Forging a partnership with my Peg & Awl Hunter Satchel (part 1)

Greetings from Hamburg. We have been working through some jet lags for this past week but are doing some outings to explore and get inspired. Earlier last week, we headed out to Büsum, where they are known for tidal mud flat - watt - an expansive squishy slick that shows its presence during low tide. We took the kids there for the first time when they were maybe 5 and 8 years old, and it’s one place Satchi requested that we go back to during our stay in Hamburg this time. So off we went, timing our one-hour drive with the early afternoon low tide.

walking together on the watt for endless expansion.

Muddy Flat was exactly as we remembered it. It was windy, squishy, slippery, and, in some areas, acted like quicksand (quick mud??), where we kept sinking into the mud with our weight. At one of those spots, I completely lost my balance, with one leg stuck deep in the mud and the other trying to find the next step… I fell forward so hard, straight into the mud. My front part was completely covered in the muck, and so was my Peg & Awl Hunter Satchel, which I had hanging cross-body. Kids were horrified, looking at my situation, and I just started laughing, kind of hysterically. I mean… what else can you do but laugh when you are completely covered in mud?

me and frido. laughing about how muddy we got

a small caption of caked mud on my bag after coming out of the mud flat.

At the end of the day, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I rinsed my legs at the washing station right outside of the muddy beach (Germans have thought of everything and they knew that people would get muddy when they walk into the mud flat). Once the mud dried up rather quickly, it became kind of a hard shell around my clothes. I walked into the restaurant, sat on the chair with my jacket inside out to avoid the chair coming in contact with the newly dried mud, ate lunch, and drove home. Once we got home, everything was washed, including my waxed canvas bag, which was caked in brown mud everywhere. I scrubbed the canvas with a coarse brush and warm water, and most of the mud came right off; then, the bag was draped over a rock outside, and by the end of the night, it was ready for the next adventure.

after the bag was nicely washed and scrubbed

After this seriously muddy occasion, I thought about our relationship with the artifacts we use and carry around. It was definitely my conscious decision to bring my Hunter Satchel on this trip from California. From the practical point of view, I wanted something that could withstand being handled on the airplane (stuffed underneath the chair during the flight), on the bike ride, and more, and carry my travel essentials with me. Emotionally, for this trip, I wanted to bring something that inspired me to go on an adventure, meet new people, and take chances on fresh experiences, and I couldn’t think of any other bag better than the Peg & Awl bag.

just another day for a Humburg adventure with my Peg & Awl bag after the mud incident:)

Now that the bag and I were welcomed by the earth and held together by mud (by sinking into the North Sea mud involuntarily!!??), we may have forged the beginning of a true partnership. I can feel it in the way the bag resonates when I pick it up today. It now asks me to go for a walk and a bike ride when it’s sunny outside, a little like how Mango communicates with me with his eyes. Even though we have more Hunter Satchel at Baum-Kuchen studio/shop who will be looking for their new homes and their own rightful adventures, my Hunter Satchel will be forever one of a kind for me, and we will continue to add more mileage with the scratch marks and possibly a bit more mud on the waxed canvas as genuine evidence.