Deer Carcass Inpection; Identifying Useful Trees; Made Items | #AskPaulKirtley 72

Description

Welcome to Episode 72 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about obtaining big sheets of birch bark, the benefit of identifying trees in bushcraft, bow drill polishing, deer carcass inspection, favourite made items

TIMESTAMPS:

01:30 Obtaining big sheets of birch bark

05:10 The benefit of identifying trees in bushcraft

10:20 Bow drill polishing

12:57 Deer carcass inspection

24:57 Favourite made items

LINKS MENTIONED:

Bow Drill Keys To Success: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/bowdrill/

Forest Hunter: http://frontierbushcraft.com/courses/forest-hunter/

WHAT IS #ASKPAULKIRTLEY?

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

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

ASK PAUL A QUESTION:

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

Or tweet your questions with hashtag #askpaulkirtley to @pkirt

SHOW NOTES & PREVIOUS EPISODES:

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

LET'S CONNECT:

You can also connect with me on social media:

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pkirt

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

GET MORE WILDERNESS SKILLS ADVICE & INFO:

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

Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley

Video Transcription

in this episode of a sport currently we are going to talk about obtaining big sheets of birch bark the benefits have been able to identify trees bow-drill polishing carcass inspection of deer what are we looking for and one of my favorite things that I've made or that have been made for me [Music]

welcome welcome to episode 72 of ask Paul curtly where I answer your questions about wilderness bushcraft survival skills and outdoor life in general so here I am again back in the South of England and enjoying the early parts of spring everything's quite late this year but at least the birds are singing and there seemed to be some dogs barking in a distance today so if that gets picked up on the audio I'm not being chased by a pack of hounds it's just something over the other side of the valley property I think on the other side of the valley has some dogs that are barking a lot and anyway and we have some good questions first one from Instagram this is from John Holmes he asks well the first of all he says as always thanks for your hard work and great content well as always you're very welcome and his question is I have a question about harvesting a birch bark I have trouble harvesting in sheets greater-than shown here tending to tear and split fine for fire-starting but less so for other applications slide sheaths containers etc I only ever harvest from dead trees could this be a factor any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated Cheers John yeah well I think I'm assuming that your UK or Europe Silver Birch and yes you know we have this conception of being able to get big big birch bark canoe sheets from birch and yes species in North America you can it is harder with the European birch species and what you'll also possibly know is that as you go further north into the northern Scandinavia into Russia

is that the birch bark is thicker as you come further south into the more temperate areas it will grow thinner the tree doesn't need as much protection and so yes it can be harder and you combine that with areas of managed woodland where birch trees aren't always allowed to get particularly big and because other trees are encouraged more than nature might allow you don't always find big birch trees you certainly don't find big birch trees having fulfilled their natural life and therefore supplying nice big sheets of bark but the other thing with silver birch is that you don't get with some of the species of birch is that when they do get bigger the bottom of the trunks crack up and also you can get black black diamond-shaped cracking further up as well that can leave not so much in the way of clean sheets to remove so I would say for all of those reasons that might be why you're having difficulty that doesn't mean to say that you can't get decent big sheets of birch bark because there's a good craft tradition of using birch bark in northern parts of Eurasia as it were whether that's in northern Scandinavia or whether it's in you know parts of Russia that there is you know baskets Footwear sheaths for knives often torn into strips and woven for making baskets rather than used incomplete sheets but still and I think it's just a case of keeping your eye out but if you're in areas of very managed woodland where there aren't a lot of big birch trees that just come down and are left naturally then you might be finding it hard to find those those sheets so I would just say keep your eye out or maybe if there are other people if you can make contact with people on the internet that you know that have a shared interest in bushcraft and maybe you live a bit further north in Sweden or Norway maybe see if you can get some of them to send you some of those nice thick sheets and in exchange for something else that would be something that I would recommend but they're definitely out there it's whether or not you're in the right place at the right time

I know that's a bit of a vague answer but and for all of those reasons that's why you might not be finding exactly where you are the benefits have been out of ID trees this is via Twitter from mark blackwell and he asks what other benefits of being on to ID trees in bushcraft in everyday life I'm not sure I can speak in general for everyday life apart from knowing what's going on around you but from walking around half asleep not but you know not knowing what the things are that you know in your in your environment but then a lot of people don't spend a lot of time out in any sort of natural environment you know in in the modern world in developed countries 80% of the population tends to live in urban or suburban environment so they don't get a lot of contact with the natural environment in a lot of places and you have to make an effort to get away from the cities and away from the streets too to get into the woods to get into nature to to fully experience that but in terms of Bush graph the the the advantage is very very clear I've mentioned this before but I'll say again fundamentally you cannot really do anything in bushcraft unless you can identify the Natural Resources bushcraft is not about collecting knives and axes and canvas haversacks and leather kit that's not bushcraft that's equipment a lot of its traditional and its associated with people who have promoted bushcraft as a skill set whether that's Nesmith or Mason or even baden-powell but that's not bushcraft that's equipment what's bushcraft and I know people don't like me being dogmatic about this tough ok myself and other people who have spent a long time studying this in a long time teaching this and I know that people like Ray Mears who I used to work with shares this view and I'm sure there are other authorities around the world who agree as well Bush craft is fundamentally about being able to go into nature and source the resources that you need it's about the bush about what you can get from the bush and it's about the craft it's about your skills in be able to form things from that whether that's wooden implements whether that's food cordage fire that is the craft of bushcraft yeah equipment can be helpful of course yeah a good knife and a good next axe is super helpful in that but fundamentally bushcraft is you've been able to go into the bush and saying that species is a good source of fiber for cordage that species is a good source of bark for fire lighting that species is a good source of SAP in the spring leaves that I can eat in the spring that is a good source of needles that I can make a tea that's rich in vitamin C so I don't get scurvy that one has SAP in it which is good for putting on burns and infections its antiseptic its soothing that species there has a shallow root system I can scrape away at the earth and find the roots that are relatively even diameter I can remove those roots and I can make bindings with them I can scrape off the outer material split those roots down and make a more fine binding out of those for making different implements or binding up baskets or making fish hooks I can get thorns off that tree that I can use to make fish hooks I can get a gun from this tree which will allow me to attach things together and that's bushcraft this plant here is medicinal this plant here is poisonous and this can tell me about direction yet this is animal tracks and sign laid out on the ground that tells me about what the animals are doing that's all bushcraft that's all about your ability to understand what's going on in the environment and use it to your advantage so in terms of what's the advantage of being able to identify trees it's fundamental absolutely fundamental to bushcraft

black Labrador come from somewhere good question oh and worth reiterating and I make no apologies for thinking of bushcraft in that way it's about nature and it's about your understanding of the materials there so tree and plant identification is a key part of that bow drill polishing this is a question from Twitter again from Kenny and I've had time over the winter to experiment with different woods for bow drills and making up kits for work however I've come across one small issue sometimes a hearth and drill get hot and polish but don't create dust any ideas yeah it's probably either you're not putting enough pressure down through the spindle and therefore you're not getting a friction initially and then it starts to polish and then you're into a vicious circle where it's harder and harder to get the friction because it's polished and even if you then press harder you might not break through that polish and it polishes even more that's one reason and also it could be that the material is just too hard to start off with and therefore it polishes rather than starts to grind together so those are the two reasons I've mentioned before my bow drill keys to success article on my blog at Port Kelly don't code at UK I will link that below the video on YouTube and on my blog so if you're listening via an audio podcast somewhere just go to port curtly code at UK forward slash ask port curtly 72 and in the links section you'll find a link to that article that will help with any other problems but those are the two main reasons for polishing you can sometimes get around it by dropping a little bit of dry sand in there if you've got sandy soil around or sandy rocks drop a little bit of sand in there don't throw wet earth in there that's not going to help throwing damp organic material in there is not going to help but if you've got some dry sand that you can pop in we'll just help abrade those polish surfaces that can help break through that if it isn't because the woods too hard

equally you might then just have to scrape the bottom of the drill and go again putting a bit more pressure on and again if it's not too hard if you were just pushing too likely initially that might be the reason otherwise it's probably because the material is too hard if it keeps persisting I find with Willow in particular if it's slightly too hard it tends to polish and then gets more and more difficult so particularly with willow species I find that the the fingernail test is really really crucial and if it's at all too hard then that starts making life exponentially more difficult so hopefully that helps Kenny good question always seem to be bow-drill questions but again a lot of them are answered in that keys to success article and the many other a sport Kurt let's just go to my blog and search on bow-drill you'll find a ton of questions across lots of different a sport Curly's on bow drill now Kirkus inspection and this is a voicemail question if you'd like to leave a voicemail question the way that you do this is you go to my site Paul Kelly code at UK you find the a sport curtly section in the top menu and then it there's a link through to the speak pipe facility where you can just leave me a voicemail and that's what this person has done yes another question for the a sport of curtly podcast don't blame me you asked for it my question today concerns carcasses when you are inspecting the insides shall we say of a carcass what is it that you're looking for that tells you that that animal is no longer fit for human consumption whether it's through an illness disease infection or generally ill health all the best thank you very much keep up the good work

thank you

no worries Adrienne thanks again for another good question and so fundamentally the reason you've kind of alluded to it but fundamentally the reason you're expecting inspecting a deer carcass is to check whether or not that carcass and the meat it contains is fit for human consumption or if it is unfit for human consumption and therefore it needs to be discarded and not entered into into the food chain either in terms of your own consumption or if you are a trained hunter and you have the DSC one certification you can tag that carcass and it can go to a game dealer and it will go into the human food chain so it's important for that reason whether you're consuming yourself or whether or not you're passing that on to somebody else to consume and it might not be just the whole carcass that you know that you're looking to see you know there might be issues with the liver or the kidneys and they may need to be discarded whereas the meat could be okay so you're checking for a number of things and overall you're looking at the the the health of the animal so if there's any obvious sign of infection particularly around the mouth any abscesses in in the in the meat or any pus or infection that can be a sign that something is is wrong more specifically what you're going to look at are the lymph glands that's one of the key things that you check and there are lots and lots and lots of lymph glands but there are a key set of lymph glands that you check along the if you like the the journey from mouth to intestine so as you remove that because all of that needs to be removed quite early after the deer has been shot you're going to do the the growler which is removing at least the green part so from the trachea down all the way to the anus if you like and all of that intestinal material the stomach or

that comes out you're going to be checking some lymph glands on there if you're taking the red out as well you're going to be at that stage you're going to be checking the lungs you're going to be checking the kidneys and the liver and your around the kidneys you're looking to see if there's a good amount of fat because if there isn't the animals probably not in good condition and that can be an indication of issues elsewhere so you want to be you want to be looking at that but the key things you're looking at as you remove all of that are the lymph glands that are attached to various parts of that and if they are not healthy-looking then maybe you need to have that carcass inspected by a vet if there are certain things it may be that you need to call for external help particularly if there are signs of TB a bovine TV can infect deer and that's also transmittable to humans so that's a that's an issue and that's one of the notifiable diseases and there are other notifiable diseases anthrax is a notifiable disease has never been a case of anthrax in deer at least a reported case of anthrax in deer they've been a few scares but nothing reported in the UK but that is a notifiable disease foot-and-mouth clearly since the early 2000s when there was a big outbreak of foot-and-mouth in the UK foot-and-mouth has been very much high on the agenda and what you're looking for there you're looking for lesions on the tongue in particular and you're also gonna check the hooves for any lesions that are going to give some sign potentially of foot-and-mouth disease but a lot is it a lot of diseases will at first show in the lymph glands and if they are not looking normal and healthy if they're not looking and that sort of grey and slightly grisly and not inflamed and enlarged if they're not looking at normal color then sort of pinky gray and not red or white or chalky or or anything like that that's what you're looking for there are also some lymph glands in the head that you need to check so once you that might be in the field or it might be back at base when you've removed the when you've removed the carcass from the field and they are key lymph glands that you have to check and there are a couple of other notifiable diseases brucellosis and rabies again there's you know rabies in the UK is not being an issue for many many many years because you know we're an island and there's been good control of animals both you know in terms of wildlife as well as domesticated animals coming in and out of the country and so we don't have a problem with rabies there but again that's a notifiable disease going back to the inside if you're taking out the liver you're gonna look for liver fluke and that would cause you to discard the liver it wouldn't be something that would cause you to discard the whole carcass kidneys again there might be problems with the urinary tract or there might be other issues with the kidneys that would cause you to discard the kidneys from being eaten but it wouldn't cause you to discard the whole carcass and also if there are certain things to check in terms of tapeworms and you wouldn't want either those to go into the human consumption but in particular you wouldn't want to give them to dogs either because tapeworms complete their lifecycle very firmly through dogs as well so there are a number of things you want to be checking but it's predominantly about making sure that the meat is good for human consumption and there are some reasons why you discard the whole carcass and there are other things that would cause you to discard some of the organs that you know they awful if you like that might be otherwise consumed but would leave the carcass still okay that's primarily what you're checking for and if you're interested in finding out more about that I'd recommend doing a deer stalking certificate level one and because you learn all of that stuff as well as the doing the shooting tests the deer identification and deer ecology and that type of thing it's worth doing that and I'd also mentioned our forest hunter course and I'm doing with Andy up in Scotland and each Atherton and he's been on my podcast before I'll link to that below this video in the links section he and I are working together to deliver a course that not only gives you the skills and knowledge that you're going to learn within a DSC one you're also going to get the practical firearms tuition you're going to get going out looking at deer sign moving quietly all of the practical skills that you need and then there's the option to stay on and do the DSC one at the end of that course as well if you want to so there's the forest hunter course it's a training course all about deer all about stalking shooting moving through the landscape finding the deer getting up close to them having the firearm skills and know deer will actually be shot during the course it's all about developing the skill set including moving up to targets that you don't know where they're positioned and taking a safe shot and everything that leads up to that skill set and then within that you can also opt to stay on the course finishes on the Friday evening you can stay on to do the DSC one certification at the weekend so you can come out of that with a real full skill set for stalking and the basic certification for what you need to be a a deer stalker and put that food into the food chain so that's all it's very well regulated in the UK a lot of people don't realize how well regulated it is and it's a very good system firearms are clearly very well controlled in the UK and deer stalking is very well controlled in terms of both who gets to do it where it's done how it's done safely and then how the animal is checked in in a deer are generally very healthy anyway they're wild animals it's healthy meat but you do have to make these checks just in case there may be a problem with that particular deer you know some deer are you know and not as strong and healthy as others and they may be prone to infection of various things and then of course we're looking for more

more problems as well you know it's kind of a first line of defense if you like in some ways detecting things like foot and foot and mouth so it's all of that and you know the other thing I would say there is a lot of people who you know promote roadkill foraging don't know any of that stuff in the first place and even those that do I think you're a little bit irresponsible in saying oh yeah just find this deer at the side of the road you don't know why it's dead you don't know if it has any of these notifiable diseases you don't necessarily know how to check it and why is it got run over in the first place is it that it's just been unlucky oh is it was it was it groggy was it you know stumbling around in the road in the first place was it ill has it been poisoned you know there's all sorts of reasons why an animal might end up in a collision with a vehicle rather than just being unlucky and and I don't think those things always get checked by people who participate in roadkill foraging if you like or or meat consumption all those that promote it and I think there's a responsibility there to make sure that people are aware of what the problems might be but let's not overplay in a deer are generally a very healthy set of species and it's good healthy meat it's you know free of antibiotics free of free of a lot of things that domesticated animals might suffer from if they are kept in certain circumstances they're free-range wild animal at the end of the day so hopefully that answers your question I think of more than answered your question there have got off on a few tangents there agent but again as always thank you for your question you come up with some good good questions that are thought-provoking

and bring out some good answers this is a question from Lissie Harrington and she asks hi Paul bushcraft often encompasses slide utilitarian craft for living I am sure we all have green wood carving baskets containers knives that said to the room miners of the fantastic places and company we enjoyed whilst working on them what are your favorite things you have made or have had made for you my latest spoon I'm using for myself I guess is usually a favorite that will vary from time to time and i'll generally remember where i made that and where i was and when I was doing that so that is something that's just a self ongoing thing I have a set of utensils that I made a couple of years ago I did write an article about it but I wanted to populate if you like a frost River canvas utensil roll and I made a set of cherry utensils to go in that and I that they're simple and straightforward they're not ornate they don't have all Nate carving on them that was very much intentional I wanted them to be easy to clean we use those on canoe trips and I know that's something that's close to your heart Lizzie you enjoy paddling we've paddled together and yeah it's so having something that is you know has good utility in the field it's nice to use they work they're nice objects but then they're also not going to get full of food and be difficult to clean on a trip and they all fit in that tool roll and I like those and I like seeing other people use them as well things that have been made for me people have made stuff for me over the years you know little little carvings of little animals and have a little owl at home that somebody carved for me that I like somebody else carved Terry carved me this nice I'm Andrea and I this nice little rooster on a on a log and that's on top of my one of my bookshelves at home that I particularly like and that it always makes me smile when I see that when I'm at home I have a few of the made items that weren't made specifically for me but I really like so I have a Swedish cosa a cup not cook cert cooks Rosa is not a Swedish word the cosas classer is one that I bought from a traditional Sami crafts shop in Sweden very nicely made one that I take with me on my old boreal winter trips in some of my videos you might see that attached to my belt I like that very much I also have a small Sexton seitan made Sami knife with a beautiful sheath it's absolutely wonderful lovely sort of burled birch handle and again that is a small knife it's like a little utility knife as opposed to a larger knife but that's one that I often have on my belt again for those winter trips in the north and it just it just seems to fit that environment perfectly I have it on my trouser belt and then I might have a smock on the top and then have a belt with a with a saw and a larger knife on the outside for using around in the forest but then I've always got the smaller utility knife even when my smock and my other things are taken off and hung up I might be inside a cabin I might be inside a heated tent I still got my little knife there and I like that a lot that's one of my favorite little handcrafted items that I own and so those are some of the things that spring to mind initially and the other thing I should say it's not made of materials found in the forest but I apologize I can't actually remember who made this for me this little oilskin tinder pouch but it's really nicely made please get in touch I've completely forgotten who made this for me and who sent it for me so if you're watching please let me know because I'd love I'd love to if you're making these for other people I'd love to to say you know please get in touch with you and if people want one and I continue to use this it's either in the top of my rucksack or it's in my pocket and I pop you know I've got you can see I've got I got some nice birch bark in there for for lighting a fire and that goes in my pocket and or in the top of my rucksack as I say and that's that's something like that I enjoy that somebody made for me and I really appreciate that I really apologize I can't remember who it was so get in touch and tell me if you're watching this or you know who it was that made it for me and I'm happy to put other people in touch with you if you if you're looking to make them for other people as well so yeah hopefully that answers your question Lizzie there's some things that spring to mind all of those things are nice and as I say I'll link through to that utility role carving project that I did because that was a fun thing to do and yeah that brings us to the end of this episode of ask Paul curtly and in the woods another gray day but you know we're getting on with our early part of the UK course season with elementary wilderness bushcraft and the wood crafter which is the axe course that's all going on in April and yeah looking forward to more adventures lots of time out in the woods this year applying all the skills sharing knowledge and skills with people getting up to speed with with bushcraft and being able to go into the the forest to go into the bush and find the resources that they need to augment their outdoor life and get the tool skills into them as well so they can do that efficiently and safely and that's what it's all about for me so hopefully I've shared a little bit of wisdom with you today a bit of knowledge giving you some things to think about as I say check out that forest hunt of course if you're interested in that skill set and I look forward to your questions on episode 73 which will be the next one of a sport curtly before too long take care and stay safe and I'll speak to you soon Cheers

[Music]

[Music]

you