Camplore

What a great day I had today. It’s beautiful in North Texas, if a little cool for the time of year. Heading out to the park I had to return for a long sleeve shirt. At the sprayground (the water was on and a few kids in it - amazing how they don’t feel the cold) I found a warm refractive section of concrete edging that had soaked up a little heat. It was lovely and quite pleasant and very busy.

Then the boys and I decided to go Geocaching. I’d read about it and threatened to go a few times with a friend, but never actually tried it until today.
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I am amused and quite intrigued to try starting a wilderness fire with a coke can and a chocolate bar…

We’ll be heading to the Lincoln National Forest in late May, when the winds start drying out the forest and all kinds of fire danger notices are issued. This looks like yet another good reason to keep those soda cans in the recycle bin where they belong, too!

By the way, what a waste of good chocolate. Make sure to use the cheap stuff.

Do these look intriguing to you? I have an itch to try them out, but haven’t managed to yet. We used to make hobo stoves, which consisted of a tuna can, emptied and cleaned, with a coil of cardboard, then paraffin wax poured in it. Then you’d take a #10 can, punch a few can-opener holes in it for ventilation, turn it over the flaming tuna can, and there was a nice hot surface to cook on. You just wanted to make sure you were going to need that heat for a while, because they could burn for a couple of hours.

But look how classy these look!
Aluminum Can Backpacking Stove
They operate on a couple of tablespoons of denatured alcohol. Too cool.

Ever smelled a Ponderosa Pine tree? Not just your average pine tree – like the Scotch pine or Blue Spruce you dragged into the house over the holidays that dropped pine needles and sap on your floor (though they are lovely in their own right). I don’t imagine many people would want a Ponderosa to decorate – they typically have a long tall bare trunk before the clump of long needles at the top.
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Corn syrup, sugar, starch, gelatin. Doesn’t sound that fascinating does it? But whip those ingredients into a 1 inch cylinder (better yet, just buy a bag of marshmallows), poke a stick through one, and suspend it over a heat source, and you have a marvel of camp lore.

Long before s’mores became the preferred camper’s sweet tooth fix was the marvel of the marshmallow.
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