I’d love to have a wooded property to try something along this line. When wanted, you can be incredibly resourceful with a zero-dollar budget:
I camp once or twice a year. Just tent camping, no fancy trailers, RVs or cabins, usually with a group of my friends and their kids. And I agree completely. The ground is getting harder every year, my bladder forces me out of the tent into the rain multiple times a night, the tent is either really hot or leaking- I’m enjoying it less every year. One thing I’ve been doing more the last couple of years is kayaking. Not whitewater, but lakes and rivers in a flat water recreational kayak. It’s great for relaxing, fishing and getting in areas too shallow for anything other than a bass boat. Last year I found a new angle. Ours is a heavily trafficked lake, in the main body, and it’s a blast to wait for a larger boat to go booming by and then ride the wakes. I also found a spot near my launch where the heavy boat traffic sets up waves and turbulence between the shoreline and a small rocky island. It’s almost like whitewater on the lake, and if you shoot between a gap in the rocks after a couple of boats go by it’s fun as hell.
I grew up through Scouting and spent all my summers as a teen living in a tent while working at the local Scout camp. As an adult, various military training and survival schools. Nobody does glamping like the US military in a deployed location. Now days, if I'm sleeping in a tent, I better be able to stand up in it. I'm actually looking for a cabin tent because this September, I'm participating in a multi-day distillery bike ride in Kentucky this September and the friends I'm going with would rather camp than rent an RV at the event site. Overall, anymore I'd rather stay in a remote cabin and my hikes are limited to day hikes. As far as packs/rucks. I have a Camelback BFM I was issued in 2005. It's been around the world several times with me on every deployment and trip I've made since I got it and while well worn, its not worn out. It's been through it all and I still use it as my commuter bag since the bladder pocket works well as a laptop sleeve. Your milage may vary. Eberlestock makes nice packs & rucks, but they're heavy for backpacking if you're not hauling heavy gear
I also have the Talon 22 for my daypack and love it. My backpacking pack is also an Osprey, and both my partner and I have Osprey travel packs as well which were awesome when we went to Europe. You just can't beat that lifetime warranty, and it's so easy to get replacement parts (or the entire pack replaced) as long as you time it in the winter. I really like a lot of the Deuter packs as well for their design and features, etc., but I've never owned one.
This Florida Man article crossed my news feed. Apparently, this setup has been 'working' for years for one Florida Man.
Not pictured: the $72k in parking tickets and the yellow boot on the front passenger wheel because there's no way that thing has moved on to public roads and not spilt the frame at the cab.
Nah, he could just put a couple industrial casters on those back two outriggers and he could roll on!
There ya go, an engineer has spoken! If I'm ever forced into homelessness, I hope I make wiser, safer shelter decisions than that fellow.
Our new super-duper-OCD neighbours are cutting back their fence line to cubic perfection, and doing so cut down a maple tree and lots of mature cedar. They they laid everything out in their curb in perfectly stacked logs, perfectly cut to 48” in length each. And I just grabbed the wife’s little suv and started making trips as fast as I could. I got ALL of it and spent the day cutting it to 12” logs with a mitre saw. Then I built a log rack/shelter out of scrap pallet wood. Wood pallets, kids. You can make anything with them for zero dollars in a few hours: ...I have to smooth it out, but it cost nothing.
last time we were around a burn pit with cedar in it, an ember flew into my son’s shirt and I had to bust out the first aid kit from the truck. Narrowly avoided a hospital trip with that one
Not surprised. Cedar compared to the nice maple Crown scored is night and day. Love cooking cedar plank salmon, but would not want a firepit of cedar.
For salmon, I soak the cedar plank in a mix of whiskey, apple juice, rosemary and chipotle. For white fish like mahi, I soak it in light rum, 50/50 orange and cranberry juice, and cayenne. Great to cook with, but fuck if I’ll ever do a fire with it. Unless it’s like a survival fire where I gotta stay warm with something that lights fast. Cut down a few cedars for just in case when the all the snow and ice hit us for a week.
My homophobic brother in law, after talking up the wonders of his bidet (the third review down on the amazon choice one is titled “who knew taking it up the butt would feel this great!”), has convinced my wife we need one. I am terrified.
Expandable hose. They don’t kink and have no curl memory. You put them in a pail or basket, I am yet to make something more cosmopolitan. Also: How big should a cedar plank for a grill be if you make one from scratch?
In my experience the bidet is inferior to the wake up -> shit -> shower with a handheld showerhead habit. It's like having your o-ring pressure washed.