The Camping trip

I always wonder why I only get to go on these once a year, and I think the reason is because of the people I go with. The idea behind me leaving the modern world behind is to get away from it and the people in it, the problem is I take people too far leaning on the crutch of the modern world.

I was impressed with my own abilities and knowledge out there, the hike was long and difficult but we made it to the campsite I had rented, during this I realized that it would have been far easier to be in a place where I could just walk  off trail or had there not even have been a trail and camped at the time I wanted rather than to rent a campsite.

The luxuries at the campsite were more than I expected, to the brochure a dugout toilet, apparently means to an out house, toilet paper supplied with a roof over it and a toilet seat. the wasps we had were just an outdoorsy option. I was prepared for the idea of digging my own latrine, had plenty of toilet paper of my own. Beyond that I do not think the dugout toilet was even used the female, my wife was afraid to even go in there for the wasps, she now has poison ivy in places.

I came out unscathed no poison ivy, oak, or sumac. I got a few mosquito bites I believe those little buddies got through my net I had around my hammock. which the hammock was a most pleasant way to camp, it was so fast to set up and even faster to take down. I need some better dry bags to store it in but it works well. the Eno system I have now works as it should.

For the other friend that came along with us we duplicated the Eno system buying parts and modifying them to work for the hammock, hobo hammock 19.99 bass-pro shop, two 7 foot tarps Walmart 9 dollars a piece( had to tie them together, and he didn't want to use trash-bags like I had first suggested), a bug-net from bass-pro shop 15 dollars ( it was made for a cot to go to the ground we modified it to hand and used Velcro to seal it together, it still needs some work), also bought some cheap straps to use, didn't really need them though because the lines on the hobo hammock were so long.

My wife, she had to have a tent. Tents are heavy and a pain, I made her learn how to set up the tent and take it down by herself, she also waterproofed the thing with spray from walmart, which is where the tent came from too 30 dollars.

both of there camping setups were cheaper than mine, but you could tell the differences, I think the only problem with the cheap solution was the bug-net, might have to buy a proper hammock bug-net for next time.

This was also the first camping trip I have even went on when it did not rain on me, during the entire hike the first day, I wanted it to rain just to cool me off, we drove through rain getting there, but the mountains  just pushed all that rain aside.

Camping trip

Well normally I do not post on Sunday's but I havent posted in a few days so I thought I would update a bit. Had a friend over for a bit. The wife,I and the friend are going camping tomorrow for three days out on a nature reserve. Trying my hardest to pack light. Packing light isn't an easy thing but I am going with my hammock and bug net, my friend is going the same way and my wife is taking a tent. I'll relay anything I learn from this experience and I will hopefully see some good sights and have a slight rest from my work. However I do know camping is still a lot of work.

Summer Fun/ Summer Heat

Seems every time I come in here to blog its about the freaking weather. I am not a weather man I swear, I just realize that the thing that effects our lives most of all is the weather, you would realize this a lot more if your car leaked I am sure. At the temp we are at right now in the south AC is a godsend if not needed completely I have been trying to avoid using it in my car but it is difficult. Where I live in the city ac is needed for a few reasons and those same reasons are why ac is needed in a car, one being no shade, in this apartment no trees cover it at all, when I lived out in that old lake house I loved, trees hundreds of years old dwarfed everything, and covering over the house and all the ground around me, shade over a home makes a big differences in how cool it gets.

Now about in your car, state highways rarely have shade, beyond that your car does not have curtains. simple?

In your house please be smart, close the curtains in the afternoon, during the hottest times of the day, letting the sun in kills any chance you have of cooling off the place, even if you are not using ac close the curtains, and let the wind blow the air in through them, or place a fan in the window.

beyond all this, carry water with you, this should be your side arm in this heat, dehydration sucks, if kills people every year, more and more younger adults want to drink sodas, and sugar drinks for thirst rather than water, there really should not be a substitution,  and if you are about taste, get over it, train your taste buds and body to just prepare for it, drink water, drink it hot, you never know when you might need the ability to do so, get your picky kids to do it too.

I know this from my own past experiences and my own past spoiled nature. I did not like just plain water. went on a long camping trip, two weeks, ended up in the hospital in the middle of it. My friends and I had all the supplies needed to survive out there, but our bodies were not prepared. your body is the most important thing remember to train yourself for anything.

I dislike thinking that is only June and this warm already, because this same camping trip, was eight years ago now, in the middle of June and I remember being cold at night outside, now it would only feel comfy, and miserable during the day, just like it was this last week when I went on a hike through those same woods. Still I plan on a camping trip later this month. I hope it will be cooler up on those mountains.

hiking randomly

Yesterday was a friends birthday, the wife made him a very interesting cake
Beyond that we bullshitted around at his house, but I was bored, I wanted to go do something, not wanting to force the birthday guy into doing anything really we went out to the cars, talked more and agreed to go get another friend, from there we, or should I say I just started driving, to the point where even my wife wondered where we were going, I drove up to the mountains. we walked through a little town first, then jumped on the blue-ridge parkway stopped at a few overlooks, then thought about driving out to linville falls.
We did not make it to linville but along the way there was a parking area and a set of trails, and my friends wanted to go hiking. this was at 6:30 or so at night, it would get dark soon, I pulled out the three flashlights I had, grabbed my Go bag, and my wife had hers, we went off up this trail.
My friends including the birthday boy were barefoot going up this trail since they were wearing flipflops out. I guess I should have warned them, I ended up going barefoot down the trail letting my wife have my shoes since her flats weren't working for her. I was the only one wearing proper shoes.

I had my camera, but did not get many pictures and they are all dark since there was no lighting. From this random trip for me I figured out I need one more flashlight between us, 4 people with three flashlights wasn't quite cutting it, also I should just keep my waders in my car so I can loan out other shoes I am wearing, or keep a pair for my wife in the car.
If I hadn't had to work today I could have and would have stayed up there, My friends were in the same frame of mind, my wife was the only one that wanted to leave.

it took us at slow speed an hour both ways on this trail, I forget the name of the trail but we parked at rough ridge parking, and hiked the shortest trail, if we had had more gear, IE proper shoes we could have done a longer one.

To end this night, I drove back down the mountain and took us all drinking, I still couldn't bring myself to drink, but they had fun.

I threw in a picture since ya cant see anyone really. They liked climbing though.

reading a new book

What to do When the sh*t hits the fan by Dave Black, it was on clearance in B&N, so far enjoying it, it is slow going for me to read through it with work and everything. It seems to go through the Fema handbook as well as going through some of the authors own opinions. I wont review the book yet till I read through the entire book.

Its interesting for me though, its in the beginning of the year, and I am already getting the feeling of wanting to go camping, and I wanted to plan several camping trips this year, with different people in several different places of  NC, and depending where I am shows the factor of how much I am really camping, if I camp in a friends woods, I can fell trees and make a shelter, if I am in a public forest, I respect the laws there and take shelter, I will eventually show a video of me making a rain fly for my hammock out of garbage bags and duck-tape, I already have the different designs in my head for it, not really gonna go too elaborate on it but it is gonna be nicer than I would be able to make while out in the woods.

Book review Survive!

Okay, I have said I will do product reviews, know hows, and such. Time to review a book I read before starting this blog. Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to get you out of anywhere alive. by Les Stroud.

Now First I will say, I like this guy, to me he is smart on his survivor man shows, and I like his filming, as in being alone, that said, I don't like Canada speak in book form. Sorry Canadians. Most of this book related back to things you can learn just by watching his show, it did finally show how to make a figure 4 dead fall with some detail that he always speaks about in his shows. It is a good travel copy of 3 seasons of survivorman, and his one episode of urban disasters. Plus the stranded series he did to start up survivorman for the networks.

The book does have good tips, he is worth the read, but always do not just listen to one guide for all information, he also makes many references for everyplace he goes he consults local survival experts, something we all wont have if we were to get stranded in remote locations. it would mainly be book research like we would try to be doing with this book. I wouldn't call it an all knowing guide to survival, but it does have some tips tricks and opinions, like much hate for the the lean to shelter, why the hate Les?

I give it a 3 out of 5, I need to read more survival books honestly, this one didn't keep me that interested that I couldn't put the book down, but I did finish it.

Reading more books and reviewing more will come with time but money is tight like always for those with dead end jobs making it through life.

Also note, the leaving pages in the back of the book for tender was creative.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061373516?ie=UTF8%20&tag=harpercollinsusbuypage-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061373516

 I was attempting to not be bias on this review because I do like Les and his show, I like that even with having a show he is slow going, he is alone out there and takes care of himself, unlike Bear Grills who runs in headlong with no rhyme or reason to us the viewers, and he just works to make a good show rather than show someone how to survive, he shows ya just how to die faster.

can I keep it up?

Its apparently as I am noticing quite a challenge to keep a blog going daily while still doing a day job, it does so get into the way.
heres a few questions to everyone, are you a casual camper, when you camp what is your idea of camping? in an RV, bringing a tent, constructing a shelter.
 I know if you want to prepare for a survival situation, you can just start camping normally and each time just leave out bringing one item of comfort. the first thing always to go for me would be the tent, and since my last shelter idea bombed.
 I wouldn't attempt making a group shelter, I would make a small personal one, and when you make one of those mainly in the winter, you want it as small and close to you as possible, because the more air that is in there with you the more cold air you have in there with you. trust me cold is bad.
 I've also had a few friends, war re-en-actors tell me that you should always change clothes before sleeping, stating that no matter what you try you will sweat and be wet while attempting to sleep, this does work I know, but in attempts to travel with as little as possible.. that is hard.
 Just bringing what I did with me, my bag was overly heavy and I felt tremendously loaded down. and I do not know what will be the next thing I decide to remove from my camping, always will take a first aid kit, I like my ground tarps, and I like taking tarps for water proofing. something in that will probably be gone. In the summer, when next I will camp, it will be just me and the hammock and I hope the people that were suppose to come then will come this time for sure.

QOTD- When ( season ) do you plan camping trips?

camping trip gone bad.

Well it turned out nothing of how I wanted, I shot no video, reviewed nothing, beyond just using them, the shelter wasn't made how it needed to be to keep us any kind of warm, I should have left the two I camped with gone off and made my own personal shelter. one person was dictated into not being able to come by his mother, the only under 18 person in the group, and the other two, well one kept leaving camp to go back home since the woods we were in was part of his families property, the idea was to sleep in shifts, and I let him have the first shift since he didn't dress properly and crawled into his sleeping bag first. but then after 6 am, his time to get up and someone else's time to sleep he decides to go get plastic to work on the shelter more,  which the shelter it's self needs to be remade it was rushed by a bit of rain that came through early the first day. he leaves for 3 hours, he went back home and went back to bed, and left me and knight out there cold and tired, and I will have to rethink my thoughts on cold weather camping, I was wearing clothes I normally wearing out into the snow, and I was cold to the bone.
the night the experience didn't work how I wanted, I will probably have to wait for another camping trip, this time not with knight or berzk cause knight also ruined it by running out of the shelter in the middle of the night and taking a dump about 10 feet away from camp, that ruined the site and we would have had to move the site well away from that nastiness. it wasn't the best experience.
the knife I made before the trip worked perfectly, it kept an edge, even after cutting through my hand, it could fell trees quite easily, cut through everything I needed.

one of the things I used while I was out there, a eno hammock- hammocks are not made for winter time, doing this with pads under you will keep air from flowing up under you but it doesn't make it warm, hammock would be good perhaps in the summer and to keep you off the ground from the bugs, something you don't have to worry about in the winter. I paid 70 dollars for this and I haven't used it much, but whats bad after getting it, looking at the design I should be able to make one myself, ill attempt it eventually, I did not buy the straps, bug net, or rain fly, I made a tarp from garbage bags, and I used truck tie down straps for hanging it up.

http://www.eaglesnestoutfittersinc.com/




the other main thing I was gonna test, is an Eton flashlight, this flashlight worked pretty well as a flashlight but the fact that I was using it as a weather radio too showed its flaws, it only lasted about 2 minutes on a few minutes of cranking, it was night so it wasn't easily charged from the solar panel, it also advertises it charging a cell phone from a usb port in the back of the flash light, its apparent this wasn't meant for my iphone the solar panel does not charge the cellphone at all, so if thats what you were wanting spend your 30 bucks on a solar panel charger. the crank is iffy at best for charging a phone, you can tell when you are charging the device or your phone because of the resistance it has when you are charging something but otherwise its a rather free flowing crank. the light worked as long as I needed and worked even after the radio would cut off. also the weather radio apparently uses more power than fm/am. when I bought this it was on special and I got a free blackout buddy flashlight with it. haven't needed it yet but I like that one too.
http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=914953

late in the day

well I have a few stories to talk about, reading the news last night showed me the stories I wanted to write about today, and unfortunately I am not getting to this writing until nearly 3 am the next day, the first story is speaking about the tsa and all these privacy intrusions we are now just witnessing because of all the terrorist thoughts through out the flight around the world. now I wonder if a full body scanner or groping I mean pat downs would even be helpful to how those planes were apparently high jacked, not with bombs, with box cutters, and with box cutters I honestly do not see any plane full of american people being scared of one or two people on a plane, there has to be some facts wrong about those statements. please come see me in 50 years when the documents are released. right now we are dealing with this invasion of privacy because we are allowing it, we allowed the patriot act to come into play and let it slip by us letting the government avoid completely the 4th amendment, a law that has been in place since the birth of this country. a government agency can bug your house while your away, no search warrant, no court order, no reasonable suspicion no urgent circumstance. the entire  4th amendment was put in place to protect persons places and things for your privacy. knowing this, the statement given by the tsa is that a person, a reasonable person would have no expectation of privacy in an airport, well this is a statement I know we all believe, we all, the american people, have a reasonable expectation of privacy by wearing clothes we assume in our no wrong doing, there should be no reason to see what is under our clothes, nor should a random check by an employee give the reason for a pad down, the pad down, a terry stop, the first pad down, means you have to have reasonable suspicion for a pat down, the only person I see having the ability to judge this is a trained police officer, not a hired tsa employee.

the other story I marked in my book to write about was this http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-11-20-new-orleans-water_N.htm?csp=usat.me  

these guys cant get a break can they? move maybe? ok with katrina, hurricane after hurricane, and the oil spill, its almost surprising to find people still wanting to live in this place, but ok I understand its home and a way of life. they are going through another problem, a power outage? hmm these have happened in new york and they never told them to boil water, which gene pool are they trying to thin...  I joke.

On both of these stories, I have flown on a few planes, after 9/11 mind you I was 16 then, 25 now. even got stopped once cause I attempted to walk through with some hotel shampoo, I let them keep that, I didn't like taking off my shoes or understanding why an xray machine can see inside my laptop, and my bag, but not inside my laptop while its in my bag. on the other story, I have been through hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. hugo was the worse one I remember, I was 4. most of the time these things happened I was in rather safe locations inside brick structures, so I have been lucky, and I was taught by my parents to have plenty of things, like batteries or things that work but don't require batteries on hand in those times, and I do love the invention of hand crank powered devices.

tomorrow, or this morning is Monday, I am sending off my laptop later today, and then work till midnight, doing my next blog then, then then then going camping for a few days, ill be attempting to film while I am out there and I hope I get a lot of the product reviews I wanted to go over, done with while out there.

holidays are upon us

I know all next week will be thoughts of turkey day, well ill be in the woods filming, going through the shelter we build, and doing some product reviews of things I have while I'm out there. my idea of holidays are to avoid the shopping craze completely by being out in the middle of the woods. it seems like I will now be out there from Tuesday to Friday, then I have to be back at work on Saturday, the weather report is looking annoying for me, raining on two of the days out there, and it seems like a few of the people will probably be leaving in the middle of it for thanksgiving stuff, which is fine, but I am not leaving. and I know one person wont be leaving because I am driving them there, there I can hopefully ignore the rest of the world right before my wedding, thats my kind of party. main piece of tech ill have out there is my cell phone, the iphone, I have a flashlight with a charger, though I thought the solar panel charged the cellphone too, but it doesn't so thats points against it when I review the item. I should have bought a solar charger for it, I will eventually, I found one for only 30 dollars, on a tech site.

anyway I know I skipped yesterday it was boring, I worked, it was hard for me to work really with my thumb, the superglue I put on made my thumb swell, so I was able to peal it off, then I let it get air for all of last night after wrapping it up while at work. it is looking better now. also ill be sending off my computer for a few days on Monday, the LCD screen cracked.

first aid kit, and a reason to have one in your car

Well I said I was going to post my first aid kit and I did, I posted a video of it a few minutes ago, and now heres the list, but I also wanted to say, I was playing while at work, being stupid showing off the knife I made to my boss and cut my thumb, cut it rather deep, I should have had stitches, however I am cheap so its super glued shut which will work fine, ill also post a picture, but needless to say there wasn't a proper first aid kit at my work, my boss needs to restock, I had him go get my car kit, which I knew had proper things in my first aid kit. clean pads and such. so I stopped the bleeding, cleaned it out and my boss and I glued my skin together, then he went home for me to be closing manager like normal. just another day.

aspirin
antacid
clean wipes/ wet wipes
hand lotion
safety pins
buttons
band aids
sterile saline solution
toilet paper
hair band/ rubber band
small ink pen
nail file
mirror
latex gloves
sterile unopened syringe
stretch bandaging
non stick bandage pads
wire
hand sanitizer
small swiss army knife
anti itch cream
medications- benadryl, claritin, immodium

Packing list

I have a few different lists here of things, we are taking between three people, the main thing we are leaving behind is a tent, thats all the luxury we are forfeiting right now
 General stuff-
toilet paper
canteens
cups, one per person metal for boiling ability if needed
camp knife, general purpose fixed blade knife, knight and I are taking the ones we made.
sleeping bags
5 gallon water container, it collapses, we aren't taking water, I know there is a stream out there we will be boiling water.
trash bags, really large ones
camp shovel, or as we have been saying a shit digger.
cooking pots, all modded to where I can use them with a tripod over a fire, were made for a camp stove.
flash lights, one of them being one with a radio/ weather radio/ cellphone charger.
rope, lots of rope.
first aid kit. ill go over this kit tomorrow
tarps, this is gonna be the main water proofing of the shelter we are making, just a general one I've seen on ray mear's shows, I do know I should practice before use, but I live in an apartment and my mother lives in a rental area too.

bleach, more water purification
peroxide, good for any possible wounds
alcohol
lighter
matches
magnesium fire lighting stick
machetes
hatchet, people have differnt preferences which is more useful, I like them both, hatchet is a lot better as a hammer too.
 jute twine
a simple .22 rifle
canvas- this is from where my mother worked making boat covers and this will be good ground cloth
bandannas
hand sanitizer


Clothes-  we are going over thanksgiving in the foothills of NC so 40 degrees F is what the average is.
long underware, thermals,
thermal socks
blue jeans
t shirt, for me at least
belt
boots with laces, always with laces
insulated suit
ear muffs
toboggan
face mask, for the cold and my identity hidden from the camera  Hah
gloves, I have two pair one fingerless and one thicket and full gloves
and a change of socks and underwear.

for Our food its mainly gonna be soups and canned food while out there.

  this is the shelter we are going to use Ray mears video we are just adding tarps for more rain proofing.
 

knife making

well today besides working, I spent my entire day shaping a piece of scrap steel into a knife, I have not finished mind you, but I got a good chunk of the work done. since I had a partner on making this, we were making him one too, and filmed it, so me and knight are on video showing off the ease of making a knife simply with a 20 dollar grinder, now be it I have a lot of tools from my father and my grandfathers collecting, and they are all mine now, but it doesn't mean that they are all needed.  the video should be posted in a few minutes from this post, we are both covered up in it, keeping with the hiding of my appearance as an experiment, and it was interesting in the filming I called knight by his real name a few times and had to re-shoot the video for that section. beyond this I do hope to teach you something in this, and that is, that everything can be made, its a lot cheaper to buy a grinder/ grinding disks, than to buy a knife. same can be said for many things.