The Novice Survivalist
A novice outdoorsmen learning camping, fishing, bushcraft and survival. "KNOWLEDGE IS A SURVIVAL SKILL"
A tough Winter, Its not Over Yet!
I find myself once again, at the computer. Well so what you ask, The date is February 3, 2019. That’s so what! Its Sunday, a day off, a day to be out and about doing those things I so enjoy. The last day of a 3 day off, break from work. And the average temperature out side right now is 7 Deg. F. Yet the sun is shinning and its 7 deg. To make matters worse the wind chill is -25 deg. Not a good temperature to be out wondering the bush.
This winter, my second full winter in Minnesota, has been tough for me. Surprising me not, alot of born and bread Minnesotans that I work with have agreed. That’s the worst part. Most people who hail from Minnesota are naturally hardy when it comes to winter. Growing up here winter is part of life. It gets cold and snows a lot. So what, lets go Ice fishing, snow shoeing and skiing.. BUT this winter well, its been tough.
A lot of Storms coming late in the season and dumping a lot of snow. Earlier on in the year, temperatures dropped in South Central Minnesota to a wind chill of -50Deg. Keeping even the less smart and hardier winter types indoors. The worst of it is the timing. The way to cold or blizzard conditions calendar has been set to my days off. This winter any decent day outdoors has been work days.
I enjoy the snow , especially fresh power out there and going out and walkabout in the quiet, truly beautiful scenes the snow leaves behind. Even (temperatures willing) camping over night. The joy. But this winter has seen little opportunity to get out.
Last winter walkabouts in the winter were aplenty, the snow on the ground manageable to walk in (With knee high gaiters) and access to most of my walkabout places open.
Yesterday I tried to take advantage a of reasonable temperatures and some sunshine to go out and complete a video review I had been chomping at the bit to get completed.
When I make a video review I like to not just show and tell, describe the pros and cons etc. I like to get outside and try it out. (My excuse to get outdoors) yes even I need excuses sometimes.
So I packed my winter Day pack up, Got everything together and headed out to the closed favorite place to do these review videos. To My horror There was a sign, Park closed!.
I tried to drive down the road a bit with hopes of finding a place to make the video and a quiet cuppa Coffee, one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately not 100 Yards down the road it was closed. Totally covered in snow, It had not been plowed and a sign Road closed. Shocked I had to slowly maneuverer my truck ( No 4 wheel drive) around and head off to another favorite with the hopes of it being open.
It was. Fortunately The State Parks here can handle most weather conditions and this particular park is a local favorite snow shoeing park. I parked, got prepared (Gaiters, boot chains and pack together) and headed off to find a place to do the video. No sooner had I stepped out of the parking lot did I realize just how much snow there was on the ground. I come to this park regularly and am familiar with the trails etc. However, So much snow. First off it came up above my Knees (So much for Gaiters) and was slippery underneath to Boot. 50 Yards in I knew I was not going any further. Not without snow shoes anyway. Oh that’s right, I don’t own snow shoes. So trudged back to a bench and I assume a fire pit. The bench was almost under snow and the fire pit, well who knows where that was.
After clearing away a place to sit (set up my cameras), off the top of the bench/table ( about 2×2 feet space). I realized I needed some wood to try out my new Gizmo. Well this park has lots of small branches of wood lying about. ( In Minnesota you cannot cut
growing (Live) plants or trees, only use the waste from nature on the ground, dead wood only.) I looked around and realized I have another problem. The snow had covered it all. I was not about to start guessing where wood maybe and digging around in the snow. Fortunately I saw a small branch sticking up out of the snow. I raced off, Ok! trudged off to retrieved it and drag it back to my video spot. It was not easy.
I did get the video done, but truth be told it was not my best work. It was a poor presentation of the product and my ability to deal with the conditions, And the frustration level was so high I did not even make coffee when done. All in all, a bad outing. Something for me I seldom have. Any time outdoors is a good time, or so I thought. I considered coming back out and redoing the video, that is until I saw the temperatures I would be dealing with.
And so, I find myself once again, at the computer!. The weather channel on my phone is showing higher temperatures in about 2 weeks, I can always hope.
Hey But this is winter in Minnesota. Sometimes Good, sometimes bad. But always a learning experience for me.
Remember, knowledge learnt is a Survival skill.
Till next time
The Novice Survivalist
Watch “GIVE AWAY- DoCooler BL300 F2 Gas Lantern Feb2019” on YouTube
Check it out campers. You could be the winner…..L0L
Free Give Away, Compact Gas Lantern
Hey Campers, A quick up date.
I have been adding more videos to my Video and references page. Mainly reviews of products I have been considering for my Camping adventures. Not only for camping but handy to have in your BOB bag, survival kits and so on. Check them out, there maybe some thing there that will enhance your bag Kits.
I am a touchy feely type shopper and I look at products and reviews then choose a few and purchase them, according to my budget. It is a small budget, But some times allows me to purchase a couple of the items I am considering. Because of this I find myself with surplus. I don’t have the space to store all my goodies, So as a thank you to all my followers here and on my You Tube channel I offer a give away now and again. Its free and all you need to do is go to the review video, comment and share. That’s it. obviously on You Tube you will have to subscribe to my channel in order to be part of the give away.
Interested go to my latest give away.
Bulin 300F2 compact gas stove from DoCooler.
It’s is a brand new Compact lantern. Never used and still in its box. I have included 2 extra mantles form Colman.
In the video is how to get in on the free give away to a lucky subscriber.
Don’t forget to check out the updates on the Reference page as well.
Thank you for your support.
Remember Knowledge is a Survival Skill
The Novice Survivalist
Watch “KLEAN KANTEEN – Stainless Steel Single Wall Bottle” on YouTube
Being stuck inside with the cold weather lately, i had to find away to be productive. Went through my car edc bag. While doing that I came across one of these. KLEAN KANTEEN, Single wall stainless steel bottle. I have 2 of them. Worked great for me. Wide mouth tops and a lifetime warrenty. Cannot beat that with a big stick.
Check them out.
NS.
The fishing question? Why me
Some times I just feel I am destined to struggle to catch fish. It happens alot to me and was wondering…is it just me.
I went icefishing with my friend Travis. And yep got skunked..,again. Check it out
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
Hands free when camping….
The perfect headset for the outdoors. Offers hands free when doing chores around the camp. Or running into the bush when nature calls….
A solid headlamp can really make your day
Remember knowledge is a survival tool
The Novice Survivalist.
The Novice Survivalist 