I find it quite difficult to get ditracted i.e my mind wanders off.
The best solution I have found so far is to shut eyes and relax as if
meditating however of course this is not going to help with awareness
except sounds.. How do you really focus in on a ground scene and stay
attracted to it ?

Simon
The Netherlands

One way to deal with your mind wandering is to just focus briefly on the tracks, gather as much information as you can from a quick glance, give yourself the count to 20 then let your mind wander or focus on something different, what you hear around you for another count of 20, then notice the feel of the wind on the skin of your face and hands, reach out with your mind and see how much of the landscape you can take in all at once. Then return to the tracks…

Play with the count, play with the order you focus on differnet things, don’t get hung up on the tracks themselves, whats happeing around you is just as important as the tracks. imagine your the animal lwer your eyes tot he same level as the animals you think might have made the tracks, notice what they would notice, how would you feel if you were that animal in that situation at that time of day…

I got into the mindset of a deer once while in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, I was wandering along a small stream that was meandering through the forest. I eventually got to a place where the stream dropped quite suddenly, not exactly a water fall, but enough of a drop off that the water made enogh sound dropping down onto some rocks that i could not hear what was going on in the forest around as clearly as I could before…

I felt nervous and unsure and I did not want to be near that water flowing down onto those rocks…

The human me would have loved to be near that water the soothing sound of flowing water, but the deer me was exposed to preditors with impaired ability to hear what might be approaching was the thing that made me nervous and not want to be there…

I had a very profound insight into the awareness of a deer and what bothers them in that situation…

Give it a go, leave me a comment about how it goes, ask your questions…

Walk in Awareness

Julian

Really all this is is a place you can visit and spend some time there. It really good if you can go regularly, every day in a perfect world but what ever you can do is what you do. Going everyday is far more important that having the perfect place, so make it your garden, or a place you can walk or drive to in 5 to 10 minutes…

The whole point o finding a place and sitting there for 10 to 20 minute as often as you can (everyday would be perfect) is that you will get to know a single place better than anyone else will ever get to know it…

You will start to see patterns that get deeper and deeper the more you go there and watch. Its like layers of life will start to reveal themselves to you, or maybe you could look at it as putting together a big jigsaw puzzel and you get a few new pieces of the puzzel every day you sit there for the 10 to 20 minutes…

Like a jigsaw puzzel its not till you have all the pieces that the full impact of the picture presents or shows itself. that said the coolest part to me is that the puzz;e pieces never stop coming. So in a way the puzzel will never be complete there will always be some little mystery that needs to be solved, and the great thing is most of the myteries will get solved…

But again there will always be more new mysteries, it very cool, and there is a constant stream odf interesting things that turn up…

What I love about my sit spot is that my awareness keeps expanding as I get to konw different aspects of my place on the landscape, I get to cheeck in with that part quicker and quicker every visit, and every time I go I have time to investigate things I have not had time to look at or I start to notice subtler and subtler things that are happening around me…

On of my mentor talks about his sit spot and how he was forced to learn their by the man he was I guess apprenticing under, although he didnt really know it at the time, he just thought he was sitting out practicing camping and being asked questions by his neigbour…

But almost everyday after he had been to his sit spot, he got a call from his negbour askign what he noticed that day, he’d ask him about the things he kenew he would have noticed and at the end of the call he waould ask him questions about the things he knew were at the edge of his awareness, and tell him he’d ask hima bout it tomorrow and hang up…

What happened was that next time he went to his secret spot, he had a few questions to answer, and to answer them he had to be a little more aware that he was yesterday…

You may not have a mentor like he did growing up but you can become your own mentor and well get into that when I explain what journalling is…

Some other reason to sit somewhere your drawn to and like is that you will notice over time that your mind will begin to becoem more quiet, and from the place of a quiet mind, you will begin to see to notice to feel the ebb and flow of life around you…

Ancient Wisdon No23 The Forset Alarm System

“Hey Julian. I just wanna say that the forest alarm system post you put up is great. I now walk through the woods in a totally different way, using my ears a whole lot more. I heard blackbird alarm calls in my garden the other day and immediately new something was up, as they have a nest with juveniles around. I looked accross to my shed, and sure enough there was a cat sat on the roof.”

So I thought I would add a little story about what happen on Saturday…

I was up early walking in the forest with my dogs, Rixa & Tahoe…

I’m currently training them how to follow behind me off the lead so they do not cause too much disturbance out in front of me as I move through the forest…

We came out onto a main pathway after moving through quite long grass, and I noticed a robin alarming in a tree, it was a few feet above my head, so I assumed he was alarming at my dogs, because I can usually walk under a singing robin in a tree and have it continue singing…

I stopped and listened for any other disturbance in the are abut heard nothing, and as I moved to continue deeper into the forest, a Buzzard gliding down from my left, down and along this main trail I was on and back up into the forest a few 100 feet away…

I don’t see buzzard in the forest as much as out in the open fields, but it was very close, and I susspect the Robin knew it was coming and that’s why the alarms…

So I shall be adding Buzzards to my list of animals that robins will talk about in this agitated manner…

If you have questions about the bird alarm system let me know its one of my favorite subjects…

Take Care

Walk in Awareness

P.S. If your looking for a local Bushcraft Group or want to start one, check out the forum at:

http://www.huntergathererschool.com/groups/

If you read the last post about the Forum I set up help you find a local group to go out and practice your skills with. Then I’d like to give you an update…

The forum is growing, people like you are finding it, I’ve added some of the initial posts below, feel free to visit register and publish that your looking for a group, or want to start a group…

There are some instructions at the top to help you get started…

Walk In Awareness…

Julian

P.S. To go to the forum click the Find a local Group Link at the top of the page…

P.P.S. Let me know what topics you want to discuss and ask me your questions…

Some of the Forum Posts Are Below

Buckinghamshire

Hello, I’m looking for any bushcraft goups in the milton keynes area. If anyone knows of any groups or clubs in the area please let me know.

Essex

Hi, Interesting idea.
Very interested in looking to join with like minded individuals in Essex. We have plenty of woodland here but I dont know any yet that would permit us to use
Paul

Gloucestershire

Please could someone inform me if there are already any bushcraft / survival groups on the Gloucester and Stroud area.

Warwickshire

Im very interested in learning about bushcraft and survival i too watch ray mears is there any werw local to solihull to try and learn these skills

Warwickshire

… you would like to start a small group.

Hi folks, I am in my late forties, not as fit as I would like to be, but have developed a keen interest in what seems to be becoming quite a trend with old time campers, such as myself.

I would like to discuss, learn, and practice some basic bush craft skills with like minded people. In a safe, and relaxed environment.

Having just lit my first camp fire without matches, and awaiting my new Kelly Kettle, I feel that Bear Grylls and Ray Mears had better watch their 6! If only!!!

In all seriousness, if you would like to meet for a pint, and consider treking into the woodland with me, on a semi-regular bases, with a length of paracord, and a sharp knife, then please drop me a line.

Wiltshire

Hello All,

I would like to get together with other like minded people in the Wiltshire area to share knowledge and experience about bushcraft. In particular if anyone knows of any freindly farmers that would allow some bushcraft activities in his woods then please let me know.

Walk Softly.

Important Note: There is no sound for about 30 seconds…

Speaker:
Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain InstituteDate: August 10, 2007

Location: Basalt, Colorado

Description:
At RMI’s RMI25 Gala, Amory Lovins gave a speech titled “Imagine a World…”. Below is an excerpt from his speech.

“…Imagine a world, a few short generations hence, where spacious, peppy, ultra safe, 120- to 200-mpg cars whisper through revitalized cities ad towns, convivial suburbs, and fertile, prosperous countryside, burning no oil and emitting pure drinking water — or nothing; where sprawl is no longer mandated or subsidized, so stronger families eat better food on front porches and more kids play in thriving neighborhoods; where new buildings and plugged-in parked cars produce enough surplus energy to power the now-efficient old buildings; and where buildings make people healthier, happier, and more productive, creating delight when entered, serenity when occupied, and regret when departed…”

Running Time: 10 minutes

Hope your having fun exploring the forests now they are really comming alive with life…

The community around this blog seems to be building quicker than I thought it would…

I have had quite a few requests for help finding local groups who discuss and practice Bushcraft & Survival Skills…

So I wondered how I might get you all in contact with each other without giving out any personal emails, some sites have a list of links to other sites but iunless you have a web site that no use to you…

And I don’t like the idea of putting up personal emails on a web page either unless you set one up especially for the group…

Anyway, althoughI’m not super technical I do have enough knowledge to put up a simple Forum…

Please excuse any bugs or glitches you find with it as I said my Technical Knowledge is limited as far as the web is concerned…

So you can click the link below and a new window should open with the forum. (please tell me if I messed something up and it doesn’t work right.. )

There is a partial list of areas in the UK where people might live and want to meet. I will add the other areas as I get time…

If your areas not there just send me a personal message on the forum (username: juliandrummond) or click on Ask A Question and submit a request from there, or even leave a comment to this post, what ever works for you…

http://huntergathererschool.com/groups/

The forum has a few post about how to register, how to post a topic, and how to contact other members…

If you have a group running let the other members know…

If you want to join a group post a new topic asking for information about groups in that area…

Their is a single General Discussion so if you want to start a conversation start a new topic, and if its useful I’ll add new topic areas…

But for now I set this up to help you connect with other likeminded people in your local area…

Take Care & Walk in Awareness…

I have been getting a little feed back from listening to people talking about bushcraft, and I get the impression they want to be able to gather with like minded people interested in Bushcraft skills..

So I have decided to write a report about how I have been able to do just that since I became facinated with these skills…

I developed a local group who got together regularly though out the summer to practice skills and just chill out. I was able to find a land owner who was more than happy for us to use his land, and encouraged it. If your thinking about starting a group or already have then finding a place to gather in an amazing resource to have…

If you have a group or would like to join a group please let me know, by submitting a comment at the end of this post or going to the ,Ask A Question, page. I read all comments left and any question or comment submitted on the ‘Ask A Question’ Page…

I was thinking of adding a Forum to the website so you can add groups already running, add that you’d like to start a group someplace, or just come looking for a group to join…

What would you like to know, what would you want included in a report about starting a group…

Leave your comment below…

Starting or Joining a group is I think the quickest way to mastery of Bushcraft…

If you have no training a group can learn from books quicker than someone alone. Everyone bring s a useful perspective tot he gatherings and discussions and ideas about how to improve skills. Members are able to give you insights and ways to improve your techniques. And everyone brings new ideas, pieces of knowledge gained from books, courses or direct experience being out in the wilds…

When I wanted to teach for the first time it was easy to find a few people who wanted to come along…

I never even intended sarting a group but it happened very easily, and it would be simple to copy what I did…

There are so many people out there interested in these skills. Lots of people who do not and will never understand, think it wierd or unusual. But there will always be those. They make sure the woods are never too crowded…

There is never a crowd on the leading edge, I think the learning of Bushcraft and Nature awareness skills is the leading edge and more people having this knowledge may be the best way to bring our environment back into balance…

Please ask your questions. let me know what you want to know about teching these skills or setting up groups locally…

Submit your questions or comments below this post, or click on the ‘Ask A Question’ Link above to leave your questions or comment…

Regards

The art of creating a tipi fire that can be started with a single match, every time without fail, can be mastered in 30 minutes to an hour, that how long it seems to take my students…

It’s not always easy to find the perfect materials to do this, but 30 min to and hour and you’ll know exactly what you want to accomplish your aim…

The one match fire is basically a pile of sticks of very defines diameter, stacked in a very precise way, a way that allows the flame of the match to climb up through ever increasing levels of flamable material, the flame starts small so you give it small stuff that will heat and burst into flames very easily…

As the flame strength builds the material can be larger, it will need more flame to get it alight but the flame is stronger so it can easily do it…

When you build a fire right you can have a raging fire in less than a minute…

I think your question could have been about making a fire with primitive methods like a bow drill so I will answer that question too…

But let me share a story with you about making a fire right…

I was helping out a fellow instructor once at a class he was running, the class was sat listening, it was getting dark and I know the class would enjoy a fire when the lecture was over, so they could sit and talk and just chill out…

So I built a fire in the very specific way I teach my students, I got it to be about 3 feet high with small logs the diameter of my leg on the outside, just as the lecture was ending, I lit the tine tinder bundle at the centre and the fire instantly began to roar, it took about a minute for that fire to get to such an intensity that the students had to sit away from it untill it died down…

Most assumed I had rekindled some embers or used a blow torch or something, because the heat got so intense so quickly…

The key is to give your flame the right fuel it needs to grow, and the sevceret is the tinder, get that right and the rest is easy…

Now onto the bow drill, a primitive fire making technique…

I run workshops where I get about half of my students getting a coal and then a flame from a bow drill set in about 4 hours. I’ve perfected a new teaching technique that should shorten that time a little more…

But really the main thing is technique, once you have the right technique it’s easy to keep inspired with it as you can always see how close you got to getting a coal even if it dies as they often do, the first few time…

Once you have a bow drill set that works well, you can have a coal within a minute of starting…

The thing that takes the longest time to prepare is the tinder bundle, because you need a new one every time, and it is so key to get it just right, it needs to be very dry and very fine materials…

As far as mastery of fire in concerned, there are many elements to get right…

There is first mastery of carving a set that can be worked easily, then there is mastery of the technique. Then mastery of making cordage from natural materials, then mastery of using less perfect woods if your choice is not avalible, then there is making your set with a stone blade, then getting it right in the wet…

There are levels of mastery as with many many things, but 4 hours will have your technique near perfect, and from then it is a mater of playing with less perfect resources…

Hope this helps…

Vicki Smith,Cumbria,UK Which is the hardest terrain to survive in?

The hardest terrain to survive in will always be the one where you have least knowledge and experience…

Someone who grew up as a native in the Desert will probably have a hard time living in a UK forests, and would have an evenharder time living in the city streets, as somone who lives in the streets relatively easily compaired to how they would copy if you dropped them in the forest…

Thats not really an answer is it, but it is the answer really…

Where you focus your learning or where the majority of your experience is gained is the greatest ease of living…

The hardest places I have lived was one night camping at a relativily high altidude in the CairnGorm Mountain in Scotland…

I had much of the modern technology needed to survive there, we could have built a snow cave to live in, if I not had the technology to live there even though it was only for one night, I would not have gone…

So again the answer maybe comes down to technology, the tools and equipment you carry be it modern technology or ancient technology, but more importantly I think is the technology I call knowledge…

Choose a terrain, any terrain, and if you can figure out how to shelter your body in such a way as to keep it at a comfortable temperature, either with clothing of shelter made from avalible materials, then you have step one of living in that environment…

Next can you keep your body supplied with water, that is clean, uncontaminated and will not significantly alter your core body temperature (by this I mean being just warm enough and then drinking ice cold water will make it harder for you to stay warm)…

If either of these things shelter or gathering water and carrying it, need tools can you make them from avalible material…

Can you keep yourself health, and deal with any minor scrapes, cuts, bruises, blisters, bites & stings, some climates make the tiniest cut or scrape a whole bunch of trouble if you cannot keep it clean or apply suitable precautions to keep parasites away long enough for the body to seal the membrane thin transition between your blood and the outside environment… (The tropical regions of the world can make these small cuts bad news if you do not know suiteable plants to use as poltice or carry medicines with you…

If you need fire, can you make it easily and do you have an easy supply of fuel…

Food, do you know what you can eat in this place…

Wander with a aborigional person who knows their place on the landscape in the outback of Australia and you may find you are always fed and watered and never experience hunger or thurst. Take that exact same route alone or with someone with no knowledge of place and you could be dead in a few days…

The hardest terrain to live in is an opinion, and it will depend of the knowledge, skills of the person you ask…

If you can take enough equipment with you even the moon is an option for a place to hang out for a while…

If you must rely on being able to make & harvest what you need from the landscape then learn the skills of the people who lived there before our technology, they already figured everything out, those that got it wrong died and their skills died with them, those that lived had the skills that worked and these got passed on…

Personally I think it also has a lot to do with your state of mind in a place. I don’t like to be cold, but I can go for days without food and it not really effect me much. Put me somewhere where I cannot keep warm enough and I’ll tell you it’s the toughests place of earth to live. Ask someone else about their stay in the summer woodland of the UK in the most perfect conditions but they could not eat for 3 days and that might be their toughest place to live and yet paradise for me…

I guess the hardest terrain to live in is where raw materials are scarce or hard to get to, places that experience extremes of temperature hot or cold combined with a lack of avalible because it is frozen or it hardly ever rains, and you have your tough terrain, to me the amount of animal life is a guide, the more diverse it is the eaiser it is to live, although the extreme of this would be the tropical rain forests where there is such an abundance of life that many of the most tiny parasites will use us as their home with somethimes detrimental effect…

I’m not sure I’ve answered your question Vicki but I have enjoyed considering the ideas here, to me the greatest thing you can learn is a principle, like the principle of shelter, once understood it allows you to look at the materials avalibale and create a suitable shelter in any climate…

Julian Drummond

I call it the single match fire…

I have them imagine that on of their group has fallen into a river, and is beginning to show signs of hypothermia and it is their job to get a fire going in the next 20 minutes to save the life of their group member…

They have a box of wet matches that was being carried by the group memebr who fell in the river, they have layed them out to dry but it is likely they will get more than one that will light…

When they find a match that lights it may be their only chance to get a fire going…

So the first thing they must do it prepare the fire…

So i send them out for 5 minutes to look for twigs that are the diameter as a pencil lead, a few mm across. Any twigs that look whispy, between them all they need are two handfulls, and they must be as long as they can get them, more than 10cm is long enough…

Next I send them out to gather twigs the diameter of your little finger, this time a few handfulls will be enough…

The another 5 minutes to gather sticks the diameter of your thumb…

All this wood must be dry, so look in trees, fro branches that have fallen but got caught int a tree before they got to the ground…

Hazel always has a lot of dead wood that has not fallen tot he ground yet and can be snapped off and used…

Quite often dvbranches of living trees near the ground are dead, maybe they have not had enought light, but these can be gathered and used…

Now while one member of the group builds the fire, the others can spend another 5 minutes gathering tinder material…

Tinder is the material which will start to burn the instant the flame from the match touches it, dry leaves will do it, sometimes the fluffy white fibres in thistle flowers will do it, dry grasses will often light from a match flame…

This is when playing with different things before you need them is the best thing to do…

To build the fire, hold all the pencil lead diameter twigs together, one bundle in each hand and intermingle the tops of the bundles, and splay the bottoms of the bundles so their will be enough room for the tinder material to be placed there…

Next lay the little finger diameter twigs around the pencil lead twigs in a pyramid or upsidedown ice cream cone pattern..

You should end up with a structure that is pointed at the top and wide at the bottom, that will stand up without you needing to hold it up…

Next come the thumb diameter sticks, again placed around in a pyramid or unsidedown ice cream cone shape…

You need to leave a small openin at the bottom, where you will push in the tinder once it it on fire…

So now you are ready, and it really is simple, you get the tinder bundle as close to the opening in the base of the sticks as you can, you light it witht he match, blocking the wind from the match as best you can…

As soon as the tinder bundle has caught and is turning to a flame bundle, push it deep into the base of the prepared sticj pyramind and with practice your structure will be a raging fire in less than a minute…

The key here is that the flames and the heat in the flames always goes up, so the pyramind structure is designed to have as much material above the flames as possible, in theory a well made fire can be stood in an inch of water or on damp ground, and as long as the tinder stays dry and their is dry wod above the flames it will light…

The tinder flames touch the pencil diameter twigs which light, then the flames moves to the little finger diameter twigs, and then to the thumb diamter twigs, at each stage the flames is getting stronger and stronger…

The most flamable items are on the inside of the structure and the the items harder to light are on the outside…

The most important thing is to have easy to light twigs first and very dry tinder…

Once these are alight you can gather other twigs and sticks to burn as you need them…

This is known sometimes as a tipi or teepee ire…

Always light fires where you have permisiiona nd always light them where there is zero risk of starting a fire in the forest meadow where you are…

And it is good to note that fire can burn underground in some areas, in tree root, in some soils…

I hope this helps…

Please ask questions as they come up on the ask questions page…

Walk in Awareness