Glamping

Recently I burned about eight gallons of diesel brushing-out 3.5 miles of trails, a six acre wildlife opening and the ancestral campsite.  Campsite, you ask?  Yup; in the early years it was there we camped.  Eventually we purchased a park model trailer home, The Villa, adjacent to Potawotomi State Park and commuted back and forth from there to here and back.  Yup; we lived in a trailer park too.  And then eventually built a house (second home) and finally moved here permanently.

Over the years the Missus and I have been acquainted (and married) we've done a great deal of camping.  We've camped across the breadth of Canada, south to the Gulf of Mexico, all of the southwestern US, most of Wisconsin and we even took a Jeep trip off-road across the rocky mountains.

With two homes, a tree farm to maintain and the creep of maturity and eventually retirement the camping itch doesn't need much of a scratch.  Nevertheless, from time to time and on special occasions  we'll still pitch a tent, and cook over a fire or a camp stove.  We've saved all the camping gear and have our own private campsite down by Silver Creek.

I can bake a campfire dutch oven pizza, the best pudgie pie on the planet and have special kind of s'mores recipe in case you're interested. 

Anyway, the ancestral campsite has been cleaned-up.  A rough-cut with the Rhino bush hog...

Followed by a trim with a weed whacker...   

The original picnic table from more than three decades ago has been returned to its proper place.  I even added a Leopold bench for good measure.

We don't have electrical or water hook-ups.  But we have clear dark skies at night, no bothersome  drunken neighbors keeping you up until 2 AM and all the free firewood you need to roast a wienie and keep your tootsies toasty.  We even have a shitter.  You have to bring your own roll; butt the view is spectacular.  Pun intended.

Think of it as the first iteration of glamping.

Raising a toast to fun times out-of-doors and around the campfire.

Mr. Fix It

I seem to be dogged by plow damage.  It doesn't simply extend to my wintertime jousting with the county plow and my mail box but recently it extended to the picnic table.

In 1998 I purchased a tubular-steel-framed picnic table assembly from Menards.  That and five six foot lengths of 2X9 treated lumber.  I pre-assembled the table top at home and shoved it along with the rest of the framing, benches and hardware into the back of my Toyota 4Runnner and Jill and I drove it to the farm.  Upon arrival we assembled it and left it at our ancestral campsite along Silver Creek.

This was home - a stone fire ring and a picnic table.  Add a solar shower, tent, tarp, cooler, camp stove, gas lantern along with an outdoor privy and this was how we lived at the farm for a number of years.  It was certainly rustic but it did the job.

In any event, I never did entertain any expectations that the picnic table would last much longer than a handful of years.  Sure, the treated lumber was durable but the inexpensive Menards frame kit would likely rust away in reasonably short order.  

Not so.  That picnic table is still with us and lives outdoors year-round.  And it gets plenty of use for just about everything imaginable but eating.  It's a handy workspace for out door use.

Nevertheless, a couple of winters ago we mistakenly left it north of the driveway within range of the guy who plows our snow.  And before we could move it to safe harbor the first heavy snow of the season arrived and so did the snow plow guy.  Getting-up a head of steam and about a ton of wet snow he never actually struck the picnic table with his blade  but the mountain of wet snow did and it bent the frame leaving one bench and part of the table top cattywumpus and uneven.

While the table remained serviceable it didn't look good.  It was annoyingly cattywumpus. For awhile I thought about getting a new frame kit from a big box building supply store but never actually acted on the notion.  After a couple of years the appearance got under my skin just enough that I decided to do something about it.

Gathering various odd-sized blocks of wood along with a one-and-a-half-ton bottle jack from the machine shed in the short time of a couple of hot sweaty hours I had everything realigned.  It's not perfect - but a 22 year-old picnic table that lives outdoors is never perfect. 

 
I did notice that the tubular steel frame and brackets are a bit corroded and my forcing everything back into alignment (without disassembly) likely shortened the remaining useful life of the frame.  Nevertheless, the treated wood is solid and if the frame fails I'll fetch another one from Menards and assemble another table using wood salvaged from the old table. 

That aught to get me somewhere close to ninety years of age - and close to fifty years for the table. 
 

Takes a Beating - Keeps On Cooking

Founded by William Coleman this company is known for producing a wide variety of camping and recreational use products. The first dating back to 1900 – the gasoline pressure lamp. 

The first pressurized gasoline camp stove was introduced in 1954 – the Model 413E. This variation was sold from 1954 thru 1961.  As a child I recall camping with mom and dad out of our venerable American Motors Rambler station wagon. Lacking a tent mom and dad bunked in the back of the wagon and I slept on the front seat. Dad hand-built screens to insert in the open windows for ventilation. Mom cooked on a borrowed and battered Coleman gasoline camp stove and I’d bet it was the first model 413E. 

I have pictures in my possession somewhere but I digress. 

In any event I brought these up out the basement last weekend thinking they might get some use this fall/winter. 

These are called Coleman Suitcase Camp Stoves. The smaller on top is a Model 425E manufactured January 1967. I purchased it used. The larger on on the bottom is a Model 413G manufactured April 1980. I purchased it new at Fleet Farm. 

They’re both two-burner models with the smaller stove capable of 14,000 BTU output on the main burner. If the secondary burner is engaged the output is 7500 BTU on the right and 6500 BTU on the left. The larger 413G replaced the 425E and not only boasts an output of 17,000 BTU (9,000 right and 8,000 left) but has a stronger grate capable of supporting heaver cast iron cookware. 

Both of these stoves have surface rust, dings and dents and plenty of scorching.  A camp patina I suppose. And they’ve cooked countless meals outdoors under a year-round range of conditions in both Canada and the United States. If only they could talk. 

I added some fresh gas and after tightening a loose fitting or two they both operate like champs. 

Manufactured in Wichita Kansas, USA - after 93 combined years of service – I figure the amortized cost per use is pretty small.

The lesson is:  hang-on to the good stuff - you never know when it might get put to use for a camping experience - or an emergency.  

Nature is Your Friend

A few days ago I spoke of the early days here at The Platz and how Jill and I used to camp here.  Tent, rain fly, picnic table, fire ring, outdoor privy, solar shower - the whole shebang.  Those were good times. 

I recently gave the ancestral campsite a makeover - rebuilding the fire ring, brushing-out a clear spot for a tent and moving the outdoor privy and digging a new hole for it. 

Yesterday everyone came down to the site for a weenie roast including other campfire treats and grandson and I stayed overnight.

I have to say that this was fun.  I spun a few scary tales for the kid as we relaxed by the fire after everyone else returned to the house.  The stars were out in their fullest of glory and we both slept like logs.  Very early this morning we were greeted by the alarm call of a whitetail deer - Hey!  What are you doing here in my woods!





As the grandson would tell you - nature is your friend.

 

Early Platz Life

Two and a half decades ago Jill and I spent much of our time here at The Platz living out of a tent.  No trailer, no house, no running water and no indoor plumbing.  We did have a tent, a tarp, a picnic table, a solar shower and a home-built pit toilet.  And we did just fine for a number of years.

Eventually, we purchased a park-model trailer home not too far away and ultimately built a house..  The ancestral campsite was largely forgotten and has fallen into disuse.  The picnic table remains in use - but on the edge of the drive at the house.

The grandkids arrive today and grandson has been promised a camping overnite with Opa.  As a consequence, I tidied-up the old campsite - cutting back enough space to pitch a tent, rebuilt the council ring and straightened-out some bends in the tripod that holds the grill.











Things cleaned-up rather nice I might add.

click on images for a closer look



BTW - that tripod is a homebuilt number that I cobbled-together in 1976 from electrical conduit, swing set chain, a Weber grill grate and some odd bits of hardware.  No complaints from the builder/customer as it's been weathering the elements here at the fire pit since the summer of 1994.

Rolling Stones

We relocated the Council Ring last year to be closer to the house. Not too close though. Nevertheless, there is easier access to a ready water source, folding chairs and the adult beverage fridge in the garage.    

With the grandkids scheduled to visit soon I figured I best accelerate my plans to tidy-up the fire pit.  Yesterday I burned some scrap wood to clear the weeds and create a ‘clean palette’. Today I rebuilt it from scratch.  I used the loader on the tractor to move three very large granite boulders to a safe location for Jill to use somewhere else.  I also used the loader to move some rocks to this location.  Other than that I moved the stones by means of rolling and lifting into place.  Hot, hot work.     

It is both larger and more symmetrical (round).  The inside is four feet across and the flat rocks on the right are a platform for my cast iron Dutch oven. I have a vision of Dutch oven pizza or Blazing Saddles baked beans in my future.       

Materials were free as peninsula rocks are unlimited.

Gift of the last glaciation.

Glop

This evening's repast is brought to you from years of camping and quick, one pot and one skillet meals.

Two skinless, boneless chicken breasts (cut into bite-size pieces), one small garden onion (chopped) - seared in olive oil.

Add a pouch of Uncle Ben's brown rice and a cup of chicken base.

Season with Penzeys smoked Spanish paprika to add some zip.

Simmer.

And add a pack of frozen garden English peas. 

Simmer.

Serve. (When you spoon it into your bowl is goes - 'GLOP')

Channeling my Boy Scout skills.  And looking forward to doing more camping in retirement...

How to Make a Proper Pudgie Pie

A few days ago I turned my hand at a task and tool that has grown dusty with age - a Pudgie Pie maker acquired in a campground store from my camping days of yore.  That rhymes doesn't it?

In any event the art and science of making a proper pudgie pie is firstly to have a pie device - a hinged clam shell tool with long handles.  

They're not very expensive, readily available and considering I've had mine for somewhere around three decades (give or take) they're pretty durable and very versatile.

Spread butter on a couple of slices of cheap white bread, slap a slice of cheese between the slices, clamp the pie maker around the sandwich (butter-side out), thrust it into your campfire and in short order you will have a fabulous toasted cheese sandwich.

click on images to enlarge

Care for something different?  Mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce.  Or pre-cooked taco meat and cheese.  How about ham and egg?  Raisin bread with cream cheese?  If you're avoiding butter use nonstick cooking spray.  

Short on inspiration?  If you Google 'pudgie pie recipes' you will get 44,400 hits in .52 seconds.

If you are disinclined to camp in the great outdoors use your BBQ kettle or gas grill.  If you have a gas range in your kitchen you can do this on your stove top.

We experimented with dessert pies this week and met with some success with the following combinations:

• Wonder Bread, strawberries and milk chocolate

• Wonder Bread, peanut butter and Nutella.

• Angel food cake and strawberries

• Angel food cake, Nutella and strawberries.

• Wonder Bread, honey crisp apple (cinnamon and sugar) and Brach's caramel.

The possibilities are endless. We're thinking blueberries and cream cheese need to be involved next time.

The Camping Experience

Over the many years The Frau and I have been acquainted (and married) we've done a great deal of camping.  We've camped across the breadth of Canada, south to the gulf shores, all of the southwestern US, most of Wisconsin and we even took a Jeep trip across the rocky mountains.  

In the past decade and a half we haven't done much camping at all - a result of two homes, a tree farm other recreational pursuits and a dearth of time.  Nevertheless, we've culled-thru and saved most of our camping equipment when we down-sized the past winter.  And it was fun to break-out the Eureka, heavy-duty Outfitter model A-frame tents to invite the grand kids to camp in the yard.  It was a first experience for the grandson and a positive event for him as well.  We discovered the Labs enjoyed the experience as well.

It also scratched an itch I've forgotten and perhaps when I retire some day there will be more time for camping pursuits.  

Raising a toast to fun times out of doors and around the campfire.

click image to enlarge

The Best S'mores in the World

click on image to enlarge

Place on a wienie roasting fork or a stick a marshmallow and a caramel.

Toast over your campfire being careful to not allow the marshmallow or caramel to fall into the fire.

Remove both between a couple of saltines.

Enjoy.

Possibly the best s'more in the world 

Campout

Hiked from the house, across the driveway to the council ring and pitched a couple of Eureka tents and filled them with sleeping bags.

Got a fire going, roasted wienies, made caramel s'mores, told scary stories and called-in the coyotes.

All-in-all it was a positive camping experience for the little guy...

 click on images to enlarge