Winter Camps - memories of a kinder time...
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Canvas, wool and such really make sense in your environment (where you need to get up close and personal with fires). That dry cold is very deceptive; I've been once to new england when it was -19C outside. Felt lovely until the wind got up. Went from sunny and not feeling cold to "holy crap, run for shelter" in minutes. The wind chill effect when air is so cold is quite incredible.
For us wet-dwellers, it's hard to beat something like pertex and pile.
I have a sailing smock that I love for woodworking and messing about outside - it is a heavy canvas. Quite amazing how much wind and drizzle it will cut but once soaked it takes ages to dry. The pertex and pile stuff just stays warm.
Your pictures are lovely - that wrap over jacket looks like it needs some old-fashioned toggles and loops for closure.
For us wet-dwellers, it's hard to beat something like pertex and pile.
I have a sailing smock that I love for woodworking and messing about outside - it is a heavy canvas. Quite amazing how much wind and drizzle it will cut but once soaked it takes ages to dry. The pertex and pile stuff just stays warm.
Your pictures are lovely - that wrap over jacket looks like it needs some old-fashioned toggles and loops for closure.
Dry cold is SO relative. A New England -19C would seem absolutely brutal to me, depending, of course, upon where it was in proximity to the wet coast... I once lived in Nova Scotia and while it could get cold, (the colder weather was actually drier) the winters were horrible on me compared to the part of Northern Ontario where I came from. I can definitely see where the "holy crap, run for shelter" reflex comes from!
And regarding modern synthetics - I agree 100%. If there is something better than natural materials, and you can afford it, and if you can live with where and how it originated, then personally I say a hearty "go for it." Many times, sadly, when there in fact IS a modern synthetic option, I simply can't afford it. I can't see the old Voyageaurs (for example) passing up modern synthetic materials for clothing and tools had they been invented by then! My opinion only, of course.
However, I must admit a keen bias towards the natural materials, which I feel, can be made to work in many different conditions. Please just don't ask me what I wear under my wool pants and sweaters and canvas coats... I cannot pronounce the names of the stuff. ;D
Thanks for your excellent comments and I'm glad you like the photos!
Oh, and the coat - great suggestion, thanks. I had thought of leather and antler toggles, but so far I'm going to try it as it seen. I love the versatility of no fixed size, plus I kind of thought the front could act as a kind of 'heat funnel' by opening it up, variably like. Make sense?
ATB
KK
A few more sub zero pics from past jaunts.
Teaching some young adults all about Finnish marshmellows and BB cups... Winter here when surface water is frozen and some lakes freeze to the ground, reminds me of that old stanza, 'Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.' I chuckle sometimes when people discuss water purification in the winter. For us here it's "melt it, melt it really, really hard until it bubbles, and drink it." In this picture, we were standing on untold litres of water, but without a way to chop through 3' of ice, you'd be as dry as... well, you'd get dry quick in the sun and cold and dry winter. EDIT: I don't boil 'snow' water. I know some say you should, and IF I wanted to purify it, I would, but I personally don't bother. YMMV.
A few random winter piccies:
This was a wet winter day (my LEAST favourite sub zero kind of days!) and as you know in wet climates anywhere, it's important to get to dry wood.
A random Mora bushcraft black. A great winter knife (handle) but as I batonned with it to get to the dry wood, I didn't have full confidence that it could handle heavy batonning. Just my opinion, though, and many use these knives hard.
Random piece of Manitoba real estate.
Old burr oak, showing more growth on S side of tree (left side of photo).
And finally, before I shame the forum with slides of my vacation... kidding, of course. (We're allowed that here, right? )... here's my avatar pic closer up.
Thanks for looking. Hope it's interesting for you.
ATB
KK
Teaching some young adults all about Finnish marshmellows and BB cups... Winter here when surface water is frozen and some lakes freeze to the ground, reminds me of that old stanza, 'Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.' I chuckle sometimes when people discuss water purification in the winter. For us here it's "melt it, melt it really, really hard until it bubbles, and drink it."
In this picture, we were standing on untold litres of water, but without a way to chop through 3' of ice, you'd be as dry as... well, you'd get dry quick in the sun and cold and dry winter. EDIT: I don't boil 'snow' water. I know some say you should, and IF I wanted to purify it, I would, but I personally don't bother. YMMV.
A few random winter piccies:
This was a wet winter day (my LEAST favourite sub zero kind of days!) and as you know in wet climates anywhere, it's important to get to dry wood.
A random Mora bushcraft black. A great winter knife (handle) but as I batonned with it to get to the dry wood, I didn't have full confidence that it could handle heavy batonning. Just my opinion, though, and many use these knives hard.
Random piece of Manitoba real estate.
Old burr oak, showing more growth on S side of tree (left side of photo).
And finally, before I shame the forum with slides of my vacation... kidding, of course. (We're allowed that here, right?
)... here's my avatar pic closer up.
Thanks for looking. Hope it's interesting for you.
ATB
KK
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Annnnnnd.... here's some more, if you liked them^. If not, well, don't look, I guess?
Cool pic of a front moving on. On the prairies, you can see so much of the sky. I liked it, thought you might too.
Note the trees: some burr oak, lots of poplar (aka aspen) but not a lot else. In the spring and summer, various undergrowth plants makes this like, IMO, a temporate jungle (if there is such a thing).
Now, take a look at this lone pine. There are places around with more pines, but often this is how you see pine trees in prairie woodlands. It strikes me as being a bit of a task, making a nice lean to and bough bed, with that poor lonely old pine...
A favourite bush knife of mine: Ontario RAT7
This...
Belongs to that:
(It's a young bull moose, btw)
Whitetail deer rubs.
A cold, old cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Once upon a time, there must have been a small community nearby. What a lonely spot to rest. Beautiful, but lonely...
OK, I'll stop now.
ATB
KK
Cool pic of a front moving on. On the prairies, you can see so much of the sky. I liked it, thought you might too.
Note the trees: some burr oak, lots of poplar (aka aspen) but not a lot else. In the spring and summer, various undergrowth plants makes this like, IMO, a temporate jungle (if there is such a thing).
Now, take a look at this lone pine. There are places around with more pines, but often this is how you see pine trees in prairie woodlands. It strikes me as being a bit of a task, making a nice lean to and bough bed, with that poor lonely old pine...
A favourite bush knife of mine: Ontario RAT7
This...
Belongs to that:
(It's a young bull moose, btw)
Whitetail deer rubs.
A cold, old cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Once upon a time, there must have been a small community nearby. What a lonely spot to rest. Beautiful, but lonely...
OK, I'll stop now.
ATB
KK
Yes, it is, lucky for me, mine. I LOVE that knife. I even named that knife.
It was made by Chris Cody of C3 knives. I won it, actually, on another forum I am on.
KK
Thanks mate for showing us what winter can be like. I love the woods in snow too, unfortunately it is all too rare an event here. On Sunday morning I woke in the woods to a strange white substance coating the leaves and grass (only frost, we've had no snow at all). The temperature was -2C, the first sub zero experience for me of the winter here and its mid January!
You're most welcome! I'm glad to share.
I look at your guys' photos of English woodlands and such, and I wish I could see it for myself. I guess maybe that's part of the cool thing about the innerwebz - when we all share, we can each enjoy a bit of something we wouldn't otherwise get to experience...
I do know a LOT of folks here would absolutely LOVE to have a winter with no snow and -2C weather! (Just not me...
)All the best!
KK
You're most welcome! I'm glad to share.
I do know a LOT of folks here would absolutely LOVE to have a winter with no snow and -2C weather! (Just not me...
All the best!
KK
Yeah, we always want what we can't have!!
Good to see you here KK.
Hey! Likewise! I've seen a couple of familiar 'faces' in the crowd now...
You're most welcome. Glad to share. Don't be too envious - I know that you have some wonderful spots where you are.
And yes, man o man, there's a lot of bugs in the spring and summer! When I first moved to Manitoba, I was amazed. And I thought I knew bad mosquitoes, being from Northern Ontario... Nope. There are so many mosquitoes that they actually make the window screens kind of "quiver" as they land and take off and land again... trying to get in! I shut my windows in the evening, and the mozzies trapped between the pane and inner screen emit a little "whine." Yes, there's a LOT of insects - ticks and mosquitoes are my least favourite bugs here. Of course, we're not like the tropics or, say, Texas, or anything like that. But we do have a lot of mozzies!
Awesome picture!thank you kk
I'm really very happy that you guys are enjoying them! (Did I mention I LOVE Canadian winters?) I will try to keep posting sub zero winter pics up here, if you don't mind scenery shots... I might have a few more, but I'll try to keep things as informative as I can. I can almost guarantee that I can bore you to somnolence...
This was a cold day. I tossed up a tarp as a windbreak in the woods. It's actually in a wedge shape, and the fire in front.
It's hard to tell how cold these days are by the lovely sun. The clear sky here is not what you'd expect perhaps. In the summer, this is a beautiful, sunny warm day. In the winter, it's actually a colder day when it's bright and clear like this. The warmer days are the wintery blustery snowy days. I'll look for some snowy day pics.
This day was warmer. Not to sound in any way bothersome, but can you see the difference? Damper, but warmer.
Wascally Wabbits. They've left their calling cards...
But, erm, THIS didn't end well for a rabbit. It looks like cottontail fur, to me..
I'll end with this. It's later in the afternoon, around 4:00 maybe? The sun drops from sight SO fast, it's like it has a big string on it and someone yanked it down. If you're out in this weather, at this time of day, there's something inside of you that wells up; kind of like a panic, almost, like some age-old instinct to be near home and hearth, and you can actually feel it. Or at least I can. (Not sure if those with me feel this way... I must ask them some time...) Any road, we were back at the truck by now, and so it's a false sense of "urgency" that comes, but it does bring that 'Ahhhh... Cosy' feeling. And in that way, you can actually enjoy being out at this time of day. Of course, it could be just me...
Thanks for looking.
ATB,
KK
It's hard to tell how cold these days are by the lovely sun. The clear sky here is not what you'd expect perhaps. In the summer, this is a beautiful, sunny warm day. In the winter, it's actually a colder day when it's bright and clear like this. The warmer days are the wintery blustery snowy days. I'll look for some snowy day pics.
This day was warmer. Not to sound in any way bothersome, but can you see the difference? Damper, but warmer.
Wascally Wabbits. They've left their calling cards...
But, erm, THIS didn't end well for a rabbit. It looks like cottontail fur, to me..
I'll end with this. It's later in the afternoon, around 4:00 maybe? The sun drops from sight SO fast, it's like it has a big string on it and someone yanked it down. If you're out in this weather, at this time of day, there's something inside of you that wells up; kind of like a panic, almost, like some age-old instinct to be near home and hearth, and you can actually feel it. Or at least I can. (Not sure if those with me feel this way... I must ask them some time...) Any road, we were back at the truck by now, and so it's a false sense of "urgency" that comes, but it does bring that 'Ahhhh... Cosy' feeling. And in that way, you can actually enjoy being out at this time of day. Of course, it could be just me...
Thanks for looking.
ATB,
KK
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I might be getting close to the end of the photos on this lappy... I know you've seen pics from this day already, but here's a few more:
BUT FIRST! A random Zamboni drives by my office window, 8:30 am. Only in Canada, eh?
OK, back to the bush...
Same moose, different day. This time through the back window of my pickup.
Close up of homemade rubber bindings. Truck ("lorry" to you guys, eh? ) innertubes. These work great!
Daughter's snowshoes, in case anyone's interested on snowshoes...
Um, yours truly. (Nothing to see here, really. Sorry.)
Fatwood... ish. (You've seen an axe pic earlier from this moment in time.) Of course, not to insult anyone's intelligence, but 'If it's high, it's dry.' Pointing it out to my wife to get a photo. I of course stopped and grabbed some for the fire.
CONT'D...
BUT FIRST! A random Zamboni drives by my office window, 8:30 am. Only in Canada, eh?
OK, back to the bush...
Same moose, different day. This time through the back window of my pickup.
Close up of homemade rubber bindings. Truck ("lorry" to you guys, eh?
) innertubes. These work great!
Daughter's snowshoes, in case anyone's interested on snowshoes...
Um, yours truly. (Nothing to see here, really. Sorry.)
Fatwood... ish. (You've seen an axe pic earlier from this moment in time.) Of course, not to insult anyone's intelligence, but 'If it's high, it's dry.' Pointing it out to my wife to get a photo. I of course stopped and grabbed some for the fire.
CONT'D...
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