JRB Old Rag Mountain Quilt Consideration

**Loaf** · 02-08-2016, 13:58

Hey guys
I'm looking at getting a JRB Old Rag Mountain Quilt in the Long version (I'm 6'4"). I am considering this for the dual purpose of using as my UQ when solo, and letting my wife use as her top quilt when we camp together in shoulder season (she's a ground dweller, so I go to ground for the sake of getting her into the woods with me.) Does anybody have any thoughts or experience with something like this?

**skater** · 02-08-2016, 14:29

No experience with ORM quilt, but I have 2 other JRB quilts. Quality and customer service are top-notch.

**nimbus37** · 02-08-2016, 14:48

I do as I have 3 ORM, 2 Hudson rivers and 2 Shenandoah's. We have used them just like you explain and love them. Makes it much easier to equip a family of four with all their own hammocks. We just pick and choose who gets what depending on the weather. Love the ability to mix and match. You will love your purchase.

**Loaf** · 02-08-2016, 17:35

Originally Posted by nimbus37

I do as I have 3 ORM, 2 Hudson rivers and 2 Shenandoah's. We have used them just like you explain and love them. Makes it much easier to equip a family of four with all their own hammocks. We just pick and choose who gets what depending on the weather. Love the ability to mix and match. You will love your purchase.

This is exactly what I had in mind for the future. I've got a Sierra Sniveler now and it took me down to 22F this past weekend. Great piece of kit. Do you have problems with your kids and letting them use such expensive pieces of gear? Mine's only 2.5 months old, but always thinking about the future

**nimbus37** · 02-08-2016, 19:44

No, we have not had any problems with that, but we have raised our kids (boy is 9, girl is 7) to respect other people's property. Make no mistake, they know these quilts are not their's specifically. These quilts are for the family to use and they are being used for the purpose of the kids being able to join the parents on backpacking trips. When they show they cannot respect others property then they can also not join us on our vacations. They both have been using hammocks since before they were born. Each had their first trip be our annual trip to upstate New York in the summer (roughly 10 months after they were born).
They both are full time hangers as we did get them Dream hammocks for indoor hanging in September of 2013 (they got to choose the color and Randy made it a big deal when he delivered them to the fall hang in Michigan that year. He handed them directly to the kids, at my request, so the kids knew who it was that made their hammocks - direct association that someone put in the work to create this and now it was their responsibility to take care of it). Those are their specific hammocks and they treat them like gold everynight. It also helps that we expect them to help pack for every trip. We don't do much that doesn't involve them when backpacking. There isn't anything they just find appearing for their use on a trip. When things just magically appear for children, we believe they don't take interest in it and thus take it for granted. We make sure that even from the purchase phase of equipment, they know why a piece of gear is being bought and what it will be used for and thus it only gets used for that purpose. These things are not toys. Of course when they were younger, not knowing the connection between events with gear, all we did was emphasize what the gear allowed them to do. I remember from a very early age teaching my son that it was special that he had a fishing pole and that allowed him to fish with me. If he just left a pole on the ground or expected me to carry everything then he wasn't going to be able to fish with me. I loved watching a three year old treat his Spider-Man pole like it was a million dollars. He babied that thing for multiple summers. But that allowed me to buy him a really nice ultralight rod last year for his birthday. He respects the rod and reel, and the hard work it takes to take care of it. We wound 4lb test on it together, we tied the knots to put a snap on it. We bought "special" lures for him to use. Now he fishes like a pro and takes care of his stuff. Same applies for his Big Agnes sleeping bag. He knows that is the piece of gear that allows him to go on Cub Scout trips. Which reinforces the respect angle for gear and other people's property.

Wow, this reply got really long, but this is something I am passionate about. I think many parents do too much for their kids with no consequences and then they wonder why their kids don't value the same things they do. It is all a matter of presentation for a child.

Anyway, good luck with your child. I remember that age, and sometimes wish I could go back, but then I remember I have a trip planned in a month and here I am taking my two kids and wife out for a weekend in the woods and gear we have had for more than 5 years is going strong and still reliable for what we want it to do.

Signed,
A parent of two kids and a busting gear closet of 5 hammocks, 10 quilts, 4 sleeping bags, 6 backpacks and all the other necessary gear to allow my family to enjoy the outdoors!

Nimbus37

**Loaf** · 02-09-2016, 08:49

Originally Posted by nimbus37

No, we have not had any problems with that, but we have raised our kids (boy is 9, girl is 7) to respect other people's property. Make no mistake, they know these quilts are not their's specifically. These quilts are for the family to use and they are being used for the purpose of the kids being able to join the parents on backpacking trips. When they show they cannot respect others property then they can also not join us on our vacations. They both have been using hammocks since before they were born. Each had their first trip be our annual trip to upstate New York in the summer (roughly 10 months after they were born).
They both are full time hangers as we did get them Dream hammocks for indoor hanging in September of 2013 (they got to choose the color and Randy made it a big deal when he delivered them to the fall hang in Michigan that year. He handed them directly to the kids, at my request, so the kids knew who it was that made their hammocks - direct association that someone put in the work to create this and now it was their responsibility to take care of it). Those are their specific hammocks and they treat them like gold everynight. It also helps that we expect them to help pack for every trip. We don't do much that doesn't involve them when backpacking. There isn't anything they just find appearing for their use on a trip. When things just magically appear for children, we believe they don't take interest in it and thus take it for granted. We make sure that even from the purchase phase of equipment, they know why a piece of gear is being bought and what it will be used for and thus it only gets used for that purpose. These things are not toys. Of course when they were younger, not knowing the connection between events with gear, all we did was emphasize what the gear allowed them to do. I remember from a very early age teaching my son that it was special that he had a fishing pole and that allowed him to fish with me. If he just left a pole on the ground or expected me to carry everything then he wasn't going to be able to fish with me. I loved watching a three year old treat his Spider-Man pole like it was a million dollars. He babied that thing for multiple summers. But that allowed me to buy him a really nice ultralight rod last year for his birthday. He respects the rod and reel, and the hard work it takes to take care of it. We wound 4lb test on it together, we tied the knots to put a snap on it. We bought "special" lures for him to use. Now he fishes like a pro and takes care of his stuff. Same applies for his Big Agnes sleeping bag. He knows that is the piece of gear that allows him to go on Cub Scout trips. Which reinforces the respect angle for gear and other people's property.

Wow, this reply got really long, but this is something I am passionate about. I think many parents do too much for their kids with no consequences and then they wonder why their kids don't value the same things they do. It is all a matter of presentation for a child.

Anyway, good luck with your child. I remember that age, and sometimes wish I could go back, but then I remember I have a trip planned in a month and here I am taking my two kids and wife out for a weekend in the woods and gear we have had for more than 5 years is going strong and still reliable for what we want it to do.

Signed,
A parent of two kids and a busting gear closet of 5 hammocks, 10 quilts, 4 sleeping bags, 6 backpacks and all the other necessary gear to allow my family to enjoy the outdoors!

Nimbus37

Really appreciate the thoughts Nimbus. That's very much in line with how I envision the outdoors being for us in the future. It's really great to know that others are out there doing it already - it seems like there is a lack of knowledge on the subject of outdoors with family in this regard, relative to other outdoor related topics. Just Jeff has got some good stuff as well, and a few other places, but by and large, I haven't found loads of info on the subject.

I'm also curious if you have had any problems with the kid's desire, or "want to", regarding the outdoors. From what you said, it seems like your kids really enjoy it - did that take work on your part, or just them wanting to be with you and you capturing that at that crucial age?

**nimbus37** · 02-09-2016, 13:55

Anytime you want to run a question by me, from one dad to another, don't hesitate.

With regards to your question, I could go on and on, but really it comes down to a saying that my wife and I live by. Dont change your lifestyle to conform to your kids needs, teach your kids to be flexible and adapt to your lifestyle.

It was really important that my wife and I didn't become completely different people after we had kids. There was a reason we were together, we liked each other, we liked what each one had as hobbies and we didn't want to lose that. Both of us came from a divorced household and we could see similarities with our parents. Both sets talked about how they grew apart because each was trying to be something they thought the other wanted. My wife and I already had what we wanted. We just wanted to bring children into the relationship. That shouldn't change your personal likes and hobbies. Kids can certainly add to them, but you shouldn't ever stop being who you are for your significant other or your kids.

For example, of course, we both loved to backpack. With kids that is harder, but it doesn't mean we couldn't car camp for a while and get back into backpacking at a later date. Once we knew the kids liked car camping, we did some day trips and then an overnighter, and by the time we had our second child at 2.5 years old, we did a 5 day backpacking trip. Now we knew we couldn't hike very far taking all the stuff you needed for kids, so we opted for an alternative. When you backpack you want to get away from civilization. Easy to do when you can hike 10 miles from your starting point. Well we couldn't do that with kids, so we thought outside the box. We took a trip to an island. South manitou island is off the sleeping bear dunes national lakeshore here in Michigan. We took the ferry, then we walked the 2.5 miles to the campground and setup camp. From there it was like car camping. We were there for 5 days. Best trip we have aver had. With or without kids. Made us realize we could do anything.

Fast forward to teo years ago and we took a trip to Colorado supporting two runners that did 120 miles in 6 days. Kids came along of course and truly helped out. They knew what they were responsible for and when it was play time. Everyone talks about that trip still too.

Another one is last spring break we went up and hiked the SHT. We did a bed and breakfast as the highs were only in the forties, but we planned well and did day hikes. They loved it. Just keep things manageable for them. We have never expected our kids to do more mileage than their age in a day. I have a 7 and 9 year old. We don't expect my daughter to do more than 7. If we get done and my son wants to do more, we will do another 2-5 miler after lunch. Good dad and son time!

Morale of the story, don't think you can't do anything with your kid. They will adapt. If you make it normal for them they won't know the difference. Truly I don't think my kids even know they could have a say whether they wanted to go or not on a camping trip. But I don't believe they would want to miss out on all the fun.

I should get back to work. PM if you want, or if you don't mind the hijacking, keep posting here in this thread.
Nimbus37

**Loaf** · 02-09-2016, 14:47

Originally Posted by nimbus37

Anytime you want to run a question by me, from one dad to another, don't hesitate.

With regards to your question, I could go on and on, but really it comes down to a saying that my wife and I live by. Dont change your lifestyle to conform to your kids needs, teach your kids to be flexible and adapt to your lifestyle.

It was really important that my wife and I didn't become completely different people after we had kids. There was a reason we were together, we liked each other, we liked what each one had as hobbies and we didn't want to lose that. Both of us came from a divorced household and we could see similarities with our parents. Both sets talked about how they grew apart because each was trying to be something they thought the other wanted. My wife and I already had what we wanted. We just wanted to bring children into the relationship. That shouldn't change your personal likes and hobbies. Kids can certainly add to them, but you shouldn't ever stop being who you are for your significant other or your kids.

For example, of course, we both loved to backpack. With kids that is harder, but it doesn't mean we couldn't car camp for a while and get back into backpacking at a later date. Once we knew the kids liked car camping, we did some day trips and then an overnighter, and by the time we had our second child at 2.5 years old, we did a 5 day backpacking trip. Now we knew we couldn't hike very far taking all the stuff you needed for kids, so we opted for an alternative. When you backpack you want to get away from civilization. Easy to do when you can hike 10 miles from your starting point. Well we couldn't do that with kids, so we thought outside the box. We took a trip to an island. South manitou island is off the sleeping bear dunes national lakeshore here in Michigan. We took the ferry, then we walked the 2.5 miles to the campground and setup camp. From there it was like car camping. We were there for 5 days. Best trip we have aver had. With or without kids. Made us realize we could do anything.

Fast forward to teo years ago and we took a trip to Colorado supporting two runners that did 120 miles in 6 days. Kids came along of course and truly helped out. They knew what they were responsible for and when it was play time. Everyone talks about that trip still too.

Another one is last spring break we went up and hiked the SHT. We did a bed and breakfast as the highs were only in the forties, but we planned well and did day hikes. They loved it. Just keep things manageable for them. We have never expected our kids to do more mileage than their age in a day. I have a 7 and 9 year old. We don't expect my daughter to do more than 7. If we get done and my son wants to do more, we will do another 2-5 miler after lunch. Good dad and son time!

Morale of the story, don't think you can't do anything with your kid. They will adapt. If you make it normal for them they won't know the difference. Truly I don't think my kids even know they could have a say whether they wanted to go or not on a camping trip. But I don't believe they would want to miss out on all the fun.

I should get back to work. PM if you want, or if you don't mind the hijacking, keep posting here in this thread.
Nimbus37

Really appreciate the thoughts - the idea that your life and who you are as a family doesn't change as a result of having kids is something we strongly believe and have been talking about even already. As our son is only 2.5 months, we're still working out this balance, but plan on integrating him into our family culture more and more as he gets older. Clearly, you guys have put in some serious time and effort to build your family culture, which I think is very commendable in this day and age.

Also, I would love to get up in your neck of the woods - the SHT, BWCA, Isle Royale NP, and others all would be a great change of pace for us, being down here in the South. We're close to the Ozarks, which are nice, but not super well developed.

Again, I appreciate all the thoughts and specifics - I will be looking back at this in the future for reference and principles.

**Loaf** · 12-20-2016, 13:31

Nimbus, finally got authorized financially to pull the trigger on the ORM. Currently trying to optimize how I hang it as an UQ on my WBBBXLC. I bought the JRB suspension kit, but it seems like I like to be more diagonal than the quilt wants to be. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.