Surviving Labour Day

stabman

stabman

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Sep 17, 2007
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I finally got the pictures which document the harrowing ordeal. :eek:

First, I had to do battle with this stick:

Toad6_zps10e03522.jpg~original


Using only these two knives (the Tuff worked WAY better due to a more hand-filling handle):

Toad9_zps04ad64c6.jpg~original


But then, we all had to survive a sausage-fest!

Toad1_zpsf14205a7.jpg~original


There were four of us there, but only three had knives (my brother's wife is a newb when it comes to knifey goodness)...between three of us, all we had to survive was this:

Toad2_zps236a7fc2.jpg~original


But the most terrifying part of the day was on the way out...when this giant toad attacked us and hopped across my boot!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Toad3_zps084f2a44.jpg~original


Toad4_zpsa8b5b1aa.jpg~original


I'm surprised we made it out alive. :D
 
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oh thank heavens. Many of those tools can be batonned through timbers, so survival was certain all along ;)
 
Now I can put a face to the name.

And I've heard Canadian sticks can be pretty stubborn.
 
Having four people made the day far easier, as far as effort went, to tell the truth.
We brought the picnic table with us; it folds, and weighs about 30 pounds I'd estimate.
My brothers wife was able to carry much of the food, while my wife lugged that table through the woods, as my brother and I blazed a trail through an astonishing amount of thorns covered in spiders.

It was the first time I've been back out in such a capacity since the back gave out, so I probably was quite the sight with a cane in one hand, Junglas in the other. It worked out pretty well, all things considered. The adventure was made possible by a hefty dosage of pain meds though.

The mosquitos around there seem to have developed a resistance to DEET though; even 98% DEET didn't keep them away.
Thus, getting a fire going ASAP was a high priority, and this time we got it going faster than ever. I put a tea light candle down, which got a small flame to build from even though the ground was damp; my brother had Vaseline soaked cotton balls with him, so I built a small teepee of twigs and he shoved some in the framework that made.
This got a sustained flame going that meant all regular fire prep work was unnecessary, and we just kept putting appropriately sized wood on as we found it and stomped/snapped/cut it to length.

The fire produced mosquito-repelling smoke, and the crawling bugs stayed away once we kicked all the leaf litter out of the area (which is good for fire-management too). The womenfolk were now safe from the insect hordes. :)
 
pjackst said:
oh thank heavens. Many of those tools can be batonned through timbers, so survival was certain all along ;)
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Yeah, I suppose that is true. :)

grownstar said:
Now I can put a face to the name.

And I've heard Canadian sticks can be pretty stubborn.
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Some of the wood can be stubborn, but much of it is easily workable. Maple is always good to work with. :thumbup:
 
Always cool to see what forumites look like. You look way younger than I imagined dude!
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my wife finally got to chop down a tree with her axe. :)
She was very happy, and I was pleased that she instinctively knew how to be safe while doing it.
 
stabman said:
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my wife finally got to chop down a tree with her axe. :)
She was very happy, and I was pleased that she instinctively knew how to be safe while doing it.
Click to expand...

Did she do it in a single, one handed chop? In slow motion, I hope?
 
RedLynx said:
Did she do it in a single, one handed chop? In slow motion, I hope?
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That would have been epic. :D
But sadly, no, it took a goodly number of chops.

At least no one chopped their own leg...I'm not sure if even slow motion could make that a good thing. ;)
 
I got up to the part about the toad and I couldn't read on, I was terrified. :eek: I couldn't read anymore, someone please tell me he made it out alive. I'll wait till someone else posts here so I know. :)
 
stabman said:
That would have been epic. :D
But sadly, no, it took a goodly number of chops.

At least no one chopped their own leg...I'm not sure if even slow motion could make that a good thing. ;)
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I know I'm doing to make an obscure reference here but that reminds me of a "Happy Tree Friends" episode. ;)
 
T. Erdelyi said:
I got up to the part about the toad and I couldn't read on, I was terrified. :eek: I couldn't read anymore, someone please tell me he made it out alive. I'll wait till someone else posts here so I know. :)
Click to expand...

It was pretty terrifying. ;)

RedLynx said:
I know I'm doing to make an obscure reference here but that reminds me of a "Happy Tree Friends" episode. ;)
Click to expand...

This episode, perhaps?
[video=youtube;RO7Q1tMGE7g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO7Q1tMGE7g[/video]
 
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I forgot about Happy Tree Friends. Some of those were pretty brutal to watch. I think Cuddles was my favorite.
 
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