This unfiltered fireside conversation was recorded the morning after a real kayak-and-camp trip down Black Creek with Chris and Dave. From midnight owl encounters and campfire steak to gear reviews and gut-level reflections on faith, it’s a raw look at the kind of talk you only get outdoors.
In this episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast, Chris and Dave sit beside the fire the morning after a rugged night on the river. They cover everything from owls calling through the darkness, the pros and cons of high-end hammocks, cooking steak over open flames, and real talk about spending smart on gear. The episode weaves in reflections on Christian faith, learning website design the hard way, and how to stop posting random content and start filming with purpose. It’s real. It’s unscripted. It’s camp life.
Mentioned in this episode:
Hennessy Hammock Explorer XL
NightCat Lay Flat Hammock
Moores Spicy Marinade
Camp Wut-Da-Heck updates
Proverbs 3:6 and the new Speir Outdoors slogan
Transitioning Speir Outdoors into a purpose-driven brand
(upbeat music)
Welcome to the Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Speir.
So here we're gonna
talk about gear, grit,
and the kind of stories
you only get around a fire.
It's all about learning, adapting,
and keeping your faith strong.
So whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman
or just looking to unplug and reconnect,
you're in the right place.
So pull up a chair by the
fire and let's get into it.
(upbeat music)
All right, everybody,
welcome to today's episode
where we're having a
real, real conversation.
This conversation is on the
side of the bank of a river,
on a camping trip that we
took a couple of weeks ago.
And this is gonna be
just 100% pure conversation
the morning after a
kayaking trip down the river.
So I invite you to listen along
and just enjoy the fireside conversation.
So last night was probably the loudest
I've ever heard owls in my camp.
That was crazy.
Like it's almost like we
had two pairs and a third,
two pairs of owls.
One here on this side,
one here on this side,
and then another one on
the other side of the river.
And it was loud.
Like I actually recorded
some of it on my phone.
I probably had to put
some of that in this video.
Yeah, they should.
Yeah, now for the whole story on that,
we could hear them for
what, probably a couple of hours
in the distance before.
So we both went to our
hammocks about midnight
and we weren't in
there just a little while
and they came here.
For the next three hours.
Yeah, I was actually
thinking for a minute,
how am I gonna sleep with these owls?
Making all this noise.
For the next three hours.
Yeah, it was nothing
but owls all night long.
I could hear them
hitting the branches behind
where my tarp is whenever they flew in.
And I'm like, man, that is crazy.
Yeah, do you think we called them in
or was it a coincidence?
Because we're hooting at them.
We don't sound much like an owl.
No, we were in their territory.
Coincidentally, they showed up.
Yeah.
So if you go hoot, hoot, hoot,
or it don't matter how it sounds,
they're gonna come check it out.
And last night was living proof.
Now, turkey hunters always
use the owl call right at dark,
just that dark.
And they'll do the hoot, hoot, you know?
And the turkey gobble
lets you know where he's at.
And so that's how they
track down turkeys and stuff.
But yesterday was cool.
I mean, last night was
cool with them owls like that.
Once creased, I told you off camera,
I'll tell the story on camera.
Probably 3 a.m. I was woke up by one.
Sounded 50 yards away at the most,
and it's creased like a woman's.
(screaming)
Which woke me up, and I
didn't think it was a woman.
But you know, that makes
your hair stand up on your arm
when it happens.
I mean, as soon as she's creased,
the hoot owl answered,
or it's right behind her.
Ooh!
That's crazy.
It almost made me think
that they have a nest close by.
Could be.
And it's very possible.
I mean, because we got a tree over here
with the top knocked out of it,
and that's what they
kind of make their nest in.
Owls do not make their own nest.
They either take over
another nest, another bird made,
or they'll find a wall or in a log
and make a nest out of it.
Owls will attack eagles at nighttime
to take over their nest.
Wow, yeah, bullish.
And different
cultures throughout the world
believe owls are like the
harboring jurors or death
or whatever.
They believe that they
associate owls with death.
And even through the United States,
it was different Native American tribes
that some believe the owl
was like a special species.
And then the further west you got,
the more they believed
that the owls were of death.
And I was like, wow, it's
crazy how all over the world,
different things make different beliefs.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, they have that similarity.
I'm sure, and I don't
know anything about this,
but it figures that universally darkness
is associated with death and evil
and the owls coming in the dark.
At night.
I think that's probably why
they drew that conclusion.
I don't know, out here,
I'm specifically gonna reconsider that
because we heard them
all day in the afternoon
and then this morning they
were cracking up in the daylight.
They are very much
active during the daytime.
Everybody thinks that
they only operate at night,
but they're very much
active in the daytime.
It's just that they have to hide
because all the other
birds will attack them.
And so they hide very
well during the daytime
or fly from place to place.
So what'd you think about
the T-bones last night, man?
Oh, god, that was amazing.
How'd you like that marinade?
It was good.
That was the only thing I wanted to add.
Yeah, I noticed there was
no salt, pepper, and dalton.
It was just a marinade and wood smoke.
I used a brand called
Moors Spicy Marinade.
And Moors, I've used it on my beef jerky
whenever I was doing my book.
I would tell people
to use dales or moors.
Moors is less salty than dales season.
Now, I know y'all probably
don't have it everywhere,
but I'm just from what
we have here locally.
And my wife and I went to a salvage store
and we got a couple
bottles of that dales,
I mean, of that Moors Spicy Marinade.
And she's like, "Hey, let's try this."
I said, "Okay."
Well, we went home, we tried it,
and we was like, "Oh
my gosh, this is good.
This is real good."
And it works on
chicken, it works on pork,
it works on any kind of meat.
And that next weekend, we went back
to that big box bargain
store, that salvage store.
We bought all the rest that they had.
And I must have 100 bottles
sitting on the shelf at the house.
Because usually, typically,
if it's in that salvage store,
it's no longer on the
shelves of a regular store.
And if you see it
there, it ain't gonna be long
because you're never gonna find it again.
Yeah.
Next time, I learned a
valuable lesson last night.
Don't let your
eyeballs control what you do.
With the potatoes, I wish
I'd have done small potatoes,
like two or three small potatoes
instead of one large big one.
Because we could have
ate several hours before.
(both laughing)
While we was waiting on the potatoes.
But the pot held up somewhat.
Let's see how the
pot's fair in this morning.
We're fixing to use it to
cook some breakfast, man.
I think so.
(pot clanking)
So what I was scared of
was that this aluminum pot
was going to like warp or melt.
And I don't think it warped or melted.
I think it's just
dirty and it's clean now.
Nope, it's good.
So it's that hard anodized aluminum.
So it shouldn't really melt
under the high temperatures like that.
Well, y'all saw the video,
we buried this into the flames
and this little Dutch
oven is pretty cool.
Now what we're gonna do
is put this over the flames
and cook on it.
So hopefully that will work.
(sighs)
And then we're gonna pack up
and then we're gonna get on the river
and just mosey down.
Not really in a big hurry.
I think Dave's got
somewhere to be around three o'clock
and it's nine, it's 10 o'clock right now.
Yeah, I mean, we made it
here in what, three hours.
Yeah, I was supposed to
mose yesterday halfway
and that was after spending 30 minutes
exploring that creek.
Yeah, I kept saying Marco
and I didn't hear no polo
and I was like, oh, better go back.
(laughs) Oh, coffee.
We're gonna start a new segment
on our videos called coffee time.
Where we sit around drinking our coffee
and talk about the trail so far.
(laughs)
That's a good idea.
Yeah.
Coffee time
(laughs)
Facebook has a Reels song.
It's like, Coffee, coffee, coffee time
(laughs)
I heard that one.
I'll have to use that one.
(sizzling)
Man, I'm telling you,
that is really some good coffee, dude.
It is.
I think the percolator,
which you're basically
just boiling it through for,
I like to percolate for four minutes,
it smooths it out a little
more than the coffee maker.
I use a coffee, a drip maker at home,
just because I'm lazy.
I want the coffee quicker,
but I bought an old school
percolator at a antique shop.
And I was gonna bring it on this trip.
And I was like, nah,
leave it for the camp,
what the heck, you know?
Hey, what's your thoughts
on camp, what the heck, man?
What do you think about the place?
First time I saw it, I saw what the heck.
Absolutely.
And that's the whole
thing, it's like, what the heck?
It's a neat little place for you.
A little cove where you can
have a spot to make your videos
and do some instructional stuff.
I know the top secret
location many people don't.
So if anything goes missing,
he's the first one to blame.
What a beautiful day, man.
What a beautiful day.
It didn't get, you get cold last night?
Not at all.
Actually I got real hot and
had to take my blanket off.
I slept without my
cover most of the night.
Yeah.
At one point I actually thought about
just getting out and
laying down on the ground.
(sighs)
All right, so the
Hennessy hammock's pretty cool.
It's neat how the ridge
line is already put in there
for the bug net and how it
has the included pad in it
for when you're sleeping to
keep you warm on the backside
while you're laying in the hammock.
But I have not and cannot find a way
to make it more flat.
It is extremely bent.
And I had a hard time
last night sleeping.
And this is the second time that I've
slept in this hammock.
And I'm finding it
very difficult to sleep in
to be honest with you.
And I mean, I'm just gonna give honesty
where honesty is, you know?
What about you?
What's your thoughts?
I don't think it's a bad product at all.
I think it's very good, very well made,
very well thought out.
I like the ridge line kind
of takes the guesswork out
of getting the angles
right if it's right.
But I'm with you, I
have a cheaper hammock
that's I guess it's a bit wider
and it feels a little
bit flatter to lay in.
But there again, it's
not the same quality.
Didn't come with a tarp, you know?
The guy lines and
everything on this one, you know?
This one, they spared no
expense making this one.
And it's great.
The system is good and
I'm sure it's perfect
for some people.
Yes.
And some people are gonna love it
and it's gonna be their
most favorite hammock they got
and it's the one they're
gonna bring every time.
Right.
I'm not saying I
wouldn't sleep in it again.
It's probably not gonna be
my go-to every trip by far.
Right.
So we reviewed another product.
Last year, the Nightcat Lay Flat hammock.
And it is one third of
the price of this one.
And I'm actually leaning
more towards using that one
as my official hammock.
See, there's where
the personality comes in
and preferences.
I like the Nightcat on the ground
because it also makes a ground tent,
a convenient little ground tent.
But trying to sleep in it,
hung as a hammock, I hated it.
Didn't you?
It stretched overnight and
dipped and I was miserable.
So when it comes to camping,
it's all about personal preference.
It's not about the latest in flashy gear
or the price of your gear.
You could actually use a
$15 hammock without a bug net
and buy an extra bug net and go over it
and have no problem.
These ones with the
bug nets built into them,
this is the, it's
called the Jungle Explorer
or something like that.
It's what's this one called?
Explore XL.
Yeah, Explore XL.
And I love the bug net.
I love the design of this hammock.
I love the design.
Like if there was a way
to adjust the ridge line
in this hammock to make it
to where it would lay flatter.
And then you have Dave
that don't like the flat.
He likes it, you know?
But ultimately, early this morning,
I was balled up in the fetal position
just trying to get some sleep.
Yeah, that's how I slept too.
And you know, really I
didn't, I don't hate it.
That's one thing nice about a hammock is,
there's no pressure points.
So you don't wake up
with your hip hurting
other than maybe if
you're bent on a weird angle.
But you know, I wake up
even at home when I sleep,
I flip all over and I'm
all in weird positions
and I wake up with my arms asleep
because my head's pinching
off the nerves or something.
You know, that
doesn't happen in a hammock.
I'm flipping and
flopping for other reasons,
not because parts of my
body are going to sleep.
All in all, I mean, even
through all the boat that I wrote,
you know, I love a
hammock and I made that clear.
I love hammock camping.
One, you're up off the ground
and so it's cooler in hotter weather.
And two, the bugs are
not going to get on you
as much as if you laid on the ground.
If I'd laid on the ground last night,
I'd had spiders crawling on the ground.
Yeah, there's bugs way up in this,
there's a dog on the ground.
And so I'm glad I wasn't on the ground.
And then, cause they ain't nothing worse
than waking up to a big old wolf spider
the size of a, you know, a two inch
diameter on your face.
And I've had that happen to me before.
Even in the middle of winter,
I've had the wolf spider get on me
when I was sleeping on the ground.
Well, you were a warm spot.
Yeah, I know you're a warm spot
and they're coming to get it.
But it's, I love hammock camping.
And I will continue till I
find the absolute perfect,
perfect hammock.
Yeah.
(laughs) The shame is with the
price of some of this gear,
I mean, these,
these Hennessy hammocks are,
they're not cheap by my book.
I mean, by some people's,
what they spend on outdoor stuff is,
right, it would be very reasonable,
but you know, that's kind of high dollar.
So if you get something,
and then you, this,
it's not really for me.
Like if I spent the
money and bought that,
I'd be kind of disappointed.
Yeah.
And then what do you do?
I mean, what you can
try to resell it on the,
on the aftermarket on eBay or something
and recoup some of your
money and try something else,
but then you're just
buying and buying and buying
until you find that right one.
Yeah.
So,
I really liked the idea of
what you said about the gear.
Some people will spend
exuberant amounts of money
to buy a piece of gear.
And then they will take
that gear and they're like,
"Man, I really don't like this,
but I guess that's what the pros use.
So that's what I got to use."
And then they will
just, they will suck it up.
And then, you know, if
finally they just get used to it,
not knowing that, "Hey,
there's a better piece of gear
out there that you could
have bought for half the price."
You know, and that's like,
that's like solar laners.
You have solar laners, they
are a hundred dollars a piece.
And then you got solar
laners that you could find
at a thrift shop or Walmart
or something for $15 a piece.
But ultimately they do the same job.
Yep.
Yeah.
It's gonna be a cloudy day today.
Partly cloudy.
That's just like propane stoves.
You've got a dime a
dozen on the base, huh?
I mean a dime a dozen.
The one I have, I think
it was $15 at Walmart.
Mm-hmm.
Did that much.
I like how you got the
little adapter for yours
so you can use either the small, really?
Yeah. Yeah.
That's crazy.
It was only true.
It does what I need it to do.
It's probably not the
highest quality one.
That's the key to
everything, what you just said.
It does what I need it to do.
And people, some
people just don't get it.
It's like, it does what I need it to do.
That is the key to
everything right there.
Yeah.
It sums everything up when it comes to
camping and outdoors.
It does what I need it to do.
Mm.
So, I guess we get us a
nice little bed of coals
and then cook us a nice little breakfast.
Yeah.
A little coffee left,
you need another shot?
Nah, I'm good right now.
All right.
So, I just redesigned the
entire Spear Outdoors website.
I redesigned the entire store.
I redesigned everything.
So now when you log on to Spear Outdoors,
click the merch section,
they got the coffee cups.
Before the coffee cups were you had to
hold them left-handed
and see the logo, now I fixed that.
Now you hold them with your right hand.
So all your left-handed folks, I'm sorry.
Maybe I should do another
one and do one for left-handed.
You don't have a left-handed option?
No, they did not, well they do,
but you can only do one at one.
And I tried to get it where
I put the logo on both sides,
but they won't let
you add in that option.
And then I updated
the actual logo itself.
And it's pretty good
and pretty cool, you know,
and all your ways acknowledge him.
That's the new slogan for the entire
Spear Outdoors brand.
So, right out of Proverbs 3.6.
So that seems to be the direction
that everything is going in.
So I feel like, boy,
this is gonna turn into another podcast
sitting right here, Fire Side.
Fire Side podcast conversations.
But what has really moved this forward
is the fact that it was
time to really, really put
who I was into the videos
and not just really doing
videos, just to do videos.
Like going on camping trips with friends,
having the conversations,
talking, doing things, you know.
I'm still gonna do the
tips, tricks, techniques,
you know, and stuff like that,
but it's gonna be more
meaningful, not more random.
Yeah.
You know, as before, I
was just filming stuff
just to have a video.
Now it's gonna be on purpose.
Now there's gonna be a whole,
and this podcast, blah, blah, blah,
everything's gonna be interconnected.
So it's gonna be the podcast.
And then from the podcast,
it's gonna be all the tips
and tricks and techniques,
and then how to do this,
where to go, how to do that.
So everything is gonna be coming
right back around full circle.
So it's been a lot of work.
I spent the last, I am
not a website engineer.
HTML is a dirty word to me.
I don't know cascade
style sheets and HTML
and all this stuff that you gotta know
in order to do
websites, but I figured it out.
I've spent the last couple
of weeks just hashing out
how do I fix this and what I do?
Because you could pay
somebody to do something.
And in the end, it's still not gonna be
the way you exactly want it.
And then it'll be like,
no, we couldn't do it that way because.
And I'm like, well,
that's not what I wanted.
You know, what I wanted was,
and that was where my problem was
with the website at the beginning,
but I just went with
it and it was expensive.
You know, couple thousand
dollars getting some dude
to do a website.
So now if anybody needs
a website, let me know.
I'm not proficient in it.
I'm joking.
I'm not joking.
(laughing)
Yeah, well, when I set
up our church website
several years ago,
thankfully I had a friend
who knew how to do it and he
did it for a few hundred bucks.
But from there, I didn't know
what to do with it afterwards.
So it never got updated.
It never got changed, you know,
because it's not like on Facebook,
you know, just post something, you know,
there's more to it.
And I could have figured it out too,
but I didn't wanna put the
time into figuring it out.
Well, dude, I would spend it at 12, 14,
sometimes 16 hours a day sitting there
just hashing through,
trying to read up on what,
how does he do this?
What do you do that?
You know?
So it's been a very--
That's good that you got another skill.
I mean, even if you
don't use it for anything
other than your websites,
I think anytime we
learn something, it's good.
It's good for us.
But when you relate that
back to camping or survival,
if you don't keep practicing that skill,
you eventually forget it.
You're like, man, I remember how,
I remember I used to do
this, how did I do that?
And then you keep going back through it.
The same thing with, like
you mentioned last night
in the podcast, look, if
y'all haven't seen that podcast,
you're missing out.
It's gonna be an awesome podcast.
But like you mentioned last night,
that people always assume
that they can rub two sticks
together to start a fire.
Yeah.
If you ain't
practicing, you ain't doing it,
you ain't gonna do it.
There's a lot more involved in it.
And it took me years
to figure it out until,
of course you could pay and
go to one of these bushcraft
or survival schools.
But if you understand the three elements
that you have to have,
you have to have a shelter,
you have to have heat or warmth, fire,
you have to have water.
Those three things, you
got those three things,
you can survive any situation anywhere.
Cause you can go a
long time without food.
Yeah.
But these people, you know,
you could go to these classes,
you can learn how to do these things.
And it's, you can pay the money,
or you could just go on YouTube
and you can figure it out on YouTube.
I'm telling you what,
YouTube University is an awesome
resource to get your education.
There's a lot of people
on there to do it right.
There's a lot of people on
there that do it different.
There's a lot of
people on there that do it
completely wrong.
But so you have to pay
attention to what you're watching.
Especially when you get into religion.
When you get into
religion and Christianity,
so on, there's a lot of
people in there that do it right.
There's a lot of people that do it wrong.
And there's a lot of people
that do it just off the wall.
Like, hey, something's
up with this, you know?
Yep.
You got to be very careful.
And that's what
everything in life, you don't,
everything in life.
(sniffing)
Well, guys, thank you for joining
the fireside conversation this morning.
And so I guess we're going
to get ready to start cooking
and have us a good old breakfast.
Yeah.
I'm ready for a pancake.
A pancake?
A camping pancake.
Did you bring-- Pancakes and sausage.
Did you bring syrup?
Yes, I did.
Oh, you're the man.
(laughing) Thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
If this episode gave you
something to think about,
if it helped you feel a
little bit more prepared,
or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit,
go ahead and share it with someone else
who might need it as well.
We don't go camping
to run away from life.
We come out here to
slow down and to recharge.
So grab another log,
throw it on the fire,
and remember this, in all
your ways, acknowledge him,
and he will direct your path.
I'll see you next time.
God bless you.