Author
|
Topic: Your today in pictures..
|
Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted September 06, 2018 02:12 PM
The Next Day
"Steven...........wake up!.........STEVEN!...." (Teenagers!)
So, the sun rose on our little campsite, revealing the absolute splendor of complete disorder! (think “Freshman Dorm!”) I guess it was entirely our fault, but then again, it’s a natural consequence of this kind of camping. There isn’t a place for everything, so nothing can possibly be in its place! There are no shelves or cabinets for storage, and under the light of flashlights and the campfire it’s hard to see what’s going on. The end result is you see it in daylight and ask yourself “Who lives HERE?” You find strange things like one sneaker laying in a canoe with its mate two tents away!
-so there was some quick organization before breakfast.
I had wondered about breakfast in the days before…maybe bacon and eggs…then again do hotdogs count as breakfast sausage? Then it dawned on me that I own a genuine campfire waffle iron! This great cast-iron lollypop is from the same folk that made the Pie Iron from the night before. I’ve gotten to know this thing in the years since we got it and I can tell you here the idea of a campfire waffle is a complete lie! In order to keep the batter inside, it needs to be kept level, and you just don’t do that at an open fire. Making waffles in the dark is a whole separate kettle of fish!
-breakfast food needs to come after sunrise: it’s just common sense!
I played with it a long time before I managed to get a decent waffle out of it. The key ingredient is a stove: level cooking surface, reliable, controllable heat. I happen to have a nice little single burner that did a great job!
Something I learned this time is you need to spritz the iron for EVERY waffle. I made three waffles. The first and third came out really great, but the second stuck and it looked like it needed an ambulance! (I’d never made more than one at a time, so this never came up before.)
If you do a camping breakfast there MUST be coffee!
There’s something deceiving about this picture I need to explain: everything shown is smaller than you think! The percolator is two 16 Oz. cups, so basically one mug. The stove fits very comfortably in the palm of your hand, and if you disconnect the gas bottle and fold it up, it fits in a shirt pocket. This little stove is hot: I had a steaming hot mug of percolated coffee starting from cold water in about 8 minutes. It uses two tablespoons of ground beans which traveled in a ziplock inside the coffee pot. (It pays to simplify and organise!!)
This coffee is great! It’s very smooth and satisfying. I kept it to myself though: giving a cup of coffee to a teenage boy you’re trapped on a small island with just isn’t smart parenting! (…or even self-preservation!)
The little percolator is the 1950s Keurig: just coffee for one. I found it on E-bay for five bucks when the outdoors stores had the Swedish Alpine Mountaineering equivalent for like $75! (“Stainless Steel, handcrafted by Elves! -Tested on Everest!) It has been with me all the way from Camping to CineSea!
So it came time to pack up and go home. I’ll have to say we did a pretty decent job this time. You know it’s gotten out of hand when somebody arrives home from camping with their tent unfolded and dragging out the back window: something has gone wrong! We folded them both back into their pouches and packed things basically into the vessels they’d arrived in.
We paddled back upstream to find my wife waiting at the launch, and then headed for the house.
So we had pulled it off: being two guys out of a population of 8 million doing something that most of the rest never even thinks about! We enjoyed ourselves and have resolved to do it annually from now on, both here and even where it’s more commonly done. If nothing else when you have somebody growing up in your house you need to remember that your time under the same roof is finite, and you have to grab times like these while you can.
It also helps you to appreciate life back home! The warm shower and a long nap on a real mattress that afternoon suited me just fine!
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
| IP: Logged
|
|
Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
|
posted September 09, 2018 01:12 AM
Brilliant Steve
Regarding heating water, I am trying to remember the name of an item that you filled with water that had a hole in the center. The idea was to place twigs into the its center and then light them. The idea of the water jacket surrounding that hole made the heating of water very efficient.Its a long time ago now I don't think they are made anymore, but without gas they were ideal.
I still have my old Pressure Tilley lamp "Kerosene/paraffin". The last time I used that one, was a late night fishing trip to a local beach. Those Tilley Lamps were great, and you could take them anywhere and into any conditions. This one needs a new kit, I think you can still buy them.
Still hanging up in the garage.. I have been trying to improve my fitness to be able to get back up to the mountains this summer. However I have no intention of doing the Arthur's Pass.. Scott's Track like Steven and I did many years ago...that would finish me
However we can do other tracks, but not like that one from the below photos.. those days have well and truly gone.
However there is a Outdoor Center in the township, where you can get the latest weather report "a must" and check in with your details, what track you are doing all that kind of stuff, including when you are due back and the registration number of your car in the car park.
One thing we always took along in our back packs, even on a nice day, is heavy duty outdoor clothing, fully water proof nothing like you wear in town. The weather can change in a instant and once above the bush line the temperature drops dramatically. I always think its great to enjoy the outdoors, but never go on my own and always have respect of those mountains and what they can throw at you in a instant.
In this old slide you can just make out the road below where we started.. Steven wrapping up, it was interesting to hear small avalanches going off near us all the time, although where we were was quite safe..
| IP: Logged
|
|
Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted September 09, 2018 01:19 PM
Graham,
I wouldn't know what a pressure lamp is other than a Super-8 film: "Snow Drift at Bleath Gill". It talks about men trying to free a train snowed in and frozen solid under the light of pressure lamps. I had to look it up and found out the translation is "Coleman Lantern", not because Coleman invented it, but because they make the vast majority of the ones used here.
My Dad had a curious relationship with our Coleman lantern. Deep down I suspect he loved it the same way we might love a favorite projector. We're used to just flipping a switch and having light pour out, but this thing was a process! You filled the tank with Coleman Fuel, which was some sort of gasoline. You pump up the air pressure in the fuel tank Then you open up a valve and adjust this little lever that nobody back then really understood but I now believe was air/fuel mixture.
It had the allure of danger to it: you'd light the mantles and very often...."WHHHHHOOOOOOOSH!!!"", this orange fireball would pour out and then settle down to this bright white light and reassuring sound of air and fuel rising up from the tank.
You could see the satisfaction in his eyes that he had faced the inferno once again and still had his eyebrows! He had battled the elements one on one and prevailed!
Coleman fuel presented Dad with one of his super-powers. You can't always count on a campfire. Some days the kindling and wood are just plain soggy and no amount of tinder and fanning the flames will dry it out, at least among us mere mortals! You give Dad a full can of Coleman Fuel and he could make anything burn!
He lit one of these up in Massachusetts when I was seven years old, and I swear I remember a shock wave passing under my feet!
(I don't think he learned any of this in the Scouts!)
Maybe 20 years later Mom bought him a new one that screwed on top of a propane cylinder. You open the valve, you hold a flame to it, it lights. Dad appreciated the convenience, but I'm sure it just wasn't the same: kind of the difference between using a parachute or just taking the elevator!
Delaware Water Gap, Ca. 1970 (May we camp together again someday where the firewood is always dry!)
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mathew James
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 740
From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2014
|
posted October 24, 2018 12:48 PM
Steve, Your boy and mine are the exact same age pretty much. Mine just turned 16 this month, and by 3:30 PM that afternoon, he walked out of the Transportation Office with his beginners license in hand. We just finished this learning to drive curve with my daughter last year, and although she is pretty good now, the white hairs I gained remain.... here we go again.....
I have to admit, one perk is that it is nice to be chauffeured more often these days
-------------------- -- Cheers, Matt 📽
| IP: Logged
|
|
Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
|
posted October 24, 2018 01:45 PM
Steven turned 16 in August, my wife slipped the test preparation booklet in with his birthday present. He passed the permit test last week.
This becomes more of a challenge when you look at it from my point of view: it seems like about 30 minutes ago I taught this kid how to ride a bike and I imagined we'd never get him off training wheels!
There came a day when all of a sudden he rode a couple of hundred feet with both wheels in the air and I unbolted them and we rode a couple of miles that day.
-if you call a miracle something you can't explain that happens entirely beyond your expectations, I had witnessed a miracle.
Last weekend we drove up to a beach near home that has immense parking lots and a couple of miles of park roads. We're at the end of season now so it's pretty quiet. I had him step on the brake, stick it in "D" and slowly ease off the pedal and we slowly rolled around the parking lot, just to gain a feel for the steering and brakes. When he felt a little more confident (-actually when I did!) I had him point the car away from potential targets and try that skinny pedal on the right: the thing jumped! (This was a lesson in subtlety!)
Just for interest, I had him put the car in a parking space: I've seen worse!
Once he got that down we went on a motoring trip: just a pleasant day in the park. The only thing really notable is we took a left turn and wound up on the British side of the line, but all in all it was a pretty decent first day!
Matt, you and your son should motor on down to Wildwood some day! [ October 24, 2018, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
-------------------- All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|