Merry Christmas

With all the lights and glitter, let us not forget.. HE is the reason for the season.

God Bless you and keep you safe, this holiday season.

Red River Gorge

Got down to Red River Gorge in KY.
Used the Hennesy Hammock as usual




Got a bit cold, so I threw an extra sleeping bag over the top quilt, not too bad into the 30s.

We did some hike and repelling, more pictures on the slide show.

Hmmm....

This is very informative....

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wxmr_burning-down-the-house-what-caused_news

Summer Camp !

Our Boy Scout Troop and Venture Crew had a great time at camp.
First year that I can remember that we had zero rain.

I used my Hennessy Hammock with the zipper mod and JRB Nest under-quilt. I had a Speer (Mountain Crossings) Frog Sac lightweight sleeping bag, but most nights just covered up with a surplus poncho liner.
Five nights in a hammock is pure heaven compared to tent. The camp provides canvas tents and cots. Most of the Scouts just dragged the cots out and slept under the stars.

I did bring two extra hammocks to demonstrate. A Claytor NoNet and a Speer Hammock. Both are simple comfortable hammocks and several Scouts and adults snoozed in them during the day and a couple boys spent nights in them.
I should have the troop converted to hanging by next year.

During the day, the Scouts worked on merit badge activities, swam, canoed, shooting sports, archery etc. The camp provided most meals, we elected to have a couple of troop nights and cooked dutch oven meals at our campsite.

One of the features at this camp is a frontiersman program that focuses on primitive skills including flint/steel and bow drill fire making, lashing project, wild edibles, tomahawk throwing etc. Scouts that complete several challenges are permitted to attend a "Rendezvous".
The "vous" are held away from camp in primitive setting. The applicants camp in self made shelters (a tarp for first timers a debris hut or lean to for more experienced)
First time attendees become 'Pioneers', Second Level is 'Trapper'. A few Trappers that have demonstrated exceptional skills etc are nominated to a 'Mountain Man' honor.
Really a fun program, many alumni and especially Mountain Men come back and spend a night on the vous. Many dress appropriatley in The breechclout, buckskins, powder backs etc. Good outlet for Scouts that may have completed many of the merit badges offered.
I got my pioneer claw last year, stayed in camp with my troop and allowed others to go this year. Hope to get Trapper next year Grrrrr.

Summer Camp

Well, this weekend, the Scout troop is off to summer camp. I have to work Sunday and Monday, but will head down after work on Monday. My son has been working on staff there for the last 3.5 weeks.

I usually stay in the Scoutmaster tent, but as I was not sure if I was going to make it at all, I passed the duties to one of the other leaders. I will be taking one of my hammocks to use and maybe the other two to demo. I may get some hammock converts. This is 'camp' camping so meals are provided, but I will still bring a stove or two for coffee if nothing else.

Stay tuned for pictures and a report of hammock hanging for 5 nights straight.

God Bless

Compact Wood Burning Stove

I really like alcohol stoves, I was first introduced to them at a Boy Scout training Pow Wow several years ago. I now have quite a few, I have made a few and purchased several online (probably a future post to cover them all).

Lately there has been some discussion on the forums about wood burning stoves for backpack cooking. I looked at some of the designs, one of the the more popular - Bush Buddy was out of my budget, but looks great.

I took a wait and see approach as there are some wood gas designs in works. Recent discussions on Hammock Forums about the Compact Wood Burning Stove (CWS) and a Utube review by Jason Klass reignited interest and the gearaholic decided had to check it out and make one.

J. Falk provides instructions for the original one piece stove on his site and instructions for the CWS for a small donation (part to American Diabetes Association.) here.
As this is for a good cause, I won't discuss the construction steps.

Materials are readily available and the construction is very straight forward. Mine is not perfect or beautiful, but works just fine.

Here it is prior to fire up...


I grabbed a couple handfuls of twigs from the yard


I put the can base on the bbq grill for deck test and added a Vaseline impregnated cotton ball


Added some of the sticks and sparked the cotton with a blastmatch


I was playing around with taking pictures and (don't tell anyone) let the thing go out. Another cotton starter and use of a stoking tube [I had some surgical tubing from HDepot for a future tarp guy project, so just added a brass fitting for the hot end] and quickly had the little stove in blast furnace mode. Quite efficient method. Falk discusses using a fish bait air pump for this purpose, may have to play with that later.





Once the flames got going,


I added a pot.


I used an old Peak 1 pot that ends up doing a lot of the dirty work around here. Falk recommends covering the bottom of the pot with foil for smut protection. This is well founded, but I ignored it just to see.


Amazingly, the handles of the pot stayed cool, as long as they are away from the from fuel port, the heat is focused on the pot.


Boil time for 16 ounces of tap water was about 10 minutes. This was pretty respectable for first test with sticks and twigs of various size and moisture content, but hey this was from my backyard not the woods. Also I was playing around taking pictures etc. I would expect with a breeze as in Jason's video and more experience that 6-7 minutes with dry wood would be average.
All that remained once the stove cooled down was a small pile of ash.


It is a relatively compact package with the top half fitted into the bottom. Weight is about 6.5 ounces on my scale for the base unit, if you add binder clips standoffs lids, and the stakes about 8oz - 9 to 10 if you add an alcohol stove.


Do expect smut, either foil on the bottom or a dedicated pot. Either way, I need to sew up a stuff sack and maybe a plastic bag inside to keep the soot contained and away from stuff in the pack


The smut did easily wash off, but that means more water needed and soap... the foil can be reused but I think just a dedicated pot for this stove, let it get sooted up. Definitely need a lid to keep the ash out of your food or water.

The top half of the stove can also be uses as a stand and windscreen for an alcohol stove. Two stakes and one of the can lids makes this transformation. Also some screws and binder clips provide stand-offs for more airflot. A very stable setup. I used it with my MBD atomic.



Overall - this was a fun project, minimal cost to construct. The stove provides an alternate means of cooking either as primary or backup to an alcohol or (shudders) canister stove. You do need to keep your fire going with additional twigs etc and stoke if needed, but that is fun and as some others have said on the forums "feeds you inner pyro"

So the Scouts will love it.....

More photos

Prom

Last night was the big night> My son's Junior Prom