Well that was the elemental flavour today at the woods. I bought a gunked-up cast iron pan at a car boot sale for £1 and want to restore it. The best way to get rid of all the nasty black greasy stuff is to throw it in a nice hot fire. It will burn it all off and leave you with a bare metal finish which you can clean up easily and re-season it. I haven’t had a fire at the woods for months so I was looking forward to having one. This is what the pan looked like before I started. obviously you have to remove the handle before you stick it in the fire!

I got some good hot embers going and put the pan in, turning it every so often. Left it in the fire for a couple of hours while I got on with the other job – the water element. More later but first some more photos of the pan.

Doesn’t look great yet does it but all the grease and old seasoning has been burnt off? Next step, to give it a good brushing with a wire brush and brillo pad. The pan will oxidise very quickly when subject to damp so I shall dry it thoroughly after scrubbing then apply vegetable oil straight away. To season it you heat it up pretty hot until the oil starts smoking. The pan should turn dark brown or black then a light rub over with more oil and you’re good to go. I’ll show you the finished item in my next blog.

So what about the water element? I have bought a small pond liner and want to make a pond near my shelter. It’s a pretty bad place for a pond to be honest. Best not to have them overshadowed by trees but it’s the only place I can really have one. There is no natural watercourse in the woods but I have my water butt nearby so the plan is to use the surplus water from the overflow. I shall connect a hosepipe to it, run it below the surface to the pond and that should keep it automatically topped up. The pond won’t thrive like it should do normally because it needs more light for oxygenating plants but it’s better than no pond and it’s mainly intended for birds, insects and animals to find a drinking source and maybe home to some frogs in spring.

This is the area where it’s going. First job was to clear the area of brambles and dead sticks. Then mark out a rough area with some cord. The pond will be approx 1.5 metres square.

Now the hard bit, digging. The ground was very dry and very hard, full of tough roots and soon I hit limestone rocks. The topsoil is only about a foot above the rocks. The pond doesn’t need to be very deep and a foot is deep enough for the edges (you need some shallow parts for birds to bathe in and small animals to drink from). I do want a deeper area somewhere so that anything that decides to live in it won’t freeze up in winter. So I shall have to return with a pick axe next time to dig out some of the rocks. I had hoped to get a little further with the project but I made a good start.

Meanwhile back at the camp, lunch was needed, so a veggie sausage and egg fry up to go in my bread bun was just the job. I sat and ate it whilst watching the little birds on the feeders. You see the skillet I used? Well that was also a £1 buy at a car boot sale a few years ago and that is how the other one below it will look when I’m finished restoring it. They are amazing to cook with on a open fire. Virtually indestructible and non-stick.

Today’s nature treat occurred on my way out on the ride. There’s an area where power lines cross and the ground has been recently mown. I glanced across to see three young roe deer fawns grazing. They didn’t seem disturbed by me so I stopped, quietly got out of the car with my camera and crept back. Sadly they had disappeared into the undergrowth by the time I got there. Pity a photo of them would have been great.

Next week I am going on a two day pole lath building course – exciting.