Weighting my current, existing gear:
Backpack - 980 g
Tarp - 350 g
(* stakes - ?? )
Cords - around 150 g
Towel(s) - 145 g
Bug net - 170 g
.. can't find my sleeping bag, so will take a blankie and a husband to keep me warm. Blankie is around 200 g and the small sleeping bag around 300 ...

I've tested some set-ups, letting dogs play in it to see what it can take. I only garden-pitched it, in perfect weather, so this isn't a proper trial run yet in any sense ...

This is a 'half flap' two poles sunny windless set-up that can come with the big net if need be. I don't know yet how much the bugs will bother me...

Comfy, actually. I can make it a lot bigger, but small suits me just fine.

And this is for the rainy days, but I have to add some loops to the tarp or some poles beneath it, otherwise it'll become a basin and a very unpleasant morning shower.

...

Avengers WHAT THE FUCK?!

Let us recap this lovely adventure movie, family friendly (no blood, only blue), full of heroes doing amazing battles. Well, let us recap the torture, execution and pointless deaths toll.

Opening scene: The entirety of the Ragnarok survivors - executed, some while dying, stabbed, ‘Spartan’ style. Every one, women, kids, all.

Loki graphically strangled until his neck snaps.

Heimdall stabbed in the chest while wounded on the ground.

Star Lord asked by Gamora to kill her and at some point while she tells him it’s okay, he pulls the trigger in her face.

Gamora is later pulled over the edge of a cliff by her ‘father’ and falls to her death on rocks.

Nebula is horrendously tortured, screaming, for several minutes of graphic scene.

300 space dwarfs are left to freeze to death on a forge station.

The entirety of a planet’s population is killed by firing squad and executioners with spears while a small child is taken into slavery.

Vision asks his girlfriend to kill him by ripping out part of his head and after she finally agrees, the scene also takes several minutes.

The scene is pointless, as the time is turned and Vision’s head is pulled apart by the villain anyway.

Both Mantis and Drax are cut into little pieces in a scene, though it proves later to be reversible.

The entirety of Knowhere is killed, the main character there burnt alive inside an incubator.

In the end, after the battle, the following main characters are turned into ashes and dispersed without warning:

Bucky

Black Panther

Groot

Scarlet Witch

Rhodey

Falcon

Mantis

Drax

Maria Hill

Nick Fury

the worst of which is Spiderman, clinging onto Iron Man, begging: No, Mr. Stark, please, I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go, please, Mr. Stark … 

No idea what fucking sense that death was supposed to make, knowing there are plenty more Spiderman movies to come.... But still depressing as fuck. 

You'd end up feeling better watching The Pianist or Thin Red Line or something. It was the most violently aggresive parade of torture and death I've seen in a very long time.

Didn't go to the doctor; I hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the bumm.. The left leg has by now almost stop swelling and only itches. The right, being treated with vinegar from the start, never swole, there's only a large purple red patch of skin around the sting - I'm guessing the vinegar did that. Now I know: never leave the house without vinegar!! :D 

As my latest project hasn't been finished yet, I couldn't afford any of the hiking gear on my list, but the season is nigh, so the General purchased me a military tarp and paracord and I suppose I'll just have to hit the ground running. It's veteran grade stuff, not easy to get used to, super lightweight. Can't wait for the bonfire night!!!! We pitch it together!

Poor General :D

Are you fucking kidding me?! I got stung in the other leg now, too?!!

... can barely put my sandal on anymore. May be time to seek some professional help.




Just kinda wanna hear these reactions, if annoying, are normal, and they will go away by themselves. Do NOT want to get stabbed by a needle. But can't sleep from the itchy, swelled sensation and walking hurts, too :( Doesn't seem to be going anywhere so far.

:/

That bitchy bug that stung me four days ago, (it was the same species as the one who flew into my eye and I can only thank the Gods of eyeballs it failed to sting anything in or around the eye, because I fear the eyeball would have fallen out by now...) for the love of all that's buggy, has by now caused my leg to swell uncomfortably and I stink of vinegar, because only wearing vinegar-soaked bandages keeps the pain of all that extra volume out. It hurts annoyingly, like if I nicked it only a little, the whole leg would explode like an over-cooked hot dog, all that water or blood or whatever is making my leg cherubic, especially after I stand up. Couldn't sleep, because no position I tried would have me. Poor General, after yesterday's work at the vineyard, was so worn out he passed out naked on the bed at around seven and slept for 14 hours straight. He kept covering me, subconsciously, though it's already warm enough to sleep without blankies, and holding my head with one arm and my legs with his leg. I didn't have the heart to mention that, ow, ow, he's only adding pressure on the swelling...

A Quiet place

 
Went to watch the well-spoken-of film with MyMaja, but yet again, I couldn't see what the fuck everyone was praising. The previous two movies - Ready Player One and Red Sparrow I had such low, negative expectations, I ended up feeling they were perfectly fine for two hours spent chewing popcorn (or at least a little better than their respective books). This was supposed to be some amazing piece of cinematography. Who rates this shit?

The premise is - monsters came and killed everyone (somehow), except for this one rural family with small children. Now, how nobody other than them managed to fight off slightly larger than humans rabid-dog-like insectoid aliens, I've no idea. Riddick killed one just like with bare hands. The people in Walking dead kill similar foes with bows and arrows. In Cloverfield Lane ten times the size creature like it is killed with a vodka Molotov. And, mind you, these are sound sensitive creatures, and nobody figures out loud or high pitched sound would hurt them? It takes a ten year old deaf girl after over a year?

The family, doing much of nothing all day but hanging laundry and conserving produce, live in the noisiest, least protected farmstead imaginable. Every time someone drops a pin, monsters come running. Even though they know mechanical repetitive noise like the waterfall bores them. But instead of making noise to convince the monsters it's noisy there, nothing to see, moving on, no - they plan to have a baby in a room soundproofed with newspapers and a mattress and she delivers it in a bathtub - luckily it's one of those babies who never makes a genuinely noisy sound.

The only lines spoken are about blaming themselves for losing a four year old to a toy. That's all they ever talk about. Whose fault was it. Meanwhile, complete radio silence on all frequencies, even though there are living neighbours or people passing through, and there's a scene with fire signals, which I did not get at all. can't use any of the cars left outside? You know electrical cars are extremely quiet, right? How about you relocate to a fucking lighthouse?

I'm not saying the acting wasn't great. Everyone looked good. Even the premise - last living family forced to exist in the noisiest fucking homestead - very curious. But the script was fucking retarded. They showed extreme close-ups of monsters to compensate for the fact nothing at all happens at any point in the film - the effect would have been A LOT better if you never saw what's really there like it was done in the first scene, and the family felt more paranoid than anything until you started to doubt if a monster is really there.. But no, claws and torn tin walls and close-ups of alien ears galore.

And meanwhile, in the real world, you have bishops and the like masturbating how wonderfully religious this film is, how pro-life, full of sacrifice and monastic silence and solitude. Because that is exactly what you ant in thw world riddled with fiends - suicide on every step. Those people are fucking insane.

Just dumb. Where are all the doomsday preppers? Where does their power come from? Who is running their water? Where does he get tons and tons of sand? Do creatures kill for fun or for food? Because killing everything for food within a year is slightly counter intuitive.

I didn't like anything about it. Like they were mocking the audience by boring them and with nonsensical, forced plot points. No matter how cute the 40000 red light bulbs they somehow managed to install without dropping one are.

Tried to mow the lawn uphill at the vineyard today, nearly killed me. MAN that thin, short, dense as a MF grass is hard to cut through. The mower kept stopping as the blades tangled into it, it was hot, sunny... and the terrain is at times too hard for me to manhandle the machine up and down. Nothing is level, nothing. Some stupid tiny fly hit me in the eye and released a load of burning matter, which still feels like my eye is hot and swollen, even though it's back to normal now. By 2 in the afternoon I was so overcooked I started feeling cold and wanted to cry - I remember all too well the last time that happened. I needed to lie down and didn't wake up again until 5. Then I felt empowered again and mowed some more. I asked G to come meet me halfway on the descend back to town - which was beautiful, just as the sun was setting orange and all the trees are bright green still. He's cranky because the car's not back from the shop yet, but everything is easier when he's around. In fact work is easiest when he does it, I just talk to keep the morale up :P (Starting again tomorrow morn.)

A proper thunderstorm outside. In April! I don't think even my trusted raincoat would help me in this one, it's savage. Reminds me that last summer the hail storms were so severe, getting to the car to drive it to safety could kill you...