Sleeping Bags
In the world of sleeping bags you really have two options, down or synthetic insulation. There are benefits to each, but all must be carefully considered depending on your climate. Down insulations are the underfeathers of certain fowl depending on brand. Down performs extraordinarily well as an insulator when dry and because it does so, will almost always be half the weight of synthetic. Down when wet however, will lose much of its insulation properties and takes a long time to dry. Synthetic insulation is heavier, but in return, synthetic insulation dries much much faster and will keep you more warm if you get wet. Personally I use a lightweight synthetic because we have wet summers here, but I plan to buy a down insulation bag for the cold winters. Long story short, down is better for extremely cold and snowy/ dry climates and synthetic is better for warmer wet climates. Also keep in mind the temperature rating is based on what the company feels is the lowest temperature you'll feel 'comfortable', adjust accordingly. Also grab yourself a goretex waterproof bivy (milsurp) and throw it over your bag when you get it and keep it on, you'll thank me later.
An ideal sleeping bag:
- Premium synthetic or down insulation depending on your climate
- Temperature rating 20° lower than the coldest temps you expect
- Sleeping pad slot
- Inner pockets
- Large high quality zipper
- Fitted for your height
Sleeping pads are pretty basic, make sure you don't forget it or you will freeze. I tend to prefer the inflatable type for the hammock. Plus they are lighter and more comfortable. Don't cheap out.
In the world of sleeping bags you really have two options, down or synthetic insulation. There are benefits to each, but all must be carefully considered depending on your climate. Down insulations are the underfeathers of certain fowl depending on brand. Down performs extraordinarily well as an insulator when dry and because it does so, will almost always be half the weight of synthetic. Down when wet however, will lose much of its insulation properties and takes a long time to dry. Synthetic insulation is heavier, but in return, synthetic insulation dries much much faster and will keep you more warm if you get wet. Personally I use a lightweight synthetic because we have wet summers here, but I plan to buy a down insulation bag for the cold winters. Long story short, down is better for extremely cold and snowy/ dry climates and synthetic is better for warmer wet climates. Also keep in mind the temperature rating is based on what the company feels is the lowest temperature you'll feel 'comfortable', adjust accordingly. Also grab yourself a goretex waterproof bivy (milsurp) and throw it over your bag when you get it and keep it on, you'll thank me later.
An ideal sleeping bag:
- Premium synthetic or down insulation depending on your climate
- Temperature rating 20° lower than the coldest temps you expect
- Sleeping pad slot
- Inner pockets
- Large high quality zipper
- Fitted for your height
Sleeping pads are pretty basic, make sure you don't forget it or you will freeze. I tend to prefer the inflatable type for the hammock. Plus they are lighter and more comfortable. Don't cheap out.
Sleeping Systems
Tents require flat ground in a forest, something that takes time to find, if you find any at all. Then you finally find some flat ground after hiking 10 miles with an empty belly. Through your hunger and exhaustion you fumble around with poles, small parts and loops. Not only are hammocks twice as comfortable, but half the cost, weight and setup time. As long as you aren't planning to camp above the treeline, you will have no issues finding a place to setup camp.
An Ideal hammock setup:
- Quality nylon materials
- Bug net built in
- Underquilt to help insulate your body from the elements
- Rain fly with stakes for wind and rain blockage
- Lightweight
Pictured is the Warbonnet Outdoors Blackbird XLC, it is everything in a lightweight bundle.
Here is a link for those who camp above the trees, you will want something lightweight and easy to set up.
Tents require flat ground in a forest, something that takes time to find, if you find any at all. Then you finally find some flat ground after hiking 10 miles with an empty belly. Through your hunger and exhaustion you fumble around with poles, small parts and loops. Not only are hammocks twice as comfortable, but half the cost, weight and setup time. As long as you aren't planning to camp above the treeline, you will have no issues finding a place to setup camp.
An Ideal hammock setup:
- Quality nylon materials
- Bug net built in
- Underquilt to help insulate your body from the elements
- Rain fly with stakes for wind and rain blockage
- Lightweight
Pictured is the Warbonnet Outdoors Blackbird XLC, it is everything in a lightweight bundle.
Here is a link for those who camp above the trees, you will want something lightweight and easy to set up.
Forwarded from Living off the Land
As I've stated before, the cities are no place for us.
They are where men go to rot and become weak, subjecting themselves to the control of outside influences.
Instead of becoming a mighty warlord or hunter, they work at a corporate furniture chain and pay tribute to the people that sold them into pseudo-slavery. They are pacified with free porn, cheap food, and ill concieved notions of "peace" and "happiness" in an attempt to dilute the blood of their ancestors that still runs through their veins. The more they are plugged into the system, the more rules and harassment they willingly endure.
They forfeit a life among nature, a life among friendly folk. A life where their hard work can be observed and admired by them and their progeny.
This life is the one you must ensure for yourself and your children. If you're still in the cities, it's time to take a hike. Figuratively and literally.
They are where men go to rot and become weak, subjecting themselves to the control of outside influences.
Instead of becoming a mighty warlord or hunter, they work at a corporate furniture chain and pay tribute to the people that sold them into pseudo-slavery. They are pacified with free porn, cheap food, and ill concieved notions of "peace" and "happiness" in an attempt to dilute the blood of their ancestors that still runs through their veins. The more they are plugged into the system, the more rules and harassment they willingly endure.
They forfeit a life among nature, a life among friendly folk. A life where their hard work can be observed and admired by them and their progeny.
This life is the one you must ensure for yourself and your children. If you're still in the cities, it's time to take a hike. Figuratively and literally.
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Know what to look for:
Exerpt from Brett McCay's
"How to track a human."
Know What To Look For
As you scan and search your environment, you want to be on the lookout for a few indicators that will help you track your target. Hurth suggests being on the lookout for the following visual indicators (I haven’t included all of them — check out John’s book for the complete, exhaustive list):
Ground Indicators (on the ground)
Footprints
Vehicle tracks
Trampled grass
Boot and shoe scuffs
Turned over dead leaves*
Disturbed grass or soil*
Mud, soil, sand, and water transferred from footwear onto another medium
Track Traps: The Honey Pot of Ground Indicators
Hurth suggests being on the lookout for “track traps.” These are areas on the ground that do an excellent job of capturing your target’s tracks. He calls them “honey pots” because they leave so much information behind. Mud, sand, soft dirt, and snow are great examples of track traps. Bodies of water or oil spills can be track traps too.
Exerpt from Brett McCay's
"How to track a human."
Know What To Look For
As you scan and search your environment, you want to be on the lookout for a few indicators that will help you track your target. Hurth suggests being on the lookout for the following visual indicators (I haven’t included all of them — check out John’s book for the complete, exhaustive list):
Ground Indicators (on the ground)
Footprints
Vehicle tracks
Trampled grass
Boot and shoe scuffs
Turned over dead leaves*
Disturbed grass or soil*
Mud, soil, sand, and water transferred from footwear onto another medium
Track Traps: The Honey Pot of Ground Indicators
Hurth suggests being on the lookout for “track traps.” These are areas on the ground that do an excellent job of capturing your target’s tracks. He calls them “honey pots” because they leave so much information behind. Mud, sand, soft dirt, and snow are great examples of track traps. Bodies of water or oil spills can be track traps too.
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A target who steps in water or oil will likely leave footprints on the ground after stepping in the fluid.
*= Plant indicators like ferns work great. Especially the brittle bladderfern. Very little force is required to compromise the integrity of the plant.
*= Plant indicators like ferns work great. Especially the brittle bladderfern. Very little force is required to compromise the integrity of the plant.
Forwarded from Living off the Land
Cabbage is my favorite crop, mainly because you can make delicious saurkraut out of it. My family has been making saurkraut using the same shredder that's been in the family since at least 1870.
Cabbage prefers sandy loam with a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. It is cold hardy, and does not like hot temperatures. It requires about 2 in of water per week, and full sunlight. I like to work in compost the fall before planting, as cabbage likes lots of nutrients. Rotate your cabbage, and don't plant it next to other brassicas.
Plant cabbage as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring (usually St. Patrick's day). Seeds should be put 1/2 inch deep, and 2 inches apart, in rows 24 to 36 inches apart. Thin the plants so they are 18 to 24 inches apart after a few weeks. In 90-120 days, your cabbage should be ready to harvest. 6-10 heads per person should be good, depending on how much you like saurkraut.
You can also plant them in late summer for a fall harvest should you desire.
Cabbage prefers sandy loam with a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. It is cold hardy, and does not like hot temperatures. It requires about 2 in of water per week, and full sunlight. I like to work in compost the fall before planting, as cabbage likes lots of nutrients. Rotate your cabbage, and don't plant it next to other brassicas.
Plant cabbage as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring (usually St. Patrick's day). Seeds should be put 1/2 inch deep, and 2 inches apart, in rows 24 to 36 inches apart. Thin the plants so they are 18 to 24 inches apart after a few weeks. In 90-120 days, your cabbage should be ready to harvest. 6-10 heads per person should be good, depending on how much you like saurkraut.
You can also plant them in late summer for a fall harvest should you desire.
Water woes. Depending on your water’s pH, brass pex fittings will “rot” in 20 years. The first to go are the elbows closest to your hot water heater. About 20-30 years ago plumbers starting using pex and it was so easy to use elbows they used a lot of them. They are buried in your walls. Or if on a slab a 3/4 trunk line may stub up only a few inches and go thru a TEE and a pair of 90’s back into the slab. In my own house we had to abandon the pex in our slab and rerun new pipes thru the attic. Take some friendly advice... use one continuous run of pex from your water entry point to each fixture in the house. No TEEs and no 90’s. Make it so that the only fittings are either a valve in the garage or the connector under your toilet or sink. Here’s what rotting brass pex fittings look like. This has happened to our house, a relative and a neighbor all in the past 3 years.
Nothing like coming home to find a pex fitting leaking under a tiled in garden tub. This was stubbed up thru the slab at a place you couldn’t reach without jack hammering the tub out. It leaked because it was the first drop on the trunk that fed the whole house water.
Many of you may be familiar with pitless adapters. In short, it's a "shoe" that goes on your well casing below the frost line. You can lower the pump and water pipe down in the well around it and you install a "wedge" that mates with the shoe on the end of the water line. Think of it as a quick connector for a water pump. The trick to it is that there's a pipe union that goes on the top of the water line... but it is not an ordinary union. The union does not allow water to pass all the way through. The top half of the union is a dummy... but it is threaded so that you can screw a "lifting pipe" into it and hoist the pump and pipe out. See the next picture....
SIMPLEPUMP-Pitless-Instructions.pdf
640.7 KB
What if we could use a pitless adapter for a hand pump? Simplepump and bison make hand pumps that can pump into a pressure tank by means of a pump cylinder at the bottom of the well. There is a teeter totter lever at the top connected to a "lifting rod" that goes all the way to the bottom of the well and moves that cylinder. The cylinder then pumps water upward and out the pump's spout. Google "simplepump" if you can't imagine this.
The folks at Simplepump have a great idea. You drill out the union on the pitless adapter so that water could pass through it. This also means that the lifting rod that goes from the manual pump handle to the pump cylinder at the bottom of your well can pass thru that union.
Here's the genius part... if you cap off the spout on the well head, the water will rise in the water pipe and have no where to go but out the side of that pitless union that was just discussed. That then connects to your pressure tank just as your electric well pump does.
The folks at Simplepump have a great idea. You drill out the union on the pitless adapter so that water could pass through it. This also means that the lifting rod that goes from the manual pump handle to the pump cylinder at the bottom of your well can pass thru that union.
Here's the genius part... if you cap off the spout on the well head, the water will rise in the water pipe and have no where to go but out the side of that pitless union that was just discussed. That then connects to your pressure tank just as your electric well pump does.
So my suggestion tonight is that you can buy an extra pitless adapter and go ahead and drill out the casting inside the union. You could also shorten one of the schedule 120 water lines included with the bison or simplepump by about 2" so the lifting rod still matches up. The pipes are 1-1/4, so you need to make sure the pitless adapter can work with or be adapted to 1-1/4.
Here's the beauty of this... in an extended grid down, you just pull your electric well pump and replace it kit and kabootle with the hand pump. It connects to the same pitless adapter that feeds your house. Now you can go outside and just start pumping... it will pressurize your bladder tank in the house and all your toilets and sinks work! Your shower works. Sanitation is key folks!
Here's the beauty of this... in an extended grid down, you just pull your electric well pump and replace it kit and kabootle with the hand pump. It connects to the same pitless adapter that feeds your house. Now you can go outside and just start pumping... it will pressurize your bladder tank in the house and all your toilets and sinks work! Your shower works. Sanitation is key folks!