PACE in the woods
Friday enrichment came around again and we took a bunch out into the woods. Arriving, we set up the ground rules (boundaries, tool talks) and sent learners out to collect wood. Our learners were able to collect wood with little instruction as they recall the instructions given over the many weeks we have gone out for Bushcraft, so we were inundated with very thin bracken, thin twigs all the way up to branches (not cut from the trees but found lying around), branches as think as your wrist!
Carefully using saws, learners cut them down into manageable (burning) sized logs, and then we built a fire. Using the raft method, latticing thick logs on the base, packing with cotton wool, igniting with the fire steels and placing the bracken and thin twigs on the top until the fire took.
Then slowly adding twigs and logs to ensure the fire kept going.
The thing that made this afternoon such a success, was the efforts from 2 of our learners. One started clearing the old ashes from the fire pit to make way for a new fire; the other following all the rules in place carefully cut branches into logs and both, without asking, tidied up, counted the tools back in, moved logs, and quenched the fire to make sure it was out and followed the Bushcraft rule – Leave No Trace!
Mr Clyde and Mr Butler were very impressed with their efforts (especially their tidying up skills)!!