Fires and Food

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We had a great day today. A good mix of theory and practice. We began the day with a silly game: mouse, hunter and mammoth. It was a bit like scissors paper rock. We learnt how to use the sheath knife today and started to practice carving and whittling. This was great fun and really relaxing. We were all in the zone!

We had a tree talk on the English Oak tree. They are a hardwood and take so long to grow, but are an important part of the ecosystem. They sustain over 400 types of invertebrates. They have a great lumpy bark perfect for crayon rubbings. We didn't have time to do that today!

We then had to throw a rope through the fork of a tree maybe 3 metres in the air. Everyone tried but I managed to get it through on my last throw! We then used these ropes to tie two tarps up across the fire space and used tree posts and rope to stabilise the structure. We then collected the different types of tinder and sticks to start the fire. Once the fire was underway we started to make food. I had bought the flour to make damper. Others bought corn on the cob, popcorn, bananas, haloumi, sausages and mushrooms and finally pancakes. I taught a few people how to make damper and filled it with butter and apricot jam... yummy! We then packed everything away and finished up the day looking at the timeline for the rest of our qualification. It will take us about 15 months to finish.

We finished off the day putting out the fire and then collecting some of the ash and painting our faces. It was really 'tribal' ... lol

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Photos

Tree Talk
English Oak. This one is estimated to be 100 years old.

Scottish pancakes ...yum