I just signed on today, and I am VERY pumped about this site!
I live in Ontario, South-Western Ontario, south of 'the Bruce',
Now, I want to explain how I came up with The Kindling Queen as my user name....
I am city born, and my honey, Jim-bag, is a bred in the bone country man. We are eager to add to our knowledge and the basics that we already practice day to day. Gardening, preserving, hunting, foraging and more.
A huge part of Jim-bag's reality is getting enough wood stored for winter, as he uses his wood stove ALMOST solely to heat his home. I have helped him with this constant chore, and over the years I have developed a system. I have to tell you, I am more than a bit OCD, and it does show in this department. I scurry about the yard, collecting cedar branches, wrapping them with another branch to make them into cute little kindles. Martha Stewart - go back to prison! I take larger branches (but still too small for Jim to bother with) and chop them up with a hatchet. Then there is the short lengths of cedar needing splitting that he prepares for me.
It was in our second year, when it appeared I would not run screaming from the swamp and was actually going to be a semi-permanent fixture, Jimmy presented me with the BEST gift to date - no, not a ring or a watch - my very own brand new shiny hatchet......with this inscribed on the blade/head thingy:
THE KINDLING QUEEN
Some people laughed. Many were puzzled ('What? He got you a HATCHET???') Some people perceived insult (mostly MY family). But I was quite touched, and I loved it.
It is no longer shiny, you can't even read the inscription anymore. But I still use it every year, cutting up kindling, splitting cedar and whatever else.
I expect to learn loads from this site. I hope you dont mind my ramblings!
Now that is a good story and Great intro.
I also love the Hatchet story and get it as well!
Welcome to the "nut house". Loved your intro. I get the hachet too. Mine was a small baby blue crowbar for renovating lol
Thanks you two! I love the 'baby blue crowbar'!
Welcome KQ! I have a few axes but lately I've loved my maul -I heat my home with wood too.
Welcome Kindling Queen.
I have a few ex-es but no axes. I know what to look for to eliminate the ex- factor, but what should I look for in an axe?
Knowledge is power. Practised knowledge is strength. Tested knowledge is confidence.
Welcome - I ALSO just found this forum a couple of days ago.
Oh, one quick word of advice: OPSEC. I don't know that actually stands for, - something about "privacy" / don't reveal details that can jeopardize your secuirty... be careful what details you release on the internet. By the way you described where your boyfriend lives, a determined person could spend a few minutes on google maps and get a few ideas of where your bug-out-location / retreat could be. I don't imagine many people would do this, and I imagine even fewer would do so for a sinister purpose - but - you never know (some people's survival plan is to pillage/steal).
I say this as someone who is guilty of sometimes saying too much on internet survival forums. In the two days I've been on this forum, I've described some things about my situation, the place and and manner in which I co-own land, that if someone familiar with a certain area in Hastings County and it's ongoings read my post, they might know "oh he's with THAT group, I didn't think those people were preppers, but, now I know." Actually I just even further violated the notion of privacy - by saying that. I can conceive of a process by which someone with a will and who knows how to use the internet could find where my co-owned land is quite easily. [I'll stop violating OPSEC now].
OPSEC
Operational Security
and you did a good job of describing what not to say as well, thank you for being here and helping out!
OPSEC
Operational Security
and you did a good job of describing what not to say as well, thank you for being here and helping out!
Thanks for your thanks.
After I made that post I decided to go edit all my former posts... Although maybe pointless because people might have read name of town I stated before.
Welcome Queen.
I know the area well. We have our own place just south of you, a few miles East of Varney. Don't worry, plenty of roads up there dead-end in a swamp. Plenty of game there and in spite of the bugs I just love the smell of cedar after it rains.
Welcome Kindling Queen.
I have a few ex-es but no axes. I know what to look for to eliminate the ex- factor, but what should I look for in an axe?
Depending on what or who your planning to use it on. If your looking one with a wood handle make sure that the grain of the wood is inline with the axe head. If the grain is more than 45 degrees, than there is a good chance that the handle will break. JT
"We 'Prep.' to live after a downfall, Not just to survive."
Welcome Queen.
I know the area well. We have our own place just south of you, a few miles East of Varney. Don't worry, plenty of roads up there dead-end in a swamp. Plenty of game there and in spite of the bugs I just love the smell of cedar after it rains.
Very few fleas also, they hate cedar.
"We 'Prep.' to live after a downfall, Not just to survive."
Oh, one quick word of advice: OPSEC. I don't know that actually stands for, - something about "privacy" / don't reveal details that can jeopardize your secuirty... be careful what details you release on the internet. By the way you described where your boyfriend lives, a determined person could spend a few minutes on google maps and get a few ideas of where your bug-out-location / retreat could be. I don't imagine many people would do this, and I imagine even fewer would do so for a sinister purpose - but - you never know (some people's survival plan is to pillage/steal).
I say this as someone who is guilty of sometimes saying too much on internet survival forums. In the two days I've been on this forum, I've described some things about my situation, the place and and manner in which I co-own land, that if someone familiar with a certain area in Hastings County and it's ongoings read my post, they might know "oh he's with THAT group, I didn't think those people were preppers, but, now I know." Actually I just even further violated the notion of privacy - by saying that. I can conceive of a process by which someone with a will and who knows how to use the internet could find where my co-owned land is quite easily. [I'll stop violating OPSEC now].
Thanks for the info - crap, I wish someone had pointed this out to me before I started madly writing away....
naturally, I LIED about where the homestead was! I dont even HAVE a son! Wiarton? Where the heck is that???
Welcome KQ. =)
During my first pregnancy and after the baby was born, I spent many an hour hauling wood because I lived in a horrid little air-leaky house. And my favourite memory is spending time out in the old woodshed chopping kindling from big old cedar blocks. That was my "down-time", my therapy. I loved it! And in all honesty - I can't wait to do it again (presently living in a little apt with gas heat }:-( ....Soon.....soon....!
I hear ya' about the happy hatchet gift. One of my best prezzies of all time was a wheel barrow! It's about the simple things. For sure! 😉
I want a busy life, a just mind and a timely death. ~ Zora Neale Hurston