No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

[7Wannabe5]

The snow is almost melted at my latitude. I think you will be free to head out pretty soon. Very cool that your canoe has a cabin.

[Western Red Cedar]

I apologize if I missed it upthread, but would you care to elaborate on the trip you are planning? Are you planning on using the canoe?

[sky]

My goal for this year is to do a few short section hikes of the North Country Trail in Michigan. I will start out doing out and back hikes from a trailhead.

[ertyu]

Scenery pictures, please

[sky]

I have been drinking green smoothies for some time, but ran out of bananas. So I tried a "smoothie" with just cold water and broccoli microgreens. Its pretty good, once you get used to the vegetable taste. Its not really a smoothie, the texture is more of a cold drink with a little bit of chewy greens in it. A liquid salad? I like the liquid salad because it is entirely my own production of microgreens.

I have been walking regularly. It is amazing how a good walk immediately eliminates the frustration of cabin fever.

[Western Red Cedar]

I wasn't familiar with the North Country Trail. Looks beautiful. I hope you have a blast!

[sky]

I have not been able to find pictures from my past hikes, but will make sure to take some pictures this year.

[Frugalchicos]

Hi Sky,

I find your journal very interesting. Please, keep it up.

Btw, I am moving back to Chicago in a few months. Perhaps, you would like to hang out sometime? Maybe Jacob wants to join us too

Cheers and all the best to you and your wife

[sky]

Sounds good, I always like to visit the greatest city in the world.

[sky]

This past month was "Grumpy Bear Wakes From Hibernation" month. I started walking regularly. For the first week I walked 2 miles per day, then after that followed a plan of walk 4 miles if you feel good, 2 miles if you feel OK, and 0 miles if you don't feel good. In particular thinking of knee pain and flu symptoms when checking one's status. I also carry a 15 lb backpack while walking.

I made another quilt this month, a 2.5 osy (ounces per square yard) Climashield Apex quilt. It is rated for 50F and is ideal for indoor sleeping. I have been sleeping under my homemade quilts for almost a year now, and my other quilts are always a bit too warm for my 60F bedroom. The 2.5 quilt is made using the pattern described earlier in this thread, except that it has no insulation doubler, and is not tapered at the foot end, it is a rectangular cut out. It does have a footbox, but is a bit wider than my other quilts.

For the past week I have been testing my quilts by sleeping outside in a camper van. It started off as an ordeal, but now I sleep well in the cold. I am confirming the temperatures to which each of the different insulation weight quilts can be used. Some techniques and takeaways: If you want to be comfortable, use a bag/quilt rated for 20F lower than the forecasted low temperature. When you take a quilt to its rated temperature, you will not be freezing cold, but the fabric starts to feel cool and is less comfortable to sleep in. When it gets cold, take the draft stoppers and pull them underneath your body. This eliminates drafts and reduces the airspace around your body, under the insulation. It makes it easier for your body to heat the "bubble" underneath the quilt.

My current favorite quilt combination is to use a 2.5 osy quilt and a 5.0 osy quilt together. With a forecasted low above 50F, I can use the 2.5 osy quilt. Below 50F, I use the 5.0 osy quilt. Below 40F, I stack the 2.5 osy quilt on top of the 5.0 osy quilt, which is super warm. So far I have tested this combo down to 30F and it is very comfortable. The rating of a 7.5 osy quilt is 10F, but I have not confirmed this yet.

I am not really sure why I am so interested in cold weather sleeping. It is a good skill to have, and I suppose I am now qualified to be a homeless person. You definitely need to have a plan and purpose when you get out of bed in the morning: get dressed as soon as possible, before your body heat fades away!

My plants for my culinary herb sale are doing OK. The oregano and lemon balm are still really tiny, I don't think I have given them the environment that they like. I may have watered them too much in the beginning. Or maybe they like more sandy soil, I am growing in a mixture of coco coir and potting soil. I have repotted all my plants, now I just need to keep them alive and growing for another month.

I am trying to come up with a way to improve my use of screen time. I notice that when I search on some term, I get excellent results. But when I let an app feed me content, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is a waste of my time.

When I quit working my biggest fears were alcohol, the LazyBoy chair, and screen time. I have stopped drinking alcohol and walking daily means I don't fear the LazyBoy chair. I do need to work on screen time.

I have been putting together song sheets for various guitar tunes in the hippy campfire genre. I am hoping to have about 10 songs to play in my somewhat unmusical amateurish way.

Getting excited for epoxy mixing weather so I can work on my canoe.

I also do other stuff, like clean up, maintenance and going through my gear, but the above are things that I do out of interest and fascination. I am lucky enough to be able to do pretty much whatever I want (within financial limits), so this is what I choose to do.

[theanimal]

Cool stuff regarding the quilts. I've tried to push my 20F quilt to the limit up here and took it on a multi day winter ski wilderness race once in the Arctic. People in those events like to "push" the rating level of the sleeping bag by wearing all their insulative layers to bed (down jackets, down pants, winter hat). I was able to sleep at -10 F (wearing long underwear tops/bottoms, wool socks, winter hat, light-medium weight gloves, 2 jackets and fleece pants). That's probably the limit. I think you could do 20F lower comfortably. Perhaps it could be more comfortable at a higher range, but I didn't have a tent that time so was awoken occasionally from some light winds. That being said, I don't think I'd use a quilt again at any temperature below 0 F.

[sky]

I have been doing my testing "skin to fabric", in other words, just wearing briefs. My clothes are my emergency equipment that will take my quilt to a much lower temperature if needed.

I agree that a bag is better than a quilt for extreme cold.

[Stasher]

What does your quilt weight for the 50F rating?
Right now I use a Rab Ascent300 650 down mummy bag rated at 44F/6c (comfort limit) for summer and for cold weather I use my Marmot Plasma15 900 down rated at 15F/-9c (comfort limit). I want to move to a quilt for my ultralight summer fast packing as my Ascent300 weighs 850 grams and my Plasma15 weighs 880 grams.

[sky]

723g for the 50F, 2.5 osy quilt

942g for the 30F, 5.0 osy quilt

I took the 30F quilt down to 23F last night, before noping out and stacking the second quilt on top.

[7Wannabe5]

You could write a small book on this form of quilt making. Books on extreme niche craft topics like that won’t sell like hot cakes, but they do tend to sell steady and long and without much competition. $30 a month over the next 30 years is like 10 grand in index fund. Just be sure to give it a classic design style appropriate to the genre. Something like earliest editions of Popular Mechanics.

[Stasher]

723g for the 50F, 2.5 osy quilt
942g for the 30F, 5.0 osy quilt
I took the 30F quilt down to 23F last night, before noping out and stacking the second quilt on top.

Have you messed with down at all to drop these weights? Is there a trademark brand you are using for your synthetic fill? I also imagine the type of body material makes a difference to the weight. Thanks to taking the time to share the weights.

I have been looking at the Thermarest but also like the quilts from Enlightened Equipment 30F @ 538grams ( https://enlightenedequipment.com/revelation-stock/ ) and Hammock Gear 30F @ 566grams ( https://hammockgear.com/economy-burrow-custom/ ) For the big brand names that peaked my interest are from Rab, they dont give rating but I suspect it is a 40F bag https://rab.equipment/ca/neutrino-quilt-200-5682 with the other being the Thermarest 30F https://www.thermarest.com/ca/sleeping- ... er-32.html

Everything is crazy expensive except that budget Hammock Gear at $160 US while the others are $300-400 yikes ! If you can come up with very affordable down quilt I would prefer to support you than a big company.

My coldest sleep last season was about 20F, I used my 40F Rab and just needed to wear my down coat to bed as well. Using a bivy helps keep some extra warmth in and also have a warm sleeping pad honestly is more important that the bag/quilt. Sleep might have been a bit better if I brought my 15F bag.

[sky]

I use Climashield Apex: https://ripstopbytheroll.com/collection ... insulation It is easy to work with.

Down has a lot of advantages, but I can't afford a quality down bag (I am too cheap to pay $400). So I make my own for under $100. I don't sell them, I just make them for fun and to learn to sew. The two quilts I listed could probably be made about 10% lighter by making the footbox narrower. I designed them with comfort in mind, and was not trying to go ultralight.

I would like a 0F down bag for winter camping, but I will just use my quilts for now.

[sky]

Something like earliest editions of Popular Mechanics.

Thats pretty much where my style originates from.

[guitarplayer]

Hi! I wonder if this is still available somewhere? http://www.cruisenews.net/independence/

It just redirects me to http://www.cruisenews.net and I cannot find the bit about independence.

[sky]

I no longer own the cruisenews.net domain, but the Planning Financial Independence pages are here: https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/republic. ... /index.gmi