More bush craft

I just had a wonderful day course with www.wilderness-survival.co.uk doing their 'Deer in  a Day' field butchery. Since then I have been eating the best venison of my life and working on the fallow deer hide I saved with tools I made from flint in the summer at The Blade workshop. I have untold respect for our ancestors and the effort and skill it took to feed and cloth themselves before you could click 'add to cart' or even pop down the shops. I make a lot of crafts, but this is really physical work. Today I will finish preparing the hide and put it in a bath of bark tea to begin the tanning process. I will be going on four courses with Wilderness Survival next year and I highly recommend them. Their woods are near Salisbury, so it's easier for me to get to than with the other great guys at Woodsmoke, though I am sure I will see them again soon too. There are great photos of the Deer Day here. Being outdoors as much as possible is the antidote to a lifetime spent indoors up until my mid thirties, doing great stuff like art, music, recording, reading and T'ai Chi, but nevertheless still being inside most of the time. To counteract this, these days I try to get out and make things as much as possible. I also get to do T'ai Chi outdoors much more now, which is a joy.

Items made from hide by Wilderness survival guys - note 'prim-tech man' action man kneeling with bow at the top left.