Living Free On A Shoestring

[Kat Kanning]

Getting dressed in a mummy bag sounds a lot harder than taking off a bra with a shirt on.

[Puke]

I think a Gore-Tex bivvy sack would be a lot better than a body bag.  Unfortunately they weren't available for issue while I was in the Army.

I was issued a three piece bag. It had a light part, a thick part, and a Gortex outer. It worked damn well.

[Kat Kanning]

Do the military ones double as body bags?

[Pat K]

What was that movie where the steelworker chick took off her bra from under her sweatshirt?  That was great scene.

Flashdance

[Lloyd Danforth]

Thank you.





Twice

[Pat McCotter]

Thank you.





Twice

And the dance scene from Flashdance ... uhhh ... redone?
[youtube=425,350]_9vEZ9mXHTQ[/youtube]

[Lloyd Danforth]

I think a Gore-Tex bivvy sack would be a lot better than a body bag.  Unfortunately they weren't available for issue while I was in the Army.

I was issued a three piece bag. It had a light part, a thick part, and a Gortex outer. It worked damn well.

Before I escaped from Basic training, we spent on night on what they called: Bivouac. We were issued mummy bags from the Korean War.  Except that I couldn't turn over, I had a comfortable nights sleep for an April night in New Jersey.

[srqrebel]

A friend of mine in FL sent me this "helpful" link to "the George Foreman iGrill" (f'n smart-ass! ):

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/igrill.shtml

I got a kick out of it... figured y'all would too

[Raineyrocks]

A friend of mine in FL sent me this "helpful" link to "the George Foreman iGrill" (f'n smart-ass! ):

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/igrill.shtml

I got a kick out of it... figured y'all would too

That is pretty funny, thanks!

[Bald Eagle]

Good idea about the sloping plastic sheet, I was going to suggest using a regular cotton sheet, would that work - it would eliminate that heinous crinkly cold-plastic sound that I hate.

Efficiency of drying agents
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics #30, 1948

Substance          mg/L water in air
P2O5                 much less than 1 mg in 40,000 L
Mg(ClO4)2 anh    unweighable in 210 L
Mg(ClO4)2*3H2O unweighable in 57 L
BaO                   ..........................
CaSO4*1/2H2O    ..........................
Fused KOH          0.002
H2SO4               0.003
MgO                  0.008
Fused NaOH        0.16
CaBr2                0.2
CaO                  0.2
B2O3                 ..........................
Ba(ClO4)2 anh     ..........................
CaCl2 granular     0.14 to 0.25
CaCl2 fused         0.36
ZnCl2                 0.8
ZnBr2                 1.1
CuSO4 anh          1.4

The last entry is nice because anhydrous copper sulfate is a white powder, whereas the pentahydrate is beautiful blue crystals.  Garden aisle at the hardware store.

[mike82934]

Thanks for sharing this experience with us, srqrebel. I really enjoy reading about this kind of stuff, and wish I was as adventurous as you. I've wanted to live the self-sufficient life since before I was out of high school, but ended up getting distracted by work and the pursuit of material wealth. Congrats to you for having the gumption to go out and actually do it. 
There's been a lot of good suggestions here, so I won't try to offer too many more, but one thing did come to mind when someone suggested buying a camper with heat/cooking facilities/shower, etc. I was talking to a welder on one of the projects that I was working on this past year, and he said that while he was once working in Colorado, he lived in his travel trailer in a campground in the national forest (apparently it wasn't extremely far from where he was working). There was no fee, but you couldn't occupy a spot for more than three days. So he would stay in the spot for three days, then get back from work and move his trailer to another spot. Apparently, the folks in charge of enforcing the three-day rule had no problem with it at all, so he got by rent-free for several months until the project was over. I don't know if that's really helpful to you at all, but I just thought I'd throw it out there for consideration.
Anyway, good luck with everything that you're doing. And keep us updated...if nothing else, at least I can live vicariously through you.       Stay warm!

[Ron Helwig]

I'm still waiting to see a Ridleo of this - that should help show the "it's too cold" crowd that it isn't really a problem.

Isn't there a Ridleographer out there somewhere in that area?

[Russell Kanning]

I could see 10 videos of Menno in his truck ... and still want to build my nice cozy house.

[Bald Eagle]

We should do one of those 1960's How-many-people-can-pile-into-Menno's-truck things.
Maybe with clowns.

With enough people radiating BTU's, it would get fairly hot in an enclosed space like that.

OK, all the polyamorous people can just settle down now.

[Kat Kanning]

Ian's nearby, and Ridley sometimes.