Do you make a living out of bushcraft?
- Thread starter Geuf
- Start date
And I admire and respect people like you who can teach for a living. That must give you huge job satisfaction. I imagine it can be a tough job, esp, these days, but I hope you can get to love your work one day.....Dougster said:I envy all of you who love your work.
It'a part of what I do, sometimes quite a big part. Mostly like Wayland and Dave but I work Forest Schools sometimes too.
cheers,
Toddy
cheers,
Toddy
for now it's just a hobby, at least until the aliens come to devastate all humanity in 2011. then it will be a fulltime job. 
I turned my hobbies into my job, but so far after nearly 4 years, I still look forward ot the work I have to do
Though some commissions are less appealing adn may take longer than I would like
Though some commissions are less appealing adn may take longer than I would like
I voted "No, it's just a hobby and I like it that way "
IT used to be a hobby that I really enjoyed. Now I do it for a living, but some of the time, I hate IT and I really wish I'd taken a different path.
I'm happy to keep it as a hobby and keep enjoying it.
IT used to be a hobby that I really enjoyed. Now I do it for a living, but some of the time, I hate IT and I really wish I'd taken a different path.
I'm happy to keep it as a hobby and keep enjoying it.
Voted "would love to".
I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who, when I'm talking with other like-minded outdoor enthusiats, fall silent and become transfixed by our conversation. Uttering the occasional - I never knew that, you're kidding etc. there must be millions of townies out there who could be relieved of a few pounds - for the sake of pointing out some very obvious facts, sights and secrets.
ATB
Ogri the trog
I'm constantly amazed by the number of people who, when I'm talking with other like-minded outdoor enthusiats, fall silent and become transfixed by our conversation. Uttering the occasional - I never knew that, you're kidding etc. there must be millions of townies out there who could be relieved of a few pounds - for the sake of pointing out some very obvious facts, sights and secrets.
ATB
Ogri the trog
IT is my job for the next 3 weeks but I hate it so much now that I have taken early retirment (51!) and will be looking to spend more of my time in the woods. I have been trying to find ways of making a living from it but so far all I have come up with is selling bow drils on e-bay and making mucky moviesPJMCBear said:
I know many people who turned their "hobby" into a part-time or full-time job. Most didn't survive the transition, are back with a "regular" job, and no longer have that hobby nor any other hobby.
It's a hard choice to make, especially with "modern real world living" complications - like home, hearth, and family. You have to treat it as a job/business, and it's hard to step back for a break. It also takes years to build things up enough to financially replace that regular job.
I've been living without that regular job since the fall of 2001, and I'm still officially making less than half of the published poverty level. Living very frugally helps. But my time is mostly my own, and I don't have to ask anybody if the "want fries with that?"! Or kiss some jerks **** just to exist!
I ain't got much, but I'm in a WHOLE LOT BETTER STATE OF MIND than back in the "real world". It works for me. And I live by the sweat of my own brow - neither supporting others nor asking them to support me. Oops .... slipped into a little Ayn Rand philisophical stuff there.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
Alledged Blacksmith and Known Iron Torturer
p.s. Did I just hear Atlas Shrug?
It's a hard choice to make, especially with "modern real world living" complications - like home, hearth, and family. You have to treat it as a job/business, and it's hard to step back for a break. It also takes years to build things up enough to financially replace that regular job.
I've been living without that regular job since the fall of 2001, and I'm still officially making less than half of the published poverty level. Living very frugally helps. But my time is mostly my own, and I don't have to ask anybody if the "want fries with that?"! Or kiss some jerks **** just to exist!
I ain't got much, but I'm in a WHOLE LOT BETTER STATE OF MIND than back in the "real world". It works for me. And I live by the sweat of my own brow - neither supporting others nor asking them to support me. Oops .... slipped into a little Ayn Rand philisophical stuff there.
Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.
Mike Ameling
Alledged Blacksmith and Known Iron Torturer
p.s. Did I just hear Atlas Shrug?
I'd love too, I think its such a wonderful thing to do, and it acts as a gateway to seeing how out ancestors used to live, while allowing us to educate ourselves on various aspects of nature. In a week or too I'm going to go up to Bradgate Park in Leicester to see if I can find a shed antler or two, to have a practice at make ing something.
Wolves.
Wolves.
I had a previous past-time (live band) that overtook my life and became a chore, so I gave it up almost completely. I would hate that to happen to Bushcraft (although I don't think it will).
I'd like to get more out of Bushcraft and make a couple of bucks, but I'm not skilled enough and don't have nearly enough knowledge. I couldn't leave my job because it's too secure and besides, my job pays for new kit!!
Pablo
I'd like to get more out of Bushcraft and make a couple of bucks, but I'm not skilled enough and don't have nearly enough knowledge. I couldn't leave my job because it's too secure and besides, my job pays for new kit!!
Pablo
I could always start charging the scouts for the fun they have...but that would be mean...
As it happens I'm going to do a bushcraft weekend for parents of my scouts to raise money for the group...ten parents @ £100 a throw will fill the coffers quite quickly...and I have plenty of interest, possibly enough for two weekends....All i need to do is make sure I know what I'm talking about
As it happens I'm going to do a bushcraft weekend for parents of my scouts to raise money for the group...ten parents @ £100 a throw will fill the coffers quite quickly...and I have plenty of interest, possibly enough for two weekends....All i need to do is make sure I know what I'm talking about
I have made it part of my job, but realy it has been there all the time i have been running expeditions on land and water and unkowingly have developed or picked up these skills along the way...But it now stands on its own and opened my eyes.
I would love to be able to make a living out of it but just don't know enough. (If there was anyone needing a willing assistant I wouldn't mind helping out in my spare time. I'd just need to work out how to sneak out without my son finding out ). I work in a call centre but have bushcraft as a hobby, along with viking re-enactment, as part of which I demonstrate traditional woodworking on a pole lathe.
(If there was anyone needing a willing assistant I wouldn't mind helping out in my spare time. I'd just need to work out how to sneak out without my son finding out ). I work in a call centre but have bushcraft as a hobby, along with viking re-enactment, as part of which I demonstrate traditional woodworking on a pole lathe.
11 years ago my wife and I moved into the bush on the Chilcotin Plateau in central B.C.. We sold everything, quit our jobs in the city and left with dreams of living sustainably. The money ran out and we got really good at snaring rabbits, foraging and living with no money.
We were determined.
We are still here. Raising children in the bush. Making our living making fine bushcraft edge tools.
We live with solar power. It's amazing with a satellite connection to the internet we're selling tools all over the world and beginning to make a living.
Living within our means, necessity is the mother of invention, leaving a light footprint, growing vegetables where no human has grown vegetables before and cooking rabbit in at least 20 ways. I could go on and on.
Living in the bush has a learning curve that does not end. These are a few things we've learned.
The bush is our lives. If a person yearns for the woods, the reality is that they could be there. The large natural resource companies are killing it so the more of us making a living through bushcraft the better
Scott
We were determined.
We are still here. Raising children in the bush. Making our living making fine bushcraft edge tools.
We live with solar power. It's amazing with a satellite connection to the internet we're selling tools all over the world and beginning to make a living.
Living within our means, necessity is the mother of invention, leaving a light footprint, growing vegetables where no human has grown vegetables before and cooking rabbit in at least 20 ways. I could go on and on.
Living in the bush has a learning curve that does not end. These are a few things we've learned.
The bush is our lives. If a person yearns for the woods, the reality is that they could be there. The large natural resource companies are killing it so the more of us making a living through bushcraft the better
Scott
Geuf said:
Well you know when your on expedition and youve forgotten something, you imrovise and pick some skills up or collect knowledge along the way, but it realy opened my eyes when i met others who seemed to start their outdoor experience with bushcraft it has become an outdoor activitity on its own, i run bushcraft courses over weekends and single days and it amazes me that people are so inspired by the media icons (RM) to get out and explore... I still see my bushcraft knoweldge/ survival skills rooted in expeditions.
But as you may have noted you can't even walk to your car without you noticing plants and woods you can use for various things and i still have so much to learn....it some times feels like some one has handed me the answer to life, what i and everything else is here for, and what i am still to search for....
wow got very spiritual there will have stop sampling strange mushrooms.....
John and Cariboo,
Thanks for your replies. In some way that really did something. What you said emphsizes how I feel about bushcraft. The cliché; the more you learn, the more questions you get is true. But it is also strangely in some way satisfying to go out and learn stuff, but to come back with more questions. one would say it might be the other way round, but for me it isn't. I've always practised bushcraft, although maybe not in it's current form or with the stamp 'bushcraft' on it. But since I took a year off to discover what I really wanted in live ( I wasn't really happy living the way I did) Bushcraft has taken an enormous flight in my life and it still is growing exponantially. at a point it occurred to me that it would actually be quite nice ( COUGH, understatement, Cough) to be able to make a living out of this thing called bushcraft. (whatever that is, because I thought it was clearer to me when I first picked it up, then it is now) So I started wondering what does actually apply to , or falls under the name bushcraft and who would consider him or herself someone that makes a living out of it. I read about a blacksmith above, wich can be an old craft, done with modern equipment and in a modern inviroment.
The thing I'm actually babbling about and wondering is who has had the same thoughts as me regarding this subject and how many people have thought about growing to a point where you can make a living out of bushcraft. for example making knives and selling them, teaching others about nature, teaching people about survival or teaching managers about being aware of our natural enviroment, living of the land or maybe being a farmer and doing lot's of things traditionally ( or not and still regarding yourself as being someone who applies bushcraft as being essential for your job/existence )
At this point I'm babbeling and thinking out loudly, but I hope you catch my drift and think about this. anyway, I want to thank everybody who has spilled his or her thought about this so to speak. These thoughts will be occupying me mind for a while and talking about these questions with other bushcraft enthousiasts will help me to gain an understanding about what my positions is regarding to bushcraft and what bushcraft actually means. because no, I don't think that it is a clear thing. it may be a quest that never ends, where you never will have all the answers but you will get closer to them every day.
2 cents of a babbling thinking out loud bushcrafter.
Thanks for your replies. In some way that really did something. What you said emphsizes how I feel about bushcraft. The cliché; the more you learn, the more questions you get is true. But it is also strangely in some way satisfying to go out and learn stuff, but to come back with more questions. one would say it might be the other way round, but for me it isn't. I've always practised bushcraft, although maybe not in it's current form or with the stamp 'bushcraft' on it. But since I took a year off to discover what I really wanted in live ( I wasn't really happy living the way I did) Bushcraft has taken an enormous flight in my life and it still is growing exponantially. at a point it occurred to me that it would actually be quite nice ( COUGH, understatement, Cough) to be able to make a living out of this thing called bushcraft. (whatever that is, because I thought it was clearer to me when I first picked it up, then it is now) So I started wondering what does actually apply to , or falls under the name bushcraft and who would consider him or herself someone that makes a living out of it. I read about a blacksmith above, wich can be an old craft, done with modern equipment and in a modern inviroment.
The thing I'm actually babbling about and wondering is who has had the same thoughts as me regarding this subject and how many people have thought about growing to a point where you can make a living out of bushcraft. for example making knives and selling them, teaching others about nature, teaching people about survival or teaching managers about being aware of our natural enviroment, living of the land or maybe being a farmer and doing lot's of things traditionally ( or not and still regarding yourself as being someone who applies bushcraft as being essential for your job/existence )
At this point I'm babbeling and thinking out loudly, but I hope you catch my drift and think about this. anyway, I want to thank everybody who has spilled his or her thought about this so to speak. These thoughts will be occupying me mind for a while and talking about these questions with other bushcraft enthousiasts will help me to gain an understanding about what my positions is regarding to bushcraft and what bushcraft actually means. because no, I don't think that it is a clear thing. it may be a quest that never ends, where you never will have all the answers but you will get closer to them every day.
2 cents of a babbling thinking out loud bushcrafter.
