Keepin on keepin on in TX

[sargevining]

Well;

I'm starting to the the hang of this stuff (as if that joke has never been said round here).

We've had two years of drought here in Texas, but I believe I personally solved that problem when I got a hammock. Its rained every weekend since, and this weekend it started raining early Friday morning and didn't stop until late Saturday night. In the meantime, I've been wanting to practice set up and take down, try out so other stuff I've learned, and test some ideas of my own.

So, in a fit of frustration combined with dogged determination, I moved a bunch of furniture around in a corner of the living room being used for a home office and guest sleeping. I haven't worked out of the home office for two years, and don't have over night guests often enough for me to decide that they are more important than hammocking. Here's the result:



My first hang was technically not a hang and my second one was to see if I could keep myself warm when it got really cold (for Southeast Texas, anyway). This weekend I wanted to see how much impedimenta I could dispense with and still stay warm and to convince my self that I didn't actually have to get inside the sleeping bag to keep warm. You don't get to be as old as I am by believing EVERYTHING you read on the internet, no matter how much sense it makes.

So I dispensed with the inflatable sleeping pads in favor of the stock reflectix pad that comes with the HHDJ, and a jury rigged PLUQ. I had just gotten some shock cord, but hadn't had time to rig up a proper DIY PLUQ, so I tied the ends together around the ridge line and clipped the sides to the hammock with some tarp clips. Then I threw open both windows, tossed a fleece mummy liner in the bottom to lay on, opened up a Eureka 30* bag to use as a TQ, and snuggled under wearing a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt hoodie. The temps were going to be down to 45, which is about normal for this time of year. Not Michigan cold, but cold enough, and I was close enough to my bed so that if I got cold I could bail easily and not even have to put my slippers on to do it.

I stayed toasty warm, even though a couple of the tarp clips pooped off during the night rendering the PLUQ useless. I guess this means that the reflectix alone will work just fine for temps down to 45*. This stuff really works, doesn't it? The only problem I had was that the alarm clock showed 6:00 AM when it really was 5:00 AM. This probably happened when I decided to keep it in the ridgeline bag when I put the hammock up in the snake skins after last time.



I also figured out the solution to a small problem I'd had the last couple of nights: What to do with the Kindle after lights out.


So, now I have a relatively permanent hammock test area in my house. In the near future, I'll be putting together a proper DIY PLUQ and trying that out to see if it works as good as or better than the reflectix. I've also gotten two North Face sleeping bags from HF member body945 that will be modded into a TQ and UQ. The goal is to have several insulation options to use in the extremely changeable SE Texas winters where you can go from the high 20s to the low 80s in the same week.

I'm also going to see if I can finally get a night sleep in the hammock without wking up an hour early for one reason or another.

And if I have any overnight guests, we might get some more hammock converts in here.

[ernesthemmingway]

I tried to use my poncho liner as an UQ the other night but it didnt work very well, so Ill be interested to see how your PLUQ diy job goes. I hope you'll post something about your progress. Thanks for the report, lots of good info in there.

[sargevining]

I tried to use my poncho liner as an UQ the other night but it didnt work very well, so Ill be interested to see how your PLUQ diy job goes. I hope you'll post something about your progress. Thanks for the report, lots of good info in there.

Well, the test bed (no pun intended) will be used this evening. I decided to check to see if the poncho liner is better or equal to the Hennesey pad, but to keep it as simple as possible.

I took my Crazy Creek Crib, ran some shock cord through the channels at the end, laid it flat, then laid the woobie centered on that. I clipped it with tarp clips at the ends to keep it centered while I rigged it to the hammock. I tied the shock cord together, then clipped it off to the tarp clips prussiked to the ridge line.







I tied one of the ties to the ring that the reflectix pad clips to

And on the other side I used two tarp clips.


Its forecast to get down to 53* tonite. I'm running our of cold days to try this out. To make it fair, I'll wear regular jammie trousers and a long sleeve undershirt instead of the sweat gear.

Will report back at 5:30.

[sargevining]

A fair to middlin nights sleep. The Eureka bag is really too small to use as a TQ, and its a side zipper mummy which means it doesn'r fit quite right. There were a couple of times when I had excposed portions that got cold. But the woobie was sufficient at 53", which means it will wokr (for me at least) for most nights we see around here.

I was still using the Swiss Army mummy linerto lay on, mostly b/c its comfy. I was having a bit of a hard time getting it under me right after I'd gotten in, but I think I stumbled on a way to fix that. There's a draw string at the top and I tied the ends together over the ridgeline. That was a partial fix, it still moved under me, but I was able to find the ends much more easily. Tonight I'll put a prusik loop on the ridgeline and hook to it. That should keep it from ridign down as I get in.