The Saga of the Field Pants

Post number 2!! I totally got this.

Work and extra-curriculars have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but last weekend I got a couple of boxes re-packed, and I've started ordering some of the equipment I need for the field. Also, Dad made a nice particle-board floor for the trunk of my Forester. Its original floor was a casualty of freezing temperatures, dogs, and thawing temperatures. It'll be a lot easier to pack now that there's a flat surface.

Progress of Big Things:
  1. Saving money: still on-target.
  2a. Find field gear in the garage: a little started, haven't found anything yet. Most of what I need is likely in the VERY back of the garage.
  2b. Buy field gear: in-progress.
    - Field pants: 3 failures, 1 success. Details to follow.
    - Cool, long-sleeved undershirts for bugs: success. Need a couple more.
    - Fanny pack: found a 'tactical' one that looks super cool and has a lot of pockets. You almost forget that it's a fanny pack. If I hear ANY snickers, my retribution will be swift and dire.
    - Adirondack birds field guide: received. It ended up being one of those old-school ones with mostly words, and like 20 pages of 'plates' in the middle for photographs. Not as useful as I was hoping. Mom has lots, may just borrow.
    - Head lamp, pocket knife, and additional undershirts: ordered.
  3. Wrap up work stuff: in-progress.
    - Staff meeting this weekend, working on finishing up curriculum projects.
  4. Housing: in-progress.
    - Still talking to the guy about a room, slowly acquiring details. Still looks promising.
  5. Travel logistics: started.
    - Realized that I have several free Hotels.com nights stored up from all of my work travel recently. May not need to go the AirBnB route after all. While $40/night is pretty cheap, $0 is even cheaper.
  6. Box up life: started.
    - Found: winter & cold weather gear. Separated out into My Car For Field, Dad's Car For School, and Probably Won't Need.
    - Also started a box for field gear that I'm ordering. Attempting to keep everything as organized as possible.
    - Bought more colored construction paper. Color-coding the boxes worked well during the apartment move, so I'll do it again. Also have 3 colors of GIANT Sharpies for labeling, for the three categories of my worldly possessions (see above).

Now. The Saga of the Field Pants.

Based on the size guides, these sorts of pants are sized 2-4 sizes larger than jeans or slacks (because the whole premise of women's clothing sizes is We Can Do Whatever The F We Want, Standardization Is For Pussies, And If We Can Keep Women Feeling Off-Balance And Bad About Themselves At The Same Time, That's Just A Bonus), which means I need the 'extended sizes' and can only buy these pants in certain brands. The 'normal' brands like Columbia, North Face, Royal Robbins, etc. won't work. So, I ordered pants from a website that sells uniform clothes and gear for military, police, firefighters, and EMT's, who have similar requirements in pants to field biologists.

Attempt #1: Ordered a preliminary pair just to see. 65% cotton, 35% polyester. Not sure what fabric my old field pants were, so I'm just shooting in the dark. Received them, they are a pretty heavy canvas-type fabric, which is not what I need for warm weather. Possibly for early in the spring though, I'll definitely revisit that for next May. HOWEVER. Not for July. And, despite being called 'women's' pants, they were cut much closer to the unisex and men's pants that I've had a couple of times in the past: waaaay to much room in the front, and not nearly enough room in the back. Also, the legs were the same width at the ankle as they were at the thigh. With the heavy fabric, I felt like I had a circus tent attached to each leg. NOPE.

Attempt #2: Dickies. Inexpensive, lots of inseam choices, lots of colors, lots of sizes. Also the cotton/polyester blend, which I now know won't work for summer, but still. General fit: not bad, actually seem to be cut for a woman. Length: 30" inseam too long, need 28" if possible. Number of pockets: INSUFFICIENT. NOPE.

Attempt #3: Another website for military/police/fire/EMT uniforms. Same brand as one I'd seen on website #1, but different available styles. One labeled 'light-weight', 100% nylon. Haven't tried this yet, ordered 2 slightly different styles. Received one. Fabric: SUCCESS!! Exactly what I used to have and what I need. Light-weight, quick-dry, breathable, rip-stop, stain-resistant. Fit: decent. Length: they came 'unhemmed', which is like 36" or something ridiculous. Will have to take them to get hacked off. Number of pockets: acceptable. These are keepers. Based on this, the second pair is a similar style, same brand and size, so I'm optimistic.

That's all for now!