A Birthday to Remember!

On the 7th of September, I celebrated my 37th birthday by travelling to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovil.  It was also to celebrate my Dad’s 70th birthday, which had been a week or so earlier.

So we decided to take my Mum and Dad and Sara and myself too - hehe!  We set off early in the morning and arrived around 11am.  It was great to see my Dad excited about it, as he served in the RAF and used to fly Phantoms, and they had one there, which was going to be a big surprise for him.  We started to look at the planes and went up a level and then down a level in a lift, as we were trying to avoid a noisy part as Mum’s ears could not take it.  Now, Mum and I hate lifts, but at the end of the day we found them not too bad. LOL.

We took lots of photographs and had a great time, and when Dad saw the Phantom his face lit up and he wanted a photo or five taken.  This year we all spent the day together and I loved it, and thought it is not often I spend a whole day with my parents like that.  I think we will do something the same next year, as it was a birthday to remember.  I had some great presents from Sara too, which I love.  I got a new GPS, and Maxpedition bag and wallet.  Awesome!!

Hope you like the photos.

Enjoy time with your family!

Jason

Weather Forecast

Archery For The Win

Sara and I have been wanting to try Archery for years and never had the time to do a beginners course, so we kept putting it off.  This year was a little different.  We found that we were able to take time to spend the time!

We both wanted a challenge that would benefit our health and something we could do on our own as well as a couple.  I was always used to team games and sports where people would work together, but we decided we wanted something for ourselves to achieve and do this off our own backs without help from others.

So we decided to sign up and do the beginners course in June, which lasted for 3 weeks.  We thought  at the time that we would be rubbish at it, as the targets seemed such a long way away, but were just at 20 yards at this stage.  We meet with everyone and were shown the ropes and had great help from our tutor Ray, along with all the others at the club.  With a few laughs thrown in along the way, we felt so at home and maybe for the first time in a long time we were happy.

At the end of the course we had a small shoot out competition, where I got first place out of the men.  I was so happy to have won this, as it was the first thing I have ever won on my own for myself.  Sara said we should carry on with archery and we decided to join the club.  We were able to use the clubs equipment for a while which was nice, but then we decided to get our own bows and equipment and now we are kitted out.  Yay!

 

We have gone on to achieve white, green and black badges within the club competitions,  and we hope to have just achieved our national 3rd class ranking.  All this in just a few months.  People at the club say we are doing great and they encourage us every time we go, which boosts our confidence.
 

 I would recommend Archery to any one out there it is great fun and you may think it looks boring, but there is so much to learn and achieve if you just try.

Take care and have fun.

Jase

Recipe for ‘Pizza’ Flan

This is my recipe for a pizza type flan.  I think some shop bought pizzas are tasteless, so decided to make my own.  This recipe is very easy and quick to do.  I hope you like it.

Prep Time:      20 mins
Cook Time:    20 mins

Preheat oven at 200°C/Gas mark 6

Ingredients

1 roll of JusRol puff pastry sheets
3-4 dessertspoonfuls of tomato puree
6 medium mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
2 large slices of ham, cut into squares
1 small tin of pineapple chunks, drained
100g of grated cheddar cheese
Beaten egg or milk to glaze
Seasoning

These are our favourite ingredients, but you can obviously use any you like.  Try it with peppers, red onion, pepperami, and cheese maybe.  You could even make a fruit flan with a jam type base.  Yummy!

JusRol puff pastry comes as a box of two sheets, rolled up.  You will need to take out one roll and leave it for a couple of hours at room temperature to defrost.

1. Unroll the puff pastry sheet onto a baking tray.
2. Spread over 3-4 dessertspoonfuls of tomato puree sauce, leaving a border to allow the pastry to rise.
3. Spread over the sliced onion, mushrooms, ham and pineapple.
4. Sprinkle over the grated cheese and any seasoning.  I use a dried seasoning which contains sundried tomatoes, garlic and sea salt, but you can use whatever you like.
5. Brush the border with the beaten egg or milk to glaze.
6. Pop it into the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Sara

Brecon Beacons Walkabout

Here is a video of me while walking during a stay in the Brecon Beacons, Wales.

 

My Survival Gear

I just wanted to show some of my favourite gear I sometimes take with me when I go camping or bushcrafting.  Everyone has different gear to suit them and when outdoors the greatest asset you can have with you is common sense, and to be adaptable to your surroundings.  You should also be aware of things around you that you could use in a survival situation if things go wrong.  Over the years my gear has changed.  I have had heavy rucksacks and light day bags, and have believed that I should take everything apart from the kitchen sink, but it can take its toll on the body, and now I have had a leg injury, I have to pack light and be sensible about I really do need with me.

In past years I have just used British army gear, such as combat trousers, smocks and burgens, and have found this gear to be hard wearing, quick drying and good to keep yourself from being seen in the woods.  However, if I were to get lost or hurt in the woods, then it would be very hard to find me.  So I have had a drastic change and have decided, out with the army gear (although I do feel lost without it), and in with hiking gear and maxpedition gear, and touch wood, so far so good.

So this is my main knife, the Timberwolf, which is a small knife, but very sharp.  I use it as a bushcrafting knife and have used it to batton a few logs too, and it is holding up well.  The larger knife is a Mora knife which I have as a backup and it is a real sturdy knife for most outdoors jobs.

 

 
I also have two different types of axe, one wood and one full metal.  Both cut logs well and have not let me down.

This is my wood saw.  It is a cheap saw, which is great to cut small logs for the camp and for pruning trees.

My new Maxpedition Jumbo bag, which I have just used for Geocaching.  I filled it up with food and drink and other items, and carried it for a whole day with no problems at all.  I can see this being my best bag and most used in the future!

My map case is waterproof and great to carry, and very useful as I found when I was hit once by a horrid rain storm.  :O)  I was able to navigate without the map going soggy.  Happy days!

I could go on and on with more gear, but I don’t wish to bore you, so I will stop here for now.  All I can say is, always be prepared for any event that may happen.

Please feel free to comment below if you have any questions about any of the kit that I carry.

Jase

Our First Day Geocaching...

28 August 2011

Yesterday Sara and I went Geocaching for the first time.  We have been thinking about starting a hobby that would give us a bit of adventure, and get us out in the great out doors, and with the added bonus of leaving a gift for someone else to enjoy and signing a log, we thought we would give it a go.

We set off early in the morning, around 7:30am, and loaded our co-ordinates into our car satnav to see if we could use it to find the cache we wanted to find, and hoped that we could use it for future Geocaching.

So armed with the satnav and a few clues to help us, we set off.  We took a bag with some coffee and munchies, and some items to put in the cache and we began to walk across a large field heading for a hill towards a castle.  We knew the area roughly, as we live nearby and know how to get to the castle, so when the satnav failed to help us at all, we carried on up the hill regardless.  I was quite cheesed off at the fact it was no help to us, and thought our chances were slim at finding our first cache.

We got to the top of the hill and were met by a little dog jumping up at us and covering Sara in mud.  We waited for the dog and owner to leave before we began to look, as we did not want to give the hide position away to a Muggle (someone who is not a geocacher).  We found the cache easily after using the clue.

I did not think I would get excited about it, but it was a great feeling to find it and felt great to open it and see all the things other people had left.  Although it was just a small container, it had a log book and notes and cards from people, and a few gifts which are used to exchange (you leave an item and take an item of the same value), but we decided to take nothing and leave two items.  We left an alien and a small magnifying glass and signed the log book, and sealed up the container and put it back where we had found it.

I was sold on the idea of doing more geocaching in the future, and as we sat and drank some coffee I felt relaxed and took a few photos and thought about how great it was to share this with Sara, and share the moment and views too.

We got home and logged our find and decided to buy a proper handheld GPS as this would be great to help us in the future.  We are looking forward to doing more geocaching in the future, and can’t believe how many caches there are to find.  We are going to be very busy  :O)

Jason


29 August 2011

Jason and I went on our second geocaching trip today.  We knew we couldn’t rely totally on the car satnav, and are still waiting for the new GPS to arrive, so I had a good look at the clues on the Geocaching.com website, so I knew the approximate area in which we would find the cache, and wrote down the clue.  I didn’t tell Jase where we were heading, as I thought it would be a nice surprise for him when we actually found the place.  I have lived all my life nearby to the park where the cache was hidden, but I didn’t even know this particular place existed, so I guessed Jase didn’t either.

We set off, following the satnav in the car until we were nearer to the cache site.  Then we parked up and began our lovely walk on a path through the woods.  It was a beautiful clear morning, and we met lots of very friendly dogs and their equally friendly owners.

When Jason spotted the main area of the cache site, he was surprised.  He hadn’t been there before either.

We had to wait until the coast was clear and there were no muggles around before beginning our search.  After searching around for a while near the house, we still hadn’t found anything.  The satnav by now, was pretty useless, so we couldn’t get a lock on the exact spot.  I had looked at the photos on the cache’s page and had seen people poking around on a wall behind the house.  We looked everywhere, but couldn’t find anything.  Jase was searching high and low, while I stood on the path ‘spotting muggles’.  Eventually we gave up and decided to come back and look again once we had the proper GPS to help us.

As we started walking back to the car, I suddenly remembered the clue I had written down.  I stopped and pointed out a big tree to Jason.  We checked the coast was clear and Jase searched around for a little bit before he found it.  He nodded excitedly to me when he spotted the cache.  He grabbed it, and we took it to a nearby bench to examine it.

There were lots of little bits and pieces inside.  We signed the log book and took some badges, leaving some small toys.  Jase rehid the cache, and with big grins on our faces, we headed back to the car.

Sara