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Not yet, the current book is in the proofing, rewriting stage, I hope to have it in print either this winter or early next spring. My other works on business law and legislation are hardly best seller material.
I don't have a You-tube channel yet, but that is also in the works to coincide with the book release. I have this crazy friend that really looks like a half-crazed survivalist who will star in them.
He will be demonstrating what is in the books, and using equipment I make.
This is a seperate project from my other businesses, so my friend and partner will be the face of the company, and the guy doing most of the busy work like packaging and shipping.
If this goes as planned, the books, You-tubes will link to a home page where equipment like my knives and axes will be available.
We are set to start shooting the first videos this fall.
All of this stuff that I do, consulting, teaching, survival, blacksmithing, writng, alternative energy, ranching, are just facets of self sufficency, so I work from a base that I'm already very familier with, so designing a business around that isn't hard, finding time is the tough part, so I work with partners. I do the business plans, the designs and most of the skull work are mine, they do the day to day operations.
When you are doing something you enjoy, and can make opportunities for yourself and your friends to make some money, it's all good.
you'd better filter and sterilize the rainwater, too, if you know what's good for you. That tarp's got bird doo and insect doo and tree sap, etc, all over it and that stuff ends up in your collected water.
I"d be really happy to have a bear or mountain lion come sniffing around. that's MEAT, and hide and in the case of 'the bear, fat to render down and use. You only need to be scared if you're too stupid to bring a gun and too incompetent to make a powerful bow and good broadhead arrows.
Nets/traps produce a lot more fish than trotlines, and hand-held lines are just a waste of your time. You need many lbs of "rough" food per day, folks. That means that (every day, now) you would need to catch scores of little panfish, if they are your only food source. Not a mere dozen of them. There's a youtube vid about a guy named Ed Wortles, (or something similar), and he starves/breaks weak in Canada cause it aint "legal" to shoot a moose! :-) Well then, why did he take an Enfield 303 instead of a .22lr Marlin Papoose? If you give a gd about rules/laws, then it can't be about "survival". It's just a game.
Nets/traps produce a lot more fish than trotlines, and hand-held lines are just a waste of your time. You need many lbs of "rough" food per day, folks. That means that (every day, now) you would need to catch scores of little panfish, if they are your only food source. Not a mere dozen of them. There's a youtube vid about a guy named Ed Wortles, (or something similar), and he starves/breaks weak in Canada cause it aint "legal" to shoot a moose! :-) Well then, why did he take an Enfield 303 instead of a .22lr Marlin Papoose? If you give a gd about rules/laws, then it can't be about "survival". It's just a game.
The shows and You-Tubes out there right now are a game, if someone is really trying to survive, they will use anything they have to get a meal.
Nets and traps are great, if you have one or know how to make one. Trotlines are simple and anyone can use one.
If you don't have a hook, a gorge works too.
When you are in a survival situation, you look for a meal, however you can get it. Using a trap, net or trotline simply increase your chances of getting a meal.
Limiting yourself to only specific methods restrict your options. In survival, every method is on the table and should be used.
If you have fishing tackle, use it. If you have a net, use it. If you know how to make a trap or weir, go for it.
Trotlines and the other methods work because they are still operating even if you aren't there. Same as a deadfall or leghold or snare for terrestrial animals.
If you are in a survival situation now, yeah, go ahead and take a moose or deer or whatever, but if you're just making a You-tube or TV show, you better have a license to take that animal or you will pay the price for it.
it's not that simple, guy. You have to look at time, calories and resources that you spend, in order to get that 'meal" and see to it that you get back (a lot) more than you spend in the "getting". if you don't, you're living off of your own fat and muscle and that wont take you very far. A month, maybe 2 if all you do is lie around.
Given that they're making tens of millions of $ with the TV show, what's a $500 fine for killing a critter? You won't have any vehicle for them to steal from you. :-) When you're out in the middle of nowhere, alone, just how do you have to worry about a game warden, anyway? Ed's problem was many-fold. He didn't bring a big caliber rifle that takes a .22 insert, (or an accurate, easy to use .22 handgun to go with the big rifle) and he didn't bring a lot of netting, and cordage, for use in making fish traps. He also didn't know how to use the local edible plants (it was summer, even).
Well, the last show the remaining 4 guys are at 25 days. One is reduced to trapping mice for food, one finally figured out that he had fishing line and caught a lingcod. Of course he had to have a good cry on the beach afterward.
The guy from Georgia made a fish trap. It looks pretty good, but his placement of the trap needs work. That kind of trap works best in a stream where the fish are traveling up, and you can make a barrier to funnel the fish to your trap, not just placed in an open area on the beach that goes under the tide. Too small for that kind placement, but he might catch something, but not how it should be used for consistant catches.
I am surprised the dreadlock guy from Mass. is still there, he's tougher than I thought.
Don't think they will keep all 4 for much longer. Dreadlocks and Mouseater are getting pretty lean, and not having much luck catching food.
Georgia and the Crybaby seem to at least have some skills in crafting things to make life easier for them, I believe it will go down to the 2 of them.
I will say that at least now, they're starting to use some real survival techniques like the fishtrap and deadfall, but they could do so much more.
They had an article on this over at SurvivalBlog, and I learned a lot about the show (we have no TV, and don't want one). They described the 10 guys who started out as "real men", saying they'd all had military/survival backgrounds, and then I remembered what you'd said about them; ah well...
The action is set on Vancouver Island, which they described as wet and raining all the time, and said there were "predators" - bears, wolves, cougars. Wolves you can pretty well disregard. One guy was stupid enough to cook a meal IN his tent or camp, and a cougar came within 10 feet of his tent that night. What did he expect??? Bears - depends on the sub-species. Some won't bother you.
But really, for these guys to sit down and BAWL at the situation? For 6 of the 10 to be out of the game within days? "Real men" or a group of pantywaists? It said they were allowed to take 10 items with them. Would a canoe count as one, do you think? If so, I'd have brought the canoe, hell even an inflatable raft, and slept out on the water, giving the predators the slip.
Mind you, I haven't seen the show. But from here, it sounds like a lack of creative thinking. Now - don't you go and call me an "armchair survivalist"! I'm just a guy who gets through life by the seat of my pants!
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