The Secret Naturist Handbook

[nuduke]

I don't think rattlesnakes realise they are evil or have evil intent therefore why do they give you evil vibes!?
I mean, I can see the value of having a 6th sense when there is danger around but I bet the rattlers are blissfully unaware of themselves or their intentions
John

[Greenbare Woods]

More than once, I have had strong sense of an evil presence, and then a rattlesnake comes out from under something.
Jbee

I grew up in an area where people would come to for hunting rattlesnakes.  Anti-venom is made from snake venom so the producers have to catch live rattlesnakes.  They chose our area because of the abundance of snakes.   

I never worried about the snakes on trails.  Often they like to sit in the sun on trails because it's open and not shaded.  I would frequently be hiking down the trail and step over the snakes without even noticing.  The second person in line is more likely to get bit because the snake has time to wake up.   I even accidentally stepped on a rattlesnake once. 

My father's generation used to shoot or otherwise kill rattlesnakes just because.  I was taught that as a child, but I've learned that carnivorous snakes are important for keeping the population of rodents in check.   My current home area has more Blue Racer snakes than rattlesnakes but we have some of both.  I like to encourage the Blue Racers around home.  Otherwise we have voles or field mice making burrows in the lawn.   

[jbeegoode]

I don't think that they feel sinister, either, but some do have an ugly temper and are dangerously ready for a deadly brawl. I have always felt great remorse after killing one. "Sorry dude. It's you or me. I don't like that kind of surprise." They like to be left alone, but can misinterpret things.

My evil sense probably has to do with what evil is. Evil is fear, fear danger. That's a good thing to have in the kit. I don't really think that anything is evil anymore, but I sense what I spontaneously sense.

Rattlers give warnings, strong warnings, but sometimes they too, get surprised and react. When a rattler is excited in the trail before you, coiled and pointed at you, it has intention. If they are aware of themselves, I'm not sure, but they do have a way of ordering their sensing and priorities.
Jbee

[jbeegoode]

Sneaking: From "The Secret Naturist Handbook."

With many outings taking place during the night, for many secret naturists, it can be difficult to get outdoors without disturbing other members of the household. Of course, a good excuse to be out and about can be used but this is not always suitable or desirable. Sometimes, you just have to be sneaky.

One of the most problematical locations for sneaking about is the bedroom. Getting from the bedroom to the external door can be a real problem at night, especially in the dark.  No-end of things can seem to make the most incredible noise when you are sneaking about but most of these can be easily remedied.

Doors are the most likely household item to have a potential to make noise with the handle and hinges being the most obvious cause. An easy way round this is to leave the door ajar, thus avoiding any need to turn the handle. Noisy hinges can be cured with a quick squirt of WD40 or similar. Locked doors should have their mechanisms well lubricated to keep noise to a minimum. Another source of noise, are keys. A most effective tip is to reduce the number of keys on the key ring to one, thereby reducing the chance of the keys jingling. These tips can also be applied to gates as well.

Floorboards are probably the worst culprits for making at noise when sneaking about. However, the solution is quite straight forwards and easy, so long as you don’t have to move furniture to get at them. Squeaks can often be cured by the liberal application of talcum powder in the joints. Loose boards should be screwed down using 50mm screws instead of nails to grip the boards securely. Pre-drill the boards to stop the wood splitting. Remember though that there may be cables or pipes below, so lift the board first to check this out. Generally speaking, services should be routed along the centre of floorboards, but this not always the case. You have been warned!

Creaking stairs should generally be treated as you would floorboards. Locate the creaking joints by removing any stair covering and stepping on each step in different places across the tread. You may be able to carry out repairs from the underside of the stairs if it is not covered with plaster. Loose tongue and groove joints between the riser and the front of the tread can be repaired by squeezing wood glue into the gap and forcing it along the joint with a fine-bladed knife. If you can work from the back, add a triangular-shaped glue block to bond the tread and riser together. If you have to work from the front, drill and countersink at least three screws into the edge of the tread and into the top of the riser to force the pieces together.

Sometimes treads and risers will shrink and become loose within the housing joints cut into the sides of the staircase. If you can get to the back of the stairs, you'll see that each rise and tread is held in its housing with a timber wedge. If the stair is creaking, the wedge may have become loose. Remove the wedges and chip away any old glue and debris. Remember to wear safety goggles to protect your eyes. Apply wood adhesive to the housing recess and, having cut some new wedges, which are the same size as the old ones, tap these in with a hammer to tighten the joint. If you have to work from the front, drill and countersink holes along the edge of the loose part and screw into the sides of the stairs at an angle. Note: Don’t try this if you are inept at DIY!

Other Hints & Tips:

•   Walking barefoot makes less noise than when wearing footwear.
•   Have your secret naturist kit, footwear and clothing ready for use.
•   Know your way around in the dark. Practice makes perfect.
•   Check for objects that are out of place and may cause you to trip, for example, cats, dogs and children’s toys.

[jbeegoode]

Why would anyone need to sneak around in their own house? Maybe the mother-in-law is in town?

I have to be in mouse mode to get up and pee when granddaughter in visiting. Her parents just don't get it.

Sneaking is an outside of the house thing, a neighbor thing, a don't get arrested thing.

Sneaking is great fun. We used to sneak around after curfew, sneak out of the house at night.  Older, we used to go down to the border and sneak across back and forth for kicks. Intoxicated back in the 80's, we walked naked through the suburban neighborhood late at night. It was scary, our perception of the circumstance and the law made it so. Taking risks is like gambling, fun, but nekkid, there is no money to gain and the risk can be high stakes in some states.

Still, we incorporate stealth and sneaking around in order to be free range outside of the boundaries of resorts, inside houses and free beaches. It is a necessary and good skill to have.
Jbee

[nuduke]

Our stairs really creak when you pass over a couple or three of them - difficult to sneak out!
I have to admit I do find this handbook copy hard to read, Jbee.  You've got to hand it to Lookee for writing virtually a book of secret naturist craft but I'm afraid it doesn't really...er... flow easily under the eye!
John

[jbeegoode]

Much to talk about and organize and no proof reader, I'd suppose.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Sneaking is great fun. We used to sneak around after curfew, sneak out of the house at night.  Older, we used to go down to the border and sneak across back and forth for kicks. Intoxicated back in the 80's, we walked naked through the suburban neighborhood late at night. It was scary, our perception of the circumstance and the law made it so. Taking risks is like gambling, fun, but nekkid, there is no money to gain and the risk can be high stakes in some states.
Jbee

When I was 13 or so I sometimes would need to "sneak" out of the house late at night to run naked through the neighborhood.  Watch the floorboard with the squeak.  Open and close the side door slowly.   

Being out in the neighborhood naked at night was a thrill in mid summer when it was warm and we were young.  I went to the nearby park.  I went three blocks to the elementary school, walked around the High School.  Hid behind trees or bushes when a car drove past (rare). 

Part of the excitement was because we were doing something prohibited.  Mostly it just felt so good to be naked in the world.   

[jbeegoode]

Just being out was prohibitive. I'm just flashing back here as I write, remembering walking down the middle of Mingus Rd. late at night in Michigan with girlfriend and dropping my shorts, all that I wore. It felt outrageous and ultimate liberation.

It was freeing to do something "crazy." Jumping out of constrictions, out of conventional uniform. That was part of hippie garb back when. It was different and naked was just one more bold step. I had a friend that wore a "Who" style jumpsuit always. If anyone of us said anything, he would jump right out of it, just for the excitement, the "crazy" proudly the "freak." To freak in "uptight" conventional world, to be free of social convention, not to be robots of commercial fashion, to experiment, was cool.

It wasn't rebellious, or anti-social, or doing the opposite, the "anti.". It was a liberation, we felt a rejection of repression, throwing off the shackles, the expectations, the mindless conformity that was a part of the draft, the blind patriotism, the boring channeled road of life that was being thrust upon youthful expression and true freedom.

It was an expression of individualism, thumbing a nose at the anti-social and instead just turning our backs on it and doing what we felt good doing, either in dress, or the ultimate non-fashion just naked.

My guru once, or twice said, "Life is a process of unlearning." That would include all convention that we are taught at an early age, questioning authority, the stuff children are molded to. That opens the doors to infinite possibilities in consciousness and experience.

Quite a lot wrapped around the act of dropping trousers in the street in a most spirited manner.

Right-arm!
Jbee

 

[nuduke]

Bob,
Your description of being naked as a boy is great.  If you were so inclined in the UK today, visiting a school site or even a park, you would be picked up on cctv.  In the UK we have an incredible amount of cctv for traffic, security, maintenance, sundry business operations etc. such that in urban areas you are likely to be picked up somewhere outside.  Not quite as bad in the countryside of course but there is increasing use of it on people's houses.  I seem to remember Dave Balead getting fingered by the police and prosecuted for walking naked across a golf course where cctv evidence was obtained.
Happily also we now have a more liberal police attitude to public nudity.
John


PS It seems to be a funny semantic thing - being naked in public is always referred to as public nudity - never public nakedness.  Have you noticed this too?

[jbeegoode]

Nude is with no clothing, but nakedness could imply all sorts of minimizations on coverage. Naked this, naked that, this part and that, Naked attitude, Not properly dressed for some occasions. Nakedness can cover all of those bizarre and various states that somebody just deems inappropriate.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

If you were so inclined in the UK today, visiting a school site or even a park, you would be picked up on cctv.  In the UK we have an incredible amount of cctv for traffic, security, maintenance, sundry business operations etc. such that in urban areas you are likely to be picked up somewhere outside.  Not quite as bad in the countryside of course but there is increasing use of it on people's houses.

Ubiquitous video cameras are generally ignored.   Few things are as boring as watching hour after hour of video to see if anything at all happened.  I pretty much ignore them.  Nobody really cares anyway in most places and circumstances.   I also don't worry if someone holds up a camera and wants to take my picture.  I smile and wave.  I'm not ashamed to be seen naked. 

Back in the 1950s the public would have had a cow if they saw a teen wandering naked through the night, and in a small town most everyone knew everyone.  Today, not so much.

I seem to remember Dave Balead getting fingered by the police and prosecuted for walking naked across a golf course where cctv evidence was obtained.  Happily also we now have a more liberal police attitude to public nudity.
John 

Golf courses work hard to stop trespassers walking on their property.   

PS It seems to be a funny semantic thing - being naked in public is always referred to as public nudity - never public nakedness.  Have you noticed this too? 

Haven't noticed that but you are probably right.

[jbeegoode]

Stone Throwing: From "The Secret Naturist Handbook"
When you are alone and naked in the Great Outdoors, perhaps even without clothing or anything else to hand, the secret naturist needs to be able to make us of whatever materials are available. Just suppose you need to deal with any of the following three situations - a potential dog attack, a hostile human encounter, and finally the need to create a diversion. What simple technique could help solve all three problems. The answer, ishinagejutsu, the art of throwing stones. (No, I did not make that one up!)

The ability to throw stones accurately is a useful skill for the secret naturist. Taking one of the examples above, a potential dog attack, a well aimed stone will soon send even the biggest dog yelping back to its owner. Similarly, even a human aggressor faced with someone who can hit them repeatedly in quick succession will think twice before pressing any hostile action. Even the act of picking up a handful of stones can be deterrent enough to prevent a hostile encounter, particularly with dogs.

The third example above, the need to create a diversion, can be used on both urban and countryside areas. Should you find yourself being actively pursued and have found some temporary cover, a well aimed stone can be used to create a diversion with the resultant noise drawing the pursuer in another direction, allowing you to slip away unseen. In this situation make sure that your movements when actually throwing the stone will not attract attention.

The only way to become proficient in stone throwing is practice, more practice and even more practice. You can do this just about anywhere, where a ready supply of stones are available, such as river gravel beds and pebble beaches. Set up a few targets at different distances and start chucking. After a while, you will soon become proficient and when you can hit a tin can at twenty metres three times in succession, you are well on the way to become a master. However, do be aware that throwing stones is extremely dangerous and should only be used as a last resort.

[jbeegoode]

I've never had use for throwing stones, but I could come up with some dirty tricks, using them to play with other hikers on the wild trails.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Stone Throwing: From "The Secret Naturist Handbook"

I have read that paleolithic human encampments often left piles of stones for throwing.   Apparently stone throwing has been part of human survival for millions of years.  Our shoulders adapted for throwing are unique even among primates.  No other animal of any sort can manage it -- except perhaps bigfoots if they exist.