Great minds think alike!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

For every human cell in or on the human body there are 10 bug cells. The vast majority of these are good bugs. They do more than just help us digest our food. They interact with our bodies in many ways, most of which we haven't discovered yet. They protect our bodies, which is their ecosytem, much better than we protect our ecosystem. Many of these bugs we get from dirt. Most bad bugs we get from other people. We need more dirt in our lives.

That truly sounds enlightening

Xelif gives a nice summary! Don't use ferns, use mullien its luxurious! Now, whatever will you find to worry about next? Did you read that the non stick coatings are probably poisonous?

Don't worry, be happy

Ecrow

You could always read the post on dihydrogen monoxide. Now there is something to worry about. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Hopefully, not a "used" snowball ! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Brum

Be warned... Chiggers (red bugs to you Southerners) live in moss, and mites actually colonize in moss.. Particularly, moss that is lying around on the ground. Chiggers like to burrow INTO your flesh so you can't scratch them out easily.

Also, mosses don't package their male gametes in pollen, as flowers do, but rely instead on swimming sperm. Textbooks state that moss sperm need to swim or splash to a female moss tuft. However, an experiment with a common moss species shows that moss sperm hitchhike on mites and tiny insects living within the moss itself. Get the picture? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Brum

MockTurtle wrote:



A live goose or bunny will never be allowed near my berries. Brum

hey, JAK, I've got some "good" scorpions living in the dirt down here if you want to interact with them when you wipe with Mother Nature <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Brum

So...she should only wipe with female moss? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I never knew that there was male moss and female moss. I only know that I once used a wad of moss to sop up the morning dew to drink (can get a quart of water this way in about an hour). I sure hope it was female moss! Thinking that I swallowed male moss sperm seems...un-manly! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

If you start lisping don't say you weren't warned to stay away from using moss... on either end. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Brum

You've got lots of scary stuff way down south there eh. I be staying up here, rolling around in our manly northern dirt and snow, where all moss is manly and God fearing, and our sheep are safe and not worried.

None of them fruiting bodies allowed up her. No siree. Winter keeps em all righteous.

Aren't you in New Brunswick? The story as I heard it was rubber boots and velcro gloves were invented in New Brunswick. I think that sheep comment is unsubstantiated <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Don't know what your talking about. Perhaps a few are a bit worried now and then, but the ones that I know are quite safe, most of them anyways. OK, perhaps I've developed some rather intimate and co-dependant relationships with a few of my wool sweaters, and this might disturb some people, but it gets mighty cold and lonely out here sometimes, OK.

I don't leave home without sufficient disposable wipes, sanitizing gel, and some salve/balm.

I've had much more uncomfort from rash in the wrong place on a trip than any heavy gear, blister, or slip/fall.

For pots I wash them cold and scour when I have access to water and prefer boiling something in it's own pack when I don't.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Those are to make sure they keep a grip on their wool, sweaters of course <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I know the feeling JAK, having been a sheep farmer, and owning a few of my own wool sweaters <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yes, I carry some toilet paper on my trail~

Take TP if you wish, but put used TP in a good plastic bag and carry it out. Learn how to wash yourself and do without if you loose the TP or run out. As for pots, I use the clean with hand and rinse in cold water. Evergreen needle bunches or small pinecones make good scrubbers.

As for losing TP - it happens. On one 18-day trip our TP rolled off a cliff on day 3! We had a book - and 10 pages of reading became required every day!

Eat out of a plastic container, not your pot. Dehydrated stuff rehydrates in bags or plastic bowls/containers fine. Boil water and pour, you have a clean pot 100% of the time.

I have taken a Brawny towel to wipe out pot/pan - these are rinsable, away from the water source!, and dry fast in the sun. When it becomes too stained and tattered it makes good tinder when we finally drop below 10,000 feet and build a fire.

Use TP and pack out in a ziploc bag adequate to the task. A friend will take a lighter and burn the used TP in her cathole. Better than leaving it for creatures to dig up and decorate the wilderness with, I suppose.

Something that I find useful for a toilet paper substitute is to take wipes that I have dried out ahead of time (reduces weight) and then re-wet them once on the trail. Make sure you use treated water for this too! You can introduce parasites to your body at either end. It takes way less material using this method than trying to use dry toilet paper-and since they contain some cotton, they hold up to being wet much better.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can get by on two or three wipes with what would normally take several feet of toilet paper. It is much cleaner too!

I take TP and wipes and I pack out. There are just some things this tush requires for this backpacker to be happy. So there. :p