I can't say that 'retirement' is filled with idle time, in fact I'd say it's quite the opposite. I'm staying busy, tween the kids, the house, the chores (I'm still raising chickens and goats) plus cutting and splitting firewood to heat the place, I'm fairly engaged.
However.
My latest endeavor has been bringing a few businesses online, besides www.outdoorsman.net www.woodsmansremedies.com http://goapocalypse.com there is also www.survivalnomads.com
Survival Nomads is my online shop selling various outdoorsy type goods. It's young but operational, and growing. I'm continuously trying out new stuff and discarding stuff. The goal being to carry some good reasonably priced gear, and eventually offering a range of items from low priced but still good quality to best in class gear that of course comes with the corresponding price tag. I want to carry stuff people would find useful and would feel like they could depend on it.
I've been an outdoors-man my whole life and I mean my whole life. At three years of age I sat in the creek in front of our house that didn't have electricity or running water and shoved my finger into critter holes in the bank. I was a happy kid then.
My point is, as I go through the goods in the store I'm ditching stuff that I don't think is useful to someone. Having spent my life outside and using various tools I've come to appreciate some design elements. Not all of the designs currently stocked would fit my tastes but that doesn't mean it wouldn't for others.
Not only do I hope you'll visit the store, I hope to hear from you. Likes, dislikes, it's all good and it helps me grow. If you've got product suggestions I'm very eager to hear them. If I can source what you're looking for at a competitive price I'm all for it.
So, if you've the time, come see me at Survival Nomads.
My second oldest son is off and running, and I am proud to say, following in his old man's footsteps to and extent. (I hope he avoids most of my mistakes along the way).
If you've the time, his work is worth the follow, he writes his own blog now.
I don't really know why I've always been fascinated by timepieces, classic timepieces more so than modern. What I do know is I've had a watch on my wrist since I was a young man, I believe I was twelve or thirteen when I got my first one and I've had one ever since.
Before I retired it wasn't uncommon to hear me say things like 'lose an hour in the morning and you'll spend all day looking for it'. which is an absolute truth. Many recent studies have shown that we tend to be most productive in our work days in the morning. It's all downhill after lunch for many, so losing an hour in the morning really hurts an individual's productivity.
In my final years of corporate life the bane of the smartphone rose to prominence. I can honestly say I've never seen anything more damaging to productive and wise use of time than the smartphone. I witnessed the disappearance of many a wrist watch, or saw them replaced by extensions of smartphones, a la the apple watch. True, there were some who still wore a timepiece and I never failed to notice that. I also studiously observed those who checked time on their watch, usually a glance that could be measured in milliseconds versus those who checked their phones. What starts as a look at the time turns into multi-minute affairs if not longer, because invariably there were several push notifications, text messages, emails that drove the person to check out of the meeting and essentially disengage from a productive state within the group. I digress.
The history of wristwatches is fascinating, when they first became readily available they were for women. The venerable pocket watch was the male timepiece of choice. The first record most often pointed to was in 1868, and until the first World War they remained on the wrist of the fairer sex. War would change that.
"The watch hands [on the officers’ wrists] pointed to the second which had been given for the assault to begin, and instantly, to the tick, the guns lifted and made a curtain of fire round the Chateau of Hooge, beyond the Menin road, six hundred yards away.
“Time!”
The company officers blew their whistles, and there was a sudden clatter from trench-spades slung to rifle-barrels, and from men girdled with hand-grenades, as the advancing companies deployed and made their first rush forward."
Post war, production of wristwatches for men exploded and the world never really looked at alternatives again, until the modern smartphone became commonplace.
However, there are many who never took their watch off. Now seem that watches are making a come back. or so some have written
The analog field watch, the kind of watch most of our father's fathers and then they themselves wore. Found upon the wrist of travelers, adventurers, hunters and fishermen as well as mill workers and foundrymen police officers and of course soldiers, aviators, squids and lounge lizards, the world over. (No offense to my fellow Navy Men and Marines.)
I've had a number of them over the years but I won't bore you with all of them while leading up to what I think might be the most affordable, durable, functional version I've owned. In fact, I've liked this watch so much I have several of them, but none of them have worn out or stopped working. So why so many of them? Because of minor changes since they were released that had features the prior version did not have. I've owned four of the Bertucci designs, all of them are still kicking.
The final iteration that has been on my wrist for a while now, the Bertucci A4T Illuminated. It was the first of the line that had all of the features I wanted, many of the others before it had some or most but not the complete feature set I was looking for.
While there are many features, the primary for me is the watch is a single piece of titanium, no pins and the fact that the crown is at the 4 o'clock position. That feature alone is huge to me. For a number of years I had a permanent callus on the back of my hand where the crown on a submariner dug incessantly into the tissue to the front of it. The 4 o'clock positioning of the crown on the A4T eliminates this issue. The watch is incredibly lightweight, and while it is a 44mm case it is quite slim and doesn't catch on sleeves and the like. I like Marathon watches but they're bricks on the wrist and incredible thick.
The single piece of machined titanium. It's a clever design that does away with the pin method of attaching the watch to a band. You run the single continuous band through a bar, under the watch and then through the next bar. Done. Virtually indestructible.
The A4T Illuminated has continuous illuminating micro tube hands & markers. The tritium microtubes are brite and unfading. The face is classically styled after many WWII Field Watches, the crystal is sapphire and virtually unscratchable.
• Equipped with our legendary U.S. Patented solid titanium Unibody™ case for extreme durability and comfort
• Durable screw down crown & case back
• Hardened anti-glare sapphire crystal
• Swiss made all-metal quartz movement
• Active Comfort™ ergonomic 4 o'clock crown does not impinge wrist movement
• Period authentic U.S. military dial with 12/24 hour markings and date
• Integrated unbreakable titanium band retention lug bars
• 100 M water resistance
• 5 year battery life
• LBI - Low Battery Indicator feature will cause the second hand to skip, indicating it's time to change the battery
• 3 year warranty
The only feature I wish was available is a solar powered version. Which brings me to why I've abandoned automatics. While they are great pieces, all automatics have to be serviced, some of them within four or five years, the longest I've ever seen advertised is ten years. And while that's a long time, even five years, the cost of servicing automatics is often atrocious. I've been quoted and paid from $250 to $1200 for a service that was usually required every five years. So, as much as I like automatics, I no longer own any. Solar is interesting and I've had a few, and is the only missing feature from the Bertucci A4T in my opinion.
There are a slew of bands that will work with this watch and the manufacturer offers three materials. Nylon nato zulu types, Horween leather and Tridura which is a polyurethane infused webbing. The band is 26mm in width.
All of the Bertucci field watches are available in a polymer resin, stainless steel, and titanium. The polys are the least expensive and offer the same one piece no pin design and the 4 o'clock crown. These are a great option for younger folk, my seven year old son has the A-2R Bertucci DX3 as does my sixteen year old daughter. It's a very inexpensive ($59.99 @ the time of this writing) very durable watch!
If you're looking for a classically styled field watch with a modern execution that is unencumbered by 'smart stuff' you need look no further than Bertucci. If the A4T isn't in your price range you can get essentially the same watch as the A4T Illuminated for quite a bit less if you're willing to forgo the Tritium, and or the sapphire crystal. The A2 for example is about 1/3rd the cost of the 4T. In fact the entire range of Bertucci watches can be had quite economically depending upon your choice of build and features.
See the entire line of Bertucci Watches. The ordering process at Bertucci is either over the phone or via email, in this way you can pic the exact watch, features and band type that you want. For those who are not interested in custom configurations, you can find nearlythe entire line at Amazon.
I spent nearly three hours this morning cleaning up the comments section here. I deleted nearly 1000 comments there were spam and I still don't know if I got them all. As a result I'm turning on comment approval for the foreseeable future. I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience to the regulars here.
It's in its infancy and only a portion of what I hope to do is published so far. I am also actively looking for writers and contributors to this new endeavor. Not solely focused on hunting but rather a range of outdoors and outdoors related categories. I hope to expand the site to a very wide range of topics that have something to do with the outdoors, including things like gardening, homesteading, self reliance, off grid, as well as the typical fare such as camping, hiking, bushcraft and so on.
These are paying gigs. So, if you've an article you'd like to pitch please contact me at frostbornepublications@gmail.com please include a short bio as well as the subject matter you'd like to write about. Pictures are always good to. And any links to any material you've already published.
Aggie, I've always been fond of your food/cooking/canning/home made type stuff, I hope to have a section dedicated to this so if you've an interest please reach out.
For the regular crowd here, I'm going to continue posting at AG. Primarily about my personal journey. While there will still be some articles published here, most of my future content will be at outdoorsman.net
