Hey gang! Last night was rough, but I think during that time I finally topped the summit of this flu I’ve been dealing with and I started down the other side of that mountain this afternoon.
On the most recent The Practical Woodsman podcast episode I had somebody on YouTube complaining about the number of ads and they apparently blame me for it. I had to remind them that I don’t own YouTube. I have no control whatsoever over how many ads YouTube shows or with what frequency. Frankly, I get sick of the obnoxious frequency of ads YouTube throws in my face when I try to watch something there, too.
Here’s a tip: If you subscribe to The Practical Woodsman on Rumble, in addition to YouTube, you can watch the exact same content there with practically zero ad interruptions. The only drawback is that I almost always upload to YouTube first, since the majority of my audience is there. Because uploads can take me so much time, I frequently can’t get the same video uploaded to Rumble until a day or so later. Also, I’m able to upload in 4K to YouTube, while Rumble restricts me to lower resolutions.
But, if you hate ads as much as this feller who commented on my video this morning does, Rumble is a nice option for avoiding them practically altogether. Rumble is also a champion of free speech, a principle I am happy to support in any way that I can. YouTube is an outright enemy of free speech. I use it currently because I have to, not because it is my preference.
Gettin’ outta the glorious rain in the glorious backcountry with my glorious dog
I found this video interesting as it relates to conversations we have about the true nature of things, what is really important and what is not, and how little importance some things have depending on the needs of the moment.
For example, this guy and his fellow soldiers, while being shot at would just dump their blankets - the blankets were totally unimportant to the immediate goal of staying alive. This meant later suffering, but at least they were alive.
I think about this sort of thing all the time when seeing guys building elaborate, beautiful shelters in the woods. When you’re hungry and lost, or simply traveling through the wilderness, nobody is going to care about building an elaborate shelter. You’re only going to care about conserving energy and using energy for only things that are absolutely necessary in any given moment.
This means sleeping under a rock outcrop, or a fallen tree, or just trying to get through the night under your sweater and some leaves you scrounge ...
