Technology In The Way? Camp Set-Up Times, Rust Prevention, Slugs | #AskPaulKirtley 60
Description
Welcome to Episode 60 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about computer time and technology getting in the way of outdoor experiences, carbon steel bushcraft knife rust prevention, favoured duvet jackets, water filtration combined with other methods of water purification and time necessary to set up camp.
TIMESTAMPS:
02:16 Computer time and technology getting in the way of outdoor experiences
40:40 Bushcraft knife rust prevention
45:04 Duvet jackets
46:25 Water filtration combined with other methods
54:56 Time necessary to set up camp
1:04:22 Slug invasion
1:12:52 Trail mix
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,water filter,rust prevention,duvet jackets,computer time,technology and the outdoors
Video Transcription
in this episode of as Paul curtly we are going to be talking about computer time and technology getting in the way of direct experience outdoors bushcraft knife rust prevention in wet climates duvet jackets we're going to talk a little bit about water filtration combined with other methodologies for water sterilization time to take to set up camp what our reasonable expectations a slug invasion and trail mix [Music]
welcome welcome to episode 60 of ask pool curtly we've made it to 60 and I'm now back in the northeast of England where I'm spending a bit of time out and about and some of you may recognize this spot it's just on the way past one of my favorite walks looping back at the end of the day so it is getting a little dingy if you're watching on the video you will see the light fading a little bit it's quite windy today I've tried to drop down I know this is a relatively sheltered spot in the bottom of a little Gill and there's a Beck flowing through here the wind out in the fields is stronger I've dropped down here and below some Norway spruce on that side I've got a nice big oak tree here so I'm relatively sheltered but apologies if there is any wind noise on the audio particularly if you're listening on the audio only podcast so without further ado I'm going to crack on with these questions and make use of the available alight and just going through the order that they've dropped into this file for this episode and first question is from George and George is asking about computer time and technology and his question is hi Paul I really appreciate your output on line the information you give through this series the s port curtly and your blog posts as well as your podcast is fantastic I noticed that all the asphalt Kirklees apart from maybe the bush craft show episode are hosted in the open air it easily gives the impression that you are constantly outdoors but I'm guessing you spend a lot of time editing videos and audio files writing blog posts and I've also noticed that you seem to take the time to respond to comments on your blog between all this Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube I'm guessing you spend a lot of time in front of a computer or your phone how do you feel about these technologies and them getting in the way of direct experiences in the outdoors thanks George well that's a really good question George and I know I say that a lot about questions that they're good questions and but that's an interesting one it's not directly about bushcraft per se or even outdoor life per se but I'm guessing that most of you that are watching or listening to this our people who enjoy the outdoors but you also enjoy listening to or watching or reading or all three material about the outdoors and maybe even in particular about bushcraft and survival skills and so that's something that's relevant to all of us and yes it in short there is a balance to be struck there George and it and it's a it's a question I'm quite happy to openly answer you know I could read that as a bit of a criticism in the sense that oh you're an outdoorsman but you spend all your time doing this this computer stuff and that's that's a question that should be thrown at people like me who are producing material and sharing it online it's also a question that should be thrown at other people that are sharing material on YouTube on Instagram and I think it probably should also be put in front of people who are writing books because writing books is a very time-consuming process generally ask anybody who's written a book the word count in books can be 62 in an outdoors book sixty to ninety thousand words hundreds of photographs or illustrations it's a big job producing a book takes a long time as well so anybody who is sharing material through any channel including television and filming professionally
is also time-consuming setting up shots getting multiple angles having an audio person they're having a cameraman they're getting all of the logistics sorted it's time-consuming and expensive and then of course there's all the editing and voiceover work for them and promotion of shows and so anybody who is sharing material sharing their knowledge sharing their experience the question is valid for all of us and I think it's a good one so for me and I do what I do full-time for starters and I don't have another job I don't have another work place that I go to where I'm doing this on weekends what I do is what I do and this this is the life that I lead and I teach people and I would say I spend about 20 weeks of the year teaching students on courses and leading clients on trips and sometimes a little bit less sometimes a little bit more depends on whether I'm doing any private things but that's generally just as a baseline I would say if I'm going to divide my time I'd say I spend about 20 weeks of the year through from late March through til about now so late October early November when this has been recorded this has been recorded in the last week of October 2017 I spend about that amount of time outdoors and then I also do my own trips weekends away canoeing trips in the winter any any of the winter camping stuff you've seen in recent years with my friend Ian in particular that's all on my own time hiking in the mountains and just generally spending time outdoors like now I'm staying with my parents for a few days for four days and I will be out every day I'm here doing something for at least half the day every day tomorrow I'm going out for a hike for the whole day Friday I'll be out all day and Saturday morning I'll be out and so I do spend a lot of time outside and unfortunately I can only share a certain amount of that we're lucky now in a way in terms of me sharing stuff that a lot of the places that I work in the UK whether it be in East Sussex where we have one of our main teaching sites or the lake district or Scotland and where I work regularly every year all of those places have half-decent mobile phone coverage and so I can regularly share Instagram posts for example I really enjoy sharing one or two or three most Instagram posts every day and just showing things that we're up to and trying to inspire people to get out and that's part of the reason I do it I want to try and encourage people to come out and yes do things with me of course I'm going to be honest about that but also just get out and use the skills that they're learning maybe they've come on a course with us already maybe they've watched YouTube videos and they should be going out and practicing those things and just getting out and in interacting with nature going out and seeing what they can see going out at all times of the year as well if I can set an example to show that I am out of a lot of the time whether it's be the summer autumn winter spring hopefully that encourages people to get out a bit more as well quite a few strong gusts of wind coming through there I hope that's not affecting the mic too much at the moment so one of my motivations for sharing online and it is it is something that I have to keep in mind to remember to do things to remember to share things remember to take photographs and part of my motivation for doing that is to inspire other people to get out and enjoy the outdoors enjoy nature and I think that's important because otherwise people don't value it if you don't if you're not there and you're not seeing what's going on with birds in the hedgerows and animals in the forest and animals in the fields and going out and fishing and doing what you do outdoors canoeing
then you you're removed from it I think there's direct benefits there's direct benefits to your health both in terms of physical exercise being in a natural environment and then of course you value the environment as well so I think it's important to try and be be an example and to and to encourage others outdoor so that's part of the reason I do what I do now I mentioned I spend about 20 weeks a year out with customers students clients and I tend to have 10 to 12 people at most on any course or trip sometimes less some of our wilderness trips we might take less at 7 or 8 maybe so at most maybe I'm having direct contact with 2 to 300 people a year and where I can help them have an outdoor experience I can share skills I can coach them directly in those skills I can help get them up there the learning curve not to be too cliche don't know some people don't like that phrase but to get from A to B with their learning goals as quickly as possible and that feedback loop that is available when you have an experienced instructor and it's good at teaching you know myself and my colleagues that we can share those skills and we can shooter you and we can help you and we can tweak your skills and get you to a point that maybe would have taken you multiple multiple weeks just by trial and error on your own and we can do that in a week-long course that's very valuable but there's a limited number of people that we can do that for in any given year and so I want to have it sounds egotistical and it maybe it is but I want to have more of an impact than that I am very grateful that I'm in the lucky position where I have had the opportunity to have a lot of great experiences outdoor travel a lot and to have some great mentors and great people to work with over the years and that it would being entirely selfish of me to try and just keep that for myself and yes I'm interested and I've always been interested in wilderness skills survival skills bushcraft the mountains the rivers paddling walking I'm a Mountain leader I'm a canoe leader as well as being a bushcraft instructor
I love foraging I like some aspects of shooting I like fishing I like the outdoor life and I want to be able to share my experience and experience that I've had learned from others and the knowledge that I've learned from others working with people like Ray Mears and Laos files and David Scott Donnellan and numerous other people and try and share my perspective on those things with other people and I want to be able to affect more than a couple of hundred people a year yes I want to do that don't want to dilute that but equally I want to be able to share that knowledge more widely and that's one of the reasons I started my blog seven years ago I started that blog and there are hundreds of thousands of people who visit that blog every year whether they're repeat visitors which I know a lot of you that are watching this and listening to this are or whether they're people who are googling a particular question and they're finding the answer in my material and that makes me happy it makes me happy to see that there are a large percentage of the people who are visiting my site who are not in the UK so they are people who I would probably have never connected with they will probably never have learned anything from me they would probably never have had the benefit of me putting that information out unless there was the internet unless I put it on on the web unfortunately there's a limit to how much of that I can do as well because as you've rightly said George that it takes time writing personally writing I find takes the longest sitting down to write the process of typing and I can touch type it's one of the things I learnt at school and I did an information technology course when when I was 16 15 and 16 and one of the things they taught us to do was to touch type and it was been a very very useful skill the fact that I can type pretty quickly even so in the ideas down on paper by typing is relatively slow
I do sometimes make voice notes while I'm out and about ideas and because when I'm out in the woods and I'm out a lot as I've said it's the inspirational place it's where the idea has happened and I like to try and make notes I do use my phone as a notebook I make notes in notebooks as well and and I do sometimes use voice recording and then I've got a pool of ideas and thoughts and inspiration there for when I get back to my office to my study and I can hone some of those ideas into articles whether it be for publications whether it be for magazines or whether it be for my own blog or the frontier bushcraft blog which I contribute to along with other people who who work for me and that's the idea there is that that that inspiration that comes from being out is then fed out to other people so there's some technical knowledge there there's some experiential stuff there's some safety advice etc etc and we want to share that with people so they get the most out of the outdoors and that's really as I say my motivation but there's a limit to how much of that I can do writing is quite a slow process going back I tend to write stuff down leave it for a few days come back to it reread it edit it leave it maybe a little bit longer come back again and try and hone it and then put it out and that's a slow process and when my blog became more popular in the early days in the first few days first few years and I started to get a lot of emails and I used to try and answer all of them and it got to the point a few years ago where I just couldn't I just couldn't keep up partly because I was out a lot and in the woods teaching and when I'm teaching I struggle to even look at emails never mind keep on top of them and so what I was finding was I was spending an awful lot of time when I got home trying to play catch-up with emails with Facebook messages etc etc and one of the things I found was that people are asking similar questions over and over and over again that was upon a few inspirations for starting a sport curtly and so that I could answer questions in a relatively timely fashion and I could get them back out to people and it wasn't just the person who asked the question who received my reply by email who benefited because typing a response takes about four or five times longer than speaking the response and what I'd started doing as I say I used voice recording sometimes to get ideas down I was recording the answer and attaching the audio file and sending it back to people and then I thought why don't I just do that publicly and then everyone gets the benefit so that's how I started this so it was something I was trying to do but failing to to answer everybody and certainly when I was getting similar questions I was struggling to answer all those questions repeatedly and I thought right let's do let's do this podcast and originally it was just gonna be audio but then I thought let's do video as well because that that benefits everyone it benefits people who prefer to watch on YouTube it benefits people who prefer to listen on a podcast via iTunes Apple podcasting app wherever you listen so it was an it was trying to be more efficient that led to doing these things and so when I first started what was really interesting was that I was more elaborate if you watch the early shows which I hope you have done you'll see that I had somebody reading the questions out for me initially in person and then I had somebody recording them as a voiceover I also maybe put a little bit of music in there and it did take time to edit those and I was finding that they took too long whether it was me that was doing it or somebody else that was doing it they just took too long to produce so you'll notice now it's a very very streamline streamlined if I can speak a streamline production in the sense that I just sit down turn the camera on and I talk and if I fall over my words saying things like streamlines I leave it in because editing it out takes too long and getting multiple different angles of the place that I am takes too long somebody suggested to me a couple of years ago oh it would be wonderful if you filmed yourself
walking into the area film the area a little bit more where you were so that we could see where you are and that no because it takes too long I wouldn't be able to do as many of these shows if I was doing that so basically I take my camera out with me and when I get the opportunity to I sit down I put it on a tripod and I talk to it and I answer the questions which I basically have in a file sharing system on my phone so what I'll do to be efficient is that once in a while I will sit down and I will pull all the questions in off Twitter all the questions in off Instagram all the questions in off speakpipe all the questions in off email and I will quickly go through them and see what they're about give those questions are heading and then I will basically put them into a little reservoir of questions and then I will say right I need six or seven for the next one and I'll just go right bang bang bang just randomly select move them over into the next episode and then that's what I've got on my phone and then I quickly go through so I do very little preparation and I just talk off the top of my head and sometimes it can be a little bit rambley sometimes you get the benefit of seeing the cogs work as it were but the important thing is that I get them out and people get the benefit from them even if I could spend more time polishing them so it's a relatively straightforward thing for me to produce and it was aimed specifically at solving a problem which I had which was I couldn't answer the questions that I was getting and even when I could only one person was getting the benefit of me answering the question so that wasn't the great use of my time this is a better use of my time and that's how I have to judge these things what's a good use of my time what benefits the community out there that wants to know the things that I know and so that's one of my motivations for doing it I want to get that information out there I want to get that experience out there you may not agree with everything that I say you may not like my delivery style etc etc but that's fine there are other people that maybe suit you better but the important point is that people that my stuff does resonate with they get the benefit the maximum number of people get the benefit and that's why I do it I try and make my workflows efficient as possible I'm fortunate I think as well in that I've always been reasonably good with technology I've always had a passion for photography so taking photographs of trees and plants and nature and adventures that I've been up to is something that I've always done I the first badge I ever did in scouts was my photography badge and I took some photographs from the Great Orme in North Wales and plundered no and I took some photographs of an air show and put them in an album and that was part of what I did for my photography badge in sorry not in Scouts actually in Cubs and so photography has always been a passion of mine it's something that continues and the video is a little bit of an extension of that but I have to say I find videoing a lot of what I do too time-consuming so unfortunately for you guys there's a lot of stuff that I get up to that you don't see and there are trips that I've done and there are trips that I've done this year that I've we've got video footage of but just have not had the time to sit down and edit them and maybe I will over the winter when I spend a bit more time indoors darker nights a bit more time indoors but even so there'll be only a certain amount that I get done and I mentioned in the last a sport currently that I've got some plans for my youtube channel I would like to get a bit more out on YouTube but more practical stuff on YouTube a bit more of what we're doing in terms of trips and how we how we manage those and what we do on trips because I think that's of benefit to people and again it's about being of benefit but maximising the use of my time I do enjoy writing and when we could go back to the writing it helps anybody who's done any writing will probably tell you that it helps crystallize your thinking on things if you have to write an essay on something it crystallizes your thinking so I used to hate writing essays at school and I didn't really enjoy English particularly much I had some good English teachers not some and some not-so-good English teachers I was good at sciences I was good at maths I was good at art and I ended it jiae's I ended up doing a-levels in maths further maths physics economics and general studies and the only a-level I had to do essays for work was economics and then I went did a maths degree and didn't have to write any essays apart for me some of my subsidiary subjects which I enjoyed and philosophy of science and a few other bits and pieces so I didn't really like writing but the thing I do like doing is writing about subjects that I'm passionate about because it helps crystallize my thinking getting it down on paper honing it down and then sharing it out with other people and then when I'm talking about things that that thinking has been crystallized I've thought through things and I've come to certain conclusions or I've looked at things from different perspectives and when I'm talking when I'm doing a presentation whether I'm teaching the course you get the benefit of that as well so to me writing is part of my process of reflecting on what I do and so it I would be doing that anyway I'll be writing notes I'd be reflecting I'd be journaling about what I do and if I can turn some of that into articles that's great so I find that as sort of an essential part of what I do these days anyway
Photography is something that I've always done and the podcasts have been interesting and the the podcaster Paul curtly podcasts if you don't listen to the paul kelly podcast then you're missing out there are some fantastic guests I've had on the Paul curtly podcast so again bringing together wide range of experience and knowledge and sharing it with you and they are conversations every single conversation that I've had on Nepal currently podcast is a conversation I would have loved to have had anyway even if the microphone wasn't turned on so again I am getting the benefit of that I'm getting the benefit I'm learning I'm asking questions of the person that's a guest and you're getting the benefit of eavesdropping if you like on that conversation so that is again a way of mean leveraging and what really interests me anyway but other people getting
benefits so that's the way I tend to look at it is how can i leverage the things that I love doing anyway how can i leverage the things that beneficial to me that I really enjoy photography writing about my passion and sharing some of that with other people the video side of things I'm still getting to grips with I I do quite enjoy the creativity of editing and particularly with a with a whiskey in hand or a nice glass of red wine on a cold winter's evening and just having the time to work through and put and craft something I quite enjoy that but equally I have to say I find it massively time-consuming in terms of the amount of content that I can put out and so that's something which I still grapple with in finding the right balance I have to say with making videos apart from these which are very easy to do and that brings me on to one other thing you mentioned the bushcraft show presentation and there was a similar question about the amount of content that I put out of the bushcraft show and one of the things I mentioned there remember mentioning is that I work hard yep I don't work 40 hours a week yet I tend to work in terms of I'm out teaching or I'm filming or I'm doing interviews or I'm working on my business and I work about 90 hours a week and I watch very little television so while people might be going to work you know commuting a bit working 9:00 to 5:00 or 9:00 to 6:00 coming home having a dinner watch innocent game of Thrones or whatever your favorite TV show is or sport I don't do that I watch zero sports on television i watch the occasional series such as I don't know Breaking Bad for example but generally I can go a month without watching television even when I'm at home and that this is nothing that I would rather be doing than writing sorting out photographs labeling them working through things for articles editing videos somebody recently to me we were running a river spey trip and somebody asked me what do you do for leisure when I actually struggled to answer that question because I don't really I do occasionally like going out for a meal I do like watching good movies I like reading a good novel and I like reading science fiction I like reading factual books about nature but generally a lot of what I do whether its first thing in the morning last thing at night throughout the day whether I'm at home whether I'm out is to do with what I do for a living and what I do because it's my passion and so that's very integrated so I'm really really grateful and I think I'm in a great position and I'm very I don't take it for granted that I'm able to balance my passion and my work in that way not that it's really a balance if you see what I mean so what I can I can sustain that and so I'm very happy with being able to share stuff and to spend a huge amount of time outside I like to try and get on a few courses myself every year as well as doing things like the podcast interviews I like to try and get and you know try and get information in I read quite a lot and I read while I'm on trips I write notes while I'm on trips and try and just filter and organize my thoughts and my thinking and also try and get information in and I also like to do some courses and professional qualifications training courses and that take my knowledge and skill level up in different ways as well and and so a lot of my time is spent on this stuff and so to answer your question there are 40 hours in a normal working week there are 160 odd hours in a week there you could do two full-time jobs and still be only using half of your time and so think about that in terms of people like me who spend a huge amount of time on their passion and we are not doing 40-hour weeks we're doing 80 hour weeks at least and we are not doing the sorts of things that a lot of I don't have any kids I don't have to commute other than I've just worked in Scotland for three weeks I have to get there but once I'm there I'm there when I'm working and from my office at home in my study my commute is very short and I don't spend a lot of time commuting and when I do it's in one batch and then I'm in the play to go down to Sussex and working down there for several weeks I've got one commute at the beginning one commute at the end of it and so I'm I've organized my life so I'm quite efficient with the use of my time as well and then I use it to the maximum to get everything I can in terms of knowledge and also sharing as much knowledge out to other people as well and and that's what I love doing it doesn't feel like work it doesn't feel like work so that's how I managed to produce so much and still do a lot of stuff outdoors and I've got a lot planned for the winter and into the spring before we start with our full course season again and I've just I spent 28 days 27 days sorry of September in Canada I spent three weeks of October in Scotland I'm spending the last few days of October up here in the northeast of England three weeks of August I was outdoors so on and so forth so yeah I do spend an awful lot of time outdoors and if there's any doubt about that I you know I am NOT a phony in that sense I do have some concerns though that there are people who have big followings on Instagram and YouTube who do not do what they do full-time there are people on YouTube who are managing stores who are working in an office and who do their YouTube channel on the weekends in the evenings and they go and do a few trips every year and they do a couple of trips and take a lot of photos and share them out over the course of the year and there are some people who are making themselves out to be more than they are and they are giving the impression that they are outdoors all the time but they manage a
Christel they managed a DIY store there are some people who say they're full-time bushcraft instructors but they manage a DIY store I know these people I know this for a fact I'm not gonna name names and I think the world out there the audience is not stupid you can pick out the phonies from the people who are genuinely involved in outdoor education full-time that's what I am I'm involved in outdoor education full-time my role if you like and it's self-appointed but my role what I try to do is educate people about outdoor skills and about nature and about how those two things fit together that's what I do and I'm very very glad to be in the position that I'm in and I'm very very glad that people watch my material online listen to my material online and the fact that people do leave comments on my blog means that I'm resonating with people that people are taking the time to answer I want to respect that and answer them as well so I do prioritize answering things on my blog over answering things on social media for example because that's the core community people who come to my blog who ask questions who make comments and and I don't always get the chance to answer all of them or to comment on them I read every single one and a lot of them make me think about things a lot of them make me question things in different ways and that's a great benefit for me as well and other people reading those comments some of the articles I've written have scores if not hundreds of comments on them and there's a wealth of knowledge and experience in different perspectives in those comment sections as well which wouldn't be there if I hadn't have put that thing and that initial piece there in the first place so I'm very very glad and thankful to be in the middle of that and and enabling that for other people as well so that's why I do what I do it isn't always easy I don't always get as much material out as I would like to and but it's a passion of mine and I and I love doing it in terms of other people and
things getting in the way of yeah if people are constantly trying to Instagram and you know one of the reasons I don't do a lot of life stuff and and sort of I tried snapchat for about 10 minutes and Instagram stories I do a little bit sometimes but they kind of get in the way I like photography I'll take photos I'll take photos with my phone I'll take photos I often care I've always got a camera with me often got a DSLR with me and it's worth me carrying it I enjoy taking photographs and they enjoy sharing beautiful images and interesting images of nature and adventure with other people and if and if people enjoy those then that boosts my my enjoyment as well I get something back from that so not to say that I don't enjoy people enjoying my material I do I don't want to sound too selfless you know there's a there's a little kind of positive feedback loop there for me as well so that that's why I do what I do that's why I think they the electronic side is valuable and I can reach a much bigger audience and I can reach a bigger audience without having any intermediaries I don't have to deal with the publisher I don't have to deal with a production company I don't have to deal with a radio production company or a TV production company I don't have to deal with in a book publisher and an editor and all of those things I can put what I want out direct to you and that's why I think if you use the Internet in that way in a positive way it's massively beneficial but yeah I agree you don't want it in between you and nature all the time when you're out and you want to put your phone away and go around and see what you can see here what you can hear listen to the birds alarm calling see the rabbits the foxes they listen to the buzzards all of which has been going on today while I've been out and about listen to the pheasant and going up to roost all of those things that you if you've got your head in your phone why aren't about you won't you won't notice so read up on things while you're at home listen to podcasts while you're on your commute or in the gym or walking your dog but then go out and use your eyes in your ears and benefit from that as well and use the two together in a beneficial way and that that's what I think and yeah if you've got your phone out all the time and you're trying to snapchat everything and Instagram everything and video you and your friends or if you're doing stuff just for the sake of getting a good Instagram photo then you're kind of perverting the benefits of being outdoors just go out and enjoy go out and have adventures go out and camp go out and build shelters go out and have a fire and make your water safe and get the experience of being out there and interacting with the natural world spending nights out under the trees and under the stars and put the phones away yes take a few photos there's nothing wrong with that I love photography but just soak up the atmosphere when you're out and that that's minimal technology I would say in that sense and then when you're at home you can give succor to your interest your passion when you're at home when you're on your way to work when you're in the gym as I say you can get the benefit of all that information that's out there reading watching listening and I think that just the last thing on that point just in case anybody's not convinced and when I was a kid there was virtually nothing on television that was relevant to my interest in in what was then you know survival skills and outdoor adventure there wasn't a huge amount on television at all and lofty wiseman cropped up occasionally and latterly Mears appeared but most of what we had access to were books and some of the books were not readily available and the occasional magazine and that cropped up and had some useful stuff in it like combat and survival the original multi-part series there's a lot of stuff in there about tanks and planes and machine guns and things but there was survival stuff in there there's some unarmed combat stuff in there which I found quite interesting and having gone on to do a couple of martial arts up to black belt level I found that stuff interesting even as a kid and I suspect where the interest came from and but it was hard to get the info and it was hard to cross-reference the info now there is tons of information there's good quality information out there and there's some bad quality information out there but at least you can cross-reference it you can join communities you can connect with people a like-minded and have similar interest all over the world that's something I could not do when I was younger
yeah 30 years ago when I was first getting interested in these things I could not do that he used to come to this area here and we used to we used to build shelters and we used to play hide-and-seek and all sorts of stuff in this area exactly this area my parents have been in the same village for it for a long time but yeah we we had a limited information and I think once you start getting more information and if you if your filters are good then you can get up that learning curve sorry to annoy the people who don't like that cliche and find me some alternative terminology that that gets that point across without me using that term happy they'll give me problems give me solutions and get you up that learning curve quicker than you ever could before and then you can go out and apply it and then you get the direct experience that feedback loop and then you can come back and learn more and you can layer on more and more and more
you've got more and more ability to expose yourself to different skill sets now than ever before and I think that's only a good thing but you do need a filter because there's so much noise out there and that's that's important thank you for the question good opportunity to discuss that and let me know what you think in the comments below this poll curtly Cote UK under episode 60 of a sport curtly and it is actually getting dark now I appreciate I talked about that a lot but I think it's important I think it's increasingly important and technology is not going to go away and it's important right next question bushcraft and rust prevention in wet climates and a duvet jacket question and this is from Gunther and Gunter's question is and I always enjoy your but curtly videos and yeah it wasn't it wasn't good - he's just commenting on somebody give me a hard time and his question is I'd like to ask you how you prevent your oh one bushcraft knife from rusting in wet climates I find this quite challenging here in Germany and I assume it is the same in the UK do you use a special oil and then you've got a second question having asked this I would like to ask you another question what do they jacket have you used was it a sleeker jacket many thanks best regards from Hannover Gunther right mo1 yeah if you leave I mean a lot of people know this but if you leave oh one or other high carbon steel knives damp and they will rust quite quickly and what I do at home I'll sharpen the knife up and get it up to good good scratch and I'll use a little bit of camellia oil typically or I use ballista out in the field
I will always make sure it's dry before it goes back in the sheath that's really important whether you're using a plastic sheath or a leather sheath if you're using an O one tool steel knife make sure it's dry before it goes back in the sheath the problem with oh one knives comes when you get the sheath wet if it's a leather sheath plastic sheath is relatively easy to dry out leather shoes are hard to dry out and which is why I don't you know why I no longer use oh one knives on canoe trips because on real wilderness trips and I've said this before which is why I'm going over it quickly I like to have my knife on my belt so for example the trips that we did in Canada in September I like to have a knife and a saw on my belt so that I am not separated from those things at any point in time and but if you fall in which happens sometimes or maybe you just have to wait and maybe you're lining your boat maybe you have to wait and you're coming up to the point where you're getting the sheath wet and that's gonna stay wet for a number of days the knife is going to get rusty there's nothing you can do about that so I use a stainless steel knife on canoe trips now there's a gray squirrel running around in the spruce above me here yep stainless steel so I typically use my personal life my best knife is an r WL 34 version of the knife that I designed and which I love for wilderness use but I've also been using the Morrigan Berg recently which is being good as well which is a stainless steel knife in and the version I've got it's got a leather sheath as well so stainless steel for canoe trips but otherwise I do use an o1 knife and it's just a case of making sure it goes back into the sheath dry and the sheath doesn't get wet and the chances of the sheath getting soaking wet in anything other than a canoe type environment are fairly limited I don't do many river crossings if you were doing river crossings and you fell in and you slipped in even you just slipped over and got up again yes there's a chance but I'm not doing a huge amount of that in my day-to-day life and so the chances of getting it wet are limited just make sure it's dry when it goes in if you want to use a bit of oil in the in the field a little bit of ballista or camellia oil and a tiny little dropper works fine as well or if you're just in camp and you've got a bit of food oil around or even just a bit of grease you know cutting some salami Oh Kate might not be good in terms of bacteria but if you've sharpened it in particular I like to put something on it because you've just made the steel very open to the atmosphere and I like to put a little bit of oil on a little bit of grease on it just to help keep condensation off it if nothing else because that in itself can corrode so yeah that that's that's my answer to that I don't find it particularly difficult to keep them corrosion free as long as they go back into the sheath dry and once I've sharpened it it's put there's some oil put on of some description or fat do very accurate I think you're probably asking about the green one that I sometimes wear that is made who was that made by a nun knock and I don't know if they still make them anymore and I suspect they don't there are similar ones that pack make similar ones and the other duvet jacket that I used quite a lot is a mounting equipment worn which goes very nicely under some of my other jackets like them their owner recon I made a video about that some time ago that combination and Fitzroy jacket Mountain Equipment Fitzroy jacket is is the one and that I've used and then winter trips far north Sweden
dry cold I use the old Swedish m90 over jacket as a mother ship Skeeter's I tend to use a down jacket I have a hydrophobic down Pertex endurance outer RAB jacket can't remember the name of the model name but that's very good as well so it's host of all the different Devo jackets that I currently have in service for different types of trips all outdoors by the way water filtration combined with other methods such as boiling or chemicals this question is from Instagram is from Adrian Bell Adrian says I'm upgrading to an MSR gravity filter I was told water treatment is a choice of coarse filter and boil or fine filter and chemical can you find filter and boil I don't see why not and I understand that course and chemical is a bad idea thank you for such an amazing series of podcasts and blogs there they're always full of good info don't know where you find the time well please see the ants that the long answer to the first question for that last bit regards a very happy Adrian after four nights disappearing in Wales and he's got a photo of a Milbank bag feeding into a Nalgene bottle there next to a little meth burner and a metal mug over the top of it so the important thing with water filtration is to start at the beginning of water
if ocation what a sterilization and not just filtration yet start at the beginning and understand what it is that you're trying to achieve and you do that by understanding what the potential problems are why are you even bothering to do anything to the water why you're not just drinking it there's a stream over there why am i not just drinking the water straight out of the stream why do I need to do anything to it well it's because there are some problems and you need to understand what those problems are again I've written articles about this you can go to my blog five water contaminants you need to know about but basically there are three categories of pathogenic organisms you need to worry about protozoa bacteria and viruses you need to worry about floating bits you need to worry about floating bits or turbidity that are organic matter decaying leaf litter sand soil mineral material and anything that's floating around that is going to make the water murky that's another category and then you also need to worry about chemical pollutants heavy metals that type of thing pesticides included in that agricultural runoff in terms of nitrates and all those sorts of things and that's it those are the things you need to worry about and what you do to the water is aimed removing those things from the water now in some places all of those things are not present in many places all of those things are not present it's a subsection of those things two subsets subset of those five which are present and you are going to select a methodology which deals with what the local conditions are if you don't know what the local conditions are and you should assume that there are pathogenic organisms in there if you look at the water and it's cloudy its turbid that's easy and you kind of need to have a bit of local knowledge to find out whether or not there's there's any sort of chemical pollution is there a chemical plant nearby read the guidebook is there some sort of water table pollution from old mining operations those sort of things you can find those things out and whether or not you need to deal with that so in terms of pathogenic organisms protozoa things like Giardia Cryptosporidium are quite large that easy
to filter out with fine filters some of the larger bacteria you can filter out with fine filters viruses don't tend to be swimming around because they don't do that on their own they tend to be inside bacteria and attach to things like feces and if your if you're removing the turbidity you're going to remove a lot of the organic matter that things can be attached to so chemicals will deal with certain thing pathogenic organisms and chlorine will not kill protozoa chlorine and will not work very well if there's lots of organic matter in the water iodine works better but it won't necessarily kill crypto Spur idiom and it won't necessarily kill some strains of Giardia and then chlorine dioxide which either which is your other option really will kill everything and but it's quite expensive for the amount of water you can produce so you've got a number of different options course filtration Milbank bags brown bags now go to the episode 23 of the pork Utley podcast right have an interview and discussion with Rupert Brown who put into production the brown bag as a replacement superceding if you like the Milbank bag that's very interesting there and we talk about these things in more detail so please check that out I'll try and remember to put a link to that in the show notes here as well as if you're listening on if you're watching on YouTube wherever the thing appears here the cards I will put it up there as well and if I remember giving myself more to do in the editing process every time I say one of those things I give myself more to do and going back to the first question so I try and limit it and but that's an important one going listen to that interview with Rupert so the point being is that there are a number of different methods that deal with different aspects of your water purification boiling will kill all of the pathogenic organisms but it won't remove turbidity so what you end up with in short is that you need a combination of different methods to deal with a combination
problems so without recapping on all the problems the protocols that work really well as combinations that are bomb-proof regardless of what combination of pathogenic organisms and turbidity you have is course filtration and often that is a
Milbank bag or brown bag but equally it could be a piece of parachute silk over the intake of your water pump and system water filtration pump something that stopped the bits getting in then you've got micro filtration which is really really fine ceramic filters typically something like a katadyn pocket filter MSR gravity filter that you've talked about and some of the other filtration systems that are out there have really fine ceramic filter filters in them and that's going to get rid of the larger pathogenic organisms and then you're left with something that is visibly clear and devoid of most of the pathogenic organisms but if you want an absolute bomb-proof
solution you then want to put some chemical treatment in there that's going to kill off anything that might be left there might be some bacteria left in there for example chlorine will kill bacteria as long as the water is relatively clean and but you filtered out the particulate matter you put it through a micro filter as well and then put in chlorine so coarse filtration micro filtration and chlorine works super well that works well on a personal level it also works well in a camp even in places like Africa stirrup pump katadyn filter into a jerrycan chlorine in there that's great that works fine boiling will kill all of the pathogens so if it's murky just use a coarse pre-filter like a mil bank bag or a brown bag then boil it rolling boil and below 2,000 meters or six thousand feet rolling boil will kill everything above 2,000 meters or six thousand feet rolling boil for three to four minutes will kill everything that's your solution and those two are fine micro filtration and then boiling as you've mentioned will also work if you're concerned about there being some bacteria left in there and you don't have any chlorine but it's probably overkill in a lot of places so for example when I go to Canada the main concern
is where I'm going in pretty wild places is mainly Giardia and possibly e.coli mainly Giardia though and just putting it through a micro filter is gonna deal with that you don't need to boil it afterwards or if it's visibly clear just boil it over the campfire and then it's fine as well and but there's nothing wrong with micro filtering and then boiling but it's often overkill to answer your question check out that five contaminants article if you've not seen it on my blog Paul curtly code at UK right that's that question
we've lost where we good time to set up camp this is from Mick via Instagram he says recently I took my 12 year old grandson plus a friend and his father for a few days while camping in Scotland we tried to take a minimal kit and set up camp on arrival my question is how much time do you allow from arriving at a new and unknown site to find a suitable area all the wood craft unnecessary stuff like port hangars etc it took us three and a half hours from landing in our canoes to getting our dinner on we did have a bit of kit to shift and wood was a bit of was a bit tricky I think I supposed to say but would love to know your views we wanted to be settled before nightfall and did allow enough time but it took a bit longer than I thought there was a dangerous dead tree near our site which we made safe which took a bit of time ok so there's kind of a few sub questions there I am actually looking at the screen it's gone dark I'm going to switch the this is the camera that's got the
got the infrared torch on it and you can see me again if you watching on video ten plus six and it's too dark to film alright nice relatively new moon coming up there as well present moon sunset over there crescent moon there not long behind the sunset as you'd imagine so how long does it take and it depends and what does it depend upon it depends upon how experienced the people are for starters and I know if I do a trip with somebody like spoons or Henry or Ian that I work with and we're a small number we'll get stuff set up pretty quickly and because we we're doing it all the time we are setting up tarps regularly you know I've talked earlier about how much time we spend outside and those guys don't spend as much time outside as I do because they do do other things as well as work with me and I run pretty much every single program at frontier bushcraft and so I'm out the most but they are very proficient in all of those skills setting up tarps lighting fires finding water doing things in the right order and this is something I often have to tell students will say to them go and set up a tarp don't set up your camp get a fire going get some water boiled and what the students do is they go and they do it literally in that order and you know go and set up your personal camps get hot water have a brew come back for a briefing that might be something that we would tell students if we got to a camp and they had the basic skills but what they often do is they will go up and they will find somewhere to put their tarps
they will string their tarp up then they will go and find something to make the pegs for the tarps if they don't have some already and they'll do that and then they'll get the Biffy bag out or put the hammock up and then they'll settle everything up and then they'll start getting some firewood in and then they'll go and get some water or even what they'll do is they'll get the firewood in they'll light the fire leave the fire blazing go and get some water come back then put the the the pot next to the fire over the fire that's the wrong order in which to do things if you want to do things quickly the order to do things if you want to do things quickly and this is just an example in that situation is everyone in that group might be working together in a three or a four or even if it's just two of you or even if it's just one of you and go and get the firewood find where you're going to have your fire get you get all that sorted get your water have your pot hanger have everything ready light your fire the first flames as soon as that fire is burning strongly and it's established quickly within a minute of lighting that fire it should be if you've got your preparations right water goes on over the fire light is body's heating then put somewhat bit more firewood in so it's gonna keep going then go and start putting your tarp up somewhere nearby and you should have already thought about where your tarps going to be but not spent any great time on it and then do your tarp stuff if you need to just nip back and put some more firewood in do it but by the time you got your tarp and stuff sorted your basic sleeping kit and it does help hurry you on as well because you water
your water's going to be boiled and then you can have your brew and then you're ready and it's much quicker doing it now we're doing things in the right order makes a huge difference the other thing that makes a huge difference is just proficiency yeah how often do you do these things how many times in the past have you've done them yeah if you doing stuff all the time yep you're quick you know you know the right materials to find you're making a pot hanger you can make the right relevant cuts quickly your knife proficiency is quick for making pot hangers or tent pegs all those things you
efficiency with tarp knots is such that you can tie them very quickly that you can pull all the guy lines to the right angles one of the things that people have commented on on say for example the River Spey trip that we do we had some guys with us last year who are really into their bushcraft that they have YouTube channels and one of the things they said to us was they could not believe how quick we got stuff set up and that when I say we that there was me ray Goodwin and we had spoons with us as well and they'd have set their personal stuff up and they'd come back we've got our personal stuff set up we've got a group camp set up we've got a tripod made we've got kettles boiled and we've got firewood in and it's because we do things in the right order but there's also a proficiency there and very good when is you know exactly on the same page as me on this he gets into camp and he gets his tent up he gets his tarp up he gets changed he gets sorted quickly because he's got a system and having systems and are important now when you're working together as a group on a trip and I know this again from experience particularly when we're guiding people it takes a few days for everyone to get into the system where where is everything you know where's everything packed where's the brew kit how are the pots and pans packed how do we set up this grill and this pot and this pot hanger and all these things after a few days people get into the routine of doing things in a particular order they get to know the top knots they get to know and just how everything works and it's it's more slick so you're right leave plenty of time at the beginning so that you can get those routines going now if you're only out for a day or two those routine routines don't really develop to the extent that they're very efficient and I know from doing you know three to four day trips they start to become more efficient so the Spay trip that you did recently make you'll see that people started to get into the routine people on the trip that we were leading got into the routine better towards the end than at the beginning on longer trips it to get even more slick all with people who were just they just know the score it tends to be quite slick from the beginning and and so it can it can clearly it can vary depending on the resources that are available how tired you are and whatnot but you tend to have this attitude of right okay let's just screw the nut get these things sorted and then we can relax and that's always my attitude I know it's the attitude of people like spoons it's the attitude of people like Henry it's the attitude of people like ray Goodwin we just get stuff sorted as quickly as possible even if we're tired even if we're hungry and then we can relax doing things in the right order and just the more you do it the quicker you'll get at it and personally and then as a group you're gonna have to take a few days to lead into things so yeah it could take you three hours and then if you're including dinner in that is it a simple meal or is it a complex meal does it require people to sit down and chop vegetables or is it literally just boil some water and chuck it in leave it to stand for five minutes it depends in that respect but in terms of setting up a basic personal camp setting up a group camp getting a fire going
getting water boiled getting a brew on it shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes really for those basic things and 30 to 45 minutes depending on how easy the firewood is to get hold of and then from there in terms of getting some more firewood in so you've got enough for the rest of the night got enough for the next morning and making sure that your dinners prepped properly clearly that depends on there on the recipe lots of Jack doors coming out if you can hear those on the on the microphone but that's what that noise is in the backgrounds are all Flocka Jack doors over the back there Slug invasion this is from Jonathan this is from a little while ago and again going back to the first question it does take me a while to get around to answering these questions sometimes and because I am NOT doing it as much as I could be I've got a you know I only ever put what a sport currently out a week at most on average I think it's averaged one every two weeks and I only can answer so many questions and so so yes apologies this is from this is from the beginning of August this one and I know there are some from before that I haven't answered so Jonathan asks a few days ago I did my first overnight wild camp in a wooded area on a hill the conditions were wet and damp and I used a tarp plough point set up with a sleeping bag and bivy underneath during the night I was invaded by slugs which were both on the outside and underside of my tarp over my gear and in my hair it was totally gross and some of my clothing I had to wash twice to get the slime off have I just been unlucky or is this a common problem and if so what can I do in the future to keep the slugs away kind regards Jonathan well slugs are not uncommon in the countryside I've spent years and years and years working outdoors certainly spring through summer through to the beginning of the fall in the same sort of places and I worked for a long time certain places in Sussex are now with frontier we've been using the same area for six or seven years and I have to say the slug population varies in the same place from year to year and it's just you get the same you know if you it's one of the great things and I encourage people on my tree and plant ID masterclass to do this as well as have somewhere that you go to on a regular basis because you get to see the changes through the seasons and if you can go back there from one year to the next as well you get to see that there's a there's an annual variation as well fungi how early leaves come out when flowers come out when certain leaves start to fall we're nuts form how many nuts form how many berries form how much fungi there is what different species of fungi there are all these things vary how many birds there are around how many butterflies when the mozzies appear when there are midges all these things show variation from one year to the next and slugs are no different and they do interact with other things there are certain things that they feed on the certain things that different species of slugs feed on and then there are also things that feed on slugs and you know black birds and other thrush birds turdus they will feed on young slugs but if there aren't so many thrushes around then you get more slugs later on will you get more small slope surviving and then you get more big slugs later in the season moisture dampness has an effect as well and so yes we have had some years where there are just an ordinate of slugs around and they just are a real pest another years you see virtually non at the same time of year as you had a plague of them the previous year so it does vary from year to year it's not uncommon to see slugs and it's not uncommon for slugs to be crawling on your gear if you're if you're on the ground it's if you're bringing your tarp down to the ground as well like it sounds like you did doesn't it doesn't surprise me that you've got slugs climbing up they just go out and explore and yes if you sleep it on the ground you might occasionally get slugs crawling over you so it's something to be expected in the general sense but what can you do well if in terms of keeping it off your tarp you could keep your tarp just a little bit away from the ground that's one thing but clearly there are other aspects to consider there as well depending on the weather how much of a pocket of warm air you want to try and create what's the rain doing all those sorts of things but that's a consideration one of the things that I do when there are a lot of slugs around is I will what I call do a slug patrol literally I'll brush my teeth the last thing I do before I get into bed then I'll walk around my tarp and any large slopes that I can see I will literally just pick them up and throw them you know meters and it's probably a bit cruel but and throw them away so that because they only cover a certain number of meters an hour that if I've just thrown them five meters away then that much further away from me so are any any obvious large slugs that are making their way towards my top just before I go to bed and it doesn't take very long to do because you can spot them pretty easily and chuck them away and then I go to bed and that does diminish things to an extent and and that's about as much advice as I can give you and if you're gonna go out into nature and you are not going to seal yourself in a tent you are going to have some interaction with the environment and with some of the creatures it just stands to reason and and yeah it's unfortunate when you have a right plague of slugs but fortunately in my experience that doesn't happen so often but you should expect to see them sometimes and believe it or not someone to bite some of them do try and feed on you and not to scare people away from the outdoors too much but it's not it's not dangerous it's just it happens from time to time they're just sort of suck your forehead or your hand or something and it that brings me on to another point which I'll go into in more detail at some other point in time but I know you're new to the outdoors Jonathan and this is not and there's certainly new to that style of camping by the sound of it but one of the things you've got to remember is that sometimes when you spend time outdoors there will be some discomforts you will get wet you will get a bit cold you will get a bit hungry there might be a lump under your sleeping mat at night and you might get a drip on your face when you're hanging in your hammock you are not going to be as warm and stable as you might be if you're in a centrally heated bedroom but there are so many more benefits to being outdoors and there are detriments that you suck that stuff up and you hardened over over time yes you get blisters yes you get sore yes you get chafing yes you get wet yes you get smelly you get bitten you have uncomfortable night's sleep things wake you up smoke gets in your eyes things you know things bother you but that's kind of part of what's being a human being in the outdoors rather than isolating yourself from nature that's part of it and while you you should clearly be careful about certain aspects of that so staying clear of sleeping on the ground in areas where there are dangerous insects or snakes or not interacting in negative dangerously negative ways some of some knocks and scrapes and minor burns and minor bites and those sorts of things they're part and parcel of being outdoors and you can't completely immunize and isolate yourself from those things you just can't you can't be in a cocoon that's her whole point and that's not aimed at you Jonathan but it's just some comments that I see from time to time and about what people wanting to be more and more and more comfortable outside it's like stop it let's stop that it's the wrong way of thinking about it yes any fool can be uncomfortable but if your sole focus of going outside is to be comfortable then you're thinking about it the wrong way there are so many other benefits to being outdoors and if you overly focus on one thing you miss all the others verging on a rant they're not quite alright question last question is about trail mix hi Paul as always thanks to the fantastic content you're the gold standard for guidelines in myself study that's very kind thank you thank you Gregor and I have a feeling my question might be a little bit silly but perhaps you can find a place for an ass Paul curtly sometime well it's been a while you asked this question in June so apologies it's taken a while his question is every spring I have a bit of fun with going to the bulk food store and crafting a big batch of trail mix otherwise known as door and anybody who doesn't know what Gorp is I'm amazed at the number of people that don't know what Gorp is Geor P good old raisins and peanuts
Gorp so he makes some Gorp or trail mix for the upcoming summer strips it's become an interesting long-term project picking and testing ingredients and refining my recipe the question is what's your favorite trail mix if you munch on trail mix at all what factors do you consider when mixing it up or do you put that much thought into it in the first place keep up the great work Greg I don't put as much thought into it as I used to Greg and but I do like a good bit of gore and in fact one of the things I had in my pack today and there's a little bit left was some mix that I made up for paddling the Spay the other week and I had some left and I brought it out of my backpack today just to munch on and I had a bit just before I filmed this and just to boost my blood sugar levels so that I wasn't too slow in my responses just to give me a bit of brain energy remember your brain is an obligate glucose consumer and about 25% of your body's energy consumption is usually dedicated to your brain and your brain uses a lot of energy so good tip if you ever do in a talk or answering questions and have a little bit of coffee perhaps and that mobilizes fatty acids and caffeine's stimulant of course and have some a mixture of some simple sugars and slightly more complex sugars and go up is great for that so what do I like to put and go up and I like as a very very basic thing I like to have some dried fruit and very very you know basic version of that is some some raisins or sultanas whatever you want to call them and and I like to put some nuts in there I really like Brazil I like hazelnuts in particular and then I like to put something chocolatey in there and in the past if it's cold I'll get some get a block of milk chocolate Cadbury's milk chocolate here but in other places other other types break it up into into the blocks and mix that up and M&Ms chocolate M&Ms go quite well into my taste in with the nuts and the fruit
I also if I can I like to chuck some seeds in there sunflower seeds pumpkin seeds that type of thing so there's a real mix and nutrients in there and there's some taste and there's some texture I tried peanut M&Ms I don't like them as much because there's the nutty flavor already and it's kind of over does the nuttiness for me so I like regular M&Ms or Smarties Smarties are quite good
dried fruit nuts hazelnuts and so on and so forth I don't tend to put so much Pete I don't I don't like peanuts so much they often have a slightly unpleasant aftertaste if they're not dry roasted and salted and I think the dry roasted and salty versions are probably if you're eating lots of them if you're doing lots of hiking lots of outdoor stuff they're probably not so healthy if it's really hot sweaty weather I might throw some salted peanuts in there as well or even some dry roasted salted peanuts just for a bit of extra salt intake and that's quite nice the sweet and the salty goes quite nice together and but that's about as much as I think think about it and what I will often do these days because they're easy to get hold of is before a trip I will literally buy a bag of mixed fruit nuts and seeds which you can get in some supermarkets some stores here and then I'll just put a couple of bags of those in a ziplock and then I'll put a bag of of chocolate M&Ms in and I'll just shake it up and then I'll decant them out into a bag for for that trip or that that couple of days or what have you and that's about as much as I do these days I had a bad experience with milk chocolate on a hot trip it was only in Scotland but it was a what it just it was one June it came out really hot and Hollow my chocolate blocks melted into his bag of golf and it was just an awful mess so I am a little bit careful about that which is why I think the that the Smarties or the M&Ms are a better better solution because they've got that coating and then of course you could get crazy and throw things like jelly tots or even you know how sour harrybo's sweets and things and there I know some people do that that's kind of fun for a novelty but I've already described what my favorite is and yeah that's that's kind of as as far as I go with it these days I'd be interested to hear what your secret recipe is though if you if you want to let us know Greg and that brings us to the end of this episode it is properly dusky now the sun's gone down the moon is coming out it's relatively clear the breeze is still blowing through the trees that the jackdaws are still going crazy over on the field over there
Jack doors are a small Corvette if you don't know what a jack door is quite cheeky quite intelligent always in big flocks certainly at this time of year quite vocal and I quite enjoy them seeing them so that brings us the end of this I'm going to wander back back up over the over the fields the through the woods to the to the village towards the end of my my loop through here I was hoping to get here a bit sooner sorry if you're watching on video that it's got dark but hopefully it's the verbal content which is important and that you've enjoyed thanks for listening on the audio as well please do subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't subscribed already please do subscribe to the podcast on your favourite platform if you're not subscribed already and you like downloading them that way and if you are not already listening to the poll curtly podcast which is a separate podcast series to the asked poll curtly series I will link to that in the show notes I will link to it on a thing a card here on youtube if you're watching on youtube if you're already on my blog just go to podcast in the top menu and then you it's right next to a sport currently in the top menu and the menu bar and subscribe to that in the way that you want to and that's audio only podcast there's no video there are long-form discussions and interviews with a lot of good information and bringing lots of people's experience in wild and remote places in ethnobotany in anthropology and many other disciplines lots of really high-quality information from those high quality guests that I have everyone from Tristan ghuli to Lou Rudd and Ray Goodwin's being on a course of course a few times as well talking about expedition and canoeing Alyssa Crittenden Lisa Fenton Harry Sepp laws and loads of good quality people and I'm going to continue getting more good quality people on over the coming month so please do subscribe to that and I'm very excited about where that podcast is going if you're not subscribing to the Paul Kelly podcast please as soon as you finish listening to this as soon as you finish watching it go and do that you are missing out if you are not listening to that podcast series thanks for your attention thanks for your questions keep them coming in and I will see you on the next episode of ask Paul curtly take care and get your cells outdoors [Music]
[Music]
you
[Music]
About the Author
Paul Kirtley
Bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor safety with professional instructor Paul Kirtley.
More articles from this author
- Bushcraft Courses Behind The Scenes - Easter Weekend Snapchat Feed
- Bushcraft: How To Tie A Taut Tarp Hitch
- Axe Techniques: Firewood Splitting On Snow
- How To Poop In The Woods
- How To Pack A Week's Food Into A PLCE Side Pocket
- Improvised Coffee Percolator
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 2 - Bivvy Bags, Tarps, Titanium Pots, Watches & Wardrobes...
- Lightweight Tarp And Bivvy Set Up
- Fire Dragon Fuel Gel From BCB - Initial Thoughts
- Water Filters, Pignut Recipes, Emergency Communications | #AskPaulKirtley 49
- Beginning Bushcraft - Which Knife To Choose?
- Survival Tins, Space Blankets, Canvas vs Synthetic, Dealing With Fear | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 27
- Bow Drill Woods To Avoid, Beech Nut Edibility, Teeth and Nails | #AskPaulKirtley 36
- How To Tie The Simplest (But Also Most Useful) Knot In The World
- Fire Safety, Winter Evenings, Billy Cans vs Other Stainless Pots | #AskPaulKirtley 50
- First Run In The Prospector This Season
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 18 - Power In The Wild, Water Purification, Chaga & What I Have In My Pockets
- Exploding Rocks, Carving Utensils, Dangerous Gases, Worn Firesteels | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 25
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 4 - Biting Insects, Wild Foods, Tree ID and Water Purification
- Ice Bucket Challenge - Paul Kirtley
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 53 - LIVE at the Bushcaft Show 2017
- Fire Watch Sleep Rotation, Tarp Set-ups, Kit Weight & Load-outs | #AskPaulKirtley 56
- Integrating Bushcraft With Modern Outdoor Life | Bushcraft Show 2014
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 20 - Ember Extenders, Natural Soaps, Safe Wild Edibles, Tapping For Sap...
- How To Hank Cordage For Bushcraft, Survival & Outdoor Life
- Water Purification, Water Sterilisation, Water Contaminants | #AskPaulKirtley 39
- Fun Slides, Rock Steps And Surfing On The Tees
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 5 - Knife Sharpening, Knives & The Law, Bears In Sweden And More...
- Winter Camping: What To Look For In A Snow Shovel
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 19 - Top 3 Bushcraft Areas, Natural Cordage Bow Drill, Beginner & Budget Axes
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 7 - Roadkill, Advice to Aspiring Instructors, A Herb Brainstorm and Snails!
- Winter Bushcraft & Survival: Generating Water From Snow
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 9 - Knife Techniques, Wool Blankets vs Hammocks, First Aid & Primitive Skills
- Bushcraft Instructing, Winter Wild Edibles, Uses Of Willow | #AskPaulKirtley 48
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 8 - Thoughts On Preppers, Frustrated Kids & Some Book Recommendations
- Carbon Steel Knives & Flint, 3-Season Bag Choice, Knowing Enough For Wilderness | #AskPaulKirtley 38
- Hygiene In The Bush: How To Stay Clean
- Winter Tinder, Meat Today vs Past, Australian Plant ID, Cameras & Tripods | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 22
- Bushcraft vs LNT
- Does Boiling Always Make Water Safe To Drink?
- Toxic Pines, Fire Plough, Navigating At Night, Paramo Clothing | #AskPaulKirtley 57
- Fighting The Tide On The Menai Strait
- Wash Day
- Bushcraft Quick Tips - How To Cut A Stick With Only A Pocket Knife
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 21 - Wild Camps, Canoeing, Knife Skills, Firesteel Quality & Drinking Urine
- Choosing An Axe For Winter Camping And Travel
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 16 - eVent Jackets, Surplus Gear For Bushcraft, Carbs, Fire and Religion
- The Value Of Using Wilderness Skills Closer To Home | Bushcraft Show 2016
- Tryweryn River Canoeing - Ray Goodwin's Eddy Challenge
- How To Pack Your Bushcraft Camping Gear Into A Rucksack
- White Water Safety And Rescue Training With Ray Goodwin
- Bear-Resistant Containers, Modern SAKs, Skis, Bushcraft and Trash | #AskPaulKirtley 34
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 13 - Boots, EDC Kit, Bow-Drill Positions, Bushcraft During Hunting Season
- Tees Training Day
- Tinders For Flint & Steel, Long Term Winter Shelters, Wild Camping In The UK | #AskPaulKirtley 46
- 21 Winter Woodland Wildcamping Tips For Bushcrafters
- Bushcraft Knife Sharpening: Achieving The Correct Bevel Angle
- BCB Crusader II Mug Review
- LNT vs Bushcraft, Overcoming Foraging Fears, Stoves, DIY Sleeping Bags | #AskPaulKirtley 32
- Survival Skills: How To Prioritise In A Survival Situation
- Can I Take My Knife, Axe Or Saw On A Plane?
- Traditional Crafts Integration, Cheaper Full-Tang Knives, Places To Camp | #AskPaulKirtley 43
- Bog Myrtle As A Natural Insect Repellent | Bushcraft Quick Tips
- Capsized On England's Largest Lake - Can They Self Rescue?
- Can You Tell If Water Is Safe To Drink Just By Looking At It?
- How To Use A Swim Line To Self Rescue A Canoe
- What Makes A Bushcraft Knife A Bushcraft Knife, Leather Belt Kits | #AskPaulKirtley 45
- The Difference Between Foraging & Living Off The Land | Bushcraft Show 2013
- Knife Grinds For Bushcraft, Pooping In The Woods & Bushcraft Kit Obsession | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 30
- What To Pack For A Day Hike In The Woods
- Accelerate Your Bushcraft Learning | Bushcraft Show 2017 Main Stage Presentation
- My Views On Survival Shows and Is Bow Drill Realistic? | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 26
- Winter Woodland Wild Camping Tips
- The River Crake Canoe Caper
- Long Log Fire Lays, Sparks From Axes, Old Man's Beard, Outdoor Fitness | #AskPaulKirtley 33
- AskPaulKirtley Ep 29 - Ray Goodwin Special
- Water Indicating Trees, Full Campfire Burnout, Ideal Winter Hot Tents | #AskPaulKirtley 58
- Weird Encounters At Night, Drugs Tests, Predators and Wild Edibles | #AskPaulKirtley Episode 42
- Live Bushcraft and Survival Questions | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 23
- How To Strike A Traditional Flint And Steel
- Foraging Calories, Expediton Menus, Selecting Trip Companions, Hike Hydration | #AskPaulKirtley 44
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 6 - Bushcraft Aspirations, Bloodvein, Weather Forecasting, Wild Camping...
- Winter Bushcraft, Survival and Camping Questions | #AskPaulKirtley 41
- Lightening The Load Part 1 - Sleep Systems
- Tarps With Canoes, Earning From Bushcraft Content, Dealing With Frowns | #AskPaulKirtley 51
- Reshaping Knife With Secondary Bevel, Knots For Attaching Guylines To Tarps | #AskPaulKirtley 52
- Outdoor Career Advice, Tarp or Tent, Martial Arts & Bushcraft, Birch Harvesting | #AskPaulKirtley 37
- This Is Canoeing DVD Giveaway
- Bushcraft: How To Tie An Adjustable Guyline Hitch
- How To Create Really Big Sparks With A Swedish Firesteel
- Bow Drill Fire Making - What Is The Point?
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 15 - Squeaky Bow-Drills, Firebowls, Snakes & Bugs Under Tarps
- ONE Thing For Survival, Learning Fungi, Oak Bark Tinder, Knots & Lashings | #AskPaulKirtley 40
- Bushcraft - Essential Winter Fire Lighting Techniques
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 11 - Multi-tools vs Knives, Bug Nets, Kit Storage & Bushcraft Freedom Worldwide
- After The Devastation - Canoeing The River Greta
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 17 - Bivvy Condensation, Tyvek, Wool Blankets and Wilderness Licences
- Sparks With A Stainless Steel Pocket Knife And Ferro Rod
- Paul Kirtley YouTube Channel Update May 2015
- How To Wear A Bushcraft Knife When Carrying A Rucksack
- How To Light Birch Bark With A Spark
- Bushcraft Quick Tips - How To Tell A Sedge From A Grass (And Why)
- Halloween Pumpkin Carnage
- #AskPaulKirtley 12 - Starting Bushcraft Schools, Storing Knives, Burning Trash & Cooking Starches
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 3 - Kids & Bushcraft, Ticks, Tinders, Friction Fire & Seeing Wildlife
- Bushcraft Take-Aways From The Manitoba Museum
- Tracking & Trapping, Birch Bark & Firewood, Breaking Knives | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 24
- Winter Bushcraft Skills: Tree Felling For Firewood
- Bushcraft Quick Tips - Remember The Threads
- Widowmakers, Umbrellas, Resinous Bow-Drill Wood, Shorts | #AskPaulKirtley 55
- Bushcraft Mythbusters: Bracken Beds
- A Day On The Dee: Weirs, Waves And World Heritage
- Bushcraft Quick Tips - How To Cut A Sapling Efficiently With Your Knife
- Finding Flint, Managing Fires Overnight and The Best Matches | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 28
- Electrical Storms, Trekking Poles For Tarps, When To Stop Bow Drilling | #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 31
- Tarps Are OK Until It Rains
- Bushcraft Clothes: Favourite Thermal Layer & Shell Combos For The Woods
- Top Bushcraft Trees, Light Saws, Axe & Knife Home Maintenance | #AskPaulKirtley 35
- Bushcraft: How To Tie An Evenk Hitch
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep 10 - Knife Lanyards, Hammocks vs Tarps, Tinder Boxes, NGB Awards For Bushcraft
- Canoeing The Bloodvein River (Short)
- How To Use A StrikeFire Fire Starter
- How To Stay Dry Under A Tarp
- #AskPaulKirtley Ep. 14 - Toxic Firewood, Lost In The Woods, Bushcrafter Knowledge & Rewilding
- Optimising Tinder Bundle Airflow, Finding Wildlife, Keeping Gear Dry | #AskPaulKirtley 47
- #AskPaulKirtley Episode 1 - Bushcraft Knives, Books & The Kitchen Sink
- Bushcraft Philosophy, Smoky Firewood, Iodine, Leatherworking | #AskPaulkirtley 54
- Survival: What To Do If You Get Lost Outdoors
- How Do I Know When I Have Enough Knowledge To Visit Wilderness On My Own?
- Relevant First Aid, Calculating Hiking Timings, Eating Plantain Seeds | #AskPaulKirtley 59
- Five Mile Rapids, French River - High Water In Late Summer
- Birch Polypore Strops, Trees & Plants To Learn, Axe Repairs | #AskPaulKirtley 61
- Campfires On Rock, Group Morale, Dangers of Woodsmoke | #AskPauKirtley 62
- Fire Saw, Wilderness Water, Tripod Withies, Personal Daily Camp Routines | #AskPaulKirtley 63
- Best Bushcraft Moments Of 2017, Match Storage, Kids & Canoe Camping | #AskPaulKirtley 64
- Tips For Fires Under Tarps, Cat-Tail Fibre Extraction, Bushcraft On TV | #AskPaulKirtley 65
- How To Get To The Northern Forest, Multi-Purpose Bivvies, Loneliness, Cooksets | #AskPaulKirtley 66
- The Best Long-Log Fire
- Roycroft Pack Frames, Sharpening & Oiling Bushcraft Knives | #AskPaulKirtley 71
- Military Surlplus vs Non-Surplus; Mediterranean Bushcraft | #AskPaulKirtley 69
- Belt Attachments For Bushcraft & Outdoor Life
- Too Many Clothes. Desert Fires. Bushcraft for Young People. Bush Music | #AskPaulKirtley 67
- How To Tie A Double Fisherman's Knot | Bushcraft & Outdoor Knots
- Eureka Moments With The Hazda. Striking Matches With Your Teeth. | #AskPaulKirtley 68
- Olight M2T Warrior Review - Initial Thoughts
- Real Survival With No Food; Banking Fires; CAT Tourniquets | #AskPaulKirtley 70
- Testing If Water Filters Work; When To Start Teaching Bushcraft | #AskPaulKirtley 75
- Inner Bark Tinder Bundles; Smokeless Fires; First Aid For Young People | AskPaulKirtley 76
- Bushcraft Show 2018 Axe Demo | Paul Kirtley | Frontier Bushcraft
- Deer Carcass Inpection; Identifying Useful Trees; Made Items | #AskPaulKirtley 72
- How To Tie A Double Sheet Bend | Bushcraft & Outdoor Knots
- Mora Garberg Review: 18 Months of Professional Use
- Moving From Survival Training To Broader Bushcraft | #AskPaulKirtley 77
- Best Woods For Featherticks; Remedying Chipped Axes | #AskPaulKirtley 74
- Fire Hardening, Froth in Filtered Water, Tarps In Rain (Again) | #AskPaulKirtley 73
- Tarp Guyline Angle Hack
- Bushcraft Show 2018 Main Stage Presentation
- Campfire Safety Risks; Boot Storage When Bivvying | #AskPaulKirtley 78
- An Announcement, A Small Rant & Some Answers | #AskPaulKirtley 79