Books worth reading.

[Le-Loup]

http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/

[geoskid]

Thanks Le-Loup,
There is a lot there which I will work through, but keep it coming - fascinating!
Would love to see a philosophical post from you about your take on life in general. When you are ready.

[Le-Loup]

Thanks Le-Loup,
There is a lot there which I will work through, but keep it coming - fascinating!
Would love to see a philosophical post from you about your take on life in general. When you are ready.

Hi geoskid. What was it a certain robot said in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Gallaxy, "Life, don't talk to me about life". I guess life really is about knowing where your towel is. We spend so much time doing things we don't really want to do, sometimes this is necassary, there is no alternative, but we need to keep track of it and know when it is time to stop.
My Father worked almost every day of his life until he could not work any longer, and then he died. The only way I could get any affection from him was through work. Very occasionally he would take me to the woods further from home for a picnic, then it was back home and back to work the same day. I have worked hard to get what I wanted, but I had a goal in mind. I have worked 13-16 hours a day 7 days a week for a $1.42 an hour building a railroad. Many people died on that job, one of my closest friends among them. We were saving to move to Canada. Sometimes things don't work out, so you just have to bend in the wind and set yourself a new goal.
When you are drawing your last breath, it is unlikely that you will say "Damn, I wish I had got up earlier each morning and got more work done rather than lying in bed with my wife". Some things are just more important than others, and one needs to think on these things. Now I own a forest and I live in it, we are virtually self-sufficient, or would be if we did not have to still pay rates! Even so I am retired and basically stay at home and do whatever I feel like doing. I am considered a bit of a hermit, and accentric, and I guess I am. I cop some flack about wearing 18th century clothes and using 18th century tools and gear, but it is a lot of fun. I think many people have forgotten how to play, they had great fun as a kid playing, but somewhere along the line they got the idea into their heads that once you are an adult it is time to stop playing.
I was in full time work at 14 years of age, too young to stop playing, but that is the way it was back then. But one can turn things about, it is never too late. I grew up in the fields and woods in England, and all I ever really wanted to be was a woodsman. I built shelters, I tracked and hunted and made my own primitive traps, I put meat on the table and I kept wood up to the fires in summer and winter until I started payed work at 14. I always knew that I was born too late, well it is really not too late. Now I am retired I am able to enjoy all the good parts of 18th century colonial living, and avoid all the bad parts! Now finally I am a woodsman, again, that is what I am, that is what I do. The woods, my wife, my family and friends are what is important to me, and I keep track of that fact. It can be hard to stay on track when members of your family die, and close friends die too. I have lost many close friends, and each time it knocks me back a few steps, and I am still trying to catch up, but life goes on, and I am thankful for what I still have.
Regards.

[Le-Loup]

Horace Kephart. Camping & Woodcraft.


http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2010/07/books-worth-reading-3.html

[flyfisher]

Great stuff l-l , tell us more.

[Le-Loup]

Great stuff l-l , tell us more.

Aha, my life story would take too long, too many places, a lot of experiences. I was in cyclone Tracey in 74, that I think changed my life and my way of looking at things considerably, it was a close call. They say that if it does not kill you then it makes you stronger. Well I have been there and done that a few times, and I think that is what the saying means. It changes the way you look at life, and you are better prepared next time.
I have lived for over 20 years without power, starting in the Territory after cyclone Tracey, and continueing here in New England NSW. Now though we live in a solar powered house that is totally self reliant, having compost toilets, tank water supply, grey water trenches under the gardens. Elm Cottage which I built when we first came here is still here and fuctional, but I pulled it down, transported it piece by piece on a small box trailer and rebuilt it here. It had no tap water, no inside toilet or shower, and we had three boys so there was no room to add shower and toilet. At least there was no queing for the shower in winter outside, though I did fit a wood heater in the shower which I made out of an old water tank.
Cooking was done on wood stoves and an 18th century design open fire with chains and hooks for kettles. Now we use Elm Cottage as our club house.

Linstock.

Elm Cottage.

Open fire place in Elm Cottage.

[ollster]

I guess life really is about knowing where your towel is.

Bushwalking is about knowing where your trowel is...

[north-north-west]

Bushwalking is about knowing where your trowel is...