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Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Friend request from guy.wood@gmail.com
Sunday, July 20, 2008
July Update
I know it has been awhile since my last post; however, things have been pretty busy.
As it will be awhile until my horse traveling begins, I have been researching and training. I am researching camping gear and primitive camping. While I will probably take a second horse or mule, I want to minimize the weight. To this end I am gathering lightweight camping gear and working with it to see if it will work for six months of hard use.
Several of the lightweight camping items I have seen will work for a couple of months of hard use, which will generally work for most campers, as they do not camp but occasionally. I am camping every night for six, plus, months. There is a bit of difference.
I just wanted to let folks know that I have not abandoned this blog, I just do not have anything useful to post at time. I have not started camping with horses yet, in preparation for this trip. I have camped with them in the past, and quite a bit when I was a younger lad, but just not recently. That will change after I thin down my equipment some.
Still pursuing freedom and happiness.
-GW
As it will be awhile until my horse traveling begins, I have been researching and training. I am researching camping gear and primitive camping. While I will probably take a second horse or mule, I want to minimize the weight. To this end I am gathering lightweight camping gear and working with it to see if it will work for six months of hard use.
Several of the lightweight camping items I have seen will work for a couple of months of hard use, which will generally work for most campers, as they do not camp but occasionally. I am camping every night for six, plus, months. There is a bit of difference.
I just wanted to let folks know that I have not abandoned this blog, I just do not have anything useful to post at time. I have not started camping with horses yet, in preparation for this trip. I have camped with them in the past, and quite a bit when I was a younger lad, but just not recently. That will change after I thin down my equipment some.
Still pursuing freedom and happiness.
-GW
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Fence up, horse moved
Shalako is home!!
I finished the fence, repaired another couple of fences, washed out and filled the water trough, and hung the gate. My stallion is finally where he should be. We will be able to put in more time now, since I do not have to drive 25 miles out of my way to go ride him. The gas savings alone paid for the fencing that I was not able to get for free. That is, I received the posts for free. I paid someone $100 to come auger the holes. I set and packed the posts myself, then purchased and mounted the insulators and electric polywire.
My other problem is that I still have to do something about my daughter's mare. I don't have enough posts to do another pasture for the mare, and don't have the money to buy more at the moment. I need to find a way to get more work. I am working on getting more business though.
Its all part of finding that elusive happiness...we have a right to pursue it afterall, but no right to catch it. Keep the faith.
-GW
I finished the fence, repaired another couple of fences, washed out and filled the water trough, and hung the gate. My stallion is finally where he should be. We will be able to put in more time now, since I do not have to drive 25 miles out of my way to go ride him. The gas savings alone paid for the fencing that I was not able to get for free. That is, I received the posts for free. I paid someone $100 to come auger the holes. I set and packed the posts myself, then purchased and mounted the insulators and electric polywire.
My other problem is that I still have to do something about my daughter's mare. I don't have enough posts to do another pasture for the mare, and don't have the money to buy more at the moment. I need to find a way to get more work. I am working on getting more business though.
Its all part of finding that elusive happiness...we have a right to pursue it afterall, but no right to catch it. Keep the faith.
-GW
Monday, May 5, 2008
Where should you live?
You Should Live in the Country |
 You are laid back, calm, and good at entertaining yourself. You don't need an expensive big city to keep you busy. You'll take the peaceful life over the stressful life any day of the week. |
Friday, April 25, 2008
Preparedness
While planning my trip, I slowly became aware that I was planning for a trip that at the earliest, would be one year away. I will be on the road for six months and am planning on spending a considerable sum of money on preparations for that ride. Again, this will only last six months. As I perused different sites and looked for food that I could prep the dry ingredients of, adding water as necessary to consume it, yet not have to carry the weight; I realized I was not planning for the direction our economy is taking.
I have always been conscience of our government and the subsequent economy de jour of our supposed leaders. Focusing on the trip, which looks like it will now be two years before I can go, due to some upcoming projects that will be in full swing in a year, has allowed me an escape I guess. I used to maintain stores in the house in the event that electricity went out in a winter storm (I have dealt with that twice in the last four years, with up to 5 days at a time without electricity/heat/cooking ability). These stores included canned goods, dry goods, propane stove, sleeping bag, etc. I still have the sleeping bag, stove (sans fuel), and some foodstuff; however, the stove does no good without fuel, and while I have more than a week's worth of food, I do not enough for extended family for that. I must take care of my mother and the grandparents. Actually, my grandparents, having grown up in the depression, have enough food for the extended family for several weeks, if not several months.
I am not sure where I was going with this post. We will just call it brainstorming, and kicking myself in the ass, for letting my planning lapse...especially while being the sole provider for my child.
In the last week I have put in wooden posts for my pasture for Shalako. I have not put in this many posts in probably 25 years, and I am a bit sore. Today I mounted all of the insulators on the poles for the electric tape and rope I will put around the pasture, and installed the mounts for hanging the gate. I need to purchase another bag of insulators tomorrow, hang the gate, move the water trough, finish an additional 60 feet of connecting fence, clean up some of the fence row where trees have fallen across the old fencing, hang the electric fencing wire, mount my solar fence charger, and finally move Shalako. It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to do all of that...I wish.
After Shalako gets moved, it will be time for the garden. I need to do some weed-eating around the house and put in some garden beds (instead of flower beds) around the house. It will be nice to walk onto the front porch and pick tomatoes without stepping to the ground. Simple life can be simply good...although it takes some work.
My meandering is over for the evening I believe.
Find some happiness.
-GW
I have always been conscience of our government and the subsequent economy de jour of our supposed leaders. Focusing on the trip, which looks like it will now be two years before I can go, due to some upcoming projects that will be in full swing in a year, has allowed me an escape I guess. I used to maintain stores in the house in the event that electricity went out in a winter storm (I have dealt with that twice in the last four years, with up to 5 days at a time without electricity/heat/cooking ability). These stores included canned goods, dry goods, propane stove, sleeping bag, etc. I still have the sleeping bag, stove (sans fuel), and some foodstuff; however, the stove does no good without fuel, and while I have more than a week's worth of food, I do not enough for extended family for that. I must take care of my mother and the grandparents. Actually, my grandparents, having grown up in the depression, have enough food for the extended family for several weeks, if not several months.
I am not sure where I was going with this post. We will just call it brainstorming, and kicking myself in the ass, for letting my planning lapse...especially while being the sole provider for my child.
In the last week I have put in wooden posts for my pasture for Shalako. I have not put in this many posts in probably 25 years, and I am a bit sore. Today I mounted all of the insulators on the poles for the electric tape and rope I will put around the pasture, and installed the mounts for hanging the gate. I need to purchase another bag of insulators tomorrow, hang the gate, move the water trough, finish an additional 60 feet of connecting fence, clean up some of the fence row where trees have fallen across the old fencing, hang the electric fencing wire, mount my solar fence charger, and finally move Shalako. It shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to do all of that...I wish.
After Shalako gets moved, it will be time for the garden. I need to do some weed-eating around the house and put in some garden beds (instead of flower beds) around the house. It will be nice to walk onto the front porch and pick tomatoes without stepping to the ground. Simple life can be simply good...although it takes some work.
My meandering is over for the evening I believe.
Find some happiness.
-GW
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Looking for a campfire grill
I do not know what it is, but finding quality seems to be so hard to do nowadays. I wanted to find a simple grill that went over a campfire. I have been thinking about it and never seem to be near a place when it comes to mind, until today.
The first stop on my journey was Wally World. I really dislike that place. It used to be that their advertisement chided all of the Made in the USA things that they had. Now, you cannot find anything that is. They are the reason that Levis are no longer made here. The only thing they had was a nickel plated cheap thing, made in China of course. This being the case I decided that I would check out a place that I remembered about 15 miles away.
15 miles down the road...nope, wrong memory. It is another 20 miles to the outdoors store. That store caters to hunters and fishermen and while they have camping things, it is the convenient camping. They had Coleman stoves, but nothing for “roughing it”. One of the managers told me of a place about 30 minutes further out.
1 hour and 15 minutes later (yep, longer than 30 minutes) I am in Columbus at an honest to goodness camping store (it said so right on the sign). Inside was day packs (no real backpacks), river sandals, one style of tent, and LOTS of Columbia Sportswear type clothing. You couldn’t really go camping, but you could look like you do. The nice kid at the checkout counter said to check out Ranger Joe’s outside of Fort Benning, and another 11 miles.
Going to Ranger Joe’s, I past Commando’s….there seems to be a pattern here...a military conspiracy perhaps. I went into Commando’s and they have lots of Army stuff, and some of it is way cooler than what I had access to during my tenure as a soldier, but alas, no camping gear. Continue to Ranger Joe’s.
Ranger Joe’s had less than Commando’s. I remember Ranger Joe’s from my training time at Ft. Benning. I remember them having lots more stuff then. I did get a cool single person stove that fit into the pocket on my large rucksack, and they don't even carry something like that anymore.
236 miles later, I am back at home. All I managed to get was 5 sweet potatoes and about 2 pounds of Irish potatoes, from a truck farmer on the side of the road. The food costs $6.00 and the fuel used was almost 3/4 of a tank (about $60). Man, I hope those taters are really good.
I did get out of the house for a while though.
When I returned to the house I did a little fence work, taking down some totally useless fence that the previous occupants had put up, and staked out where I want the new fence to go. A friend of mine is supposed to bring his skid steer to the house with a post driver to set the posts I have onsite. I am moving my stallion to my new location so we can spend more time training. He is currently about 16 miles away (one way) and it is not in my line of travel, so it is considerably out of the way. This will let me feel better about his welfare and then I can ride him everyday.
I still don’t know what I am going to do about a grill for my campfire. I guess I will find one online. What are the chances it is made in America?
Still being happy pursuing freedom.
-GW
The first stop on my journey was Wally World. I really dislike that place. It used to be that their advertisement chided all of the Made in the USA things that they had. Now, you cannot find anything that is. They are the reason that Levis are no longer made here. The only thing they had was a nickel plated cheap thing, made in China of course. This being the case I decided that I would check out a place that I remembered about 15 miles away.
15 miles down the road...nope, wrong memory. It is another 20 miles to the outdoors store. That store caters to hunters and fishermen and while they have camping things, it is the convenient camping. They had Coleman stoves, but nothing for “roughing it”. One of the managers told me of a place about 30 minutes further out.
1 hour and 15 minutes later (yep, longer than 30 minutes) I am in Columbus at an honest to goodness camping store (it said so right on the sign). Inside was day packs (no real backpacks), river sandals, one style of tent, and LOTS of Columbia Sportswear type clothing. You couldn’t really go camping, but you could look like you do. The nice kid at the checkout counter said to check out Ranger Joe’s outside of Fort Benning, and another 11 miles.
Going to Ranger Joe’s, I past Commando’s….there seems to be a pattern here...a military conspiracy perhaps. I went into Commando’s and they have lots of Army stuff, and some of it is way cooler than what I had access to during my tenure as a soldier, but alas, no camping gear. Continue to Ranger Joe’s.
Ranger Joe’s had less than Commando’s. I remember Ranger Joe’s from my training time at Ft. Benning. I remember them having lots more stuff then. I did get a cool single person stove that fit into the pocket on my large rucksack, and they don't even carry something like that anymore.
236 miles later, I am back at home. All I managed to get was 5 sweet potatoes and about 2 pounds of Irish potatoes, from a truck farmer on the side of the road. The food costs $6.00 and the fuel used was almost 3/4 of a tank (about $60). Man, I hope those taters are really good.
I did get out of the house for a while though.
When I returned to the house I did a little fence work, taking down some totally useless fence that the previous occupants had put up, and staked out where I want the new fence to go. A friend of mine is supposed to bring his skid steer to the house with a post driver to set the posts I have onsite. I am moving my stallion to my new location so we can spend more time training. He is currently about 16 miles away (one way) and it is not in my line of travel, so it is considerably out of the way. This will let me feel better about his welfare and then I can ride him everyday.
I still don’t know what I am going to do about a grill for my campfire. I guess I will find one online. What are the chances it is made in America?
Still being happy pursuing freedom.
-GW
Monday, April 14, 2008
Testing with Picture
This posting was mainly to check how a picture attachment to the email posting will look on my blog. I have been looking at this type of saddle for a couple of months now.
-GW
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