Steve Mk II

Whilst folk might generally think of red kites in places like Wales and the M4 corridor, I'm really chuffed that I can see them (and buzzards) over my house on a fairly regular basis in Home County Hertfordshire, although not in the numbers that the two places I mentioned get. I remember seeing some red kites that had nested in a town garden on Springwatch and that made me think that Steve needed updating.

 

I decided that Steve needed evolution to make him 3D which would give him shape and shadow which I set about doing. Well Steve has sat nine tenths done and it's taken BBC Wildlife magazine to feature this blog entry by Bugmadgirl on Twitter to finally get my backside in gear to finish him.

Steve's evolution was to see his 2D physical form undergo a 3D metamorphasis via processed sticky woodpulp. Once done I had to try and find a paint and I actually found this rather hard because a rabbit isn't really just one plain colour. I'd done a rather dark brown and decided that it needed lightening. Note from the left hand picture I settled on a small pot of Hint of Steve and cut a small amount of mocha in.

I thought I'd got it very wrong when it was wet, but as it started drying it seemed a better colour. The only thing that I was pondering was how to do the lighter fur on the belly and tale...

White insulating felt! Not only the light colour required but it also had a furry feel and gave the tail a very 3D look and feel. It was finished off with some felt tipped darker hair on the back and sides. If I ate rabbit carrion I'd fall for it. if not a red kite then a buzzard...even a corvid (crow family) would do!

 

Now my family think that a raptor or corvid won't fall for it, well did the mackerel stop to thin k that the small fish they had zeroed in on was actually a hook, foil and fishing line? Do the pigeons feel silly because they've been scared away by wood, line and coloured fabric (how apt that it's a kite!).

Once I put Steve out for the first time we headed to the car to go for a country walk and as luck would have a kite circled nearby and indeed went right over our house. I was so busy doing a Mrs Doylesque 'Go on, go on' I forgot to take a picture which is a shame because the sun was shining on it and it looked magnificent. It circled the garden twice before widening it's circle and gliding off. Did it look? Did it look and miss it? Did it look and think 'Nice try', would it have circled regardless? I don't know but it is further encouragement. Am I going to get lucky or am I Don Quixote?

Many years later I've finally cracked getting the Kites in. I switched to using chicken carcasses and eventually worked out that if I put it on a foldable table it made the entry and exit angle for the birds less and this short video captured a couple of shallow dives.

Upgraded bird feeding station

Having recently got my hands on a trail cam  I wondered about revamping the bird food offer for this reason, and to try and get some more birds in the garden.

I had the bird table wired up to stop wood pigeons stripping it blind, and found that small birds were a little lost when using the trail cam so I stopped filling it and relied on the two hanging feeders.

I decided to investigate a pole mounted setup and purchased an all in one set and had a blowout on food for it, some of the regular things we have but also some new stuff too.

As well as the included feeders we also bought a fat mix wooden tower as well because we sometimes get greater spotted woodpeckers in the surrounding trees and we have one eye on trying to get them in.

We purchased an off the shelf fat block to start things off. This one has insects in with goldcrests listed and as we get them in the trees we thought it worth a try. We removed a slice to fill the wooden holder and also pushed some into the roof, along with mealworms to see if it had any takers. The birds I'm looking to add to our meagre feeding list are goldcrest, thrush, pheasant, wren, greater spotted woodpecker, long tailed tit and jay which have all been seen in the garden but failed to feed. Add to this goldfinch, chaffinch and greenfinch which have fed but not done so recently.

This is Sticky the Stick Thing, man of sycamore by the way.

The before and after. The new main feeder has peanuts, fat blocks, general table food, sunflowers, water and nyger seed. Although you can't see it, I wired up the bird table to prevent wood pigeons getting on a stripping it blind. 

The old feeder is now at the top of our garden with the hope of attracting goldcrests to the left hand site food block (which it states it should). Blue tits have also made early moves on it, and the table food feeder is actually next to a branch and various birds have perched to take advantage. I decided against hanging fatballs off the made for purpose hooks because the nets they are in can entangle legs, and I've not actually found that they generated much interest. It was pressed into service as a fruit hook as and when I have a soft apple in the veg basket.

Maybe the cold snap we are in has focused minds but I was expecting visits to take a while as it is a new set up that birds won't be used to. Well this blackbird was on the case almost as I turned to go inside, filling it's boots on the general food and then managing to grab itself a large piece of bird cake.

I think this squirrel is considering building a dray in our garden as it is running off with pieces of weed suppression sheeting on a regular basis. It has also made itself at home and has been particularly interested in the apple mounted on the fat ball hooks and hung off the centre of the pole. As you can see, wood pigeons can get on by balancing precariously on the water bowl to get a controlled feed. They also benefit from ground eating due to the increased traffic flicking goodies earthward. At the time of posting this page we'd had nine different bird species on the feeders, I can now make that ten because we have just had a female blackcap in the garden which wasn't even on my to see bucket list.

Queuing up!

The only downside is that we get a lot of sparrowhawks in the area so we may have just upgraded their drive thru experience! We also get a lot of buzzard and red kite traffic overhead...an upgraded Steve is the next project...

Victorinox Scout Badge Sponsorship

Over the years I've had several different bushcraft experiences with the Scout Association; I helped Bushcraft and Survival Skills magazine's base at Gilwell 24 to cover Bear Grylls' investiture as Chief Scout for an article (which appears in issue 22) and was one of the three founding Scouters who started the bushcraft base off at Gilwell 24 the following year (the others being a former Bearclaw bushcraft school instructor and the founder of Wood Sage). I've also done articles for Scouting magazine and the Cub supplement (when it existed) and I was a major contributor to The Outdoor Adventure Manual, not just in terms of articles but also 'recruiting' the majority of the guest instructors who contributed articles.

I got an email from a lady called Rachel, a member of the Commercial Partnership Department, based at Gilwell in early 2014 to tell me about a hush hush plan to link the Scout section's Survival Skills badge to a new sponsor, namely Victorinox. This would also tie in with a 2015 badge overhaul (including the Survival Skills badge criteria) and would I be interested in  giving some input to this project concerning knife usage. I was flattered but suggested a handful of Scouters who would be able to deliver a more comprehensive information package than I...Whilst I know how to use a knife competently I felt honesty was the best policy with something as important as the two brands the information would be linked to so that's why I respectfully declined.

To my surprise Rachel emailed me back some time later and asked if I would be interested in coming to a meeting with her and the Victorinox team at their flagship shop on New Baker Street in London with the view to discussing some content for the Survival Skills badge. Unlike the knife usage request I accepted this invitation as I felt I could at least put some meat on the bones as a starting point. I was sent the revised badge requirements and set about brain storming them. I've placed a table of the old and the new requirements at the very end of this blog page if you are interested in seeing them.

  

 I headed to London for a morning meeting in early September and made my way up to their meeting room on the third floor. As I was early I was offered a rather fine coffee and shown into the plush meeting room which gave me a chance to get myself prepared and have a cruise around the many cabinets filled with Victorinox products. I'd done some homework on the new badge content and in for a penny in for a pound, I'd knocked up an idea for an exclusive Scout Association  knife but more on that later. Rachel arrived soon after and, along with a lady called Suzanne from Victorinox (their marketing manager), we started the meeting and yes I did get a second coffee!

The meeting was very productive and was a combination of two organisations talking turkey with me chipping in thoughts, suggestions and props in the appropriate places. Doing the content homework beforehand had really paid dividends because it showed that there was a lot of suitable Scout Association content available  to use and if needed, Victorinox had a large catalogue of usable images too. Victorinox discussed calling the penknives pocket tools which I suggested wasn't necessary because a) everyone knows them as Swiss Army Knives (SAKs) and b) I felt that there was no need to no call a knife a different name (too much hysteria out there). I also introduced them to the phrase Everyday Carry (EDC) which of course refers to a blade that is legal to carry. So the bones of the package were in place.

 

We convened the meeting just before dinner with plenty of follow up work to be put in place. There are those that aren't keen on such badge sponsorship but this small exposure to such a project showed me not just how much work goes into such a project but how much toing and froing happens. 

As I mentioned earlier I'd done a bit of knife homework and suggested a usable combination of tools and handle design already available, plus the possible addition of new tools (tick tweezers, ferro rod and scraper) to produce a Scout specific knife design, not unlike the branded Duke of Edinburgh ones. It was favourably received but sadly this wasn't viable as the factory producing the knives is at permanent capacity. As there are production figures available on the internet it won't be top secret to know that 120,000 units are made per day so there is no spare in the system to consider it. Shame. I had a quick tour around the shop before I headed home and it's surprising to see how much more Victorinox do other than the iconic knives.

Rachel and I met up a week or two later in a meeting room at Gilwell to review the discussions in London and see where we were at. One thing that I'd mentioned all along was that whilst there would be uses for a pen knife within the badge, most of the knife work would really have to be done with a fixed blade. To make sure that pen knives would be a feature I devised several how to projects that could safely be done with a folder and would also be usable within the demands of the badge. I also took along a copy of the Outdoor Adventure Manual for reference, my copy of the meeting notes, my 'homework' notes and some more props.

I left them with not only some suggestions of things can could be done for most of the sections but also a list of questions about the badge where applicable. Before I went I managed to catch up with a guy called Chris James, the individual who oversaw the Outdoor Adventure Manual project. He had a spare copy of a revamped Scouting For Boys copy he let me have and I was really pleased to see that Baden-Powell's grandson had signed it inside.

The Gilwell email screen grab.

The district email screen grab.

 In late November I had a couple of emails arrive; one from Gilwell national HQ, and one from my scouting district team informing me that that change was afoot with the badges...I internally chuckled myself a little "I already know!". This page appeared a little later in December as a teaser which announced the sponsorship deal and tells the viewer a bit about the company. 

And this was a screen grab of the page pdf I was sent which was for...and now is in the February/ March 2015 Scouting magazine pullout called Get Active! I was sent it in advance to run the rule over with the three how to series appearing online. Not surprisingly Victorinox have a rather stylish full page ad in the main magazine for their Huntsman Swiss army Knife.

I got an email from Rachel in early January asking if I was free to help oversee a Gilwell photo shoot with some Scouts on a Sunday in the same month. I was and asked if I could do a Saturday overnighter with a DD tarp and hammock set up which was duly agreed. I also found out that fellow Scouter Terry Longhurst was also coming which would be useful to help ensure correct procedures and practices were followed. Terry  runs Bushscout who you may have seen at anything from Gilwell 24 to The Bushcraft Show and he has also, at the time of writing, just completed the Woodland Ways Bushcraft School's two year course, the Woodland Wayer.

For those that know Gilwell I set up a small camp in the trees that have formed a sort of circle that are on the edge of the Orchard as I thought it would make a good area for photographs. Whilst there I realised that this was actually my first solo camping night so another thing ticked off the list.

 

As you can see I made myself at home and once set up quickly and when it came to bringing props I started out selecting stuff and then ultimately just stuffed loads of possibly usable gear ('the props') in the car. Once set up I almost inevitably got a fire going, initially to cook on and to keep the cold at bay, but we would also be needing a fire the next day for pictures. I did get through a fair bit of fuel as it was a bit nippy.

 

As the mobile quartermaster store (the car) needed to be close at hand due to all the kit I indulged myself food wise on the Saturday by having a sirloin steak and assorted sides. Anyone can just survive!

I'd set a camera trap near my camp as there was a bridge  on the edge of the orchard that led to some woods and it seemed a good place to set it. I was lucky enough to capture a fox and some rabbits...the former past whilst close  to my camp whilst I was cooking the steak. Terry spotted a fairly fresh set of deer tracks on the Sunday morning but it turned before it got to the trap. 

 

Rachel kindly added me to the breakfast list in the White House at Gilwell on the Sunday morning so I rather enjoyed an early morning cooked breakfast to start the day off. It would have been nice to do myself one over the fire but it rained in the night and despite the fact that I'd turned two big logs over the fire to keep the area dry, doing breakfast was time I didn't want to use as those involved would be arriving from nine in the morning. As folk arrived an impromptu  planning meeting started (including Susanne from Victorinox and Kevin Yeates who is the Scout Association's head of creative content. The cameraman's kit was plentiful and expensive looking!

A couple of shots from the day's shoot. the Sunday weather was cloudy giving way to bright sun (I took one for the team as it rained on me in the night!). Terry and I took them through a few skills and setups before and after dinner with how to light a fire and building a tent from a tarp  being two of the skills that I did. I simply used the DD tarp that I'd slept under to construct it with the Scouts (link here).

  

The photoshoot finished up in my camp with various impromptu shots being taken. I'd started the Sunday by cooking up a bacon and sweetcorn bannock for the Scouts and their leaders to try. I'd also pre-made a sweet sultana bannock mix for the Scouts to have their picture taken with. It was getting cold in the sun's twilight and  it was only when I tried to form the dough into a bannock shape that I realised how cold as it wasn't playing ball. I got it sort of shaped but squashed a lot of the fruit in the process. 

The above picture shows the bannock being cooked...Just before the Scouts then chucked a load of wood on the embers bless 'em. I kept a close eye on it and still got a win however and it disappeared as quickly as the first. You may well see shots of this bannock in future issues of Scouting magazine...

 

Both Terry and I had come pretty tooled up with kit just in case it was useful and I'd quickly knocked up a pot hanger set the previous Wednesday but we didn't get round to using it as a prop which is a shame because it would have worked well within the photo shoot brief. Better to have and not use that the other way around I guess...You can see the actual pot hanger hooks being utilised as a camp tidy with the aid of some paracord 550 back up the page. Apparently the UK scarf I'm wearing is the one that Kate Middleton wore in her Scouting photo shoot, I shared this fact on social media and got christened the Duchess of Gilwell. Hmmm.

We both felt that we'd not really got a lot of skills demonstrated but Rachel said the shoot was successful because you have to factor in that there are different people looking to get different things out of the day, plus the photographer will want to shoot multiple images of not only the same shot, but the same shot with different Scouts in and can only shoot one skill at a time. We've also suggested that once the 1500 pictures are whittled down (no pun intended) that Terry and I take a look to see that they are all fit for purpose. 

And this is what all the fuss is about; a little cloth badge the size of an individual portion jam jar lid which henceforth is the Survival Skills badge sponsored by Victorinox. It's been an interesting and enjoyable journey for me because I've seen the other side of a badge sponsorship deal and not only all the work that goes into it but the different facets that go to make this a wrap. So I guess that's job done from Terry's and my point of view...Remember to look out for Terry's Bushscout stand at a show near you! 

Here is the first of the sheets that Terry and I have helped with, along with additional text by Pablo,  and words and text by Paul Kirtley. The others can be found here.

The old and new badge requirements.