A walk in the woods

Yesterday we managed to get out for a short walk before it got dark in one of the local woodlands. I hadn't been there before so I had no idea what to expect.


We started off on normal forestry tracks which had lots of the usual tracks - people, dogs and vehicles. Then as we got a bit further in we started finding lots of deer tracks, and I mean lots! We also came across some old washed out fox scat that looked as if it had quite a few bits of pheasant in it.



The bird life was also very good with Buzzard and Bullfinch in prominence. Unfortunately I didn't have the long lens with me for the camera so missed out on some very good opportunities for photos. Lesson learnt.

As we progressed we came across more fox tracks, badger tracks, pheasant and more deer tracks. All in all, for a short inpromptu walk it was brilliant.

Finally!

We had the last bit of plastering done last weekend. I would highly recommend the guys who did the work for us. They worked hard and are very competitive on price - they trade under the name 'Atlantic Finishings' (01823 334928) and work out of Taunton. Go on...give them a call!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers.

I have a good feeling about this coming year. I am feeling very positive about my new company Tracks4life and all that it promises. I am looking forward to running some tracking and bushcraft courses in the spring. I have also been approached to run a team building day for a local charity. It's all very positive energy and it makes me see that school will be a success.

I wish you all every success for 2007!

Animal tracking

I was out this afternoon with Ros (who is also a tracker) for a walk in the local woods. It was a short walk just before dusk. There was plenty of spoor, both ground and aerial to keep us entertained. A lot of evidence of deer criss-crossing the whole of the wood which was also nice. We started losing the light so had to leave as it was starting to get interesting.

A pheasant too far!

A few nights ago, a fox left a present for us, half buried in the garden. All you could see was a wing sticking up out of the ground. Bless him though, he came back the next night to collect it!

The story so far (part 3)

Well, by now we are almost there. We managed to get most of the dirty work out of the way by Christmas which meant we had some furniture and carpets in. There is still a lot to do (like decorating) but some of the pressure is now off. We are not totally freezing anymore - which is nice.

The story so far (part 2)

As I said, we were going to start by doing some decorating and starting off with something like this...Then we discovered some problems!

We were aware of a bit of a damp problem and needed to sort out a new damp course but the damage to the plaster work was more extensive than we thought. So we bit the proverbial bullet and started taking the old plaster off the walls. This is the sort of thing that we ended up living in for the next few months.

All good fun, really - bearing in mind we are heading into winter, had no insulation, no radiators, no walls etc.! The things we do :)