Bushcraft Family Learning Day Course 17th March 2012
Written by Phil Brown, Badger Bushcraft Blog Monday, 19 March 2012 09:57
We were down at out Kent farm site this Saturday to deliver our Bushcraft Family Learning Day Course to some wonderful families. We always enjoy this course and judging from the comments on the feedback forms all the families did too!
Working with families and children has always been a great pleasure on a host of levels for the Badger Bushcraft Team really enjoyed their Saturday and the time just whizzed by!
We met the clients in Egerton by the village hall and travelled in convoy to our farm site where we had set up the kit, rigged the parachute shelter and a tarp or two as the weather was forecast to be somewhat grim with rain forecast throughout the day. The fire was lit prior and the kettle was on the boil upon our arrival.
After a welcome to the group and the obligatory hot brew and a biscuit we set to with a fire safety brief and uses or fire before moving onto a hands on demonstrating of fire lighting skills including:-
- Chemical
- Electrical
- Pressure/Compression
- Solar
- Sparks
Sadly the sun was not playing ball and the solar fire lighting was not possible. Phil's Christmas presents of two Roman and one Tudor firesteel generated great interest with the group and we managed to coax some sparks from the Roman firesteel aged at some 1600 years plus!
Regular visitors to our Family Bushcraft Days Andy and Fred kindly presented Phil with a silver five denarius Roman coin of the same period to add to our kit and show to clients – thanks lads!
The group then made a sterling job of safely building their own fires and were able to toast marsh mallows, which were devoured with great gusto!
Before lunch we moved on to a little backwoods cooking over the main campfire with all the children getting a bit messy and covered in a sweet bannock mix.
After lunch we left camp for a long nature walk to examine the local flora and fauna. With Mother Nature bursting forth Spring's new life all over the countryside, and we are happy to call it Spring despite the Equinox not being until Tuesday 20th of March.
The plant and tree life was so abundant and we were able to lookat and discussÂÂ flora that included:-
- Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum)
- Hazel (Corylus avellana)
- Pendulous Sedge (Carex Pendula)
- Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
- Mistletoe (Viscum album)
- Goat Willow (Salix caprea)
- Cattail (Typha latifolia)
- Thistles (Cirsium sp.)
- Alder (Alnus glutinosa)
- Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
- Primrose (Primula vulgaris)
- Hemlock Water Dropwort (Oenanthe crocata)
On the walk Inca could not resist a quick swim in the farm pond!
The nature walk was concluded with a visit to a badger sett before returning to our camp, the fire and a hot drink where we examined a variety of different animal skulls before moving on to the last activity of the day.
The Atlatl or ancient spear thrower always rounds off the day well and is fun for kids and adults alike.
It was then time for a final debrief with presentation of certificates for the children with pictures being kindly taken by professional photographer, who I am sure will drop these over to me to be included here in due course.
The feedback forms for this course with the gauged responses all ticked in the highest possible echelon by everyone for:-
- How enjoyable did you find the day?
- How much fun did you have?
- The quality of instruction?
- Would you recommend Badger Bushcraft Courses and Events to a friend?
- Did the Course/Event represent value for money?
Comments included:-
"Don't stop passing your priceless knowledge to the next generation. Fantastic day to remind ourselves of the great outdoors and to bond and pass our knowledge to our kids. Thoroughly recommend this to others, would like to come back on some of you other courses." Scott
"Fun, value for money. Excellent day as always thank you." Dana
"Friendly, approachable attitude. Good fun! Thank you for a great day!" Neil
"It was a great day, very informative. Fantastic people teaching." David
"Many, many thanks guys for a smashing day. Will certainly be up for it again anytime." Mel
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Photographs of the day can be viewed in one of the Badger Bushcraft photobucket albums.
You can also follow us on Twitter @BadgerBushcraftÂÂ or on facebook
Phil and Inca would like to thank all that attended both the grown ups and the children for making our work so much fun and so very rewarding, we had a great day and so did Inca as she was exhausted that evening!
Keep on exploring the marvels of "The Nature" and we look forward to seeing you all soon!
