We’re getting a new much overdue roof. The 1930’s slates have been doing their best but like two dimensional lemmings many of them have been sliding for the edge over the past few years and as amusing as it is to see some of them caught by the gutter and sticking up like sharks teeth, the ones planted into the lawn like ninja stars say yes, let’s fix it.
This has meant much packing and reboxing in the attic to try and keep stuff clean when the slates and underfelt (if anything is left of it) get ripped off. This has been an odyssey into my past with so many mixed emotions, waves of melancholy with breakers of joy.
Years back my first ever words at an outdoor conference were to say that folk didn’t recycle because of laziness or lack of care in the environment, it was because everything has a memory. Obviously I was talking partly from personal experience. The attic confirms this.
Also apparently I used to be a size medium not so many years ago. This seems unlikely looking down at the body typing this, but the labels are there. A lot of dull colours too, who was this man?
I have of course dragged a bunch of stuff down and I’ve been burning through the Nikwax Techwash with gay abandon as I freshen up anything that’ll fit.
This has loosened a few bits of Gore Tex seam tape but I’ve become a dab hand a fixing this now after a couple of years of using McNett (or Gear Aid as it is now) Seam Grip.
Seam Grip works too, I thought maybe some extended light wear and a couple of washes might be the best I could expect but my original repairs on my ’98 Karrimor Summit are still solid and I wear it a lot. I actually just did a wash and reproofing of that with the hand spray Nikwax TX Direct. I seem to remember from years back this this stuff only lasted one trip before you wetted out again.
I might update on that here. Might do a Seam Grip update now I think about it, the rebrand also seems to have made it stickier and faster drying.
I think more vintage or at least old gear stuff is coming up in amongst the new gear reviews I’ll do as soon as I can get somewhere different for some photies.
But, pulling on something from the 90s, even if it smells like a tramps arse after years in the attic, I can feel the wind on my face, I can hear my footsteps and I can smell the tent, damp down, wet grass and freshly made coffee.
You can escape lockdown in unexpected ways, who, what and where is waiting for you in the back of your mind in a rolled up old waterproof?
*This is from last week to illustrate the point. You can’t see how white my beard is so I thought I’d better make the point.
