Testing If Water Filters Work; When To Start Teaching Bushcraft | #AskPaulKirtley 75

Description

Welcome to Episode 75 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about how you know when it’s the right time to start teaching bushcraft, considerations for washing up after cooking when you only have limited drinking water and how to test how clean and pure the water is coming out of a water filter is…

TIMESTAMPS:

05:00 How do you know when it’s the right time to start teaching bushcraft?

15:38 Washing up after cooking when you only have limited drinking water?

25:40 Testing water filters - how do you know they are still working?

LINKS MENTIONED:

The Paul Kirtley Podcast

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

Bushcraft Show 2018 Main Stage Presentation

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/bushcraftshow2018/

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

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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 sport currently we are going to talk about how do you know when it's the right time to start teaching bushcraft in this instance washing up with limited water when you're hiking camping etc and how do you test whether your water filter is working properly

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welcome welcome to episode 75 of asked Paul curtly where I answer your questions about wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life in general and Here I am again I'm still in the north of England enjoying this fine summer weather feels a little bit like the jungle in some ways where I am at the moment it's so overgrown with Bracken and nettles and everything so green and there's there's just everything is up at the moment and you may not even recognize this area I've recorded a sport Curtis here in the past often in the winter and but here I am in the summer and it's looking very very different so it's nice to be out at this time of year it's been a busy few months and been running a lot of courses and we've been up in the north running our expedition canoeing skills course before that we're too busy May including the bushcraft show my company frontier bushcraft is one of the main sponsors of the bushcraft show again and it was great to be there and see a lot of you there as well thank you to everyone who came up and spoke to me and talked to me about the a sport Kirtley podcast talk to me about the videos talk to me about the Paul Kirtley podcast and how much you get from it so it's really nice to hear from people and that all of these different formats are useful and in particular how much people enjoy listening to the podcast format of this and the Paul Kirk podcast and if you don't know about the Paul Kelly podcast I'll link to this I'll link to it below the the videos and on my blog at polecat code at UK as well as on YouTube and if on YouTube I'll put the link up above on the screen as well and that's more interview based

podcasts as well as some where I'm just on my own sharing different areas of knowledge and that is more long form particularly the interviews but there's a lot of experts who join me on those shows to share their experience and their expertise in their perspective and that rounds out a lot of people's perspectives and knowledge on the core bushcraft skills as well and I think a lot of people find that useful I certainly find those conversations useful to have and I'm glad you do too so please have a look at the Paul Kelly podcast if you've not done so far also we're on the subject of the bushcraft show I recorded my main stage presentation from the 2018 bushcraft show and I have posted that in a number of different places along with all the slides included but if you'd like a recording of the presentation a copy of the slides a link to those as well as links to lots of other resources which expand upon the different areas that I talked about in my main stage presentation please go to paul kelly co-wrote UK forward slash bushcraft show 2018

bushcraft show two zero one eight there's no spaces just bushcraft show two zero one eight and you will go to a page where you can request that information it's all free and I will send you all of that the presentation recording the slides as well as extra information and all the main topic areas that I talked about in terms of that presentation a lot of people have found that extra information expanded information very useful because of course we've only got an hour there in the in the presentation to cover quite a lot of ground and if you'd like to delve into different areas that information is there as well so go to Paul Curley doctor at UK forward slash four slash forward slash bushcraft show two zero one eight and you'll get all of that information for free from me I'll send it to you so hopefully you will do that anyway on to today's questions we have some good questions and let me just get back into my notebook it's locked itself so this is from Rick via the speakpipe facility on my blog we can leave a voicemail Rick yeah Jane watching you good job quick question sounds a bit crazy I know but how do you know whether it sounds right to start teaching or to start your own business with bushcraft being such a massive arena of information and what we've said before as always stuff to be learning but I've been about it for years now I'm pretty well rounded in most of your skills obviously there's always something else to learn it some more that cetera et cetera so much more Drina when is it time to stay rate I probably got enough skills here I know what I'm doing to start trying to make yeah make a living out of it to size 10 I work in the outdoor industry so plenty of experience coaching and teaching and now you know we've what sports canoe kayak climbing mountaineering stuff like that but what crafts me true love yeah everywhere any thoughts on that cheers Paul alright so that's a an interesting question from Rick there so he's already an outdoor instructor but it and he's passion is bushcraft but he's wondering how do you know when it's the right time and so specific question for Rick I like the good specific answer for Rick's question I I like the question because Rick's clearly got some humility he's got some self-awareness he's got some concerns that unlike say mountain guiding climbing instruction canoe leadership or kayak leadership or paddle sport instruction there aren't any national governing body Awards bushcraft and therefore there is no external validation if you like of you being at a level either in terms of skill or in terms of ability to impart that skill and those are two separate things the ability to do something and the ability to teach that to share that to instruct that to coach that and those are different things on the spectrum as well and that is that is two separate areas the ability to do something ability to teach something or to separate things and that is something I'm sure that that you understands Rick because you teach other things but for the benefit of other people and just because you're good at doing something doesn't necessarily mean to say that you're good at teaching it teaching and instruction clear communications clear demonstration putting structure and variety around the way that you teach things is a skill in and of itself and it's one that doesn't get properly recognized a lot particularly in the outdoor arena a lot of people do think just because they can do bow drill they can teach it and that isn't the case at all teaching is a real skill in itself organizing courses managing things in a way that keep people engaged and interested over a course of a number of days is a skill set in itself and want to be developed and so that I put that in there not so much for Rick's benefit not so much for your benefit Rick but more for other people's benefit who were maybe listening to this and thinking along similar lines that maybe don't have any experience of instruction so do think of those things there is and I've talked about this a bit in the past and in terms of answering Rick's question in particular and yeah I like the fact that you're being humble about it and thinking well I know I'm pretty well-rounded in my skills but how do I know when I know enough to teach what I know and I think that's probably the question to ask in the sense of can I teach what I know because there is always more to learn and there's always more to learn in lots of arenas not just in bushcraft and so I think what you don't want to do is try and tell yourself I have to know everything about bushcraft that's possible to know before I can teach any of it I don't think that's the case I think you have to be honest with yourself about the level at which you think you're operating in terms of skills and teach people who aspire to operate at that level or even a level that's a little bit below that you can you can teach people what you know who are a few steps behind where you are and that's perfectly valid and and as you grow and develop you can share more things with people either the same people that have learned from you in the past or new students and you know it's all part of that journey you know what you could share when you were 19 in terms of climbing or kayaking is probably less than what you can share now being older and it's the same with bushcraft if you're continuing learning and getting more experience and consolidating and reflecting on what you've learned then you will inevitably change what you teach change the emphasis and the quality will improve and that's going to happen in any arena so doesn't mean to say that people can't benefit from what you already know but equally you will know more in 20 years time but it doesn't mean to say that you have to wait 20 years before you can teach because we could have the same argument again in 20 years time so I think you have to be honest with yourself about what you know well enough to share with other people and then that's what you share with other people and then in 20 years time that that may be a different set of a knowledge a broader set of knowledge and skill and you're happy to share that broader set of knowledge and skill as you grow as you develop and there's nothing wrong with that at all there will be people out there who will benefit from what you know so that that's what I'll say on that and if you're feeling like you want to teach what you know you're probably ready to teach what you know but don't overstretch don't people don't pretend that you know things that you don't just be honest and say actually I I don't know that I don't know the answer to that but I'll find out for you you know etc you know those things so I think in general that would be my advice also in terms of just a slightly different emphasis on it in terms of making a living from it that's a little bit harder and I know you said part of your living so it sounds to me like you'd be doing other instruction maybe freelance in the mountains on the water etc and yeah I mean bushcraft can be an extra string to your bow but it's hard with any outdoor activity instruction to make ends meet often for a lot of people and bushcraft is quite a crowded area and the barriers to entry are quite low because as I say there's no national governing body Awards anybody can call himself a bushcraft instructor next week and set up teaching something it doesn't mean to say it's necessarily very good quality but anybody can do that and whether or not they'll get insurance of any quality is a different matter and that's something that people should maybe look into when they're choosing a bushcraft

provider have they got half decent insurance but generally it's easy to enter that market which means that the competition at the low end is quite intense and there's often not a lot of pricing discipline there you know a lot of people are amateurs they're part-timers they do something else as they're living and they might be just teaching some bushcraft on a weekend they might be a Scout leader who gets no payment for what they do in the scouts and they have a normal office job or a factory job during the week and then they're also teaching a bit of bushcraft stuff that they share with the scouts and maybe they're sharing it on a more commercial basis as well and no comments on the quality of that but the point is that a lot of those people who don't depend upon the income that they might gain from those courses tend to under price because they're happy to be doing it and the problem that causes for people who want to operate at a higher level in terms of not just teaching the basics but teaching other things that are maybe a bit more specialist is that the bottom and the entry level of the market is is is the pricing is compressed and that means it's quite difficult for people who want to offer more sophisticated courses more in-depth learning to earn a living a part of their living from the lower that from the basic stuff that's often set at a lower price because of the competition from people who don't really care what they're charging so I would just I would just caution about sort of jumping headlong into the bush craft world in in the sense that if you jump in and you're offering basic courses with basic skills you'll find that there's a lot of competition there and there's quite a lot of price competition as well even on a local level now you'll probably find that there are other people offering similar things so you have to think about a way of differentiating yourself or a way of of marketing somewhat more cleverly than than other people otherwise you're just going to be subsumed into the into the noise there so there's a there's a I would wholeheartedly encourage you to go for it if and spend some time and effort on teaching people bushcraft if that's your passion because that enthusiasm will come across but equally go into it with your eyes open that it's easy to get into and there's a lot of competition there's a lot of price competition particularly the basic end and that shouldn't be a surprise to you when you when you jump into that alright here's question via email from Mike in the US and his question is around washing up a hidden and he writes hi Paul

your YouTube videos are among my favorites and I particularly enjoy your instructional videos are very much how do you clean up for the next meal after cooking in the bush washing plates bowls pots etc if you are not near a water source and you have a limited amount of drinking water thank you and cheers from Pennsylvania in the u.s. kind regards Mike so thank you Mike I'm glad you enjoy the vid and everything else and I appreciate you letting me know to answer your question have to kind of backtrack a little bit so two things there one is you should try and choose your camping spots based on the resources that you need and I know in some environments that's not always possible but going right back to the beginning let's go back to first principles just like when you have a fire and then you think oh where do I get the water from to to make this safe and to Leave No Trace if you're only having that thought at the point of execution where you need the water and you're like oh I've had the fire I've got to put it out I've got to make it cold and safe and you haven't thought about where you're gonna get the water from before you do that you should have so right foot in terms of your planning both in terms of before you leave your home yeah you know if you've got a a planning room you know you've got a garage or wherever you you know wherever you get your maps out and and get your gear ready and sort things out you should be looking at where you're intending to go with a view to where am I going to get water where is there going to be a more sheltered camping spot where it's going to be exposed how can I get out of there quickly if I need to you know what my escape routes when you're doing your route planning all those things that your others questions when you're doing your route planning you should be asking where am I going to get water how much water am I going to be able to get in those places how am I going to have to treat it am I going to purify it how much am I going to be able to carry how much am I going to have to carry between different camps in some in some areas and then once you've got a handle on how much water's available how few and far between it might be then you can start thinking about should I be having a fire you know for example is there gonna be enough water for me to make the safe where I wanna camp or should I be thinking about taking a stove and then if you're taking a stove and you are making a water safe by boiling do you want to be carrying that fuel or should you be using some other means of water purification so you don't need to carry as much fuel to clean your water so there's a lot of questions around the availability of water before you get to washing up hydration clearly is the most important one personally and you need to make sure that you can obtain and carry sufficient water in a way that is is is efficient and you know making it safe will be a combination of boiling and a combination of filtering and maybe chemical sterilization or you know any sort of number of those in different proportions and depending on what you're doing and you need to think about which one makes most sense in terms of where you're going how much weight you can carry and how much water you need to carry between different water sources if you're camping in a place where the water is very limited then you're going to struggle even for as I say putting a fight making a fire safe so you're going to be boiling using fuel perhaps for at least cooking using fuel and then you need to be thinking about okay what am i cooking to make sure that my washing up is minimized so that I don't have loads of dirty pots and I've got no means of cleaning them so again it comes back to thinking about how much water you've got before you even go and then planning your meals around that and if there's very very little water for washing up I would be even thing you know if it's like so did you know difficult and you and therefore you probably going to need to be carrying more water as well you probably want to be carrying dehydrated freeze-dried foods you probably want to be just boiling water and you want to be mixing the meal in the packet and then eating it out of the packet so there's no washing up you've just boiled water in your pot then you've put the the water in the meal and then there's no washing up maybe you have to clean your spoon slightly that's it so there's a zero washing up you've been totally efficient with your water and then you've got minimal weight of food because you're using freeze-dried dehydrated food and that means you can carry more water between your camp sites so that's the kind of way you need to be thinking about if you've got a little bit of washing-up and water if you're a little bit more water if it's not that horrendous so military jet going over [Music]

if you got a bit more than just a bit of biodegradable washing up liquid washing up soap a bit of water that will help break the grease and you can always use ash from the fire that can help remove grease you can always use with a bit of water and you can always use a bit of sand for scrubbing but what you don't want to be doing really I mean going back to my point before if you think water is going to be a serious issue you don't want to be cooking complicated meals that have food welded to pots and pans you don't want lots of grease on things because that's just going to be difficult to clear up something you can do if you've got a fire and is if you take some paper towels you can wipe clean you know if you've got plates and bowls that are a bit greasy you can you know just one sheet of kitchen towel like absorbent kitchen towel will wipe most of a plate off and then you can burn that and there's nothing kind of smelly or what-have-you that you have to carry with you but then if you're in an arid area that's tinder dry you don't want to be burning bits of paper towel that are going to be carried off into the into the bush so there's lots of considerations and it sounds like I'm kind of being evasive but I'm not what I'm trying to say is if it's going to be that much of an issue it needs to be addressed right at the planning stage and simplify things so that it isn't an issue and if you're you've got some water to wash up then then just be sparing one of the things I notice with people is that they tend to use way too much water for washing up when they're out camping when they're out in the bush because when we're at home we can just turn on a tap you know in the first world and most people who are watching this are in the developed world they go out into the woods into the bush into the into the into the wilderness as part of their leisure activity as part of their vacation as a holidays what they do on a weekend they go hunting they go canoeing they go fishing they go hiking etc etc it's something we choose to do and we tend to live in relative on a global basis we tend to live in relatively nice homes we've got running water we've got flushing toilets we take water for granted and so one of the things I notice with people is that they just use lots of water where they don't need to you know you know there's a washing up Bowl and a few plates that need to be washed up in camp and I'm talking about you know group camp for like ten people and when I'm running courses people will put five or six liters of water in that washing up Bowl to wash you know half a dozen plates and a few mugs and a few bowls you do not need that much water yet you could do it with a tenth of that amount of water if you needed to and so it's it's about changing your expectations as well a lot of this in terms of what do you actually really need to use and then planning accordingly in terms of not making your life overly complicated and yes sometimes you might end up camping far from water maybe you just have to pack things up and then when you drop down you know if you're up in the mountains and you drop down to a water course maybe you need to stop there and boil up some water and clean things off properly at lunchtime and when you're stopped that that's something but I would generally go right back to the beginning right back to the planning stage and if it's going to be a serious issue simplify and consider water more generally in terms of how much weight you're going to have to carry how much food you're going to have to carry minimize the weight of that so you can carry more water and then keep the culinary experience as simple and without spreading food on everything as much as possible like I say simplest could be just packet dehydrated packet food done in the packet eating out of the packet and there's no washing up and you've wasted virtually no water and you've minimized the weight of food you can maximize the weight of water you can carry between camps if that's necessary testing water filters this is a video post on Instagram so this is another example of how you can ask a question you can make public post on Instagram just including the hashtag a sport curtly and that can be a video post or that can be a just a normal photo post not a direct message though a lot of direct message on Instagram I don't get anyway because they go into my message request and that's something I don't look out very often frankly and then even if it is a DM and that I have received into my inbox when I search on the hashtag a sport currently it doesn't it doesn't show what that search doesn't show up things that are in my inbox so you have to make it a public post and also spell a sport curtly correctly because otherwise I won't find things alright let's have a look at this I fall that's no question for me a big fan of the show I've been using the aqua filter guard sorry three and one inline filter and it claims to do about 1600 liters there's no need for a secondary filtration system or red or anything like that claims to do the full shebang just to the edge so how can we test this and also have a low test help clean and help you the water is that's coming out of it thanks so he is using bushcraft monkey he's using the Aqua guard three-in-one filter and just to reiterate the question how can you test it how can he know that it's clean and pure water that's coming out at the end of it and I'm sure some of you are probably asking the same about whatever water filter you're using and the short answer is you can't if you think about what you're trying to achieve with a filter is that you're apart from the visible dirt that may be caught by an inlet filter that might be better filtered out by a Milbank bag or a brown bag

apart from that visible turbidity that floating matter grits and decaying leaf litter the decaying organic matter that's just making it could be algae as well but things that are making the water a murky that are floating around filtering that out first clearly but that's a coarse filter that can be done with a canvas bag that isn't what these modern fine micro filters are really designed to do they're designed to remove pathogenic organisms they're designed to remove things like Giardia and Cryptosporidium which which are protozoa and they're designed to remove bacteria and also to the extent that viruses are attached to dirt and viruses are embedded if you like within bacteria as they sometimes are it's going to remove viruses as well you don't tend to get viruses just bits of you know floating around on their own typically so microbiologist tell me so what they're trying to do those filters is remove pathogenic organisms all of which are microscopic you can't see them with a naked eye even the largest of them things like Cryptosporidium and Giardia the cysts forms of the of the protozoa you can't see with a naked eye so you can't tell by looking at that water whether or not it's clean and there's no way of you testing whether or not there are particular pathogenic organisms in that water without you having a microscope and you don't carry a microscope in the field you don't have a lab in the field so you have to trust that the filters working properly and that goes back to then using it properly as per the instructions using it with knowledge of what it is that you're trying to achieve overall with your water purification and your water sterilization specifically in terms of pathogenic organisms and also making sure that you follow best practice in terms of looking after the filter whether it's making sure you don't drop it on hard surfaces if it's a ceramic filter for example making sure it does freeze and crack in the winter making sure that you clean it out properly making sure you store it properly so it doesn't go mouldy all of those things that you have to do with various different filters so you need to follow the best practice in terms of looking after it and that is that is that is what I would recommend you're probably wondering you mentioned the 1600 liter so I think perhaps the source of the question is the manufacturer says this filter is good for 1600 liters how do I know whether or not it's still working you know I without counting the liters and stopping using at 1600 I think that's possibly where you're coming from with this question and now I am not familiar with that particular little bird just flew through and I'm not familiar with that particular model but generally closed systems will normally clog and stop working before you get to the maximum throughput those throughput numbers tend to be if you're using relatively clean water this is how much it will treat some filters are that particularly ones that deliver chemical treatments as well are designed to clog and stop working once they reach the maximum other filters have a way of checking that's specific to them and I wonder if yours does I don't know without looking at the instructions it can be something that you could perhaps do is look at the instructions to see if there's anything there about whether or not there is a specific way of testing whether the the filter is still in a good state to be working so for example the classic katadyn pocket filter which is one of the filters that I use which is a ceramic filter there's a ceramic cylinder that sits within that unit you need to clean it from time to time and they they put a brush like a sort of a special brush in there that's that's curved to clean the surface of that but obviously that's going to remove some of the outer material for a ceramic filter over time but then you're also given a little caliper which you test the width of it and once it gets to less than a certain width means the wall thickness is too thin and you need to change the filter but they're rated to do about a hundred thousand liters before you get to that stage but clearly if you scrub it too much you're going to shorten the life so some filters have a objective way of testing whether or not they are still within the bounds that the manufacturer says this will still function properly there is still enough of filter material left to be working properly others will clog when they get to a certain point or the design to stop working before they get to a certain point I don't know the specifics of your unit and I would look into that and if there is no clear answer to that from the manufacturer's instructions you might want to get in touch with a manufacturer and ask them the question of how do I know when this unit has reached it's the end of its useful life that's a question that you should all ask of any filter that you're using how do I know that this is no longer working properly

and all I can say is you can't do it from looking at the water unless you've got a lab and a microscope which clearly we haven't in the field even at home that's something that you know when we get back from a trip we're not going to be able to do most of us the majority of people are not going to have a microscope at home and so we need another way and a lot of the filters do have a way but I don't know the specifics of yours it may be the instructions it may be a case of having to ask the manufacturer I know that those those units are not particularly expensive and I have to say I've never used one so if anybody else knows the answer to that question that can that can help specifically how do you know if it's still working if you're not counting up to 1600 liters with that specific model I don't know but there's probably a way of doing it and the manufacturer will be the person that can tell you if nobody else can every filters different

and that brings us to the end of a sport currently 75 just listening to all of these alarm calls going off I'm wondering if there's a bird of prey around somewhere that's all of these other birds

setting off alarm cause it could be me that's disrupting number I've been here for a little while and they weren't doing it initially so hopefully that was useful to you remember to check out the bushcraft show see him there it might be me that he's not happy with remember to check out the bushcraft show presentation go to Paul cut your code at UK forward slash bushcraft is show 2 0 1 8 bushcraft show 2018 to get the recording of that presentation and a copy of the slides the slide deck so you can go through the slides if you want and I will then send you a series of other resources that are useful that kind of come off the hub of that presentation like spokes on the wheel as it were that you can delve into in more depth if you would like to delve into some of those areas and more depth so thanks again for watching thank you for your interest in this show thanks for your interest in my material in general I'm glad it's useful to you and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode but before I go if you're watching this on youtube please subscribe to my channel if you like this and you want more of this type of information please certainly like this video if you liked it and if you're listening to this on a audio podcast whatever platform is your favorite podcast platform please subscribe to this as a podcast so that the next time it's updated it comes straight into your feed and you can listen to the next episode of a sport currently and of course keep the questions coming in can't do these shows without the questions so keep the questions coming in and I'll be happy to answer them take care and I'll see you on the next episode of a sport curly Cheers [Music]

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