Tarps With Canoes, Earning From Bushcraft Content, Dealing With Frowns | #AskPaulKirtley 51

Description

Welcome to Episode 51 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about using a tarp with a canoe on multi-day trips, earning a living from bushcraft content, sleeping bag liners and avoiding sweat in your sleeping bag, dealing with frowns from strangers who don't get bushcraft, strides for walking, vegetarianism and veganism within the context of bushcraft.

Links mentioned in this episode::

Paul and the Frontier Bushcraft team at the 2017 Bushcraft Show:

http://frontierbushcraft.com/2017/05/12/frontier-bushcraft-at-the-2017-bushcraft-show/

Mark Hines Podcast: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2016/pk-podcast-018-mark-hines-methodical-man-of-endurance-adventure/

TIMESTAMPS for this episode:

03:00 Using a tarp with a canoe

07:37 Earning from bushcraft content

29:06 Sleeping bag liners and avoiding sweat

32:30 Dealing with frowns

41:05 Strides for walking

44:25 Vegetarianism and veganism within bushcraft

WHAT IS #ASKPAULKIRTLEY?

#askpaulkirtley is your chance to ask Paul Kirtley questions about wilderness bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life.

Ask Paul Kirtley is a regular Q&A show (also available as a podcast) with leading bushcraft instructor Paul Kirtley, founder of Frontier Bushcraft and author of Paul Kirtley's Blog.

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Ask a question here: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/ask-paul-kirtley/

Or tweet your questions with hashtag #askpaulkirtley to @pkirt

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http://paulkirtley.co.uk/Topics/askpaulkirtley/

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Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley,sleeping bags,sweat,liners,veganism,vegetarianism,tarps and canoes,canoes,tarps

Video Transcription

in this episode of a sport currently we're going to talk about using a tap with your canoe earning an income from your bushcraft content protecting a sleeping bag from sweat dealing with frowns strides for walking and veganism and vegetarianism in the context of bushcraft

[Music]

welcome welcome to episode 51 of ask for curtly where I answer your questions about wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life and one thing to mention for those of you who are coming to the bushcraft show in Derbyshire at the end of May 27th to 29th of May I've got a main stage presentation but I've also got scheduled a live episode of a sport curtly and we will do our best to record that the plan is to record it but I will be answering questions live on stage at the bushcraft show and that is on the weekend of 27th to 29th of May 2017 I will be there with the frontier bushcraft team we'll have a stall there I'm doing a main stage presentation on accelerating your bushcraft learning as well as the live asphalt curtly they're two separate events on the main stage and Ray Goodwin is doing a talk on the main stage as well as running some canoeing sessions there as well so lots to have a look at there in terms of what myself and frontier bushcraft and associated people including ray Goodwin are doing and you can check on the frontier bushcraft website I've put a post there which explains all the things that we're doing who's going to be there what times etc etc with relevant links to more information if you need them I will put a link to that in the show notes both on YouTube and online blog but those of you who are fans of a sport currently in particular check out the opportunity to come and ask live questions and have live answers at the bushcraft show at the end of May and for those of you that can't make it and the plan is to record that as well in the usual manner and we will have that online for you but it won't be the same as being there so if you can be there

please come and please support me it's embarrassing if there's like two people there and tumbleweeds going through so the more the merrier there and it'd be great to see you all great to see many of you who have been watching and listening to this show for the past couple of years and it is a couple of years now that I've been doing this alright let's get into the questions let's get into the questions first one is about using a tap with your canoe and this is from Bernard and Bernard asks he's planning a three-day river canoe trip in the UK he'd like to use a tap combined with the canoe for sleeping how do I support the canoe on its side so I can use the tarp over it thanks well there is there is this romantic idea of using the the top with the canoe and it can be super useful as well I've used canoes in particular as wind breaks and just in terms of stopping the wind coming howling through your camp either way you're sleeping or where your where your fire is we've used that we've used it in the UK and we've used it in Canada as well and it works extremely well and you don't really necessarily need to get it right on its side you want to turn the boat over and then get it resting where it will rest naturally and actually if you look at the photos or at least the reproductions of sketches and paintings of voyagers for example that's exactly what they did they turn the boats over and they were able to sleep partially or completely under those great big 36 foot birch bark canoes now of course and it's hard to get yourself right under a smaller canoe but you can still do it a 15 or 16 foot canoe is plenty long enough for a person to lie down and and it doesn't need to be right on its side precariously resting on one of the gunnels you can roll it over until it's happy resting where it where it rests but clearly that doesn't leave you a lot of room so what you might want to do is just have that at the back as a backstop and then do something else with the tarp over the top of it so you've got a windbreak behind you perhaps and then the top coming up over and then you could create a lean-to if you really really do want to put it on its side then you're going to have to lean it up against a couple of trees or get a couple of stakes in the ground and lean it up that way the other way that we've used canoes sometimes is an area where there aren't so many trees and we've actually used the canoes as tie off points for tarps even even in relatively barren areas you can have some quite innovative tarp setups if you're willing to use the canoes if there's several of you you can tie off guidelines etc across to Tartu to the canoes and particularly if you put some weight in and because obviously a an empty canoe is relatively easy to move if you're going to pull it laterally so having a bit of weight in there can help as well to use them as tie off points so and back to the original question if you're on your own I would say get it get it rested over on itself and then create may be some sort of lean-to and structure or have something with a Ridgeline going across with one side coming down to the canoe so it gives you more shelter on one side that's what I'd be looking to do rather than trying to create some sort of and construction where I have to have the canoe on its side because of course if you've got the canoe right on its side it might be touching where the gunnels hitting the ground but then it's going to curve up and away from that and you might get drafts coming around it may well be better to turn it onto its side so there's more of the gunnel touching the ground and you get more wind proofing down at ground level so experiment with that and then attach your tarp to it or bring it up over the top of it and that should serve you well I've just done it a nearly week-long trip in Scotland and I have to say while I did use tarps for most of that trip and I didn't attach it to my canoe at all and some of the places we can't work necessarily where we left the canoes for example we camped a little bit higher up and getting the canoes up to those spots might have been a bit tricky and tie the canoes off a bit lower down and then went on to higher ground dry ground flatter ground where we could get set up and and if you are interested I will be making a little film out of that trip on the river Tay as well as I would imagine writing at least one article about it so keep an eye on my blog for more information on that trip that myself and spoons did recently in Scotland and that might give you some ideas about camping spots and organization on those trips as well for the extent that we've got some footage and some photos of those things in that content but good question and it's good to use what you've got with you that's the important thing and the canoe is very useful for many things around camp okay here is a video question from Micah George also known as Northeast wilderness and it's a video question and which I will play now hey pal Micah George here in western Massachusetts in the US first-time caller longtime listener

I've been practicing bushcraft for about three years since I learned the term that is and in the course of those three years I've been documenting my my journey in my learning process on Instagram and I've amassed a pretty good following and in the last year I've started to get sponsors and it's just been wonderful and making more videos on YouTube that people have been responding to really well and so my question for you isn't as a woodsman or as an educator but as a bushcraft personality how do I go about making an income from my content

what are pitfalls to avoid and mistakes things to do and you know how do I avoid being seen as a sellout so I guess my question to you is how do I get paid at bushcraft without compromise thanks Paul okay good question there for my killer series of questions really via Instagram nice use of Instagram there Mike a very good and so questions questions how do you make an income from your content well it's the same old story really and that it's always been it's just that we live in a world now where you or I can be our own TV channel or we can have a a program on a channel however you want to think of it if you want to think of Instagram as a channel as YouTube as a channel we can have our own shows on those channels and then the job of course is to get some people to tune in and follow what we're doing and be interested in for us to be consistent with what we're putting out and that's one piece of advice I would give you it's not something I'm always particularly good at because I have different pools on my time and and my main income isn't from online content so I would cover it I would caveat that from you know from the start of this conversation that yes I do and a little bit of advertising revenue just from the general ads on YouTube for example because I I just allow pre-roll ads and the the sidebar ads and stuff on my vids but it doesn't make me a huge amount of money and it's not the reason why I do it it's just that everybody else does it so and you know it earns me a little bit of pocket money and helps by you know batteries and bits and pieces for recording videos and those sorts of things and that's about as much as I get from doing that and I don't have as big a youtube following with some people and I've got about twenty five thousand subscribers which is quite small in the context of YouTube generally and so I'm speaking from that perspective as well and but it's big enough to get some sponsorship deals certainly and you're you're certainly getting some sponsorships already and so I'm rambling a little bit there but I just want to give you the context from which I'm speaking but the advice that I would give you first off is it's the same old story it's the same as TV how would you make money out of having a TV channel well you either ask people to put ads on your show and YouTube will do that for you and shares the revenue with you so that is one way clearly I don't know if you're doing that I suspect you are most people do do that and you can get some ads the other way of course then is actually doing some product placement so forming a closer relationship with some brands manufacturers and having some sort of content around that and it could just be that you're using it and you're being seen to be using it a sort of sponsorship deal and that could go across multiple channels so that could go across YouTube that could go across onto Instagram as well that's one way of doing it or you could except money for doing reviews personally I think as a conflict of interest there simply because if somebody's paying you to assess their products however hard you try to be objective is our natural instinct is not to want to bite the hand that feeds us so personally I don't take money for reviews I will accept equipment for reviews and I'm happy to send that back afterwards or if people want me to keep it or happy to keep it that's fine but I don't I don't do reviews to get three-hit as it were and I'm happy to do whatever people want at the end of it and I occasionally do accept equipment that I'm interested in I won't I get offered an awful lot of shite frankly that I'm not interested in and I'll just say sorry no that's not a good fit I'm not interested in that similarly I'm also offered a lot of opportunities for people to advertise on my blog and those of you that look at my blog will notice there's virtually no advertising on there the only way that I earn any money out of my blog is either by directing people towards things like my courses which clearly I do charge for or directing people towards books that I recommend on Amazon and again I'm not going to I don't just put loads and loads and loads of links on to as many things as possible I only link to stuff that's recommended and with Amazon Associates you get about four or five or six percent depending on the volume you're doing of the purchase price of anything that's brought via somebody clicking on a link so that's another way that you could do you can do sponsored links on on youtube so you can promote other people's stuff either kind of passively through advertising and being on platforms that allow you to monetize your content with advertising or you can form closer relationships where you're promoting equipment one way or the other and either by using it or by reviewing it or by saying I'm you know I'm featuring this kit and however you want to do it and that's kind of up to you to form that relationship the one thing I would say about those relationships is influencer marketing as its known where brands put products in your hands to be featuring on Instagram on YouTube etc is considered amongst the marketing industry is considered to be a cheap form of advertising and brand building and that to me then means that we are not charging enough for that stuff so I think a lot of people well just accept the equipment and for use and just you know somebody will send you a free backpack or a free knife or a free pair of boots or a rucksack or sleeping bag whatever it is and you are happy to receive the kit and then just be seen to be using it because you're like hey I'm getting free kit this is awesome but the thing is that's really really cheap for the brand compared to advertising in magazines compared to advertising on television compared to advertising on radio it's cheap as chips and I think we as people who have some influence over people need to have a serious think about what we're actually charging brands for that because we you know it's blood sweat and tears to build an audience as you know and it's a lot of work it's a lot of thinking about what videos you're going to make a lot of thinking for me about what articles I'm going to write what podcasts I'm going to make spending time making these videos and then the post-production I don't have a team that does everything after it's me that has to take the footage home and put it on my computer assemble it into an episode do the screenshots create the thumbnails upload them to YouTube we have to do all of that stuff there's a lot of time and effort involved and we have to have a serious think about what we actually charge people for being on our platform that we've worked our asses off to build and to build a trust of our audience and then that word trust is an important one I'm coming on to with with your question you asked about how do you not be accused of being a sellout well you've built the trust of your audience you've built the interest of your audience what you have to do is still be honest with your audience and you have to be true to yourself so if you suddenly and you know addressed head to toe in a particular brand kind of going hey this stuff is awesome

then maybe you've you have sold out a little bit you have to be very very honest about the relationship that you have with the brand if you're doing product place

and sponsorship that type of thing because otherwise people think you're being underhand about it and natural I think tendency to be a little bit suspicious like for example I ran an axe course recently and I posted on the first day of the axe course I bring out this big box of axes and everything from small hatchets up to big felling axes we've got big splitting axes we've got specialist carpentry axes carving axes we've got splitting wedges number of different saws as well we brought out all of these tools that were going to discuss and to create a bit of an overview of some of the things that we're going to do during the week I got all those axes out in the first day and it was a lovely sunny day and there was this nice tree stump and I laid all the axes out and for the for the talk on the course and I did my presentation which was an hour or so on all these different types of axes and how they're constructed and the bevel shapes and all that sort of stuff and at the end the sun was shining and I took a photograph and post it on Instagram which cross posted on to Facebook and then I don't look at Facebook when I'm away but when I got home I had a look at Facebook and somebody commented our year and sponsored by you know question mark suggesting that I'm posting that photo because I'm sponsored by that the ax man axe manufacturers most of the axes there were grants floors Brooks but not all of them some of them were other manufacturers as well and that's one of the things the benefits of coming to do that course you get to try lots of different axes from different manufacturers so that I don't just have grounds for taxes I do have a good range of ground stores but I have some others as well and we talk about the pros and cons of different ones the people get the chance to have a look and try before they maybe decide to get some for themselves one or two axes for themselves for example and but yeah the assumption immediately is that I'm being sponsored by them no I bought all of those axes myself and most of them not even a trade price actually most of them at retail price so and there is there is a cynicism coming in already about why we're posting this stuff and I think you have to stay away from fueling that by being completely honest with your audience and clearly there are other people watching this who are maybe in your audience and my audience and peep can leave comments about their feelings about people having product placement kit promotions etc on their channel personally and I have virtually no kit that supplied to me by any manufacturer and I have some accounts with some manufacturers where I can get things at trade price because I use them a lot so example I get some fowl raven trousers and things at trade price and i like wearing that stuff but I don't wear or use anything that I don't like and I wouldn't form a relationship with a brand if I didn't like their product like there are some brands that would like to form a relationship with me but I don't really particularly like their stuff I've seen it break I've seen it wear out or it just doesn't fit with what I do in the outdoors and the way that I do it and so therefore I'm not going to take their stuff just because I'm getting it for free and I certainly wouldn't take it and let them pay me for it because then you're not being true to your core beliefs and I think that that is how you have always being a sellout is that you're honest and you and you're honest with yourself you're honest with people who approach you to form relationships and you have an idea of where you want to be and rather than just being a prostitute to gear manufacturers and equipment manufacturers and anybody else that would like to pay you money to get access to your audience because at the end of the day that's how you lose your audience if they think that you're just prostituting them out to people for money they'll they'll quickly disappear and find somebody that's more genuine and more authentic so I think that that's the way that you avoid being genuinely being sell out in that sense of the word but equally whatever you do as soon as you start trying to earn an income from what you do particularly when you haven't really earned an income from it before somebody's going to call you a sellout it just happens people people don't have some people just don't have nice things to say about anybody some people take it personally and you just have to wear that some some people you know the more you do and the more successful you are and the more prominent you are and the more of a profile you have the more people are going to be critical or the more you will find that some people are critical and that's just life that's just life in general if you you know look at anybody pop stars rock stars politicians and particularly politicians and but you know film stars sports people TV personalities authors whoever it is if they're in the public eye is large or small somebody somewhere doesn't like what they do and that's just the way it is and particularly if you start charging for what you do indirectly or directly some people are not going to like that either and people criticize me they say oh you know you charge you charge for teaching stuff which you know these skills are about nature and nobody owns nature and these skills are being passed down for generations a new charge for courses well fine go and do a course where somebody isn't charging but the fact of the matter is we live in a world where and you need to learn a living and yes you can do the occasional YouTube video or the occasional weekend course or whatever it is that you're doing around bushcraft and not really charge very much for it or charge nothing for it as long as you've got an income somewhere else but if you want to be a professional and you want to devote your time and your life to serving others by sharing what you know by continuing to learn more to synthesize to bring it together with experience working with other experts and bring it to other people's attention who maybe don't have the time or the resources to spend that amount of effort and energy on learning those skills then that's my place that's what I'm trying to do and some people don't see the value in it and that's fine and some people don't see the value in learning bushcraft at all but then there's people within bushcraft the bushcraft world who are interested in bushcraft who don't really see the value in paying for things and that's fine as well but maybe they just aren't your particular audience and equally some of them are going to criticize you and I would say don't take that too to heart but just be honest with your audience your core audience and that is that is the key thing and pitfalls mistakes to avoid I would say and I've already mentioned about not under charging don't ever accept anybody's first offer that's just business has cut nothing to it bushcraft and do do some things for free maybe and that's the flip side of it but choose them wisely if it gets you more exposure by partnering with a brand or partnering with another media form that gets you my exposure suppose you maybe do it for free but otherwise if you if you want to earn an income from it and make sure that you're charging the right amount most people in the starting business and I've made these mistakes in business and they under charge for things because they don't feel confident to charge what they really need to charge or they haven't worked out properly and I've seen a lot of bushcraft schools and I know we're moving away from your question but I've seen a lot of bushcraft schools arrive big fanfare nice website quite inexpensive courses compared to what I charge and what some of the other top schools charge and who then disappear in a short period of time even though they're undercutting the existing market and terrifically they're not making enough money with the customers that they're getting to sustain themselves there is a there is a let there's a limit to how little you can charge and be sustainable and at the end of the day you're not going to serve an audience very well at all whether it's in person or over the internet over YouTube or Instagram if you're not earning enough money from it because you have to go and do something else eventually so charge the right amount work it out and don't be afraid to ask and some people will tell you no we're not we're not paying that and that's fine because they're wasting your time otherwise you can go and find somebody else that will pay you that you have to come at it from a perspective of not scarcity but of abundance if you approach you from the from the perspective of abundance that there will be always more there'll be another offer around the corner don't waste your time with the people who are nickel and diming you and ask for what you want if you don't get it move on to the next move on to the next and then the other pitfall I would just avoid is don't start getting yourself on a treadmill where you feel like you have to produce content to keep people happy in terms of advertising revenue or product placement or whatever whatever it is you want to do and think carefully about what you can again sustainably sustainably produce don't promise the moon and then really struggle to deliver it in terms of amounts of content that features features a brand features a logo features a product whatever it is if that's the way you're going to go and do be sustainable in both of those ask the right amount of money but also be conscious of the fact that you can promise too much and then you just give yourself a hamster wheel that you have to keep turning and give you a space give yourself space still to maintain some creative creativity and because otherwise you'll you'll get tired of the treadmill after a while there's always that danger of turning your hobby your interest your passion into a living that it becomes a treadmill and at times I have to say it felt a little bit like that for me not because of the not because of the outdoors of nature or customers or anything like that it's just the business side of things dealing with accountants taxation tax returns etc etc etc insurance you know cash flow management all that stuff is a ball ache sometimes and it just makes you feel like why am I doing this you know I'm spending all my time on this and not so much time doing the stuff that I really want to do so again don't let that get you down you'll have times when it just feels a little bit like a treadmill but look at that look at the end result that you're aiming for so right start have an idea about what what do you want to happen what do you want it to do what do you want this to do for you do you just want to get free kids do you want it to pay for you to do several trips a year so you want it to be your sole income and you want to learn twenty thousand thirty thousand fifty thousand dollars a year from it what do you actually want to achieve and why what you know most people can get away with earning not very much money as long as they're not buying expensive cars paying a big mortgage whatever it is how much money do you actually need what do you want to happen what do you want to pay for with the money that you're going to earn set that as a target and then look at how you can achieve that and keep that in mind without falling into the pitfalls that I am that I talked about in terms of being untrue to yourself untrue to your customers or your viewers and making sure you charge enough and don't don't be that have your time wasted by people who aren't willing to pay and move on to the next and be willing to accept the fact that will be something another opportunity around the corner and I think that will stand you in good stead and I'd be interested to hear any other comments form viewers in the in the comments about product placement about logos advertising etc etc on YouTube on Instagram elsewhere do you like it do you hate it and do you like to see people making money and making a living from making YouTube videos or do you think that they should get a proper job and do that on the side just to help other people out what do you think let us know in the comments below whether you're on my blog or on youtube let us know and that would be interesting for me and that'd be interesting for for micro as well I'm sure and hopefully that's helpful Micah sleeping bag liner to protect the bag from sweat this is from Jack and his question is I've had several sleeping bags a mix of down and synthetic for all seasons and situations and I have a question about sleeping bag liners particularly the down bag kind of sleeping bag liner be used to prevent a buildup of moisture in the bag I'm aware that you perspire overnight and if you're required to sleep in clothes or in a milder night your bag can get quite damp from sweat if you are not careful with a sleeping bag liner help keep your bags dry from sweat many thanks and hope always well Jack and well the only the only thing that's going to stop any moisture getting into your sleeping bag is like sleeping in a polythene bag where there's a vapor barrier between you and the bag but you're going to get wet doing that you'll close if you're wearing clothes even if they're just thermals are going to get damp doing that or even if you're just wearing a t-shirt and an Underpants that's going to get wet and the question really is just making sure you don't get too hot as you've noted to warm nights milder conditions particularly if you're out in the spring you've taken quite a taking the four season sleeping bag for example and you have a mild night you might be too warm that's about managing zips managing baffles making sure you're not getting too warm and then of course on a colder night you're going to get some condensation build-up between the outside of a bag the sleeping bag in the bivi bag sometimes and that's almost inevitable and but that's case of air in the bag out in the in the morning if you can or leaving it hanging under a tarp in the breeze if you fear rain or showers for example and I've covered those sorts of things elsewhere and my blog and on the passport Kirklees and in terms of a sleeping bag liner it's not really going to stop you perspiring in fact it might actually make you perspire more because sleeping bag liners tend to increase the rating of a sleeping bag even my silk liner which I use sometimes and I tend to use it between don't really use it in the summer because it's too warm I don't use it in the depths of winter because I probably wearing thermals and some merino thermal so I tend to wear it when I'm using a four-season bag but it's it's a it's passed

time when I'm going to be wearing thermals during the day and I'll just get into the bag and I want to keep particular down bag I want to keep it clean and don't want to clean it so often so I use a silk liner in that in that sort of transition period but it does tend to make the bag warmer than it would be otherwise so it's not necessarily going to stop you perspiring and it's not going to sort of hold any moisture or stop it going into the sleeping bag so my suggestion would be definitely don't use a cotton liner that's a bad idea use a silk liner if you feel it's necessary for keeping the bag clean keeping yourself warm but otherwise just manage the zips manage your clothing and etc etc and so that you're not perspiring too much and then air the bag out every morning and preferably when it's still warm from your body warmth because that will help drive the moisture off from the bag those would be my recommendations and if you're still getting a really sopping wet bag from sweating too much you've probably got to higher-rated bag frankly and beat you can move down a rating for the season you're sleeping out and if you're sweating that much dealing with frowns this one is from ant and bass and he says hi Paul firstly thanks for your effort you put into these videos and podcasts having been a small amount of editing before I know just how climb consuming it is on what is your own free time going back to what we're talking about with micah before yeah it is a lot of effort to build these channels and these shows when you don't have the backing of I think we used to use the stuff being produced but with the backing of big production companies and TV companies know that one of the great things about YouTube one of the great things about the internet is you've got people producing niche content that serves the needs of a relatively small audience but a very interested audience and you can serve them in great depth and great detail and but we're still living in a world where that's mostly done by people doing it on their own off their own bat and it's nice to know that people appreciate the effort that goes in because it is quite a lot of effort and I feel bad sometimes I'm not being as consistent with these shows as I maybe could be but going back to the previous conversation with Micah I think at some point maybe I need to look at other ways of generating an income from these shows so that I can actually do them more often that's the equation that we're all playing with you know time versus effort and having to earn a living at some point so anyway and and says I am a humble student of bushcraft always learning but having been involved for over 15 years when it didn't have such a label now my children are our at an age when playing in the woods is a treat something I wish to keep up my question is not about kids craft or techniques but rather that of behavior living in the North up living in the East of England Norfolk I am conscious that there are not a huge amount of places to discreetly teach the outdoor ways to kids I never light an outdoor fire but do use a solo stove for example I'm conscious of not ruining the perception for the future often we come across areas of people who frown upon seeing a tap and a fire or a stove as if it's abnormal some we meet stop to say how great it is that we spend time together father son and daughter I'd like advice on how to deal with those who think I'm irresponsible with teaching them to light a stove to me it's an issue of respect my pleasure comes from being outdoors so I'm less likely to create issues of harm as I wish to protect it I would like my children to grow up appreciating this even if it's not an outdoor pursuit they choose as I feel it's a ground good grounding for everyday life when you receive a frown out on the trail for just being different how do you diplomatically deal with it approach you assuming approaching midlife and hope that a special midlife present may be the chance to attend one of your courses many thanks and well that's an interesting question

nice to hear that you are spending so much time out with your kids and sharing your knowledge with them and introducing them to nature and introduce - tarps and fire lighting albeit in the context maybe of a small wood stove or what have you and that's all great and I would encourage that and I I do think it probably is abnormal you know in the UK more than 80 percent competing with the birdsong at the moment in the UK more than 80 percent of people live in urban or suburban environments and so country life is less and less normal being out and about just straight out your front door into the countryside is less and less normal people's knowledge of the countryside is on average so there are those of us yourself included now would imagine most of the viewers of this show who take a much deeper interest in nature and a much deeper interest in a practical knowledge of nature but for most people it's kind of alien and a bit strange and so it is abnormal and but I think if you if people if if people just frown at you don't worry about it you know people you walk down the high street in any town dressed slightly differently someone's going to frown at you people are going to point people are going to matter you know anything that's vaguely different people tend to comment on I have an opinion about people have way too many opinions about things they don't know anything about and I tend to ignore those opinions frankly because they come from the perspective of ignorant and so I tend to let that stuff sort of wash off and but if somebody engages you in conversation or criticism then I would say exactly what you said to me that you're showing your kids an appreciation of nature and understanding the damage that can be done with a fire but knowing how to do it carefully within maybe in the context of a small box stove or what have you that's showing them respect for nature it's showing them how to do it carefully without causing damage and because I see a lot of evidence or not not too much thankfully but enough evidence of young people going out into the woods tends to be close to towns close to roads close to places they can easily get to as soon as they have a vehicle or a you know motivator a car and you can see that a lot of the time the damage that is done in terms of fires that are too large scorching the ground scorching rocks scorching fallen trees scorching the base of living trees leaving litter etc it's not because they want to make them it they don't go yeah let's go in ruin this place they just don't know any better it's from a perspective of ignorance so if you're teaching your kids a different path to that then that's valuable and I would explain that exactly to anybody who might be local and criticizing you I just say look I'm teaching them how to respect nature how to take care of it how to tidy up after themselves and how to be comfortable in nature and frankly and if they're walking they're walking their dog walking themselves they must appreciate nature too and if they really don't get it then just tell them to shove off a minor and business frankly that's that's that was remarkably my approach sometimes you just have to be blunt with people and I've had people on private estates where we're paying the estate for use of the land and where we are not on a on a public footpath I've had people walking through our hands telling me that I'm not allowed to be doing that there when they have nothing to do with the estate they are saying we shouldn't be had we shouldn't be camping here we shouldn't have fires we shouldn't be we should have a vehicle up there or whatever it is and you used try to engage them in civil conversation and say well actually we do have permission and they're like I remember one woman number six was like really I very much doubt it well and in the end I had been image protect to tell her to shove right off and get lost because and she was the one who's trespassing and she was treating like it was reaching it like it was her land because she probably had walked her dog there for a long time she happened to come through when we were running a course and and took umbrage and people are weird like that sometimes and they're not very self-aware of their place that they go around looking at the world like it's all there it's their domain

everything centered around their views and sometimes you can engage with that and have a conversation otherwise sometimes just have to shove it away because it's just a problem and in the same way that you kind of swat a fly away that doesn't get that you don't want it in in your face sometimes you just can't get through unfortunately but generally try to have a civil conversation try to explain your philosophy and if it's a conversation if it's a frown who cares people people frown at you wherever you if you went into town with your muddy boots on you probably get found out so you know don't worry about that I wouldn't anyway lost the questions here we go strides for walking now I read through this and thought it was a bit unusual and I like to have different questions noisy noisy birds so this is from George via email and he says and thought that you may appreciate a question other than about KITT certainly George always do and recently I had a hip replaced and may soon walk again I'm studying strides and find it all a little confusing I have heard of the French army Bentley the hunter stride the lock step for steep grades and many others do you have a preferred method that you employ thanks for your time and yeah there's a lot of stuff written about how you should walk and there's a lot of stuff even more stuff written about how you should run and I know from speaking to people who know more about physiology than I do that everyone walks and runs differently and that is actually interviewed for example interview with Mark Hines and I'll link that in the show notes of the podcast that I did with Mark Hines and he made a very good point that he can't tell you how to run and even though he studied the biomechanics of running you can't tell you how you should run different people run in different ways and you have to find your own way and it's the same with walking yes there are some general principles if you're walking up a steep grade or down a steep grade you generally want to reduce the length of your stride because you're less likely to trip slip or fall that way and you can manage you can manage your effort going uphill it's a little bit like changing down in the vehicle from you know fourth into third into second as you increasingly go up the steep hill and you want to change your step so you can continue momentum you're maybe not going to get quite as far with each step but you can keep moving you're shortening the steps as you're going uphill and equally as you're going downhill you're probably going to shorten strides because it's going to be easier on your joints rather than striding out but each step having to sort of stop yourself a little bit and also particularly on Shaylee gravelly trails you're less likely to slip over if you're just making sure two steps on particularly steep ground but other than that I would say find your own way George one thing that you might want to experiment with is walking poles either just a traditional walking stick and you know nice a nice staff to walk with or a thumb stick typical of what people always did use as a walking stick and or the modern walking poles the lightweight poles a lot of people use for trekking because it does allow you to distribute your weight differently allows you to distribute your balance differently and move in a slightly different way of a rough terrain and but even with those find your own way with that so I wouldn't say that you should try and force your body to walk in a way that it doesn't want to go out walk naturally be mindful of your step on steep ground and experiment with some walking poles or walking stick and I think you'll find the most comfortable way for you and in doing that rather than trying to be dogmatic

about a way that you should be walking hopefully that's helpful George last one for this one and limiting it to six questions these days to try and keep the time relatively manageable for people in terms of listening and watching and this is a question from Sam and apologies it's taken me a while to get round to this question Sam and I answered a lot of sort of more relevant and winter questions over the winter I have to say but I do I do try and get to all the questions eventually and even if it takes me a while so this question is from Sam and he says I recently started a vegan diet and I'm working towards removing all animal products including leather and wool what are your opinions on veganism within bushcraft might be a good question for your a sport currently series well indeed it is and here is the question and the answer in a sport curtly what's my opinion on veganism within bushcraft and vegetarianism within bushcraft I kind of think they're separate in the sense and what I mean by that is bushcraft as I've said before to me is largely a study of nature it's a practical study of nature it's an understanding of the resources that are available to you how to use them how to harvest them how to make sure they're there for you and others to use again in the future

it's about being safe in the outdoors is about being comfortable in the outdoors or managing to come home safely and in one piece at least and those are all encompassed within within bushcraft and vegetarianism is a dietary choice to exclude certain things from your diet and and we all do that we all make choices about what we want to eat and what we don't want to eat in the most part and when I say we I mean the type of people who will tend to be watching this will people who can afford a phone or a computer or a screen where they can actually see this show and you know so it tends to be some of the wealthier people on the planet and most people who choose their diets rather than just have to accept what they can find

tend to have more more money and and I'm talking on a global scale here and you know the people who are scrabbling a living poor on a global scale and not they don't have the luxury of making those choices and equally people who are living off the land quite possibly don't have the luxury of making those choices and living off the land in the past in certain parts of the world maybe where people are not living off the land anymore certainly they wouldn't had the luxury of being vegetarian or vegan just because they needed to use certain resources and enable to subsist and my understanding is it's easier to be a vegetarian living off the land living from a lot of natural foods that just grow naturally without much farming it's easier to be a vegetarian in tropical areas because there is a wider degree of plant foods are available - why did degree of fruits and other sources of energy and nutrition in those more diverse habitats which you tend to find in the more tropical areas of the world when you move further north into say the boreal forest and there are fewer plant foods because subsist on certainly there are fewer plant foods available in winter and an equally if you think about where Inuit live where they're hunting on the ice in the winter there isn't of plant food there and they have to get their vitamins and nutrition entirely from animal food and some of which has to be in raw or had to be in raw in order to get the vitamins that they needed including vitamin C so historically if we're talking about historical context of bushcraft in that sense there are certain places where you just could not have been a vegetarian it's certainly not a vegan and you couldn't be a vegan Inuit hunting on the ice having to use skins and for clothing having to use the meat for food it just would not be possible and but being in a tropical environment where you've got access to topical fruits you've got access to starches that coming from trees to provide carbohydrates etc etc and and and you know thinking of sago and all that type of thing that you're getting you could more easily live a vegetarian diet and certainly a pescetarian diet in those in those places and in the modern context now you're asking the question biotechnology you're asking I'm answering it biotechnology you've got the luxury of being able to make that choice and you're unlikely to be living off the land for an extended period of time so within that context if you're going out to do a trip for a weekend a week a couple of weeks can you be a vegetarian and be practicing bushcraft skills in that context absolutely course you can it's just a diet choice just the same as you can choose to take entirely fresh food on a trip or you can take and highly dehydrated food or Paquette food or you know packets of pretzels you know you can choose what you want to take so there is so that's why I mean they're separate now I think as a modern person choosing to make a trip a journey a foray into the wild where you're largely taking your own food then you choose what you're going to subsist on and then it's just a matter of making sure you've got enough calories to get you where you need to go and within within reasonable parameters of what you're trying to achieve and of course you can forage along the way and get more plant foods etc and most of that stuff's going to be foraging you know it's it's unlikely that say for example you're going to make a canoe trip and you're going to be hunting along the way for all of your food because you just don't have the time if you want to cover the distance yes you can fish in the evenings but most of the time you're going to be choosing to take most of your food with you even if you're practicing you know bushcraft violating techniques or whatever it is you're choosing which techniques to apply you're choosing the menu that you want to take so those decisions are independent largely and so I think I think they fit and then the other thing about the egon ISM is it's not just about what you eat it's also about what you use and yes there's a lot of leather you know in bushcraft but again it's separate you know I always make this distinction between kit and bushcraft some pieces of kit make your bushcraft easier more efficient more refined and I'm thinking in particular of cutting tools and they will make your bushcraft better more refined quicker more efficient and whether or not your knife has a leather sheath or a black plastic sheath or canvas sheath or it doesn't matter it that's that's an equipment choice issue and then there are skills that go along with that and it's the skills and knowledge of nature and how to use it in the practical fashion which are which is the bushcraft and then you've got the equipment so yes if you want to go out without wearing leather boots without a leather sheath about a leather belt or the other accoutrements that people often take with them and in terms of equipment I can't see that there's any issue there and then it's interesting I've had people on courses who are Buddhist vegan who don't want to hunt they don't want to trap and yet they're still interested in learning the techniques because you never know and also they're just fascinated by everything in life and so they're interested in how to skin and butcher a rabbit it's already been shot they're not having to do it themselves themselves but they're not going to eat it but they're interesting how to do it they don't want the animal to be wasted and they're happy for somebody else to eat it their parrot and I think that's quite a open-minded and level-headed approach equally I've had big strapping blokes who can't do who are happy to eat meat who can't do the rabbit the small game preparation for example because their kids have rabbits and they just couldn't be given face good even though the rabbit was dead the game people keeper had shot it and they couldn't face the skinning and gutting it and that's that's fine as well you have to respect that you're not going to you should be really cooling or judging anybody for what they do and don't want to do within learning the subject most of us do not need to rely on these skills and all the time certainly and even unless you're going into really wild places where there's a chance you might have to rely on them most of the time it's an interest it's a hobby and it's something that augments your life it gives you a greater appreciation of nature it gives you a greater respect for nature and I think how you reconcile that with your other philosophies around respect for animals respect for nature it is absolutely fine as long as you can make it work practically and I don't see the things being mutually exclusive at all frankly be interesting to hear how you're getting on with all of that as well because that's that question from a little while ago cool that brings us to the end of this episode and thank you for your attention quite a diverse range of questions different subject matters there and I've got some more questions lined up for episode 52 we've got the live and episode coming up and so it'd be a few weeks before I can get any more questions in that I haven't already got but please keep them coming please keep them coming because um there's been a there's been some that are I've waited a little while to answer or I haven't got round to answering for a little while but I have noticed there's a bit of a tail off in the questions coming in that's probably a result of me not making so many shows in the first quarter of this year and I had a lot of other things going on and it goes back to that conversation with Micah you know it's about what you can do on top of what you have to do to earn a living I don't know living directly from these shows and but if there's a knife if there's an ice company like like here's my chance somebody like er Raven or ten TP or more ER or somebody like that that wants to sponsor this show then I would be happy to have a pre pre-roll ad and a posted for the videos and for the podcast so if you work for one of those companies or grants Wars would be another good one you know these are the things these are the brands I think are good anyway I use equipment from all of them and I would recommend wholeheartedly equipment from all of them and therefore they are the brands that I would want to be aligned with ones that I like anyway and going back to that question from Formica that's the approach anybody should take because otherwise you're not being true to what you really believe so you might see some pre-roll or post role from some companies like that in the future but the only reason I would do that is so that I can make more of these shows to get more information out to you and without having to go off and do something else to provide that same level of income but either way let me know what you think about all of that and about this bushcraft scene and people the way different people earn money from it let me know in the comments below on my blog at porchetta code at UK episode 51 or under this on YouTube so thanks for watching thanks for listening if you're on the podcast and I will see you on the next episode of a sport curtly and if you're coming to the bushcraft show make sure you come to the live ask for curtly with your questions ready to go see you then [Music]

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