Where DO you practice skills.

tonym

tonym

Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
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Well Bear asked where you want to, but where do you guys actually practice your skills?

I use to practice in my lil back yard area, but I live in a town house and my neighbors give me strange looks.

Luckily there is quite a large bit of forrest by me. I went looking around awhile ago and found an area that looks nice. I go there often to tests knives, practice firemaking, or just relax.

Today I wanted to play with my new David Farmer Golok. What better way to do that than make a lil shelter I could just sit and relax in.

Its not done but I only had a couple of hours. The Golok is by far the best chopper I own. The 3/16ths blade with its wicked convex edge took out small trees about 4" Diameter with only a few well placed chops.

I will finish the shelter next week and also put in a fire pit.

Here are some pics.

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So where do you go?
 
Looks great, man. I'm similar to your situation, in an apartment area so it's tough to do much without the looks.

God that farmer setup you have is sweet.
 
Back at home, I just go out in the grove by the house most of the time, or at one of the lakes, or along the Missouri River. Down here, I sometimes go around local lakes and other public ground.
 
when ever I go backpacking I make a list of things to try while in the backcountry. some of it is compass stuff, traps, making deadfalls, paracord stuff. I try to do at least 3-4 new things every trip.
 
Nice work mate. That golok looks cool.

I do most of my practice and walks for that matter within an ours drive, but also anytime I get out a little further.
 
mostly in my own backyard, we have a good little woods area that butts up to a pile of woods that noone really cares about, so i have free reign.

i also take advantage of local parks and public land when the opportunity comes up, but generally i don't leave my immediate surroundings to practice skills. it is good to mix up the area a bit, because even a mile on the ground makes for a totally different terrain as well as different vegetation (predominantly maple vs coniferous vs birch, etc) so it can make you expand a little bit and get you used to looking for alternatives to what you are used to.
 
i practice in my yard a lot and when we go camping.... more often then not, i usually just walk across the street, to the state park i live by... i actually live close to a bunch of state parks...
 
I play with fire and knives a lot in my backyard. We have about an acre, and there are a decent amount of trees back there, so no neighbors have complained about the raging infernos that I build (yet). OK, I build tiny fires in a Home Depot bought firepit, but I still pretend they are giant fires!
 
tonym said:
Well Bear asked where you want to, but where do you guys actually practice your skills?

I will finish the shelter next week and also put in a fire pit.

Here are some pics.

Combos003.jpg


So where do you go?
Click to expand...

WHERE'S THE BEER FRIG? :confused:

To answer the question - anywhere I can. I have even done quite a few coals (bow drill and hand drill) in my apartment. (Luckily, Mrs. DOC-CANADA and I don't live in the same place. :D)

I've done hand drill coals at the local Canadian Tire Store parking lot because they had lights. But mostly, I do it in a local wooded area.

GP
 
There are several very large shelter belts around me that I have access to. probably around 100 acres with every type of tree that grows in our area. Another spot is a area that the city has for people to throw out tree branches. They allow wood cutting there. Then there is Devils Lake, a 138000 acre lake lined with trees and containing many wooded Islands.
 
Mostly my backyard. I live in the country and have no direct neighbors that could complain. I also have a state forest that stretches for miles in two directions from the house - so thats always an option.
ilten
 
Lately in my backyard, but there's this small creek and trail by my house I'm going to have and try again. Last time I went there, homeless people were bothering me, but I think there might be a couple places where nobody goes. Besides the homeless people, I think there are hookers and small time drug dealers who go there, so I just got to watch my back.

Here are some pictures.

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It use to be the place all the kids would hang out when I was growing up. There are still some places deep in the trees I don't think anybody goes.
 
Normally I practice when I go camping but I've come to realize that I'd probably want to hone my skills before I actually need to put them to use so I've started playing around in my backyard. It's a little tough because my neighbors are so close, but oh well.
 
Well, like most folks, I play in whatever woods are handy, but I make it part of my yearly routine to hit the bush in a new area every year. Last year it was in California, before that was Florida, Ontario, Wyoming, Arizona, Maine, etc. Also, I always get into the big northwoods here in the Great Lakes at least a few times each year.

COmbining travel with bush time has been a real good deal for me.
 
All sorts of different places. I don't really separate them out into arbitrary piles, it is more of a rolling progression. Obviously if I'm away for a few days there's going to be a difference but most of the one or two day jobs just overlap into a learning base. I wouldn't know how to identify most of it anyway. The below was taken in some bit of a wood that I hadn't gone to before. It was about 03.00 this morning and involved a walk of about eight miles in the dark and intermittent rain. We neither got lost or fell into that dug down entrance hole. For some that is a night navigation exercise or at the very least a bit of a hike. Despite my use of a compass I have no word for it other than 'normal'.

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This city I live in Has a couple rivers around half the town, thus quite a bit of riverbank woods. I usually go to a couple of the more overgrown areas to practice. That and when I get up in the mountains backpacking I always practice on my trips.
 
The backyard

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sometimes in the front too.
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