#AskPaulKirtley Episode 3: Kids & Bushcraft, Ticks, Alternative Tinders, Friction Fire Woods & Seeing More Wildlife
Welcome to episode 3 of #AskPaulKirtley. I answer questions about getting kids started with bushcraft, dealing with the increasing problem of ticks as well as people’s fears around ticks, alternative tinders when birch bark is not available, my favourite friction fire woods for bow drill and hand drill as well as giving some tips on tactics for seeing more wildlife while out and about…
What Is #AskPaulKirtley?
#AskPaulKirtley is my Q&A video and podcast series that aims to answer your questions about bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life.
The idea here is partly to take the strain off my email inbox and get answers out to people in a more timely fashion.
Rather than send an answer to just that one person, I’d like others to benefit from the answers too. So, just in the same way I’d previously write an email answer, here I’m going to speak the answer (which is much quicker than me typing out an answer, so I’ll get more questions answered as well as benefiting more people).
Click here to find out the different ways you can ask me a question.
Watch #AskPaulKirtley
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#AskPaulKirtley videos are also available to view on my YouTube channel.
Listen To #AskPaulKirtley
Use the following Soundcloud controls to listen to the audio podcast right here or download the .mp3 to your device…
Links For This Episode of #AskPaulKirtley
Bow Drill – The Keys To Success
Ticks podcast with Stella from Lyme Disease Action via Mark Yakes a.k.a. Big Man In The Woods
How To Create Big Sparks With A Swedish Firesteel
#AskPaulKirtley On Other Platforms
The videos will be uploaded my YouTube channel and the Facebook Page associated with this blog as well as embedded here on my blog.
The audio-only podcast version is available on here on Soundcloud and will be added to iTunes and other popular podcast directories in due course, as well as available here on this blog.
Leave A Comment…
Leave me a comment below. Let me know what you think. I read every one.
But remember if you want to ask a question for a future episode, don’t do this in the comments below, do it in one of the ways explained HERE.
Related Material On Paul Kirtley’s Blog:
Bushcraft Knife Safety For Children
The Easy Way To Use Fomes Fomentarius As Tinder
21 thoughts on “#AskPaulKirtley Episode 3: Kids & Bushcraft, Ticks, Alternative Tinders, Friction Fire Woods & Seeing More Wildlife”
another great episode paul,with good advice.thanks for taking time to make these.
Thanks for watching Danny 🙂
Hi Paul,
I liked the guest appearance of the duck walking behind you. Another great episode full of facts and info. My son is 2yrs old and he loves going to the woods and seeing anything nature has to show. He especially loves collecting sticks to make a ‘fire!’ Which is amazing as he’s never seen me make a camp fire. Thanks again.
Mind how you go!
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Those ducks become more and more tame during the week we were there! 🙂
I’m glad you enjoy quality time out in the woods with your boy already.
Take care,
Paul
Loving these, many parents need easy access to expertise they don’t always have themselves without it costing them a fortune- there are soooooo many people willing to sell you advice/experience but few reliable people who give it away so freely, many thanks.
The engagement of the younger genrations is vital, without it there will be no ‘natural’ environments left for the next century, they will be making tomorrow’s decisions about how we use/abuse/engage with our landscape based on the lives THEY lead today, so if they are not out exploring the natural world they will forsake it. Personally I think it is The Key Issue that will define our descendents future. Creating the stories in childhood about ‘wilderness’ and our place in it, allowing them time to relate to all that wonder in their own way, is being sidelined by economic and educational philisophical arguements and we have become paralysed by it. Thank you for putting this stuff simply – go out, stand back and let them off the leash! p.s. O’Tom tick removers are useful for free range kids…..
Hi Carol,
Thanks for your comment. A very good point and very well made. Thank you.
Glad this series is working well for you.
Warm regards,
Paul
Hi Paul
Thank you for this. However, I find it much easier to digest information in written form than video or audio – and without the sound. Is there any chance you could put up a normal blog post with the information? I did try the youtube version with subtitles turned on, but the auto subtitles are so inaccurate…
Fingers crossed!
Thanks.
Hi Giles,
Thanks for the feedback.
Writing these answers out as a blog post is not something I have time to do personally. That’s one of the reasons I’m speaking the answers rather than writing email replies like I used to – it’s much quicker to get the information back out to those asking questions. Questions were piling up and I just wasn’t getting around to answering a lot of them.
I could look at having a transcript typed up like I do for the Paul Kirtley podcast but there is a significant cost involved in having accurate transcriptions done and I want to make #askpaulkirtley a regular feature (plus it’s a free service).
I’ll look into the options. Watch this space.
Warm regards,
Paul
These are making excellent viewing and as you say, it gets the information out to many rather than just an individual. Many thanks.
Thanks for the feedback Austin. I’m glad you see the value in this series.
Warm regards,
Paul
Thank you Paul.
Very useful advice once again as well as more useful tips.
It is always easier to receive good advice than give it. But I will pass on your ‘pearls of wisdom’.
Go well
Best
Mark
You’re very welcome Mark. I hope the answers help. Plus do check out Mark Yate’s interview with Stella from Lyme Disease Action.
Warm regards,
Paul
Hi Paul,
very helpfull questions!
Thinking specifically at rights woods for bow drill fire questin, in my environment it is so hard to find the right woods because we have much of beech and oaks… I always find poplar and hazel which are very good woods for this purpose only in countryside rather than mountain and woods I normally hike.
Just only to say that is hard to find the right bow drill woods if I need it that forcing me to carry bow drill set with me from other places.
I’m sorry if I am not so clear but I hope you understanding.
Thanks again and very best regards
Pierluigi
Ciao!
I understand very well.
Poplar and hazel are indeed good woods. You have to use what you can find… 🙂
Warm regards,
Paul
Many thanks for putting all your advice out there!
As a father of two girls, whom I try to get into nature as much as our little crowded country (netherlands) allows, I value your remarks about children learning bushcraft.
An additional point I wanted to raise is that we need to allow them to trust being outside.
They learn from us and they will copy our anxiety if we show it. My girls love sleeping in the hammock (the more storm and rain the better!), jumping in dark waters and making fires. And I make a point of it not to show my hesitation and not to ask them about their fears. Of course within in the boundaries of what I think is safe.
But if I would ask them “are you not afraid of wolves (or any other fearsome thing) in the dark?” Then I could actually bring the suggestion that there may be wolves around! While before they never even worried about that. (if it is a real threat or not is irrelevant, they trust our judgement!)
I am convinced that many children are learned not to trust nature or even to be afraid of rain, dirt, bacteria etc etc. Like you mentioned in relation to ticks, we as a society are made more afraid then ever!
(OTOH I am not sure that it is accurate to suggest the chance of an accident in traffic is bigger than the chance of getting Lyme from a tick.)
by the way, spotting wildlife with children is particularly difficult… 😉
Indeed! 😉
Hey Bastiaan,
Thanks for your comments and sharing your thoughts.
You make very good points.
Your girls are lucky to have such a father 🙂
Warm regards,
Paul
P.S. on putting risks into perspective, you may like this book: Reckoning with Risk: Learning to Live with Uncertainty
Thank you for this new education.We are trying in Croatia, children involved in nature from an early age,
and acquaint them with the flora and fauna, as is the more respected but also
how to survive.
Thank You!
Bozidar
That’s great to hear Bozidar 🙂
Hey Paul, great video! I was wondering if you have any tips for preventing tick bites when taking kids outdoors?