This week I have been working with young people in Kent. Its a chance for them to come out and experience the woods and do things that kids used to do before health & safety wrapped them all in cotton wool and brain-washed them all into being politically correct.
One of the teachers commented “this is great, it is all the DANGEROUS things they are’nt allowed to do”. All we did with them was to show them how to build a debris shelter (in which they could sit and have lunch) and then the basics of firelighting. For the youngsters it something totally different and some you could see it in their eyes that they had found their element, something and somewhere that they were comfortable with. We will see as I will be taking the same groups for another week out in a few months time.
I normally arrive on site the day before the job is due to start, do a recce of the area, build a shelter (which is home for the week, but is also for demonstration) and get all of my prep in for the following few days.
The kids are brought in by mini-bus each day and they normally leave by mid afternoon, leaving me the rest of the day to “play” in the woods on my own – its great!!!
This week I did some carving, spent some time tracking fallow dear through the woods, some baking, a fungi walk and some axe work with my Hudson Bay Camp axe.
The weather as always was very variable, beautiful sunshine – monsoon like rain that lasted a day and a half and at times really quite cold. But I was comfortable and dry in my little debris hut and with a small fire in front, at times a little to warm.

Me - start of the week

End of the week