Amy went camping in the rain Part 3

That night I tested out sleeping in a 0 degree mummy bag, and woke up saying I want to buy a 0 degree rectangular bag, I hated that mummy bag.

The Kelty tent worked well, it poured rain all night, but we had unfortunately forgotten to stake out the side of the rainfly so there was one place that dripped.  I had been worried about being cold, so I had slept in my sleeping bag with a folded polar fleece blanket on top of it. In the night I felt the polar fleece, and it was sopping wet on top and dry on the underneath layers.  So that totally convinced me of the insulative usefulness of polar fleece, and how it can still be warm when it is wet.

In the morning I learned to build a one-match fire.  We built up the fire inside the Stovetec rocket stove using the tinder and kindling we had made the night before.  Everything else in the vicinity was drenched, so we couldn't have gathered twigs.

My husband made scrambled eggs with chopped up Spam and onions, and fried some of the bread in the skillet with a little oil and some season all.  It was a pretty good breakfast.

We packed up and came home, and I have to say that it was a very positive experience.  Too bad I didn't learn this stuff earlier in my life.

Browning the onions and Spam before adding the eggs.
We're cooking on the Stovetec rocket stove.

Amy went camping in the rain Part 2

We had spent a lot of time that evening, sitting under the shelter and splitting wood.  My husband had found a small fallen tree which was laying sideways against another tree, so it wasn't on the wet ground.  He had used his saw to cut it off from the root ball, then hauled the tree to our campsite and sawed it into firewood lengths.

He has been reading a lot on the internet about how to split firewood.  He learned about a new way to use an axe.  He has always swung it up over his head.  Now he learned to tie the logs together with a chain and bungee cords, then hold the axe straight in front of you. and let it drop at the same time you squat down.  This allows the axe to go straight downwards, instead of coming back toward your legs.

Splitting small logs while they are tied together.  Using the "squat and drop the axe" method.

He also read about "battoning" logs, that is splitting them using a hunting knife as a wedge and hammering the knife down through the log with a sturdy piece of wood (a baton.)  He taught me to do that, and we split a lot of kindling and tinder as well as just splitting the logs.

Sorry, I don't know how to turn this photo.  Here I am, whacking away at the end of this hunting knife, making the knife go down through the log. 

My husband was amazed I was doing all these things, but with what I believe about the future, I've got to become knowledgeable about all this in order to survive and help my family to survive.

(I told him I wanted a hunting knife for my birthday, so I can split wood too.)

My batton, and the kindling and tinder we split using a hunting knife.

Politics:
I agree with Quin Hillyer in the title of this article:  Newt Gingrich is the Bill Clinton of the right, with half the charm and twice the abrasiveness.
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/20/bill-clinton-of-the-right-minu

Amy went camping in the rain Part 1

I have always hated camping, (I made excuses and never even attended Girls Camp) but since learning of the trials which will come in the latter days, it was time to learn some camping skills.

My husband is a complete camping maniac, has always been in scouting, and owns all the equipment REI and Campmore sells.

He asked if I wanted to go camping on Friday night, and with a huge frown on my face, I said "Yes."  I figured it would be a useful experience, like getting a tooth filled, but I didn't expect to enjoy it.

It was about 40 degrees and rained the ENTIRE time.  We went to a nearby state park, and W. showed me every camping trick he knows.  We put up two shelters, put all the gear under them, then put up the tent, and filled it with the bedding during lulls in the rain.

The fire pit became a huge puddle.  We were thankful we had brought our Stovetec rocket stove so we didn't need to use the fire pit.  We set the Stovetec on the ground under the big shelter.  We used the firestarter I had made (I made a bunch of firestarters last week out of cardboard egg cartons, dryer lint, and melted wax) and the charcoal started really easily.  We ate really easy food for supper, just a can of soup with an added can of green beans, heated in a pot, with some bread.

He taught me how to regulate the fire by opening and closing the air vent door at the bottom of the rocket stove.

We roasted marshmallows and ate mint chocolate Hershey bars with the graham crackers---Yum!

We sat there enjoying the fire, and as we fed it, sparks would fly around.  I had on my wonderful L.L. Bean ski pants that I purchased from Goodwill for $10, and I was fearful that a spark would melt a hole in them.  W. also had on some expensive Boy Scout pants, and I didn't want them melted either. I remembered that I had brought a wool blanket that I bought at a yard sale, so we threw that over both of us, and I didn't worry about the sparks anymore.  (I'm going to try to bring wool blankets every time, for that purpose.  It would be a good idea to make the outer covering of the grandkids' winter pants out of wool, so they would be protected around fires too.)

This is our Stovetac rocket stove, when we used wood for the fire the next morning.