People Suck

Found ~ 20 feet from the river on a section of beach normally underwater. I found more trash under the center rocks, there was another firelay left a mess eight feet from this one with trees dragged in for seats and left, as well as children’s digging tools left behind as well as the ankle-deep holes they dug. The rocks for this pit were hauled about 25-30 feet from the rocky shore to this sandy area.

Classy.

Fun Fact

Felling a 24″ birch with a backpacking axe will take some effort. And give you a puffy new blister.

Birdy Got Taste

Awesome.

Dear UPS Man,

Bring a machete. My lawnmower has suffered multiple system failure and is scheduled for intensive surgery. Never-mind the jaguar, he just ate the lady from the electric co-op and shouldn’t be on the hunt for another couple of days.

I guess I will have to do a hack-job of the front yard with the weedwhacker for now.

Spiffy

Lit a candle in my UCO candle lantern at 2130 to test it out. It is still burning.

The Cutting Edge Of A Disposable Society

Everywhere I go, I see scruffy young men with kife clips hanging out of their pockets. Every blogger I read demands the ability to open a knife with one hand. Many seem to shout into traffic that one handed opening is an abosulute necessity or satan will be able to lasso your dog and drag it into a lake, or something. And everyone seems to want a piece of the assited opening pie.

Bah. The SAK will cut just as well as a Benchmade and still open a can without dulling. If you really need a knife with one hand, right the motherfuck now, on a regular basis, you are in a place in life where you should be carrying a fixed blade. Pocket clips are handy, but the knife gets lost just as often as without. Assisted opening mechanisms gum up without tender love and care…

Oh, that’s right, knives are disposable items, these days. It was all I could do not to backhand the co-worker who snapped his Benchmade in half to get a free new one when his went dull. Everyone wants stainless steel and refuses to sharpen the cursed stuff. As easy as an edge is to maintain on a carbon steel blade, the thought of wiping it with an oily rag once a week gives these people a case of the vapors.

You guys can keep your dull, next to impossible to sharpen, finnicky, unfamiliar since they just replaced a different one, patina-free knives clipped to your pockets. I will remain unimpressed at their inevitably dull and chipped blades as you wave them about one handed.

Maybe I am an old-fashioned relic. I don’t sell tools, feel terrible when my stupidity damages them, will spend hours re-shaping a chipped blade, and don’t balk at the thought that my knife may require the same care as my sidearm. My Opinel will cut an apple as well as your Spyderco and I can keep it sharper on my own.

I won’t even hit on the big choppers made to lug into the apocalyptic backcountry to baton firewood. Bring a fucking axe, dummy.

What about prying? Why the hell are you prying with your knife? Vulcan weeps.

TL;DR: You can pry my SAK from my cold, dead hands.

Dagnabbit

I have to go back to work today after a weekend spent camping with the wife and kids.