Ground Dwelling at the Gathering

I have to say that I felt a little more comfortable dwelling on the ground during the four days of the Wilderness Gathering. It wasn't perfect and, in my opinion, still not as good as tree-dwelling, but as you can see from the pitch, I didn't really have many other options.

The Exped Synmat helped. I'll do a review of this later, but being thicker than the Thermarest it helped my hips from digging into the ground. Fussy? Yes I am. Uncomfortable hero, I am not. I'll blame it on my age!

What I didn't get on with was the condensation. The TI Goat Vertex tipi is only single skin. Even though I slept with the door zipped open (but not fully held open) the tipi walls were still getting soaked inside. You can see the dark patches in the picture above.

Apparently, the subject of condensation is quite complex and not just a matter of respiratory condensation and lack of ventilation. It depends a lot on environment, dew points, water in the soil, surrounding landscape, wind patterns, time of year, day and night temperatures, height above/below sea level and dew fall. (Thanks Rohan for this info).

Of course more ventilation would have helped as would a second skin. I expect a ground sheet would also have assisted. But I must say, it's not covered me in confidence to get out there and ground-dwell on a regular basis. Not in a single skin tipi anyway.

You have to be careful of the sleeping bag you use as well. I have a synthetic summer bag which can deal with damp, but in the winter, my down bag would probably get drenched (unless the condensation turns to ice like it did in January - pic above)

I must say though when all is said and done, you can't beat a view like this when you wake up in the morning.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Ground Dwelling at the Gathering

I have to say that I felt a little more comfortable dwelling on the ground during the four days of the Wilderness Gathering. It wasn't perfect and, in my opinion, still not as good as tree-dwelling, but as you can see from the pitch, I didn't really have many other options.

The Exped Synmat helped. I'll do a review of this later, but being thicker than the Thermarest it helped my hips from digging into the ground. Fussy? Yes I am. Uncomfortable hero, I am not. I'll blame it on my age!

What I didn't get on with was the condensation. The TI Goat Vertex tipi is only single skin. Even though I slept with the door zipped open (but not fully held open) the tipi walls were still getting soaked inside. You can see the dark patches in the picture above.

Apparently, the subject of condensation is quite complex and not just a matter of respiratory condensation and lack of ventilation. It depends a lot on environment, dew points, water in the soil, surrounding landscape, wind patterns, time of year, day and night temperatures, height above/below sea level and dew fall. (Thanks Rohan for this info).

Of course more ventilation would have helped as would a second skin. I expect a ground sheet would also have assisted. But I must say, it's not covered me in confidence to get out there and ground-dwell on a regular basis. Not in a single skin tipi anyway.

You have to be careful of the sleeping bag you use as well. I have a synthetic summer bag which can deal with damp, but in the winter, my down bag would probably get drenched (unless the condensation turns to ice like it did in January - pic above)

I must say though when all is said and done, you can't beat a view like this when you wake up in the morning.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Gathering 2

Members of the public queue for Woodlife keyrings

I got home from the Gathering yesterday extremely tired but elated. The Gathering was a great success on many levels, not only for the Woodlife Network, but also on a personal basis. It was a great laugh to boot.

The 3pm Wooldife group photo. Ray and Bear sent their apologies.

It's a shame not everyone made the photograph, but there's always next year!

It's impossible to thank everyone in person who visited the stand and introduced themselves or who made nice comments either about this site, the Network or the videos on YouTube.

Brochures and keyrings - Note the bargain price.

Your comments really mean a lot to me as did your kind donations towards the cost of more storage space for the Network next year.

Two more TV stars beg for Woodlife membership

It was also great to see old friends. It's only at these events do you renew old acquaintances and of course get introduced through them to other people. This is true networking and follows the spirit of the Wilderness Gathering.

Maverick has a well earned rest after 12 hours signing autographs.

Thanks to Sean, who helped out on Saturday, but a special thanks to Maverick47 who helped me at the stand over the four days and also to George who spent some time helping out as well. George - you're on the staff list next year!

Crowds gather to witness Roger signing up for Woodlife membership...

Actually he was judging the extreme baking competition that we ran from our stand.

There were marks for presentation, method of cooking and of course, taste. Everyone who entered won a prize. We raised £50-00 for Survival International Charity.

There's were just too many things that went on to tell you about individual events, so I'll have to introduce them in context over a period of time.

Finally, a special thanks to Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft, who gave me the opportunity to have a stand at the Gathering.

There may well be many things happening in the future and if only half the plans come to any kind of fruition, this site will be very busy for many moons to come.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Gathering 2

Members of the public queue for Woodlife keyrings

I got home from the Gathering yesterday extremely tired but elated. The Gathering was a great success on many levels, not only for the Woodlife Network, but also on a personal basis. It was a great laugh to boot.

The 3pm Wooldife group photo. Ray and Bear sent their apologies.

It's a shame not everyone made the photograph, but there's always next year!

It's impossible to thank everyone in person who visited the stand and introduced themselves or who made nice comments either about this site, the Network or the videos on YouTube.

Brochures and keyrings - Note the bargain price.

Your comments really mean a lot to me as did your kind donations towards the cost of more storage space for the Network next year.

Two more TV stars beg for Woodlife membership

It was also great to see old friends. It's only at these events do you renew old acquaintances and of course get introduced through them to other people. This is true networking and follows the spirit of the Wilderness Gathering.

Maverick has a well earned rest after 12 hours signing autographs.

Thanks to Sean, who helped out on Saturday, but a special thanks to Maverick47 who helped me at the stand over the four days and also to George who spent some time helping out as well. George - you're on the staff list next year!

Crowds gather to witness Roger signing up for Woodlife membership...

Actually he was judging the extreme baking competition that we ran from our stand.

There were marks for presentation, method of cooking and of course, taste. Everyone who entered won a prize. We raised £50-00 for Survival International Charity.

There's were just too many things that went on to tell you about individual events, so I'll have to introduce them in context over a period of time.

Finally, a special thanks to Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft, who gave me the opportunity to have a stand at the Gathering.

There may well be many things happening in the future and if only half the plans come to any kind of fruition, this site will be very busy for many moons to come.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Back from the Gathering

I got home from the Gathering yesterday extremely tired but elated. The Gathering was a great success on many levels, not only for the Woodlife Network, but also on a personal basis. It was a great laugh to boot.

It's a shame not everyone made the photograph, but there's always next year!

It's impossible to thank everyone in person who visited the stand and introduced themselves or who made nice comments either about this site, the Network or the videos on YouTube.

Your comments really mean a lot to me as did your kind donations towards the cost of more storage space for the Network next year.

It was also great to see old friends. It's only at these events do you renew old acquaintances and of course get introduced through them to other people. This is true networking and follows the spirit of the Wilderness Gathering.

Thanks to Sean, who helped out on Saturday, but a special thanks to Maverick47 who helped me at the stand over the four days and also to George who spent some time helping out as well. George - you're on the staff list next year!

There's were just too many things that went on to tell you about individual events, so I'll have to introduce them in context over a period of time.

Finally, a special thanks to Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft, who gave me the opportunity to have a stand at the Gathering which opened up a whole new world of opportunities.

There may possibly be many things happening in the future and if only half the plans come to any kind of fruition, this site will be very busy for many posts to come.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Back from the Gathering

I got home from the Gathering yesterday extremely tired but elated. The Gathering was a great success on many levels, not only for the Woodlife Network, but also on a personal basis. It was a great laugh to boot.

It's a shame not everyone made the photograph, but there's always next year!

It's impossible to thank everyone in person who visited the stand and introduced themselves or who made nice comments either about this site, the Network or the videos on YouTube.

Your comments really mean a lot to me as did your kind donations towards the cost of more storage space for the Network next year.

It was also great to see old friends. It's only at these events do you renew old acquaintances and of course get introduced through them to other people. This is true networking and follows the spirit of the Wilderness Gathering.

Thanks to Sean, who helped out on Saturday, but a special thanks to Maverick47 who helped me at the stand over the four days and also to George who spent some time helping out as well. George - you're on the staff list next year!

There's were just too many things that went on to tell you about individual events, so I'll have to introduce them in context over a period of time.

Finally, a special thanks to Roger Harrington from Bison Bushcraft, who gave me the opportunity to have a stand at the Gathering which opened up a whole new world of opportunities.

There may possibly be many things happening in the future and if only half the plans come to any kind of fruition, this site will be very busy for many posts to come.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Woodlife At The Gathering

Woodlife (or at least the Network part of Woodlife) has been offered a pitch at the Wilderness Gathering courtesy of Roger Harrington of Bison Bushcraft.

The Wilderness Gathering has now become the premier annual festival of Bushcraft, survival and primitive skills.

"The aim of "The Gathering" is still as it was back in 2003. That is, to bring together all those interested in the Bushcraft and Wilderness skills and related interests to enjoy a weekend of knowledge sharing in a relaxed and family-friendly atmosphere." Have a look at the video on the WG site.

So, what will we be doing? Since Woodlife isn't a trading company we won't be selling anything. What we will be doing is showing people the Network and we will be networking ourselves, trying to gain a sponsor or two for our up and coming network running costs. We will soon have to purchase an extra 10 Gb of storage which will cost us approximately $120 for 12 months. As I said in the last post, we will be exchanging a Woodlife key ring or two for a small donation.

We will also be selling tickets for the Baking competition on behalf of Roger and the charity Survival International. Pay your pound and you get some flour. It's then up to you to forage for the other ingredients (I believe the Bison themselves at the farm are out of bounds!)

Since there are quite a few links for you to follow in this post, I'll leave you to have a look.

If you fancy a great weekend, with the added incentive of buying me a beer, why don't you come along? You certainly won't be disappointed. All being well, (and there's a mobile network connection) I should be able to update you on what's going on. So, keep an eye on the mini-blog on the left.

See you next week.

Pablo.