A Compendium of Useful Information for Joe Montana Jersey the Practical Man
The Camp Sheet[edit]
From time to time in this department I have mentioned an oiled muslin sheet for the camp outfit. In the first place it should be made with the idea of accommodating itself to the usages of a two man camp, because more often two go together than one alone; or more than two in company, unless it is a regular party camp, which is usually fully equipped. For two men you should buy a piece of sheeting such as is used in making ordinary bed sheets. This should be not less than twelve feet long, fourteen feet is even better. The cloth itself is about two yards wide, so that a piece of it fourteen feet long gives you a sheet about six by fourteen feet without a seam in it. When you have this piece of cloth, have it hemmed across the ends. Then get some boiled linseed oil and pour it on the cloth a little at a time, and rub the oil into the cloth between the palms of the hands as you go along. Rub in only enough oil to saturate the cloth without putting on oil enough to run. Painting it on with a brush will not do; you must rub it in with your hands. When you have rubbed the cloth full of oil, tack it up in the shade some place where the air will get at it, and let it dry for ten days. Do not put it in the sun at this time, and be sure that it is tightly stretched all around, putting your tacks close together entirely around the cloth. It should also be put where no rain can reach it until it has thoroughly dried. In the summer time ten days will dry it nicely, though the weather has something to do with this, and it may require even fifteen days to dry the oil as it should be dried. Do not try to rush this process, for you will not gain anything thereby.
After you have let the oiled sheet dry until it no longer feels sticky or "tacky" take it down and restretch it where the sun strikes one side one day and the reverse side the next. This should be kept up for perhaps six days, until the oil has hardened nicely in the glare of the sun. It is now "cured" so that it is absolutely water proof, and it will remain so as long as the cloth holds together. Even a great amount of folding will not make it leak unless you fold it in the same place right along and fold it down tightly, which process will in time break the oil film and give you a leaky sheet. The next thing to do is to take a good heavy cotton fish cord about the size of a lead pencil, and sew it to the edge of your sheet all around, turning the edge of your sheet over the cord and sewing it down the same as a bolt rope is sewed to a sail. Leave a three inch loop in your cord at each corner, two more loops on each end and four or even five loops on each side of the sheet. These give you points to tie guy lines to or to use in any one of the dozen ways that you will find use for as you go along. When this cord is sewed in your sheet is finished, and it is the most useful thing in camp. It can be folded to carry in a pack, as it does not weigh a great deal and it has the advantage of being absolutely and reliably water proof. You can make a tent out of it that will hold two men and their equipment nicely, and in case of rain you can use it as a fly over another tent if you want to, or you can use it alone in many ways.
If you are not using a tent you can spread it out on the ground and make a bed for two men on the end of it; then pull it up and cover the entire bed with the other end, and you will have enough left to make an awning over your head. If you set up a pole on a couple of crotched sticks two feet high about the head of the bed, and stretch the surplus canvas out over the pole and guy the corners to stakes. This latter results in water proof sheet under the bed and a water proof sheet over it, with slope enough to the roof to run every bit of the dew or any rainfall entirely off the bed and bedding. Two men can sleep under this covering perfectly dry without a tent. Its water proof qualities also make it wind proof and it is a very warm bed covering for winter camping if it is tucked in at the edges or if strings are tied across from one side to the other from the loops. It then becomes practically a sleeping bag for two, keeps the bedding off the ground and protects the sleepers from the outside cold. It can be thrown over a Jerry Rice 49ers Jersey boat and used as a water proof boat cover in case you are camping in a canoe. It can also be used to cover the whole outfit in a canoe if you are traveling and rain happens to come on. In fact its uses are so many that it would be hard to enumerate all of them.
Make one and use it the next time you go camping, and you will never go without one thereafter. The treatment of the cloth as described above renders it absolutely water proof and it is also a good idea to apply to provision bags or any article which you wish to water proof.
Rolling up your Bedding[edit]
Let me impress upon the minds of all travellers a golden rule: never omit seeing to the 'rolling' up of your bedding. There is a right and a wrong way of doing it; if managed as it should be, no wet can get into the blankets, however hard it may pour with rain, or if the pack animal carrying the tent freight amuses itself by rolling in every stream it arrives at, a pastime mules are very much predisposed to indulge in if they are not looked sharply after. Should the weather be fine, pack your 'dressing gear' if you are going to shift camp, 'strike' your tent, fold, roll, and place it in its bag, with the pegs and mallet, and tie your poles tightly together. Now carefully fold your blankets to the length, and a trifle narrower than the mattress, and lay them on it, double your buffalo robe, and place the mattress and its contents upon it. Begin at one end, and roll the whole tightly, turning in the ends of the ' robe' as you progress in rolling, having a stout cord or a small ' hide rope' ready to tie round as tightly as you can haul it. The more compact this bundle can be made the better it will be found to pack. Then spread the waterproof camp sheet, and lay the bundle on one side of it, and bring the edges of the waterproof over each end of the bedding, and thus continue to roll it in the camp sheet. By doing this it is next to an impossibility for water to find an entrance. The whole should, lastly, be securely lashed with a stout hide rope, or ' lasso.'
To find all one's bedding saturated with wet a misfortune I have often had happen, arising to my trusting another with what I ought to have seen to myself when camping after a day's march, would aggravate a saint. Those painted canvas 'bed envelopes,' artistically fitted up with buckles and leather straps, made round at each end, and bound with drab coloured leather, containing what is called by outfitters a ' complete camp bed,' I would not accept as a gift, if compelled to take one abroad to be used for mule travelling. It may answer very well for army purposes, where all baggage is conveyed in wagons; but take advice, and never purchase a 'complete camp bed.' If you want what is really and practically useful, rather procure each of the articles I have recommended at the best shop, and of the best quality. A stout 'India rubber camp sheet,' or a square of canvas soaked in boiled linseed oil, will answer better to wrap round your bedding than any 'case' or envelope made for the purpose I have as yet seen. With a 'case', if a hole rubs through it, or a snag tears it, there arises the immediate necessity to repair the damage, or the chances of a wet bed are before you. With a wrapper rolled many times round, the probabilities are ten to one against a hole being torn through all the enwraps; and if such a mishap should occur, why, it is only to alter the rolling, and the holes are securely hid, and hence effectually stopped.
Another advantage a plain camp sheet has over a 'bed case' is, that you can spread it on the ground when sleeping in a tent to place your mattress on; for in a tent a bedstead is a useless encumbrance. If it rains, and there is any chance of the water draining underneath the tent, all that is necessary is to fold the sides and ends of the waterproof up over the bed after you have safely turned in, and let the water find its way past and under you. There can be no fear of getting wet underneath so long as the edges are well turned up. I never use a pillow, as it increases the size of the bundle, and I find my clothes when folded up answer every purpose. Moreover, this plan keeps your garments from the chance of getting wet. We found this plan of sleeping on the ground, 'and rolling the bedding,' to answer admirably whilst doing the Commission work, and nearly all the officers dispensed with the ' bed case' altogether, and the bedstead during the summer field work.
General Comments on Tents[edit]
Although tents are not worth the trouble of pitching, on dry nights, in a healthy climate, they are invaluable protectors to a well equipped traveller against rain, dew, and malaria. But a man who is not so equipped, who has no change of clothes, and no bedstead to sleep on, will do better to sleep in the open air, in front of a good camp fire. Napoleon I., speaking of soldiers, says (' Maximea de Guerre') Tents are not healthy; it is better for the soldier to bivouac, because he sleeps with his feet to the fire, whose neighbourhood quickly dries the ground on which he lies; some planks or a little straw shelter him from the wind. Silk, of equal strength with the canvas, is very far lighter: its only disadvantage is its expense. Calico, or cotton canvas, is very generally used for small tents. Leather and felt are warm, but exceedingly heavy; and would only be used in very inclement climates, or where canvas could not be met with. Falconer writes: "I travelled in 1841 from Austin in Texas to Mexico through New Mexico. I left Austin in June, and reached Zacateras on Christmas Day. During nearly the whole period we travelled from Austin to New Mexico, I camped without any covering at night for myself, except a large macintosh (a rubberized coat), made up as a sack, with a piece so laid as a continuation of one side, as to be used as a coverlet, sufficient in length to be brought from the back, over the head, and down on the breast. Inside I placed my blankets. I slept under this covering during many a heavy storm at night, and got out of my soft coated shell dry in the morning. My opinion is, that every traveller who works his way with a horse should fix on his own saddle the said macintosh sack, two blankets, a tin cup, and a frying pan. It is amazing, when you get into real working order, how few things are sufficient."These have heen used for the last twenty five years by the French doaaniers, who watch the mountain passes of the Pyrenean frontier. The bags are made of sheepskin, with the wool inside. When not in use they are folded up and buckled with five buckles into the shape of a somewhat bulky knapsack, which the recent occupant may shoulder and walk away with.
The accompanying sketches are drawn to scale. They were made from the sleeping bag belonging to a man 5 feet 6 inches in height; the scale should therefore be lengthened for a taller person, but the breadth seems ample. Its weight was exactly seven pounds. The douaniers post themselves on watch more or less immersed in these bags. They lie out in wet and snow, and find them impervious to both. When they sleep, they get quite inside them, stuff their cloaks between their throats and the bag, and let its flap cover their faces. It is easy enough for them to extricate themselves; they can do so almost with a bound.
For the sake of warmth, the bag is made double from the knees downwards, and also opposite to the small of the back.
During the daytime, when the weather is wet or cold, the bags are of much use, for the douaniers sit with them pulled up to their waist. When carried in the manner of a knapsack the bag sits perfectly well against the shoulders; but, owing to the yielding nature of its substance, it lies too close to the back, and is decidedly oppressive. War or hunting parties often placed in reserve extra ammunition, moccasins, tobacco, dried meat, etc., in pits. A hole about four feet in depth and of sufficient size was dug, lined on the sides and bottom with stones and closed with a heavy slab of the same material, the whole concealed by a covering of earth. Should the party be separated, a straggler would open the cache and take what belonged to him, leaving the remainder for their rightful owners. However, food was seldom cached in this manner because rodents and other animals smelled it out and burrowed into the store. To meet this difficulty various expedients were resorted to. Dried provisions in a parfleche (an Indian rawhide bag) were sometimes hung in a tree near the trail along which a party expected to return. A safer method was to climb a tree beside a young birch, lean it over and tie the parfleche to the top. Rattles of hoofs or deer claws were tied on to frighten small climbing animals. It was the belief of some, that gun powder rubbed over the package would have an analogous result. Again, food tied in rawhide bags was concealed in hollow trees. Fresh meat was sometimes tied to a stone and anchored under water. When in a rough country, holes in high ledges of rock were used, the opening being securely stopped with stones.
A Lighter Camp Axe[edit]
Several years ago I worked out a scheme on a camp axe that may be of interest to fellow sportsmen. The weight of a standard axe is against it on many trips, and the standard hand axe is sadly lacking for effective work. That they are a little better than a heavy knife is about the best you can say for them.
To overcome the difficulty I purchased a hand axe of the "easy chop" pattern, as the chip breaker recesses would lighten it considerably. I took special pains to get one that was soft enough to sharpen with a fine file. Michael Crabtree 49ers Jersey An eight inch flat file does not take much space or add appreciably to the weight of your kit and cuts faster than any stone.
My axe, like most of them, gets careless occasionally and brings up against a stone or a spike which blunts the edge instead of breaking out a chunk. The softness is especially desirable in bitter cold weather, as a spruce knot or stone has ruined many an axe when the thermometer was flirting with twenty below zero.
The second step was to remove the short handle and sort over the dealer's stock of axe helves. I found a helve for a boy's axe that was of fine straight grained hickory and about twenty eight inches long. The axe was hung on this helve and then the helve scraped and sandpapered till it was thin enough to whip slightly under the weight of the axe.