Author: George Crawford

archaeologist, archer, primitive technologist, and wannabee musician ... mostly

Build a New Sled in Time for Christmas!

~ George Crawford ~ Leave a comment

With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s time to start making those gifts for friends and family.  I collect old plans for projects I never seem to get around to making but here’s a quickie that might be on the table soon.  Maybe you know some youngster that will need a sled this year.

finished sled

Or maybe it’s time to train the useless dog to help out around camp…

https://i0.wp.com/www.thewoodcrafter.net/proj/prpics/p44_3.jpg

There’s not much to it really but a good set of measurements is always welcome in a new project.  An old pallet and a couple long boards will just about do it.

And maybe, just maybe, one less plastic tub sled will end up in the landfill.  Here’s the link to the original article:

http://www.thewoodcrafter.net/proj/p44.php

Another Early Bicycle

~ George Crawford ~ 2 Comments

“Any Boy can learn himself to ride in a few hours…”

I am a fan of cycling and have a special place in my heart for the old contraptions from the early days.  Based on the enormous price, the one pictured below must have been a rich kid’s toy.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics $25 in 1869 is the equivalent of $432 today.

However, this model was a truly cutting-edge machine as it has pedals.  Pedals were added to the coasting “balance bicycle” in the 1860s taking this otherwise limited toy into the realm of a true form of transportation.  It’s good to note that the early “bone-shakers” were generally made of wood and were only made from metals sometime after 1870 as the technology became available.

From the March 1869 issue of Harper’s New Monthly magazine, found HERE.

Presented here are a few more gentlemen on velocipedes from an 1868 Harper’s Magazine for your viewing pleasure.

Finally, by the 1890s, bicycle sales were catering to women as well as men (and other children) and like the ad says, “Perfection Attained” in the Crescent Bicycle.

From the April 1895 issue of The Delineator.

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Growing Up on the Range…

~ George Crawford ~ 2 Comments

(from the Paleotool vault)

Here’s a great story I read years ago about being raised in a family of six in a sheep camp measuring about 7 x 8′! (I think that’s the floor space).  I recently relocated the article in Mother Earth News.

Nice layout sketch of a sheep camp.

Here’s an excerpt:

“The canvas-covered sheep wagon was roughly about seven feet wide by eight feet long. On the front end a door opened out of the middle and you stepped down onto the wagon tongue and thence to the ground. From the inside looking out, the stove was on the left of the door. On the right was a small wash stand with several wooden drawers for storage of linens, towels and socks. A bucket of water and washbasin were on the oil cloth covered top and a small mirror hung above the basin for shaving. Soap, toothbrush, razor and essentials rested on top of the stand when in location or were stowed in a drawer when moving.”

Read more here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/sheepherders-wagon-zmaz70mjzkin.aspx

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Wyoming Sheepherders Again

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 (from the Paleotool vault)

Sheep camps from Wyoming from the Wyoming Tales and Trails webpage.  Great photos and some good information concerning everything “western.”

I could spend much of my life like this!

A self-contained base camp in a sheep wagon provides a cozy home on the prairie.

A beautiful culmination of cultures a innovations created this iconic American living arrangement.  We can learn a lot from these designs today.

The Wyoming Tails and Trails website contains a lot of other information about western history along with more than 100 photos.  Have a look around and get a feel for the old west.

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/

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It’s Time for a Change, for the Better…

~ George Crawford ~ 6 Comments

Hello all fellow travelers, campers, and makers who love the wilderness! 

It’s time for a serious re-tooling of this blog and focusing on the important things in life.  In the coming days and weeks many posts and pages will change, some will vanish forever (they are rubbish), or (hopefully) be improved upon.  Your constructive feedback is greatly appreciated and I look forward to reading it.  It can be shared or not as you choose so feel free to ask or comment away in the space below.  This isn’t a commercial page so I don’t really profit from it and thus, it often falls by the wayside in the rush of daily life.  However, I enjoy the writing and rambling and have made many great connections over the years that I’ve done this so I’m in for another round of adventures, projects, and philosophy as we cross into the new season.

I hope you enjoy!

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More Classic Camping

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Complete Camping Cook Outfit for Only $6.15!  Get your’s today!

I want to share a classic camping advertisement for the F. C. Wilson & Co. from the 1916 Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue.  Weighing in at 20 pounds it might be a bit heavy for backpacking but would be great for the car, wagon, pack-horse, or canoe.  According to the online Inflation Calculator, this $6.15 kit would cost an equivalent of $149.05 in today’s U.S. dollar.  At first this sounds ridiculous but after looking at a recent REI catalog I think it might actually be quite a good deal.

-GTC-