Don't you all hate that feeling....

[addyb]

Don't you all hate that feeling that you get when the summer season is well on it's way, you're dying to get out into the bush and you take a look through all of your kit and realize how much of it needs to be replaced and how much of it is missing?

And so you take a trip to your local gear store and while you're browsing, you realize just how many more things you need and how much the prices have gone up in the past year.

I hate that feeling. Do you?

 

[Toddy]

You have *time* to go looking for more kit???? Lucky man
My biggest problem is that when I earn money is the same season when it's best to be outdoors There's never enough time to just take off somewhere without planning. I have to fix that.

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[RGRBOX]

My problem is I spend all day with kit.. I spend too much money on the stuff, I test everything I sell, and I test everything I don't sell.. that is, most of the stuff doesn't pass the test, but the money and time is still spent.. I just want to get back to the basics, carry less, and enjoy the outdoors more..

 

[addyb]

Exactly, that's basically the main reason I joined these forums and started learning about bushcraft. I wanted to start taking less kit with me when I went into the outdoors. The trouble is, 90% of my current gear is completely useless for bushcraft as all of it is designed for mountaineering. Granted, I've slowly been accumulating bushcraft-y type gear but I still have a long way to go. Heck, it was only a couple of weeks ago that my friend Alex and I finally figured out how to make fire with a bow-drill. Up until that point, I'd light an MSR stove with a Zippo and cook my meal sitting on a snowfield with a nice four season tent and down sleeping bag behind me, the forest a few days walk below me.

And even now, when I look back over my older posts from when I first joined these forums, I'm astounted as to how much my opinions and point of view on the outdoors has changed. It's silly, but with all my contradictory and immature posts, I know I've changed for the better. And I've got you folks to thank for that. (Maybe it's because I'm finally 21?)

Now I need to go and work on the list of things I need for the summer.

Cheers,

Adam

 

[Toddy]

Happy birthday Adam, but don't spend alll your birthday money at once remember Abbe's tag line, "Use it up, wear it out, or do without"
It's easy for us now, there's so much good kit to choose from, but in the past it was just their everyday stuff they used. Linen, wool, leather, oiled or waxed canvas.
Your posts on textiles are excelllent; maybe you could do some comparisons of old vs new from personal experience?
I know a couple of folks who live as frugally as is possible and they live outdoors all the time. No house, a moveable tarp shelter. They refuse to spend anything they can avoid on kit, and, apart from being really mucky, thye're very healthy..

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[mark a.]

Just admit it, Addy - you just want more gear! Nothing to be ashamed of - it's always good to find excuses to buy more kit!

Winter has been good fun to do research on what I'd like, but once the spring has finally sprung we can all get out a lot more and really see what we need.

 

[bilko]

Happy birthday Adam, but don't spend alll your birthday money at once remember Abbe's tag line, "Use it up, wear it out, or do without"
It's easy for us now, there's so much good kit to choose from, but in the past it was just their everyday stuff they used. Linen, wool, leather, oiled or waxed canvas.
Your posts on textiles are excelllent; maybe you could do some comparisons of old vs new from personal experience?
I know a couple of folks who live as frugally as is possible and they live outdoors all the time. No house, a moveable tarp shelter. They refuse to spend anything they can avoid on kit, and, apart from being really mucky, thye're very healthy..

Cheers,
Toddy

Hi Guys
Toddy, i don't suppose your friends have a website do they?
Or do you have any links to that kind of living?
Back on topic. I find buying kit is theropy, i don't get to use most of it and i have limited myself to buying long life food stuffs at the moment. I currently have ( amongst other things ) 6 tins of corned beef in a kind of ready to go bag. I blame all the American films i watched as a teenager... Wolverines inparticular
Edit to add, last week i went along the own brand shelves at Tesco and bought 2 of most of their drugs. Paracetamol, aspirin, etc etc. They are only 30p odd each and it made me feel better. I even noted that there are 32 huge water containers ( the office dispenser type ) outside my work at any one time all sealed and full of water. I calculated approx 4 months worth for me Maybe i should get a handle on survivalist thing.

 

[Toddy]

Hi Guys
Toddy, i don't suppose your friends have a website do they?
Or do you have any links to that kind of living?

No website; no electricity They just live that kind of life. Actually there are a lot of people living that way about. Some still live in commune type associations, like Talamh or in ad hoc eco villages. Sometimes you only find out about them if you know someone involved. It's all too easy for chancers to decide to muscle in I know one *village* with real problems just now because a couple of neds have moved into a what was temporarily, empty, bender. It's bad news all round especially when there are young families involved, it's a real culture clash.

Cheers,
Toddy