A flu has been going through the house and I'm in the onset. It's also New Year's and I sick of sifting through piles of gear to find what I need. Time to have a go at sitting the gear corner. Of course there are some items surplus to my requirements.
These are fleece singlets. There's something traditional about the Kiwi guy and the black singlet, but I cannot see myself ever wearing these. Both of these I got as part of outdoors fleece clothing packs that include trousers, singlet, t-shirt, long-sleeved shirt and hat. The idea behind these packs is to get a basic set of clothing for a reasonable price. I like the shirts, and use the trousers, but I already have woollen base layers - yes even at SteemFest4 in Bangkok I wore a woollen shirt :) I do want to replace the fleece clothing as I can afford. Thus, I have no use for these fleece singlets. Off to charity with them.
Just how many knives does one guy need? I have replaced my Swiss Army pocket knife with the Huntsman model so will probably gift this Camper version to a nephew.
I recently acquired a Morakniv Garberg so I don't need the Companion. I was considering putting this Mora into a vehicle kit, but carbon steel is not maintenance free and I want to keep my Stainless steel Mora Companion for sentimental reasons. Maybe I'll gift this knife to one of my neighbours.
And, while sorting I was also thinking. I have my eye on a couple of pieces of buy-once-cry-once guy which I'll tie to weightloss goals as rewards. These are seriously big ticket items that I have to import.
The first is Al's Anorak from Weatherwool. I love wool and it seems Weatherwool has that myopic attention to detail necessary to produce top of the line quality. I still love my Ice-breaker base layers, but their outter wear seems to have gone a little more into the outdoor fashion brand route. Still great gear though. We have a local brand called Swandri that also makes great woollen gear, and I should probably get one but it's hard to find technical information about their gear whereas Weatherwool makes everything easy. I'm looking at maybe $700USD or more but everybody online whose opinion I trust raves about them.
The second big ticket item that I am considering is the Fjellduken Jerven bag - probably the Exclusive with the 60gsm insulation. These are insulated wind sack bags that can also be used as tarps, ponchos, hammock pods, hammock under-quilt and as a bivvy sack for short trips. These are also used by the Norwegian Amry. The Exclusive model also has better protected zips - which helps since rain and wind are bigger killers than outright cold.
I still get claustrophobic in sleeping bags and small tents, so I'm hoping a huge Windsack I can roll about in while I sleep will help. Before splashing the money, I'm going to try simulating the spatial experience by folding and lacing up a poly-tarp and sleeping in that between two woobies/poncho liners or something. I'm undecided!
Okay, so back to coding. Until next time.