Preparedness for when

annie123

The bark from Silver birch trees makes great kindling and even ignites when wet.
It can be peeled off in thin layers with out the risk of damaging the tree and lights easily with a fire steel.
We use it for our open fire in the winter, only I use home made fire lighters as I'm not as good as hubby at using the steel.

He suggested that anyone with kids should make an long term investment in prepping and send them to the cubs/scouts.

He learned how to build; a raised platform as a temporary home, bivouacs, different types of bridges, loads of different ways to start a fire, toilet making, tracking and navigation skills, wild foods to eat, catching animals for food (not good if your a veggie but I might be that hungry one day) lots of cooking ways, make rope (I can do that one using nettles ) and even made his own dug out canoe!
His scout leader was ex army which may have helped as he had friends who went to a different troop and played games, practiced marching etc, not as much fun and not as useful in later life.

ginnyknit

Maybe all these soldiers the government are making redundant could be employed in schools to teach children a bit of reality like in the cubs - Oh but no H&S would put a stop to that. All the kids that don't fit in schools could be taught a multitude of skills to make them feel better and keep them attending. Sorry bit of a rant. I feel the things we learned that we use everyday about surviving would be good life skills and bored kids would love it.

Am going to test out the bar-b-que later and see if using scrap wood will make a fire in it to heat a kettle as gas for the little cooker seems to have shot up in price. Other than that must get onto the jam making for the 'world war 3 cupboard'

Possession

I'm afraid our son stopped cubs at the beginning of this year, and one of the reasons was that all they ever did was played games - mostly bulldog. They rarely even did badges, let alone survival skills.

fuddle

valk_scot wrote: »

I presume with all this talk of fancy stoves everyone knows they can make a perfectly acceptable temporary firepit from an old metal Roses tin with holes punched in the sides and the mesh out the grill pan? Or a ring of stones or bricks and an oven shelf? For cooking for large numbers an oil drum split in half lengthways and a couple of oven shelves are great too and you can have a hot and simmer zone if required.

If you're going the ready-made route keep an eye open for really cheap reduced BBQ items. The Value BBQ from Tesco used to be a favourite amongst campers for an easy to carry small firepit. A used disposable BBQ tray makes a good firepit too.

Drier fluff is good for firestarting btw, and shredded newspaper. It's important to learn how to start a fire, you want a small hot fire to start with and then build a pyramid of dried twigs or tight newspaper twists over it, then the bigger things. The air gaps are as important as the fuel elements. I used to use empty cereal boxes as firestarters for my allotment incinerator, stuffed with loosely screwed up newspaper and a few air holes punched in the box.

Thank you so much for this. I have a roses tin in the cupboard housing my spices. It will no longer be used for this purpose! Its brillian to think I don't need to buy a stove. What I'm going to use as a grill will be a problem. I need to get my thinking cap on.

Dryer fluff, punk etc have all been stored in my memory. I know this thread has its knockers but I'm so pleased I read today, it's great to learn new things.

thriftwizard

I was asked to take a local Brownie pack on a foraging walk a couple of years back. Sadly the local area HQ had to put the kybosh on it for insurance/H&S reasons; some parents were worried that kids might mis-identify things on the way home from school, for instance, and poison themselves, if they'd been told that some of the things in hedgerows are edible. Apart from the fact I always drum it home not to take anything from a hedgerow without a competent adult's say-so, and show them how alike some edible & poisonous things can be so that they know they need to be very sure what they're picking, how are they ever going to learn what is safe & what isn't? Never mind the fact that some things are edible or otherwise useful but not necessarily safe unless properly prepared...

If we were taking inner city kids out into the countryside I'd understand it more, though some of my best-ever blackberry hauls were picked alongside the Metropolitan & Central tube lines back when I lived in town. But we live in a small market town surrounded by woods & farmland... I'd much rather my kids knew what's out there, what's safe, what's good, what's useful and what to avoid!

valk_scot

DS's Cub/Scout packs hardly did any badge work, they just did (still do) a lot of camping. You'd get a note out on Tuesday saying there was a camp at the weekend and you'd just phone Scout Leader if you wanted to go. If the parent was disclosed you could just go along and join in if you brought your own tent and we did all sorts of things that involved mud and sticks and fires. My son was a dab hand at cooking for thirty over an open fire by the time he was twelve. And the Scouts got to use axes and knives, you were allowed to carry them at camp if you were deemed responsible enough. It was a laugh, I wish I could still go.

My DD's troop does a lot of badgework, some of it useful things like first aid and knots. They're a little less "In at the deep end, sink or swim!" than DS's lot but a lot of this reflects the leaders' interests, they do a lot of sailing and water sports (and swimming!) . But they do get the standard fire and cooking routine and of course how to do bivvie building.

Both kids were at the same camp over the weekend actually and the on-site "wilderness" play area would give most H&S folk a heart attack. There was a Brownie troop on the same campsite and they were forbidden to go near it on safety grounds apparently. So the little girl Brownies had to watch the little girl Cubs have much more fun and I don't think anyone got hurt. Last time either of my kids got hurt at Scouts it was when DS tripped off the pavement walking home and sprained his ankle. DD came home covered in mud and grazes, DS was unspeakable. They both had a great time. I do think the Scouts is a great place for kids, it's good for them to rough it a little and have to take a little responsibility for looking after themselves and their kit. And learn how to handle potentially dangerous things like fire and blades safely of course.

lillylei

Possession wrote: »

I'm afraid our son stopped cubs at the beginning of this year, and one of the reasons was that all they ever did was played games - mostly bulldog. They rarely even did badges, let alone survival skills.

My sons cubs was the same, but as soon as he started scouts!! Hes done nothing but set fire to things and basicaly thrown outside to learn skills, am pleased as he was getting very bored

Possession

lillylei wrote: »

My sons cubs was the same, but as soon as he started scouts!! Hes done nothing but set fire to things and basicaly thrown outside to learn skills, am pleased as he was getting very bored

I think there is only one scout troup in our area - probably for reasons mentioned above - but I'll try to find out what goes on there. We do have sea scouts, not sure if they are useful in a SHTF kind of way?

thriftwizard

Sea Scouts go in for knots in a big way! Yes, they do teach some very useful skills, as well as having a great time.

Possession

Oops its sea cadets rather than sea scouts which is military isn't it.