Well, sorry I have not updated the posts recently. Night 5 and 6 were between -10 and -16. Sleep was good but as always woke up sore.
Then a crazy thing happened. L, explained there were bennefits of sleeping inside as well and I kind of got side tracked and started sleeping inside again.
I weighed the pros and cons of each sleeping arrangments and "inside" won, for the time being......
Other than that, not much happening around here. We are all getting sick of winter, it is either below zero (which stinks and no one wants to go outside), or when it gets above zero it starts snowing.
I tried to cut some trees down, figured I would lay down about a 1/2 acre, but after about 6-8 trees I was exhausted. I was up to my waist in snow and couldn't move. When a tree would not fall the direction I wanted it to, I realized I couldn't move out of the way very fast. So maturity is sneaking up on me and I decided to wait till either the snow melts or blows away.
Speaking of maturity, have you seen all the gray hairs on top of my head recently, Well you missed your opportunity, cause I'm gonna shave em off again. Anyways it's not old age, just high mileage.....
Someone recently asked me why I shave my head, they said I looked mean and grumpy.......
I'm not sure they knew me very well. Maybe I like the mean and grumpy look.
3 more months of winter..............
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sleep Study Continued
NIGHT #3 - -8 below zero, sleeping with a pillow in the bag with me, the pillow seems to take up more space and keeps the bag warmer with less cold spots. slept like a baby, only 6 hours (couldn't hold it any longer), not sure if I mentioned this before but I am using a -25 sleeping bag, on a cot, in the open wood shed (roof, no walls except one side against the stack of wood as a wind break). One big difference is that when I wake up in the morning, although I am stiff and usually a little sore, I feel I have much more energy.
Lesson learned, if you need to lighten the load (#1) don't waste your energy trying to hold it till morning it's much better to just get out of bed and hurry back which brings me to a question, why do you haft to go pee more when your outside sleeping in the cold? In researching why I learned that when your in cold weather a change occurs. Typically most of us spend most of our time in climate controlled homes/buildings/cars and as such our bodies are usually producing sweat at varying levels, in order to control the body temperature. When you leave that climate controlled environment for an environment that is colder where your main heat source is your body, then you almost completely stop sweating, since you are now focused on heat production and preservation. Additionally being exposed to the cold causes your blood vessels to constrict and thus less blood flow to the skin surface. Cause and effect, the effect of not sweating and less blood flow is an increasing the blood pressure and more fluid in the body (usually expelled through sweat and evaporation). Thus you need to dispose of the fluid in the form of urine.
NIGHT #4 -14.9 below zero when I woke up. Very deep sleep. Very cold night, felt warm in the sleeping bag. I am thoroughly impressed with the sleeping bag. I am not sure how they determine the rating on sleeping bags but even without a tent this sleeping bag kept me very warm and not at all uncomfortable in terms of temperature.
Lesson learned, if you need to lighten the load (#1) don't waste your energy trying to hold it till morning it's much better to just get out of bed and hurry back which brings me to a question, why do you haft to go pee more when your outside sleeping in the cold? In researching why I learned that when your in cold weather a change occurs. Typically most of us spend most of our time in climate controlled homes/buildings/cars and as such our bodies are usually producing sweat at varying levels, in order to control the body temperature. When you leave that climate controlled environment for an environment that is colder where your main heat source is your body, then you almost completely stop sweating, since you are now focused on heat production and preservation. Additionally being exposed to the cold causes your blood vessels to constrict and thus less blood flow to the skin surface. Cause and effect, the effect of not sweating and less blood flow is an increasing the blood pressure and more fluid in the body (usually expelled through sweat and evaporation). Thus you need to dispose of the fluid in the form of urine.
NIGHT #4 -14.9 below zero when I woke up. Very deep sleep. Very cold night, felt warm in the sleeping bag. I am thoroughly impressed with the sleeping bag. I am not sure how they determine the rating on sleeping bags but even without a tent this sleeping bag kept me very warm and not at all uncomfortable in terms of temperature.
Friday, December 30, 2011
How to De-Wuss-ify yourself
J- I just finished reading about the Shackleton Expedition to the South Pole. If you are not familiar with this expedition I would suggest you read one of the many books about it. Basically it began around 1915, an expedition attempt to reach the south pole. Unfortunately the expedition got stuck in ice and over the course of a few months their boat was crushed and sank by the ice flows. The crew then went on to survive almost a year and a half floating on ice flows, through the Antarctic winter in sub zero temperatures with little more than the wool clothes on their backs and reindeer hide sleeping bags. They survived on what few rations they were able to save and a diet of penguins and sea lions. They eventually had to take to the water as their ice began melting into the sea the following summer. They crossed hundreds of miles in open life boats in the worst ocean in the world. They landed on a remote uninhabited island of rock and ice where most of the crew remained while 6 men boarded one life boat and continued 800 more miles crossing the Antarctic ocean finally reaching a Whaling station where they organized and later rescued the rest of the party.
So over the last few years I have come to slowly slip into the pit of being a Wuss. For those of you who do not know, a "Wuss" as I see it is a weak, lazy, or cowardly person. You see in the last 6 years or so I have been focused on things like building a house (now 2), work (the never ending, go so you can get a paycheck kind of work), family medical issues, and general laziness(not that the first 3 items listed are not important). In fact even though we have chosen for personal reasons not to have television/cable in our home, I somehow convinced L to let me buy a flat screen TV which I told her would be great for SKYPE but really it was for the MOVIES I like to watch on almost a daily basis.
Well to get to the point, a good friend called me last week inviting me to go dig ice caves and go camping in them. I declined the invitation knowing with the holidays I could not get time off work. I declined saying I wanted to but couldn't, due to my work schedule. As I got off the phone I asked myself if that was true, not the work part but the "wanted to but" part, and I took comfort in thinking about my warm bed and flat screen TV (for SKYPE right?).
It was at this point I realized I had hit the bottom of the Wuss Pit. 6 years ago this was not the case, a person would haft to be careful what they invited me to do.
So my decision came slowly, I have not been sleeping well for the last couple years. Not-so-much insomnia just never seeming to get enough sleep, and always waking up tired and sore. I asked myself, J when and where have you had the best sleep of your life? To myself I replied, while camping duh! For some unknown reason regardless of the sleeping conditions, when I go camping I sleep better than anywhere else. This does not mean I don"t wake up sore while camping, but I cannot remember a time I went camping and at least didn't sleep well.
Why is this? Any Ideas? Why is sleep that much better when your camping?
So I decided to give it a try and experiment. Also this would serve to De-Wuss-ify myself.
This morning I woke up to -8 F, my second night sleeping outside.
Night 1 - 6 hours, sleep woke up to -2 degrees F, sleep was good, slightly sore muscles/stiff no more stiffness than sleeping in the house in bed. Need face mask or cover for head, thick frost built up around head of sleeping bag. Didn't know we had SO much traffic in our dead end neighborhood late at night.
Night 2 - 8 hours sleep woke up to -8 degrees F, Sleep good, again stiff and a little sore, probably because I try not to move all night cause when I do I discover new parts of the sleeping bag not kept warm by my body heat. Found a use for old baby blankets! used one to cover the head opening to my sleeping bag, this worked well tempering the air for ease of breathing, only down side, the baby blanket gets heavy as frost condensed from my breath, the blanket then drips, only a few drops, but very cold drops on my face.
Not sure how long I want to keep this up. I believe the better sleep derives from cool crisp clean air, and maybe the body focuses on keeping warm and may allow a deeper sleep(better sleep) so it can focus on just staying warm. Not-Sure, I believe more experimentation is necessary, furthermore, I need to know if it is just the "new bed phenomenon". To rule the "new bed phenomenon" out I need to do it a while longer until the sleeping conditions are not "new".
I am welcome to suggestions or theories. At this point the sleep is nice.
Just to clarify for those who might have seen how long this post was and skipped parts, essential parts required to understand the main plot......
L & J are not having marital problems, L thinks J is crazy but L knew this when she married J and therefore says she will support J in this sleep study experiment.
So over the last few years I have come to slowly slip into the pit of being a Wuss. For those of you who do not know, a "Wuss" as I see it is a weak, lazy, or cowardly person. You see in the last 6 years or so I have been focused on things like building a house (now 2), work (the never ending, go so you can get a paycheck kind of work), family medical issues, and general laziness(not that the first 3 items listed are not important). In fact even though we have chosen for personal reasons not to have television/cable in our home, I somehow convinced L to let me buy a flat screen TV which I told her would be great for SKYPE but really it was for the MOVIES I like to watch on almost a daily basis.
Well to get to the point, a good friend called me last week inviting me to go dig ice caves and go camping in them. I declined the invitation knowing with the holidays I could not get time off work. I declined saying I wanted to but couldn't, due to my work schedule. As I got off the phone I asked myself if that was true, not the work part but the "wanted to but" part, and I took comfort in thinking about my warm bed and flat screen TV (for SKYPE right?).
It was at this point I realized I had hit the bottom of the Wuss Pit. 6 years ago this was not the case, a person would haft to be careful what they invited me to do.
So my decision came slowly, I have not been sleeping well for the last couple years. Not-so-much insomnia just never seeming to get enough sleep, and always waking up tired and sore. I asked myself, J when and where have you had the best sleep of your life? To myself I replied, while camping duh! For some unknown reason regardless of the sleeping conditions, when I go camping I sleep better than anywhere else. This does not mean I don"t wake up sore while camping, but I cannot remember a time I went camping and at least didn't sleep well.
Why is this? Any Ideas? Why is sleep that much better when your camping?
So I decided to give it a try and experiment. Also this would serve to De-Wuss-ify myself.
This morning I woke up to -8 F, my second night sleeping outside.
Night 1 - 6 hours, sleep woke up to -2 degrees F, sleep was good, slightly sore muscles/stiff no more stiffness than sleeping in the house in bed. Need face mask or cover for head, thick frost built up around head of sleeping bag. Didn't know we had SO much traffic in our dead end neighborhood late at night.
Night 2 - 8 hours sleep woke up to -8 degrees F, Sleep good, again stiff and a little sore, probably because I try not to move all night cause when I do I discover new parts of the sleeping bag not kept warm by my body heat. Found a use for old baby blankets! used one to cover the head opening to my sleeping bag, this worked well tempering the air for ease of breathing, only down side, the baby blanket gets heavy as frost condensed from my breath, the blanket then drips, only a few drops, but very cold drops on my face.
Not sure how long I want to keep this up. I believe the better sleep derives from cool crisp clean air, and maybe the body focuses on keeping warm and may allow a deeper sleep(better sleep) so it can focus on just staying warm. Not-Sure, I believe more experimentation is necessary, furthermore, I need to know if it is just the "new bed phenomenon". To rule the "new bed phenomenon" out I need to do it a while longer until the sleeping conditions are not "new".
I am welcome to suggestions or theories. At this point the sleep is nice.
Just to clarify for those who might have seen how long this post was and skipped parts, essential parts required to understand the main plot......
L & J are not having marital problems, L thinks J is crazy but L knew this when she married J and therefore says she will support J in this sleep study experiment.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Catch Up
Our Computer has been on the fritz, so now I'm playing catch up, four posts in one day :)
And I have been really bad about taking photos of the new house as everything goes up... so here, after it's all framed up...
The dinning room... taken from the door into the house via the garage
And the kitchen...
And the out side look...
with out the main entry way
which includes a nice deck and covered porch :)
....to be continued as windows, doors, and such are installed.Henry
A quiet Sunday afternoon Henry fell asleep on the couch..
..in a some what standing laying position. I think he was either trying to fight off sleep or couldn't decide which position would be most comfortable.
Crazy kid!
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