Reusable In Reusable Out: A Quick Look At Some Reusable Items

It is time now for the second installment of our recycling series: Reuse. Last week we featured Reduce where I went to my local park and cleaned up a good deal of trash there. This week I am going to be showing you some items that you would take with you that you could easily replace with reusable items. That is how I will be honoring the reuse segment of this series.




The first item on the list which I see a lot come April due to all the rain, are those nasty disposable ponchos. Please, please, please do not buy disposable ponchos. I myself have a reusable poncho, however, I do keep disposable ponchos in my pack in case of an absolute emergency, such as myself or someone I may be hiking with does not have one. Yankee from Yankee's Outdoor Adventure will tell you the same thing. I urge you not to use these in case it is an emergency. My poncho is reusable, has draw strings so I can adjust the hood so it fits over my head (and my hat) and actually protects me more in an emergency situation.

The next item on the list is something that campers all tend to use. Not just us bushcrafters, but everyone who enjoys going outdoors from time to time with their families. And I'm not against that at all, I support everyone who wants to go outside, I just want you to do it the right way. I know when we go camping we think "disposable" because we think it's easy to clean up. When you bring plastic cups and, it's not as bad, but paper towels, you're not as likely to clean it up. I've known so many people, and even I myself have done this, taken a pop bottle into the woods and set it down thinking "Oh, I'll pick that up when I leave." Here's the thing, if it's not important to you, you're not as likely to remember it. Then someone else will end up cleaning up after you. I have made my own reusable paper towels by taking a flour sack towel (I know I'm forever talking about these things, but they're awesome) and cut it into 8 pieces. You can use it as a napkin, wash it, and reuse it. No trash. As far as cups you can take a Coleman plastic mug, or if you're completely against plastic, you can take the Coleman enameled metal cup. Fantastic choices, either one.

The next item is the hard pill for everyone to swallow. Plastic water bottles that everyone takes with them for hiking and camping. The one in the picture to the right is not the exact same thing, but you can pretend it's whatever crap you use: get rid of it. Those things will cause you more harm than good. I take a metal, single-wall, stainless steel water bottle. I have a black coating on it so it doesn't reflect and it's easier to clean the soot off of when I boil in it. You can fill it up with water or pop, heck this could be your replacement pop bottle. If you're in the woods and you finish your pop, or your plastic water bottle breaks, it's now garbage. And if it's garbage it's no longer important to you and you're likely to forget about it. It's going to take a lot for this metal water bottle to be damaged to the point that it can't hold water. This may cost you a little bit more money, but considering all of the plastic water bottles you are going to go through in the long run, you can save up and buy you a new one.

If you guys have a better reusable item than what I've suggest or if you have an item that I've missed, leave a comment and let me know some of your ideas. Next week we will be talking about different ways to recycle items and you know you don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Keeping It Clean: Cleaning My Lake Area For PBC Response

Last month we finished up the 10 C's with cotton and everyone wanted to know what Bushy was gonna do next.Today we are going to be cleaning up the lake. I've had a calling on my heart. I don't know if I was moved by the Lord or whatever you call it, but I feel like I need to do this. After this project, however, I realized the Pacific Bushcraft Consortium was also doing a clean up project. Great minds think alike I supposed, but they need all of the publicity and attention they can get from this so please check them out on YouTube. Back on topic, as bushcrafters and nature enthusiasts this is really important because if our work area is nasty we can't practice what we love or bring you the content we love bringing you. I was actually worried that I wouldn't get to clean the way I wanted to because they just recently did a massive clean in this area, but I will show you sort of what I am working with.

Like I said this isn't going to be a huge clean up or anything, but I did have a lesson to bring along with me. Always be prepared. I have a big contractor bag with me. This time I have an extra, but I always keep one in my pack so theoretically I could use that too. (Yes, I know that they are plastic, but it's what I have.) The second thing is that you should always wear gloves. Do not just pick up trash with your bare hands. You don't know where it's been or what's on it. You could get really sick from not taking this caution. I know gloves are not a part of the 5 C's but definitely take them with you anyway.

Alright, I've done the first half of the shoreline done, my bag is full, and I do not have another so that's all for today. However, this is only the first installment of our recycling series and we will call this "Reduce." Reducing the waste on the shoreline. It's as simple as that. Like I said they just cleaned this the other day and I don't think it's the lake's fault, but we got some more flooding recently and I think all of this just washed in. That's why we have to protect the water's edge. Protect that like it is your tools or your knife. 

Well that does it for this week. Next week we are going to be moving on to "Reuse" and you don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

More Than A Towel: Uses of Cotton in Camp

We are back again this week still talking about our cotton material. One thing I mentioned a lot last week that we will be talking about today are the uses of your cotton material around your camp. Real quick, there are a few things you want to be sure that your cotton material can do such as protecting the back of your neck from the sun, protecting your face from the element, or wearing it like a typical bandanna in case you did not have a hat to protect the top of your head.

Of course these tasks are easy to accomplish with a regular bandanna, so now let's see what we can accomplish with the flour sack towel. It is definitely big enough to wear as a mask and it's bigger than the bandanna so I can actually pull it up over my nose more and tuck it under my chin. With that being said I can pull it up and use it as a bandanna on my head and tie it around my neck to protect it from the sun. Another plus with the flour sack towel is that it is light colored which means it will reflect the sun and not draw it in.


Now when it comes to our last item, we run into the problem that it is just too big. So to even begin to be able to use it as a mask I have to fold it over and over and over. Even afterward, it's just too big and bulky. For that reason I am not even going to try to use it as a bandanna or wear it around my neck. It's just too big.



The next thing I like to do is to try and clean with my cotton material. What I have with me is an old tray and I am first going to try and clean it with the bandanna. I'm not going to use soap, just dip it in a bit of water and use a little bit of elbow grease and the spot I was scrubbing comes away clean. Using the flour sack towel the first thing I notice is that it absorbs water much better than the bandanna. That makes sense to me since that is what it's intended to do. Much like the bandanna it does a fine job cleaning, but it does come away much dirtier than the bandanna did. The large piece of material absorbed much like the bandanna did and still got the job done. The only difference is I have way more clean material to work with after the fact. Having the flour sack towel get dirty was probably the biggest down side, however if you don't mind your cotton material being discolored it doesn't matter anyway.

The next thing I need the cotton material to be able to do is to make a sling. Now with the bandanna it is a smaller piece of fabric so I will need two of them to create a sling. The first thing I need to do is create a triangle with one bandanna and fold two corners of the triangle together and tie them off. Then, I will create a triangle with the second bandanna, place it around my neck, and tie the two corners  around the knot of the other bandanna, and slide my arm through. The problem with this is that it is difficult to adjust, but it will work in a pinch.

Next we will try the large bandanna material. The easiest way to do this after getting a triangle shape is to tie an open loop in one end, one that will tighten as you pull on it, feed the other end through the loop and then place your head and arm into the sling. To adjust it, all you would need to do is pull on the loose end that is through the loop and tie it off where it is the most comfortable. Now we have mentioned before that this is such a bulky piece of material so I am really excited to see how the flour sack towel does.

So for the flour sack towel I am going to fold it into a triangle, and tie two corners of the triangle together into a sturdy knot. I now just have to place my arm in and put it around my neck. It's a little tight around my neck and there is no real way to adjust it, but I don't have to have more than one like with the bandannas and it is not as bulky as the big piece of fabric. It's a solid in between and experiments like this are what make me grow even more fond of these towels.

Guys I've only shown you three simple and easy ways you can use these around your camp, but there are so many more uses like carrying things and using it as spare patching material for sewing. Really there are countless other ways you can apply it. Leave me a comment and let me know what you use your cotton material for or whether you carry cotton material or not and why. Next week we will still be working with cotton but we are going to see what it can do to help us purify our water and  you know you don't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub the Bushcraft Tub: Day 2 of the 3 Day Camp

Last week we talked about day 1 of the 3 day camp where we set up the tarp, did some cooking, and went to sleep for the night. Today we will be talking about Day 2 of the 3 Day camp. A couple of things I want to talk about first; during the night my mattress deflated. I continued to sleep on it as it served as a secondary moisture barrier. I also used my boots as sort of a headboard and place to rest my head and it actually helped make me much more comfortable and give me a better night’s sleep.

To start the day I enjoy a breakfast of canned fruit cocktail and some water that I had purified the night before. The fruit can has a pull tab, however if it were to fail, I have my Camillus Trench to open the can with. The goals for day 2 are to collect more firewood to make another good fire tonight, and also to go over some basic camp hygiene.

I checked the nearby trees for dead, dry branches that I could use for firewood. I can tell how dry they are by how easily they snap. Once I found a good bough, I took it from the tree and brought it back to my camp to be processed.

For lunch I ate the bread that I had made on the campfire the night before as well as some Slim-Jims. I would like to add that if you are taking Slim-Jims, or any other kind of jerky with you into your camp, have water. These food items are cured and quite salty and can make you very thirsty. This is why I didn’t have any Slim-Jims the night before. My water was still too hot to drink and I could have easily become dehydrated.

At this point during the camp it begins to rain. I decided to take advantage of this in a few ways. I have a large bough that I took down from a tree that needs to processed into firewood and kept dry so I decided to use this time to do that. The smaller kindling pieces I broke down and stored in my large bowl from my mess kit and the larger pieces that would be used as fuel I sat to the side near the back of the tent. Another way I took advantage of the weather is trying to harvest rain water. I used my empty fruit can to collect the water in. I took my bandana and set it on top of my tarp. Once it became saturated with water, it dripped into the can. I didn’t collect much, but it was something.

Once the rain stopped I started my campfire. There is no need to make more bread tonight since I will be going in after breakfast in the morning so I am going to do something a little different with my fire tonight. For starters I decided to try cooking my soup out of the can rather than in my mess kit. Next I also took some water and placed it in my large bowl and began to heat it over the fire to wash myself down with. Once the water is heated I get one of my washcloths wet and when it has cooled to a tolerable temperature, I wipe myself down with the cloth. It’s no shower, but it is refreshing after being in the hot, humid weather all day.

My fire is burning out and there is not much left for me to do. I figure now it is best to pack up as much as possible so when it is time to go home in the morning, I really only need to take down my tarp and pack up my bedroll. I make sure that I wash out the pieces of my mess kit and dry it as best as I can before I pack it and put it away. When I get home, I can actually put it in the sink and wash it a bit more thoroughly.

Well that’s about it for day 2. I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Next week we will be packing up the camp and talking about how to take care of our gear after we come in from the outdoors, as well as what I might do differently next time. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. If video is more your thing, check out my YouTube channel Backpack Bushcraft or just click here to watch now. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.