A rocket stove uses a high-temperature combustion chamber inside an insulated chimney to efficiently burn small diameter pieces of wood. This blog describes how to make a camping version out of tin cans. It looks like a fun project.
If you’re looking for something ready made, check out this review of the EcoZoom rocket stove ($114).
Update 5/12/2013: Or you can buy the tin can version above for $40, already assembled, at Premium Rocket Stoves.
We’ve been reading Finding Your Way Without a Map or Compass by Harold Gatty, first published in 1958. It’s a fascinating collection of navigation skills gleaned from the world of pre-Western and native explorers, in which one’s own five senses (and memory) are the guides, instead of compasses, maps, or GPS.
In the book, Gatty furthers the theory that early Polynesians first found their way across the Pacific by following the routes of migratory birds. Once the islands were known, they followed the stars. For example, if you hold a forked stick at arm’s length, and position the North Star in the crook of the fork, then note it’s height by marking the horizon along its length, you will travel along a constant latitude. If the North Star rises against the horizon, you’re heading north. If it falls, you’re heading south.
It’s quite an interesting read. Hat’s off to my girlfriend, Natalie, for finding this one.
Here’s a set of videos in which Bruce Dorn, the resident photographer on the Expeditions 7 adventure, shares tips on travel filming. Despite the long, 25-second intros, they make a good primer and may help you improve the way you document your own journeys.
He’s posted eight videos so far. They’re all linked here for easy perusal.
All photos: Gregory McDonaldIf you have a Coleman military-spec lantern and are looking for a case to house it, my friend Greg has a solution. He takes it from here.
Sometime ago, I lucked upon an old army lantern, which I childishly coined as “The Lieutenant”; aka, “Lieutenant Lantern”; aka, the “LT”.
Tiring of the fleece blanket wrap to keep the “LT” from banging around in back of the truck during trips, I bought a black Coleman Lantern Carry Case. Designed to fit Coleman’s current line of lanterns, specifically the 220, 290, 295 and 3000000946, the hard case comes as two pieces – a cover shell and a base. The lantern slots tightly into the base, which has two tabs that the cover shell snaps onto.
Unfortunately, with the taller army lantern inside, the shell comes about an inch short of snapping onto the base tabs. The MacGyver voice within, promising a solution, kept the case from being returned. A few weeks of back burner mental engineering and a “I-wonder-what-to-do…” afternoon later, I took a ragtag team of tools and set to work.
The inner wall of the Case’s base held the lantern an inch above its lowest portion. If I could get the lantern an inch deeper into the base, then the cover shell would reach the base tabs. I sliced off the inner walls of the base, sparing the four protrusions that friction-held the lantern down. In order to get the lantern deeper in, the protrusions had to be sliced once more, at the horizontal. By chance, what was left on the bottom were four upright protrusions that would hold the inside lip of the lantern’s bottom while the upper protrusions, despite most of the inner structure sliced off, still had enough rigidity to friction-hold the lantern. With the lantern now sitting deeper in the base, the cover shell slides completely over and low enough to snap onto the base tabs. Challenge conquered!
Now I can use that fleece blanket to wrap the old Coleman stove.
More pictures after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a good video on winching from the guys at Rugged Guide. They cover the main pulling techniques (single line, double line, off-angle) as well some not-so-obvious safety tips.
If you have a winch, it’s worth a look.
