Had the wife drop us off and we walked in a mile to a little knoll in a nice 40 year old oak grove full of small game, turkeys, owls and deer. Set-up camp with a lean-to and fire wall in preparation for the 35 degree night ahead. Gathered the fire wood and made a bow and arrows from a beech blow down, but we were unable to connect with a partridge or tree rat.
Also took along the XD and new Kershaw 1-ton. For $20 this is a very nice knife that holds a great edge and performed well on fire sticks and general camp chores. Bought a matching one for my 15 year old daughter as well for the upcoming deer season.
Most importantly I had an incredible time with my 8 year-old son. He completely gathered for and started his first camp fire from start to finish using our homemade wax fire starters. He showed incredible maturity with his pocketknife and has earned the privilege of graduating to a larger one. Also put the friskers hatchet to use, he desperately wants one but not just yet.
He can go into detail on the importance of layering your clothes and different items to find and use to build a shelter, fire and fire reflector wall.
At night we listened to owls and deer moving through at 2 a.m. blowing and stomping 10 feet from the shelter. A porcupine visited the camp and had it been earlier we would have made meal out of him but instead we feed him some left over potatoes and had him close enough to touch.
The reflector wall worked so well we spent half of the night in our tee-shirts without any blankets, while using a minimum amount of fire wood.
The coolest part was after the deer had left and the owls started up again he told me this was the best time he had ever had and asked when we were going to do this again. There is nothing like the feeling of passing on this outdoor life style to the next generation.
