Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A thread on hats

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Thanks for posting that, CT!!! Please pass on my best wishes and congrats to MrsTide on the occasion of her retirement.

She's canning peaches for her Mother this morning, so I can catch her in the kitchen. I'll let her know for you.
Thanks,
Joel

Indeed, it does.

Naah, just average Tbird World 101, I mean, the 14 million Ghanaians at the time (up to 25 million at present) woulda thought I was just living normal. Only people raised in relative soft luxury as we all here were would consider it undue hardship .





"Listless, lost, haggard" appears to be my usual demeanor except when in front of a class, people often remark on it, most likely I was lost in thought. I do Spartan and hardship pretty well, but generally get confused in the face of abundance. Having taught teentagers for 25 years now, I'm pretty sure I have a mildcase of autism, ADHD, or maybe both. Back when I was a kid, wierd was just a different sort of normal

I am dressed well for the S.Padre in that pic, the sun is NOT your friend, especially for White folks. Only place I got bare skin exposed to the sun in that pic is my legs below the knee, them mostly underwater when fishing.

Well hey, you're a conspicuous gourmet, I talk about food in this one and music. Back in 1980 Bob Marley, already the most popular entertainer pretty much everywhere in the World except the US (all we got before then was an insipid cover of "I Shot the Sheriff" by Eric Clapton).

I never really heard of Marley until I got to Africa, and I was like, "dang thats good, who IS that?". People there who didn't speak English could recite his songs word for word.

Weren't just reggae over there, besides traditional music (the Ashantis pride themselves on being the best drummers in Africa, which is saying something), Motown was big as were other Black American artists.

Otherwise some folks here might recall Jim Reeves, the country/gospel artist. Jim Reeves was ENORMOUSLY popular in Ghana, and I'd hear stuff like his rich baritone version of "The Old Rugged Cross" in the most unlikely places

Bompata Secondary School
Box 10
Bompata A/A
Ghana West Africa
March 30th 1981

Dear Family,

First of all excuse me for not having written for some three weeks. I didn�t write the letter because I didn�t have enough news to write a letter, the second two weeks I was really busy. To go back to some time ago the only thing newsworthy that happened the first week was that I went to Konongo to market on the weekend. There was one of the frequent local gas shortages that weekend and I wasn�t able to get a lorry back to Asankere or Bompata.

Towards evening I was able to get a car to Mawso, figuring that I could walk from there. The car was very slow and we arrived well after dark. I met one of my form three students, Frederick Yerboah, and he put me up at his place until morning. They were very hospitable. It can be pretty gratifying visiting some of the towns around here because of the welcome you receive. In the morning he placed me on the bush path to Wenkyi (pronounced "Wenchi") which was a short cut home. Not much happened the remainder of that week.

Early the next week (Monday) all the students except the form five students had to leave because of lack of funds to feed them. The form five remained because they are to take their �O� levels in June. They have a tremendous amount of work to do at this time while studying and reviewing. Added to this is the fact that we haven�t been able to finish all the required syllabus.

I was teaching as often as they would let me. Then just this past week was the mock �O� level exams. They were a lot of work to write up and following them was a marathon marking session all night by kerosene lantern to get all the papers graded before the students left.

The barn swallows are coming back through in numbers again on their way back north. The cattle egrets are getting really tame. They come right up around the buildings now. Its gradually getting to be wetter and raining more often now. This time of year [start of the rains] is the closest to spring in this part of the world. Everything looks greener, the grass is growing again, and the dust is out of the air.

About a week ago I broke out in raised red spots up and down one side of my body and chest. I felt fine otherwise and would be a bit surprised when I took off my shirt to find a whole bunch of new red spots had appeared. They went away but a few days later a new rash came, this one was red and blotchy and itched. It covered the front of my chest and abdomen and part of my left arm, this is just going away now.

Otherwise I felt fine and I don�t know what it is/was. It could be schistosomiasis, the parasite often gives an allergic reaction as it developes inside of you. When I go to Accra in a couple of weeks I will get a skin test. Schisto is curable, its just one of the annoying things around here. I don�t know if I have it anyway.

There is a chop bar in Bompata where I often go to eat. I can go down and take a leisurely Sunday brunch, eating my fu-fu and palm nut soup and snails to the leisurely rythmitic pounding of the fu-fu mortar, casually brushing away the flies and keeping the chickens and goats at bay.

Now that the rains have come the giant snails are back and they are bigger and uglier than before. When you eat them they are big and rubbery and you sort of reduce them in your teeth to a more manageable lump rather than chew them. They look just like a snail. There is the �foot� that is the grey slippery part that the snail sticks out when it crawls about. The tentacles are retracted by the snail when it was dumped into boiling water.

Above the foot is a whole bunch of odd-looking tubes and wiring. When I first got here I was too squeamish to eat the innards of a snail but now I just ignore the strange-sounding pops and squishes when I chew. Also I now eat fish heads in the soup where I used to leave them.

The volunteer before me, Bob P., once got the tubes and wiring of a snail hooked around his epilottis and nearly choked to death. They still talk about it in the village, in fact they talk about us a lot. I tell them that before the White man came they probably had nothing to talk about.

One thing I don�t usually eat here is meat. The meat here comes from goats, sheep or various little wild animals (usually bush rats). Goat meat has a strong flavor which I dislike when it is made into stew or soup. But apart from that the meat often tastes rancid and rotten as there is no refrigeration here. The meat can sit around for a day or two before being eaten.

The animals around here are pretty scrawny and don�t exactly give grade �A� carcasses. More often than not the �meat� is liable to be a rubbery piece of thick skin or some of the innards. Or your liable to find the whole left hind foot of a giant bush rat in your soup, claws and all. All of these things I could get used to, the real reason I don�t eat meat is for fear of getting a tapeworm, the animals run around everywhere and conditions are pretty unsanitary.

One night this past couple of weeks I had one of those few memorable experiences. I had walked two miles up the mountain to the well at Wankyi to bathe and get drinking water. It was a bright moonlit night and just as I was walking down the hill into Bompata, someone who had a tape deck (a few people in the area have been to Nigeria to work, they often come back with portable tape decks) started to play Bob Marley Rastafarian music from Jamaica. Rastaman fits Africa like a glove. It was really fine watching an African village in the moonlight with that theme music provided.

Lately I have quit cooking over kerosene as it leaves too much soot over everything. Instead I cook over charcoal. I buy the charcoal at the local markets its locally produced and doesn�t come in briquettes or anything like that. I discovered that dry leaf frond of the oil palm make excellent kindling to start the charcoal. Charcoal burns very clean and hot.

One night a couple of weeks ago I burned my farm not being able to find the time to burn it in the daytime. What I mean is that I burned off the dry bush that I had cut a couple of weeks previously. It made quite a spectacular bonfire under the stars. Some students came and told me that I was violating an African taboo buy burning at night and that I would spoil the land for farming but they helped me to pile brush on anyway.

Since then, I haven�t done much. Soon I will turn the whole thing over with a mattock and plant winged beans. Winged beans are a new wonder crop from Indonesia for the tropics. They are supposed to be high in protein and you can eat all parts of the plant plus they put nitrogen into the soil. So we�re supposed to help introduce it to new areas.

Last weekend was a big celebration at Agogo for the 50th anniversary of the hospital there. The Ashantehene (Chief of all the Ashantis) and the President of Ghana, Dr Hilla Lehmann, was there also. Security for the head of State here is very casual. It was easy to see the president and anybody with a rifle could have bumped him off.

Well that all for now,

Mike


The "introduce the winged bean" thing never took root.

And note my penultimate sentence, you thought I was joking about the "Dogs of War" thing

Birdwatcher

I've got a big football shaped melon apparently and have never found a cowboy styled hat that would fit properly (tight on the front rear, loose on the sides). Given the fact God has seen fit to remove the natural sunscreen he allowed me to have for too few years, I definitely need one. Now... based on this thread, I'm going to seek out a blank. Hopefully nutria for nostalgic/home reasons.

wore this hat quite a bit when guiding, it worked well for keeping rain outa face while trying to glass and outa the back of your neck due to the wide brim, but pretty well sucked when hauling meat out on a pack due to the stiffness of the brim, course wasn't that big a deal cause you got so hot packing meat, you didn't want anything on your head for very long, raining or not.









in recent years I've tried the Tilley, though it's not really stiff enough to keep heavy rain off of you, but it is nice that you can wad it up unlike the old oilskin I used in the above pix






though like most of you guys I often use ball hats of some variation for hunting too, and often wear one around town when the sun is shining brightly or more my hair is best left covered up (often, lol)

[quote=DocRocket][quote=CrimsonTide]



That is a very funny pic. lolololol

No wonder you find Keystone beer palatable.

The hat you are looking for has a "long oval" shape. They can be purchased as such. Or, you can buy a hat stretcher ( http://westernbootsales.com/proddetail.asp?prod=THJ-01 )and customize the perimeter by shaping it on a sander. Works. Steam is your friend.

I have found a blank is any good felt hat on sale. ;-{>8

same-o here...can't pull off the cowboy hat thing...I look like an azzhole with teeth...and a hat....

Ball cap-o-rama!

Hey, ingwe, cowboy hat - ballcap, it's all the same! (I may need this post someday. I won't get an opportunity like this again.)

The kid on the left looks exactly like he just mistakenly trusted what he thought would be a fart. The kid on the right looks like he is trying to swallow a tennis ball.

Reporting day for a cadet class is a day they never forget.

Hollywood couldn't beat that.

Ya seriously underestimate your potential, pard.

What Oldtrapper said. I never tried felt before but you can shrink, stretch and/or reshape it multiple times pretty easy.

Here's te advice I got on a re-enactor forum...

Step 1 is put a lining in it. Why? 1) PC 2)practicality...you really want dyed wool rubbing against your forehead all day as you sweat?

Step 2 is to shape the hat intentionally.
Start with a period image. That will give you a documented & practical target (thus saving $$$$$$ & increasing functionality.)

If you need to cut the brim to match the image, do that first. No extra points for leaving the clamp marks on the edges of the hat.
If the hat you are copying has binding on it, do that next.
If the hat you are copying is cocked or tied up, do that last. Know in advance that the hat will need to be creased & shaped after the fact if you do it this way.

Put the hat on in the shower & shape the hat. I use fairly hot shower water. A ton of black dye will come out of a wool felt at blank, but it will still be black & won't stain your skin.

Now...shape the hat so that it matches the image & sloughs the water away from your head. There will be some trial & error in this & it may take a couple attempts.

Step 3 is to allow the hat to dry outside. A volleyball resting in an empty plant container is good. If you let the hat dry on a flat surface, you'll undo all your shaping.

If the hat is tight now, it'll be REALLY, REALLY tight when it dries, so don't panic if the at remains just a little big on your skull. Also lookin at the "target" image, see if te at rests on the wearer's head at angle. You aren't tryin to be a 20th Century DI from Major Payne or Full Metal Jacket (I think), so having the hat sit at an angle on your ead may be the way it was expected to wear. You may want to consider that option.

Step 4 is to allow the hat to fully dry & try it on every so often to see if you remain happy with your progress. If not, repeat the shower thing. You and the hat will become one- it becomes part of you & you become part of it. Kinda zen...... Think of Humprey Bogart. The hat even reflects your mood.

Step 5 is to lightly apply clear shellac to the crown and top or outside of the brim.
This will dry & give your at better ability to turn rain.

Final step-wear the hat to walk the dog or work in the garden or clean the gutters.


..and....

I have a wool felt round top hat and it does fit snug after getting wet and the brim will get floppy. Here is a couple of tips you can do at home to help. If your brim gets too floppy and you want to add stiffness to it, spray it with hair spray on the top and bottom side of the brim only and lay it on the table. If it is too small use your hat jack first. To keep it from sirinking and to get it water proof so it will not srink and keep you dryer spray it with camp dry

I'm liking my hat blank as-is; low crown and a wide flat brim all around. If you go that route, the hat-jack is a must, $17 online, $20 at a local western-wear place.

I would suggest getting one with a strip of liner around the head like I did. These people have reasonable prices and quick delivery...

http://jas-townsend.com/index.php?cPath=6

Birdwatcher