One of the things I like is

MILSPEC gear because it is sturdy.

My brand new refurbished laptop took its first spill shortly after I got it home. It wasn’t much of a spill, but there’s a chance that if it had been one of the cheaper models out there it might have had to go in for repairs.

Seeing we’re paying for it, it seems that Uncle Sam is not cheap when it comes to buying pretty good stuff.

On the other hand, maybe that is the cheapest way to go in the long run. ‘Soldier proof’ gear doesn’t break as easily and requires a lot fewer repairs under hard use.

There is an old saying that if you put a pair of privates in a room with a pair of bowling balls and order both of them not to touch them, you will return an hour later to find one missing and the other snapped clean in two.

Based on that, MILSPEC gear DOES have to be made well.

At home when the chain saw comes out to perform some act of Old World craftsmanship, I generally don a pair of surplus pants and boots and blouse the pants into the boots to keep the chips out. It works well. The pants must be at least fifteen years old and they are faded from repeated washings but are in otherwise pretty good shape.

Not everything Uncle Sam issues is practical for a guy like me, but there are quite a few things that work pretty well for an older homeowner.

I have an old machete that was designed to break jungle, but I use mine to hack up brush to make it small enough to stuff into the chipper/shredder.

There are a few other odds and ends that are pretty good, too. I have a GI poncho that I use sometimes when I am outdoors in the rain under informal circumstances. It sheds the rain well, although I don’t wear it out of the neighborhood, as it looks a little too far out.

When I lived in Alaska, the snorkel coats were great in cold weather. Those were a pretty common item. So were GI duffel bags.
Someone once said that they were so common that almost every fisherman had one. I did.

That same someone pointed out that the airlines tended to lose luggage and there was a hangar full of green duffel bags at Anchorage International. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Then again, a person has to pick and choose what works for them.

I suppose I just pick what’s right for me, but I’m I’ll say this for the MILSPEC stuff I have snagged over the years; The majority of it has served me well and has saved me a pretty penny.


my other blog is:http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/