Dog walk & flint & steel fire testing

[kgd]

Small walk this afternoon taking advantage of the brief sun. The mosquitoes are even more numerous than last week. I had my long pants and long sleeve columbia nylon SPF shirt + hat which kept the buzzing critters a bay for a bit. However, stop walking for 10 s and they are finding every little piece of exposed skin that they can.

Tracking the progress of the May-apples from last weekend. Some plants are still in flower, but others like this one are fruiting now.

We've had lots of on and off rain all week. The ground isn't as saturated with water, but the vegetation is still very lush in the forest.

The trilliums are still blooming.

Back in the forest proper.

Over by the kid's tree fort, I took a little break to test out my KSF fire wallet. While, not exactly wet, it was starting a fire under a bit duress. The mosquitoes were buzzing everywhere and landing on all my exposed skin. So starting a fire by flint and steel under these conditions was putting me under some time pressure. Okay envision your striking the flint and 10 mosquitoes land right on the back of your hand. Your other hand is holding the char cloth and flint so your only option is trying to blow the little critters off.

I'm getting the hang of it though and seem to have quicker results with getting the spark caught then when I first tried using the kit.

 

[kgd]

Having the fatter jute twine was also a big bonus. It is much less tightly wound and you spend a lot less time teasing out the fibers. Given the bug infested conditions, it was nice to save a few seconds on this task.

Mosquito breeding area, no wonder there are so many of the critters about!

I managed to get lucky shooting this cardinal in mid-flight.

On the way home, I harvested some of last years phragmites heads and stalks to start a fire at home using the flint & steel with natural tinder. You can see that the phragmites heads are starting to get frayed and weathered now and will soon be gone.

 

[kgd]

At home.

The phragmites tinder bundle worked really nice with the char cloth. The stalks also worked great as kindling. I didn't gather any bigger wood to keep the fire going, but it would have been easy to do after the stalks had caught on fire.

 

[TheGame]

Wow, that pic is so .. green. My yard already looks like it wants to turn into a brown mess. Thanks for making me depressed about the brown yard

 

[sicily02]

Awesome pics Ken, I really liked the one with the red bird in flight. Of course and time you have fire pics they are great to. I love the fire starting kit.
WOW I like that knife to.

Bryan

 

[REKCUT]

All the pics are great, but I really like the one with the cardinal. The cardinal is my state bird and they are everywhere around here. They are absolutely beautiful birds.

 

[mneedham]

Ken,

Great pics.. I like that knife, what is the grip wood?

 

[kgd]

mneedham, it is bocote, one of my favorite woods!

 

[Shotgun]

Nice action photo.

 

[HikingMano]

Great pictures KGD, vivid! Great commentary on the firelighting too :thumbup: I lit a damp paper towel from a sparked charcloth once, it was pretty amazing.

Are the mosquitoes in your area bad throughout the whole spring/summer?

 

[pitdog]

Great pics buddy I love that knife !

Gonna have to get myself a traditional flint and steel now and try it !!!!!

 

[MidwestDave]

A dog was mentioned in the title, yet I see no dog.
False advertising?




MDave

 

[kgd]

They were on leash for most of the walk because there were so many other dog walkers around at the park. I hat taking pictures of them on leash.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Hey k,

Nice pictures. Lots of these down there?

Doc

 

[kgd]

Yep Doc, there are pretty plentiful too.

Rksoon, the mosquitoes are usually really bad until about mid- to late June after that it dries up a bit and knocks the population down to a more reasonable level.

 

[mneedham]

mneedham, it is bocote, one of my favorite woods!

That was my guess, I like bocote too. I finished one of those Jantz Cutlery blanks with bocote years ago, looks nice, and easier to work with than cocobolo...