Forward Planning
- Thread starter No Idea
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Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Ooops! Sorry.
Missed some posts while I was still typing yesterday.
Thank you Georann. You are right, I do drop stuff that no one responds to lol
Thank you Stew
Lol Tengu
Put up with the wife? Sometimes you need to know that at least one person loves you - even if they do live in another house with someone else...and we also have kids. I will put up with a hell of a lot on their behalf.
Drinking? LOL I would have hated to have had to clear that lot up the next day, especially as he had a fierce hangover lol
Thank you Drewdunnrespect
Thank you Neumo
Thank you Dwardo
When you keep a diary like this, one thing to remember, dont get downhearted if you mange to neglect it for a couple of months or so. It really doesnt matter.
If you can remember to keep taking pics with your phones and can pritn them with the date stamps, you can often piece together most of a month or so...
A couple of days ago, we all filled in December in one go - except me, I had half of October and the whole of November to do too
Missed some posts while I was still typing yesterday.
Thank you Georann. You are right, I do drop stuff that no one responds to lol
Thank you Stew
Lol Tengu
Put up with the wife? Sometimes you need to know that at least one person loves you - even if they do live in another house with someone else...and we also have kids. I will put up with a hell of a lot on their behalf.
Drinking? LOL I would have hated to have had to clear that lot up the next day, especially as he had a fierce hangover lol
Thank you Drewdunnrespect
Thank you Neumo
Thank you Dwardo
When you keep a diary like this, one thing to remember, dont get downhearted if you mange to neglect it for a couple of months or so. It really doesnt matter.
If you can remember to keep taking pics with your phones and can pritn them with the date stamps, you can often piece together most of a month or so...
A couple of days ago, we all filled in December in one go - except me, I had half of October and the whole of November to do too
Seems like you are doing a great job for your family, well done! So many families just chrash in front of the TV with some junk food.
We like to plan a little, but also like to be quite flexible and just improvise sometimes. Works for us.
Hope the canoing trip works out, but please take care.
We like to plan a little, but also like to be quite flexible and just improvise sometimes. Works for us.
Hope the canoing trip works out, but please take care.
Im sorry to be so negative about your relationships...I am a Tengu...a creature solitary by nature. We dont realy do relationships.
But you do a very good job of being organised and planning....I try to plan but am not that good about it. I tend te veer from the meticulous to the slapdash
But you do a very good job of being organised and planning....I try to plan but am not that good about it. I tend te veer from the meticulous to the slapdash
Thank you David
The canoeing trip is scaring me a bit too.
I fully intend to cover every base I possibly can.
Its not happening until I am convinced they will all keep lifejackets on.
Its not happening until Im sure their walkie talkies will reach to places I can monitor. They will assume I just drove to Studland and hung my hammock...lol
Its not happening until Im sure their mobiles will be secured in pouches.
Its not happening until Im sure they know exactly where to go and what to do if anything changes.
Its not happening until Im sure Stepkid is capable of leading them and taking charge of any problems.
Its not happening until Im sure they have sufficient kit to patch up any injuries and wait it out on any bit of land on the route - hobo, first aid, thermo hammocks, food, water, rope, dry clothes, waterproofs and footwear to walk out, duct tape lol etc...
Its not happening until the boats are built and Im convinced they are going to stay built.
Im expecting to see them play in the 4 ft deep bay by the slip with them and I want to watch them all tip over and hit rocks. Im not that bothered about holes - duct tape, then fix at home, but I am bothered about seams splitting.
I will want to see all 4 of them playing tag, as then the boats are likely to impact each other, and I can watch it happen pretty close to me.
I will take all 4 out on one of the boats and push them overboard and make them swim back, so I have seen them self rescue.
I will run the trip with them probably on the ferry, so we can all have a really good look see at where we are going. Them at the river, me at vantages I can oversee from. I will also talk to the ferry captain if I can and ask him what they might do that would bother him as another boat user - I imagine hes seen it all.
Then I will pick the day and time....
This will be down to the timing of the tide to give a good days easy run, which I will test using Stupid or the sailing dinghy and drifting, then comparing with the tide tables to pick perfect tides, maybe one or two windows a month...
Then I will Look at weather, to make sure the wind will be behind them, so it doesnt slow them down, and gentle enough not to leave any 3 ft short waves, which are a potential problem...
Then I will think about wheather I actually feel comfortable that its going to work. If Im not convinced, I wont load, and they wont know how close they got, but it wont happen until Im sure Ive covered everything.
I know it may sound daft, but I plan most trips to this level when the kids are involved and there is any real danger.
I know we have had some pretty close scrapes as we learned to sail, but even then, the planning and layers of survival strategies have worked, save once, when I needed to be rescued, but even then, I knew I was taking a risk,so I didnt have the kids with me. Ive now sailed the dinghy well over 500 adventurous miles - I keep logs lol.
The 4 of them wont be aware that Im testing them. I will plan a lot of play type days first, close at hand as "The tide or weather isnt quite right yet", and I will be taking pics of all these mini adventures for their diaries, and they will be really happy. lol.
On the day, everything should just slide together without my efforts even being noticed, and if there is a problem, then they should have the tools to overcome it and decide they are brilliant.
From their perspective, they will have built themselves boats and probably had to stop daddy messing them up, they planned the route, and then went and did it, oh and drank the hot chocolate and marshmallows while dad looks grumpy because he was too frightened. lol
The canoeing trip is scaring me a bit too.
I fully intend to cover every base I possibly can.
Its not happening until I am convinced they will all keep lifejackets on.
Its not happening until Im sure their walkie talkies will reach to places I can monitor. They will assume I just drove to Studland and hung my hammock...lol
Its not happening until Im sure their mobiles will be secured in pouches.
Its not happening until Im sure they know exactly where to go and what to do if anything changes.
Its not happening until Im sure Stepkid is capable of leading them and taking charge of any problems.
Its not happening until Im sure they have sufficient kit to patch up any injuries and wait it out on any bit of land on the route - hobo, first aid, thermo hammocks, food, water, rope, dry clothes, waterproofs and footwear to walk out, duct tape lol etc...
Its not happening until the boats are built and Im convinced they are going to stay built.
Im expecting to see them play in the 4 ft deep bay by the slip with them and I want to watch them all tip over and hit rocks. Im not that bothered about holes - duct tape, then fix at home, but I am bothered about seams splitting.
I will want to see all 4 of them playing tag, as then the boats are likely to impact each other, and I can watch it happen pretty close to me.
I will take all 4 out on one of the boats and push them overboard and make them swim back, so I have seen them self rescue.
I will run the trip with them probably on the ferry, so we can all have a really good look see at where we are going. Them at the river, me at vantages I can oversee from. I will also talk to the ferry captain if I can and ask him what they might do that would bother him as another boat user - I imagine hes seen it all.
Then I will pick the day and time....
This will be down to the timing of the tide to give a good days easy run, which I will test using Stupid or the sailing dinghy and drifting, then comparing with the tide tables to pick perfect tides, maybe one or two windows a month...
Then I will Look at weather, to make sure the wind will be behind them, so it doesnt slow them down, and gentle enough not to leave any 3 ft short waves, which are a potential problem...
Then I will think about wheather I actually feel comfortable that its going to work. If Im not convinced, I wont load, and they wont know how close they got, but it wont happen until Im sure Ive covered everything.
I know it may sound daft, but I plan most trips to this level when the kids are involved and there is any real danger.
I know we have had some pretty close scrapes as we learned to sail, but even then, the planning and layers of survival strategies have worked, save once, when I needed to be rescued, but even then, I knew I was taking a risk,so I didnt have the kids with me. Ive now sailed the dinghy well over 500 adventurous miles - I keep logs lol.
The 4 of them wont be aware that Im testing them. I will plan a lot of play type days first, close at hand as "The tide or weather isnt quite right yet", and I will be taking pics of all these mini adventures for their diaries, and they will be really happy. lol.
On the day, everything should just slide together without my efforts even being noticed, and if there is a problem, then they should have the tools to overcome it and decide they are brilliant.
From their perspective, they will have built themselves boats and probably had to stop daddy messing them up, they planned the route, and then went and did it, oh and drank the hot chocolate and marshmallows while dad looks grumpy because he was too frightened. lol
Tengu no worries, my relationship is er...unusual.
The wife is a force of nature. You never really know if shes going to erupt, shake, rain on you or try to blow you over, but then I will dance a boat or a car in the eye of a storm too. Its how you know you are alive.
You may well meet her if you find time to come down and build a canoe here. lol
I never really planned anything when I was young, I only started after lots of stupid easily avoidable disasters, then it just sort of comes naturally.
The wife is a force of nature. You never really know if shes going to erupt, shake, rain on you or try to blow you over, but then I will dance a boat or a car in the eye of a storm too. Its how you know you are alive.
You may well meet her if you find time to come down and build a canoe here. lol
I never really planned anything when I was young, I only started after lots of stupid easily avoidable disasters, then it just sort of comes naturally.
Dwardo...
Ive been thinking about what you said...
Ive got one pic of me being held by my dad urinating into a ditch in Holland as a baby. The next one is of me in Sweden at 11 just after I skiid into a tree.
I would have loved it if my parents had saved some record of my life. The places we lived, the cars, the people, my toys, first steps, first bike, first boat ride, first visit abroad, first accident - the tree wasnt the first, clothes, haircuts, food, girlfriends, wars - funny how they follow each other.....
What would you like to have had if your parents had kept one for you?
May I suggest getting your kid a diary this year?
Shove in snaps of him, doctors notes, local bits from papers that affect you, the names of the kids in the nursery, just make him a scrap book, and start his volumes now.
Soon it will be scribbles from nursery - if they ar too big, photograph them and stick that in instead, then he will be doing his own scribbling in his books....
Dont forget to do one alongside him, that way he will see its something you do - like washing teeth.
I honestly wish Id started the kids diaries at birth.
Ive been thinking about what you said...
Ive got one pic of me being held by my dad urinating into a ditch in Holland as a baby. The next one is of me in Sweden at 11 just after I skiid into a tree.
I would have loved it if my parents had saved some record of my life. The places we lived, the cars, the people, my toys, first steps, first bike, first boat ride, first visit abroad, first accident - the tree wasnt the first, clothes, haircuts, food, girlfriends, wars - funny how they follow each other.....
What would you like to have had if your parents had kept one for you?
May I suggest getting your kid a diary this year?
Shove in snaps of him, doctors notes, local bits from papers that affect you, the names of the kids in the nursery, just make him a scrap book, and start his volumes now.
Soon it will be scribbles from nursery - if they ar too big, photograph them and stick that in instead, then he will be doing his own scribbling in his books....
Dont forget to do one alongside him, that way he will see its something you do - like washing teeth.
I honestly wish Id started the kids diaries at birth.
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Kit....
I watched a couple give their kid a brand new top of the range mountain bike.
They took him to the park for his first go on it.
He rode this bike, which had full suspension and disk brakes, around for a couple of circles then drop it on the tarmac and wander into the playground.
He damaged the grip and scratched the paint. He also didnt bother to lock it.
I watched a couple give their kid a brand new top of the range mountain bike.
They took him to the park for his first go on it.
He rode this bike, which had full suspension and disk brakes, around for a couple of circles then drop it on the tarmac and wander into the playground.
He damaged the grip and scratched the paint. He also didnt bother to lock it.
You should have seen the looks on their faces.
Much to my surprise, he didnt end up deaf from being shouted at, or bleeding.
However.....
There was one gain made that day...
By me.
I decided I didnt ever want to be one of those parents.
Much to my surprise, he didnt end up deaf from being shouted at, or bleeding.
However.....
There was one gain made that day...
By me.
I decided I didnt ever want to be one of those parents.
So....
Wherever I can, I buy bikes from the tip.
I make sure they are good quality wheels and frames, then give them to my kids with the bits they need to completely strip them and rebuild them. I also take them and introduce them to the local shotblasters. They then prime their frames, paint them with paint they have picked - their painting is now better than mine, and draw their own logos to be printed.
I teach them how to stip wheels, tighten the spokes and straighten the rims, how to fit tyres, strip and repack bearings, strip and reset gears, and how to fit bottom brackets and bars.
After you have put that much effort into your kit, you never mistreat it, understand what it is doing, and you have the skills to repair it if it breaks.
Wherever I can, I buy bikes from the tip.
I make sure they are good quality wheels and frames, then give them to my kids with the bits they need to completely strip them and rebuild them. I also take them and introduce them to the local shotblasters. They then prime their frames, paint them with paint they have picked - their painting is now better than mine, and draw their own logos to be printed.
I teach them how to stip wheels, tighten the spokes and straighten the rims, how to fit tyres, strip and repack bearings, strip and reset gears, and how to fit bottom brackets and bars.
After you have put that much effort into your kit, you never mistreat it, understand what it is doing, and you have the skills to repair it if it breaks.
This is the same method Im using on the sailboats and on the canoes.
I could go get them canoes. In fact, they have one in the garden.
If I get them to build the canoes they will use, and paint them, then kit them out with everything they need for the trip, they will look after them, and be better able to use the kit.
So far, this year, they have both built a hobo stove to carry with them.
I could go get them canoes. In fact, they have one in the garden.
If I get them to build the canoes they will use, and paint them, then kit them out with everything they need for the trip, they will look after them, and be better able to use the kit.
So far, this year, they have both built a hobo stove to carry with them.
Anyhow....
Another use of kit...
I absolutely hate it when I want to go do something and cant find the kids stuff.
"I dont know where I put it! " whines really irritate me.
So....
The kids have a play rucksack each which lives in th eboot with their sleeping bags.
These bags are theirs and are their responsibility to keep packed.
My job for the next couple of weeks is to go through them with the kids and get them restocked for this year.
Another use of kit...
I absolutely hate it when I want to go do something and cant find the kids stuff.
"I dont know where I put it! " whines really irritate me.
So....
The kids have a play rucksack each which lives in th eboot with their sleeping bags.
These bags are theirs and are their responsibility to keep packed.
My job for the next couple of weeks is to go through them with the kids and get them restocked for this year.
The rucksacks all contain
babywipes, as they are good for cleaning children and things they mess up,
(need to include kitchen roll after my last mishap),
a notepad and pencils so they can draw,
a comic each,
a waterproof coat,
swimming trunks goggles and towels,
SOCKS - little one doesnt wear socks and some climbing places insist kids wear socks,
hammocks, tarp, water bottle,
Washing kit
bike puncture kit and tools,
first aid kit.
They also have a shelf with their wetsuits,
lifejackets and boots and water bags.
babywipes, as they are good for cleaning children and things they mess up,
(need to include kitchen roll after my last mishap),
a notepad and pencils so they can draw,
a comic each,
a waterproof coat,
swimming trunks goggles and towels,
SOCKS - little one doesnt wear socks and some climbing places insist kids wear socks,
hammocks, tarp, water bottle,
Washing kit
bike puncture kit and tools,
first aid kit.
They also have a shelf with their wetsuits,
lifejackets and boots and water bags.
Once the kids understand what this stuff is all for, they really look after it.
During the year, whenever we have a couple of hours free, I will yell
"Are you ready?"
Thats time to go.
We could be going swimming, canoeing (well, them, not me), boating, walking, cycling, hammocking or off to stay somewhere.
Because their kit is packed, I dont have to lose half an hour hunting for essentials.
We are ready to go as soon as they finish school for the day or any time over the weekend, when the weather is good and we are all up for it.
Delegating half the preparations to the kids is how I can manage to have so many adventures during the year.
They have the energy that I dont and are more than willing to put in the effort when they realise how much they can get out of it.
Getting the kids to take responsibility isnt easy and takes time, but it sets them up with a life skill and makes my life easier.
My two have had their own rucksacks since they were 5.
During the year, whenever we have a couple of hours free, I will yell
"Are you ready?"
Thats time to go.
We could be going swimming, canoeing (well, them, not me), boating, walking, cycling, hammocking or off to stay somewhere.
Because their kit is packed, I dont have to lose half an hour hunting for essentials.
We are ready to go as soon as they finish school for the day or any time over the weekend, when the weather is good and we are all up for it.
Delegating half the preparations to the kids is how I can manage to have so many adventures during the year.
They have the energy that I dont and are more than willing to put in the effort when they realise how much they can get out of it.
Getting the kids to take responsibility isnt easy and takes time, but it sets them up with a life skill and makes my life easier.
My two have had their own rucksacks since they were 5.
Ive sort of had my objectives as agreed with the kids in my head for the month, despite being ill.
Ive also remembered to take pics.
Er.....
No Idea what I did with the month, so I will have to rely on the notes I took at meetings, bank stubs and pics to fill in the 31 days....
Sort of feeling stupid, but except thos few I tell, I doubt any will really notice.
Ive also remembered to take pics.
Er.....
No Idea what I did with the month, so I will have to rely on the notes I took at meetings, bank stubs and pics to fill in the 31 days....
Sort of feeling stupid, but except thos few I tell, I doubt any will really notice.
The pics Ive taken over the month....
Ive offloaded them every couple of days - just in case I lose a phone or camera.
Actually, My little one left his camera at my mums last Sunday, so Im half a dozen pics short.
Will add them when I get them.
Ive offloaded them every couple of days - just in case I lose a phone or camera.
Actually, My little one left his camera at my mums last Sunday, so Im half a dozen pics short.
Will add them when I get them.
