Are you "that guy" in your neighborhood?


Yoven

Yoven

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Eastern Missouri
I live in the suburbs. Not too happy with it but it's where my wife and kids are and I like them so I guess that's enough for me. Anyway, whenever I have an idea relating to camping (ways to start a fire, new tarp/tent set up, hammock set up, etc) I go in the backyard and do it, usually in full view of the neighbors. Inevitably, neighbors will wonder just what the hell I was doing. "Holy crap, did you spend the night outside without a tent? It was freezing!" Well, yes, I did and I was toasty (or yes and I froze I won't try that set up again). I don't feel self conscious about it at all, in fact it makes me sad that there's no one around me who does the same thing. It's depressing to me. So I know in this forum that I'm not the only guy who is "that guy" on his street. Any one else have experiences with that?
 
When I lived in town I lived in a corner house in the crummy part of town. It was best to not be outside after dark and to be seen with items that might look like they have value.
 
I don't think many would give it much thought if I slept outside. Lot of people here hunt, camp, shoot, and other outdoor things. Someone has a tipi set up along the creek, soneone else has a yurt in their yard, about half the people have campers and or horses. One lady in her 70's regularly goes to cow camp on the mountain every year for a few weeks, living in a tent, some men her age work cows or general ranch work daily. The UPS driver takes a couple weeks off to go hunt with her husband, they pack back into a wilderness area on horses.

I sorta like it here.

Local high school age girl getting the family horses in shape for hunting season, they pack into the mountains and make a base camp to hunt.

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well.. my backyard is gravel and a raised garden.. so no yard to play in around here. but im known as that guy.. in the family haha
 
does"nt have to be "BushCraft" Just You Know How to do something that they have no knowledge of
Example: got a call from a tenant no running water {unspecified problem} the office in Basement me Flood! U-turn and and speak to one of the guys, head to bathroom No running water in the sink Lift the toilet cover and flush Works! Looked ..some Dit Brain turned the water cut off closed.Opened Problem solved and guy got Edumecation.
 
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I live in a really small Texas town and my neighbors know i'm into different things, and take interest in it. ALTHOUGH, I am 'that guy' everywhere else. My College bible study group has referred to me as 'Tarzan' since I walk barefoot alot, carry a knife, etc. etc.. Quite a few of them really think i'm nuts, but my close brothers in Christ understand the 'whys'.

The weird looks I get are sometimes irritating, but I don't get discouraged, I like being closer with God's earth and crafting things, nothing wrong with that at all!
 
Yes I am that guy, along with a few other guys who enjoy it as well.

Since I have an 8ft tall wood privacy fence, my only neighbors who get a view on what I do in my backyard are the ones I actually talk to with high porches.

Just here recently I was out back with my bush chair setup by my fire pit relaxing by the fire. My neighbor comes out on his back porch askin if I done went and broke my one and only camping chair. I proceed to explain to him how I made the chair from ripstop nylon, 550 and some pvc tubing I had in my shed since I wasnt going to cut down limbs for that. The guy just stood there for 10 minutes gawking at me then said I will be right back, I have a few things I want to look at for me.

Needless to say I felt pretty inspired. :4:

-Brandon
 
Yoven said:
I live in the suburbs.... neighbors will wonder just what the hell I was doing. ... there's no one around me who does the same thing. It's depressing to me..... Any one else have experiences with that?
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Just a lil' bit! I think I heard my neighbor say I should go back to Africa in response to a spilt wood fire I made. I'm white and he's from Mexico. Irony? Maybe it was the hand drill or late night fires or huge quantities of steam rising up creating rain clouds overhead from my maple syrup making adventure that pushed him over the edge. It's hard to tell.:4: Can't wait to fire up the forge and start hammering. Hehehe! I'll just make sure and not do it at midnight.

Nevertheless, he did buy some syrup after I gave him some. And, the whole jumping thru hoops I had to do in order to legally burn in the city has attracted some positive attention and allowed me to share it with a lot more folks than I would have otherwise.
 
Currahee Rose and I are probably known as 'those people' here in the camp ground we're staying at. We're always starting our fire pit via flint & steel or firesteel. Currahee Rose is always out experimenting with her new diy pie pan baking set or dutch oven. I'm usually seen gathering limbs and twigs for our stick fires and testing hobo and alcohol stoves. Plus we're both guilty of sitting outside making piles of shavings and waving to folks as they pass by.....
 
kfb1960 said:
Currahee Rose and I are probably known as 'those people' here in the camp ground we're staying at. We're always starting our fire pit via flint & steel or firesteel. Currahee Rose is always out experimenting with her new diy pie pan baking set or dutch oven. I'm usually seen gathering limbs and twigs for our stick fires and testing hobo and alcohol stoves. Plus we're both guilty of sitting outside making piles of shavings and waving to folks as they pass by.....
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Nothing like waving to folks with a huge pile of shavings in front of you and a nice sharp blade in hand. Ive done that many a times, well with an axe over the shoulder. (sheathed of course)

-Brandon
 
Yup. I don't do much outside though, mostly for the same reasons described by Joshuajk.

Can't/won't sleep outside here (can't even leave the windows open at night). When I set up out in the hills, situational observances are taken into account...stay below the military summit, diffuse smoke from fires, etc...

My poor kitchen table though...yeah, sacrificed two cutting boards into work surfaces, bits of gear all over the house and the kids know what a Mora is and how to tie some simple knots.

Yeah, I'm known as 'that guy'...besides being the local north-western redneck refugee living amongst the... ...inner-city culture examples found around here.
 
Yep, I'm that guy too!

Cinder block and propane flame thrower knife kiln in the driveway, cutting birch bark for containers in the side yard, spinning up a friction fire in the back yard... my neighbors all think I'm odd, but I've stopped getting too many weird looks so they must be getting used to me. That is until I test out the atlatl I'm working on in the front yard soon! :4:

I actually feel bad for my neighbors who cannot appreciate the outdoors...it must be an unrewarding existence. I've begun to think of it as my duty as "that guy" to expose more people to earth living skills with the hopes of enlightening just a few.
 
Guess I'm "That guy" too....always got a funny look this summer like ....oh there is that weird guy out on the front porch working on another axe....and get the strange looks when I walk outside wearing my buckskins all the time...and I've been known to just crash out by the fire pit in a bed roll a few times too!!!!!
 
I will be once I get a yard again. A few years ago when I did have a yard in a nice suburban area my brother and I started talking about whether we could spear squirrels in the yard if money got tight so we wouldn't have to answer questions about gunshots. Well, that discussion led to us trimming up a few shrubs on the property line that were getting a little too tall and making spears, throwing them around the yard at our squirrel target (empty Pepsi bottle), with no shirts on of course because it was summer and high eighties with high humidity. While doing this, a van pulled into the house next door and started unloading boxes. New neighbors moving in. A few weeks later when we broke the ice, they said they were more than a little worried about their crazy barefoot half-naked neighbors tossing spears around the yard.
 
When I lived in the city, my neighbors would drop twigs by on the driveway and watch from a distance as I mysteriously rub two sticks together to make fire.

They liked watching and helping by leaving me mystery sticks but no further.
 
im DEFINETLY that guy. i was carving with a small hatchet in front of my house and about 15 minutes into it a cop pulls out with his holster unbuttoned and a ahand on his nine mm and asks me what im doing. last time i did that
 
Yep, I used to live in a big city in one of the not so great neighbourshoods, where beer, chips and TV were THE most important things in life.... to my neighbours....
 
I was sitting in the back of my truck, on the gate, whitling, while my girls rode their bikes. My 10 year old would stop every once in a while to take a little bark off a stick too. My neighbors, who I am very good friends with, always stop by to say hey, and generally think I'm a little "different". But hey, about 1/2 of 'em camp and/or backpack too. They just drive 30 minutes to do it.
 
i am here in the metro area of san sebastian spain. although im just a quite 4 blocks from the base of the pyrenees mt range where many in the city go to play.
 
Yes, I am that guy. I live in the only low income apartment complex in a mostly upper middle class town. I have a small backyard, in full view of all of the neighbors second story windows. I get lot's of strange looks, and hear lot's of whispers about me being strange, or scary because I wear a camo jacket and cargo pants, and openly carry a knife, and build tarp shelters, etc. in my tiny yard.

The cops even showed up to question me once, because some one was beheaded by a sword in the next town, and the neighbor "knew it just had to be me", because she saw me sharpening my machete in the back yard before a wilderness outing. The cops just laughed and apologized because they said I "wasn't even close to the description of the suspect".

It depresses me to, and I feel sorry for their ignorance and disconnection from the earth.
 
When I moved with my ex, I was that guy. Only I wasn't doing "weird" things on my own for too long. A neighbour got kicked out by his wife, so he spent a few nights out as well.
 
Me too

Making char cloth in the family fire ring and starting it with flint and steel, neighbor asked if I wanted to use his fire place lighter. I laughed and told him I was practicing. You should have seen the look on his face.
 
I have it good. I live in town but have no rear neighbor. (my backyard backs up to a creek.) I also live in a military town, so anytime I'm out rucking with my various packs through town, its kinda normal.
 
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