Thursday 6 April 2006

Handy tips for woodland life

If someone told you that it was going to be -4 degrees C at night and that you should take lots of warm clothes with you for your night in the woods, would you:

A Take lots of warm clothes with you?
B Not?

I tell you advice like “it’s going to be cold, take warm clothes with you” is advice that you should not ignore. To do so for three nights in a row is just silly, the trouble is that now I’m a bit determined that it is spring and accordingly I’m not going to need a fleece or warm layers. I have been waking up shivering quite a lot lately. Stupid winter not stupid ending when it stupid should.

One thing that I find very pleasing, I know simple things simple minds, is having a stick stuck in the ground supported by a Y shaped stick that can be used for hanging a cooking pot over the fire. Reading Ray Mears book a while back I even learnt the best way of cutting a notch into the stick to prevent the pot sliding down the stick and away from the fire. A number of notches along the stick mean that I can move the pot closer to the heat if I need things to be hotter and further away if they need to be cooler. Instant control it is, far superior to gas. What was not mentioned in Mr Mears, or indeed any other survival book, is the fact that these sticks over fire devices whilst both practical and aesthetically pleasing in a rustic kind of way can be highly dangerous. If you are going to be walking around in the dark in the vicinity of your unlit fire do be sure to make sure that the end of the stick that is not stuck into the ground is not at crotch height. You could do yourself a mischief, should you do yourself such a mischief might I suggest somewhere other than your log pile for rolling about in pain?

1 comment:

Hugh Sawyer said...

A writer huh? Thank you for the vote of confidence

I am attempting to write a book about this year out. Mostly though I seem to either sit by the fire or send emails.