Relaxing in the Woods with Knives

[stabman]

December 9th...return to the woods.
Was going to move epic boulder I spotted on a previous trip to make the firepit awesome, but it turned out to be too epic; twice the size I originally thought, and carrying a 300 to 350 pound rock a couple hundred feet through the woods sounded instantly stupid to me.

But, we had knives and stuff, so off we went.
In 2013, I got a TOPS Knives Machete .230. I traded it to my brother for something in 2014; I forget what.
Traded him the axe/hatchet/tomahawk (whatever) I forged from a large ball peen hammer back in 2017, because I decided "Hey, machete!"
We got to the site...and I realized the machete was back in the car. Derp!
So I fashioned a crappy rake to get the site ready for fire while he hiked back to get the machete, and look for a tarp. He thought he had the tarp, but turned out it was left back at home. And rain was coming...

Oh well.

Fire and knife on rocks:

The fire was started with dry wood we found, pushed over, etc. I shoved over a great dead wood tree, and the machete busted off some great sticks and twigs. No pis of that.

But here are some random machete pics:

Fire and machete:

And why not explore the creek for no reason at all?

Knife in wood:

 

[stabman]

The greatest bushcraft innovation ever--the paper towel holder tripod--was still there:

You can see some of the knives I brought:

And my brother's "Hard Use" saw. Must be "Hard Use"...the tip busted off!

Getting ready to cook:

Keg seasoning for the steaks:

Appropriate that my brother appears to merge with the tripod in this pic, since he's the one who lugs it all the way in there. Very convenient for cooking; not convenient for hiking:

Using his saw to keep the grill handle from turning into the fire:

His girlfriend offered to stop by his house and come out there with the forgotten tarp. While he went to direct her to the site, I innovated by putting another stick in place, preventing the handle from turning into the fire (efficiency!)

Steak ended up getting cooked and smoked into a tasty jerky almost, as he took quite a while getting back.
My steak and cheese wrap, after I impatiently ate half the steak already:

 

[stabman]

My brother had more patience, so he made a melted cheese and steak thing:

His girlfriend left to head off to some prior engagement, but the tarp was up. This was good as it did rain off and on for a while.
It also looks neat in pics:

You can see the paper towel covered by a white garbage bag due to the rain.

And, fire!

So yeah, no zombie wolves, rabid coyotes, man-eating rabbits or swarms of mutant field mice, but it ended up being a good day nonetheless.

And the TOPS Machete .230 worked fairly well.
Could use a slightly thicker and wider handle, but that is personal preference.