The Real Experience of Living in a Tent - UK 🇬🇧 Nomads #camping

Hey Cully and welcome back. So the real experience of being a nomad and living in the tent. Yeah right well we've had all sorts of comments like what do you do about rats, what do you do about animals coming and invading your food and all these sorts of things. And I guess today in this video we're going to answer some questions that maybe you haven't even considered asking. Yeah and they're really not what you think you know a lot of people try and romanticize this sort of thing so I think we should just show the underbelly of our lifestyle really shouldn't we. Yeah the real experience. Let's have a look shall we. So my darling what is the problem? Well let's have a look inside and we can see what the problem is. So I don't know if people can make that out but we need to do a bit of housework. Yes. This is one of the sides you see that most people don't get to see the experience of because you can imagine we're living in this and you get stuff on your boots it's so dusty it just kicks up the dog's dragging it in. It's just something that we have to stay on top of because of course in amongst all of this mess could be any amount of ticks let's just say. So as we have had a couple of ticks to have to deal with had to pull a couple out the dog already had to pull a couple out of Mod so believe it or not I've got away scot-free so far which is a little bit unusual because normally I'm the tick magnet. Scot-free in Scotland. Usually Mod's the mozzie magnet. Yeah well that is the reality isn't it I mean sometimes it doesn't it doesn't fare out like we usually think. Yeah and uh it turns out it's Mod's turn for the tick so we're gonna have to do a big old sweep out get this looking a bit more cleaner. Yeah look at that guys Tara got me some flowers the other day it's quite cool isn't it and he says I'm not romantic so on my side as well mine's a bit bit of a mess I mean I've got some like wipes down there I've got beverage thank you very much to you guys I've got like me trifle packets I call them trifle don't worry I know they're called trifle it's all good but yeah underneath my bag it's just mess after mess and dog's bed and like I get sticks and Tara gets like sticks and bits and bobs all over the place I mean look there you go I mean this that's just to show isn't it yeah sorry darling but that's all right women are cleaner than men naturally tidier tidier yeah uh like you see you see Tara's side here and then you see my side it's just a complete tip ---- well we're gonna take advantage of the fact that it stopped raining for five minutes and get these bags emptied out yep so why are you doing this then babe well because stuff sticks to socks and clothing and uh you find that oh yeah look at all that coming out yeah it's quite a bit and you imagine when you've got clothing and you're getting in if you have had a tick climb up on your clothes in the middle of the night you take your socks off now you've got a tick in your toe love it yeah good old bash out but this is the way you do it without getting it to touch the floor isn't it you know especially as a short person Tara's very short she's a virgin on midget sorry if that interfered with the mic a bit that'll be all right here she goes there you go it went too bad let's have a look at your mat then and obviously when you have little bits like this on the floor make sure just you know go around picking them up put them in the little food bag take them out with you isn't it it's just unsightly isn't it yeah lots of bits of tip that's it i've got a lot of crap in mine as well one thing to remember guys when you are doing your bag make sure you haven't got your socks in there because mine have just gone all over the floor i mean i get too hot in the night so i take my socks off and uh sometimes you've got the the foot box in the bottom of your bag and with that foot box sometimes what happens you forget you left your socks in there and uh also your bed socks yes also in the top of the hood here now in my bag as opposed to Tara's i've got a bit for stuffing your pillow and inside that is where all the rest of the crap goes when you tip upside down so although it's not too bad today also a lot of people think oh you need somewhere to looks like it's going to rain you need somewhere to hang your bag just put it between your legs the bits that you've done shake it off put it between it's like a blow gun shake it off but uh yeah just make sure it's it's all good to go obviously my mat's a bit worse for wear over Tara's it's falling apart well it's a man's way of handling things i guess he's a bit roughy tufty with things yeah yeah definitely let's get that bad thing out oh yes so just for many of you ask about um experience experiencing this with a dog um we would suggest getting a female really wouldn't we oh yes that nice wet patch on there yes dog is very much still intact it's not urine one of the downsides of having a dog yes there he is hiding under there oh wow i think you're probably wearing most of that dust now bless you but uh if you just chuck it somewhere because i'm going to give that a rinse off yeah i'll just put it on there for the moment yeah that's fair enough also as i said obviously things are going to fall out just be sure to pick up all the little bits and uh it doesn't matter if you get sticks and twigs in there just bung them in a bag bung them in a bag take them out with you just makes for a tidier nicer environment it does yeah i'm sure the wildlife appreciates it too the good thing with cardboards and plastics and stuff like that they can be tied up pinched up really small i mean literally you could just do that if that's all the rubbish that you had and take it out with you it's not a problem just get everything out put it to one side yeah cool bro to pack up my crap though i've got loads of it out i think it's because of the shop run i had to unpack my bag didn't i and uh sort that all out oh look at that we had a friend a slug yeah yay so i've got me dustpan and my brush awesome oh we're loaded hey awesome another reason for doing this as well is you don't want bum crumbs i've had it many times i've i've tried to get changed in my bag and this sort of crap that's lying around it just goes places you really don't want it to go doesn't it yes i mean this is three days worth you'd be surprised you know that you're ripping off little tabs off of things and little bits of paper for notebooks and all sorts of stuff and dog lays on them dog lays on the leaf matter and the needles yeah they'll get in his fur and he comes in yeah take a little pile there so i can pop it in my bin all right shall we mop yes we shall mop now there is another reason for this other than just getting the last of it up but uh it's another tick measure if you like because any of those little ticks that are in here the fibers of the wipe will pick them up i mean i never really worry about underneath where my mat is so much as to where because we use the short half mats or we use the whole mat and then cut it in half and we use half each um where my bare legs may go when i'm getting up in the morning and places where the dog is going to go where the mats aren't um yeah it's always best just to get those areas i say i don't worry um but last week had a tick in the side of my shoulder um that was just exposure probably led on me mat or anything like that so it wasn't great um but yeah i mean this we typically do what every three days four days yeah um just to stay on top of it unless of course unless we're on the move because if we're packing up and packing down every day that's kind of being cleared out as you go along anyway right yeah but um if we're settled for a little bit well we've been here for what is it a week or two now in in this area yeah about a week or two now yeah um so yeah it's it's always best to practice these sorts of things um practice makes perfect and the routine of course um yeah it really does help and uh it starts to become second nature as we said before well it's our version of housework right i mean this is why you guys have to do it at home we have to do it out here yeah let us know how many times you do it at home through the week i mean i've i've met all sorts of people they go cleaning day when when is it easy once a month sometimes that's all people need because they're at work all the time uh they're not at home whereas we work from home um also i guess we're having to bring in like when you're living outside you're going to bring the dirt in yeah usually like that's what your porch is for in your house whereas the minute we take off our boots either that side or my side you can you can bring in lots of shake off and dog and dog yes and definitely him um and you know rubbish bags too they're only food bags nothing special and you can get so much in them and they can compress right down i mean that beer can for instance i've got and what i do is a secret i'll squish them in the middle like this and then i fold the sides down like that so you get them like that and then what i do is i'll fold them over again like that they can crush up and they can go in your bag real nice nice it's this simple so when people are leaving crap lying all over the place literally that's got a bag that can fit in one of these pockets of mine for instance you see take your crap home with you it's not hard as i touched on at the beginning of this video what is one of the main reasons we do this right well me stupidly because becoming complacent and we've been super busy like with the horses and things like that i stupidly left dog's food in my side porch not a problem done it before and usually when we're on the move and things like that uh day after day you're spending less than 24 hours in a location probably only about 13 15 hours but because i left the dog food there a mouse came along i started chewing through into my side of the tent we had problems before and there was only one problem we're in a location for a long stay and uh we we got comfortable and we ended up losing about five six hundred quids worth of kit uh because the rats had overtaken the area we didn't know um they were only coming out when we were out working and things like that they chewed through my army issue bargain and things like that um i'm right on the seams and places where you couldn't even patch it up so it can get a bit more difficult if you're if you're not you know taking these precautions it's not always what you think it's you become complacent you don't think you're going to get touched or bothered by animals and you do much like you guys do in america you know when you're putting up the uh bear line for your food up in the trees well on here on the top because we use carabiners for quick setup quick release what we do is you can put the dog food on there like that keeps up out the way obviously if it's raining make sure that you've sealed upside down so the can't get into to where you want you see so keep it upside down let the rain run off it but this just stops um critters coming up from the ground sniffing the food and get into it although we've had this before rat we we watched a rat climb across our line dangle down get food uh it was a nightmare and there was another time we had a different tarp it was one of tara's original ones that she had and the rats had come across the top of here they chewed down through the top underneath because we had the food hanging on a line underneath here like that oh you think you're safe you really do yeah tara said they love a good gaming challenge oh no so that's another reason why we don't do ridge lines uh typically because of our experience with those ridge lines and and animals coming across no well if ever you've seen a squirrel on a washing line i mean if ever you've seen a squirrel they are so stealth getting across those washing lines right well i think and i think they quite enjoy a bit of a challenge if i'm honest because when we see them do it it's almost like they're making a game out of it there's a bit of a fun for them yes yeah oh did you put my mat in there yes oh thanks all right because this sleeping bag is a side open and tara's is a side open the way that we actually sleep is our our bags actually open up the same the same way so it's it's great we've had bags before that mine opens up on the left ours opens up on the right and it's like when it's cold in winter you got nowhere to snuggle have you yeah well we like sleeping i think everyone gets used to a certain way of sleeping as a couple don't they yeah yeah yeah it's always on my left and i'm always on your right it's because you're my right-hand woman all clean and tidy yeah we usually do this as well we put our beds back because when the dog's blanket goes on we can put it down and not have to flick more dust and dirt everywhere yeah um this is not a not such a bad i'm on the mottens attack he's over yeah i took mine over because when my feet are here i can keep them nice and warm you see that dog's gonna have to go without a blankie for the time being yes because uh it needs a rinse it needs a proper blimmin wash well this isn't clearly just for that i'm not doing a proper wash there's no soap involved in this one i'm literally just going to give it a rinse off just to try and make it a little bit more pleasant to live with sometimes it really stinks doesn't it when he he does this thing yeah but um you know we've got to look after our own and we're not afraid to get our hands dirty and tara certainly isn't some people get grossed out by it but it's one of these things it happens i would like to mention this is not a waterway this is just a gully where rainwater has come in and settled and has flooded through yeah this is completely dry before when we first came here and it was sunny all the time it was completely dry wasn't it it's not an actual stream brook or running water source and the drain off we've actually followed the drain off to this and it goes to a big pit down that way take it back home and then we'll squeeze it out closer which way are you going that way okay do you want to hold on to it for a sec and i'll twist it and you can pull stick it over the line yeah another thing that not many people really think of is tarp care um i always like to look at tarp care as my my problem um or not even my problem but my thing to sort out personally um because we use it for collecting water what happens is you get all these pine needles on here see all that pine needles now when you've got a bottle hanging off the end here all those pine needles collect and all that is going into your bottle or your water container so yeah most of it will float to the top but a lot of it sinks so i like to clean the tarp off you never quite get rid of all of the pine needles but it certainly reduces the problem yeah it just it stops further problems down the line you can collect the water now you've got to filter the water now you've got to take out all the pine cones and all the bits and bobs but anyway there we go that's better anyway cully it's the simple things in life that make the biggest differences it definitely is um and it's always good to practice makes perfect as we always say yes and i guess we get asked a lot how do you cope and manage with ticks and bugs and stuff well you can consider this housework or tent work yeah as a measure towards some of that also nobody likes living amongst all that mess so well tidiness yeah well as tara says prevention is better than cure yes and this is the reality of the experience of living this way right yeah yeah it really is it looks like it's going to rain again so we're probably tent bound a lot more it's all right it gives me an opportunity to get more art done so and i've got a project on at the moment it's awesome and and we've got a new bit of kit um yes it could change our game exponentially it could absolutely change where we go what we do how we do yeah look out for this review coming up because uh it's a game changer it really is it really really super is a big game changer for us you know it's something that we've always struggled with and uh now we might not have to struggle with it secrets yes anyway cully now you know the unromantic side of living in a tent yeah it gets dirty it gets grimy you know some people we've seen before haven't we i want to live outdoors but there's dirt everywhere i don't want to get dirty if you don't want to get dirty don't live outdoors no no it's really not worth it but um yeah if you've got any questions do let us know um you could check out our frequently asked questions um if there's something that's not answered in that if they do come back and leave a comment yeah yeah most definitely um there's there's all sorts of different videos if you if you like that sort of thing if you like us do consider subscribing and sharing around for it all really does help anyway until next time happy hopping