Do you carry a spare fur lined cod piece as well?
I dare say there are entire websites dedicated to that sort of thing. The thought of me in a fur cod piece? (shudders). There are probably people out there who think the idea of fellating Anne Widdicome is less frightening. Thank you for the idea and if I ever find myself burning my nads when moving burning logs about, I will give it some serious consideration!
My other response to your post is 'Exactly'. Most of us are weekenders who, after a few nights in the countryside retire to our houses & desk jobs to begin planning the next one. We don't have hands made of cast iron. It's a lesson I learned when helping a friend fix his car one weekend - he insisted I wear gloves and at the end of the weekend I understood why. Before I start ranting too much, standard disclaimers apply - ie: My opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it & no two people are alike so what works for one may not work for someone else.
So then, reasons everyone should have a decent pair of gloves:
1) The gloves get dirty, rather than your hands. This saves you getting grubby paw prints all over your map/kit/girlfriend. There are many indications that you have had a good weekend out, and some would say having to jetwash your own body parts is one of them. This is quite tricky to do in the field before you make dinner however.
2) Helps keep your hands warm. Depending on the gloves & the job, they may not keep your hands dry, but they do help keep them warm. There is no point having your torso wrapped up like the Michelin man if the rest of you is exposed. Yes, your head is the prime culprit for this, but your hands are the only other part of your skin that people tend to leave uninsulated. Getting cold hands is a vicious circle, because if your hands are too cold then your body will actually restrict blood flow to them in an attempt to reduce heat loss which means they are more prone to damage. Best case scenario, your hands get slightly numb, you loose a bit of dexterity due to the lost feeling and swear like a trooper when they warm up.
3) Your daddy did tell you about the importance of using protection, yes? We have all picked up what should be the cool end of a log from the fire only to yelp as we discover there was some resin boiling out of it we hadn't noticed. We have all picked up our fair share of bramble scratches, nettle stings and irritating splinters that you can't quite find to pull out. Unsurprisingly, gloves will cut down on these quite considerably. All of that is without mentioning the potential for pain lurking in sharp knives, boiling water & tree root trip wires.
4) Better grip. Honestly. You apply more force when you are wearing gloves, because you are less afraid of injuring yourself. So, for everything from being able to just pick up your cooking pot without needing some folding handle thing to hacking bits of wood apart with your hands, gloves give you an edge.
TTFN
ETA: However, that 'climb on bar' sounds very good. Gonna have to get me one of them.
Just kidding.
. I only get the cracks if the skin dries out, I use nuetragena (if I bother to remember), barrier cream also when I was in the factorie's. If the cracks open up (the one on the end of my left thumb is the worst) I rub in neurtagena and wrap band aid plaster roll round it with kitchen paper or something it heals up after a day or so. Its a bluddy niusance actually, like I got permanent fault lines in my skin
