2021-021 | IDLE HANDS & ACTIVE MOUTHS

WISDOM TRAILS: Open hands do more work than open mouths.

 

First seen in Facebook

March 10, 2018 

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IT IS ALWAYS VERY ANNOYING to see people loiter and talk while others are helping each other out so we could have coffee or prepare something like a warm meal. In my tribe, we have the “usual suspects” who would not move on their own unless you drop a coin into their ears and then the brain starts to function. You leave them to their own designs and they will remain non-functional and just talk all day. 

If you lived a sheltered life and you choose bushcraft as your interest or hobby, you need to work on those muscles. Unlike other outdoor activities, bushcraft is labor intensive. You need to expend an extra mile of energy after a long hike to appraise and set-up your sleeping spot, gather firewood, prepare a fire pit, fetch water, process food, make a fire and cook, before you can claim your relaxing time where meals are a part.

 

These are monotonous but very satisfying if you stay in a place for three days and two nights or more. These becomes very exciting when you change places every day on a week-long journey, just ranging around the mountains and forage fruits, tinder and the novelties that nature offers you as you go. Under stress of time and fatigue, observe how your mind adapt to the situation and let your thoughts settle down to the necessities of the moment. 

In bushcraft, idle talks are always reserved during meals and downtimes beside the fire. Talk is good when comparing notes as you slowly grind the daylight hours away with your discoveries and epiphanies; coaching and guiding others; and spiking up a brief conversation with funny moments before breaking up to focus on something like digging a water hole or blowing an ember to life after almost an hour of striking quartzite on steel. 

Generally, less talk gets you more time to concentrate on your tasks. Less annoying too if you are working with a blade. You can never concentrate while engaging in idle talk else you cut the wrong thing. The brain works only with one thought at a time. It cannot compete with a computer which could deliver multiple tasks all at the same time. When you process a thought of action like replying to a question, you should drop what you are doing.  

 

That is why silence is much appreciated when no human voices are interrupting your thoughts or your tasks. When your “usual suspects” start playing their tales, it is best that you give them a wide distance. The tasks at hand are more important than them. If you so desire, feed them half the fare. Ancient Greeks and Romans do that to their soldiers whose hands are found so soft.   

I have always observed that the conversationalists among us seems to always lose their appetite when putting more animation on topics where it is most needed at fireside moments. Their silence is deafening. Some of the time, they would be missed when their names are mentioned. You may hear them though chasing a lot of Zzzzzzz in their blissful slumbers with a full belly.

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

2021-020 | THE BETTER SENSE OF AVOIDING STREAMS

OUTDOORS COMMON SENSE TIPS: Never ever use a stream as your route. People with hunting rifles wait out their prey there. You might walk into the path of their bullets or you might be at the receiving end of a wayward one.

Never ever trust a stream even if it is sunny; even if the water is clear and calm; or its streambed is dry. When you see dark clouds from faraway, proceed immediately to higher ground.

Streams are where also predators wait for their prey. You might intrude into their source of food and water and they are mean when you do that. 

Most importantly, do not spit, take a leak, throw wastes or wash cookware on surface water like streams, lakes and ponds.

 

First seen in Facebook

March 4, 2018

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I HAVE NEVER BEEN A Leave No Trace poser and does not intend to be but I can understand its seven principles better because I do not read and recite the words. I prefer to read behind the words and search instead the spirit of its intent which the verbatim crowd totally missed out. That said, I have my own set of values which does not stray far from your LNT.

Yes Virgilio, we in bushcraft have our own values with regards of how we visit, stay and enjoy the outdoors. Do you find our outfit rather strange to you because you really are strange also to us? So to each his own but, unknown to you, we love the mountains as much as you do and we keep it as it is and we never advertise our campsites to your kind. We know how you did with yours? 

Speaking of the outdoors, we never use the larger or main streams as our route just because it is dry. Unknown to you, there is water underneath your feet and once a strong downpour comes, the riverbed would be filled in just a few minutes because the ground does not absorb any more water. So save your excitement hormones in the confines of Starbucks.  

Streams are places which I highly recommend to my followers to stay away from. Not because it is dangerous there, but because some of them might forget their good bushcraft ethics and spit on surface water. Although it does not make a difference but cleanliness should start from us and there is no compromise on this value. Great things start from small ones. So were pandemics and plagues.

 

The outdoors is our playground and we do not want to contaminate it with our presence and the dregs of our urban comforts: garbage and human wastes. I keep a revered view and appreciation of natural springs, streams and lakes. These were the lifeblood of ancient civilizations. Without clean water there is no life. Without life there is nothing to talk about. Not even this article. Nada. 

 

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions. 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

2021-019 | SITUATIONAL AWARENESS & PHONES

OUTSMARTING THE STREET SMART: First thing you will learn in situational awareness is to ditch the phones while you are in public places. Public places are streets, sidewalks, parks, playgrounds, markets, arenas, terminals, malls, department stores, restaurants, entertainment centers, government buildings, subways, skywalks and the like where people converge. Where there is a crowd OR just you alone! It could also mean commuting in a bus, a jitney, a tricycle, a motorcycle-for-hire, a train, a passenger boat and the like where your personal safety and property are vulnerable.

 

First seen in Facebook

November 29, 2019

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I HAVE NEVER SEEN A generation that is so totally dependent on the mobile phone as we are experiencing now. We could understand its use in providing faster communications but, making us a slave in almost all our waking hours of each day of our lives, is complete idiocy! It completely isolates us from our immediate surroundings, from people and community, from our sense of time and priorities, and from our own primeval origins.

 

I have seen several CCTV footages of different victims being gunned down while using a mobile phone, completely unaware of their assailants brandishing a handgun and aiming pointblank. On a lighter side, during family reunions – this is so common, each member becomes isolated from each and every one of them completely breaks off from warm familial contacts into someone, suddenly and strangely, becoming cold and aloof. To each his own piece of the WiFi. 

How useful is a mobile phone for people nowadays? The modern phone is not confined anymore to sending or reading an SMS, dialling a friend, and play embedded games. You can now interact in real-time on Facebook, Twitter and Messenger group chats; use Waze and Google Map while driving; and play online games against another person time zones away. For some, the phone are forever wired to their ears, Bluetooth or not. It had become a personal assistant.

Your world is now confined to that gadget in that palm of your hand. Almost everything you need can be accessed through the swipe of a finger on touch-sensitive glass. Totally dependent on it. You now lived like a goldfish in a glass bowl. A bubble created by you. Your situational awareness degrades and even your response to a situation takes a back seat. 

Your brain could only process one thought or one action at a time. Your attention is confined to your phone and the wonders it gave you. In normal times without phones, your attention expands from 180 degrees to 360º. In this case it is confined to a mere 10º, if both hands are on it; 30º-45º, if you are lost in your thoughts listening to music (close your eyes and it is zero!); and 60º-90º, if you are talking to someone. 

There is one use though that phones could complement very well your situational awareness: Documentation. Recording moving and still images and conversations. But I still wish if you could do that without holding it forever. Maybe, putting circuits in our bodies would solve that because we really need both hands free and empty to fend off aggression!

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG is not just about the Outdoors and Bushcraft. It also encompasses Urban Survival, because providing information on Safety and Security is its paramount obligation to an individual living and travelling in a constantly-changing world. Situational Awareness is its bedrock value to yank and individual out from depending too much on technology.   

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a training syllabus titled, URBAN SUBURBAN SURVIVAL BASICS. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

Photo Nr 1 from Sanjit Das/Bloomberg/The Washington Post.

Photo Nr 2 from The Irish Times.

2021-018 | COMMITMENT

WISDOM TRAILS: Commitment separates steel from butter. Commitment is the father of integrity. 

When you gave your word you should stand by it regardless of tempests and obstacles. Failing so would tarnish on your character like an ugly scar.

First seen in Facebook

February 16, 2018

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I AM NOT PERFECT BUT, where it is most possible, I honor commitments. Most of the time, to be accurate. Commitment is something that is not taken seriously nowadays. This honor thing seemed archaic and alien today. In the old days, when you say or promised something, you are bound to stand by it and honor it. It does not need a piece of paper to force you into one.

Commitment, if it is not honored, remains just a broken promise or a falsity. A scam, if you prefer to use this most popular – and hated – word in social networking sites. Honoring a commitment is a product of good breeding. Good breeding is the fruit of the many years of learning noble virtues and good values in life. Not education, wealth and fame. These last three types can choose the wrong side but good breeding would not.

Commitment is a hard yoke on any individual, especially if he or she is a leader or an organizer of events. He would be the first to rise and the last to go home. He would be the earliest at the assembly area and sees to it that everyone has arrived safely to their destinations and homes before he finds his own comfort. Punctuality and efficiency are his domain and pride. So unyielding like Toledo steel. 

You begin to nurture commitment when Righteousness was your guidepost early in life. The kind of righteousness that is not malignant and intolerant of others but the kind that infects the world with its godly restraint and limitless empathy. Something like this Bible verse: “Pursue righteousness and a Godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness” (1 Tim 6:11). 

In this way, you put your commitment in the proper perspective instead of imposing it on others. You can never compare yourself with others and this is where you should shine. However distracting life may be, lead by good example. Let your deeds and actions talk for you. Keep your standards of values at a high level. Show people how and do not dictate or raise a voice.

Commitment is patience. The complete control of your emotions. When people became a pain in the ass, your commitment will place you in direct way of their comfort zones. You will deal with indifference (people who do not mind the time you set); ignorance (people who became indifferent of your time); and arrogance (people who ignore your time). 

When you lead people or organize an event, your commitment to your people and to your activity must be unwavering yet flexible at the same time to dispose properly the dregs that are always found at the bottom of a cup. Nobody is perfect! It is not easy but a lot of people have been in that situation and they loved the challenge.

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions.

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.

2021-017 | RUBBER & WET WOOD

OUTDOORS COMMON SENSE TIPS: Rubber don't work well on wet wood. Avoid stepping on wood without barks, exposed tree roots and coconut roots, especially going downhill.

 

First seen in Facebook

February 19, 2018

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WHEN I WAS YOUNGER and nimble as a deer, I hopped on a large bare log lying on the ground. The wood was wet and I had a heavy bag. I completely placed all my trust on my heavy lugged shoes which gripped the trails masterfully. I just made three steps when I find myself in mid-air. 

I landed on the same log and rolled over to the ground. That non-injurious accident scared me and it was then that I gave a great respect for wet wood. Especially wet wood without barks! At the same time, I begun to respect the outdoors. No more swashbuckling moves for me to impress myself.

 

Rubber soles built with deep lugs are the best material to walk on dirt trails and it could hold your ground against the force of gravity while walking downhill and down steep routes. Rubber is also flexible and could stretch and twist up to a certain point where it could protect your feet from injuries. 

Shoes made for the outdoor environment are hiking shoes and these have high collars. These are mostly made to protect the ankles. It would be constructed of leather, leatherette or breathable nylon-mesh uppers or a combination of all. It is a bit heavy owing to its construction. The rubber soles are thick with deeper lugs. 

A lightweight alternative is a nylon-mesh uppers with a lower collar and shallow lugs on the outer soles. These are comfortable pairs that are designed for light backpacking and longer hikes. Because of its lightweight construction, it dries fast and gave you more mileage a day than heavier shoes. 

 

However, there are no soles yet built for wet wood bare of bark. The only thing going safe for us is to evade these and choose rocks or dirt. Train your eyes to be discriminating when it comes to placing shoes on a dirt path. Be wary of wood; any wood for that matter; like loose ones and protruding roots. 

The most traumatic moment would be when someone stepped on wet wood or an exposed root, stripped of bark, following the wood’s grain and going downhill. It would make your heart stop a beat, watching the terror unfolding when someone made that mistake. It would depend really on experience and a good guide to manage your progress.

When faced with such dangerous situations, one must hold both hands to something as anchors and face backwards, slowly extending the feet to a more stable footing. Repeating it as needed. The outdoors has a terrain that is not suited for normal walking. You should devise ways to control your impulse and so stave off the pull gravity.

As much as possible, time your adventures on the best possible weather so you would not be encumbered by muddy paths, slippery stones and wet wood. Just the same, there are places where the rays of the sun could not penetrate the foliage and the ground underneath would remain wet. Just be choosy where you step upon.         

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WARRIOR PILGRIMAGE BLOG, personified by this writer, is synonymous with the Outdoors, since Bushcraft and Survival is its niche. Safety and Security are its bedrock when it ventured into organizing outdoor events that involved people as in adventure/pilgrimage guideships and seminars; and explorations and expeditions.

 

Through tutorship, experience, folk knowledge and good old common sense, this writer was able to collect useful information which he is currently documenting in a book titled, ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. He shares some of this information and knowledge in his training sessions; in his social-media account; and in this blog.