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Maximum Spin

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Total Members Voted: 15

[Maximum Spin]

I don't think I've ever been in a wooded area that didn't have that kind of shit, where do you go that doesn't have that stuff?

I'm in New York and the worst I've ever found in the woods was a plastic bag, once. Even at the state forest there isn't any kind of garbage on the ground in the forest itself.

[King Zultan]

I don't think I've ever been in a wooded area that didn't have that kind of shit, where do you go that doesn't have that stuff?

I'm in New York and the worst I've ever found in the woods was a plastic bag, once. Even at the state forest there isn't any kind of garbage on the ground in the forest itself.

I'm just gonna say I find that hard to believe that there isn't any.

[Maximum Spin]

I'm just gonna say I find that hard to believe that there isn't any.

I don't know what to tell you, man. I spend a lot of time outdoors. It's not like the trash is scurrying away when I look.

[A_Curious_Cat]

I'm just gonna say I find that hard to believe that there isn't any.

I don't know what to tell you, man. I spend a lot of time outdoors. It's not like the trash is scurrying away when I look.

1.  Have you explored every square foot of the outdoors where you live?
2.  Have you been to the Appalachians or southeastern Canada, and have you explored every square foot of the woods there?
3.  Why do you assume that everyone else’s experience has to be the same as your own?

[Maximum Spin]

1.  Have you explored every square foot of the outdoors where you live?

Just about, yes. Like, I can show that on a map and everything.

3.  Why do you assume that everyone else’s experience has to be the same as your own?

I didn't. That's why I asked him what kind of low-class woods he lives in where the experience is different. Certainly, any woods that is full of trash is definitely some shitty place full of awful people who leave trash in the woods, and obviously not a nice upscale woods for the discerning forest hermit.

I mean, if you go back and read, Zultan's the one who came closest to assuming that everyone else's experience would be the same as his. I don't know why you're taking this posture with me about this.

[A_Curious_Cat]

1.  Have you explored every square foot of the outdoors where you live?

Just about, yes. Like, I can show that on a map and everything.

3.  Why do you assume that everyone else’s experience has to be the same as your own?

I didn't. That's why I asked him what kind of low-class woods he lives in where the experience is different. Certainly, any woods that is full of trash is definitely some shitty place full of awful people who leave trash in the woods, and obviously not a nice upscale woods for the discerning forest hermit.

I mean, if you go back and read, Zultan's the one who came closest to assuming that everyone else's experience would be the same as his. I don't know why you're taking this posture with me about this.

Hmm… my experience is that the outdoors occasionally have trash laying around in them, but it’s not like they’re chock full of the stuff.  Sometimes the trash is easy to see, and sometimes you have to be right by it to see it.  Trash seems to be most common in areas where people commonly go, like beside roads and trails, near picnic and camping areas, etc.  apparently, some people just can’t be assed to walk a few feet over to a trash can…


What really gets me is why people still think it’s ok to toss a lit cigarette out their car window and into the drought parched grass beside the road.

[Naturegirl1999]

We’re wasting space that could be spent helping

Stirk, keep those blue rocks regardless of if they are copper or not, if they are, that is wonderful, if they aren’t, you can still use them to test the hardness of other rocks you find. If one is softer than the blue rocks, you’ll know that you won’t need it as it isn’t magnetite, or phyrrite, or any other electricity conducting or magnetic rocks mentioned so far

[Maximum Spin]

Hmm… my experience is that the outdoors occasionally have trash laying around in them, but it’s not like they’re chock full of the stuff.  Sometimes the trash is easy to see, and sometimes you have to be right by it to see it.  Trash seems to be most common in areas where people commonly go, like beside roads and trails, near picnic and camping areas, etc.  apparently, some people just can’t be assed to walk a few feet over to a trash can…

I'm way out in the wilderness, so there aren't picnic and camping areas here (although in the state forest there are a few dirt areas along the ATV road where people have bonfires), and the people who come around to the state forest are mainly hunters and trappers and sometimes, like, weird joggers from the richer parts. It's out of the way and there really aren't amenities, so it's not a place most people go for family trips or anything like that.

There is absolutely all kinds of trash along the main road where the lazy-ass through-traffic city people go (I'm positioned between a modestly sized exurb town and a somewhat larger city, although it's still upstate NY so even that isn't very big), but that's also not in the woods. And I'm sure if Stirk finds a road he will not need to find trash to guess there are people around! The trails in the state forest, though, are all fine. But like I said, there aren't really people going there for the kinds of activities that generate a lot of trash, and I assume there are people maintaining the trails or something.

We’re wasting space that could be spent helping

It probably won't use up that much battery to scroll past the pointless conversations.

[King Zultan]

That's why I asked him what kind of low-class woods he lives in where the experience is different. Certainly, any woods that is full of trash is definitely some shitty place full of awful people who leave trash in the woods, and obviously not a nice upscale woods for the discerning forest hermit.

I never said they were full of trash I just said it was around.

Hmm… my experience is that the outdoors occasionally have trash laying around in them, but it’s not like they’re chock full of the stuff.  Sometimes the trash is easy to see, and sometimes you have to be right by it to see it.  Trash seems to be most common in areas where people commonly go, like beside roads and trails, near picnic and camping areas, etc.  apparently, some people just can’t be assed to walk a few feet over to a trash can…

This has been my experience in every forest I've ever been in.

[Maximum Spin]

I never said they were full of trash I just said it was around.

When have I ever given you the impression that I acknowledge the existence of middle-ground.

[Stirk]

Copper is indeed softer than chert
Here’s a picture of zinc

I’ll look up what other minerals are bluish green and have a hardness of less than 7
This is prehnite, with a Mohs hardness of 6 to 6.5

This is an image I found of blue copper

Copper can turn blue in the presence of oxygen and water, which one of these pictures looks more like what you found? Copper has a Mohs hardness of 2 to 3.5

It looked more like the malachite picture from before, but with a different shade of green. Which might just mean I found some with the presence of oxygen and water. A strong possibility given I found it in a creek.

So look out for a silver dog turd. Got it. Really easy to remember that one.

Red berries are often spread by birds, to many of which red is particularly attractive, so you should be very careful about eating them - they're more likely to be poisonous to mammals such as yourself. Of course, there are many perfectly edible red berries too. Can you tell me anything else about this new berry bush? No thorns or anything? I'm having trouble imagining what you mean by "have trumpets".

Honestly, there are enough poisonous black berries that you shouldn't be eating those without knowing what they are either, and white berries are pretty much all right out, I don't even know a single white berry that ISN'T poisonous. Who told you to just eat random berries? You weirdo.

No thorns, but the leaves are hairy. I mean the berries have a brown thing that looks like a trumpet, or maybe a cartoon kissy face, coming out of the top of them. It is a bit longer then the berry itself. They kinda look like cherry stems if they where made of paper and also on the wrong side of the cherry from a distance. That doesn't clarify anything at all does it?

And I wasn't eating them. I was doing this:

Do what Maxim said.
If you can't recognize any berries, there's a way to safely test them for poison. Bite one and spit it out. If you're fine 8 hours later, chew one up and spit it out. 8 hours after that, you can eat one, and slowly eat more every 8 hours until you're sure they're safe.

Copper was pretty common on the ground before people mined it all. Keep watch out for green rocks and try to remember where they are.
Look for plant fiber, either trees with bark that can easily be broken down by hand into fiber, or fibrous plants. Turning it into twine is annoying, but you'll want a basket eventually. Actually making twine should wait until you have food and water.
When you find water, try to find clay. You'll need that for building a kiln and for pottery. Depending on the climate, you might be able to make sun-baked bricks for a better shelter than a lean-to.

So I'm perfectly safe even if they are poisonous! Unless it kills me just from a bite and spit out. Then I'm dead.

About that berry bush…

Do they look anything like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Credit: John Delano of Hammond, Indiana.

Or this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Credit: R. A. Nonenmachet

Thanks for all the images, but nope! The leaves are the wrong shape. The ones on this bush looked like clovers or the Shell logo. The fruit is somewhere in between the two in size with a round shape and the before mentioned trumpet thing.

If your walking around you need to be on the look out for bullet casings, bottles, and tin cans as those are common things you find abandoned in the woods and will tell us if there are other people around.

Still haven't seen any human handicraft aside from my own! I'll still keep an eye out for anything just in case.

Right?  Thought we do need him to look out for shit though.  ...As in literally feces.  If he finds a hot steaming load, he can confirm there are some serious predators around.  Tracks too.

I saw some bird poop on some of the rocks. Hopefully they arn't going to eat me. Otherwise I didn't see anything near the water. Which is probably good since I drink from this creek.

I might have seen some tracks? I mean its less like track tracks and more like a trail. Like a place where the grass didn't grow. It was on the other side of the creek and I didn't pay much attention to it though. I did look at the ground a lot but I was mostly eying the rocks instead of the dirt. There probably could be a lot I missed though. I'll have to pay better attention on the way back.

Definitely. While you're at it, look out for bones, especially highly disarticulated (ie, the skeleton has been taken apart by something) or chewed ones; signs of recent kills such as blood, partial corpses, or large amounts of feathers or fur in a small area; or trampled areas (especially in tall grass) where it looks like large animals have bedded down lately.

Lucky enough I haven't seen anything that horrifying in the last couple hours. Unless the trail thing counts as trampled grass. In which case I should probably be scared.

We’re wasting space that could be spent helping

Stirk, keep those blue rocks regardless of if they are copper or not, if they are, that is wonderful, if they aren’t, you can still use them to test the hardness of other rocks you find. If one is softer than the blue rocks, you’ll know that you won’t need it as it isn’t magnetite, or phyrrite, or any other electricity conducting or magnetic rocks mentioned so far

Should I keep looking for the magnet rock? Or go back and do something with this copper? It might take me a bit more time to get back to camp if I'm going up hill. Though typing this out does give me a nice little break at least.

[Maximum Spin]

So look out for a silver dog turd. Got it. Really easy to remember that one.

Unfortunately, useless: you'll never find metallic zinc just lying on the ground (unlike some metals such as copper), because it binds too strongly into ores. You'll probably want to look for sphalerite, a mineral which forms brownish-to-blackish somewhat tetrahedral crystals (that means they look like a four-sided triangular pyramid - it's actually 'hextetrahedral' but you don't necessarily need to know that), or calamine, which is actually an obsolete name for two different minerals that look a lot alike, but I'm just going to use it because you most likely couldn't tell them apart anyway, and which will look like white sort-of-crystalline masses with a greasy-looking sheen.

[A_Curious_Cat]

About that plant with the red berries...

I'd like you to answer a few quick questions about it:

1.  Where does it grow?  Does it grow in water, does it grow in soil that is not underwater but is permanently or seasonally saturated with water, or does it grow in a soil that is none of the previous?

2.  Is it a tree, a bush, or a liana (a woody vine)?

3.  Are the leaves divided into individual distinct leaflets?

4.  Examine the places where the leaves attach.  How many leaves are attached to each attachment point?

5.  Examine the leaves.  Do the leaves have lobes, teeth, both lobes and teeth, or are they smooth?

6.  Does the plant have any spines, prickles, or thorns on it?

7.  Are the berries fleshy or dry?

8,  Do the berries consist of a single body, or do they consist of multiple bodies clumped together (like a raspberry)?

9. Is there more than one seed inside each berry?

10.  If there are any flowers, what color are they?  Can you describe the flowers in detail?  How many petals do they have?  How are they arranged on the stem?  What do they look like? etc.

That's it for now, I might have more questions later.

Edit: also, does it look like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[King Zultan]

Have you thought about making a larger basket and adding straps to it like a backpack?

[Stirk]

So look out for a silver dog turd. Got it. Really easy to remember that one.

Unfortunately, useless: you'll never find metallic zinc just lying on the ground (unlike some metals such as copper), because it binds too strongly into ores. You'll probably want to look for sphalerite, a mineral which forms brownish-to-blackish somewhat tetrahedral crystals (that means they look like a four-sided triangular pyramid - it's actually 'hextetrahedral' but you don't necessarily need to know that), or calamine, which is actually an obsolete name for two different minerals that look a lot alike, but I'm just going to use it because you most likely couldn't tell them apart anyway, and which will look like white sort-of-crystalline masses with a greasy-looking sheen.

I could probably name everything whatever I want right now. So dark brown/black pyramids or greasy white almost crystals. Luckily they still sound kinda shiny! Hopefully I'll get enough for my battery. Should I do something with the copper first or keep looking for new minerals?

About that plant with the red berries...

I'd like you to answer a few quick questions about it:

1.  Where does it grow?  Does it grow in water, does it grow in soil that is not underwater but is permanently or seasonally saturated with water, or does it grow in a soil that is none of the previous?

2.  Is it a tree, a bush, or a liana (a woody vine)?

3.  Are the leaves divided into individual distinct leaflets?

4.  Examine the places where the leaves attach.  How many leaves are attached to each attachment point?

5.  Examine the leaves.  Do the leaves have lobes, teeth, both lobes and teeth, or are they smooth?

6.  Does the plant have any spines, prickles, or thorns on it?

7.  Are the berries fleshy or dry?

8,  Do the berries consist of a single body, or do they consist of multiple bodies clumped together (like a raspberry)?

9. Is there more than one seed inside each berry?

10.  If there are any flowers, what color are they?  Can you describe the flowers in detail?  How many petals do they have?  How are they arranged on the stem?  What do they look like? etc.

That's it for now, I might have more questions later.

Edit: also, does it look like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Or like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. It was a way from the creek a good bit, so none of the previous.

2. Bush

3. It is all together like the Shell gas logo, I don't think it has leaflets. I'm also not entirely sure what a leaflet is.

4. I don't actually have a bush near me to double check but I think each stem had one leaf.

5. The leaves themselves are hairy, the edges are spiky/wavy, and I think it has two lobe things if I understand lobes correctly.

6. Nope! The branches are fuzzy though.

7. Fleshy. And seedy. And bland. Honestly not the best experience and I won't be terribly sorry if I never have to taste this berry again.

8. Single body. They're closest to picture number 2, but their trumpet is a lot longer.

9. Yep.

10. Didn't see any flowers

Like I said earlier photo number 2's berries are pretty close, but the trumpet is much longer then that berry's and the leaves are a very different shape. Thanks again for putting all that effort into identifying them! I hope my answers help.

Have you thought about making a larger basket and adding straps to it like a backpack?

Not at all. But is is another thing that seems obvious in retrospect.








I THINK I JUST HEARD SOME BARKING HELP