A new 'wayer' of life
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| Our main camp |
I’ve done a couple of courses with Woodland ways before, firstly the five-day survival course and also my Sweden canoe expedition was run by them. I’ve enjoyed both of them immensely and the depth of knowledge from the instructors is always amazing, so I went into this weekend fully ready for the pace of the previous courses.
The site of the course was in the grounds of the Belvoir estate in Leicestershire which has around 16,000 acres of land and properties, so our patch of 160 acres within this was relatively small, but still a much larger plot of land than I usually have available.
Each three-day course starts on the Friday lunchtime and runs until the Sunday afternoon and our first weekend was the welcome weekend and edged tool training. Having been on a few Woodland ways courses before I’ve been through the edged tool training before, so I did know most of what was discussed but found we went a lot deeper into each subject than we had previously done, and as always got some new knowledge as well as the reinforcement of old lessons.
The Friday afternoon was a chance for us to meet the instructors and fellow course members and be introduced to the part of the woodland where the bulk of the course would be operating. Jason has a huge knowledge of animal tracking so we enjoyed a few hours looking at animal tracks, plant and tree id’s as well as finding out the boundaries of the usable space.
Once our camp location was selected and our sleeping options setup we covered knife law and knife selection in great detail. This was an interesting area, as it’s a real minefield with serious consequences if you get it wrong, so really valuable training. We rounded off the evening talking through a range of knives and features to look for in a good knife. Breakfast in the main camp was a group affair, with us sharing the water from the communal kettle to get our various breakfast options sorted. We had all began working together collecting firewood, keeping the fire going and topping up the kettle to get the camp running as a unit. We covered first aid and experienced a real-world situation when one of the group collapsed and the group came together to help them out, while the instructors demonstrated their expertise in this area. Fortunately, he was ok and was able to take himself off to the hospital to be checked over.
Once saw use had been covered we moved on to tree felling and felled some small ash saplings in order to make pot hangers and a Burtonsville rig. Dusk was falling by the time we finished so after dinner we moved on to knife sharpening and crook knives. We were all feeling the effects of the fresh air so axe selection, maintenance and small axe works had to wait till Sunday morning.
By now the team was beginning to find its own pace with a regular stream of hot drinks and breaks to get the most from the sessions. We felled a larger ash tree and processed that with axes and saws for our carving projects where we made spatulas and wooden mallets for later use in our other projects.
Each three-day course starts on the Friday lunchtime and runs until the Sunday afternoon and our first weekend was the welcome weekend and edged tool training. Having been on a few Woodland ways courses before I’ve been through the edged tool training before, so I did know most of what was discussed but found we went a lot deeper into each subject than we had previously done, and as always got some new knowledge as well as the reinforcement of old lessons.
The Friday afternoon was a chance for us to meet the instructors and fellow course members and be introduced to the part of the woodland where the bulk of the course would be operating. Jason has a huge knowledge of animal tracking so we enjoyed a few hours looking at animal tracks, plant and tree id’s as well as finding out the boundaries of the usable space.
Once our camp location was selected and our sleeping options setup we covered knife law and knife selection in great detail. This was an interesting area, as it’s a real minefield with serious consequences if you get it wrong, so really valuable training. We rounded off the evening talking through a range of knives and features to look for in a good knife. Breakfast in the main camp was a group affair, with us sharing the water from the communal kettle to get our various breakfast options sorted. We had all began working together collecting firewood, keeping the fire going and topping up the kettle to get the camp running as a unit. We covered first aid and experienced a real-world situation when one of the group collapsed and the group came together to help them out, while the instructors demonstrated their expertise in this area. Fortunately, he was ok and was able to take himself off to the hospital to be checked over.
Once saw use had been covered we moved on to tree felling and felled some small ash saplings in order to make pot hangers and a Burtonsville rig. Dusk was falling by the time we finished so after dinner we moved on to knife sharpening and crook knives. We were all feeling the effects of the fresh air so axe selection, maintenance and small axe works had to wait till Sunday morning.
By now the team was beginning to find its own pace with a regular stream of hot drinks and breaks to get the most from the sessions. We felled a larger ash tree and processed that with axes and saws for our carving projects where we made spatulas and wooden mallets for later use in our other projects.
As usual the instruction was superb and all in all a highly enjoyable weekend, meeting new people and sharing a common interest in the outdoors. I'm looking forward to the next one already.
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