Your Biggest Investment

[Jaan]

There have recently been threads about your worst buy, your best buy, the value of your kit and so forth.

It got me thinking: we've all been taught the rule of threes and what priorities shelter, fire, water and food take. But what part (kit, knowledge or other) of bushcraft do you invest the most time, effort and money in?

For example - I'm still starting out with this hobby, haven't bought much kit and haven't been cocking about in the woods for years. No matter how many times I read the importance of a proper knife, axe and firelighting equipment they still were not and are not the first things I've prioritized.
Since the temperature in Estonia is below zero and thick snow coveres the ground from November to about March, I'm not going to be much use to anyone if I'm not wearing proper clothes. Some winters ago I could not wait for the bus in January longer than 10 minutes before I started to shiver uncontrollably and I couldn't feel my toes. That's why in Estonian context I am currently focusing on getting my clothing right, because that means I will stay alive in the winter if something ought to happen.

Now about knowledge and the mind. I've bought a bunch of bushcraft books and in addition to basic firelighting and shelter-building techniques I rather enjoy the idea of knowing most if not all common edible plants found in my country. However, I still focus a lot of my time preparing my willpower and the ability to perform physically. I like to work out several days a week and constantly push myself to exhaustion. Something about what it does to the mind that appeals to me. I get a huge boost of morale and a sense of accomplishment when I push myself past another what seems to be a near pass-out scenario. (I'm not torturing myself though, trust me. )

So even though the idea of mastering the use of an axe and more advanced woodcarving techniques appeals to me I still spend a lot of my money on proper clothing instead.
And rather than reading book after book about plants I find myself working out more than I probably should.


So, fellow forum members: I would like to know your similar stories. Where does the majority of your time and effort go to, regarding bushcraft? Are there any differences to what you think and what you do? What is your biggest investment?

 

[Shewie]

Simple ...

BushcraftUK

 

[John Fenna]

Ditto...............

 

[Ex-member EagleOwl]

Seem to spend a lot of time getting ideas and info on here but all knowledge stems from practical experience imo.

Can't identify trees well but somoene said use willow for a bowdrill.

I Don't know what willow looks like but i experiment and found some trees that do work.

Stuff like knowing proper plant names etc doesn't matter to me,

Empiricism FTW

 

[Shewie]

Can't identify trees well but somoene said use willow for a bowdrill.

I got a good tip off here years ago to help with ID'ing trees etc.

Choose one species and find as much info as you can about it, look at leaf structures and placement on stem, bark type etc etc. Take some pics with you, some drawings are very good too (R Phillips). With that data go out for a wonder and see if you can find a match, if you don't find one the first time keep going until you do. It might take you a few trips out but only when you're sure you can ID it every time can you move on to something else. Starting off with some of the common and obvious ones can help you get the hang of the system.

This is a great site to get you started, takes a minute to load ...
http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/home.html

 

[Jaan]

Seem to spend a lot of time getting ideas and info on here but all knowledge stems from practical experience imo.

Can't identify trees well but somoene said use willow for a bowdrill.

I Don't know what willow looks like but i experiment and found some trees that do work.

Stuff like knowing proper plant names etc doesn't matter to me,

Empiricism FTW

I agree with that approach. Normally I like to read a lot and prepare before I do something, but I have found that you can read about something a hundred times and it still has a smaller effect compared to actually doing something just for once. Found out about "alder" only a month ago. I knew the tree, could identify it all year round. I knew what it does and how easily the small branches come off. I knew how it felt and what it looked like. But up until now it was just "that tree with the miniature cone-type things".

This is another discrepancy of mine - I think that one thing is more useful than the other and spend more time on it, even though I learn better differently.

Shame there aren't any proper bushcraft workshops and courses here in Estonia.

 

[tomongoose]

I think knowledge is the most important investment for me, reading books watching videos and browsing these forums have
taught me loads and given me confidence that no amount of kit ever could

 

[Wayland]

Spend a lot of time here but also making stuff.

I'm on a major building binge right now for the Arctic Exped next year, in fact I'm getting ideas faster than I can make them at the moment.

.

 

[Graham_S]

I've probably invested most time in hand skills,
I know I need to improve my plant id skills.
I don't get as much time out as I used to.
Currently plant ID is "Oh Look, a palm tree"

 

[ged]

You need to adjust your learning and your kit to suit your environment. If Graham goes out into the desert his priorities will be things like water, and keeping out of the sun. If you, Jaan, go out into the snow you won't have much trouble finding water. Shelter from the sun will be a lot less important than keeping dry and warm. Whether you're in the desert or the snow you can always improvise to some extent, but it's a lot easier to get by if you prepare on the basis of what you know about the situations in which you're likely to find yourself.

I think that's one of the most important things to remember. I probably have all the kit I could ever need. So I spend more time thinking about where I'll be and what I'll be doing there than I do thinking about the kit.