I’m digging into primitive camping, bushcraft fire starting, hammock setups, and questions from our Facebook group, with a Mississippi cottonmouth encounter thrown in. We also talk about taking kids camping, carrying less gear, and making memories around the fire.
You don’t need 400 pounds of gear to enjoy a night in the woods.
This episode of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast is a walk through the posts, questions, and camp setups from our Facebook community. I’m talking primitive shelters, hammock camping, fire starting, and why getting outside matters more than having somebody else approve of your gear.
I also share a Mississippi bowhunting story involving knee-deep mud and three baby cottonmouths, explain which materials I prefer for char cloth, and tell how a friction-fire video landed me on MTV’s Ridiculousness.
In this episode:
Join the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Facebook group, share your setup, and help somebody who’s just getting started.
My book, Primitive Camping & Bushcraft, is also mentioned in this episode, with copies offered for $11 plus shipping through my Vinted listing.
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6
Welcome to the Primitive Camping at Bushcraft Podcast. I'm your host Chris Speir. So here we're going to 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. Welcome back to the Primitive Camping at Bushcraft Podcast. My name is Chris Speir. Alright, so I have some explaining to do. It's been a minute. It's been actually several minutes.
Well, I sold my property. I bought a new piece of property. I have seven acres paid, free and clear. I built a tiny house on it. My wife and I are living in 288 square feet with three dogs. It is a challenge for sure. Now we are in the process of starting to build our forever home, our new house, which is much larger than 288 square feet. And whenever I'm done, then this little tiny house will become my studio. And I will start doing my outdoor content more faithfully and more often.
So anyway, that was to bring you up to speed what's going on. And thank you to everybody who keeps on listening. Everybody keeps coming and showing up. I really do appreciate it. And the Facebook group is really exploded. It is now at, as we sit here, 83,900 members. And so today what I figured we'd do is that we'd just take a scroll and we're going to scroll through and look at some posts and discuss them. And that's what this is all about. Primitive Camping at Bushcraft, getting out in the great outdoors and really having a good time. So first up on my feed here is a post by Simon. You know, he says a couple of days a month, my little piece of silence and he has a debris hut, you know, all put together with some fire. And it's pretty cool.
It's a pretty cool looking thing, man. And what they call that a wiki up or something like that. It's a debris. The only thing that makes me cringe is seeing the fire inside the already debris hut fire, you know, so it's kind of that thing could go up at any time, but I ain't teached her own. But anyway, it is very cool. I really like it, Simon. That is a pretty cool little shelter. So now we're going to move on down several other different little things. We got individuals posting fishing reels and stuff like that. And hand reels crafted from different woods and stuff.
The idea is to strip away the unnecessary and get back to the direct connection. And this little handrail looks like a spool, looks like a little pulley and you just wind it up and you throw it out and you fish with it. And it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Now let's get to the nitty gritty of this. It was posted 13 minutes ago and it's really, you know, not the place for this. You don't, you know, if you're trying to sell products and stuff like that, then this ain't the best place to sell your products, especially whenever you had to agree to the rules of not trying to sell stuff. Now we have another one that says Tony. Hello, I'm Tony. I enjoy winter camping because there are no ticks, mosquitoes, snakes or bears. All right, Tony, welcome to the group.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. And I happen to agree. Except for in South Mississippi, it is never cold enough to not have ticks, mosquitoes or snakes. We don't have typically too many bears. And I constantly run into snakes. They just seem to hide their little bit slower. Walking the palmettos. I wear snake boots all hunting season because I can't tell you how many times I've almost stepped on cotton mouths or water moccasins and copperheads and stuff. And it is ridiculous the amount of snakes we have down here in South Mississippi. For instance, just last week or week four last, my brother and I actually took a couple of days open and bow season here in Central Mississippi. And we went up to do some bow hunting. Deer tracks everywhere, no water, whatsoever. We can't find any water around here. It's been so dry. It's been so dry. All the farms and everything have already harvested all their crops and stuff like that. So it was hard to hunt.
And you know, everywhere is a bedding area. Everywhere is a feeding area. But if you find the water, you find where the deer are traveling to and from. And all the water that you do find are infested with alligators. I mean, it's just crazy. But I found this little ditch and I was going to jump across this ditch. And whenever I walked up, thousands, I'm not mean in just a few, I'm talking thousands, a little bitty baby. It looked like leopard frogs, little baby leopard frogs started jumping everywhere. And I knew the moment I saw those frogs, I was like, there's going to be a snake somewhere right here. There is going to be a snake after those frogs. And I looked down, I didn't see anything. And I was like, look, I'm going to jump across this ditch. And I'm going to get to the other side. Well, it looked dry. But whenever I jumped, I landed in the mud and sunk down to my knee. And lo and behold, I look up and there's three brand new to the world, baby cotton mouths sitting right there with their little green tails wagging. And I'm like, Oh, dude, Jesus, I'm bit. I am fixing to be bit. And no, I didn't get bit. They went on about their business. And I did my little snake dance.
And then I turn around and went about my business. And I said, never again. But I knew the moment I saw those frogs, I was going to see the snakes because the snakes are after the frogs. And it's a wonder I didn't see any baby alligators. I made darn sure they want no alligators because those little mud puddles like that, there's little little things have a lot of baby alligators in those usually you think they're frogs. And then all of a sudden they start going like that. And whenever they do that, buddy, mama's coming. And she will she gets vicious.
So anyway, Tony, you know, thanks for posting. Welcome to the to the group. And I hope you enjoy it. I hope you find some stuff here that is interesting that you didn't know before that you can help learn some stuff, you know, that the group can help learn or teach or, you know, you can learn something from the group. Michael three hours ago, he posted a photo and it looks like a tent with the first snow of the year or something like that. And he's saying hello, everyone. I'd like to introduce myself and share a photo I took. Now I'm from Sweden. I love being outdoors. And I make some of my own gear.
That way it turns out exactly how I want it quite simply. The photo is from Wendell camping trip a few years back in a forest close to home. And that's pretty cool. I would love to know that did you make your own? And I'm fixing to put this in there. Hey, great pic. Did you make your own? Tent.
I said, Hey, great pic. Did you make your own tent? You're on the podcast as I typed this going over different posts of individuals from the group. So I'll send that and there you go. All right. So, Michael, there you are. And there's another Michael here. And six hours ago, he said, I enjoy bushcraft and love cooking good food when I go out. I have multiple mess kits, but I'm trying to narrow it down to one. I would love to see what you guys and gals are carrying to cook and cook with for some new ideas, sinks, and hope everyone has a great day.
So, Hey, great post. Awesome question. And I am actually talking about this on the podcast as I typed this.
And I hope that you, let's see, hope that you get a lot of examples.
All right, send. Go. All right. Now, Spencer, you know, from Mobile, Alabama, that's just across the street from here. So, I've been interested in camping and bushcraft for a while, but never really got down to it. I purchased a hammock and started going on adventures. Canterbury says that you can tell how experienced somebody is in the outdoors or how well they sleep. Well, I sleep like, bleep, crap, but I'm learning. Okay. So, yeah, you can, you can tell how experienced they are in the outdoors by how well they sleep. When we go camping, I snore. You can ask Dave.
He's typically on a camping trip when we head on out, but yeah, I snore like a bear and it's extremely loud and I wake up everybody and everything. And you will get to that point too, the more comfortable you get. And if you, if you continue just to go by yourself, you know, you will become more accustomed to it and it'll be no big deal. It'll just be like, hey, I'm outside sleeping. You know, it's no big deal at all, but I do like your photos. I like how you got your little tent and your hammock, not hammock, but your tarp overhanging.
And you got your little fire going with your sandpit there.
And then I like how you have your hammock all set up and all. So, yeah, everything's pretty good. Yeah, I like your, I like your whole setup there. I have to get you one of the primitive camping and bushcraft books to go along with your, your camping trips there right alongside one of the bushcraft 101s. All right. So let me, let me put a comment in this post and hey, great post. Actually discussing it on the podcast.
And, uh, yeah, I'll go ahead and post that.
Also, I'm just an hour or so down the road from you.
Go. All right, Spencer. It was nice meeting you there. All right, buddy. Oh, I like that setup. He's got a Jeep. I can't wear my Jeep can take me. I've learned that no electricity or water means no people. That is so, so, so true. This post has reached 89,900 people. It has 158 comments. 1.7 thousand likes. And, uh, yes, sir. I am discussing your post on the podcast.
All right. I like that. That's pretty good. All right. So buddy, you, I like that dude. How you got your little setup right there and you're right. Whenever you get out into the great outdoors and, uh, there's no more electricity and there's no running water. That means there is no people. Now, every once in a while you run across somebody. It's not often you'll run across somebody kayaking or canoeing or something of that sort. Somebody might be walking their dogs through a hiking trail or something, but you typically do not see a lot of people when you get out in the great outdoors. And that's awesome.
When you get out there in this solitude, you have time with your mind. You have time with yourself. You can think about things and do things and just like you can do what you want to do and enjoy your time and enjoy the great outdoors the way God intended you to enjoy the great outdoors. That's, that's pretty, that's smooth stuff right there. And, uh, yeah, somebody says, what concerns me is that it appears you have driven over plants and many have killed them or left tracks that others may follow, which can end up creating new trails. Okay. Anyway, moving right along.
I'm not even gonna touch that.
All right, Mike, let's see. Mike, he posted this four days ago. He says, hello, my name is Mike. This was my first attempt setting up a shelter the night before. I began a weekend survival course. It worked, but I have all the airflow. I woke up with condensation on the inside. Fortunately, I was somewhat of a mild spring north Texas night. I've been interested in bushcraft survival for some time now. My favorite book is hatchet and I'm a military serious instructor, our graduate. Thanks for allowing me into the group. All right. Well, welcome. First of all, a lot of these posts, a lot of posts are people first timers saying, hey, I'm new here, you know, and the people that's been here a while, the people that post constantly need to go ahead and take them under their wing and, um, you know, give some advice. If they're asking for, uh, how do I do this or how do I do that? Let them know how you do it. You know, you don't have to tell them what to do.
Let them know how you do it. Uh, that's pretty cool stuff.
So now.
All right. So now we got another post by one of our admin here, Rick Kale. And, uh, let's see what he is seeing here. I'm not, it's not going to let me do it because I'm recording onto my, um, onto my iPad and my microphone is plugged in. It's not going to let me hear what he's saying. So, um, sometimes you fail and it's okay is what he's saying. So, you know, it looks like he's trying to start a fire and it didn't light. So that's what he's talking about. Sometimes you fail. So in other words, just keep practicing, keep practicing, keep practicing. And, it's okay to not get it right the first time.
Now we get down here to some food. This looks like Daniel and he posted this thing today and he's making some, uh, some bannock bread. Looks like now the next post is Paul. He is asking a serious question. I've seen quite a bit about char cloth has to be a hundred percent cotton. Has anyone done this with just cotton balls? Well, take a deep dive into these comments. There's 80 comments as a present and this post has reached 2.7 thousand individuals and, you know, it's all the way down to, I think cotton balls were crumble, roll the cotton balls and wood ash. Now he rolled the cotton ball and wood ash, roll it vigorously between a board or a stone, something like that, tell it's motion and it'll create an ember as the root of your roll. And I did that. That's what started all this. All this started with that, a video of that for my spare outdoors page.
And I did it with a tampon. That video went viral several times over. Next thing you know, there was a 500,000 people on TikTok. Follow me. That video made it all the way up to MTV's ridiculousness. Yep, it was on there and they ate my lunch. But it was still cool. And it was a comment that someone said, Hey, I see you can do this with a cotton ball, but can you do it with a tampon? And I said, I don't know. Let me find out. And I did. And I filmed it and it went viral. So yes. Now, the answer to the question when it comes to char cloth, denim jeans work the best. I have found that denim jeans, cotton t-shirts work great.
Any natural material can be used to make char cloth or char material, punt wood, you know, stuff like that. And I have had success of throwing a spark onto charred wood from the fire, the previous fire, the previous night's fire. I have had success with that. And I have actually thrown a spark onto it with a ferro rod and it accepted the spark and I blew and blew and blew and then it just added some leaves and stuff like that on top of it until it caught on fire. But when it comes down to char cloth, cotton material, denim jeans, that all tends to work the best. Now, cotton balls are going to usually just crumble and fall apart, but it can be used. They can be done. Now to our next post, Steven, he posted this about three hours ago as I've recorded this.
And it says, he wrote this a while back. Since they were born, he's taken his kids camping with just a blanket on the ground. And this is what he wrote. We've been so conditioned that when we go camping, we have to load ourselves up with all the amenities and comforts of home.
When we separate ourselves from nature with a tent or the like, we truly miss out. We miss the stars shining down on us, the owl sitting in the guard on the limb above us, the dancing light of the fire upon us, and the curious raccoon inches from our face. In essence, we miss everything we came there to experience. Gah, Lee, Steven, thank you so much. Yes, that is so true. So true. Man, that is, I don't think you can get any truer than that. And that goes back to one of the previous ones where we discussed being out in the great outdoors and one of the first ones we went over that we have been so conditioned that when we go out there, we have to load ourselves down with so much gear. And I talk about that extensively in my book, Premier Camping and Bushcraft, that you do not have to have 400 pounds of gear to go out into the woods and enjoy yourself. And this gentleman has been taking his kids out since they were little and with just a blanket and they lay on the ground and they stare at the stars and they feel the fire, they see the fire and they probably get cold, you know, but that's part of the experience. That's part of it. Those are memories that those youngins will have the rest of their life about their dad. When we were kids, my dad would bring us camping.
As much as I hate to say it, he would bring us camp just so he can get out of the house and drink.
But to us kids, that was the best times we've ever had. To this day, all of us brothers, there's four of us total love camping. We love going out into great outdoors.
Every one of us and those days were amazing. Now, my dad was just like what Steven was talking about here. He was conditioned that he had to bring everything within camping. So my dad would load stuff down that when you pulled up, you was thinking that he was fixing to have a garage sale. That's how much stuff he would bring. But we get out there and we cook some of the best food. We stay up late at night. We would sit around the fire and we would just have such a great time, good memories. And these boys are these kids for Steven. I mean, I'm telling you right now, they will have memories for the rest of their life.
You remember that time dad took it? You remember that time dad? You remember that time that dad, they will remember this. And that's what it's all about is getting this passed down to the next generation. It doesn't have to be so primitive that you, you know, who cares if you started a fire with a match or a bow drill or whatever. Did you enjoy your time in the great outdoors? That's what it's all about. Now, moving on to the next post, Scott. A couple days ago, he posted this. A couple days ago, he posted this. Not so primitive, but I love it. I got to test out my new inflatable bush tracks tent swag and absolutely loved it.
It took one minute for it to inflate and five minutes to set up the tarp. And he hoped everybody had a great safe weekend. Now, this post has been around 8.5,000 times, you know, a thousand people have seen it. He's got 110 lights and 14 comments. Let's take a look at these comments to see what they say. Hey, nice setup here in Canada. Having your food so close to the tent is dangerous. Yeah.
There and he was like, we only have certain kind of bears here, relatively harmless little critters, except for him. Breeding season, they will get a bit to it. All right, looks good to me. The fact you love is all that matters. And that's so true. Glendon has posted a comment that the fact you love it is all that matters. And that should be a t-shirt. The fact that you love it is all that matters. It should not matter what somebody else thinks about your setup, about how you go camping and how you enjoy it. The fact that you love it, you and your family, your friends, the people that you are with is all that matters. If you have a good time and you learn something from your experience, that's all that matters. And I discussed that extensively in my book, Primitive Camping and Bushcraft. And hey, by the way, that book is go to my spare outdoors page. I have a hundred copies of Primitive Camping and Bushcraft that I am giving away for $11. You will have to pay shipping, but there's a link on my vented, my vented page, Primitive Camping and Bushcraft.
And pick up a copy of the book. Now, right now on Amazon, it's going for $18.99, but I have them for $11. If you are interested, it's all up to you. And anyway, back to the comments section. So people were asking, hey, is this Private Land or is it Bush? And he says that he lives wherever it's a state force and stuff like that. So, but anyway, it was a pretty cool little setup. It kind of looks like a Adirondack type shelter or something to the effect. It's got a tarp that goes over the top of it. And you'll see the post. It's a pretty cool post. Scott, thanks for sharing.
I really appreciate it. All right. Now we're going to move on to one or two more posts. I try to keep these episodes around 30 minutes, you know, that way they're consumable and they're not exuberantly long, you know. Hey, I'm trying to use big words. Leave me alone. I'm from South Mississippi. All right, Nathan, a couple of days ago, he posted, Hi, y'all starting my dive into Bushcraft. If anyone has any recommendations around South Arkansas and South Oklahoma, I'd appreciate it. Well, welcome, Nathan. And get ready. If you're just now starting your dive into Bushcraft, I'll give you just about a year or two and you'll be so consumed with it and have so much gear that you don't know what to do with it. You'll have to sell it all on eBay.
Welcome to the rabbit hole. Anyway, this post is circulated 1.7 thousand times. It has 25 likes and we have 12 comments. Let's dive into the comments here and see what we got. I says, yeah, stay clear of anything in the USA. Okay. I had an expletive there as well. We'll skip over that. And somebody says, I've done a lot of bushcrafting around Southeast Oklahoma and welcome to the addiction. That's exactly what I was talking about. All right, somebody said, welcome to the addiction. Nathan, since you're looking for around South Arkansas and Oklahoma, you should definitely check out the Okeechita National Forest. All right.
So South Arkansas, you talk of Southeast, Southwest Southeast is close to where I have been. I have a camp, you know, less than a couple of hours from there, like maybe an hour from Southeast Arkansas. And I go up there all the time with all my deer hunting and everything. And actually, there's a couple of fellas, the two old farts in the woods. I don't know if anybody's familiar with them on TikTok or Facebook or anything like that. Jack and Jeff, two old farts in the woods. And they come down a couple of years ago and we camped out at my cabin, and then we went and we found some lion's mane mushroom and just took them around and showed them the Delta of Mississippi. And we had a good time. We ate a lot of mushroom, not the kind that trip, but the kind that are good for your brain, you know, the lion's mane mushroom. And we found several of the mushrooms. But yeah, there's plenty of places around there to do your bushcraft camping and hiking and stuff like that. Pretty much all the national forests.
If you have a national forest, you can go out into the woods and camp out at any time that you won't. I tend to do all the national forests here in South Mississippi and I really enjoy it. There's real good times. All right, guys. So I really do appreciate everybody for following along. And I'm going to try to get on here and get as many more episodes done as I possibly can. And I really do appreciate everybody that has joined the group, Primitive Camping and Bushcraft, and anybody that falls along with the podcast. Hey, it's been a good time. I apologize for being so delayed and posting and making new content. But hopefully now I've kind of settled into my new routine.
If you call it a routine. But yeah, it's been a ride. You're downsizing from a 3,000 square foot house to 288 square foot. And yeah, it's been something else. But anyway, hey, I really do appreciate you guys. Thank you for joining me today. I hope there was something on here that tickled your fancy. And look, remember head on over to spare outdoors on Facebook and claim your copy of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft book for 11 bucks. Hey, until then, I will see you next time. Remember, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. See you next time. God bless you.