Awesome outing tonight! (With clean-up pic.)
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 10:47 pm
For possibly the first time, I just said "To heck with everything, I'm going mudding!" 
For those who might be interested, I had on an old pair of socks, my "barn boots" (wellies/whatever), tan heavy-duty work pants (Carhart knockoffs), a pair of Duluth Trading Company "Bare Naked" boxer/briefs, a long sleeved olive green T-shirt that is literally falling apart, and a broad-brimmed hat with my LED "cap light" on it.
Sorry,no pix of the outing itself- was sort of in a hurry. Wanted to get out there in daylight. I headed out back to where the log skidder made some serious ruts last winter (swampy, plus the ground never froze last winter.) Shot a couple scenes with Nyssa Nevers there last weekend- lots of knee-deep, boot-sucking mud, and nice soft mud and water in the wheel ruts. Worked my way in up to the top of my boots in the thick stuff, getting pretty stuck a couple times and having to work my way out.
Then I decided to walk the length of the wheel tracks, and see how far I could get without flooding my boots. Of course, I did. At that point, I decided what the heck- I'm an adult, and I can do whatever I want in my own backyard. So I had my first ever actual deliberate wallow. 
I learned something interesting- when really tightly woven canvas is covered with a thick layer of clay muck, it's waterproof. Except in this case, it kept the water IN. 
When I got vertical (after being horizontal in the mud, with my calves and forearms resting on the bottom) I not only had two tall boots full of mud and water, but my pants were ballooned up just above my boots with probably two gallons of water in each. It was like having anchors tied to my feet. Had to take the boots off and drain the pants before I could walk back.
So, now I am TOTALLY covered in really thick, sticky mud from my shoulders down. At this point, I remember that the hose is no longer hooked up to the laundry sink in the basement and run out back, but hooked direct to the water line from the well and run out front for car washing.
Idea: Peat is a lot less sticky than clay, and the water in the peat is pretty clean (relatively speaking.) So I went back to the house by way of the rock-bordered pit. After a bit of entertaining play, I ended up floating on my back in the peat. 
At this point, I decided to kick my boots off to get the worst of the muck off. But every time I tried to pick my legs up enough to grab a boot, the top half of me went in deeper. 
Dang, I love that "OMG I'm sinkinig!" feeling. By the time I got the second boot off and tossed out of the pit, I had managed despite my best efforts to sink in chin-deep with my head back. Wow, what a rush.
By this time, it was dark enough that I dared hose down in front of the house. Wasn't looking forward to hosing off in cold water, but it wasn't too bad at first. Then the warmish water in the pressure tank ran out, and I had nice well-temperature water. BRRRRRR! So, to make a long story no more painful, I stripped down to my extremely muddy underwear, hosed off as best I could with cold water in the dark, hosed down my clothes, and headed for the shower. The pic below is what greeted me in the mirror.
For those who might be interested, I had on an old pair of socks, my "barn boots" (wellies/whatever), tan heavy-duty work pants (Carhart knockoffs), a pair of Duluth Trading Company "Bare Naked" boxer/briefs, a long sleeved olive green T-shirt that is literally falling apart, and a broad-brimmed hat with my LED "cap light" on it.
Sorry,no pix of the outing itself- was sort of in a hurry. Wanted to get out there in daylight. I headed out back to where the log skidder made some serious ruts last winter (swampy, plus the ground never froze last winter.) Shot a couple scenes with Nyssa Nevers there last weekend- lots of knee-deep, boot-sucking mud, and nice soft mud and water in the wheel ruts. Worked my way in up to the top of my boots in the thick stuff, getting pretty stuck a couple times and having to work my way out.
Then I decided to walk the length of the wheel tracks, and see how far I could get without flooding my boots. Of course, I did. At that point, I decided what the heck- I'm an adult, and I can do whatever I want in my own backyard. So I had my first ever actual deliberate wallow. I learned something interesting- when really tightly woven canvas is covered with a thick layer of clay muck, it's waterproof. Except in this case, it kept the water IN. When I got vertical (after being horizontal in the mud, with my calves and forearms resting on the bottom) I not only had two tall boots full of mud and water, but my pants were ballooned up just above my boots with probably two gallons of water in each. It was like having anchors tied to my feet. Had to take the boots off and drain the pants before I could walk back.So, now I am TOTALLY covered in really thick, sticky mud from my shoulders down. At this point, I remember that the hose is no longer hooked up to the laundry sink in the basement and run out back, but hooked direct to the water line from the well and run out front for car washing.
Idea: Peat is a lot less sticky than clay, and the water in the peat is pretty clean (relatively speaking.) So I went back to the house by way of the rock-bordered pit. After a bit of entertaining play, I ended up floating on my back in the peat. At this point, I decided to kick my boots off to get the worst of the muck off. But every time I tried to pick my legs up enough to grab a boot, the top half of me went in deeper. Dang, I love that "OMG I'm sinkinig!" feeling. By the time I got the second boot off and tossed out of the pit, I had managed despite my best efforts to sink in chin-deep with my head back. Wow, what a rush. By this time, it was dark enough that I dared hose down in front of the house. Wasn't looking forward to hosing off in cold water, but it wasn't too bad at first. Then the warmish water in the pressure tank ran out, and I had nice well-temperature water. BRRRRRR! So, to make a long story no more painful, I stripped down to my extremely muddy underwear, hosed off as best I could with cold water in the dark, hosed down my clothes, and headed for the shower. The pic below is what greeted me in the mirror.
