Let's visit on the Porch II (Billings, Big Sky: ratings, reviews, baseball)

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Geez, when I used to go camp for a day or two I didn't even do that much, I just put the dogs in the truck and off I went. There's a sleeping bag and a Popiel Pocket Fisherman in the truck, along with a camp stove and a lantern and a couple gallons of water. What more do I need?

I remember the pocket fisherman...I am sure I bought one or two.
Well hubs has a bad back so he has to have a comfy bed. Me, well I am ok in the pick up with the doxi... Just nervous about the bears..

[MTSilvertip]

I agree with Elkhunter.
For me a camp is a couple of wool blankets, a pot to cook in, some line to tie up a tarp, and some grub, tube of camp soap, my knife and gun and fire starter. I usually use a magnisium match because it works wet. I usually have some fishing line and hooks/sinkers that I can pole fish with if I want using a willow wand.
If I am comfort camping, I will have a small flashlight and a pad to sit on (keeps the frost off the buns).

I usually camp during hunting season which is the fall, so if I am expecting cold weather I will pack a 0 degree rated sleeping bag and a 3 season tent. I will also pack some wool gloves, wool watch cap, a wool sweater
and some extra wool socks.
It all fits in my 3 day backpack with the sleeping bag tied on the bottom.

I see people "camping" these days with camp trailers that cost more than my house, have more conveniences that a luxery hotel, have a generator for power, a refridgerator, microwave and satallite tv system with surround sound !!

Not exactly the same as when your parents took you out in an old army surplus tent and all the stuff was packed in the trunk of the sedan that wasn't really designed to go four wheeling, but your father was adventurous so you went places a car was never supposed to be. You ate smoked hot dogs and doughy pancakes because the wood was wet and didn't really produce flame, just smoke, so you spent most of the weekend being kippered by what was euphamistically called a "campfire" while you all stood over it pretending it was warm. You huddled in the leaking tent because for some reason the weather was always torrential rain or unseasonable snow that ripped your awning down.
You ate your food off soggy paper plates that were soaked with rain and you had to tip your plate every so often to drain the water off.

You found out that the whole family could sleep in the car because a bear was eating your cooler in the middle of the night, and you found out those nifty coleman lights always leaked white gas all over your sleeping bag so you were about 1/2 high all night from the fumes.

Ahh....Memories

[Mt-7]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

I agree with Elkhunter.
For me a camp is a couple of wool blankets, a pot to cook in, some line to tie up a tarp, and some grub, tube of camp soap, my knife and gun and fire starter. I usually use a magnisium match because it works wet. I usually have some fishing line and hooks/sinkers that I can pole fish with if I want using a willow wand.
If I am comfort camping, I will have a small flashlight and a pad to sit on (keeps the frost off the buns).

I usually camp during hunting season which is the fall, so if I am expecting cold weather I will pack a 0 degree rated sleeping bag and a 3 season tent. I will also pack some wool gloves, wool watch cap, a wool sweater
and some extra wool socks.
It all fits in my 3 day backpack with the sleeping bag tied on the bottom.

I see people "camping" these days with camp trailers that cost more than my house, have more conveniences that a luxery hotel, have a generator for power, a refridgerator, microwave and satallite tv system with surround sound !!

Not exactly the same as when your parents took you out in an old army surplus tent and all the stuff was packed in the trunk of the sedan that wasn't really designed to go four wheeling, but your father was adventurous so you went places a car was never supposed to be. You ate smoked hot dogs and doughy pancakes because the wood was wet and didn't really produce flame, just smoke, you huddled in the leaking tent because for some reason the weather was always torrential rain or unseasonable snow that ripped your awning down.
You ate your food off soggy paper plates that were soaked with rain and you had to tip your plate every so often to drain the water off.

You found out that the whole family could sleep in the car because a bear was eating your cooler in the middle of the night, and you found out those nifty coleman lights always leaked white gas all over your sleeping bag so you were about 1/2 high all night from the fumes.

Ahh....Memories

You must have been a fly on the tent when I hauled out the kids back in the day... The lamps! You are spot on.
Did not camp as a kid myself, every day was a camping adventure in the dairy barn.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Mt-7

I remember the pocket fisherman...I am sure I bought one or two.

My mom got it for me, ages ago. It jams up easily so not good for real casting, but I used it a lot in one particular place I fished off the West Gallatin -- there was a sort of swampy overflow area with a beaver pond, you could barely thrash through the brush and downed trees to get to it. I couldn't see bringing a regular pole down there. But the Pocket Fisherman worked great for that cramped space.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

and you found out those nifty coleman lights always leaked white gas all over your sleeping bag so you were about 1/2 high all night from the fumes.

Hmm. Mine doesn't leak. What am I doing wrong?

Or is this some little variety? I have the fullsized lantern.

[MTSilvertip]

The modern lamps are pretty good, but the one we had I think was surplus from the civil war. It had been packed on horses, thrown in trunks and truck beds, so probably wasn't the best example of the product. The new ones are a lot better, plus the seals haven't rotted out with age.

I did appreciate the fireworks when my folks lit it as it sent out this big blast of fire when you tried to light it. That was high entertainment

We had an old camp stove that used white gas too, but it only had 2 settings, very high or barely see the flame. We used it on the low setting because if you put it on high there was a leak in the hose that was never completely fixed and you could have more flame out the side than came from the burners. We were far better off trying to cook on the campfire with this big old cast iron skillet. Most times you got a well balanced meal with high protein as the ash and passing bugs got incorporated into what you were cooking. The charcoal I have found in later years works as an antacid, so that explains why I never got sick of some of the stuff we ate.
When we found something crunchy my father always said, "Bonus Meat" and told us to shut up and eat. I will always remember learning to drink your tea and coffee by straining it through your teeth to limit the coffee grounds and bugs you drank with the "cowboy coffee"

We made do with second hand, stuff we bought at an auction kind of equipment so you just made do. Didn't have money, but we still had fun.

One of my favorite childhood memories was the picture of my father chasing a small black bear out of camp with a stick of firewood in one hand and one of those 3 foot long weinie forks in the other.

True camping as it we did it in the day was kind of a survival of the fittest kind of thing to really make you appreciate coming home after a weekend and would keep us kids quiet about fishing or camping for a long time afterward.

Now it is a great memory, then, it was like the Corps of Discovery expedition without all the luxery.

[ElkHunter]

I got conned. They were slick. I went to the store to get a can of copenhagen. I came home having to find a Santa hat, white gloves, red shirt, etc. Town is having it's 100th birthday this Saturday. There is a parade, booths, carnaval, street dance, free concert, fireworks, etc. I get to ride in the parade dressed as Santa. They even got antlers for Timber to wear.

When it rains, it pours. I went to City Hall this morning to sign all the paper work to be in the parade. Well, it seems that Town Hall has this thing at Christmas and now I'm signed up to be Santa this winter. Not sure what all that intails, but none the less, I'm stuck with that too. Stupid me, jokingly said, "If you pay for it, I'll have my hair and beard died white." They said they would set up the appointment in late November.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by MTSilvertip

We had an old camp stove that used white gas too, but it only had 2 settings, very high or barely see the flame.

My white-gas stove isn't quite that old... it's a Coleman I got only about 35 years ago, so it's practically newfangled. It only has two settings -- as high as it will go which is still too damn low! and off. It won't quite boil water. Frying anything takes forever. On the plus side you can put dinner on and go amuse yourself somewhere else for a while and it will never burn, it just doesn't get hot enough! Pancakes take 20 minutes to cook. About then the tank runs out of pressure and I have to repump it. Needless to say it doesn't get used much.

Someone gave me a propane-powered smoker, I'm wondering how well it works. (Can use wood or charcoal in it too.) They'd never used it. Looks like it might be good for making jerky, anyway.

[ElkHunter]

I gave away 3 coleman stoves last year. One was a 3 burner and the others were just 2 burner. But all three worked great. Rez, was your stove like that when it was new and then get worse?

Now I have a single burner that mounts right on top of the can of propane. Both my small lanterns are propane. The propane is a lot better then the old white gas colemans. I gave them away to my kids.

That smoker should do quite well for jerky. I have a dehydrater I use, but I sill like good old dried jerky. In my house in town, I put small eye screws in the bottom of my cupboard on each end. Then run a line back and forth about 8 times (8 eye screws on each end). Then I bought a bunch of christmas tree ornament hooks. Sliced up jerky, marinated and then just hung it under the counter. Put news paper on the counter. It stopped dripping by the next morning so I took the paper out. It took about 7 days to dry but really turned out well. Drove my little dog (teacup poodle) nuts cause she could see it, smell it, but couldn't even come close to jumping that high. Now I just use the dehydrater. Jerky, grapes, plumbs, apple, pineapple, etc... Works great.

My son-in-law happened across an old stainless steel ice box with two compartments. He built shelves in the upper part and put regular oven racks in there. Built a vent system in the bottom and he builds a wood fire it in. he can do about 40 lbs of jerky at a time.

[Reziac]

Nope, that stove was always like that, from day one. Been a long time since I used it, but it never got any better or worse.

This smoker is pretty good sized, you could put a whole turkey in it. How thick do you slice the meat to make the jerky come out good? I gotta ask my butcher friend what he uses on his, it comes out about the best I ever ate. He just makes it in the oven at home.