A day in the bush

Hey guys, I had the day off work today, so I wanted to come visit my little shelter that I haven't been to in about a week. Since I've been here last time, a lot of leaves have fallen. I don't know if you can tell through this camera, but it looks like fall. Actually really cool. So I just brought out some female bacon today, and I'm going to grill it up. I actually brought a little portable grill. I'm going to throw over the fire. I'm going to have a fire and have some coals. Grill it up that way. There's my little fire pit. I got a paracord bracelet from a member on Bushcraft USA, JCLMD. His wife made it. It's really thick. You can probably build a house with it. I really like it, though. Thanks a lot, man. Tell your wife thanks for making it. So I think my first order of business before I get my fire going or anything is I'm going to... I've got the framework laid out as a little barrier for debris and whatnot to get in here. I'm probably going to clean up all the leaves so I don't have the fire hazard. and uh probably do a one stick fire got this piece of oak on the way in here you can see it's got the natural check in it like i like to look for that to me is a perfectly seasoned piece of wood uh really good for for cooking on having fires in general so it's about i don't know 15 feet long be a very long one stick fire but uh so i'll clean up this debris and i'll be back all right so i got all that cleared out i like the looks of it a little bit better like that some more a little more clean tidy so we're just gonna saw this log up into lengths and you do some prep and I'll be back I'm on my way to go grab some bark to use as a platform to have my fire on it's a little bit damp on the ground so I don't really like to have it right on the ground this is an ash tree right here it's dead because of the emerald ash borer that's pretty much decimated all the ash trees around and you can tell from all these little squiggly lines like here's the outer bark i ripped the piece off the other day which is here but you can tell from under the bark all the squiggly lines that's where the ash borer literally bores into it and kills the tree i'm not sure how it eats the cambium later or what but it's not good so i'm just going to grab this piece that i had previously knocked off it is good for firewood though ash is a great firewood Just heading back to the shelter now. A small hatchet today, or a small axe. Here's some of the pieces of wood that I cut already. I'll be trying to split it when I'm holding on to it, because I could slip and hit my thumb. So all I'm doing is putting the axe in the check until it has a grip of it, and I'm trying to split it. So I guess the reason being I'm not going to try and hit it hard and risk the chance of slipping and cutting my thumb. I guess there is still a small chance of when I'm tapping it, it can do it. I hold both pieces very firm, and it's never happened yet, so cross my fingers it never does. I know there's safer ways of doing it, but this has always worked for me. Leave my piece of oak alone. Really quickly, I just split. I cut about three or four lengths off the oak and split a bunch of little pieces of wood. Now I'm going to take two or three of these pieces, make shavings from with my knife, and split a bunch into thin pieces, and that's going to be what starts my fire. Then I'll save the rest of these pieces here for actual fuel I like to use a bandana or a hat so leave it and put it in front of the log I'm working on which is here put on the ground in front. I've got this idea from Bindle Stitch So I'm gonna put it on the front and I'm gonna shave because I don't leave the this the feathers on the stick It doesn't work as well for me So I'm gonna just shave it off scout weight and their pieces are gonna fall onto there and I'm gonna collect them that way so obviously making feather or shavings very easy towards the front of the log that I'm on so that they all fall towards well the majority of them fall towards the bend in. Sometimes I like to split it again to get 90 degrees. I'll do that and then on the straight edge straight angle I'll make my shavings. Alright so I've got all my tinder prepared obviously these would be my shavings a nice amount my small kindling my bigger kindling my next stage and then left some thick ones to get good coals I want to cook on the coals today in here already on the bark is about a golf ball size of scrapings and to ignite it my Skog knife fire steel and my home slice all right so I've got the fire established the grills on there getting nice and warm cooking out all the nasty stuff I'm just gonna pretty much wait till the coals or the flames die down to coals and cook my female bacon just thought I'd let you guys know what was going on today make a short vid well I guess it's not that short but thanks for bearing with me take care guys