campin, cookin, survival tidbits

[ozemu]

Bear bag? I take it that you hoist the thing full of food up a tree to escape the animals. We do the same for goannas, possums and rats etc which are known to eat through tents and backpacks.

 

I'm told that dosing up on Vitamin B before going out bush helps make you offensive to mossies etc. Haven't tried that yet. Vit B tastes awful.

 

In Vanuatu I watched Scouts make a cooking fire on top of the ground because it is often wet. They used green logs on the bottom and laid the drier bits of wood at right angles until they had a reasonable pile. The fire was hot (lots of air in at the bottom) and off the wet ground. They cooked on a wire mesh square above the coals.

 

We normally dig down a fire pit faced into the wind. But I've seen a few fill with water. It doesn't rain all the time but when it does...

 

When using grass rope or vines etc to hold your tent up (becasue you forgot the rope) use only clove hitches as any knot that turns back on itself will tear the natural material (in dry areas at least). The round turn and two half hitches doesn't work as the two half hitches are around the rope which is too tight a turn for the fibre.

 

When I forget my pegs I tie onto grass tufts with a sheet bend which works for overnight. My tent fly has corner loops. By twisting a stick into the loop I can get it to hold and sometimes you can get the fork of the stick to hook onto a sapling/shrub etc. Or you can peg the fork/hook to the ground...if you've remembered your pegs.

 

Deliberately leaving an essential peice of kit at home lets me relax knowing exactly what is missing out of my pack. Otherwise I worry about what I've forgotten.

 

Deliberately forgot my sleeping bag in winter last year. Was running a survival course. Used a nylon groundsheet that was actually a tube and when inside it I stuffed as much gry grass between body and tube as possible. Created a sleeping bag basically.

 

Used more grass as a mat. A hessian sack over my boots was the pillow and the top of the bag flapped over my head to keep the wind getting in. Was very windy so set this up in a dry ditch to escape the worst of the wind. Was reasonably warm. Got a few ticks though.

 

Fondue can be made by putting cheese into a tin with a little water added. Cheese melts and dry biscuit (crackers??) is dipped into the fondue. You will need to stir the cheese a little.

 

Anyone else dig a hole for their bum and upper legs to go into? I have a back problem and this gets me through.

 

When making fibre rope or string don't mix your materials as they have different properties and will not bind very well. Consequently part of the string/rope will bear a greater weight/tension (Newton?) and will break.

 

Okay Red Feather I'm done.

[red feather]

Thanks ozemu, yeah 'bear bag' is used to keep food and anything that has a smell to it out of the reach of foraging animals.

 

'Mossies'= mosquitoes? I take garlic to keep them away, seems to help.

 

Usually not allowed to dig hip or leg holes but have been known to jump up and down a few times to create depressions where I need them.

 

dry biscuit=crackers, yes

 

Thanks again for the input, these are things that make camping fun and more enjoyable and also fun to hear about tips from other parts of the globe. Especially liked the tips on grass rope making and use.

 

yis

[KoreaScouter]

More firestarters:

 

Take cotton balls, and smear them around in a jar of vaseline. Stuff the smeared (?) balls into a 35mm film can. Put the lid on the film can. When you need a firestarter, pull one out of the film can and tear it inside out, so the dry cotton in the middle is exposed. Light it, and in a few seconds, the vaseline will be the fuel, and the cotton will be the wick. It works well.

 

KS

[hops_scout]

They also are slow burning too, KoreaScouter

[red feather]

Variation, seperate the individual wells of a paper egg carton, coat the inside of the well with vaseline, force dryer lint into the vaseline, leaving a center hole about half inch in diameter. Fill this hole with fine or extra fine steel wool. This can then be lit with either a match or a nine volt battery. The battery applied to the steel wool will start the steel wool to burn. A little blowing will start this easily. Handy thing about the paper well is that you can hold it in your hand for a short period to get it started then can be placed into the fires tinder.

 

yis

[KoreaScouter]

I don't know why, but the phrase "...force dryer lint into the vaseline..." strikes me as unusually funny when I imagine seeing someone doing this and not knowing why. I can only imagine what our neighbors think when they see us "in action"...

 

KS

[acco40]

Old fashioned potato chips work well as a fire starter. The oil and starch burn well and fairly slow. BBQ flavor works best! (Just kidding on the last one.)

[red feather]

Oh no, another fire starter to investigate!!

 

Anyone have any success or hints on pie pan ovens to bake biscuits? Or any thing else?

 

yis

[matuawarrior]

Here a survival skill from the Chamorro Scouts from Guam.

 

We have a delicacy here called "Kelaguen". You could use beef, deer, chicken, or fish. I'll have to get you the actual recipe later but here is what I have from memory.

 

It's basically cutting up beef or deer meat into bite size strips. Get the meat to soak in a mixture of vinegar, and lemon juice with your favorite spices. The Chamorros use local peppers which are really hot. We usually cut up some whole or green onions and put into the mix. You'll have to mix everything and then let it sit for a couple of hours. The lemon juice cooks up the meat.

 

It's really good with what we call "Tatiyas" or also know as tortillias (sp). You could use any meat actually. We even use SPAM.

 

This was used during the Japanese occupation of our island during WWII when cooking fires were prohibited. That's what the "manamko" elders tell me.

 

One of my favorite past times when we go spearfishing is eating fresh octopus soaked in Tabasco sauce. Same concept as mentioned above.

 

I'll look for the actual recipe.

 

Matua

[KoreaScouter]

To bake biscuits, I've used both Dutch ovens and cardboard box ovens. I've generally gotten better results from the DO, if I put the biscuits in a pan, and get the pan off the bottom of the oven with three small stones.

 

In the box oven, my dilemma is getting enough coals in it to heat the oven to 400 or so, without having so many that the direct heat burns the biscuits. I've monkeyed around with foil diffusers and other claptrap, but ultimately you just have to watch them full-time.

 

KS

[red feather]

Was that thunder?.... no I think it was the groans bemoaning that this thread has surfaced again. Sorry folks, but this is a topic dear to me. Many new sources of ideas and tidbits out there. So give us your ideas. Please.

 

Learned recently that the best angle for sharpening knifes is approx. 25 to 29 degrees. Axes call for a steeper angle 35 to 45 degrees.

 

Thanks to AKEagle, I will go to machine shops to look for magnesium shaving and strips for fire starting. Thanks AK.

 

yis

 

[silver-shark]

On the utensil-less side of breakfast cooking, how about:

 

Volcano eggs

 

You can use charcoal or coals from a fire to cook these on. Poke a hole in the top of the shell to let pressure out then place on hot coals. Have a toothpick handy and make sure that the hole you made doesn't get glazed over by some of the cooked egg that oozes out a little (part of the volcano name) or boom, thus the other part of the name.

 

Bacon and eggs in a paper bag.

 

You'll need a grill surface above your hot coals for this one. They can be charcoal or coals from a fire, but if you use the fire coals make sure that the flames don't touch the paper bag for mire than a couple of seconds.

First you put the bacon in the bag and let it cook for a little while to get ahead of the eggs since it will take longer to cook. Then just crack the eggs into the bag over the top of the bacon. Reseal the top of the bag and wait. When they're done just cut off all but the bottom inch of the bag, place the cutoff parts under the bag and it makes it's own plate.

 

Hard boiled egg in a paper cup.

 

I haven't tried this one yet but am told that if you place your egg in one of those waxed dixie cups on a grill over coals that the only part of the cup that will burn away is the portion above the water line.

 

Wrap precooked sausages up like a hobo dinner and throw them on some coals to warm up. It only takes about 10 or 15 minutes. This also works for hash browns, but they take a little longer. More like a half hour.

 

Bacon wrapped over a spit stick and dangling over coals cooks up nicely too.

 

If you don't have a grill for over your coals you could use 2 logs a few inches apart for most of these things, like a hunters fireplace, or rocks but yuo have to be careful that there are no air pockets in the type of rock you use or boom. You could also use a double spit out of green sticks.

 

I know some people that have even cooked eggs right on a flat rock they have heated up. This seems too dangerous to me.

 

Biscuts.

 

One of our ASMs has an aluminum pan that is hinged on one side (kind of looks like an omlette pan). It was made by Club Aluminum back in the 30s or 40s to bake biscuts on top of the stove. You keep flipping the pan over about every minute or less to keep them from burning on the bottom. The only other one I've seen like this was for sale for around $35 at a Flea Market. Ouch !!! This may be a similar concept to the pie plate biscuts that you mentioned in an earlier post. If you had one plate on top of the other and kept flipping the pan over it would be the same.

 

You can also do biscuts on a thin stick over coals set on 2 forked sticks into the ground like a spit.

 

I've also heard of folks notching a stick and wrapping the biscut dough around the stick on a spit.

 

Those hinged pie irons are good for more than snacks too. The ones I Have are square and are teflon coated on the inside.

 

They will hold 2 eggs nicely that can be put directly onto bread for a sandwich.

 

You can cook up some sausage in them first for a little more flavor.

 

They also hold 1 egg and omlette fixins nicely that you could also put onto bread, a bagel, or an english muffin or even a tortilla.

 

When you're done just wipe it out, wrap the end in foil so that you don't get ashes on the outside of your pack. Then heat it up real hot before you use it again to kill any germs.(This message has been edited by silver-shark)

[buffalo2]

And don't forget the ziploc bag omlet!

[silver-shark]

Yeah, omlettes in a ziplock bag are great too. Make sure yuo use the freezer ones. they are tougher and less likely to melt. Just smoosh up a couple of eggs in it and add your fixins, then drop it into boiling water. leave a little air in so it'll float or it can burn/melt onto the bottom of the pan.

 

Also, wrap potatoes in aluminum foil and put them on some hot coals for about a half hour and you have a baked potatoe.

 

Slice that potatoe into 1/4" slices and alternate in onion slices and it's ebven better.

 

Wrap corn on the cob up in foil. I always add a little butter first to let it steam into the corn. This only takes 10 to 15 minutes. Don't forget to turn it often or it will burn. The slightly burnt parts are extra sweet and delicious though.

 

If you're going to have canned veggies that need to be heated, just set the OPENED can right on some coals or slightly above. Make sure you have an oven mit to remove it, or place 2 small holes near the top with a pointed can opener, AFTER YOU'VE OPENED THE CAN, and you can use a stick to remove it.

[AK-Eagle]

The Seven Steps to Survival

These steps were developed in Alaska by fishermen, the Coast Guard, and the Alaska state troopers. They have been proven to work and they are used in current survival training. They may be designed in Alaska but the steps should work well in any climate.

 

1. Recognition, The very first thing you must do is come to the idea that all is not well and not likely to improve on their own. "Houston, we have a problem" A line from one of the greatest survival stories ever. "Don't tempt fate when she has already indicated she is in a bad mood." Not so famous but it drives the point well.

 

2. Inventory, What do you have and how can you use it? Keep a open mind. Remember Apollo 13 when they had to make a oxygen scrubber from the command module fit into the lunar module and they took what they had at hand to make it work? In the movie step one was to use the cover from the SOP ;-)

 

3. Shelter, This can be as simple as good clothing or as complex as creating an emergency shelter. Shelter's made from scratch take longer to build than most people think.

 

4. Signals, Again they can be simple or complex. But the best signals stand out from the background. You want your signals to visually scream LOOK AT ME!!! Did you notice the plural? The searchers will.

 

5.Water, Most of you know the need. 1 quart per day at a bare minimum, more in hot weather.

 

6.Food, Without good water food is just about useless. Your body requires water to process the food you eat.

 

7.Play, Surprised to see the word play here? Many people are. The idea is to keep your mind busy, nothing in a survival situation is worse than sitting around worrying. Improve your shelter, signals, get more water, food, or break out that deck of cards.

 

With our troop we try to dedicate at least one hour per campout to some part of survival training.