Tuesday, March 20, 2012

My Little Cookset

How many of you realized that I put up The Soda Can Stove website? I did that a couple of years ago and haven't really done much with it except directions for building a soda can stove, but I occasionally get e-mails from people with questions about their stove, fuel, or to tell me about things they do differently. I'm almost always a little surprised when I get such messages because it's not a website I think about very often and update even less.

For years, the entire website had only four pages to it, and I've always wanted to add a little bit more....


So I've started working on it again. And first up, is a new page: A Backpacker's Cookset, Exploded. It has my cookset deconstructed, as it were. I get a lot of questions about exactly what I carry and how much individual items in my pack weigh. Obviously, that covers a lot of areas--packs, sleeping bags, shelters, etc. But since this is a soda can stove website, I'm starting with my cookset.

I even went so far as to weigh every single item in it for those of you wondering what kind of weight it has. Some of you might be surprised to learn that I've never done this before. While weight is always an all-encompassing issue to a backpacker, the absolute weight of an item isn't so much a concern for me as the relative weight of an item. I don't really need to know that my stove weighs 0.5 ounces or that my pot weighs 3.0 ounces--I just need to know that it weighs less than the alternatives out there. So it's very uncommon for me to weigh any of my gear. Except my pack, which I'll sometimes weigh just to get a sense of what I'm dealing with overall. The individual items in my pack, though? Never!

Until now.....

I'm still working on updates to this site (there aren't even any links to my cookset page yet!), but I'll post more when there's more to show. =)

In completely unrelated news, please complement Amanda on her deck. She's very proud of it, and I used it as the backdrop for all my photos. =)

In more completely unrelated news.... For those of you wondering when I'll be having another Great Adventure and using this stuff--I plan to hit the Camino de Santiago this August.

6 comments:

Anne Bonny said...

Can't wait to hear about your newest adventure! I loved reading about the PCT trail hike!

Goofy girl said...

I love this idea!! Will be praying for you on your lastest journey and look forward to reading about your adventures..

Anonymous said...

Funhog and I were just discussing on Sunday what your next hike might be. Look forward to reading about your travels. My daughter remembers you as "that guy who names his blisters".
Ona Journey

Papercrafts by Cindyellen said...

oh my gosh!! YOU'RE the guy who helped me build my soa can stove all those years ago!! LOL - i NEVER connected the two until just now. . .

Okie Dog said...

Nice tutorial on your cook pot. Question: You said you attach your pot stand to your cook pot, how? Or did you mean to say you just sit your pot upon your stand, when cooking?
Nice deck, Amanda. ;-)
Will be watching to read your experiences on the trail over in Spain! and praying for you, too. Yikes, it just seems scary for you to be so far away from your country. Be safe! please.

Ryan said...

Ona Journey: Hahahaha! =)

tiggermama: I helped build your soda can stove? Great! Glad I could help! =)

Okie Dog: I don't "attach" the pot stand to the pot. The pot just sits on top. I have to hold the pot in place when I stir the food so the pot won't slide off!

-- Ryan