2014

Another summer, same camping story.  Started the day today at 6 am to get ready to head to Chatfield to instruct a lifeguard renewal class. Nine hours later 14 guards were renewed for two more years.  That was a lot of guards, but it was fun.

Now I am in my tent, all set up and ready for the summer.  This year I am almost constantly training new lifeguards and swim instructors, so not many lifeguarding shifts this summer, but we need the new guards and instructors.

For dinner I had some green beans.  Instead of getting a big fire or a gas stove to boil water, I used for the first time the Biolite my mom got me for my birthday.  It works by taking the heat from the fire to generate electricity which drives a fan to make the fire hotter.  Took less than 10 minutes to boil a mostly full small pot of water.  Instead of using large wood you just burn small stuff.  All the wood I used to make dinner was tree bark I found on the ground as I was clearing a space for my tent.  I have a box I filled with wood I found on the ground that I am going to keep in my car so if it rains I still have dry wood, but every day for fuel I just need to go find fallen sticks and pinecones.

I lit the fire using a small piece of news paper I got from my sister, when she moved into her new apartment there were 4 news papers outside the door, and added a few piece of wood.  Once some of the wood got burning I turned on the fan (it has a battery to start up the fan before there is enough heat).  I put the pan on to start heating and after a few minutes there was a big poof and all of a sudden flames were shooting out as the wood all combusted at once.  Before the poof the fire was really smokey.  Once it fully lit and started burning there was absolutely no visible smoke.  Smoke is particulate and ash that did not fully burn, wasting fuel.  When there is no smoke then everything is burning completely, giving more heat release per gram.

As a result of the Biolite I can now cook in about 10 minutes what would normally take about 30-45 minutes.  Tomorrow is oatmeal!

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard

Got to Keep Cool

I know, I am mean, I left you on a cliff hanger there. Wait you shouted! Your going to be camping, a few miles from power possibly, how the world are you going to be able to keep food cold? It is time to get geeky.

I have been thinking for a while now about using the great Lake Superior to cool food. I could just bury my food deep in the sand, but critters might get to it. One idea I have had is simply to have two containers, one with food in it, and a bigger one to keep lake water in to keep it cool. Nice and simple, this will keep the food about lake temperature, of about the 60s during warm summers, and cooler as you go deeper.

Another option involves some kind of device which uses evaporation to cool the food. Using fast evaporating liquids like alcohol, Ben Franklin and a colleague was able to cool a thermometer from 65°, the room temperature, to 7°. It would cost money but I could keep adding alcohol to something to cool it. This is good for maybe something I brought home earlier that day but not for multiple days.

I can do the same thing with water, but this will only cool to the dew point. Something like the container idea plus some fabric as a wick, and water evaporating from fabric would help to keep the water cooler longer.

I plan to test this method and a few others over my summer.

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard

Food Food Food Food

Food Food Food Food, everyone loves to eat Food! What to eat when I am camping? Well we have our classics of hotdogs, s’mores, sandwiches, pancakes, oatmeal, and water. Three months is about ninety days. I am pretty sure I can’t do hotdogs for 90 days straight. Ohh! I just remembered Mac & Cheese. Yum...Mac & Cheese with chopped up hotdogs! Yikes! (And don’t get me started on frank and beans)

The nice thing about the summer is all the yummy stuff you can get locally, such as sweet corn, lettuce, tomatoes, chives (I have a soft spot for chives), and green beans. Biking from town almost every day, I can get around the need for refrigeration by buying fresh stuff that I only need that day. I can occasionally stock up on canned stuff and things that don’t need to be refrigeration, such as cereal, peanut butter, oatmeal, and other stuff. Ohh patatos! Wait, no butter :(

Mmm, oatmeal. I have two favorites, apple cinnamon and maple brown sugar. I’m big, I like food, so I always make breakfast using one pack of each. put each packet into a bowl, add some chocolate chips or coco powder, maybe some brown sugar, and nice and thick but not too thick.

There are of course things I am going to miss. No more ice cream, microwaveable sweet and sour chicken, little smokies, hamburgers, sloppy joes, even salad dressing I think.

Something to note here, I think hamburgers are easily doable, but I have a little worry about cooking meat that I won’t cook it enough and get sick. What is worse is those of you who know me will think that is weird since I love eating cookie dough and going barefoot.

One thing I know I can do when I have time are tinfoil packets. Onions, Italian Sausage, pepperoni, peppers, and Italian dressing. It would be really great to make a few at a time and keep them in the refrigerator, but I won’t have one.

Or maybe I will...

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard