- Joined
- Apr 28, 2010
- Messages
- 1,155
I have a fence on the North end of the farm that needs some work (as do most of the fences on all the other ends of the farm), and I had to cut a road through the woods to have access to the fence. I decided lunch in the woods would be a good idea. There is a piece of an old foundation in the woods that seemed like it would make a fine cooking surface.
I cooked up some Spam and rice with the twig stove.
It was so good, I decided I needed to have lunch in the woods the next day as well. First, I needed to make some improvements to my outdoor kitchen. I tried to level up the chunk of foundation as best I could.
I cut a few planks to make a bench (does it still count as bushcraft if you use a chainsaw?).
A cutting board seemed necessary as well.
I then needed some kindling for the fire. We all know about the three sizes of kindling; finger size, pencil size, and matchstick size. If you watch Youtube videos, everyone tends to claim that batoning and splitting is the proper way to process all three classes of kindling. For the matchstick category, I disagree. I can get matchstick diameter kindling by just making coarse shavings, and thats much faster than juggling knife, baton, and stick trying to make split after split. Then the problem is that the shavings fly all over the place. So this is what I do.
Drive the knife point into a stump or log,
hold the knife with your left hand, and draw a stick along the topside of your blade with the right hand.
This method takes a shaving off the bottom of the blade,
And throws it in a neat, tidy pile below the knife.
Doesnt take very long at all to make a good amount of matchstick kindling this way.
I also gathered up a bundle of oak twigs, and the chainsaw made some really nice shavings while I was cutting those planks which I didnt want to waste (thats not really cheating, is it?)
Got the fire started
And burning nicely
Today, Spanish rice and a can of chicken breast.
Let it boil
And time to eat
After an enjoyable meal, it was back to work.
I cooked up some Spam and rice with the twig stove.
It was so good, I decided I needed to have lunch in the woods the next day as well. First, I needed to make some improvements to my outdoor kitchen. I tried to level up the chunk of foundation as best I could.
I cut a few planks to make a bench (does it still count as bushcraft if you use a chainsaw?).
A cutting board seemed necessary as well.
I then needed some kindling for the fire. We all know about the three sizes of kindling; finger size, pencil size, and matchstick size. If you watch Youtube videos, everyone tends to claim that batoning and splitting is the proper way to process all three classes of kindling. For the matchstick category, I disagree. I can get matchstick diameter kindling by just making coarse shavings, and thats much faster than juggling knife, baton, and stick trying to make split after split. Then the problem is that the shavings fly all over the place. So this is what I do.
Drive the knife point into a stump or log,
hold the knife with your left hand, and draw a stick along the topside of your blade with the right hand.
This method takes a shaving off the bottom of the blade,
And throws it in a neat, tidy pile below the knife.
Doesnt take very long at all to make a good amount of matchstick kindling this way.
I also gathered up a bundle of oak twigs, and the chainsaw made some really nice shavings while I was cutting those planks which I didnt want to waste (thats not really cheating, is it?)
Got the fire started
And burning nicely
Today, Spanish rice and a can of chicken breast.
Let it boil
And time to eat
After an enjoyable meal, it was back to work.
Go to the store daily that sale is in the paper. Spam is great too. Buy two get free eggs. Awesome. Want Spam now.