Freight Sleds
Winter camping can mean carrying heavy backpacks in deep, slippery snow. Awkward at best. But if you can slide your loads across the snow what was a hindrance can become a help. Something as simple as a cheap, child's sled can make all the difference in the world....
A January Snowshoe Excursion
Preparing for an upcoming snow camp, Andy and I set out today to see how we'd do on snowshoes and check out potential campsites within our walking distance. Andy borrowed snowshoes from our brother, Dave, I had a new roll-up deer drag I had never used. When we...
Firestarter
I experimented with making firestarter today. First, I filled the cups of a cardboard egg carton with dryer lint, scraps of paper, and wood debris from the bottom of my firewood box. Then I...
The Last Pole
I peeled the last pole in a set of forty today. I cut them for the longhouse next spring. It should be a party. ...
Winter Picnic
OK, technically December 3rd is still fall, but the day was short and it was cold. ...
Moonlit Snowfield
Receding snow covers the ground like a dirty blanket, crusty and stained, flecked with debris. But the moon bathes it clean, transforming it into a glowing blue sheet stretching across the open fields from treeline to treeline. In the distance a lone coyote's laughter...
Frozen Pinwheels
Mimicking a steep mountain avalanche the snow rumbles off my lodge suddenly sliding down in sheets and curls scrubbing the canvas clean
Snowy Morning
Two crows and a robin cross the blank, gray sky overhead A wren pauses on a snowdrift before joining a junco in the filigree atop a birch Squirrels make their cautious way through the grove as small birds flit through oak branches flocked with white The snow...
Rocks is My Pillow
Oh my Darlin' Oh my Darlin' Oh my Darlin' Clementine You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry Clementine. June 1rst, 2007 - November 20th, 2021
Day and Night
A gust blows through the not quite bare oaks, filling the air with swirling leaves. Clouds part and the sun slants bright golden light through the pouring rain. Coyotes whoop in the dark, then fall still. Their echoing cries fade to silence. The bright stars...
Baked Couscous
Baked Couscous I've made this dish stove top at home and in the Dutch oven while camping. A savory couscous galette, it is an easy, flexible recipe. You can use any mushrooms, or none at all. The same with the meat: use whatever you have, or no meat at all. I've made...
Chicken & Dumplings
Chicken & Dumplings Chicken and dumplings may be the ultimate comfort food. We had this for Sunday dinner on our Halloween camping trip. To ease the work at camp, I did some prep at home, mixing the dry ingredients for the dumplings in a zip lock bag, and cooking...
Cranberries and Chanterelles
Cranberries and Chanterelles Cranberries ripen at the height of chanterelle season. It was inevitable eventually I would try cooking them up together. I'm only surprised it took me so long to get around to it. Ingredients chanterelles wild cranberries...
Dutch Oven Cornbread
This is a variation of the cornstick recipe I posted earlier. Cornbread recipes are pretty flexible. You can start with equal parts cornmeal, flour, and sugar Use more cornmeal and less flour for more texture; proportionally more flour than meal yields...
Campfire Chili Dinner
Until recently, I seldom used a tripod for anything more than boiling water. Why go to the effort to make a tripod when you can cook directly over the coals? But I have come to appreciate the heat control a tripod affords. You can hang your pot high over a flaming...
