caitlin and Stan, Jakob’s parents for their help setting up and dismantling the camp and to Zosia who displayed a frightening ability with a fire steel!

Another first for me this weekend, a bushcraft party… in a garden, or more precisely two gardens side by side.

Yet again, in the type of weather that even a duck would spurn, I worked with children and adults for Max’s sixth birthday. Max, and indeed several of the other party goers, had attended the Marsden Family Bushcraft sessions through the Summer and his parents decided that giving Max a different kind of party would be a good idea.

I met with Max a couple of weeks ago to find out what he might like to do. Den building and making “tennis racket” grills for pizza on the fire came out top and he liked my suggestion of making the bird feeders using saws, billhooks and hammers.

An area at the bottom of the garden had been cleared for a fire circle and to combat the worst of the weather, we set up the bell tent as a refuge.

As with the Crow Lane Family session, the parents and children worked together and in larger groups to make the feeders. Everyone enjoyed the sawing, cleaving and hammering and after working up an appetite children cooked pizza on the fire embers.

In reflecting on this session and previous parties we have given or run on behalf of others, I think that the involvement of parents is one of the main factors in making the events special. Usual children’s parties are very much about children “doing” and parents watching but I do think that working together and playing together and parents experiencing the same joy as the children brings an added dimension to the day.

All of the parents at the party and particularly Max’s parents were involved at every stage and despite the terrible weather, entered into the spirit of the day and helped to make it a wet but magical experience.

Birch Forest Schools led a forage walk through the Rotcher area of Slaithwaite for the third year running as part of the Colne Valley Local Food Festival. Called in to cover a cancellation with only two days notice, we prepared products from some of the wild food available throughout the area and prepared a walk that would demonstrate how a small area could provide a wide range of opportunities for the forager.

We focused not just on food but medicinal properties of some of the plants and trees as well as craft and bushcraft opportunities.

Despite the promised downpour, we managed to complete the walk and make t to the parachute cover for hot drinks (including foraged ground ivy) and fresh, wild herb bread cooked in the Dutch oven.

As always seems to be the case, I rarely get any photos on a forage walk, probably on account of getting too excited and talking far too much, luckily a little rowan jelly was on hand to sooth the throat.

The final family bushcraft session of the Summer programme took place today in Marsden. The weather forecast was appalling but in the end the rain held off until the end of the session. Despite having twenty attendees listed, around thirty turned up. On reflection, our volunteer helper, Chris Tuckey was invaluable in helping out with this extremely busy session.

The session was cut short as we had been asked to step into the breach at the last minute to run a wild food forage walk around Slaithwaite as part of the month of food related activities (see next post).

Children and adults enjoyed using fire steels and lighting their Kelly kettles. All agreed that the drink tasted much better than it usually did. Children and adults then made grills from withies and cooked pita pizza on the fire. The session could have run all day but the forage session beckoned…

The second Marsden family bushcraft session was less midgey, or maybe we were quicker off of the mark in getting a small fire lit.

Many of the attendees from the previous session came along as well as a few new faces. Today’s theme was shelter building with a bit of camouflage and stealth thrown in.

As the site was unsuitable for full size debris shelters we used “mini-me’s” and made small shelters to the same principles. Initially this did arouse some scepticism as one father asked” so, let me get this straight, we are playing with dolls in the woods?”

“All will become apparent” I assured him. And it did. In fact I suspect that the adults were more engaged in the making of small shelters than the children. Their shelters did outline the salient points of debris shelter building and as a group they became aware of just how demanding a full size construction might be.

We then moved on to tarp shelters. While some were happy to freestyle their shelters, others came to learn a few useful knots and others how to make a basic tent peg with a beak cut.

From a Forest School perspective, I was happy to let the group carry on as all were engaged and immersed in their building or playing until one boy pointed out…”hey, weren’t we supposed to be doing camouflage?” So out came the camouflage, the ghillie suit and the face paints. The session ended with children and parents hiding in the woods and acquiring nettle stings for their trouble.

As a family we tend not to do “sitting around” type holidays and so seem to have formed a habit of using our down time as CPD opportunity. And so we attended the 2012 Bushmoot in south Wales for the second year running.

The Bushmoot is the annual gathering organised by the Bushcraft UK forum, online home to a wealth of knowledge, advice and banter on all aspects of bushcraft.

The Bushcraft UK Bushmoot was conceived to provide an organised individual and family event where people with an interest in bushcraft could gather with like minded individuals and expand their knowledge through mutual skill sharing.

bushcraftuk.com

As a visitor to the last three Wilderness gatherings, the difference between the two events is readily apparent. The gathering is much more of a trade show and while there are ample opportunities to attend workshops and expand ones knowledge, it is quite crowded throughout the site and feels more like a festival.

The activities at the Bushmoot are delivered by volunteers and BushcraftUK moderators on a wide verity of subjects. Following a year of Bushcraft learning it only seemed fair that I take on most of the childcare and let Lisa attend as many of the workshops as she wanted to.

We managed to get down to the coast after a long walk through the beautiful dunes resplendent with wild flowers, tart sea buckthorn and sweet dewberries. There was even a marsh samphire and sea purslane forage on the way back via the estuary.

Yet again I took the opportunity to hang around and watch Dave Budd forging tools on a small ground forge. It is easy to see why the blacksmith’s workshop might have been the focus for gathering in years gone by as conversation ranged far and wide. Dave has a wonderful perspective on the making of all sorts of items, not least the place of the full tang handle in modern bushcraft knives which he considers to be more a result of fashion rather than practicality.

The crowning glory of the week was the hangi and pot share. At the prompting of my daughter, committed vegan, desperate to “smell the disgustingness” ??? of the dead sheep, we decided to attend and bring along some food. In typical overachieving-Lisa style, we took a mixed vegetable tagine, couscous, leek and potato soup and a chocolate cake made in the Dutch oven.

The event itself was very pleasant with everyone sampling different food on offer. All of our food was eaten with many people coming back looking for seconds. There were even other vegetarians and individuals with dairy intolerance who were able, at last, to eat something.

Next year… I think it is probably time to switch sides and deliver some sessions or maybe offer provision for the children or…. but then it is supposed to be a holiday.