Our local weather is usually 85F - 95F, with crippling high humidity, this time of year. Simply put, being outside working means being drenched in sweat, all day long. Cotton tees and undies are not suitable, but I've found Dri-Star polyester tees and Starter undies at WalMart for good prices. Except when using the chainsaw, I wear old cargo shorts, or regular khaki type shorts for doing yard and house work. Usually, just old pairs of what would be my good shorts, but I seem to need more pairs than I've got. I'm interested to hear what others have found/ bought. I'm not into cutting off old jeans, or wearing my too-warm Dickies carpenter pants in this weather!
I wear pants and a t-shirt any time I'm using the saw along with my PPE gear. When outside otherwise, it's shorts and a t-shirt. I'm not a big fan of summer heat and humidity. This too shall pass.
I try and wear boots shorts and chaps when cutting in the heat, and a light colored tee. Any high energy work gets wrapped up by noon, and a lot of times its even too hot then. Fall, winter, and spring are perfect seasons. Summer I hate! Something I need to do more is wear a bandana to keep the sweat from burning my eyes.
Working heavy commercial construction full time & doing tree work part time year round in all temps/weather conditions is murder on clothes.I cant see spending even $10 or 15/pair for the cheapest jeans at Walmart,Target etc when they're are literally trashed in a month or less. So I get all my work jeans at DAV,Goodwill or Salvation Army,occasionally a garage sale.Along with sweatshirts both pullover & hooded styles.Most jeans are $2-5 per pair,the ones for $5-6 are literally brand new or only worn/washed 2-3 times. T shirts I get from employers or second hand stores/garage sales. But I don't skimp on tools,safety/climbing gear or steel toed boots,money is no object there. Shorts/t shirt when not doing any tree work.I leave the jeans/boots on when mowing/weed eating though.Any other outdoor stuff shorts/t shirt/old Nike's or even sandals.But no flip flops,hate those damm things lol Sometimes wear a bandana under my work hard hat or forestry helmet,most of the time its a cut-off sleeve from an old t shirt,that makes a great headband on these sweltering spring/summer days.Not unusual for me to be on my 4th t shirt at the end of a working day.Its no big deal,just stay hydrated,take plenty of breaks & its no problem.After all these years I'm certainly used to it by now.Take my time,dont try to do it all in one day like when I was younger.Life is best experienced at a slower pace anyway,certainly safer that way.
I am accustomed to wearing pants all year. No matter how hot we have to wear pants at work. Whenever in an energized zone we also have to have a long sleeve flame resistant shirt. Add to that rubber gloves and sleeves plus a 100% cotton t underneath and it gets real hot real fast. I wear a bandana under my hardhat dip it in water occasionally and sometimes one around my neck. Makes wearing pants and a tshirt easy all the time.
We have to wear FR at work all the time too and most of the time long sleeves its not to often that we can wear short sleeves. Ive found that wearing the dri fire tee shirt helps a lot and when we can wear short sleeves this is all were allowed to wear. http://www.frsafetycloseouts.com/product/Drifire-FR-Lightweight-Short-Sleeve-Tee-Desert-Sand-2
About five years ago I went to a porch sale for some jeans, they all left me standing there while they went upstairs to smoke some joints, they came down higher than a kite, bought two pair of Carhartt jean (great shape) for five bucks. Those have been worn out a few years ago, I still wear Carhartt jeans with a 50/50 t-shirt in the summer, in early, out early on the hottest days.
Another reason not to smoke funny stuff kids..... you'll end up selling really good stuff for cheap not thinkin!
Ll Bean sells some tropical weight stuff that wicks away moisture. Best to keep covered to avoid those ticks and sun burns. Not in the woods, wear anything you want but also sun screen. Last year I went through some very painful skin treatments to remove years of sun exposure. I was told they were layers of stuff that had a potential of becoming cancer. My face was one big scab for a while while getting treatments. Went through it twice. I had several spots on my arms removed by freezing them. I'm light skinned and can't tan.
I can burn just thinking about going out in the sun. I wear long sleeve shirts most times I'm outside. Had a straw hat for a couple years that developed a sunroof, so it needs replacing.
Occasionally I wear shorts, outside, inside I Ware them most of the time I just wear pants especially when doing yard work for cutting or anything like that, got a bruise on my leg last time I mowed, if I had shorts on it would have been a laceration
During the summer months in construction I wear shorts, usually a cargo pocket type short but nothing too loose fitting. Underarmor polypropylene/ nylon type underwear, seems to wick away the sweat better than anything cotton. And usually a white Tshirt, sunglasses and baseball cap and drifit ankle high socks with my red wings on my feet. And lastly, SPF 50
I wear good ol original wrangler blue jeans and a T-shirt. Been thinking about wearing something long sleeved when I'm out in the full sun all day but haven't found anything I like yet.
Dermatologist found a spot on my back that was precancerous. The sun is a bad thing. I wear a hat all the time and would like to find a thin long sleeve tshirt but nothing yet. I wear a cotton work shirt if out in in for a long time. Cotton work pants is the norm for the bottom, legs are nice and pasty white!
Step 1... Move to a place that has reasonable temps in summer. Step 2... ??? Step 3.... Profit Mr thistle.... Got dang... Could sell advertising space on that forehead.... Heheh aha!
This is me, too. Some interesting replies here, but I should have specifically asked in the OP: Where can I buy a half dozen pairs of decent khaki / cargo shorts, without spending a fortune? Many of the old pairs I'm wearing now were $50/ea when new, which is just way too much if I'm buying just for the purpose of doing yard work or house work. Oh, and those of you not working in fire zones, who are still wearing cotton, you really need to try the hi-tech fabrics like under armor or dri - tech. Way more comfortable when you sweat!
