I usually don’t have that laying around, but it sounds great!
Re: firestarters. I have found those firestarting sticks (at places like Target for ~$1.50/per 6) work really well. I’ve started fires in light mist with them.
Building on the above idea, if you plan on staying a for a while, a three cooler system works great. We camp at Lilies War (in Calontir) every June for more than a week. It’s hot. Super hot. Goddamn it gets hot, but we always manage to keep the food and drinks cold.
Three Cooler System: You need two, high quality “marine” style coolers, and one very nice regular cooler. Grocery list is purchased, meat is frozen…list is divided into the Saturday-to-Tuesday meals and the Wednesday-to-Saturday meals. Marine Cooler 1 is Sat-to-Tues, and Marine Cooler 2 is Wed-to-Sat. Both MC1 and MC2 are iced, have everything frozen in them that can be frozen, and are kept closed at all times unless it is time to get the food out to cook it. MC2 does not get broached for any reason before Wednesday, and stays in constant shade. All beverages and beverage ice stays in Nice Regular Cooler, and is replenished throughout the week from the ice merchants. Throughout-the-day snackies are things like fruit and nonperishables that do not need refrigerated.
This has worked very well to keep food cool, even in 100 degree weather.
Great suggestion. Did it all the time. Channel locks and a cast iron skittle over a fire,
If you use dry ice in the meat cooler, it will stay frozen solid for the better part of a week in 100 degree weather in your crappiest, hand-me-down, “1974 called and wants their technology back” cooler.
Funny, but getting burned never really bothers me. I mean, it did whenI was a kid, but working in a restaurant for 10 years cured that. Not to mention I’m just too lazy to use gloves / potholders in most circumstances. In the winter, I probably get burned about 1x a week from the woodstove. This does not include my fingertips, as I burn them daily. But those never hurt or blister.
As far as camping goes, one simple little thing when you’re tenting is to bring a doormat to put outside the door to your tent. Makes a big difference in how much gets tracked in.
Another thing that helps is to put a light covered towel over the top of the cooler. This adds a little insulation, but the light color helps to keep the cooler cool. One of my coolers has black sides. Black, on a cooler. But it was free. This is the shaded one @ camp.
I wish there were more places that sold dry ice. The closest one to me is 30 miles away.
We fill clean 2 liter soda bottles and mil jugs with water and freeze them. This is our ice supply at camp. Plus, you have ice cold water to drink.
As others have noted, coolers are so much nicer without water sloshing around inside and making the cheese all soggy. I use wide mouth, gallon-sized tupperware containers for my ice. Freeze them ahead of time and they last for a couple of days at least. After the initial melt, it’s easy to refill with cubes.
Dry Ice may not be available at home, but I’ve seen it out on the road in the Eastern Sierra, Montana, and Wyoming…places that cater to trout fishing. For a casual car camper, having stuff frozen solid (like beer) might be a little overkill.
If you must pitch a tent on sloping ground, arrange it so that your feet are at the downhill side.
A sleeping bag stuff sack turned inside out is a good place to put wet/muddy boots inside the tent.
I prefer a good plastic jar (with a well-fitting screw-on top) to a glass one for a whiz bottle. My wife also uses a whiz bottle, with the aid of her funnel. This handy device also lets her go in the woods standing up.
A cooking grill left in the dewy grass overnight will be easy to clean come morning.
What I mean is they have meats like bacon or sausage that you can buy already cooked and ready to eat. These have an advantage to take camping to cut down on cooking times. You can also cook your own at home first and then keep in ziploc bags in a cooler to re-heat later.
It make it easier and faster to prepare breakfast.
Of course it depends on the food but If you get good ziploc bags it should not be an issue. It also depends on how long your trip is going to be. If you go for a weekend then it should be fine.
If pitching an old fasioned tarp-over-a-rope style tent, tie short sections of string to the rope at each end of the tarp. Just leave them dangling a few inches. These will act as driplines, diverting any water that runs down the rope.
I don’t have any real constructive hints, but I will pass this along to all you campers. You can thank me later. 
Banana Boats
Take a banana, in peel. Cut lengthwise down the top, through the peel. Spread open a wee bit, spoon in peanut butter, chocolate chips, anything else you think might taste nice in a banana. Press banana back together, wrap in foil, throw in coals for a bit. Open and spoon out your peanut buttery-chocolatey-mushy banana-y goodness.
Why would you want to do this? You’ll have to stuff your sleeping bag back into it at some point, why stuff it into something muddy?
Becuase its turned inside out, so you’re effectively stuffing them on the outside of the stuff sack. Then you turn it rightside in, and put the sleeping bag into it.
Not that I would, I’ve just use a plastic shopping bag, but if all you got is that, then you MDWWYG.
:eek: and another :eek: for Gary T…
You take your shoes off before you get in, and then kick them underneath the tent below the door to keep the dew off. If you just need to grab something, just lunge into the tent with your feet sticking out- NO SHOES IN THE TENTS!!!
(sorry- my mom the Girl Scout leader had very strict rules about how you treat the tents, not to mention everything else from packing lists to clean up. I still have to remind myself that I am allowed to wear shorts and flipflops while laying about the site, rather than the mandatory jeans and hard-soled hiking boots of my youth.)
We tent camp. Nothing too terribly rustic. Handy things I have found:
I pack all groceries in two Rubbermaid bins. The bread/buns don’t get squashed in the car that way, and when the groceries are out of them they’re handy for stashing other things. I use them as mini tables in the tent sometimes.
A whisk broom and dustpan are very handy and easier to sweep the tent out with than a standard broom.
Battery operated tap lights are great in the tent. They’re bright enough to find what you’re looking for without waking sleeping children, dim enough for nightlights for said children, and easy to turn on/off.
Our tent has two rooms. We use the front entrance only. Shoes are allowed in the front portion, but not in the back (sleeping) area. Keeps sand out of the beds.
When camping at the beach, a 7.5hr drive from our house, we don’t take groceries with us. We buy them when we get there, so there’s less to haul down and less time for it to spoil.
No, inside out means the muddy boots would be on the inside of the sack. Not turning the sack inside out, (i.e. leaving it as is) would be placing your boots on the outside.
We used to do a lot of tent camping, and instead of bringing jars or bottles for our sandwich/burger/hot dog condiments, whenever we were at a gas station, we’d grab a few packets there, or just make sure we saved the ones we didn’t use whenever we got fast food. They’re a heckuva lot easier to manage and put in a backpack.
- SS
Nope, sorry, my tent, my shoes stay on.
Oh, shit. This is just another permutation of the Shoes On or Off in the House debate, isn’t it?
No, seriously. I put a tarp down on the inside of the tent floor. That protects my tootsies from any roots or sticks or whatnot, as well as protecting the tent floor from any, well, roots or sticks or whatnot I might track in. I also bring a broom and a mop camping. Oh yes, I do. Then again, I often camp for periods ranging from four days to three weeks, so it really is my home for a while. And I camp with kids, so I’m often ducking into the (large cabin) tent for a sippy cup or a stick of string cheese or a hat or a swim suit or the sunscreen - no way I’m taking my shoes on and off 20 times in one afternoon. If I have easy slip off shoes, fine, but if I’ve got my hiking shoes on, no way. I do keep two mats - one outside and one just inside the tent, and that keeps the mess down to a dull roar. Sweeping out the tent before dinner (no one wants to do it after) is just one of the chores, like fetching water or washing dishes.
For kushy car campers like myself, I recommend some of those snap together wire cubes you can get at Target or Wal-Mart. They travel unassembled, and I assemble them on site for storage, and that makes it much easier to get what you need quickly - the loaf of bread and the knives stays on the top out of toddler reach, the Ziploc bags of cereal don’t get smooshed, and there’s cubes for “meal food, don’t touch” as well as “help yourself”. On the outside of the cubes, I hang two fabric organizers (kind of like the over the door shoe ones, but smaller), one on each side. Into those pockets go flashlights, bug spray, walkie talkies, extra batteries, sunscreen, lighters, sponge for dishes, silverware, campsoap, zip ties, clothespins, duct tape and stuff like that. Also in each pocket is a little label I printed on card stock and “laminated” with clear packing tape, so each thing is always returned to it’s proper spot. When, for example, the sunscreen runs out, I take out the little card and stick it in my purse. That way I know what I need to get more of before our next trip without digging through my gear to look. The organizer rolls up, with everything still in place, and goes into a milk crate for packing.
For some reason, I’m a total neatnik while camping, and a total slob at home, while my husband is the exact opposite. We drive each other crazy!
Fair enough- I actually think it’s really funny that this of all things freaks me out. I am constantly reading threads where posters express their shock and horror that others do domestic things differently (food safety and housekeeping mostly). Usually I just read and shrug, but for some reason the thought of keeping shoes on in tents just makes my back hair stand up. Totally irrational and I didn’t mean to seriously criticize.