Simple Camping Hammock use with Wool Blankets

Description

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Dave Canterbury, David Canterbury, The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

afternoon folks I'm Dave Canterbury with self-reliance out there in the Pathfinder school and we like to talk about this morning is how to improvise with a cup of wool blankets for hammock use in a cold weather or wintertime environment and I'm a big believer that wool blankets are very versatile Horace Kephart always said it's better to carry to thinner wool blankets than one thick wool blanket and the reason for that is your ability to layer those wool blankets together and that's exactly what we're going to do today when we're talking about utilizing them as an under quilt as well as a cover for a hammock in cold weather environments stay with me and we'll get started okay so let's first look at our hammock connection we've got a simple jb hammock here with the speedtype buckles and the tree strap that we pull up till where we get the proper hang angle and then I generally will half inch that thing off somehow like this with a speed release loop alright then I can just pull it out when I'm done but it's going to give me good security that that line is not going to slip through that buckle but that loop is what we're going to take advantage of so what I've done is I've taken a queen size wool blanket this is a Pathfinder wool blanket and I've tied a knot in one of the diagonal corners and I'm going to bring it down to the hammock here and I'm actually going to put that knot through that loop that I created that security loop that I created I'm going to pull that down and then I'm going to pull it taut and put another security half it's right behind it just like this and I do that on both ends of the hammock so now what we have I'll move this out of the way for a minute what we have now in the beginning of this setup is we have our hammock sitting here and we have our blanket and we can now curl into this hammock just like this spread that thing out and get comfortable in it this is a nice double wide hammock we can come underneath the hammock and grab one side of those tails on our diamond here

and bring that up and pull it to the inside so now we have one layer of wool over our body then we can come in and grab the other side and flip it over and we have two layers of wool over our core and we have a single layer underneath us now you're pretty well hard against that wall how well is that going to battle convection it's going to battle at some because it's just like having wool clothing on but you could put a pad inside this hammock to help battle that as well or you could stuff this thing with some type of trash bag full of leaves or whatever and put it underneath before you get in the hammock and give yourself that under under mattress if you will that will help battle convection as well but down to some pretty cold temperatures if you're wearing proper clothing this will be more than enough for you with these two layers above and one layer underneath now if you want to get a little warmer than that you can also use a second wool blanket to create what I would call like a hot tent I'll show you that too so now we're going to take our second wool blanket and we're going to string it across on our ridgeline above our hand just in half so that we can then pull this over the top of us while we're in the hammock and if we want to we can pin this with a horse blanket pin on both ends down pretty far so that we have just a small opening when we pull it over the top of us here to battle convection coming from that direction you're going to battle a lot of convection coming from this direction because this is going to hang lower than your hammock does so the only issue you're going to have is what's coming inside this but again this is so close together that you're not going to get a lot of breeze even underneath there unless it's really windy you set your hammock up in the wrong direction to the wind so you want to have your wind going against this blanket to help battle that convection that gives you a layer on top of the layer underneath your hammock to battle that convection and you're going to trap all of the warm air inside this hot tents that you would with wool and you're really really going to stay warm now a couple things that are worth noting here for people who haven't slept in hammocks very often first of all remember that I mentioned you could put a some type of a pad in the bottom of this a windshield reflector will work fine some type of reflect acts insulation work fine a yoga mat will work fine or like a thermal rest leaving tile work fine the reason I don't have the wool blanket on the inside instead of underneath is twofold number one if I'm laying directly on the wool blanket against this fabric I've compressed the insulation and pretty much removed most of it by wrapping it underneath the wool blanket I are underneath the hammock I mean I accomplished a couple things number one I put a little bit of an insulated layer between the wind the hammock and myself number two if you've ever tried to put anything inside of a hammock like a blanket and lay in it all night long you quickly realize that it doesn't work out very well

it ends up balling up in different places you end up sliding it underneath your body or you get completely out of it it's over your body and you're sleeping against the fabric anyway with this system it keeps that blanket in one spot so once I wrap these ears over myself the only thing that can happen is these ears can come off but I can quickly grab them back over and put them on me I don't have to wrestle around with it if I'm laying on this thing in my hammock it becomes a disaster I found that out from personal experience but this system works out very very well for keeping that blanket in place throughout the night now you could just tuck these ears in to begin with and lay on top of them if you were just worried about some convection and you're not real real worried about problems having to cover up your core too much in the night you can adapt this very easily like that you can sleep in it with these ears inside and then you can put this over the top of you as well if you'd like to but for me it's much easier always just to throw those layers

over me or under me because I can always just tuck one up over top of me and regulate my temperature that way by flipping one ear off or pulling both ears over just same thing with this I can flip this on and off very easily depending on how comfortable I am at night I can pin this thing down closer here to the hammock itself with a horse blanket pin to close that gap of air that's coming through this is a very very versatile system it's very easy to adapt to variations in temperatures and in the morning when it's chilly outside I want to sit by the fire and get warm and drink a cup of coffee I can just pull this blanket straight off the ridgeline wrap it around me and go sit by the fire I'm not going to do that with a sleeping bag so it becomes a piece of outerwear as well as a very versatile sleep system alright folks along Dave Canterbury with self-reliance Outfitters in the Pathfinder school and I appreciate you joining in front of the video today just a quick little tip or trick on how you can use a couple of wool blankets in conjunction with the hammock to get a decent night's sleep in colder temperatures

I appreciate your views I appreciate your support I thank you for everything you do for our school for our family and for business following our sponsored instructors affiliate some friends and I'll be back with another video as soon as I can thanks guys