In this Fundamental Friday episode, Chris demonstrates how to filter water with a gravity system, set up camp with a sleeping pad and wool blanket, and prepare dinner on a compact wood-burning stove. From clean water to sizzling Spam in a skillet, this video highlights how to balance survival essentials with comfort in the woods.
In Part 3 of our Fundamental Friday series, This episode of Fundamental Friday takes you deeper into the camp setup process—moving from survival basics into evening comfort and cooking. You’ll see step-by-step how I:
Use a gravity-fed water filtration system to purify a gallon of water.
Test out a self-inflating sleeping pad with a wool blanket.
Assemble a portable wood-burning stove for safe camp cooking.
Gather kindling, manage fire safety, and light a controlled blaze with a Bic lighter.
Cook one of my favorite camp meals—Spam in a skillet—simple, hearty, and perfect after a long day in the woods.
This episode shows how even a primitive camp can feel like home when you know how to make water safe, keep warm, and enjoy a solid meal at the end of the day.
below is a list of gear used in this series:
Fire redundancy: Ferro rod, Bic lighter, char cloth, and even a pencil sharpener for tinder.
Cutting tools: Belt knife (Mora Garberg), backup knife, multi-tool, and folding saw.
Cooking gear: Bush pot, skillet, wood burning grill, cutting board, and seasoning containers.
Food & drink: Freeze-dried meals, tortillas, powdered milk, trail mix, and drink mixes.
(if you are interested in my new homemade freeze-dried meals email me at chris@speiroutdoors.com I will be offering:
Breakfast, (Southern) Red Beans & Rice, Chicken Stew and Shepherd's Pie)
Water systems: GRAYL filter, 6L gravity bag, and backup metal bottle for boiling.
Shelter: DD 3x3 tarp, wool blanket, hammock, and a blow-up mattress for flexibility.
Comfort & safety: First aid kit, solar lanterns, gloves, shemagh, change of clothes, and even a folding camp chair.
If you’ve ever wondered how to put together a primitive camping kit that covers every base without overpacking, this video lays out the blueprint.
All right, remember that water that we collected at the stream earlier? Now I have an extra bag, and then we're gonna use this to collect all the clean water and it's gonna hook directly up to this water filter. Inside this water filter.
You open this puppy up and you have the actual water filter system right here, and it has a little nipple. But screws out, and then you can screw this directly into this plastic bag. Then on the backside you have a hose that clips into the bottom of this bag, and then it fits into the backside of this water filter.
Just like that. Now, this is going to be gravity fed. We're gonna fill the water up inside this reservoir, and then it's gonna gravity feed through here and filtrate into this bag. That bag is gonna connect to the end of the water filter like that. And so you have a closed filtration water system here.
First, we're gonna make sure this is completely turned off so no water can come through. Then we're gonna fill this bag up and then hang it up on this notch right here. Let's fill this thing up with some water and get us something to drink. Now that everything is hooked up, we're gonna open our water reservoir, and then we're just gonna pour the dirty water into the reservoir.
Alright.
So essentially we have four liters of water, so that's roughly one gallon. So this rolls up and then comes around and clicks together, clips together, just like that. Now all you do is just hang this end up on this knot just like that. Now we just release the flow right here. And this puppy should start filtering us some clean water.
As you can see, the water's starting to come in here. I'll bring the camera up closer so you can see it. All right. As you can see, it's starting to fill the bag up, and this is filtered clean water, so you're able to drink this straight out of the bag. It may taste like the water source that you took it out of, but it's gonna be free of any biological contaminants.
Now to ensure that you have absolutely zero, 100% no biological contaminants in here, it is safer to boil your water. Now these work in a pinch. They work great. I've used 'em for years. I've never been sick. But it's also just safe to note that it's safer to boil your water. Now that our water is being filtered, let's go ahead and get the rest of the camp set up.
The main thing we're trying to do is just clean this out where nothing's gonna poke a hole in our little sleeping pad. All right. All right. I think we're ready for the sleeping pad. So on this sleeping pad, this is one of those self-inflating dudes. I've never used one of these. I've always had to bring an inflator or blow it up myself.
So let's see what this does.
Quick, somebody dial 9 1 1. I feel like I'm doing CPR.
Hm.
All right. There we go. It only took forever. I feel like I did a workout. So, uh, there we go. Now that's our sleeping pad for the evening. Let's see what that feels like.
Oh, I might just lay right here and take me a nap. Yes, indeed. Nice and comfy. All right, so now we'll get the wool blanket out, and then we'll get the rest of the camp set up. All right, now. Wool blanket is out now. All the sleeping arrangements have been made. Let's go ahead and get the stove set up and get ready to start cooking some dinner.
So we got our wood burner stove here that we're gonna take out, and we're gonna put it together and get it ready to start a fire. And we're going to be able to cook our dinner. And I got a surprise for you. It's just like a book. Now this is the tray. This is the ash tray, and it's going to,
and you're gonna put it like this and it clips in there and swing this side around and then put it on the correspondent side over there, just like that. And then you have a grill. And we're gonna take that grill and stick it on top just like that. And it's gonna hold it all together. So now all you do is you just put your fire in here on top of this ashtray right there, and we will get us a good little stove to cook some dinner.
Now inside this kit, inside our, inside our pot bag, we got our little skillet and we got the lid, and that skillet's gonna fit perfect right over there on top of that stove. And. What I didn't show y'all earlier is that we got a can of spam and this is my absolute favorite food in the woods, and so it's, it goes good with breakfast, it goes good for dinner, it goes good for lunch.
It doesn't matter. You put this in a tortilla and eat it. It's great. You can cook it up and eat it with your eggs. It's awesome. And you can eat it in your red beans and rice if you wish. All right. I also got this cutting board that we're gonna use to cut up our spam with, so let's go ahead and get some sticks and stuff to start our fire with and get this thing cooking.
All right, we got some sticks. We're gonna break down here. Some of 'em already have. We've got some nice little kindle in there. Got some bigger stuff and it don't take a lot to cook on the stove.
It don't take a lot. It just has to be hot.
You guys have been with me for over 45 minutes by now, and I really appreciate you guys. So let's see if we can get this dinner started.
This is gonna be enough wood for us to get a good little fire going with some coals in there. And we cook some dinner and then after that it'll be some going down here shortly. We'll have us a little drink of, uh, some of that river water and then we'll. Set up the lantern and then we'll cozy up into the bed for tonight and then tomorrow.
I don't think I'm gonna have enough time to go over tomorrow's stuff, so we'll do that another time. But tomorrow I'm thinking about, we're gonna do some, uh, fishing, so stay tuned. There might be another video on primitive fishing. Now, anytime you're doing anything with a fire, you want to clean your area out, okay?
You don't want. Any of this pine straw or leaves or stuff like that to catch or spread a fire. You don't want to catch everything on fire. Even though we're cooking inside of a device, we don't want to, uh, accidentally catch the woods on fire. Now this stove is real good at containing it, but you still want to have a good dirt layer under here, and that way you protect yourself from any kind of liability, I guess.
So with that,
all right, so now we got that pine straw that we collected off the tree branch, and we got a little bit of kindling here. And what we're gonna do is just light this stuff on fire
and it shouldn't be long. There we go. The big lighter, the most cost effective and easiest and economical way to start a fire ever invented.