The Novice Survivalist
A novice outdoorsmen learning camping, fishing, bushcraft and survival. "KNOWLEDGE IS A SURVIVAL SKILL"
Reviews and Give-away’s (GAWS). Your chance to score free prizes.
Hello Camper’s
Its 2019 already and most of January is gone. How times flies’ when you least expect it. No problem still a lot of winter to come , along with Spring, summer and fall…repeat. Hopefully this year will be a strong one. An ominous start for me as it was a sickly start. I got the dreaded flu bug which has carried across to a lingering cough. but enough of my whining. Lets look what one new thing I have planned for all this year.
Yep , you guessed it give a-ways. For those of you that follow my unpredictable blogs and my more regular YouTube posts, will have noticed I have been playing. On-line searching for ” affordable Gizmo’s”. On my Budget I have to be frugal and smart about purchases. Something I am sure we all try to do. Although on my part I occasionally slip. I try to keep my interest below the $20 to $25 range. Most of it spent on Amazon. Occasionally I’ll find bargains on direct sites like Target, Cabela’s and of course Walmart. How did this happen . Well I am always looking at Camping, Survival or Bush crafty “things ” That I either need when out there, or read about and am curious as to what they can do and can they enhance my outdoor experience.
It started with looking for something to keep my bottom ( Below the knee) pants dry. I would ( especially winter months) be out walkabout, camping for even fishing in nature and find my pants were getting wet. Either from dew on longer grass, snow deeper than expected or rain.
So I researched Leg gaiters. Which for me was the first time I really researched a particular product. Really researched. I started reading about each type I found, and scoured the reviews.
Reviews, wow!!, Talk about a wide range of opinion’s. I became frustrated and typically I am a hands on, touchy feely kind of shopper. I like to have it ( The product) in my hands and look at it myself. These reviews were simply just frustrating me. I felt that bad reviews were general nit picking for the most part, the good reviews gave me the feeling it was a paid review or endorsed review. So what did I do. I searched.
I went all over the internet finding leg gaiters that met a few or all my criteria I was looking for. Saved he choices and then sorted through. Although I ended up with a great set of gaiters, I felt I may not have got the best for my budget or needs. A little frustrated I was. And that got me thinking. Stop right there. I know never a promising end for me.
Part of my research took me to You tube. Surprising me not. I had the same feeling about the video reviews as I did about the written. How ever I got to see some one doing the touchy feely thing for me. Better much better. But still had the picky, nit picking and paid, endorsed feeling for the most part.
Don’t miss understand me here. There are some great channels that do a lot of reviews. They are honest and I felt gave their true opinion. Not all they reviews were glowing, some were not so much. I really preferred this. But I still needed to see more than just one production option for what I was seeing or peaked my interest.
To make a long story a little shorter I thought that I would try do a review myself on my channel. I simply picked a product I had been using for awhile and did a review. It was the Frogg Toggs poncho I always had with me in case of rain.
I simply talked about it, its use , cost and my thoughts on it. That’s it. not your must have nothing better out there get this right now review. Simply my thoughts on it and its use and does it work for me. I then left the rest up to the viewer to decide if it is what they want. 
To my surprise I enjoyed doing it. So I did another one of my French F1 2 man pup tent. I set it up showed it and that was that. Its now my most viewed video. Truth be told not very well done and professional like, but apparently that worked. who would have thunk!!.
So back to my reason for the title of this blog post. Give-Away. I have found that I have been shopping a little differently lately. I see or am looking for something and find a couple of options. if the pricing is right I will purchase 2 or three different models or types of the product. 
Do a review on each and give a choice to the researcher. They can choose from some options. Or not. But its fun to do and keeping it all within budget ( not as easy as it sounds) I have been doing reviews.
The problem now is I have extras, ….What to do with them. Well after thinking about it I have decided to give them away. For a small price for the winner. No, no money is involved.
I keep the one I like and offer a choice to the viewer who is lucky enough to win the random drawing from comments posted on the video.
What does it cost them, a little time, and a free subscription to my channel. That’s it. Be come a subscriber and comment and you are in the running to win a free be. This hopefully helps somebody get a free prize and helps me get more viewers. Win, Win for all I hope.
So that’s it one thing I will be doing this year. Subscribe to my channel and watch for give- aways and reviews of products I use and maybe you could too.
GIVE AWAYS. Looking for free B’s check out my reviews play list on my channel. Plus there are camping, walk about, fun and survival videos too!!!
Remember knowledge is not just a survival tool, but a helpful way to make a right choice for your outdoor, survival and camping needs.
Be safe this year
The Novice Survivalist
The Novice Survivalist 