My daily bushcraft

Wintter has traditionally been the time to repair kit. So I discovered that my wetterlings hatchet had a chip in it, and since it stupidly was taken inside
from the shed, the haft has dried some during the autumn and winter, making the head a little bit loose.

So axe now restored by grinding out the chip, remaking the edge, and polished back to wetterlings sharp by a paddle strop. The rehanged the axe complete with a new wedge.
The head is quite unmovable now, and should be even more so after a few months where it bellong...in the shed. But some treatment with linseed oil should also help :-)

Now...on to finding a cheap, similar weighted hatchet for the wife...she has been hogging this one since it canme into the house, hence its condition. :zombie-fighting:

Unpacked and repacked all my various boxes of different tinders , after getting loads out to Germany for a trade deal...
I sent about half a metre of 100% pure hemp jute cord , crampball mushrooms, a bag full kapok seed fluff , some fatwood , birch bark , 0000 fine steel wool and some charcloth made from an old pair of jeans .

I'm hopefully getting a big lump of Chaga fungus, and better still , the sender is going to shape it into a Hearth board for friction fire starting kit. 👍

Can't wait to try that with some hazel for a hand drill /bow drill and see if I can finally manage it.

Also sharpened my knives and greased up the leather sheaths , sharpened and cleaned the axe , oiled the steel with camellia oil and BLO on the haft .

All ready for another overnighter in the woods on Saturday. 👍

Sharpened up my Stuoranibii (Big knife), or as you like to call it, a Leuku and gave the handle some love with some linseed oil.
While I was at it I touched up the edge of the Enzo knife after yesterdays job of fixing the scales, as I had hit it with my sand paper a few times. The handle of that one got another coating of linsseed oil as well.
And while I had the bottle out, the handle of my Wetterlings hatchet also got some love with linseed oil, as for some mysterious reason it has come back inside from the shed!

Thats the tools I use the most taken care of and ready for the spring season. It is after all just 3-4 months of snow left in this winter.

The winter gods have smiled on us in the northeastern US....they have given my locale 33 cm of delightful, semi-fluffy snow yesterday :jumping-joy:
Just to prove that New England weather can be very unpredictable, I should mention that on the day before, we had temperatures as high as 15 C. During the snowstorm, temps fell to -4 C during the day and -15 C at night, not accounting for the wind chill factor.

Of course, this gave me the opportunity to drive out to the western section of the Ives' Trail for a 6 mile trek with my winter pack load-out :cool:

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Bennett's Pond Trail System is where I started out, at the southern end off of Bennett's Farm Rd. From there, I travelled north and then east until the trail curved back north, handrailing the south and western side of the pond. This area is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, as is Wooster Mtn State Park on the other end of the map.

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The pond itself home to a small colony of beavers. Last time I counted over 12 lodges. With the high winds and snow, visibility was minimal, not unlike blizzard conditions.

From the north end of the pond, my course led me to the longer and easier way up Pine Mtn, the tallest ridge in southwestern Connecticut. Like almost all the other hills, Pine Mtn was carved out by the glaciers, giving it a distinctive north-south shape. By now the snow was getting too deep for my boots, so it was time to strap on my snowshoes.

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Here's the bluff view on Pine Mtn. Not much to in the valley below LOL :p
I had to keep moving to get out of the high winds, which were gusting to considerable force from the north. I eventually found a somewhat-sheltered location off-trail where I could stop for a rest break.

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This is the flysheet from the Guide Gear tipi tent that sportsmansguide sold for a short time. It weighs a few ounces less than my DD 3x3. It takes 4-5 stakes, and it is solid, but the ventilation needs to be improved. The only vent is relatively small and does little to stop condensation buildup inside the shelter. Sometime I'd like to modify it with 3 more vents as well as a stove-jack so I can turn it into a hot-tent system.

The snow stopped around mid-afternoon after I packed up and headed back on the trail. When I reached Wooster Mtn State Park, I had to negotiate a 100 ft climb where the trail went straight up a rocky ledge, without any switchbacks, at a 60 degree angle. That took a lot of perseverance. After that, the trail was mostly downhill...thank the Stars!!!

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The trip was only 6 miles, but it felt like more than 12 with the amount of energy I exerted. Snowshoeing in conditions like this can be a double-edged sword. If you're the only one out, you can revel the solitude....but then you are also the ONLY one who will pack down the trail. It's basically the same as going cross-country on snowshoes, and can be a great way to increase your endurance.

Wow. That's a crazy drop in temperature in so short a time. Good to make the most of the snow too.

Yesterday I did my very first outdoor hike since many years. It was just few hours in terrain. Was walking around forests located 15 minutes from my living place. Its in city, but they're somehow sheltered - You don't see people or buildings and hear zero or very few traffic. Did some tinder gathering (birch bark and fungi), found used snares and tried to make a little campfire at the end to test my new aurora firesteel. It might be a great self efficient survival tool for stranded army pilots, but it is not by any means a handy way of making fire in bushcraft hikes. The striker is a joke and I've kept hitting my thumb, otherwise You can't put much pressure on the rod. I will either switch to Light My Fire or just carry a raw ferro rod, as using knife as a striker is much better in my opinion. Other thing I learned - there is no way to save cash on shoes. They need to be high quality and thats it, You can't walk around it like with buying Mora in the "knife world".

Cant wait until it gets warmer, I really want to do a proper overnight trip.

T^

Made it into the woods this weekend with dog too. It was classic hypothermia weather ...

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I had a hammock set up on the ground under the parachute. The chute blocked a lot of the wind.

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Benny went nuts when he got there and had a great time.

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Discovered that my leuku had taken some micro-chipping. Thats no good, so have done my duty and restored the edge.
Now onder it takes some damage as it is quite a beating it gets during the summer as it is mainly used when I need some thing chopped trough.