The Great Indoors

About a month ago I started sleeping on the floor. My wife didn’t kick me out of the bed, and our bed is actually pretty comfortable. I just wanted to see if I could sleep on a hard surface. Turns out I can’t, at least directly, so I got a sleeping pad. Also I wanted to change my eating habits, and work on other things to get more self sufficient. Since I can’t always get outdoors, I decided to see what I could do in The Great Indoors.

Sleeping on the floor

I’ll admit, the first night was because I was mad at my wife. When I woke up the next morning my butt and shoulders were sore, but my back felt better than normal. Hmmm…

The second night my wife asked me if I was planning to sleep on the floor again. I told her yes, and explained about my back feeling better. So she decided to try it too. Next morning, her experience was the same as mine – sore butt and shoulders, but better feeling back. We figured the hard floor was good for our backs but hard on the pressure points (butt and shoulders). We moved back to the bed, but a couple days later Costco had LightSpeed self inflating sleep pads at a closeout price of $14.95 and my wife wanted to try them. We got two and they work great. Not as soft as our bed so good for our backs, but soft enough our butts and shoulders don’t get sore. We’ve both been sleeping on the floor since we got the sleeping pads. I sleep better and have more energy during the day. Sleeping on the floor – welcome to The Great Indoors.

Homemade beef jerky

I’m trying to cut my carbs, so eat more meat, right? I don’t always have time to cook though, but when I do I have a lot of time. It takes me about 5 hours to make a batch of jerky, so I’ve been doing that a lot for the past couple months. Cleanup is really easy and it tastes a lot better than store-bought jerky. Also makes a great trail snack. Hope to post a recipe soon…

Building a library

One thing a backyardsman or backwoodsman can do is read about skills necessary or useful. In that spirit, I’ve been building a library. Books I’ve added recently and recommend are Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry, The Glock In Competition by Robin Taylor, Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness For the Family by Arthur T Bradley, and Seedtime On The Cumberland by Harriette Simpson Arnow. They’re all good reads and they all offer something to the aspiring backyardsman.

Taking it to the back yard

The great indoors have been pretty good for the last couple months, and proved that I don’t have to get away from the house to get away from urban/suburban stress. For the past week though I’ve been moving from the Great Indoors to the Great Outdoors. Well, at least to my back yard…

For the past week, I’ve been sleeping in the back yard. Instead of the LightSpeed sleeping pad I’m using a USGI Therm-Pad sitting on top of a canvas tarp I got at Home Depot (sold as a painter’s drop cloth). My sleeping bag is a bivvy bag I got from some European company. Can’t remember the name but when I do I’ll write a review. This combo works pretty good until 1 or 2 AM when the temp gets down to 45 or so. At that point I wake up and pull over a wool blanket. Then I go back to sleep until about 5:00 when the birds start chirping. Works better than my alarm clock. Now if only I could convince the wife and kids to join me in the back yard…

Until next time…

Peace out,
porcupine

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