Fine Harvest, Foul Winter.

What a year it's been for fruit, nuts, berries, and general harvest all provided from mother nature.

Hazel nuts, these were gathered in the space of 5 minutes from a single branch of a Hazel bush, the best nut harvest I can remember.

Damsons, this bucket weighed 13lbs and we ended up gathering 3 buckets, from just two trees and that was only the ones we could reach!

Wild apples, looking at them in a bag doesn't do the size of the harvest justice so here's a pic of a single tree were the branches were so laden they were nearly breaking..

we know a place where the Damsons and Wild Apples grow side by side, so an hours picking resulted in a fruit harvest greater than any I can remember.

And the reason for such a substantial bounty? Well the old saying is fine harvest foul winter, the idea being that nature provides such a bounteous harvest to enable all the animals to get through an upcoming deep, dark and cold winter.. 

Is this year to be a real bad one, low temperatures, heavy snow and hardship for all the animals? Time will tell I guess, but if nature is providing for a really hard winter remember the animals, put food out for the birds, the voles and hedgehogs and all our little friends, they will find it tough enough and I'm sure would be glad of any help we deign to provide them.

Ikea Hobo Firepit - Barbecue

The little Ikea cutlery drainers are often modded to make great little hobo stoves, however they make a large collander that is great for a small firepit for 2 people in a place that doesn't allow open fires and it also doubles as a decent bbq..

 

 

It's actually about 11 inches high and about 9 inches across, it's very light in weight and made of stainless steel

 

 

I fitted a simple removable grill to it and with all the drainage holes around it , it acts like a superb bbq, funnelling the heat straight up yet getting a great burn time from the charcoal

 

 

It can cook 4 large burgers at one time, nearly a dozen sausages or two large fish fillets, remove the grill and it works very well as a fire pit, enabling you to use forest floor debris to create a great wee fire that would easily keep 2 people warm, replace the grill and you can fit 2 size 12cm zebra billy cans on it..

it's basically a big brother to the hobo stove!!

Busy Times

We've been extremely busy of late, hence the lack of posts on the blog which I hope to remedy over the coming months, with lots of interest from families and kids, as well as groups it's great to see people show such an enthusiasm for bushcraft, foraging and the outdoors.

 

 

recently we spent our time in the outdoor classroom

 

 

bits and pieces set out for a show and tell

 

 

lots of interest, when there was only supposed to be twenty, we ended up with 52 in one workshop!!

 

 

Cabelas dump Joe Teti

Most of you who have been following the Buzzard blog for a while will be aware of Davy's and my dislike of Joe Teti, he never should have replaced Dave Canterbury and as you will have no doubt seen Dual Survival has crashed and burned since he replaced Dave.

I'm sure you're also very well aware of Mykel Hawke's problems with Teti where there have even been alleged threats from Teti towards Hawke. It now seems that some of these allegations made about Teti are true as Cabelas have just dropped their sponsorship deal with Teti after a number of things have come to light in recent days, it seems Casio, another Teti sponsor, are also thinking of dropping him.. and where is the Discovery Channel while all this is going on? Nowhere, that's where!! They're keeping their heads well below the parapet after all the pomp and ceremony that he was introduced with now has come back to bite them!! Sorry Discovery Channel but there were numerous posts on your site saying Teti was not the one and that we all wanted Canterbury back, you should have listened to us!!!!!

Anyway, below is a link describing in better detail a little about what's going on, I'd encourage you to read it and try not to gloat too much.. The link will take you to the Military Times website.

Teti Dumped by his Sponsors

Mushroom foragers take care...

It's mushroom foraging time and it's always easy to get it wrong if you're not highly experienced, as a matter of fact although the season has only started there have already been 84 known cases of mushroom poisoning.. Also it's becoming so concerning that the National Poisons Information Service have just issued a press release regarding harvesting wild mushrooms.. I'll not repeat it here in full but would encourage you to follow the link and give the information a quick read over.. remember "if in doubt, leave it out!"

press release regarding wild mushrooms