Printable View
this weeks exercise will be on fire bundles, I'm sure that the technically more savvy of the pack can find me a good site for this but lets say we practice our bundles this week and detail our experiences i believe this is a long weekend in both countries so go get some dirtime and post it.
always be prepared..
On vaca. this week. Not doing anything in particular, fig. I'd better start using it up.
Plan on trekking into the woods oneday, two days will be spent as a volunteer at my kids schools.
So, I plan on doing a fire bundle. I have a tree that I think I can find, it's wood has turned to a hard pulp. Will trying to use it instead of char cloth, and make a fire bundle out of nat. fibers I find.
Also going to try and pop a squirrel and eat lunch, maybe catch a trout, and make a hot cup of tea.
Ventured into the woods early am. Decided to not eat breakfast or drink massive qtys of water prior to the trek. Wanted to check endurance. Followed the stream, water is really low. Did come on a hole that had 5 small bass (6") just not into fishing today.
Late morning stopped to make a fire. Found a nice spot next to the stream, downed tree, nice seat, overhead cover to break up the smoke. Made my little firepit and the teepee style boyscout fire set up.
Went 50 feet away and made a fire bundle out of some scrounged grass and what I thought would burn. Tied it to a stick with a small dia. vine, looked like a nice little torche.
Struck a spark onto a piece of char clothe. Blew, blew, and blew and the char clothe burned up with only a little embers on my fire bundle. Hmmm, tried again only this time I use some dry paper thin bark off a nearby tree. Struck a spark, blew and wallaa, the bark was the answer, but by the time I made it over to my little fire area, it went out.
Back to the 50 foot mark, this time I use more fine bark on the fire bundle, alot more. Made a kind of pocket with the bark, struck a spark on the char, blew, blew, and had a fire. Managed to get it over to my little fire area, set it in and added more paper thin bark. After a face full of smoke, had a nice little fire.
Let the fire burn a little, then I put two 2" logs on each side, set my tin cup full of water on it and waited for it to heat up. Dropped a tea bag in it and had a hot cup of tea.
Need to improve my fire bundle. I used a total of 6 pieces of char clothe. That is 5 too many. Then I remembered I had a birds nest back in the car, oh about 2 miles back.
Relaxed, repaired my horn strap and ate two granola bars. Little let down as I could not find any berries today. This drought sucks.
Made my way up the stream, found alot of hog sign. They are wallowing in anything that is damp. Few nice persimmon and musc. bushes but they were a little tart.
Found another "honey" hole. Yeh, gonna hit this one next week. Counted 8 nice 11" plus rainbows. Bow season starts next Sat., I'm going trout fishing.
Walked the gravel road back to the car. Stopped and spoke to an Army MP who just moved to the area and wants to hunt. US Military just motivates the crap out of me.
Things I realized:
Canteen of water does not go far.
Work on that fire bundle.
50grns is a good load for the Kentucky.
The Kentucky is just plain heavy but worth every pound.
Wearing my boots was a great idea over the mocs.