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There used to be a knife called the Skookum Bushtool that was all the rage because of a guy named Mors Kochanski. I owned one for a while and sold it, as one does. I'd like to find another one somewhere. We're (the communal tribe in central vermont) enjoying clear 20d days, and sauna-ing with...

I scratched my head over something like this for a long time several years ago. My necessary was not that it was any easier than pitching a tent on land, but that it would allow me to sleep on the water (public right-of-way) without trespassing on private shoreline for a trip down the lower...

"The real problem with humanity is the following - we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." -E. O. Wilson

@yknpdlr can you tell me what 'lake effect snow' is please? I just pulled into Vermont from Virginia last night - it's colder in VA than VT right now, but I feel like I came into Winter. Plenty of snow on the ground, smoke drifting out of the sauna chimney, turned 4WD on for the first time in...

There's a strong historical precedent for canoe skis. Per Tappan Adney, the Malecite used to drag canoes out on skis before the breakup and hunt muskrats, and I would bet that there are some of his models featuring them online somewhere. I haven't done it, but I would think a tobaggan-type...

I regret to say I don't know yet - it was 65 degrees in Virginia yesterday. They are definitely not cold-weather boots, though. When I lived in Maine I was never without a pair of slip-on traction aids - YakTrax or Kahtoolas. At the risk of too much thread drift, the Kahtoola microspikes are...

I know. I live on a farm, and I've worked construction most of my life. I've never seen anyone on a jobsite with Mucks.

I very much have gone for it. I'm glad you've found a pair of boots that suit you. I've owned several pairs of Mucks, LaCrosse, etc (we call them 'moon boots') and find them utterly miserable to walk in for any distance over maybe a quarter of a mile. If I could find a comfortable pair I'd love...

@Glenn MacGrady Sorry, I assume people are familiar with it because I've spent so much time in them. A 'zero-drop' shoe is a shoe with no elevated heel, so that the foot rests parallel to the ground, much as it would while barefoot. ('Zero-drop' is used interchageably with 'barefoot'.) The...

I kneel almost exclusively paddling, so a stiff boot doesn't work for me, but I would highly recommend a look at Jim Green's AR8s if you want a burly boot. They're about the height of your Setters. JG also sells a 'Trooper' boot that has a pretty classic 1920's canoeist look, I have a pair and...

@Black_Fly I'm not sure if it burns longer than white gas per volume, but I am sure it burns at a lower temperature, which would complicate a 1-to-1 comparison of the two. There are lots of stove geeks on the internet that have probably done experiments with that. Rubbing alcohol does not work...

With all the dazzling and fascinating array of kayak design through history, the enormous capabilities for survival and travel that thousands of years of hard use and design evolution have brought into the world, I'm not sure I'd even call a SOT a kayak. It's more a plastic raft; all the...

Learning a lot from this thread. I must have Southron Foot Syndrome, I wear Steiger muks in a treestand if it's anywhere below freezing. Our winter paddling in Virginia is anything from 50 degrees to 20, so a pair of sealskinz or similar is generally enough to get going. The insulated rubber...

Duckworth Wool has a big sale on. I haven't tried their stuff but I've heard enough about it to bite at 30-40% off. It's not 100% wool, but what wool there is is local (Montana) and responsibly sourced. (Some polyester/PET woven in to most of their stuff.) Asbell Wool, which is the best-looking...

On the daily carry subject, I have a friend who compares EDCing a pistol to Frodo carrying the Ring in Lord of the Rings - the more you carry it, the more it affects how you see the world, and the more you expect hate and malice from the people around you, and the more eager you are to justify...

I have owned a few over the years, and the biggest difference I find between cheap and not-cheap binos is the speed at which eye fatigue makes it painful to look through them any more. I wear glasses, so eye relief is also a factor. Clarity, brightness, and all the jewel-like precision of a good...

I used to do a lot of pistol shooting, mostly just cutting paper but some IDPA, and hunted turkey and deer with a 12 gauge. Gun culture has become so toxic over the past decade or so, I disassembled everything and locked it in the attic. I hunt 100% recurve now, and I'm happier for it. I've...

^Oh, you got The Curse. It happens. I haven't built a campfire in years, but it's a good skill to have in your back pocket.

Think of it this way: you're creating a column of hot air, which rises and creates a vacuum that sucks colder air from around the base of the fire and heats that too, then pulls it up and perpetuates the cycle. That creates a draft that pulls the particulates (smoke) with it. In a woodstove...

I spent my twenties in my 'bushcraft' phase and got fairly proficient at a lot of woodcrafty stuff including fires, be they ignited by ferro or friction or match or road flare. To this day I carry a pocketful of emergency gear for any trip longer than an across-the-pond afternoon that includes...