UND-Pilsa Blog

Copyright 2006 Karin Manning

It’s true.

You too can now enjoy the same quality meals you enjoy in your home kitchen in your campfire kitchen with little fuss.

Meals around the campfire are just as much the centre of camping life as meals around the kitchen bench at home.

It’s possible to unleash the gourmet campfire chef within you when you know how to make your campfire work for you!

For an experienced outdoorsman, the key to good outdoor cooking is both simplicity and creativity. Outdoor cooking need not employ the techniques of a high-paid chef, or even require the latest array of advanced cooking tools. It’s all about a case of good preparation, good thinking, and a whole lot of luck.

Here are some simple campfire cooking skills that will help you create mouthwatering dishes around the campfire in minutes that are not only delicious but turn out just the way they would if you were at home.

It is best to start off with a low heat fire and if the food isn’t cooking quickly enough increase coals.

Practice with a friend’s camp oven before you go out and buy one for yourself.

There are basically two kinds of fires - a trench fire or the traditional, old-fashioned above ground fire. A trench fire is a pit dug into the ground about 30 x 45 cm deep.

Look for ground that’s free from rocks as this is easier to dig. If the ground should become loose and the sides fall into the hole, place rocks around the top to support your barbeque plate and grate.

Building a below level fire will be safer for you in windy conditions.

A below level fire is also easier to cook with in bad weather conditions.

A trench helps retain the heat if you are forced to use poor quality wood.

If you use good quality dry wood in the morning you will normally wake up to hot coals under the ashes.

Remember it takes time to build good coals. Don’t expect to be able to cook a delicious feast 10 minutes after lighting your fire.

Use the cooler end of the trench fire for cooking cakes, dampers and scones.

Remember to preheat your oven over the flames and level out the ash and coals at the cooler end and place your oven down on those coals.

It’s a good idea to check the food you’re cooking every five to ten minutes and to add or remove coals in accordance with how your foods are cooking.

Lift your dutch ovens and other cooking utensils off the fire by using a thick rag and a piece of wire with a hook on one end.

Carry strike anywhere matches as well as a butane lighter and candle.

Keep matches in a plastic jar with cotton wadding on top.

Cotton balls dipped in Vaseline make great fire starters.

You should be able to hold your hands over the coals about 60 centimetres away if your oven is moderately hot. It will be hot but it should be bearable.

Your fire is ready when the flames have subsided and coals are glowing.

Cooking in the outdoors may seem hard when you’re miles away from the comforts of your own kitchen, market, or grocery store. But this is one experience that’s worth a try. So let nature bring out the best cook in you. Be prepared, be simple, be creative - whatever suits your fancy. But, don’t forget the most important part - get your family involved in the process and have as much fun outdoor cooking as you possibly can.

After all, these are among the special ingredients of a great camping cooking experience that truly lasts a lifetime.

NOTE: This is just one of the many super tips Karin Manning has included in her latest book, “The Ultimate Campfire Kitchen and Camping Guide”. (Her amateur weather forecasting tips will have you predicting the weather before you leave home. They’re cool! Check it out at http:///www.easy-family-camping-recipes.com

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You are considering making changes to your bathroom. You want to paint the walls and maybe change the tile on the floor. Why not also add a new bathroom sink. They are simple to install and most sinks come within a budget that you can afford.

It may seem easy to ignore the nice touch a bathroom sink provides to the look and feel of the bathroom, but the sink just ads that extra touch that tells your family and guests to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. You can check out and compare the prices online and you can even have one shipped to your home.

Not only can you pick your own style and color of sink, but you can choose the type of handle you want to turn the water on or off. There are several designs to choose from. If you are still not sure, ask the experts online. There are experienced and can provide answers to your questions. You have several styles to choose from and the prices are reasonable. Set your budget and find your bathroom sink today.

Bathroom sinks are simple to install and can be fit to your counter top. They can match your surrounding bathroom colors and are a great touch to make all the difference.

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For some 30 years I practiced law in Mesa, Arizona. (Please don’t hold that against me. I really wasn’t a very good lawyer.) When I was about to turn 62 years old and collect social security I decided to quit my practice and go camping. I already owned a Coleman tent-camper and a small pick-up. My marriage had gone to hell and I had a bad case of the woe-is-mes. I decided that a few days or months on the road would be a treat.

I loved it immediately. I spent weeks and months in campgrounds around the Southwest. I fished in dozens of lakes and met dozens of people, most of whom were far finer persons than
those I had associated with in my practice. I enjoyed them all but found that most were either married or seriously mated. I was still in a couples society. I was not really a part of any social group. I missed sitting around the fire and telling lies to people with my own lifestyle. I loved the RVing lifestyle but missed a closer social life. Then I discovered Loners on Wheels, Inc.

I don’t know where I first heard about the Loners on Wheels (LoWs) but somehow I was invited to a camp-out sponsored by the Tucson chapter. I loved it! Here were a bunch of campers, just
like me, having the time of their lives. Card games every night. Happy hour each evening. Coffee together each morning. Hikes and fishing and doing nothing. It was great! I joined
immediately.

A few words about the LoWs. This is a club composed of thousands of single campers. It has chapters in every state and most of the provinces of Canada. To be a LoW, one must be legally single and have a desire to socialize and camp with other singles. It is not a dating service. If your sole purpose is to find a mate, you can do much better with Parents Without Partners or any one of a number of like organizations. The 3,000 or so members of this club plan camp-outs at least once a month. We band together simply because we are not comfortable with the couples only society from which we all came. In this club we can enjoy wonderful social activities and
yet retain our happy single lifestyle.

Many of us LoWs are retired. The RVing lifestyle was made for us. Most of my family are working their hearts out trying to get to the point where I now am! We still have loving family and friends “back home” but they simply don’t have the time to give us the love and affection we find in this club.

Come join me!!

Jack Matlock is a senior and single full time RVer who has enthusiastically endorsed the RVing lifestyle. He started his RVing with a small pick-up and a Coleman tent camper. He presently has a 33 foot 5th wheel with three slide outs.

As a single Jack quickly learned that we live in a mated society. Even the RVing society was based on couples. He wanted to escape into a world where he could socialize with other singles. He looked for a group of single campers who would share his coffee hours and fishing trips. He found Loners on Wheels, a singles only RVing club dedicated to enjoying the single lifestyle and retaining the independence and travel each RVer enjoys. For the past seven years he has enjoyed this group. He plans to enjoy it for the rest of his life! http://www.lonersonwheels.com/

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Who is the vampire’s closest friend?

The vampire bat, of course!

Every time you see a vampire in the movies, he is surrounded by
the little furry fellows escorting him on his nightly pillages.
When a vampire needs to make a quick exit, he often turns
himself into one of these creepy critters. But what is a vampire
bat, and do they suck blood from unwilling hosts? Are they evil
creatures, hiding in caves and dark castles? Surprisingly, as
scientists study the little bat, they are finding its
bloodthirsty habits may be helpful to humankind.

Picture a creature with a little head, bright black eyes, and a
squashed up nose, looking almost like a pig’s snout. The animal
has huge ears, rounded to a tip, and sharp, pointed incisor
teeth in an overbite. It has a wingspan of eight inches, with a
soft, brown furry body the size of a person’s thumb. It weighs
about three ounces. It goes by the long name of Desmodonitidae
rotundus, but prefers to be called by its everyday name, The
Common Vampire Bat.

The Common Vampire Bat lives in Central and South America, along
with its cousins, the White- Winged Vampire Bat and the Hairy-
Legged Vampire Bat. The common vampire bat is the only one that
loves to dine on mammals; the other two prefer birds. They have
been around at least six to eight million years, with fossil
records going back as far.

They like to live in caves, abandoned mines, tree hollows and
sometimes abandoned buildings. Like most bats, they can see, but
use echolocation to find their prey. Living nine years in the
wild, they have one baby a year, and nest in large family
groups, sleeping upside down.

Time to hunt! The little bats will swoop out of their cozy caves
around dusk, looking for fat sleeping cattle or pigs in the near
by countryside. The vampire bats consume only blood for
nourishment. They drink about two tablespoons of blood a day,
and need to drink at least every other day, or they starve to
death.

Ah, a nice big sleeping cow. The vampire bat swoops down to the
cow’s back, and quickly pierces the hide with the sharp incisor
teeth, making two small holes (just like Dracula!). The bat then
laps the blood into its mouth with its tongue, nothing as sloppy
as sucking. Imagine your pet cat lapping at a bowl of milk.

Special anticoagulants, or chemicals that prevent blood from
clotting, help the vampire bat drink enough blood before the
animal’s blood dries up, similar to a mosquito. The bat also has
a “numbing” agent, to keep its dinner from waking up and kicking
it off!

Scientists are studying the anticoagulants in the vampire bat,
and have made a drug called ‘Draculin’ to aid in anticoagulation
for cardiac patients. Other scientists are using the compounds
to help stroke victims limit the effects of blood clots in the
brain.

Unfortunately, the vampire bat is considered a pest because the
bat population has grown enormously since tropical forests were
decimated to allow for more grazing area for livestock. With the
addition of more livestock, came more bats. Ranchers are killing
the bats in large numbers, along with insect eating bats.

Dracula’s best friend may be humankind’s good friend in helping
scientists fight heart attacks and strokes. Hopefully people can
be educated as to the true nature of the little bat, and not
continue to kill off a helpful creature out of ignorance and
superstition.

Here’s to the vampire bat, and all creatures who go bump in the
night!

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Eden Park, off Gilbert Avenue between Elsinore and Morris, was created in 1859 as a reservoir for city drinking water. Today it is a passive park of quiet elegance - there are no formal trails but patches of green and groves of trees to visit with your dog. The Presidential Grove features trees planted in honor of each American president. The park’s 186 acres are dog-friendly and spread across hillsides and picnic spots on Mount Adams look down on the Ohio River.

Heading west out of Cincinnati, only 10 minutes from downtown is the Mount Airy
Forest, site of the first municipal reforestation project in the United States. The
stripping of trees on Colerain Hill for small farms and grazing cattle in the 19th
century had left the soil unproductive and vulnerable to erosion.

The Cincinnati Park Board began its project in 1911 by purchasing 168 acres of land
for planting new hardwoods and evergreens. Nearly a century later Mount Airy
Forest is a park of almost 1500 acres, most of which remain in a natural state.

The hiking trail system in Mount Airy Forest, designated a National Recreational
Trail, features 14 miles of walking but visiting canine hikers would do best to
concentrate on Trail E. The trail begins in McFarlan Woods and touches on nearly
every segment of the park in its ten-mile odyssey. The path can be hiked in smaller
bites that are possible throughout the route. The trail is well-marked with white
blazes but the trailhead - like others at Mount Airy - can be hard to spot.

The trail rolls up and down ravines but is never grueling. You’ll cross plenty of
trickling streams and washes cut into the hillsides for your dog to splash in,
souvenirs from the early days of abuse. Look for large sinkholes that also pepper
the hillsides in places. Punctuating the walks in the Mount Airy Forest are showy
seasonal wildflower displays along the trails.

After your hike you can wind down with your dog in the Mt. Airy Dog Park in the
Highpoint Picnic Area on Westwood Northern Boulevard between Montana Avenue
and Northend Road. There are two acres of fenced in ground to play here.

To reach the Mount Airy Forest take Exit 18 off I-75 and continue onto Colerain
Avenue. The park entrance is on the left hand side at 5083 Colerain Avenue.

copyright 2006

Doug Gelbert is the author of over 20 books, including The Canine Hiker’s Bible.
To subscribe to his FREE Newsletter on hiking with your dog and receive a copy
of Rules for Dogs in 100 of the Most Popular National Park Service Lands, visit
http://www.hikewithyourdog.com In the warmer months he leads canine hikes
for hikewithyourdog.com tours, guiding packs of dogs and humans on hiking
adventures. Tours, ranging from one-day trips to multi-day explorations, visit
parks, historical sites and beaches.

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When you’re on the Internet looking for discount camping gear, it’s good to read an online camping equipment review. There are so many camping outdoor gear products on the market today that the challenge is choosing between them. Some basic things to look out for when buying camp gear preferably at almost wholesale prices is to make a camping supplies list with these in mind affordability and lightweight products.

Some of the best camping equipment and gear manufacturers on the market today include Ozark Trail, Coleman, Motorcycle, Swiss, Eddie Bauer, Brunton, Hillary, Eureka, North Pole and Wenzel. Search online and you can buy all sorts of new or used closeout camping supplies like backpacks, sleeping bags, tents, camping furniture and other camping stuff.

There are tons of stores and outlets online including Wal Mart that you have access to anywhere in the world like Canada, Phoenix, Northwest Territory, New York Washington DC, Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose, Ohio, Philadelphia, Boston and even the UK. These outdoor merchants that sell everything from cooking gear, furniture, kid & family gear and so much more.

When you buy camping supplies and gear don’t forget you can use most of this gear and camp equipment when going on a hiking, biking, fishing or even hunting trip as most of the supplies are useful.

L. Dente is a successful author and publisher of http://www.discount-camping-gear.org Get information on camping gear, backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, furniture and other camping stuff.

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