Hunter Gather Cook Nick Weston’s Ethiopian adventure The Midnight Sun The Botany of the Bow Drill plus Star Lore,Weather Lore and more...
Rocky Shore Foraging
NEW FOR AUTUMN
Sunday September 8th Visit the north Kent coast with a view to discovering the foraging possibilities of shellfish and seaweeds at Tankerton. Discover the habitats and identify your finds under the guidance of Steve Kirk.
Our one-day taster courses cost: £35 for a single person £70 for a family of up to five. You may camp overnight at our farm in Kent if you wish, at no extra charge. We will provide tea and coffee and a hot vegetable soup as part of the day.
Autumn Wild Food Festival Sunday September 15th
NEW FOR AUTUMN
A one day celebration of the Autumn bounty, for all the family. Forage for the hedgerow harvest, sample wild foods and learn how to make the most of the season’s treats; take away recipes and tips on preserving for the winter and experience the joys and frustrations of genuine outdoor cooking with the Bushcraft Magazine Team. See our website for further details.
Shrimping and Sandy Shore Foraging Saturday September 28th Learn to use a shrimp net and collect shellfish in a beautiful sandy bay on the south coast of Kent under the experienced leadership of lifeboatman John Ruffhead. Bring warm clothes and waders or be prepared to paddle.
Woodland Fungus Foray
Saturday October 12th
Forage in ancient woodland for an incredible variety of fungi with our expert Steve Kirk. This is an opportunity to learn about fungi in general, as well as to identify and sample any edible species we find. Bring digital cameras and notebooks.
Bespoke Spoon Carving Learn the skills and try out the tools under the guidance and tuition of our skilled craftsman, Paul Bradley at a site in Kent. Make and take away your own spoons. Get together with a group of like-minded friends and contact us to arrange a date or book a day as a birthday or other gift for a special person or persons. E-mail: info@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk
NEW FOR AUTUMN
Keep up to date and book online at www.bushcraft-magazine.co.uk/courses
Bespoke Leatherworking Learn techniques to make and decorate your own personal items under the experienced guidance and tuition of our craftsman Paul Bradley at an indoor venue in Kent. Get together with a group of like-minded friends to reduce the cost per head or book a day as a birthday or other gift for a special person or persons. Contact us to arrange a mutually agreeable date. There is usually a small additional charge of £5 for materials.
E-mail: info@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk
Volume 9 Number 2 Summer 2013 The Bushcraft Magazine is published by:
The Bushcraft MagazineTM .
Egerton House Cottage, Egerton, Ashford, KENT TN27 9BD Founder: Huw Woodman Editor: Steve Kirk Advertising: Matthew Selfe Webmaster: Paul Bradley Soup Dragon: Cathy Hill E-mail: info@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk Advertising: mafro@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk
CONTENTS 6 ETHIOPIA: WORKING WITH NATURE Nick Weston watched it happening. 11 CAR LAMP FIRE STARTER Clive Edwards gets all fired up about solar reflectors. 14 ANOTHER STRING TO YOUR BOW Dave Brannigan gives fire by friction a new twist. 17 REDCURRANT AFFAIRS Steve Kirk had some in the woods. 18 LIVING WITH THE MIDNIGHT SUN Kevin Warrington on the days that never end, my friend. 20 LORDS OF THE STONE AGE Matthew Selfe and Steve Kirk on course for a prehistoric weekend. 24 ’CRAFTY YOUNG FOXES Ben Anson and silver fox, Phil Ireland. 26 THE BOTANY OF THE BOW DRILL Keith Bosely takes some trees for a spin. 32 HOW TO BUILD A PRIMITIVE BOW, PART 3 Jamie Burleigh finishes where he left off. 35 THE LAST WORD rests with Lloyd Hooper. REGULARS 2 COURSES 4 CAMO PAGES 12 WEATHER LORE 30 STAR LORE
EDITORIAL Not only does the Earth revolve around the Sun, so does much of this issue of the Bushcraft Magazine. We are optimistic that sunny skies will prevail this Summer. To back that up we have articles on how to understand the anti-solar point and the phenomena that arise from it, and how the Midnight Sun affects those who live beneath its constant glare, for example. Prolonged sunshine might be welcome in the Arctic, but in equatorial Africa the consequences are likely to be desert or drought, as was the case in Ethiopia thirty years ago. Back then, hundreds of thousands of people perished from lack of rainfall. How does a nation recover from something like that? At the behest of the international charity, World Vision, the intrepid and articulate Nick Weston, flew to Ethiopia to find out. Nick, renowned for his six month sojourn in a tree-house, and for his dynamic company, Hunter Gather Cook, knows a thing or two about self-sufficiency. Was he impressed? Turn to page 6 to find out. In addition, some resourceful folk in the UK experiment with two different kinds of improvised solar-powered firelighters. If its fire you want, we also reveal some ways to get the best from your bow-drill and you know that primitive longbow you’ve been working on for some time? You can finish it, now. Steve Kirk. editor@bushcraft-magazine.co.uk Cover photo by World vision
Photo credit: John Ruffhead
Greater Weever from off the Kent coast
Um, skipper, we’ve a weever Knowing full well that weevers are poisonous, I recently tried “Pan Fried Weever Fish” in a seaside restaurant. It had an excellent flavour, since the apparatus and means of delivering any poison - certain spines on its dorsal fin, and on either gill cover - had been removed. When I inquired as to how long it had been an item on the menu, they replied “Since today.” Not a fish one can catch to order, Greater Weever, Trachinus draco, is an uncommon inshore species. Sea anglers (and chefs) ought to make themselves familiar with, if they have not already done so, for their own safety. A fatal sting was recorded as recently as 2001 in Spain. More often, however, it is merely excruciating . “One experiences at first a very acute pain, lancinating and paralysing, often associated with fainting. Then a sort of painful tingling attacks the wounded part, which swells up and becomes inflamed, and if one neglects to attend to it this may go on to phlegmonous inflammation and gangrene. Frequently certain general symptoms, as Sunspot 1785 fever, delirium, and bilious vomiting, accompany this state. They may last The UK has just joined Europe, Canada and the two or three hours, or make themselves felt for several United States in banning the use of khat, a days.” ‘mild’ herbal stimulant, popular with Somalis,
Bad News for Khat Lovers
Photo credit: Katpatuka
Yemenis and Ethiopians both in their home countries and immigrant communities abroad. Those who indulge in this very traditional behaviour chew a fresh leaf from the shrub Caltha edulis. Edulis, by the way, is Latin for edible. If you’ve never heard of khat before, Nick Weston coincidentally brings it to our attention in his article, following on page 6. The ban is a controversial move because it goes against the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. The apparently extreme reaction of the government stems from fears that perpetrators of violence and terrorism in the Horn of Africa are ‘high’ on the stimulant. But, as you will read, it has primarily peaceful, cultural and recreational uses, too.
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Steve Kirk
Twin Peaks Solar Max occurs every 11 years and the peak of Sunspot Cycle 24 should have happened last year. However, solar activity took a dip in 2012 and only just looks like livening up again. That is very much in line with the prediction of a double peak, with the second occurring at the end of this year and the beginning of next. During a cycle, sunspots spread out irregularly above and below the solar equator and when one hemisphere reaches its maximum before the other there is often a second peak as the other hemisphere catches up. Big sunspots have recently started to appear on the Sun’s southern half, whereas previously they had been mainly north of the equator...
The camo pattern on these pages is a variant of the Australian Army’s current AUSCAM (Mk III) for arid conditions, a five colour desert pattern. The style is sometimes known as ‘Hearts and Bunnies’, for obvious reasons.
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“Half our diseases are in our minds and half in our houses.” Ernest Thompson Seton, The Book of Woodcraft, 1912.
Water to Go for We recently teamed up with Water to Go to offer one lucky person on Facebook the chance to win one of their bottles. The bottle is the same size as a regular bike drinks bottle, but has a replaceable water filter cartridge inside. This filter lasts for 200 litres of water, and has a three month life. They were developed by NASA and remove over 99.9% of contaminants from your water! The great thing about the Water to Go filtration bottle is that it is portable. So much so, it has become my water bottle for work! I’ve drunk water direct from the River Medway straight from the bottle with no ill effects, but furthermore it just makes general tap water taste so much better! For further information head over to http://www.watertogo.eu/ And there is more......For every like Water to Go get on their Facebook page they will donate £1 to Child Aid Gambia! While you are there don’t forget to like us! www.facebook.com/TheBushcraftMagazine
The Lithic Share Project If, like me, you casually find and collect prehistoric flint artefacts whilst out walking, you can now make the most of them by sharing your information with others. The Lithic Share Project’s aim is simple – to provide a platform that allows the sharing of lithics and associated prehistoric artefacts from around the world and in so doing create an internationally accessible study resource. Societies, organisations, museums and private collectors can contribute to the database by uploading digital images of their artefacts, together with their details and provenance. This will enable public access to thousands of items We set a challenge in the Spring. We offered a special prize for the person that otherwise would otherwise remain unseen. sending us the earliest dated photo I have registered with the project and am very excited about showing a find of this year’s St. George’s making my finds available for the world to study, whilst at Mushrooms. Our winner was Neil the same time never parting from them. I urge you to get Hopkins, from Powys, who wins a nifty involved. I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours. Hands On Bushcraft neck knife inscribed www.lithicshare.com and www.facebook.com/ with his initials. Neil commented that our lithic.share choice of Calocybe gambosa discriminated SK against our more upland readers and that he found his whilst on a trip to West Sussex on May 19th. Hmm, sedentary readers perhaps. Scottish Fungi – the website of the Scottish Fungus Groups – has this to say. ” The species is widespread in Britain and Ireland although there are fewer records from Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, relative to England – is this just fewer folk recording in these countries early in the year or does it reflect a meaningful distribution pattern?” Have a look at the map of sightings and add your own records. https://sites.google.com/site/scottishfungi/speciesNeolithic Leaf-shaped Arrowhead profiles/calocybe-gambosa-st-george-s-mushroom
Mafro
Photo credit: N. Hopkins
from Egerton, Kent
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Photo credit: S. Kirk
Neck Knife Winner!
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Thirty years after the famine, Nick Weston flew out to find...
thiopia: W
I used to hate Mondays. Mondays are my new ‘Saturdays’- how ironic. Since starting Hunter Gather Cook three years ago, weekends equal courses, the true days of work. But now, there’s a whole new work schedule. The first few days of the week mean the following: Research & development, the acquisition of raw materials (shooting, fishing and foraging), lab time (brewing, infusing, pickling and preserving) and down time or, lets be honest, all of the above. Oh yes, admin. but then there’s always admin…
the mail stream in. Amongst the inevitable spam (seriously, why?!) was one that almost slipped through. The email was addressed ‘Hi Nick’ as opposed to just ‘Hi’ (a sure sign of spammage), so I read on. ‘I've got an idea for you. How would you feel about coming on a trip to Ethiopia with us?’ Its not everyday you receive such an invitation, so I replied. Three months later my feet landed firmly on the tarmac at Addis Ababa Bole International and the smell of humidity filled my nostrils. After a generous dose of vaccinations, the flight had been almost as painful. I’d been to Africa a fair few times, mostly to the South, but Ethiopia was a fresh country for me and quite different to any African country I had ever visited before.
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Ethiopia has been through some rough times. Many of you may remember the devastating famine that occurred between 1983-85, which caused close to 400,000 deaths. Devastating. I had been invited out by World Vision, to write about and see what they had helped accomplish over the last thirty years. World Vision are a prominent NGO (Non-governmental Organisation), worldwide, that specialize in child sponsorship. They were at the head of the large-scale So it was one such Monday, that the said administraaid relief during the famine in Ethiopia and have since tion was about to be conquered. Brewing up a strong worked with the locals throughout the country setting batch of the black stuff, I flipped open the office and let up ADPs (Area Development Programmes), formed of
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: Working with Nature 1. Relief (1984-85) – Aid; food drops; over 4 million people were affected by the famine. 2. Rehabilitation (1986-89) – Infrastructure and agriculture; seeds, nursery sites, healthcare, irrigation and water distribution points. 3. Development – Liveability. Before I go any further, tales of survival come in all shapes and forms; many of us are unlikely to ever find ourselves up the proverbial creek without a certain instrument. However, what I was about to see first hand was true survival. This wasn’t about fire by friction, trapping or what wild plants you could eat ‘if’ you had to survive. This was the real deal on a large scale. Granted, the people of Antsokia and indeed other parts of Ethiopia have had the support of such aid agencies as World Vision, but rather than creating a system of dependency, the support they have received has been all about nurturing their environment – “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, give a man a rod…” (If you don’t know the rest, I suggest you look it up. Ed.)
oasis of life. What was quite astounding about their achievements was the level of sustainability that had been cemented into their way of life. Once out of the busy capital and heading north, the true spirit of Ethiopia revealed herself: Thatched huts, more like iron age roundhouses than anything; hay stacks; cow pats stacked to be baked into fuel by the sun and livestock. Lots of livestock. As we travelled north to the Antsokia Valley (one of the worst hit areas of the famine), the passing homesteads seemed like the vision of rustic bliss: a day with the Larkin Family. Out here ‘beasts of burden’ are exactly that, donkeys and camels mostly, but the cows also get a look in, often with a plough, as part of the arrangement. My first thoughts were that this is how the UK was at one point: a sedentary, subsistence culture working to live. It can’t be an easy life, that I can vaguely understand. Six months in a treehouse and three months on a desert island with minimal rations can give you an insight; but not to this extent.
During my time on the ground we would be spendWhat I was keen to explore was just how this resil- ing the first four days six hours north of the capital, ient collection of individuals had not only survived visiting ADPs in and around Kimbolsha, the main the famine but thrived, turning a landtown in the Antsokia Valley. Then we would be scape that Mother Nature had heading south of Addis a few hours, just beyond all but deserted, into a the Rastafari mecca of Shashamane. Here, I fertile, productive would spend a few days in the town of
WILDERNESSWORLD
the following three phases:
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The
Antsokia Valley Bushcraft Magazine
Inside “Ferengi! Ferengi!” (The Amharic phrase for Westeners in general) from children and adults alike.
First taste of Tella 'Beer'!
The rest of our time in the north was spent visiting similar success stories, small farmsteads that supplied the local population, not only generating their own income, but also a cycle
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As we walked away from the road and through the dense undergrowth we emerged into a scene of Ethiopian hops bucolic bliss. Seada - Gesho Kamal (36) came out of her house with her 3 children to greet us and show us around her small plot of land. It was a lush orchard of mangoes, oranges, limes and papaya complete with a large herb garden and well. Seada and her husband had been donated seedlings as part of the ADP’s Agro-forestry and garden scheme, they had also had help digging a thirty foot well (by hand), which had enabled them to sustain their smallholding. The house itself was a simple timber structure with a tin roof and high ceilings to keep it cool. I could’ve quite happily moved in…but wasn’t allowed. of self-sufficiency without the need for outside intervention. Along with soil degradation a succession of Our next stop was to visit a dairy in the small township of droughts had been the major cause of the 1983 famine. Mekoy. Turning up with my Western expectations, I Through ADP’s and early warning systems, 93% of housenaively assumed that there would be a serious head of holds were now prepared for any instance of famine. cattle. On asking how many cattle the owner had, with my poor grasp of Amharic, I thought she said 300; Heading South. actually, it was 3. Turns out that’s quite a lot! Not only As we headed South of Addis to Lake Awassa, the rocky, did this woman provide most of the milk, butter and yoghurt for the township, she also had an excellent bit of mountainous landscape flattened out into vast plains of grassland dotted with Acacia trees and farmsteads. Surwork on the side: I had also stumbled upon the local prisingly, Ethiopia is actually quite elevated; Addis Ababa brewery. sits at 2355m above sea level, that’s twice the height of Ben Nevis… I had wondered why there were quite so many local fellas in her backyard – this place was not only the brewery, but evidently a bar. The two major local tipples Lake Awassa is vast, and the surrounding banks are
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Images © World Vision
Ethiopian smallholding
Hawassa on the banks of were Tej a punchy honey wine and Tella, a homebrew Lake Awassa with the local made from various grains. Both are infused (and fisherman. thereby) flavoured with Gesho, a member of the Buckthorn family, as a substitution for hops. I’m quite familiar Our first stop in the with home brewing but this was interesting stuff: much Antsokia Valley was to to the excitement of the landlady and eager onlookers, visit a typical Ethiopian she poured me a glass when I asked for a snifter. I smallholding. People with supped. Earthy, hint of roasted something mixed with my complexion are not all plenty of twig and leaf. It was strong stuff, not quite the that common in Ethiopia nettle beer I was accustomed to. After I had picked the and more often than not, bits out of my teeth, the glass was snatched from my wherever we went, we hand and finished off in a few gulps by my hostess. Her were greeted with actions spoke louder than words – this Ferengi couldn’t take his ale. Fair enough…
Lake Awassa
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home to many people that survive from this valuable provide them with boats and nets. Strict measures, resource. I was fortunate enough to spend a bit of but all in the name of sustainability. time with the Fisherman’s Association that manage these waters. Cruising across the waters we soon came up alongside some fishermen laying out their nets. The two Arriving at the water’s edge, I was immediately made lads we met were around the age of 20, both good aware that this place was not as well off as Antsokia. I friends and had plenty of good banter. They were was also informed that ADPs had not been put in laying out gill nets up to 150m long, and both found it place here. ‘Ferengi! Ferengi!’ was now accompanied hilarious when I told them that it was illegal to use by ‘Monies. Monies.’ Fair enough. gill nets in lakes in the UK: ‘How do you catch fish?!’ they laughed. They soon stopped laughing when I Mingling with the fishermen, were the ever present told them that most fishermen at home tend to put Marabou storks. These huge birds standing up to the fish they catch back. Yes, that is weird, bordering 1.5m tall are one of the largest flying birds in the on clinically insane. They were remarkably cheerful world. As scavengers, they will eat pretty much and both really enjoyed their work. At 2pm everyday anything and were happily picking at the fishermen’s they would head out to lay their nets which took a nets. As we boarded the small outboard to head out couple of hours. They would then head back to shore onto the lake, the head of the association explained and spend the rest of their day sat in the shade of the how the system works. The majority of fish caught largest tree they could find, chewing khat and hangare all Tilapia, a quick-growing freshwater fish with ing out with friends. (Khat contains a monoamine firm white flesh and one of my personal favourites, alkaloid called cathinone, an amphetamine-like especially when it comes to sashimi and ceviche. No stimulant, which is said to cause excitement, loss of one is allowed to fish the waters unless they are part appetite and euphoria. In Ethiopia it is very much a of the association. They also have to donate all their social custom). catch to the association and, in return, receive a wage and a quota of fish. The association also The next morning they’re up at 4am and out to bring
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Fishing on Lake Awassa Being shown how to fillet
Tilapia fillets and blade
Berbere spice
in the nets and get them to the processing shed ready for the fish market to open; so that’s exactly what I did.
After realizing I was just slowing things down the head of the association pulled me aside to give me a taste of the typical fisherman’s breakfast; raw tilapia with torn up flatbreads and a fiery paste made using an Ethiopian spice called Berbere. Despite being told not to eat At 4.30am, I gazed anything raw by the World Vision folk, I couldn’t resist, across the water even if it was breakfast. The Berbere paste seared the watching the insides of my tongue and made my eyes water; the small dots on the tilapia was so fresh it almost melted in the mouth – a horizon grow bit racy for 7 a.m., but worth every mouthful. These larger. As the fisherman had good taste. fishermen came in, so did the Fighting my way through the throng of people trying to Marabou storks, get in and purchase the catch of the day, I emerged into who also know a thriving market place filled with the smells of spice when breakfast is and fish cooked in a hundred different ways. A bit more served. The noise breakfast, I thought, this time, maybe cooked… of a 9kg prehistoric bird with a One of the things I found most strange about Ethiopia 2.9m wingspan was the lack of hunting and gathering that went on. approaching fast Fishing aside, wild foods don’t really exist, and hunting from behind and is, as far as I could tell, illegal. What was most prolific skimming the top throughout the journey was that Ethiopia is a country of your head is that is carefully managed by the people just as much as enough to make the government. With the help of outside organizations you need a fresh such as World Vision, they have been dealt a fresh pair of trousers… start, one born out of all the mistakes we in the the locals found it western world have made and, in most cases still are hilarious. making.
As the fishermen hit the shore, they began emptying their nets and sorting the fish. Raw fish breakfast with berbere paste Using a measuring stick, anything that was too small was put back into the water and the rest went to market.
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The processing shed was already a hive of activity. Once inside, you couldn’t get out, we were literally barricaded in, as the hoards of hungry punters descended on us from all sides. I was handed a rudimentary filleting knife with a mean curve and a whittled handle and put to work. I wasn’t quite sure how to use it until my filleting buddy showed me how. These blades are purpose built and the speed at which they were handled was astounding. I was going to screw this up. Sure enough, I did, and my first few fillets
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were deemed unsellable. After a bit I got it right – but what I lacked was the speed to earn my daily crust.
Through the ages as humans have tried to control the environment and surrounding landscape, they – we have quickly learnt what it is to lose control. Mother Nature cannot be tamed, and humans, just as any other life-form that exists on this incredible planet we call home, need to understand that in order to survive we have to work with nature as opposed to trying to enslave it. The people of Ethiopia are what makes it tick. Many of the folk that I met were extremely positive and knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives or cottage industries, they also had plans to expand them. Back home, I have friends that still don’t even know what to do with their lives! Through their determination to survive and thrive, Ethiopians have created an existence that we in the developed world need to take note of.
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The key thing that stands out for me from within this community of like-minded people, is that bushcrafters love nothing more than a good old challenge. Whilst spending some quality time discussing the demands of teaching bushcraft to large groups, with a good friend – bushcraft instructor James Lindford, we got onto the subject of fire-lighting. This led onto further discussion about his recent purchase of a parabolic firelighter. Shaped much like a satellite dish, the stainless-steel parabolic mirror is designed to focus the sun's radiant energy to a point which can reach 1000 degrees. You simply place your tinder of choice between the points of the forked arm, point at the sun and it lights!
Car Lamp Fire Starter
It was then that the question arose in my mind. Could I adapt and improvise my own? My first prototype was constructed from tin foil moulded around my head. However, the flimsy construction and lack of focal point (or perhaps too many) meant it failed. I was going to have to look for something a little more robust.
Clive Edwards
The following morning with the help of another good friend Lee Scott who restores classic cars we set about extracting some car headlamps.
flame!
Photo credits: Clive Edwards
Can this system really be used in reverse on a dark night without cloud cover to freeze things, as I have read? Watch this space.....
You will know when you have the focal point because you will be able to see the intense white light on your tinder. Through trial and error, we found the tinder should not be too large as it needs to be able to be held in the focal point. And its probably a good idea not to use your finger to try it out first. Within seconds we had smoke and Clive Edwards loves being outdoors, teaching, practising and then a flame.. learning from others. He stands by the ethos that you need to adapt, improvise, overcome and survive. Critically he most enjoys "improvising". As well as subscribing to some great bushcraft social network pages, he runs his own Facebook page "Bushcraft and European Bushtucker" where he shares some of his adventures. See also:-
http://www.jameslinford.co.uk/ http://www.lee-scott-restorations.co.uk/
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Being inquisitive folk we then started experimenting; only to find that most modern cars have sealed headlamp units that combine all the bulbs into one structure. Our final triumph came when we dismantled one of those one million candle power torches and used the light-weight plastic reflector to similar effect.
D. I. Y.
Once the lamp shade is out and the glass cover is taken off the lamp shade needs to be polished the focal point and then positioned pointing directly towards the sun. Using some dry bark or dung on a stick, push through the bulb hole until you find the focal point.
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range in mid-Germany, whence it derived its name. This mountain also had a reputation (aided and abetted by writers such as Goethe) as place of supernatural and demonic association, enough to make any climber nervous and likely to jump at their own shadow – which is exactly what the Brocken spectre is. The sun needs to be low enough behind the observer to project their shadow horizontally or, with a higher sun, downwards over a precipice onto a cloud, mist Recognising that there is an anti solar point is a step toward or fogbank. The cloud catches the elongated, tapering unlocking the mysteries of several environmental and shadow and the fine water droplets therein backscatter the weather-related phenomena and it is actually fairly straight- sun’s light into coloured rings. As the Cloud Appreciation forward. As the name suggests, the ASP is a spot directly Society’s website describes it, “This fantastical apparition opposite the sun. However, because the whole day side of looks like a ghost from the sixties, for it is surrounded by the Earth is opposite the sun we must define the term rainbow colours and has very flared trousers.” It has, not further. It is a focal point directly opposite the sun in surprisingly, resulted in claims of people witnessing relation to the observer. For, without something to receive manifestations of Jesus Christ or of angels. Both the shadow an image, be it eye or artificial lens, that point does not and the Glory, (the term by which the beautiful rings are really exist. Let your shadow be your guide – your head, or known), are centred on the anti-solar point. more accurately, your eyes will usually indicate the position The physics of the Glory – i.e. the exact ray paths that the of the ASP. light takes through water droplets – is incompletely underWe all know to look for the glorious arc of a rainbow in the stood even today but, essentially, sunlight is scattered back opposite direction from which the sun is shining. Less appar- towards the observer and split into more pastel hues, rather ent is that the ‘bow’ is a fragment of the rim of a great ring than primary rainbow colours. Other than at sunrise and of diffracted light that has the anti-solar point at its centre sunset when they may be perceived in mist, glories will be (see Anatomy of a Rainbow, TBM, Vol. 4 No. 1, Spring 2009). below the horizon so a high viewing point is required to see The higher the sun, the lower and shorter the rainbow arc them. In these modern times they are most frequently seen and vice versa. Most of the time the land beneath your feet from on board an aeroplane in flight. You will need a to the horizon prevents you seeing more of the circle’s window seat on whichever side of the cabin is opposite the circumference but occasionally, people in hot-air balloons, sun when in flight, in order to look down for the aircraft’s aircraft, and up mountains have been astounded to see the shadow on the clouds. When a cloud with small, even sized whole thing. droplets passes below you may see concentric coloured rings on its surface and depending on how far down it is, Mountaineers have occasionally been astonished by you may be able to make out the ‘plane’s shadow in its another phenomenon caused by the sun and its opposition centre. Actually, it is centred on you – your eyes or your point – The Spectre of the Brocken. This was formerly an camera if you take a picture – and in effect is a Brocken object of superstition and fear; a ghostly dark figure, often spectre wrapped up in the shadow of a passenger jet. With gigantic, that moved as a man or flitted like a spirit, usually a photograph showing a large enough shadow image, it surrounded by rings of light and suspended in the air or should be possible to tell where in the aircraft you were seemingly upon a neighbouring peak. It was frequently sitting. encountered on the misty Brocken mountain in the Harz If you suffer from acrophobia (fear of heights) or aerophobia (fear of flying), don’t worry, there are still amazing things that may be seen while the observer’s feet are firmly planted on low-lying ground, and where looking down should not induce sensations of vertigo. Heiligenschein, or Holy Light, is a slightly different optical phenomenon to those already described, in that it is only indirectly atmospheric, though it does involve water droplets. In this case the cloud has condensed on the ground as dew. The droplets are much larger than mist or cloud droplets that produce Glories and are more like raindrops that produce a rainbow. Indeed, if the dew-covered expanse is large enough, there could even be a Dewbow. However, whereas the observer cannot usually see the bright anti-solar point of a rainbow, the Heiligenschein occurs at the centre of this ground-based one. Many droplets of dew are
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UNDERSTANDING THE ANTI-SOLAR POINT
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The opposition effect is closely
The first time I witnessed this was by the light of a full moon. I was returning from hunting rabbits with a friend. As we walked up a slope I looked back to see the ghostly white radiance around the head of my shadow but not his. He could see one of his own but not mine. We put our heads together and could see a ‘shared’ glow – this time centred on the anti-lunar point. It is ever thus with these optical effects – each of us is seeing light through a different set of droplets, ice crystals or whatever they may be. In fact, if you try to photograph your Holy Light by holding your camera out to one side instead of looking through the viewfinder, the imaged glow will be around the camera’s shadow and not your head!
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WEATHER LORE
Directly opposite the sun, objects hide their own shadows, but away from the centre, shadows are progressively revealed. How obvious that is depends on the reflectivity of the particular objects. It can be seen on fields of wheat or even coniferous forests but the finer the grain the more easily a glow is perceived by our eyes. If you think you have not spotted this particular phenomenon yet, think again. The brightness of the full Moon, and even the desert planet, Mars, when at opposition, is greater than can be accounted for by the increase in their illuminated areas compared with the partial phases. When these bodies are opposite the lifted just clear of the blade of grass by tiny hairs. This Earth near the anti-solar point in our sky, the reflection, enables them to act as spherical lenses that roughly focus shadow-hiding and coherent backscattering of their the sun’s light into a bright spot on the leaf behind the surfaces substantially increases their overall brightness; droplet. Some of this light then travels back through the which is why it is called the opposition effect . drop along almost the same path as it followed in, returning light most strongly in the sun’s direction as well as back-scattering it in directions that reach our eyes less intensely. The result is a patch of light around the head of our shadow that is brightest in the centre (actually at our eye-level) and more diffuse around the edges.
The
Photos S. Kirk
related to the previously described optical displays but does not involve water. It may be created in a number of ways, and once again centres on the anti-solar point. Fine crystalline surfaces such as sand or tarmac may act as lenses that focus and backscatter light like the Heiligenschein, so that on the beach or road an obvious bright spot of light may appear directly opposite the sun in relation to the observer. Sometimes a bright spot that travels with the aircraft may be seen from the air whilst flying over desert areas.
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Another String to Your Bow: The ‘Marra’ Kneeling Bow Drill Dave Brannigan With fire by friction, like so many practical things in life, the standard technique may sometimes not work for you, especially if you have any injuries or physical challenges of any kind. To overcome this, particularly in that all-important survival situation, it is necessary to think outside the box, improvise and adapt.
Photos © the author
Advantages of the ‘Marra’ method: You are using the same kit as standard bow drill set. It can be used as a sister technique after you’ve I find that, due to joint damage in my shoulder, the conven- used the standard bow tional method of drilling the bow forwards is so painful that drill method. It saves I simply cannot maintain speed in motion and I have to stop. throwing away spindles However, using a simple change in posture, body position that have become too and angle of bow motion, alleviates the pain and allows me short and you can utilise to achieve an ember. I stumbled upon this technique whilst smaller bits of wood trying to find a body position that didn’t hurt my shoulder. when longer pieces are I’ve named it the ‘Marra’ kneeling bow drill; ‘Marra’ not available. By being meaning friend in my native West Cumbria. ‘thrifty’ you get more coals per spindle. If you Step 1: Prepare your materials and make your bow drill set site your hearth on a platin exactly the same way as you would for the standard bow form or something dry, drill, i.e. bow and cord, bearing block, hearth, coal collector your knees stay clean and and spindle. The ‘Marra’ technique works best with a short dry, too. On cold, wet, spindle whereas long spindles work best with the standard muddy days, because you bow drill. Make a depression in your hearth with your knife. are kneeling, muck or moisture from your caked Step 2: Lay your hearth on the ground parallel with your up footwear does not body in a head to toe fashion, rather than across, as would transfer onto your precious be usual. Kneel down gently onto it to avoid hurting your hearth. This is particularly leg. Your knee should be whatever distance feels comfortuseful if you don’t get an able from the edge of the depression in which you’ll seat ember from your first your spindle. It is important that your spindle remains abso- notch and have to move lutely upright when held in position, for stability and a per- along your hearth to re-seat fect vertical burn into your hearth. An angled spindle will your spindle for another go! burn out of the side of your hearth or burn away from your cut notch making it hard, if not impossible, to ignite your Disadvantages: charred dust into an ember. If the spindle gets too short and you’re on stone, Step 3: Insert your spindle into your bow cord as normal, concrete or sun baked then insert the spindle into the depression and grab your surfaces it has a tendency to bearing block of choice. I use two limpet shells with a dan- remove skin from your delion leaf in between to stop heat transfer. Burn in and cut knuckles. Note to self: your notch as normal. Then get ready to make a coal. Rest don’t do that again! the edge of your palm against your knee and get a good solid comfortable position. Alter your kneeling position in accordance with the size of the spindle you are using i.e. sit back for longer spindles or kneel forward for shorter spindles with an upright thigh to retain stability with your palm tight to your leg. Begin drilling across your body at a right angle. Use the colour of the dust gathered in the notch and the amount of smoke as a guide to speed and pressure. As always, stick with it and give a good 20-30 strokes until the smoke is billowing out. The bigger the ember the better!
The
As always with bow drill, correct posture and a level bowing technique parallel to the ground is important with the short spindles used with the ‘Marra’ bow drill. Otherwise you will find that the cord will ride up and pop off the spindle into your bearing block or it will ride down and suck the spindle out of the hearth.
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RedCurrant Affairs Steve Kirk Red Currant Cheesecake Ingredients; 50g wild Red Currants 50 green Hogweed seeds 50g Demerara sugar 200ml double cream 400g full-fat cream cheese 65g icing sugar 100g digestive biscuits 50g butter
Method; Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Crush the biscuits to fine crumbs in a mixing bowl and thoroughly stir in the Demerara sugar. Add the melted butter and mix well. Line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with greaseproof paper. (Draw around the tin and cut to shape). Spoon in the biscuit mixture and press down firmly and evenly. Chill in the fridge to set. Crush the Hogweed seeds in a mortar and pestle (or between two spoons). Whip the cream cheese and icing sugar together in a mixing bowl. Fold in the double cream ensuring that it is thoroughly blended. Tip in the red currants and crushed Hogweed seed pods. Spoon and smooth this mixture over the chilled biscuit base. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour until set. Remove from the tin, slice and serve.
I call this ‘Lucky’ Fool because you need good fortune to find enough wild fruit in one go, to make it. Redcurrants (Ribes rubrum) provided the bulk of the fruit with some well-laden bushes in the woods. Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) added a handful of sweet berries, as did Raspberry (Rubus idaeus). Gean (Prunus avium) were added mostly as decoration because the only available fruits were very bitter.
Ingredients; 150g soft summer fruits (wild Red Currant, Wild Strawberry, Raspberry, Wild Cherry) 50g sugar 150g Crème Fraîche 140g thick double cream 1 tbsp live yoghurt 1 tbsp water
Method; Reserving a small amount for decoration (whatever you can spare), add the fruit to a saucepan with a tiny amount of water – 1-2
tablespoons per 150g fruit. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer on low for 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves and allow to cool. Whip the cream and crème fraîche in a mixing bowl until it thickens. Fold in the spoonful of yoghurt. When the fruit has cooled, pour it into a sieve over a bowl and mash it with the back of a spoon until the juice is extracted and the pips and a fibrous pulp is left behind. Discard this. Add the juice to the cream mix, folding it in so that the mixture is marbled rather than evenly pink. Spoon the fool into goblets, sprinkle with the reserved fruit and chill for 20 minutes before serving.
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BUSH BITES 17
The
‘Lucky’ Fool
Bushcraft Magazine
Living with the M
Living inside the Arctic Circle here in Swedish Lapland, it’s only the constant drone of millions of biting mosquitoes that distracts you from the beauty of the midnight sun. It’s a strange, eerie feeling to be out walking at midnight with the sun shining in the north, just above the horizon. Although it does not get dark at night from the middle of May, the sun does actually disappear just below the horizon. It is not until 4th June that we see 24 hours of sunshine. This continues until 12th July, but why do we see the sun for 24 hours during this period? The Earth orbits the Sun on the ecliptic plane. The Equator is inclined with the ecliptic plane by 23°26'. As a result, the North (and south) pole is in turn inclined towards the sun for 6 months. Around the summer solstice on 21st June, the Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum inclination toward the sun and as a result the sun illuminates the whole polar region down to latitude +66°34'. Latitude +66°34' defines the Arctic Circle (the southernmost latitude in the Northern Hemisphere where the midnight sun can be seen).
forest and so much of the forests have been harvested previously, it is difficult to find Birch trees of a sufficient diameter to provide large pieces of bark for craft work. Only in protected areas and eco-parks can you really get a feel for just how large trees used to grow to here. Constant daylight and hot weather make it more difficult to sleep during the summer. In order to sleep I have developed a technique of lying on my side with my hand over my eyes, making it appear darker. We also use lined roller-blinds to pull down over the windows to reduce the amount of light coming in to the bedrooms. Thousands of birds make the long migration north including; waders such as Green & Wood Sandpipers and passerines such as warblers and flycatchers, to take advantage of both the long daylight hours and the endless supply of insects for food. There is a lull in bird activity between midnight and 2am, but Black Grouse is one species that can be seen and heard displaying or “lekking”. Woodcock however, (a bird that displays between dusk and dawn in the UK) can be seen displaying or “roding” at any time of the day or night here. Owls are rarely seen at any time of
Illustration © Steve Kirk
Beaver at 2 a.m.
Photos © Kevin Warrington
Kevin Warrington
The
The period around mid-summer is the time to harvest Birch bark for making pots and baskets. Unfortunately it is now illegal to go into the forest and harvest Birch bark here in Sweden, but if I find an area of forest that is to be clear-felled, I can obtain permission to remove bark from the trees before they are cut down. Because the trees grow so slowly here in the northern
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e Midnight Sun
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Bears rest during the heat of the day and are active at night. Other species, such as reindeer, moose, hare and fox can be seen at any time of day. We have 24 hours of daylight until late July, but already by this time many birds have fledged their young and have begun their journey south for the winter and dew on the grass in the early morning indicates that autumn is coming.
Pied Flycatcher
WILDERNESSWORLD
s s
the day at the moment. Their populations follow the peaks and troughs of the small mammal population and after a dramatic crash in the small mammal population last year to the point where we don’t actually see any now, an owl of any species is also a very rare sight.
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Harvesting birch bark
My mum and dad with midnight sun
Brown Bear tracks
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Matthew Selfe
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Steve Kirk
Lords Stone Age of the
The
Will Lord with a freshly cast bronze dagger
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Photo credit: S. Kirk
Will Lord is a rock legend. The particular rock is, of course, flint. We were lucky enough to attend the annual Prehistoric Weekend that Will organises and in so doing, meet his ancestors.
We were up bright and early next day to go foraging with our very own Carol Hunt. Carol had meticulously researched into what flora and fauna would have been available in Britain to our ancestors. We spent the next couple of hours in the local woodland examining what forage was available and discussing techniques for harvesting and preparation, of not just food but also the medicinal properties of plants. Carol had prepared recipe hand sheets for many of the plants that we found on our forage, which was a really nice touch.
There were three workshops being run on each of the two days. Both of us had signed up for flint knapping tuition with the one and only, John Lord, (Will‟s father). John started off the session by telling us about tools he had found at the Lynford quarry. He had a selection of tools with him that were passed around, including a sixty thousand year old hand axe that showed no signs of ever being used. My body tingled when it was placed into my hands. I‟m not quite sure if this was to do with the fact that I was holding a tool that had been so expertly crafted for a real use thousands of years back, or because John had threatened to use it on anyone who dropped it!
The food over the weekend was based around what resources would have been available after the last ice age. We ate plenty of meat and shellfish, plus soups made John Lord from the foraged plants that we had gathered earlier that morning. I must say that the team of ladies dedicated to providing us with our food for the weekend did an Carol Hunt (left) and Val Lord
amazing job. We ate so very well, and with such a varied diet over the weekend. It was beautiful! After lunch I spent some time with Tel the potter. Tel had been exploring the processes that the Beaker People had used to make and decorate their pottery. He had brought along with him some that he had made and added to them over the weekend. They were beautiful. This prehistoric style of pottery is made by first forming a circular base and then building up the sides with sausages of clay laid around the rim in coils. I found that it was very much harder than it looked and my small pot resembled an ashtray by the end of the session. Others had much better success making beautiful pots that were wonderfully decorated.
A MATTER OF COURSE
Back at camp, a recently dispatched fallow deer was strung by its hind legs from a tree. Will was on hand to create a butcher‟s tool kit from flint and Nick, the expert stalker, showed us how prehistoric man would have prepared his kill utilising only stone tools. Nick went on to show us how to examine the kill to ensure that it was a healthy animal and safe for us to eat. Using only stone tools, he then skinned and butchered the animal into manageable sized cuts for our cooks to prepare for a feast later that day. Seeing the efficiency of flint tools was incredible. Nick was able to skilfully process the whole deer, wasting nothing at all – the skin to be used for brain tanning sessions, the backstrap ligaments for securing items, such as arrow heads to their shafts and the large tendons such as those in the legs to process into a glue. Furthermore, after the animal had been stripped of flesh, the bones were used to make tools themselves such as bone needles. This truly was a 100% waste free community, and total respect was paid to the animal.
Soon we were faced with stones of our own. John explained the process needed to reduce a flint into a useable tool, using both hard and soft hammers by crafting a small hand axe, himself. He then demonstrated how to make a blade core before ensuring that each one of us had picked up the technique. Then, crucially, we all got to spend some time with the flint. I find this a truly magical experience, getting totally focused on what you are aiming to craft and time soon runs away with you. A few hours later and a horn was sounded letting us know that lunch was ready. Having managed to craft a few tools during our time with John we both attended lunch with big happy grins on our faces.
My last session of the afternoon was spent with the
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The
Photo credit: S. Kirk
We arrived late in the afternoon of setting-up day to an already bustling field. Will greeted us and introduced us to the crew he had enrolled to deliver prehistoric activities over the weekend. Soon they all hurried off to continue preparing for the weekend ahead. We pitched our tents, home for the next two nights, and spent the remainder of the evening getting to know all the other people who had arrived early for the weekend.
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wonderful Val Lord (Will‟s mum). Val was demonstrating the different methods used for creating cordage, and also making items out of bone and antler. Val had come wonderfully prepared with photos and examples of cord made from many different materials. She also had wonderfully crafted bone and antler needles, awls, harpoons and knives. I decided that I wanted to make an antler needle. John Lord kindly made me a few burins (a flint tool designed specifically for carving into bone or antler) and I set to removing a section of antler for my needle. The burin is a very efficient tool that shaves down a narrow groove into the material. Once you are through the tough outer part of the antler into the marrow, you can work your piece free. I went on to make the eye, and again with flint, smooth down all the surfaces of the antler. This was quite a lengthy process, one I continued later that evening whilst sitting around the camp fire. After a chilly night the whole camp was glistening with ice and a mist was rolling across the field on the final morning. Nick was stoking the embers from last night‟s fire and soon we were cooking breakfast. A short while later and people were once again engrossed in a wide array of activities. In addition to those already mentioned you could also try your hand at brain tanning a section of deer skin, felting, atlatl making, archery and game preparation but my real aim for the day was to dedicate my time to flint knapping. I have become quite obsessed in the art of reducing a large nodule of flint down to a pile of flakes in the vain hope of producing a tool. And what better tutors could you ask for then having the UK‟s two best flint knappers at your fingertips for advice. I loved my weekend as a caveman, and my thanks go out to Will and his dedicated team of staff who made the whole experience not only enjoyable, but a complete learning experience. And the one thing that really stood out for me was the feeling of unity and instant friendship with everyone who was there. It was a weekend that I shall never forget, and hope to attend again in the future. MS Will is running the course again next year.
The Prehistoric Experience 2014 26th - 29th April 2014
My personal highlight was the bronze casting. In the black of night, bathed only in the glow of the camp fire, Will related to us the steady gathering of his experience using this early technique. We watched expectantly as he added the copper and tin to the crucible that was nestled deep in the charcoal of the portable furnace. It wilted slightly before Will replaced the lid, but it would take some time and a lot of pumping with the handbellows before it attained the required state for casting. No matter. This was a social event. Actually, it felt deeply tribal. Bonds were building between folk and the mead was flowing. Not too much mead, though; being drunk in charge of a foundry is a very serious offence. The safety of everyone present was of primary importance, Will was taking no risks with our well-being and all movement around the furnace was carefully monitored and an exclusion zone put in place. People were able to participate in this alchemy nonetheless, by taking turns on the bellows, an important and unrelenting task if the temperature of the bronze was to reach twelve hundred degrees Celsius. Will lifted the lid of the crucible from time to time and talked us through the changes that were going on. Eventually, he reached for the gloves and tongs – and the mould. The mould was a wax dagger inside a sand box. This was instantly replaced by molten bronze as Will poured with an unerringly steady hand – hence it is known as the lost wax process. Not a drop was spilled and there was exactly the right amount. But would it work? I had a small sense of what it must have been like in the first days of prehistoric bronze production. This was something extraordinary, bordering on magical. The industry of flint manufacture had been a hive of activity throughout the day and accessible to everyone – representing the state of things for thousands of years of our past. But this, this was rare and exclusive, new and revolutionary! Almost a one off moment in time; a discovery. We held our collective breath as the mould was opened and then broke into spontaneous applause and cheering. You can see why. SK
http://www.will-lord.co.uk/ Photo credits: C. Hunt & S. Kirk
The
Steve, potting
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Matt, knapping
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Razor clams cooking
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How to construct a portable seat with Ben Anson When in the backcountry I like to be able to sit up off the ground. Others may like a warm fire and a roof over them to go with that, but for me, a temporary seat is extremely welcome if the floor is damp, for example. This is how I construct what I call ‘the tripod chair’. This cannot be made unless you find yourself in wooded country, as it requires a frame of Hazel Corylus avellana. Other woods can be used, young willows and Silver Birch Betula pendula will do just as well. The tools and materials you need are as follows: a saw of some kind; straight and slender wood and lastly good cordage. You are looking for about eight or nine poles of different lengths. The first three poles that you saw from the tree must all be the same size as they are to form a tripod. Have them the same height as yourself. Lay them down directly next to each other. With the cordage, lash them together firmly at one end, and make sure that they are tied as well as possible. Open the legs of the tripod a little to pass the cordage between the poles at the top as well as around. Pick the poles up and arrange them into a tripod by opening them out at the bottom. I suggest sticking the lower ends right into the ground so they don’t move and wobble. Two shorter poles are now needed. They should be the same height as your lower body, from your hips down to your feet. The tripod has a back pole and then two others that fall out in front. Lash one end of one of the smaller poles halfway up the back pole and then tie the remaining end that should be hanging halfway up the other pole. Leave a long section poking out the front. If this doesn’t make sense, take a look at the picture. Now do the same with the other side. Once again, the pictures should help. The last remaining poles (these are all the same size as the previous two) are now placed across the sections left poking out to create the seat. The wood you select and use must be strong enough to support your weight. Hazel is both light and strong making it ideal. The final part to mention here, is that when you are finished with the chair, it can easily be dismantled and transported. With a long length of cord tie all the poles together and then lift them up to carry – you can see me doing this in the final picture. Bushcraft at it’s simplest.
The
Video grabs by Ben Anson
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Make a Drinks Can Fire Lighter with â€&#x;crafty old fox, Phil Ireland
Because the base of the can is more spherical than parabolic the focal point of the sun is rather more vague so you need a steady hand and a pair of tweezers or a cocktail stick to position your tinder, in this case cramp ball fungus. I would strongly suggest the use of sunglasses, as there is a good deal of adjustment required. Because of the very small surface area of your reflector, this will really only work in unobstructed strong sunlight.
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The
Photo credits: P. Ireland
A drinks can solar fire starter is a cheap and easy demonstration activity provided you are lucky enough to have some sun. Choose an aluminium fizzy drinks can, which is as smooth as possible, undamaged and preferably not embossed on the base. This can now be polished as finely as possible using whatever you have available. It is possible to use toothpaste, or a slurry of very fine wood ash but the best results come from using metal polish. The advantage of the wadding type of polish is that once you have finished your reflector, the blackened wadding becomes a very efficient tinder.
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The Botany of the B Each species of tree and shrub has their own specialities to achieve ignition, while some cannot be achieved even if you can get fine black powder that smokes. Hard woods are best used “punky” and softwoods are best used as firm or non “punky”. Some can respond better using a hardwood drill with different bearing blocks. To achieve a level bench mark so the species can be compared with each other, the trials were carried out in dry summer conditions so the variables of having damp, “punky” wood and cold conditions were cancelled out. Grades of the species easy, medium, hard and not achieved. To allow for winter conditions when bow drilling is difficult, add one grade. E
Easy. Achieved the first time with the same species drill and with the ash drill. Then repeated to double check.
M Medium. Achieved with both the same species and ash drill within six attempts. H
Hard. Achieved after six attempts or left for later on.
Alder (Alnus glutinosa) A pioneer tree species for Birch Silver/Downy (Betula pendula/ waterlogged areas, supposed to have evil spirits due to pubescens) A pioneer tree species that are one of the the sap turning the colour of blood after being cut. Found mainly in wet areas where it creates nitrogen from nodules on its roots in a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. It is the only deciduous tree that has cones. The best use for the wood is under water for drains, locks and piles. H
Make sure the wood is “punky” enough. Gives a large amount of embers.
Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) Identified by its jet black buds. Common thoughout the UK and highly valued for its high quality timber. It was used to make the frame of the WW II Mosquito fighter-bomber. It was supposed to have magical and mystical properties, so a sick child was passed through a split trunk several times to remove evil spirits. E A hardwood that splits easily and can be used
first to colonise new areas. The twigs were used to beat delinquents and the insane to drive out evil spirits. Used in many ways from making canoes to drinking the tapped sap. The two species cross breed, creating hybrids. M The problem with birch is that once dead it
degenerates very quickly and it is difficult to find a suitable piece. Can use an Ash drill. Bird Cherry
as a bearing block but needs good conditions to succeed.
Aspen (Populus tremula) When next to the trees in the wind you can see and hear the vibrating leaves where it gets its name from. It was said to tremble with shame as the wood was supposed to be used for Christ‟s cross. It regenerates mainly by suckers. Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) A native tree, also called “wild lilac” due to the flower spike in the spring. H Light wood that needs to be on the firm side of “punky” or the drill can collapse. Could use The small black fruit is bitter due to the amount of tannins in them and are considered to be only edible by an ash drill. birds.
Beech (Fagus sylvatica) Found mainly on chalk
E A hard wood but makes a large ember. Used a
soils. Beech comes from the German word “Buche”, as Beech was the wood from which the early printing presses were made. Also, a thriving chair making industry existed using Beech and the workers were called “Bodgers”.
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) Named
E The wood has to be on the soft side so the
The
drill just stands the drilling process. Embers take time to coalesce.
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drilled pebble as a bearing block. after Jean Robin a 17th century gardener who brought the seeds from North America and the English name of False Acacia. Regenerates by throwing up suckers when the tree is damaged. H
Hard wood that is difficult to raise an ember from and takes its time to coalesce.
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e Bow Drill
Keith Bosely
Black Poplar (Populus nigra) A native tree and the
Crab Apple ( Malus sylvestris) This native tree with
wood is light and strong so it was used for making wooden shields and is now used for match making. It can grow to 120ft. There are only about 2,000 mature specimens in the UK of which 85% are males as the females were not planted due to the cotton-like seeds which makes the area untidy.
small, hard, bitter apples is the ancestor of all our modern apples. Like all apples, the wood is good for turning and when burnt, gives off a wonderful aroma.
M For a light wood that splits easily and gives plenty
of black fine powder, it is surprisingly difficult to raise an ember.
Box (Buxus sempervirens) It is a native plant which favours chalk soils and it was in demand because of its high quality dense wood which was used for carving chess pieces, pulleys and instruments, resulting in it becoming rare. All parts of the box are poisonous.
H Hard wood that once achieving a small smoking
ember takes time to coalesce. Wonderful smell while drilling.
Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) The name for this native shrub comes from the use of the wood by butchers making skewers or “dogs�. Spreads mainly by the branches touching the ground and growing roots (layering) to form a new plant. M It is difficult to find a large enough piece of wood so
I made a drill from a right-sized straight branch.
E A hard wood, so a drilled pebble was used as a
bearing block. A large amount of ember which was quick to coalesce.
Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii) Introduced into the UK from China in the 19th century and has become naturalised. Its windblown seeds allow it to establish on most waste grounds. E Avoid the large pith which would make the drill
collapse but had glowing embers before the drilling had stopped.
Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) Introduced
coalesce.
Photo credits: S. Kirk
from Europe in 1576. It produces a cherry-like fruit that is eaten by the birds but its leaves contain cyanide. M Gives lots of powder but the ember is slow to
Gorse
PLANT LORE
Elm (Ulmus procera) It was comparatively rare in the
landscape until it was planted widely by landowners in the 17th-18th centuries then spread by suckers which meant that they were genetically the same. Decimated by the Dutch Elm Disease when 25 million trees were destroyed from 1964 and the only mature ones that are left are in Brighton area where they are protected by the South Downs. Two bows were found in Demark dating back eight and nine thousand years; both were made from Elm. E I used a branch the right size for the drill, just
trimmed it, as elm has no pith.
Elder (Sambucus nigra) Colonises ground which is high in nitrogen. Its name, Sambucus, is derived from the Greek word Sambuca which is a bagpipe-type instrument made from the Elder. Folklore states that if Elder is burnt in the house a death will occur in the family. E Avoid the large soft pith.
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Elder
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hedgerows and the wood is used for fine veneers and musical instruments. The young stems develop deeply fluted bark. It is our only native maple. M This wood is fairly hard so make sure that the piece
selected is “punky” enough.
Goat/Grey willow (Salix caprea/ cinerea) Other names for these are Sallow and Pussy Willow. The difference between the two species is that the Goat Willow has a twist at the top of the leaf. They inhabit wet low lying ground frequently dropping branches so they root and create a new plant. The bark of willows contains the compounds salicin which reduces fevers and inflammation. M One of the dependable species with lots of dead
wood on most trees.
Gorse (Ulex europaeus) The older name is “Furze” and it was a valuable crop as it put nitrogen back into the soil. The Gorse was used for animal fodder and fuel faggots. The larger wood was used by bakers as it produced a large amount of heat with little ash. Areas were planted around London to keep up the supply. The flowers smell of coconut. M Grows in an exposed habitat so it is difficult to find
large dry dead wood.
Hawthorn (Crataegus mongyana) Also known as “Bread and Cheese” as the young leaves and berries can be eaten. The flowers are known as May blossom and ancient folklore had people picking it to decorate dancing poles (Maypole which symbolises rebirth) and houses in the spring for May Day festivities. M A hard wood that can be used as a bearing block.
sustainable heat from fires. M One of the hardest of woods but surprisingly makes
plenty of embers even from non “punky” wood.
Ivy (Hedera helix) This plant is not parasitic but only uses trees for support and it should not damage a healthy tree. The Ivy supports a myriad of wildlife from bird nests to the nectar from its late flowers that has a rotten smell to attract flies. E It has no grain so it can twist when splitting.
Lime (Tila spp) The large and small leaved limes (Tilia platyphyllos, Tilia cordata) are native trees and the common Lime (Tilia X cordata) is a hybrid between the two species. Rare in the wild now due to the seedlings being browsed off by livestock. The inner bark is one of the best for natural cordage. E A soft wood, so make sure that the piece selected is
on the firm side.
Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra italica) This is a subspecies of the Black poplar that was brought from Lombardy in Northern Italy, when male cuttings were introduced. E A light softwood that gives a large quick ember.
Leyland Cypress (Cupressocyparis leylandii) This fast growing conifer can grow 4‟ a year and is the result of a chance cross in 1888 between a Monterey Cypress and Nookta Cypress. It was named Leylandii after the estate owner‟s brother in law who took cuttings from the original tree. As the species is a hybrid, they are sterile and propagation are from cuttings. E
Lots of dead dry wood to be found at all times.
Norway Maple (Acer plantaniodes) This hardy speHazel (Corylus avellana) One of the most useful plants in cies‟ natural range is in the mountainous regions of Norway. the countryside where it has been mixed with mud to make wattle and daub for shelter building, hurdles and even as frames for coracles. To get a regular supply of young shoots the bushes are regularly cut down to the stool (coppicing) to harvest the new growth when it reaches the correct size. It was named after the Italian town Avella which was the centre of cob nut production.
Naturalised in the UK . M Splits well and forms a large ember.
E I used a straight branch as a drill.
Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
Introduced in the 16th Century from the Balkans where the name comes from the Turks who used to prepare and feed them to their horses to cure respiratory disorders. 200 years later they were used by children for the game of “conquerors” to replace the cob nuts and snail shells that were previously used. They are rich in saponins called aesculin, which makes a good soap but they are poisonous as they contain the compound acetone. During World War 1 acetone was extracted by a bacterium in early bio-technology, to make smokeless cordite for artillery shells and sniper bullets. E Soft wood so the set does not need to be too
“punky”. Good amount of embers.
Wych Elm Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) A native hardwood
The
species which was used to make mallets and butchers blocks as it resists heavy blows. One of the best woods for long
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Photo credit: S. Kirk
Field Maple (Acer campestre) Mainly used for
Osier (Salix viminalis) One of the quicker-growing
White Poplar
of the willow family that grows in wet ground and is coppiced so the new growth, which can grow as much as 12' in one season, can be harvested for basket making, fish traps and lobster pots. Different colours can be achieved by treating the one year old withies differently. If the bark is stripped in the spring the withies are white. It is this that the folk dance “strip the willow” is named after. E Another dependable willow for bow drill. Splits
easily so keep the friction pan away from the edge and end of the hearth.
Oaks, Pedunculate & Sessile (Quercus robur & petraea) These are the two similar species of Oaks in the UK. The Common or English Oak is the Pedunculate whereas the Sessile Oak can be quite rare in parts of Britain. Peduncle refers to the stalk, so the Pedunculate Oak has a stalk on the female flower and acorn. Sessile means no stalk, so the flower and acorns grow directly onto the twigs. However, the reverse applies to the leaf stalks. M
I used a non “punky” piece of wood that made a large ember relatively easy.
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) The English name is thought to have derived from the Norse word runa which means “charm” as it was seen as a tree of protection against evil spirits. One superstition from Ireland is that if a stake of Rowan is hammered though a corpse it will immobilise its ghost. The wood has been used to make long bows.
totem poles, dugout canoes, craft work and in the event of famine the inner bark was cooked and eaten. As the branches do not spread much it is used in forestry as a shelter belt species that protects more valuable trees and is then felled. The crushed leaves smell of pineapple.
Splits easily, so do not put the friction pan too close to the edge of the hearth. The drill can collapse. E
Whitebeam (Sorbus aria) A native tree that got its
name from the colour of the white hairy down on the underneath of the leaf and the German word “Baum” Degrades quickly once which means tree. A hard wood that was used for making H dead. Difficult to find machinery cogs. The berries can be used for making sauces.
a suitable piece. Spindle-tree
Spindle-tree (Euonymus europaeus)
This shrub received its name from its dense hard wood that was used for making spindles for drawing raw wool into threads, by unmarried women (spinsters). In the autumn the leaves turn dark red with the four cornered poisonous berries turning bright pink. M Splits easily, so do not put the friction pan too
H A hard wood which only makes a small amount
of embers.
White Poplar (Populus alba) A poplar that sounds like rain in the wind when the leaves tremble. Greek legend has it that the tree was black but Hercules wore a garland in battle and his sweat stained it white. Brought into the UK in the 16th Century for its ornamental properties and spreads mainly though suckers. M A soft wood but like all poplars, not the easiest
of species to get the embers to coalesce. close to the edge. Ember coalesces quickly. The drill bearing point collapsed, so an old large hole Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra) This species is the was used in the bearing block. native Elm, which spreads mainly by seed so is more
Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) The name Sycamore derives from confusion with a fig tree called Ficus sycomorus which has the same shaped leaf. The first evidence of the species in Britain is a carving of a leaf in the cathedral in Oxford dated 1289 but they were present by the 16th Century.
genetically diverse to resist Dutch Elm Disease. It is a hard wood with a heartwood that is reddish brown and yellow sapwood. It has been used for bow making and the hubs of wooden wheels. Wych is derived from the Anglo Saxon word for pliable. E Plenty of powder and quick to coalesce.
M Splits easily and gives a large ember.
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) This North
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The
American tree was introduced into Devon in 1853. To the American Indians this is a sacred tree as it was used for
Bushcraft Magazine
BUSHCRAFTER‟S
ALMANAC
NEW MOON
FULL MOON
JULY 08
07.15
JULY 22
18.16
AUGUST 06
21:52
AUGUST 21
01:47
SEPTEMBER 05
11.36
SEPTEMBER 19 11:15
OCTOBER 05
00:34
OCTOBER 18
NOVEMBER 03
12:50
NOVEMBER 17 15:18
23:40
A Penumbral (half-shadow) Lunar Eclipse will occur on October 18. This one will be visible as a dimming , particularly of the Moon’s southern half, from Britain and Europe around the time of greatest coverage at approximately 23.30-00.10.
METEOR SHOWERS
Name
Dates
Peak
Perseids
July 23-August 20
August 12
100+
Orionids
October 16-26
October 21
25
Taurids
October 20 November 30
November 03
10
Leonids
November 15-20
November 17
??
SUNSET
SUNRISE
LON JUL 1
CAR
Hourly rate
EDIN BEL
03.48 04.00 03.31 03.52
LON JUL 1
CAR
EDIN BEL
20.20 20.33 21.01 21.02
AUG 1 04.24 04.35 04.17 04.35
AUG 1 19.48 20.02 19.20 20.24
SEP 1
05.13 05.24 05.17 05.31
SEP 1
18.47 19.00 19.07 19.15
OCT 1
06.01 06.12 06.16 06.26
OCT 1
17.38 17.51 17.48 17.59
NOV 1 07.20 07.05 07.20 07.26
NOV 1 16.34 16.46 16.32 16.47
Note that all times are Universal Coordinated Time UTC /GMT. Autumnal Equinox occurs at 20.44 September 22, 2013
The
UK returns to GMT, when British Summer Time ends at 02:00 on October 27 and clocks go back to 01:00.
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Time was when a comet could sneak up on us. We would simply see it if and when it became prominent enough. Nowadays there are many eyes trained on the heavens – some of them even automatic – and we generally have plenty of warning of their approach. In any one year several comets pay us a TAILED STARS visit. Most never brighten enough to reach our unaided eyes (they must become greater than 6th magnitude). Some are visible from only one hemisphere of Earth because of the angle of approach – and the Southern half seems to be favoured (or at least that is my envious perception). I have been desperate to see a comet since I was a boy and, using nothing more than binoculars and the naked eye, I have seen six. The majority were visually unspectacular, starting with the disappointing return of Halley’s Comet in 1986. I was living in a town at the time and from my front door and despite light pollution, Comet Halley was visible as a fuzzy star, that slowly changed its position against the fixed stars over consecutive nights. The Earth was on the opposite side of the Sun, so the comet was distant and small. Though it stirred the imagination, it was neither thrilling nor terrifying to look upon as so many comets have been in history, including itself in former apparitions. We now know that the same comet in a much brighter manifestation presaged the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Although there have been may conflicts and upheavals amongst mankind throughout history, and the majority have had no comet appear around their time, broom stars, tailed stars, bearded stars and hairy stars wherever they may be seen, are believed to herald wars, plagues, the death of princes, kings and rulers or even the end of the world. Bright ones with big fan tails must have been troubling to gaze upon, seeming like portentous visitations. Like so many aspects of the stars, they were assigned by men with their feet in clay, to Earthly events instead of to the random, coincidental astronomical phenomena that they are. If you are over 17 years of age you may have witnessed a couple of relatively prominent visitors to the Northern night skies. First, in 1996 there was Comet Hyakutake. This one seemed bright because it passed near to Earth as it made its way towards the Sun (perihelion) but then faded again with distance from our planet. This temporary close proximity meant that movement was detectable against the stars. I first saw it two nights after its closest approach. It was bright, brighter than any of the stars of Perseus where it was to be found, but not what you might imagine. The tail was relatively long, but faint and best viewed indirectly. Thereafter, it faded little by little and an ever waxing Moon interfered. I watched it for a week with a sense of
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this glowing object in space passing by. Twenty days later I found it again to say goodbye much dimmed and shrunken but still a Tailed Star.
Photo credit: S. Kirk
Comet Hale-Bopp, already on its way, was temporarily upstaged. However, many people missed Hyakutake.
largest object in the Solar System, when its coma (a blurry, insubstantial cloud of dust and vapour) achieved a diameter larger than the Sun. I photographed it with an off-the-shelf digital camera steadied on a tripod. It looks like a fuzzy blue-green blob, unimpressive to the eye – but barely conceivable to the mind! So far this year, two have visited and there is another on the way. Comets are nothing if not unpredictable and nowadays, with such a long lead time from their discovery to closest approach, they have a lot to not live up to. Comet Lemmon was just that, a lemon and while PANN STARRS wasn’t exactly pants, it was hard to find and did not really live up to early expectations. Some photos do show it giving a truer impression of what comets are actually about rather than what our fancies conceive.
Comet Hale-Bopp, 1997
The remaining one, Comet C/2012 S1 ISON, is both a dark horse and the odds-on favourite. The reason for the excitement is that this one sprouted a tail whilst still very far from the Sun. Comets show a light curve – their
developing brightness plotted on a graph against their distance from the sun (with maximum possible brightness at perihelion), so the rate, if reasonably constant, can be calculated. The trouble is, comets are anything but reasonable. Comet ISON belongs to a special category of comets called sungrazers and is probably on its first ever visit to the Solar System. It will pass ridiculously close to our star and as it slingshots round, a lot of its material will vaporise, causing it to brighten considerably. This will occur in November, this year. If it survives the encounter it is expected to become quite luminous and sprout an impressive tail. I merely draw it to your attention. Now, lets wait and see, be surprised and maybe even unsettled...
Comet Holmes, 2007
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The
Photo credit: S. Kirk
Comet PAN STARRS, 2013
STAR LORE
Since then, largely thanks to www.spaceweather.com which keeps you posted of near-Earth activity in space, I have seen a few small, faint comets that did not or just beome visible without optical aid. One such, Comet 17P/ Holmes, an obscure ‘dirty snowball’ with an orbital period of just under seven years had an ‘outburst’ on October 24th 2007, whilst on its return journey to the sun. It brightened by a factor of half a million and jumped from a telescopic object to naked -eye visibility in a few hours, eventually becoming the
Photo credit: NASA
Hale-Bopp arrived early in 1997. I first saw it on February 8; by the end of the month it was almost as bright as Deneb in the tail of the Swan (and one of the three bright stars that make the Summer Triangle – see TBM Vol. 8 No. 2, Summer 2012); by March 18 it was as bright as Rigel in Orion; eventually it outshone all but Sirius, and the faint tail (actually tails – one of dust, one of ionised gas) was about the size of the constellation Cassiopeia, when seen with peripheral vision. This inability to see diffuse lights directly is actually an effect of our night vision and a camera picked up the tail really well. Hale-Bopp was visible to my unaided eyes for over three months (though in binoculars it was amazing), and overall it was at naked-eye visibility for beyond a year and a half. Latterly, it dropped into the skies of the Southern Hemisphere before fading away. It will be two and a half thousand years before it returns!
Bushcraft Magazine
How to Build a Primitiv an American perspective, Part III (of 3), by Jamie Burleigh
Our bow now has a way of securing a string to it for the next stage - long string tillering. This is when you put a much longer string on the bow and pull it back inch by inch, watching the bow flex. You then make marks on the bow that indicate where to remove or not to remove more wood. This way you do not have the bow under tension when you let the weight down.
Next, string the bow at a low brace. This means strung so that there is about 3-4 inches in-between the centre
3-4"
of the bow and the string. Now look at the bow‟s bend...is it nice and elliptical? Elliptical is the shape of a crescent moon. This is what we want to achieve even if the bow has natural dips and flaws. All parts of our bow should work harmoniously together, all doing an equal share of the work.
An important rule is to never draw the bow past its After several pulls of the bowstring when you see that intended draw weight before you are able to hit your the limbs are pretty much bending the same, go ahead draw length! For example...you are long string pulling and pull the bow a little past brace – 7-10 inches. At the bow and you realize that your bow feels like it is pulling 50 plus pounds at just several inches of flex! Well if this happens you have a lot of wood removal still to do! 7-10"
This is why I recommend, and personally use, sapling staves as it saves you both time and effort as your finished bow should be sleek and slender.
I have the bow bending, now what do I do? And what do I look for? this time you really have to have a feel for the pound-
The
Now that you have got a general taper in the bow from handle to tips; have applied numerous coats of fat into the bow both by wiping in and burnishing it; you have whittled your tips to whatever will hold a string on securely, and you have put a long string on the bow and started to pull on it to watch the wood bend, you should now know which side of the bow will become the "belly". This is where you will begin your initial wood removal. At this stage your bow outline should be looking more and more like the finished product; if not, try to shape the bow‟s profile to almost finished
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age that your bow is pulling, or what you want the final draw weight to be. I think that for your first bow it should be between 35 and 45 pounds at your natural draw length. Don‟t worry about making a heavy 70 pounder yet, let‟s just get through the process of making your first primitive weapon that you can enjoy shooting (whilst making your next heavy one!) I generally pull the bow with some sort of tool or tillering device. If you have no tillering device this could be a heavy straight stick used as an arrow, with
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Illustrations: S. Kirk
What is the long string process?
proportions. Do this now, as when you finish the next couple of steps you will be shooting an almost completed bow!
I use it as follows: I clamp the bow down, secure it on a vice, or on a tree limb, or even sitting on the ground with the bow at my feet and me pulling back with both hands watching the stick and how the limbs are bending. Please use caution when doing any of this, as some bows may want to give up too early in the bow making process, perhaps because of unknown bug damage or decay, or maybe your string could break... just be careful!
Photo credits: Jamie Burleigh
no fletching and marked in increments every 2 inches, all the way to my natural draw. I only use this particular stick for my own bows as it has special marks on it that I can easily identify.
consistently be hitting the same mark on your stick and be watching the limbs bend. What you are looking for is equal amounts of bending at the same portions of both top and bottom limbs. If you are satisfied with the bending at this draw length and weight, move on to another two inches. By slowly repeating this process and watching the draw weight you will eventually hit your intended weight at your natural draw length.
WILDERNESS LIVING SKILLS
itive Bow
How do I work the bow into the desired draw weight? The bow is now getting a work-out for sure! If you feel comfortable with the short string and the bow is equally dispersing the forces applied, take the bow, unstring it, and wipe it down with fat one more time and burnish it well.
a tillering tool
Every step in the above process of moving slowly, two inches at a time, and working the limbs about 50 times every extra two inches will give the bow some "memory" that different parts of the bow limb will be working at different draw lengths. The more you work and pull it further, you should stop every two steps (4 inches) during this process. You do this because your belly of the bow will be compressing more and more After you have burnished the bow, wipe it down well and at this stage the bow will be "squeezing" the excess and make sure it is not wet in any way because at this fat out of pores that were previously not able to be point you have forced many layers of grease; not only a filled because they were too deep in the bow limb. As weather barrier and vapour loss barrier to keep it from you scrape away more and more wood to shape your drying out and it becoming too brittle, but on this last bow they become accessible. Thus, you will need to burnishing you will have noticed that you did not need replenish and re-burnish it after every 4 inches of pull to put as much on the bow because the wood cells and on the tillering stick. This makes your bow STRONG. pores are partially filling up and being compacted for elasticity! Time to shoot the bow in! How do I do it? I must say that every time you stop or start working on the bow, the time frame may be different, you may have to stop for a day in-between sessions, maybe more, while building your bow. Remember that every time you end a session working on the bow, and it isn’t completed yet – keep applying the grease!
6" 2"
The bow has now been greased more than a loosed pig at the country fair! And you successfully pulled your weapon back 1 inch further than your natural draw; so, let‟s get to the fun part...shooting it in! At first be mindful that the bow has never loosed an arrow yet. There are some rituals I like to do at this point. I like to pull the bow about one quarter draw and relax the tension about 20 times. Then I like to pull it half, draw 20 times, then three-quarters and finally, full draw doing the same as mentioned above. I then take a rag and wipe the bow down well as this may have worked out some of the fat. This will cease to be a problem after this day, as whilst it sits the fat will slowly work its way into the wood and become dry. You should now realize after this little exercise, why a
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The
String the bow now, with about 6 inches of brace height. Begin pulling the bow using your tillering tool and be mindful of the draw weight. Pull the bow 2 inches at a time only! During this workout you will
Bushcraft Magazine
lighter weight bow is best, for your arms will probably now feel like noodles!
So, there it is. My personal perspective, not by any means the only way to build a bow. It serves me well and I hope it does for you.
Next, take an arrow and stand about 10 paces away from your intended target and start drawing the bow only to half draw before shooting. This will give the bow some memory of the limb travel and not "shock" the bow limbs. Keep doing this for as many shots as you feel comfortable with, staying mindful of any string slap, arrow wobble, etc. as these are simple tuning problems you can fix afterwards.
How do I finish the bow? I personally like natural colours and pigments, rubbed in bark, dirt, a mixture of blood and hardwood ash, heating the bow under flames (be careful of this as it draws out the fatty oils), and natural dyes made of plants stems and flowers - the possibilities are endless.
How to get the most out of your new bow? My bows are tools, workhorses, and if they cannot stand up to abuse; I do not want them at my side. It is best to be kept unstrung while not in use, and stored in dry to moderate conditions. Check your strings, and nocks now and then and re apply a coat of fat once a year. One thing I like to stress at this point is the stringing and unstringing of the bow. No matter which technique you use, or what bow stringer you use, always try to string and unstring the bow the same way every time.
The
Jamie with a flame-marked bow
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The Last Word Lloyd Hooper The Catapult The humble catapult; a lot has been written about making them and hunting with them, but what about the pleasure in using them?
a flutter. But, as the say, "Revenge is sweet" and the little tinker rolled down the roof and got stuck in the guttering. I had to wait for the boy to come home from school to go up the ladders to get it!
They have a rich history as well. For thousands of years it has been the tool, perhaps weapon, of choice; or is that „necessity of the poor‟? Think of the earliest form of sling used by the shepherd boys to protect their flocks, and we all know how effective David was in sorting out the giant Goliath. I know he had God on his side but think of what the rest of the Israelites could have done if "Theraband" had been around.
Nowadays, I keep one with some plastic ammo handy to, lets say, „drop a hint‟ to the cats that leave what they no longer require in my veg. patch. Now, to get it right for you feline lovers – I don`t try to hit them, just frighten them off. I do miss my old Jack Russell, we never had the cat problem then.
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The
But I confess, blood was shed one day, when a very persistent feral pigeon (or Ponty pigeon as I On a serious scientific note; I have noticed, after thorough call them), kept going into the squirrel cage trap, pinching research, that snails cope with the g-forces far better than all the nuts and then setting the trap off and getting caught. I slugs! would release him and due to his homing instincts he would return after twenty minutes, for another feed. Being a little frustrated when I released him for the fourth time – and this time he only flew as far as the roof – I thought I would use the catapult to scare him off. By sheer accident I hit him square in the chest, killing him outright with not a twitch or
Photo credit: L. Hooper
Finally, I would like to tell you about the very useful but little heard of "garden catapult". These are great fun and provide a great service. It‟s best if the elastic is a bit weaker and has a longer, softer pull to give a more gradual shot. Now, when I have a wander around the garden and find any slugs or snails, I send them on a holiday they never forget. I‟m not sure if any return to the garden but if they do, they take a long time, and I often have a little chuckle when I see the latest victim go sailing off, wondering where it could Now, I know they had a lot of bad press with the way old Dennis the Menace used his, and I certainly can`t own up to possibly land. hearing the sound of tinkling glass when I was young, as my kids read the comic; but I have to admit that, after hours of practice and fun, I became a reasonable shot.
Bushcraft Magazine