Living in the woods
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No, indeed, when I was a lad I had some right daft ideas and there wasn't a place like this for me to sound them out before trying them. I'm the better man for having done so I think, but then I could just as easily be a pile of bones bleaching in the sun on a remote bit of coastline somewhere.
Tell me about it, if only i had the internet as a boy, maybe i might not have jumped off the shed roof with two carrier bags on my arms hoping they'd act as parachutes instead of realising as i made contact with the ground that it was a foolhardy idea as my mouth filled with blood after i kneed myself in the face. I could have came on some parachuting enthusiast website and gave everyone a good laugh first by telling them my carrier bag parachuting dreams
My bother persuaded his pal to try on the hangglider wings he'd made, and to jump off our Dad's 11' high workshop roof….and Scott did, nosedived straight across the back fence and into next door's back garden 
The other Toddy's bemoaning, "Ma hangglider !!!!", and Scott's moaning, "Oh, ma boady"…..and the rest of us couldnae help or move for laughter
I'm laughing at it yet
Aye, we all have daft ideas as youngsters; thankfully most of us survive them.
It's a shame to rain on the OP's parade, but he needs to think this out a bit harder I suspect. Get some hard graft under his ideas, go and work with the organic gardening folks, help build everything from chickencoops to sheds, repair roofs and barns, and then realise why tents are a good idea, and so are hurdles
M
The other Toddy's bemoaning, "Ma hangglider !!!!", and Scott's moaning, "Oh, ma boady"…..and the rest of us couldnae help or move for laughter
I'm laughing at it yet
Aye, we all have daft ideas as youngsters; thankfully most of us survive them.
It's a shame to rain on the OP's parade, but he needs to think this out a bit harder I suspect. Get some hard graft under his ideas, go and work with the organic gardening folks, help build everything from chickencoops to sheds, repair roofs and barns, and then realise why tents are a good idea, and so are hurdles
M
Aye, we all have daft ideas as youngsters; thankfully most of us survive them.
It's a shame to rain on the OP's parade, but he needs to think this out a bit harder I suspect. Get some hard graft under his ideas, go and work with the organic gardening folks, help build everything from chickencoops to sheds, repair roofs and barns, and then realise why tents are a good idea, and so are hurdles
M
Much wisdom there, save the OP a lot of hard, very hard, lessons.
That made me laugh hard Toddy thanks, maybe it was a lot to do with knowing i was not alone in my dreams of flight as a boy that ended bloody, worst part was i blamed my Action Man paratrooper figure as his mini plastic bag like parachute worked perfectly for him, i figured i had proportionally scaled up my parabag and then doubled up on it just to be sure, my shed was about the same height as your hanggliding launch pad, i remember standing on the edge visualising myself gliding down gracefully to the bottom of the garden and combat rolling for effect on landing, how the heck did we all survive our childhoods without the health and safety guidelines of the modern day? My head never even seen a cycle helmet until i was 30
Heaven alone knows. We jumped off the coalshed roof, we draped (hung by our hands and dropped down onto the path) from upstairs windows, we targetted each other with bows and arrows (still got the scar from that particular piece of idiocy) we climbed every blooming thing we could, we played with fire, with knives and airguns, and fireworks. Later on the boys built engines onto boggies (go-cart things)…with neither gears nor brakes Toddy and Scott again there…and both of them were truthfully fully tested mensa genius' too, just somewhat lacking in the application of the detail over the theory, iimmc. Home made explosive fireworks were somewhat of a speciality….until they decided to clear a blocked drain with a wee bit….and turned a cast iron drain pipe into a pipe bomb that dug a trench feet deep in Scott's Mum's back path
Tell you though, I did a lot of laughing
The other Toddy and a starting pistol, in the bath…..silly blighter forgot about the shockwave and compression and the softest bits available
Funniest damned thing in ages.
I was pretty sure HWMBLT was probably someone I'd rather keep close when he came to pick me up on a date and instead had to take my bother to hospital…he'd ricocheted something and it'd hit his eye. Left the white bit torn and bleeding and looking like something out of a horror movie. He healed, and we got engaged
How we're all still in one piece is a mystery though.
We've rather taken this thread totally OT. Sorry folks
M
Toddy and Scott again there…and both of them were truthfully fully tested mensa genius' too, just somewhat lacking in the application of the detail over the theory, iimmc. Home made explosive fireworks were somewhat of a speciality….until they decided to clear a blocked drain with a wee bit….and turned a cast iron drain pipe into a pipe bomb that dug a trench feet deep in Scott's Mum's back path Tell you though, I did a lot of laughing
The other Toddy and a starting pistol, in the bath…..silly blighter forgot about the shockwave and compression and the softest bits available
Funniest damned thing in ages.
I was pretty sure HWMBLT was probably someone I'd rather keep close when he came to pick me up on a date and instead had to take my bother to hospital…he'd ricocheted something and it'd hit his eye. Left the white bit torn and bleeding and looking like something out of a horror movie. He healed, and we got engaged
How we're all still in one piece is a mystery though.
We've rather taken this thread totally OT. Sorry folks
M
Your childhood sounds a lot like a typical 70's n 80's Geordie childhood, or more accurately my Geordie childhood, so many scars each with a comical memory, it's always funny when you live, sometimes though you didn't laugh until you got your memory back from the concussion, i'd had 3 by age 12 but i'll spare you the tales of idiocy 
very appropriate smileys
very appropriate smileys
Most kids today would do much better building a few more go carts and reading a few less comics (graphic novels).
We seem to average a Walt every few months on here, most with so few practical skills that they have never ripped a plank or set a fence post, but seem to think that being really familiar with fantasy novels equips a person to survive in the wild. I think they are to be encouraged, every gene pool needs a drop of chlorine
We seem to average a Walt every few months on here, most with so few practical skills that they have never ripped a plank or set a fence post, but seem to think that being really familiar with fantasy novels equips a person to survive in the wild. I think they are to be encouraged, every gene pool needs a drop of chlorine
I think a heck of a lot of folks would do a lot better if they were actively busy making stuff. From fences to chickencoops, laying slabs to floors. Physical graft is hard work, but I honestly think it's good for us.
Sport is all very well, but it's not the same as thinking through and working to make something that actually is sound, and building up the hand, eye, muscle, mind connections that pull it altogether successfully.
The OP sounds keen though. I still think he has unrealistic aims, but no reason that those couldn't be moderated into something more feasible.
M
Sport is all very well, but it's not the same as thinking through and working to make something that actually is sound, and building up the hand, eye, muscle, mind connections that pull it altogether successfully.
The OP sounds keen though. I still think he has unrealistic aims, but no reason that those couldn't be moderated into something more feasible.
M
Toddy - were you brought up in an "Oor Wully" cartoon?
My childhood sounds very tame by comparison, with only a barbed wire scar under one eyebrow & a continued fondness for arson remaining
My childhood sounds very tame by comparison, with only a barbed wire scar under one eyebrow & a continued fondness for arson remaining
I love extended calculations designed to show that something is impossible. Then I like to look at things that have been built which one could prove were impossible. Excavating the ditches of Avebury, for example, millions of man hours etc blah! Or people getting down to it and working until it was finished. It surprises that the actual crews who worked on medieval castles and cathedrals were relatively small compared to the finished product. Likewise all those impossible log cabins built all over the world.
Toddy - were you brought up in an "Oor Wully" cartoon?
My childhood sounds very tame by comparison, with only a barbed wire scar under one eyebrow & a continued fondness for arson remaining
No, I truthfully grew up not two miles from where I live now
I have been singularly blessed to know an awful lot of interesting people though It's not a good day unless you meet at least one eccentric
I'm of the opinion that the folks who believe real life is represented by glossy mags, tv shows and inane 'celebrities', haven't got a clue about the fun they're missing.
Boatman, I wholeheartedly agree that the power of human endeavour is much underrated and misunderstood, and we can move mountains when we are diligently determined, but I believe that the OP did not understand just how much work he was looking at, and how little he was likely to accomplish in a couple of weeks.
That's really what's at the root of folks raining on his parade; well, that and that he has no real way to access the materials he requires.
As I said earlier, it does seem a shame to rain on his parade, but it's not as if he hasn't been given sensible advice
M
good luck trying! i doubt too many women would volounteer go go on a trip like this...
We had one of those posting on here. They had access to land owned by their family; their unrealistic problem was that they didn't know how unproductive that sort of land is and how much would be needed to grow enough food for one person.
I have friends who pretty much did what the OP is dreaming of, but in a valley in Lancashire, with the farmer's permission. They did it as part of a community, started living in Yurts, built a log house (hexagonal with thatched roof). Lovely people, already had lots of skills, did it with two small children as well!
It is possible, but not by just throwing yourself at it. Something as simple as gathering enough firewood to keep warm is a 1/2 time job and you need a big area to be harvesting from.
to say it with the words of maxwell smart: ""i find that very hard to believe!"" (= meeting a woman doing this sort of thing)
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