Relevant First Aid, Calculating Hiking Timings, Eating Plantain Seeds | #AskPaulKirtley 59

Description

http://paulkirtley.co.uk Welcome to Episode 59 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about camp seating, first aid and first aid kits, keeping track of your speed on hikes, storing compasses, avoiding midges, unusual growths on leaves, how to eat ribwort plantain seeds.

TIMESTAMPS:

02:20 Camp seating

07:22 First Aid and First Aid Kits

20:51 Keeping track of your speed on hikes

29:28 Storing compasses

33:16 Avoiding midges

37:38 Unusual growths on leaves

38:55 How to eat ribwort plantain seeds

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.

ASK PAUL A QUESTION:

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

Or tweet your questions with hashtag #askpaulkirtley to @pkirt

SHOW NOTES & PREVIOUS EPISODES:

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

LET'S CONNECT:

You can also connect with me on social media:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/paulkirtley/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pkirt

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulKirtleysBlog

GET MORE WILDERNESS SKILLS ADVICE & INFO:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/free-tips-and-advice/

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

Video Transcription

in this episode of a spork early we are going to talk about camp seating first aid and first aid kits keeping track of your speed on hikes storing compasses avoiding midges unusual growths on leaves and how to process ribert plantain seeds

[Music]

welcome welcome to episode 59 of ask Paul curtly and today I out for a hike in a lovely part of the world I'm just on the edge of the Kangol Mountains in Scotland in an area of pine forest it's very pleasant bit of shower rain today and hopefully it holds off long enough to record this session and before I head back to where I'm staying um it's funny people say oh why is it always such wonderful weather where you go how come you never record in the rain how come you're never out in the rain I am out in the rain a lot I work outdoors a lot over the over the summer in particular and into the autumn and bringing the British Isles we get our fair share of rain but rain and microphones and cameras don't mix very well so that's one of the reasons you don't generally see it raining on these videos if you're watching on the video or hear it raining if you're listening on the podcast but as I say it's just showers today so I have put the dry liner of my rucksack over the top of the camera and hopefully that'll keep most of the rain off and if there's any rustling on the audio it's because I'm wearing my waterproof jacket because it is spitting a bit now right anyway let's get into the meat of the episode this is a question from Duncan and his question is I would like to ask a question about seating in camp I suffer with my knees and I like to sit off the ground when I am in the woods if there are no sizeable tree trunks to sit on in the near vicinity what ways would you suggest apart from sitting on the floor that I could make two key me off the ground in a reasonable in reasonable comfort I look forward to your reply keep up the great podcast as regards Duncan

well Duncan yeah you're not the only person who's got sore knees or bad knees and quite a few people I know who've come and done courses with me or have done various trips I struggle with their knees at certain points whether it's kneeling in a canoe sitting on the ground as you've mentioned down hills on hikes you know various different issues for various different people and I guess you have to find a way to to accommodate that in terms of sitting clearly as you've mentioned logs are good to sit on I'm sitting on a rock now a mossy moss-covered rock I've got a little sick matter like a bit of foam matting that I kick down the back of my rucksack my day pack that I can pull out and sit on and that's so that I don't get a damp backside as much as anything but it does also keep some insulation there and don't lose so much heat and it's also a bit more comfortable and that's something you could carry with you to put on various different things to sit on so you might be able to sit on rocks you might be able to sit on logs as you suggested you can construct seating in a camp similar to how you might create a raised bed for a lean-to on my blog there is a couple of articles on lean-to shelters in the northern forest forget the shelter part just think about the raised bed that is something that's not too difficult to construct not something I would do if I was just staying somewhere overnight just for a seat but it will give you some ideas a couple of smaller logs across between some components that build it up off the ground and that could be lumps of raised ground it could have so here you've got different mounds you could span a couple of mounds across with some straight logs to get up off the ground and that's got the advantage of being up off the damp ground as well and more generally you could build with like you build a stack of firewood you can build some logs up and then put logs across between two stacks that would be one way of creating a bench at the height that you wanted that you could sit on and that's pretty comfortable you can do that in snowy climates as well where you can basically compact the snow and then you dig out a little bit of a an opening so you're not sitting on the snow and span across with some small diameter relatively small diameter trees and so you've got a bench to sit on as well and you're not sitting on this on the snow and then you can build a fire in front of it so there's lots of those things out there lots of ideas out there already in terms of creating raised seating other things not to not to forget about of course and your rucksack if you pack it in the way that most people tend to pack it with the sleeping bag and the rest of your sleeping kick towards the bottom of your rucksack and you can just put your rucksack down on the ground and sit on the bottom end of it laid flat so you you'd sit on the part that goes against your back towards the bottom of the rucksack and that's gonna be quite firm because it's gonna have a compress the sleeping bag in it and you can sit on that as well clearly once you set your tarp or your hammock or whatever you're using up and put your sleeping bag in it that's not going to be a option available to you but if you're just staying somewhere overnight you might have taken your tarp out of the top of the sleeping bag over the top of the rucksack rather set your tarp up leave everything else in your rucksack use that as a seat and then just before you go to bed pull out the sleeping bag pull out the other bits that you need and and you've got those there without too much fuss as well so that's another option and piles of firewood you can sit on you know if you get a big pile of brush and put that down and sit down it's going to compress a bit but that can be quite comfortable and there's lots and lots of different things that you can do in that way using materials that you might be collecting anyway for various purposes or you could have them with you in terms of you so hopefully that gives you a few ideas and do check out that lean-to article on my blog I'll put a link in the show notes next question first aid and first aid kits this is from Jack mcCormick hi Paul hope you well my question today is regarding first aid and is somewhat broken up into two parts firstly how highly do you value first aid as a skill for bushcraft and the outdoors as a leader and instructor particularly on expeditions you must have been exposed to occasions where your skills have been essential and do you think enough people value these skills I'll answer that bit first jack

I value first aid skills very highly I think as you say as a leader and an instructor it's part of the skill set I should have certainly from a professional perspective and it's certainly I think a skill set that most leaders and instructors these days do see as a really essential part of their repertoire of

abilities to look after people in the outdoors and I think anybody that doesn't have a current relevant first aid certification that is teaching any sort of bushcraft and the outdoors should take a long hard look at themselves and then when you look more widely at things like mountain leaders and climbing instructors canoe leaders it's a requirement to get the certification for your leadership whether it's Mountain leader canoe leader you have to have the first-day certificate to get that award in the first place so it's one of the prerequisites so where there are national governing bodies that certify people to be leaders in certain areas of the outdoors you'll find that they've got as a matter of course they've got first aid skills bushcraft is pretty unregulated and personally it's really high on my list I make sure everyone who works with me has a current outdoor first aid certificate and I actually organized first day training for my team at frontier bushcraft a lot more regularly than the minimum that we would need to to refresh and most guide lines which is every three years we tend to do refreshes and extra training a lot more regularly than that at least once a year where we refresh the basics and then we maybe add on something that we've not done before or look at things in different ways and we certainly practice scenarios where it's realistic and so we're not in a classroom in a village hall and we're not being taught first aid at work where we just have to put somebody in a comfortable position and then call an ambulance and wait for them to come to the office that's not the type of first aid training that's relevant to the outdoors it needs to be proper outdoor first day training that is relevant to being in a remote setting and here and I'm in a relatively remote setting ok I'm not in the middle of a vast wilderness but I am quite away from the nearest road and there are some very rough forestry tracks in here that have been made by a forestry machine coming in to extract some some wood when they've been thinning out an area on the other side of here that I can see but you'd never get a regular ambulance in here you'd struggle to get a regular four-wheel drive in here so it's a remote setting and the situation here if I were to injure myself or have a heart attack or a stroke or any of the things that affect people in day to day life it's harder to get me out it's harder to communicate with the emergency services I might not have a signal on my phone those considerations need to come into your first day training as well as the the practicalities of how to deal with bleeding how to deal with somebody who's not breathing all of those things which are part of it any basic life support and basic first-aid course so although that's very important and I think it's something that should be current and it should be kept up to date and practice regularly in terms of regular everyday people as opposed to instructors or guides or people who are not working professional in the outdoors but who enjoy the outdoors I think you should have some basic outdoor first-aid training as well because gives you a greater appreciation of some of the risks you face in the outdoors and it might change the way that you approach those risks if you think about the consequences a little bit in a little bit more detail it also gives you the ability to deal with situations to be able to look after yourself and also be able to look after friends and companions and I think all of that's important it's a life skill at the end of the day that I think most people would benefit from having I can't really see a downside and to spending the time and the money to get some basic first day training and you can do a basic outdoor you know call outdoor first-aid training in a couple of days it's a weekend of your time and a few hundred pounds or a few hundred dollars depending on where you are to get a good knowledge baseline knowledge that you can then build on going forwards and yes I have had to use first-aid from time to time thankfully not very often in remote settings and it's invaluable second part of your question I've read many of your articles on your post personal first-aid kit do you carry a larger one on expeditions when you are leading or require participants to carry a first set first-aid kit do you carry a first aid kit when practicing your bushcraft skills on a short overnight or day hike and if so what to carry many thanks jack and well it's quite a lot of little questions in here jack I think there's more than two but they're all good ones so yes I do generally carry a first aid kit and the standard one that I have is a personal first date it is the one that's on my blog and you can find that very easily and I'm sure that's the one you're referring to and I don't vary it massively from that as a personal first-aid kit for travel and it's also something that I can easily throw in a in a day pack if I'm out and about and even if I don't have that with me for example I might be just nipping into the woods for a few hours I will carry a first-aid kit that's appropriate to the tools you know you mentioned bushcraft skills in particularly I always carry a cuts kit whenever I have a knife on me and that cuts kit I've mentioned it in an article somewhere I don't think I've ever done an article on it specifically and maybe I should but basically what's in there just things to deal with the type of cuts that you get from using knives or just handling materials in the outdoor small burns that type of thing so I've got gauze in there I've got good quality band-aids or elastoplast whatever you want to call them I've got some steri-strips in there I've got small bandage I've got tape and I also tend to put some analgesics in there as well and as I've mentioned before in other places and on podcasts and a sport Kirklees and if you get a real bad thumping headache due to dehydration caffeine withdrawals or whatever situation you can think of in the outdoors and it can really affect your thinking and your ability to get things done quickly if every time your heart beat comes up you're getting a pounding in your head I like having some headache pills in my first-aid kit that is always in my pocket and that's the cuts kit and so that's something I put in there as well and that's all put into a waterproof a lock sack or lock sack as they're now known and there and that works very well and I will try and remember whatever hats mentioned I think it's in one of my modular kit articles that it's mentioned but certainly I'll probably do something separate on that and I think it's worthwhile I'll add that to my list but that's that's what I've got a cuts kit I've always got a cuts kit whether or not I put that first at personal first-aid kit in I might put it if I'm on a long day hike I'll put it in if I'm on an overnight overnight hike or I'm traveling further afield I'll definitely put that more elaborate first-aid kit in more substantial first-aid kit which is detailed on my blog and as I say I'll link in the show notes if you've never seen that before and so if you're listening or watching this session you can go over to episode 59 and find a link

in the list of links and have a look at that and also what's really good about the article because it's been there for a number of years is that other people have made suggestions one of the things I asked is what would you add to this what do you carry and what do you think is a good addition to what I've got here what are your thoughts and there's a load of comments there from people about what they what they have as well a couple of good ideas there for anybody that wants to look whatever perspective you're coming from so that's that other part of the question do I carry more substantial or more elaborate a larger kit for expeditions yes I do we also have one on courses so in our Basecamp we have a large first aid kit which has some repetition in it of course so that you're not running out of things you know if you're redressing a cutter what have you you've got enough supplies but then we've got additional items in there as well I've never written an article on that I know that for sure I'm not going to itemize that off the top of my head here because I would no doubt forget something that's in there and then I'd have to correct it so again I will make a note to try and write something about that at some point I'll make a small video on that and but yes we do a lot of it is is kind of what's in that personal kit but more of and one of the other things I didn't mention that I tend to carry if I'm using an axe for example as well as a cuts kit a tent I'll take a large wound dressing there is a large wound dressing in my personal kit and but even if I don't have that if I'm if I'm just got my cuts kit and I've got some larger tools or actually if I'm in the mountains because you get rockfalls and things I just generally put an Israeli bandage or a similar military bandage that's got a waterproof dressing and waterproof outer on the dressing that goes on the top of my day pack and then it's just there and it's just there for when I need it in the top of the pack and that's before I get to anything any other first-aid kit that I might have on expeditions yes we have a larger kit there's go extra supplies it's got various drugs in there painkillers various other things things maybe antihistamines maybe imodium maybe

[Music]

stronger painkillers then you might carry just in day-to-day life etc etc so and that's something I can maybe elaborate on in future but yes I do and we have a similar kit although not quite so we don't have a dental repair kit in our course first aid kit for example but in our expedition kit we do in the expedition kit is basically built from the course kit that we always have with us so it's the same system that we're familiar with anybody that works with me can go and get that kit and know what's in there and then for expeditions as I say we add some extra things in because we're more remote again and that's in that's in addition to other things like having a satellite phone so that if we need to contact a doctor to speak to them and not necessarily to get a rescue but if we need to speak to a medical professional or get some advice on somebody who's got particular signs and symptoms then we can we can speak to them as well so that's an additional piece of important equipment we take on an expedition and in terms of and then you have the part of the question was do I ask people to bring their own kits yeah I do I tend to ask people to bring a Kutz kit so that they've got their own supplies plasters tape that sort of thing that we already talked about and for their own day-to-day things so that if they if they do have a little NIC they get a splinter they can remove it with some tweezers that type of small kit is good to have and then it doesn't need me to do that for them and they're not kind of beholden to me they can just sort themselves out you know as an adult there's nothing wrong with doing that of course so I generally have people on courses as well just bring a small first-aid kit that they can deal with day to day things and then we've got the bigger kit there if we need it to back that up if they run out of any supplies or if we need to deal with a more serious incident than us that's that kind of tiered approach which works well cuts kit in a and a big bandage and then a personal kit and an expedition kit and everyone's got at least a cuts kit then you're quite

well supplied in addition to whatever the course or expedition kit you've got as well and that's that hopefully that answers the question a couple of - dues for me there as well and don't forget to check out the links in the show notes there episode 59 right thanks jack next question

spider calling on me keeping track of your speed on hikes this is from hi Paul love your show having walked the Hyksos trail in Sweden recently I have found out that during my during the day my estimate for my speed was all over the place due to terrain differences and getting tired the markers on the track allowed me to correct this but if they aren't there is there a reliable way of keeping track of your speed terrain conditions such as inclines rubble tracks and dense forests ation can make pace counting and the like unreliable kind guards Rutger yeah there's again there's quite a lot of little bits in there and fundamentally though what you want to be doing is so you've mentioned keeping track of your speed and yes but I think you should also be predicting your speed you should be working out how long it's going to take you to cover a certain section and you can do that on the day of course but personally if you're planning a hike you should probably be doing that before you even leave the comfort of your home or your your office wherever you're planning your trip and you can do that with the aid of a map you don't need to be on the ground to work out how long is going to take or approximate how long it's going to take you can do that by looking at a map and there are a number of different methodologies of doing that and simple arithmetic will get you to an answer that is quite accurate there is a rule called Naismith's rule and and that's quite useful as a starting point it's a rule of thumb it's in a rule of proximation that you can use to try and work out how long a certain section particularly an undulating terrain is going to take you and it was originally posed in terms of miles per hour and feet and but we can look at it in more metric terms and I think that's useful because most maps that you get even in the UK even though we've got miles per hour still on our road signs and distances are measured in miles when you pick an Ordnance Survey map up the same as you pick a map up in Sweden or you pick up map up in Canada and the grid squares are generally kilometer squares and it's generally a metric grid system that you're using the distances that you're measuring are in meters or kilometers the heights are measured in meters above sea level so it's a metric system so I think it's most useful these days to remember it in terms of meters and kilometers so basically if you work on the basis that on the flat you're going to walk with a rucksack you're going to walk 5 km/h 5 kilometers an hour on the flat so any kilometer distance on the map is going to take you 12 minutes if you want to think of it that way and you're going to cover five kilometers in 60 minutes and then if there is terrain undulating terrain then you make an adjustment for ascent so for going uphill we all know going uphill is slower than walking on the flat so it's going to slow you down so you add time based on how much ascent there is and basically you add an hour per 600 meters and clearly you're not always doing 600 meters in one climb so you can break that down and say that you're going to add so it's going to take you 60 minutes extra for 600 meters that's going to take you 10 minutes extra for a hundred meters or it's going to take you 1 minute extra for 10 meters if you want to think of it that way so you can basically you can look at the contour lines on your map on it on the route that your walk walking you can add up the

total assent and then you can multiply that by that factor and that it's going to take you an extra amount of time and then you can add that on to your fight 5k an hour and that gives you a good rule of thumb it's not terrain that requires scrambling and it's not terrain that requires really tricky descents and the assumption is that you walk at a fairly decent pace going downhill once you get to really really really steep ground going downhill clearly then you're gonna slow down and but below your normal walking pace so there are other adjustments that some people do for certain types of terrain to add for a descent and also climbing really really super steep ground and we're not talking about that we're just talking about regular hiking terrain and that's a really good rule of thumb 5k an hour plus an extra hour for every 600 meters climbed that's that's going to give you a good approximation and you can plan that out and before you leave home so you can work out how far you're going to get each day and then you can work out how many hours of walking and that's about the minimum it's going to take you of course then if you're going to get tired maybe you need to add a little bit more on that's an adjustment that's a personal thing it depends on your level of physical fitness if you don't think you can walk for eight hours at that pace maybe you either choose to walk less each day or maybe you choose to make an adjustment for walking a little bit slower maybe you decide that on average you're gonna walk for an hour so back to the original question when you said keeping track what you should do is try to keep some records of what how much weight you were carrying what distance on what what horizontal distance you've covered and what your total ascent was and what the timings on that way and then you can start to get to an approximation that is specific to you and then you can use that in place of the of the naismith rule and it clearly is your fitness changes that might change a little bit but it won't be far off it won't be far off and over shorter distances and it will work reasonably well you mentioned pace counting as well pace counting works quite well over short distances but I wouldn't do pace counting all day every day you want to be able to think about other things you want to be looking around at the nature you want to be thinking walking is good kind of almost meditation time or it allows you your creative thoughts to come to the fore and and you don't want to be counting your steps all day every day it's very very useful for navigating on a bearing in low visibility in the dark in the clouds in a snowstorm but just generally you want to be using timing and more more readily and once you get to a point where you know how long it's going to take you to cover a certain distance you can just use your watch in terms of keeping track of your speed whether or not you're going to working at the pace you think you're working you should be doing that from your map reading yeah you don't need markers on the side of the track to tell you where you are you should be able to do that with your map work and the terrain and if you can't do that if you can't keep track of where you are and then I would I would get some navigation training because that's one of the fundamental [Music]

fundamental jobs of navigation and it's about the way that you don't get lost is by keeping track of where you are and by keeping track of where you are you can work out how far you've come in combination with keeping track of time that allows you to work out your speed speed and timing and distance clearly are all related in that manner so watch map that should allow you to keep track of how fast you're going and you can compare that to your approximations using that Naismith's rule which you can do before you even leave you can write down in your notebook how far you think each day's going to be how long you think it's going to take you can break it down into into legs as well from A to B this type of terrain it's going to take this long from B to C this type of terrain it's going to take this type of long and build your days up that way so that you're not walking too far trying to walk too far in a day okay store encompasses so another one about navigation really in a way and this is from Peter and Peter asked a Paul quick question how do you best store compasses with regards to preserving their proper magnetization both long-term at home and one out and about how much of an issue is it really and can you do anything to fix things after they've gone awry all the best Peter in Belgium and well Peter I think the main thing to do with the compass is keep it away from strong magnets and the biggest source of magnetism at home really these days and now that we know that we don't have cathode ray tube televisions which had strong magnets in them and I'd still keep them away from electronics I'd keep them away from loud speakers so hi-fi speakers computer if you've got any computer speakers or anything anything with a microphone with it with a loudspeaker and keeping away from that keep them away from microwave ovens keep it away from anything that is magnetized intentionally or unintentionally it's a large pieces of metal I've got a bit of wind and rain kind of squirrely shower coming through now so you might hear that on the mic yeah big magnets at home put it in a drawer and keep it keep it a reasonable temperature doesn't want to be frozen

clearly because it's got liquid in it I know that wasn't specific about your question to do with magnetization but it is to do with storing it you want to keep it at room temperature and and and you don't really want it to be massively subjected to massive pressures either because you can get bubbles and so you don't want it to be in a depressurized place so I would always take my compass as hold luggage on a flight as opposed to putting it in sorry the exact opposite of what I said I always take it as cavern baggage not as hold luggage and you don't want it in the hold because that may not be quite pressurized as much particularly on regional flights it might not be pressurized as much as the cabin and therefore you want to make sure that it's not getting bubbles in it that way by being subjected to varying pressures keep it in your cabin package and that's going to help keep it away so keep it away from mobile phones and certainly mobile phone in in a jacket pocket if you put your compass near to it it will affect the needle GPS units some trekking poles have got steel in them or steel components in them so you can be holding a trekking pole and your compass and that can affect things I've seen people get to a fence line so there might be somewhere here there will be on the edge of this forest will be a deer fence the amount of metal in the fencing can affect the compass if you're standing near it so just be aware of metal objects around you and electronics around you or on you when you're using your compass and when you're storing your compass keep it away from strong magnets keep it a decent temperature not too hot not too cold and keep a decent normal one atmosphere pressure if you can whenever you can and you should be good

next question avoiding midges this is from Russell Joyce via Twitter he says you talked of midges in a recent video got any good tips on avoiding or dealing with them midges in particular yeah well myself and the guys and girls who work with me at frontier did actually put together a blog article on the frontier bushcraft blog and answering the more general question of how to deal with biting insects and other creepy crawlies in the outdoors and what we do in different parts of the world when we're doing different things and I'll certainly link to that in the show notes about midges in particular I'm in Scotland at the moment I'm not being bothered by midges now it's past that time of year where I sitting where I am now in June or July I think that would be getting nibbled certainly in this mossy damp woodland and there's a bit of a breeze today which always helps so choosing breezy campsites is the first thing try and choose somewhere that it's got a wind blowing through it because that's going to help keep the midges away smoky fires can help but there's a there's a clearly another consideration there as to whether or not having a fire is appropriate whether it's suitable and for what you're doing and all of those things so generally windy campsite if you can clothing that they're not going to bite through now midges aren't like mozzies that they won't tend to bite through thin clothing so as long as your skin is covered and they're not going to be able to bite you on your hands you could wear thin leather gloves and on your head you can wear a mini head net and I find migi nets are much more comfortable and acceptable if you wear like a bush hat like a boonie hat that has a rim around the outside so it just takes the gauze netting away from your face and that's just a kind of comfort irritation thing and at the end of the day I'd rather have a Midge net than not have a Mitch net and I find the worst thing in mid season is just cooking merely you know and a gas stove you trying to you know even cooking a quick meal and the midges find you and they're going up your nose and they're in your ear and they're getting your eyes and it's just unpleasant and so just having the Midge nettle so while you're doing those jobs that keep you in one place outside of your tent helps a lot and a midge net just squash it down to nothing and goes in the pocket so that's what I'd recommend and it's it's no more simple than that and if you really really really really really really don't want to go out in midseason then just go out at the time of the year but it's not the end of the world you just have to have a few a few things head net light gloves

windy campsite that's it and probably a tent you don't want to be tarping I've buried it was bivy bags in mid season in in places like Glen Karin and Tory Doolin places used a double hoop bivi bag years ago and while you're you're safe from the midges in there in the bivi bag because it's so small you're either out the bag and having to run around to avoid them or you're in the bag lying down which is fine if you want to sleep but if you just want to sit down in the evening or what have you I think a tent is a much better option you can you know a one-person tent or a two-person tent depending on how many of you there are in your group these days doesn't weigh very much much lighter than 20 years ago you know what my double double hoot bivi bag weighed 20 years ago my hilly burg acto 10 that I use now weighs about the same so I've got a one-person tent which gives me enough room to sit in I can change I can read I can do all of those things I can relax in there away from the midges whereas in the bivi bag ik starts getting quite claustrophobic at all you're out with the midges so I wouldn't be tarping with a bivy I'd be in a tent in mid country unusual growth on leaves and this is a just Instagram I just Twitter this is Twitter this is a question from Twitter from muddy paws and there's a number of pictures there of leaves with little almost like grains of rice sized protrusions coming out the top and the bottom of the leaf and the question is hi Paula I've seen these growths on the leaves of this tree and I don't know what they are any ideas yeah they're eggs of some description of some sort of insect I don't know what species I have to say but they are eggs of an insect and I'm sure other people out there who have a greater knowledge of different insect species will be able to tell us what they are so please under the video wherever you're watching this please leave a comment to let us know what they are but that's what they are and you see them particularly in the spring and the summer you will see these on a number of different tree species different colors but it's not an uncommon sight I don't know what particular species that one is though in terms of the insect another question this one is from Instagram from Andrew Casey rib worked plantain is a picture of the flowers of that species and he says could you please explain from start to finish of when to collect the seed how to process them and how to cook them ready for consumption many thanks for all your hard work and yet so they're not ready in the photo there that you've posted Andrew and they're still in flower the seeds will form after the flowering on those seed heads and when they're ripe they'll come off quite easily and you'll get fine little black seeds you'll get the casings as well and you can winnow them and to just retain the seeds and then to eat them you can do a number of things you can grind them down into a flower and in the field you could do that on a flat stone with a couple of small flat stones it's quite time-consuming for the amount of food value you're gonna get from that but that is something you can do you can make a simple biscuit by if you get enough flour you add some once you've ground it down a bit and the reason you want to grind them down a bit is to make the in inside parts of the seed more available to your digestive enzymes

if you eat whole seeds they tend to go straight through you and without being too graphic

you only need to eat like a multigrain peat a slice of bread and look at what comes out the other end to see the number of seeds and you know sweet corn is another classic example it goes straight through you without your body being able to digest and unless you really really chew it up so what you're doing with the grinding is making sure that it's all chewed up before it goes into your mouth and that's why we grind seeds into flowers so we can access the nutrients better so you're gonna grind it up flat stone mortar and pestle at home you could do you could do to get that fine flower and it's quite tasty it's a little bit peppery it's good you can add it to soups in you know reasonable quantity to give it some thickening and to give it some to give it some flavor and to give it some extra calorific values and carbohydrate it's also quite high in muesli which is good for the good for the stomach and you can you can do that you can make little patties and roast them on a rock next to a fire so if you had absolutely nothing you could collect the the plantain seeds in quantity winnow them grind them down and add some water put them on a warm rock and I've done that on exercises where we've been living off the land and it's it's a lot of it's quite a lot of work but it's quite a nice result you get like a little biscuit and that you can that you can kind of nibble on and it's not a bad flavor or as I say you can add it into other things the other thing that I've done with it with mixed results is something that was recommended to me is once you've got this

and grind them a bit and then dry fry them in the bottom of a billy can if you've got one or bottom of a metal mug and then add that into a soup or a stew or something and with the aim of releasing a bit more nutrition the first time I tried it I overdid the heat and I basically charred the the flour I didn't really realize because it's quite dark-colored anyway it's quite a dark brown color and I didn't realize that I'd charred it I added it to this soup that we made and it tasted of charcoal it didn't taste very good at all and that's all we had to eat so we ate it anyway but it wasn't great and so yeah do be careful about charring the flour but that's that's it basically it's like any seed when it's ready to come off the seed head they'll come off very readily we know them grind them and then use them in any way that you'd normally use flour you could try adding them to a banach even if you wanted to mix it with wheat flour and that's something you could do if you wanted to bolster some basic rations that you might have with you so hopefully that helps and how about have a play with that and let me know how you get on all right Cheers I think that's it we've rattled through a number of questions there yet with all seven we have done so thank you very much to those questions to the people who answer ask those questions and hopefully the answers to those were useful and interesting to you if you've got any comments on my answers or those questions please go to my blog at Paul curtly co uk find episode 59 of a sport curtly and leave a comment under the episode you can see this episode on youtube you can listen to it on itunes the apple podcasting app on other platforms as well podcast platforms and you can see the video and listen to the audio directly via my blog at Paul curly coat UK as well and there is a separate RSS feed for each of my podcasts so for the Paul Kelly podcast and the a sport Curley podcast and there's a separate RSS feed in addition to the RSS feed for my blogs if you want to subscribe to them that way you can do as well please choose the method that you wish to subscribe and please subscribe and if you're listening to this or watching this on YouTube and you're not already subscribed to my youtube channel please subscribe to my youtube channel it helps the visibility of my videos the more subscribers I have and it helps you see my videos as soon as they come out because they'll come up in your feed and it's really appreciated if I am aiming to do a few more videos in the coming year Parham I got some plans or four things to do with YouTube videos so if you're not already subscribed to my youtube channel please go to youtube.com forward slash Paul curtly or you can actually just type in Paul curtly dot TV and that will redirect to my youtube channel Paul curtly dot TV and that will go straight to my youtube channel please subscribe lovely to have you there as well if you're not already there and I will be putting out some interesting YouTube videos in addition of course to the asphalt curtly so you know it'd be good that you see those if you're interested thank you very much for your support thank you very much for your interest I am going to continue with my walk now circle back to where I started while the weather remains good enjoying these lovely Scots pine forest there are clumps of Heather here Spagna moss there are labour ease and Ling on although there's no berries now they're all finished but the leaves are here it's lovely

woodland of this type and I'm going to enjoy that for the rest of the day I hope you enjoy the rest of your day thanks for listening thanks for watching and I will catch you on episode 60 the next episode of ask Paul curtly take care

[Music]

[Music]

you