What's Your "Medicine?"

This is a great thread......I have really enjoyed reading the responses, and peoples stories. I have a few items that come to mind.

I too love a good, dark cup of Java. Black is fine by me. I too like a pipe smoke or a good cigar. Though I have never had a cuban.:(

I enjoy sitting by my fire, enjoying the warmth and aroma, and sipping my coffe while enjoying a smoke. Its one of the times when all is right in the world. Amazing how the simplest acts of a campfire, A smoke, and a hot cup of joe can do that when for the majority of society, they need extravagent things to entertain them. The feeling of simplicity is what fuels my outdoor passion.

John- Sketching is a great way to pass the time. My wife bought me one of those Hemmingway pads, and I doodle, or write in it from time to time. Nobody reads or looks at it but me, and this is the first time I have mentioned it. I figure long after im gone, my written word will remain, and somebody might find some joy in my musings, as lame or inapropriate as they may be.........
 
I have three but now that you bring it up, I can't find one of 'em.

I have a set of Poker dice (somewhere) that I've had for years. They're eight-sided dice with card faces on each side. You play 'em like a hand of five card draw.

The other game is a small top like a dradle that has six sides that read P1, P2, T1, TA, AP, and T2. (pay 1, pay 2, take 1, take all, all pay and take 2) Its a simple game for two or more players usually played with quarters or dollars. Just something to break up the time when you're not alone.

My one medicine is my roasry. I've had the same one for 25 years. I've had to have it repaired once. Its something small and I usually forget its there but it goes into the woods and water with me and goes along on all road trips and flights.

Chris
 
siguy said:
....but i suppose a simple gouge is my medicine...
Exactly, Simon, and that is a "common" one. I am sure you have seen the same articles I have, wherein someone has stashed a crooked knife blade, sans the bulk of a handle, with the intention of fashioning a handle in the wild. You COULD make a spoon with your knife, but your gouge is is extra weight and bulk you could do without but choose not to.

Stomper said:
.....Now go ahead and make fun of me,...
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Mr. Kephart took some ribbing for his cup (see "gibe" in the quote) so, you can rank yourself with "one of the best" for packing your sketch pad inspite of the chuckles. No one's laughing, by the way. It's an honorable endeavor but you really COULD leave the pencils and sketch with the burned off tip of a stick.

KILLAFORNIA said:
.....unless I missed the point,....
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No one seems to have missed the point. If Horace Kephart were alive today, he might tell us we all missed it, but it seems pretty clear. In any case, whether we "get it" or not, if this is our misunderstanding, it has still provoked thought and has motivated us to share a "weakness" among friends.

There seems to be an overwhelming "hot beverage" vein in preferences, in addition to a strong predilection for "smoke." It is very interesting to see the preferences and what little thing pleases different people. As I read these, I realize that I have more than my pipe as my "medicine," as I have tea, coffee and cocao in there for my wife's or friends' preferences (I carry a bit of a "load" wherever I go). Having the means to provide this bit of comfort to others in a "situation," or just as a treat along the trail seems to reinforce the idea that, whether things went as planned or not, there is some amount of comfort and pleasure to be salvaged from the "unplanned." Settling in with a cup of hot "something," and even just the preparation thereof, seems to let you stop and "regroup" or even just appreciate what you ended up with. It sure puts a smile on faces when you start a fire, boil some water and pull some simple ammenity from you kit when the weather has foiled your plans.
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I think I might take flak for this but...

I think for most of us, it's our knives!

I mean honestly you can camp pretty easily for a pretty long time without ever actually needing one - most of the time they're just fun to have.

And if you do need one, 99% of those times you could get away with a small SAK.

And yet a lot of us here haul big knives into the woods, just to cut stuff, split stuff, carve stuff, and in general to play around. And if we don't, we would feel ill at ease!

And you know, some of my friends who camp as much as I do (or in a couple of cases more) take nothing but an opinel, and make fun of me and my Aurora. And I suspect that most people here have take a ribbing about their knives and their obsession with taking knives everywhere!


So laugh if you like, but I think the reason we're all here is that we have the same "medicine." KNIVES!
 
I'm not a go light kind of guy so there are several items that can be tossed but usually end up being packed. Hmm - I like to bring a candle lantern, even if it isn't really as efficient or useful as the LED maglight that I also bring. I just like to have a candle lantern around. So that is one pill.

I like to always bring some kind of luxury consumable item whether it is food or a cigar as mentor indicated or a nice beverage (e.g. scotch). Sometimes it is that yummy trail mix - you know the ones with m&m's in it. Maybe it is a good cuban cigar (I'm now rather fond of some of the Guatemalan products out there). Sometimes, I'll go a little crazy and actually dump a nice bottle of wine in a wine skin. Why? I don't know. Its kind of cool to actually drink wine out of a wine skin, even if it means having to take time to clean the wine skin up afterwards..

So I take two of these (see above) to get me through to the morning...
 
Jeff H said:
Settling in with a cup of hot "something," and even just the preparation thereof, seems to let you stop and "regroup" or even just appreciate what you ended up with. It sure puts a smile on faces when you start a fire, boil some water and pull some simple ammenity from you kit when the weather has foiled your plans.
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Exactly. Regroup, reassess, and appreciate.

j williams said:
This is a great thread......I have really enjoyed reading the responses, and peoples stories. I have a few items that come to mind.

I too love a good, dark cup of Java. Black is fine by me. I too like a pipe smoke or a good cigar. Though I have never had a cuban.:(
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Well, drop me a PM if you're ever planning a camping trip in Canada, and I'll see about setting you up with a few cubans. They certainly know how to roll a great cigar.
 
I can think of a couple of luxury/comfort items that I tend to bring when camping conventionally or especially when motorcycle camping:

A pint of Johnny Walker
French coffee press
Moleskine notebook and fountain pen for trip journaling
 
Organizing my gear. Seems odd but if I have a bad day, or week, I just sit down on the floor and reorganize my two packs. Always seems to calm me down and make things seem right in the universe.
 
Mentor said:
Well, drop me a PM if you're ever planning a camping trip in Canada, and I'll see about setting you up with a few cubans. They certainly know how to roll a great cigar.
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That sounds like a wonderfull time. Id love to share a campfire with you.:thumbup:

Not to mention, tryin out a Cuban.:)
 
I'm thinking if my mother were to read this thread, she'd have a starched white table cloth as her medicine. I can't think how many times as a kid, we go car camping and my mother would always put on this crisp, without a crease, table cloth on the picknick table. That was always rather surreal. Of course, I don't even own one of these things for the dining room set.
 
Beer, whiskey, cigars, coffee, pipe and pipe tobacco, griilled cheese sammis, oatmeal, lots of stuff...

medicine!!! :

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:)
 
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misanthropist said:
....I think for most of us, it's our knives
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As far as daily carry, yes, I do that. I carry one of my Ritter Grips' and my Woodswalker or MMK PSK Bushcraft (which as away from home visiting another forum-member right now). Any one of the three would be plenty, in fact, I could get along, in most cases, with a tiny SAK like my more sensible wife carries. Admittedly, I like having one of my "other" knives along just because it pleases me to have it. On days when the side of my head is attached to the phone, the cubicle walls start closing in (as if they could actually get any closer) and I don't even get a chance to walk by a window, it's a tangible reminder that there's mud, grass, leaves and the breeze to mingle with when I am done. I feel a bit weak and dependent on such a silly comfort item at times but it's as much a reminder to me in the office that I have real roots "outside," as our little "ammenities," when outside, remind us that we have roots inside, where it is warm and dry.
 
i do not fall into the coffee group as i have never enjoyed the taste. i thought about forcing myself to drink it so that i would develope a taste for it, but then realized it was a dumb idea to force myself to like somthing that i am probably healthier without anyway.

anyway, i often bring a mouthharp. it is a cool little instrument, it is in alot of the scandanavian folk musik i listen to. it dosent require any real skill , such as many of the other instruments that i play, so it is good and relaxing and dosent require too much thinking. it weighs maybe 3 ounces, so i just through it in my possibles bag and whip it out whenever i want to hear somthing besides the outdoors. if i went outdoors with anyone beside myself, i would also probably bring some dice along for a game of craps of somthing.
 
It used to be a pipe or cigars, but since I can't smoke anymore. . .

I journal and do enjoy a good cup of tea. If I'm going out just to go out, I'll drag along a cast iron skillet, some eggs and bacon.
 
Great thread. Going out there its more then knifes. Its absorbing the nature around us.. For its a hot cup of tea and i would sometimes carry fresh mint in a bag and put a few leaves in the tea. The next best thing is a hot cup of chocolate. You can feel the warmth going down and makes you feel good. Makes so much better when i close my eyes and listen to the mountains and the wind.
Siguy would you mind posting some of the tools you use to make the spoons???

Sasha
 
I am I the only one with a mushroom job, in the winter going to work at 6:30am til 5 pm, I don't much sunlight. What is my cure, what heals me,

A nice day, as long as it isn't too damp and bone chilling, I am good, well better, a fire to feed, pyro- meditation, you know you love it too. I don't drink coffee or booze, but some to quench my thirst. I like to doodle, so some paper and pen/pencil. The knife in my pocket, I may just cut a bunch of notches and grooves in a stick, maybe it is a medicine stick collecting all the blues and woes I may have, then you toss it in the fire and it helps to solve those problems. The greatness of it all, open your eyes and see what is around you, there is magnificantes everywhere. My kids, taking them out and just watch and listen, as they discover, collect, and comment on stuff, I usallt end up with a pocket full of rocks and 2 or 3 really short walking sticks.

So the old saying kind fits, A little time whether to yourself or with others will start making you feel better.

enjoy yourself, Pat
 
My bible. I have a small NASB bible. I carry it along with my journal (spiritual journal). Nothing better than reading about God while immersed in his creation. I find that it clears my head to really learn about God.

Beyond that I also like to carry a rite in the rain notebook and take notes and such about the trip.

I don't worry about the extra weight or bulk. I'm not going far, have two small girls and knees that remind me of too many years way overweight.

Charlie
 
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