What Some Have To Say

After reading for many years, books produce a wealth of certain truths. Some very smart folks wrote what they thought was important, not only for them but as a message, to us. I feel they make many of us believe we are alone in and with our thoughts.

” An interesting fact to consider is that a battery requires fifty times more energy to produce than it will ever return to the user. Once they are produced and used they are off to the landfill and more resources are mined to make more. It seems like a well built fire would be the simplest way and least damaging way to light the camp at night” . From “Camping in the Old Style” by David Wescott.
A campfire that is used and taken care of will end up leaving little trace it treated in the proper manner.

” Go light; The lighter the better so that you have the simplest material for health, comfort, and enjoyment” Nessmuk. Of course, how easy is that? Going light is nothing new, and if you study some old school you will find we have not improved the weight by much, maybe 2 pounds. And in many cases not even that. However, in order to go light you have to “own the skills” , you have to know your “DirtCraft”

” Mentors, a life in the open air calls for knowledge which a very large number of human beings, because of their environments, cannot gain, except when the same is imparted by some more fortunate one who has learned from experience”. E. Kreps. We all learn from someone else. A little here and bit there. The shared knowledge that comes to life on the Dirttime forum acts as a mentor for all of us. Any class on the Dirt is and should be an adventure and learning experience. Sure sometimes much is repeated, ” I have heard that before” kind of thing. I think that is okay. But just because something is read, repeated over and over does not always make it right. Always consider the source. Like the “universal taste test” , not really a smart idea with one exception, and that is extreme as a pow etc, and you are dying anyway. Some will have a different opinion.

” The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses”. Edward Abbey. That's about right on. Trying for a life that is closer to the earth and living a more simple lifestyle at the least gives us distance from this advancing into a fresh new brave world of high techocrapny. Progress , I feel is the wrong word.

” What's the difference between a whore and a congressman? A Congressman makes more money” Edward Abbey. A little political truism that we should always be aware of.

By Dude McLean

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