Enter The Spongebog!

00078-201605

OK So I went back to my new play spot after 2 weeks away… As I approached the pit my heart skipped a beat or two when I saw how awesome it looked… A little bit of water pooled in the middle, which is great since there is still some less-than-fully saturated bits around the edges and stuff that will need the extra water… But around that puddle it’s so nice and wet and shiny looking… It looked like I’d be able to jump right in and get it on…

And that’s exactly what it was like. Here’s a closer look just for fun…

00078-201605-SP

But that seemed way too easy, since half the fun is the part where I spend half the day stomping and mushing it around… It took a while to suck in that excess water, but I was really happy to find it had held its water and remained soft and gooey during the last few weeks…

Also, the bush has really started to green up since my last visit. Some of the ferns are already taller than me. If there was any chance someone from the nearby houses could see me, that chance is long gone now!

Next time it’s gonna be even better. I have the big plans!

Related Images:
00251-201806 00080a-201606 00091-201607 00078-201605 00078-201605-SP 00075-201605

Diggin a hole!

00075-201605

This spot is a little bit downstream from the last one. Better seclusion, since there are several houses in the area. Once school is out I will have to be careful since it’s still pretty close to town… But I’ve been here several times now and it’s been great each time 🙂

So, I dug a hole. It’s a few feet deep and it took a little while since everything below about 6″ or so is clay. Stomping it into a think mud mush took even longer because of the extra time spent breaking up chunks of clay. At the end of the trip I had a beautiful hole, and I can’t wait to go back and rub it. 🙂

In other news… the so-called portable shower I bought is garbage. Can’t get water out of it. Every stray piece of sand blocks it right up and it’s pretty much useless for this purpose. For now I’m using a bottle full of water to wash the mud off. It is working well enough for now… I think I will try something like this when I have some spare dollars.

Related Images:
00251-201806 00080a-201606 00091-201607 00078-201605 00078-201605-SP 00075-201605

I love the sunshine!

00065-201605

Another day of wandering around ended up in this great looking place. I checked a spot to see if it was soft but it wasn’t really. A bit more prodding got me a few inches down before I struck a harder layer.

It is in a beautiful daytime fun area too!

So on a hunch I went back with a shovel. I realized there’s a LOT of roots in that top layer. Underneath that is clay. Gorgeous clay that I’ve only seen a few times before! I don’t know how deep that layer is but based on the surrounding area, I’m guessing it’s going to be deep enough.

It chews up into this viscous silky clean mud that seems to coat these synthetic fabrics and literally peels off after the fun part is over. I’m guessing that’s because the clay really holds water while the clothes are mostly dry going in, but either way it’s kinda neat.

So, there’s a bit of a pond there so I will be able to work with this as my main pit for the time being. I can see surrounding houses through the trees, but I can’t see in very far from the road. A little bit more of this nice warm weather should help fix this 🙂 Even more, it is very tempting to mash a huge section of this pond into a deep clay soup.  Ah yeah, proper footwear!

Related Images:
00251-201806 00080a-201606 00091-201607 00078-201605 00078-201605-SP 00075-201605

Another year, another wishlist…

So I’ve decided that this year I need some appropriate footwear. I would like to find something I can simply slip on when needed. I’ve also recently decided that it would be a good idea to find something with some sort of grippy sole that will help to grind up the bottom of my mud pits… I thought about a pair of cleats, which seem like the ideal kind of shoe for this purpose…

Adidas-X-Fluid-Black-Boots
Continue reading →

Related Images:

Regarding Facebook

For years I kept a separate Facebook account to keep my WAM life away from my real one. I don’t have many friends there, and I don’t even check in as often as I used to.  Nor do I check the Hotmail account it was attached to. So I missed the warning from Facebook telling me that someone had changed the password and if it wasn’t me then I should take some sort of action.

Well I noticed that too late, and some asshole from Bangkok had changed my password and all my personal info on Facebook… So since I didn’t catch it in time, I was able to change my password back and get access to the account. Unfortunately, Facebook decided this was an appropriate time to confirm that I’m an actual person. And since I didn’t use the account so much and didn’t really know any of my ‘friends’ all that well, I’m not able to convince them that I am who I say I am…

Unless I send them a photo of my ID.

Not gonna happen.

So if you were friends with me on Facebook, then it’s time to remove that friendship. It seems that I have access to the account again but I ain’t sending them my ID, so I will probably forever be locked out of the account.

Fuck you, Facebook.

Related Images:

Digging through the bush…

I decided it was a nice enough day to get out and see what kind of muddy trouble I can get in… I found a spot a ways off the trail and it was pretty soggy with a little creek running through it, and right around the edge of the a larger soggy part of the forest, I find this little gem:

00060-201604

It was getting mushy just from being walked on so I spent some time clearing away the debris from the surface and started stomping around.  The more I stomped around the deeper I went and I could tell that I hadn’t reached any sort of bottom. Each tromp through the new pit went ever so slightly deeper than the last and it felt pretty thick and sticky as more and more of the surface water got soaked up.

It took an hour or two but it seems I’ve made myself a nice little mud spot. And it’s in the bush away from the trail. And it gets some nice warm sunlight (it is still April after all). Even with there still being snow on the ground, these nice sunny spots are already melted down to a good enough depth. Sure it’s a little bit chilly still but great fun anyway, and it’s only going to get hotter over the next few months!

It looks much better now 🙂

00063-201604

The best part of this whole thing is that this newly made pit will be the perfect day spot. Even without any growing season yet it was very difficult to make out where the trail was, so within the next few weeks it’s only going to become more hidden. Any I don’t have to drive, yay!

Related Images:
00065-201605 00063-201604 00060-201604

Recipe for a muddy spring thaw!

We’ve had a nice taste of spring weather, and with it came lots of rain.  I’m starting to get excited for the coming mud season…

The rain, combined with the still-frozen ground, has left gigantic pools everywhere.  Of particular note for this year’s excursion plans is a fresh landslide here. Gotta love that Leda Clay!

I don’t have many fancy plans for this year for several reasons, most of which boil down to simply, “find a spot I like and hope I don’t have uninvited guests.”  I’ll probably do the normal spring time thing of wandering around local trails first. Not having to drive really saves money if I can find a secluded spot within a few hours walk. And I did come across a much more accurate GPS, and found a way to download a section of satellite imagery to it for use offline. Major +1 there!

Since it seems we have a few weeks before the nice spring weather shows up, I taking some time to scope out a few things… For example, some lightweight waders so I can test new ground without having to do the whole cleanup routine unless it’s really worth it… Yeah. The planning is sometimes my favourite part (as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before!)

 

Related Images:

Some winter!

This winter, so far, has been remarkably mild! We get some snow and such and then it melts into giant puddles and refreezes… I wonder if this means we will have an extra-sloppy spring!  Or even better, an early warm spring! I’d very much like more time to hunt for, and wallow in, some nice muddy mud…

I’m actually starting to seriously consider moving somewhere closer to the giant expanses of silt and clay soils that seem to be all around me… The soil here where I’m living now doesn’t make very good mud, and cars are expensive…

Related Images:

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

MessyLittleChristmas-Web

Yeah. So today I did my Christmas shopping. Yup. It’s done early. What did I buy? (asked nobody, ever!)

  • Marshmallow creme – 1 lb – I had a hard time finding this! Everyone seems to be sold out. Pro tip: There are bigger jars available for 80 cents less, if they ever replenish their stock!
  • Custard – 2.5 lb – Bulk barn is my friend. This stuff is the kind little old ladies fill tarts with. It’s bit thicker than regular custard, and a lot cheaper too.
  • Liquid hand soap – 1.65 l – This is the same price as 532 ml of the cheap off brand body wash I’ve been using. I’m gonna see if it has compatible properties.
  • Big mixing bowl – It’s red and I got it at the dollar store. This will come in handy.
  • Piping bag – I want to try using this to help control what I’m gooing. It occurs to me that I should’ve got a coupler and tip for it but I suppose it’s not really necessary.
  • Plastic drop sheet – 8′ x 12′ – I was surprised to find some black plastic sheeting in the paint section. *facepalm* It’s similar material to a garbage bag and more than enough to make sure my bed is well protected.
  • Chocolate covered peanuts – 2 lb – Another bulk barn deal, this time to feed my sweet tooth instead of my WAM fetish. Much cheaper than the plastic containers i find in grocery stores.

The total bill for all this was $44.40.  A bit expensive for a single lonely WAM session, but when I hear about how much some WAMmers spent on gunge and the like, I’m not gonna complain.

Merry fucking Christmas. Fuck.

Related Images: