Outdoor Skills Advice From People Famous For Other Reasons

[PaddlingPitt]

When I was an adolescent, I read a lot of Ernest Hemingway. Yesterday I searched for reasons about why he committed suicide, and came across this 1920 article he wrote about camping out. A tight, direct prose similar to his later novels.

Ernest Hemingway's Advice on Camping Out

Editor’s note: Throughout Ernest Hemingway’s life, he maintained a love for the outdoors and for outdoor pursuits. This love was inculcated early, as his father took him into the woods as soon as he was able to walk, and taught Ernest the rudiments of hunting and fishing when the boy was only a...

www.artofmanliness.com

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Finding out that you frequent artofmanliness.com causes me nervous dyspepsia.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Finding out that you frequent artofmanliness.com causes me nervous dyspepsia.

The link just appeared in the article describing Hemingway’s suicide. I had never heard of that site before! But I understand why Ernest might be featured there.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Having travelled in the far north, what are your thoughts on the efficacy of citronella oil?

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Having travelled in the far north, what are your thoughts on the efficacy of citronella oil?

We have tried citronella as an alternative to deet. Deet won in a rout. Citronella was not even in the game.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

I guess our forebears had to use what was available to them. When I watched Werner Herzog's Happy People some years ago, I noticed that the Siberians cooked up birch bark tar . It comes with some more drawbacks than citronella but maybe it works better.