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Apr 1, 2023
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Greetings all. My name is JB and I have just this week decided to take another plunge into the pipe world. Over ten years ago I was preparing a sailboat to sail down to Mexico and beyond from Seattle, Wa. I had to stop in Port Townsend to replace the rigging on my boat and was docked next to a large yacht owned by the previous owners of a Seattle Newspaper. Apparently the Captain of the yacht had been watching me swinging on top of the mast in the high winds of the day, installing my rigging. I was a poor cruiser who wanted to and had to, do almost all work on my boat myself. Well this intrigued the captain and he invited me over for drinks that evening. The gentleman was smoking a pipe and during our amused exploration of how the other half lived, I mentioned that I had always been intrigued by piping as my grandfather had smoked a pipe. This well heeled gentleman gave me multiple ounces of different tobacco, saying many of the things I read in the beginner forum here and elsewhere on the net. He told me to go buy a cheap but decent pipe and give it a whirl.
I sailed off and tried to learn the pipe the best I could while sailing singlehanded. I remember a lot of gurgling and wet tobacco, a lot of bite, and generally not the best experience. My best bowl was as I sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge after a long interaction with a storm, but I could have been choking on foul ash and that still would’ve been a great moment to me.
Down to Mexico I went and the tobacco given to me was smoked and my pipe smoking just faded out as my attention was focused on numerous other interesting things.
Bam, into the present and I currently live in Montana, a town now, but have acreage inside a national park with unfinished house/shop that I will be moving into next year. I am not sure what sparked my interest again but I started watching some videos mainly from The Pipe Cottage, Spurgeon Piper and muttnchop. Needless to say my interest was piqued and the whole motivation and philosophy fits my life very well now.
I bought a new Savinelli 626, an estate Jon Vesterholm Zulu, the requisite tools and small amounts of the following: C&D Berries and cream, C&D Autumn Evening, 4th Generation Morning Blend, Pease Quiet Nights, Sillems Black, Savinelli 140, and Sutliff Dunhill 965. I took some advice about tobacco from some YouTubers and just picked a couple on my own. I remember the tobaccos given to me by the captain were very aromatic, blackberry was one I remember.
A rambling introduction but there it is, really excited about my journey with pipe smoking and meeting and interacting with other pipe smokers.
 
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Apr 1, 2023
17
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Great introduction! Sounds like you have had some true adventures in life. Keep us updated on the homestead. Welcome from Cincinnati Ohio.
Thank you, lived in Columbus for a couple years, not my favorite place geographically but the people are fine people.
 
Apr 1, 2023
17
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Welcome from Texas!

I think you will find non-aromatics are less likely to gurgle and bite you, as long as you sip slowly.
Seems to be what I am learning. I believe the gentleman who introduced me to pipe smoking suggested the aromatic route first as many seem to need some time to appreciate straight blends. I do remember that the tobaccos I was given were super sweet. They smelled good but sort of tasted like candy. I’m just going to take it slow and enjoy the ride.
 
Apr 1, 2023
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Welcome from Pennsylvania and New York.

Cool intro.

How does one end up with acreage inside a national park?
Before National forests were “national-ized” there were private holdings and when the National Forests were established some of these private holdings were grandfathered in and kept as private land. I am in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National forest and you can look on a map and see a dozen or two private parcels in my area. The trick is that the number of private holdings will not increase so these parcels are getting expensive, but thankfully I got mine!