french invasion!!!

well, i had another trip out there over the may day weekend. Mathilde's (my flatmate) boyfriend, Stephane was coming over for the weekend (from tolouse where they are both from) and i organised an outdoor adventure for them to see some of ireland. Mathilde has been here a few months and has only seen Dublin and a very brief visit to Cork. cant be having that. so i scrounged enough spare camp kit to keep them alive and made a deal with a local god to ensure good weather while we were on the go. Nathan took the time from his studies to come along too.
i chose the route between colooney and sligo along the sligo way as it has a very diverse set of environments and challenges.







at lunch we took a scramble. it was steep enough to really need to get hands-on.


it was pretty windy at the top.


we set out early as possible and were walking by twelve. the weather really worked out for us staying good right through our walk and until we got our roofs up. then it pissed down for a while, while i cooked dinner. it dried up enough for us to enjoy a fire that nathan got going for us.


inchworm. i dunno its real name. has a cute way of walking, but not popular with gardeners.

bog cotton. it is a rare find and great tinder.



all in all i think it went smashingly. everyone was pushed physically. myself and nat were kept challenged by the weight of our packs, but no one was pushed beyond their capabilities. i think... lol. when we got to sligo we ate a massive feed at the belfry bar. Stephane sure can put away food!!!
hopefully we gave our french guests a good time. i know nat and i enjoyed having them out with us, and look forward to our holiday in tolouse to see them at some stage in the future. even if the heat kills us.




i think some people were tired, and it was not the bear.

when i got our guests onto the train back to dublin i borrowed a bicycle and headed out to my mothers place where i had a few bushcrafty experiments waiting attention.
i had a solution of rusty wire wool that was soaking in a jar of vinegar. you paint this solution onto veg tan leather and it changes the colour of the leather to a rich black. it is an effect that goes right through the leather. i treated my home made sheathes with it. came out lovely.
i also had some newzealand flax (harvested from the public green in the village) soaking in water to try ret out the fibres. turns out it does not ret too effectively, so i just had to scrape the fibres free. it has good fine fibre which i am spinning into thread at the moment.

spring bushcrafting 2009

well i have been out on two trips with the bushcraft club this spring. first one was with Donal, Tony and myself.

Two kevins showed up to say hi, but didn't stay out the night.

was a pretty mellow trip. we lit the fire using my bowdrill set, driven by one of the kevins. worked really well. my set is a willow spindle with a red ceder hearth. probably cheating with the ceder. its not native to ireland.
apart from that, there was very little done. lots of chatting and chilling. and a bit of exploring.



the last trip out was easter weekend. myself, Donal Shane and Keira.
we headed out on the friday afternoon. weather was quite nice. the occasional rain shower (and one heavy hail shower just after we got our shelters up)

we gathered some wood for the fire, and assembled all we would need to get the fire going the next day, but we didn't light it. the area we were in is pretty damp, so finding properly dry wood is tough. usually dead standing wood (stuff that is dead, but has not fallen yet) is the best option for firewood, but here it was the only option. if it is on the ground it is like a sponge.
i got up late as usual. Donal and Shane already had the fire in so i used it to cook up some irish kebabs. just some bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms on a skewer. lovely breakfast.

Donal and Shane had already started work on the ground oven.

a ground oven is really simple and clever. put a load of rocks in a good hot fire and leave them there long enough to be sure they are hot right through. dig a hole near the fire. put dry moss (dry it by the fire for a bit) in the hole, then put the hot rocks in. put a joint of meat on the hot rocks. pile more hot rocks on top. put more moss on this (mainly to keep the meat clean) then fill back in the hole with the earth and tamp it down sealing it all up. most importantly, dont forget where you buried your dinner. give it about double the normal oven time. we left it about five hours for a whole lamb joint. when it was dug up, the rocks were still hot, and the meat was amazing. cooked right through. nowhere burned. meat was tender and moist. it was better than any oven cooked joint.

i think next time i will experiment with wrapping and stuffing the meat. there was plenty of wild garlic available to us, for doing this, but we just didn't think of it.
i used the wild garlic in a stew with the stock from the lamb bone. i also had more kebabs with it.


shane gathered some pine resin and they made pine resin glue using fat and the resin.

donal also did some experimentation in working with antler.

turns out that antler is stupipdly strong and took mamoth effort to break. when broken we found that antler is not hollow, and not so hot for making a blade out of, which was donal's intention. instead he made a blade from the bone from the joint of lamb.
apart from that we did some wood carving, and foraging. gathered false tinder fungus and birch polypore. the false tinder fungus is great fire fuel and holds an ember for quite a while. the birch polypore is good to make plasters out of and was traditionally used to strop razorblades.
it is froggy season, so we saw lots of frogs. we say some bunnyrabbits too. the landowner keeps pigs, so we had some piggy neighbours. they are mighty big pigs. we had loads of fun and it was great learning experience as always. thanks to Donal, Shane, Keira, Tony, and the mutiple Kevins. i hope to see you all as much as possible over the summer.