Swingin' in a tree somewhere

Happy Birthday!

I think I'll always remember the awe all us scouts had at the the "old guy" who seemed hell bent on proving that he could subsist on the measliest of food and basic shelter requirements while out camping.

We'd have scores of scouts setting up the old two-man A-frame tents, unrolling the sleeping pads and airing out the sleeping bags. A few others were busy breaking out all the cook and chef kits and working diligently to get a fire going with moist kindling found no more than 3 feet from our make-shift fire ring. Designated assistants were hungrily opening canned goods and fetching buckets of water to boil.

Fast-forward about 3 hours and we've finally finished off a hearty meal of beef stronganoff and cherry cobbler and are now busily cleaning 20 of the possible 22 utensils, pots, and pans included in the cook and chef kits (plus the Dutch oven) in the waning light of evening when a dark figure would come lumbering out of the woods.

Low and behold, it's "Mr. B", decked out in several layers of clashing garments seemingly unaffected by the elements and looking well feed and rested. "How could that be?", we'd all ask. "It's simple really", he'd reply casually. "I've got this new hammock I strung between a couple of pines about 50 yards upwind. Got setup in about 3 minutes, so I took a little nap. Woke up hungry a bit later, so I used the water I'd warmed at the bottom of my vapor barrier to melt down a couple cubes of beef bouillon for some soup in my only eating utensil. Mixed it with a twig and drank it down. A swirl of water after to clean and I'm good to go."

I think if we'd all adopted the "Mr. B's lowest-of-low impact" camping style we'd have had hours of extra time to perfect our tree-limb swords, and Troop 86 would have had a couple of Olympic fencers to add to it's legacy.

Best wishes for a great Birthday! Was great to see you out in Arizona!

Chad