This is not for backpacking but rather for when we have the car with us. I am also expecting a 100w folding portable solar panel to go with it.
It is a ALLPOWERS Portable Power Station 300W / 288Wh, with plenty of options for plugging in gadgets, including 240v three pin plug. It can even be charged from the car.
It will also be useful if the government cannot sort it’s energy policy issues out and we have power cuts.
I was planning to go out for a lunch time walk and brew some camping coffee but the weather had other ideas – too much rain.
On a recent walk the wind shield I used was not effective so I was going to test out a new one I made from a used food tray. I moved the test to the doorway of the summer house office.
The wind break was cut to fit tightly around a Bushcraft Essentials mini twig stove when using an up-cycled Burt’s Bees tin as a gel fuel burner. As the fit was close I punched some air holes low down and on two sides for air flow.
Outdoor Pocket Micro Stove EDCBox with homemade wind shield
The idea of this stove is for me to have the makings for camping coffee or soup in my lightweight cookset bag. There is a very small gas burner in the cookset but no gas – the gel fuel for the Bushcraft Essentials stove is carried an up-cycled hand sanitiser bottle in the cookset stuff sack.
The Burt’s Bees tin for the gel fuel – alight!
To test the stove wind break I made coffee.
Making Camping Coffee
There are many gadgets on the market for making coffee when camping – I have a 750ml titanium bush pot/cafetiere for when I am car camping – but when backpacking and walking I like this lightweight solution.
For a while now I have been using a plastic tea strainer as a reusable coffee filter (see my camping coffee page). Since I wrote that page I have cut down the handle and made some cut-outs so the filter sits level.
The notches keep the filter level
The process I use is:
1 I fill the strainer mesh with ground coffee until it just covers the the plastic rim.
2 Wet the coffee grounds and then wait a minute or so.
For the best results the coffee grounds need a little hot water and a rest!
3 I then carefully add water to the brim of the strainer and let it drain through.
Care is needed when filling the strainer so it does not overflow
4 It takes about 100ml to 150ml of water to make a strong brew. I top up with hot water.
I never drip all the water through as it is not necessary
5 I take mine black and no sugar when camping – but I do carry coffee creamer and brown sugar for caffeine and energy boost.
This gadget and method only generates used coffee grounds to dispose of, no paper filters and there is no comparison when it comes to the weight or price of this coffee maker when compared to other backpacking/camping coffee gadgets. And it can be used as a strainer as well!
This is an excellent coffee making kit for my haversack gear
The 30ml Nalgene bottle shown in the photo when “tap” filled (start to fill the bottle and tap it to settle the coffee grounds and repeat until no more settling happens) can hold two measures of ground coffee.
The Wind Shield
It worked better than its predecessor, keeping the heat on the mug. It will also fold up small enough to store in the stove slip case with the stove and the Burt’s Bees tin.
The next test will be later in the week when I can get out for a walk.
We were planning to be camping in Dingwall this week – but family circumstances have postponed it for this year.
It did me a chance to replace all the elastic loop guys I had fitted to my tent – over the years the rubber had weakened. I also shortened the orange guy line something I had been meaning to for a couple of years.
I got this TRGpro, Palm based PDA, as soon as it came on the market in 2000 – it replaced my Palm Pilot, which I had modded with extra fixed storage and an IR port – the IR port was so it would connect to my mobile phone for email. I remember I liked the TRGpro as it had expandable CF storage and a built in back-up, for if the device fatally crashed when away from a computer.
This was tate of the art when it came out but it was soon overtaken. By the end of 2000 PDAs had rechargeable batteries, colour screens, Wi-fi and faster everything! I did add a Wi-fi card to my TRGpro but bought a HP Pocket PC when it came out in 2001 as it was far more capable and just better.
The TRGpro was relegated to ebook reader duty, which it did very well with a back light that could be turned on and off (for reading in bed with the light off so it did not disturb Diana) and running on easily replaceable AAA calls. The replaceable batteries made the TRGpro really useful when I was camping away from mains power and I needed to keep the charge in the Pocket PC for work not for reading books.
I did go back to a Palm T3 PDA briefly when that launched, but then moved back to Microsoft based Dell and HP PDAs, then a Windows HTC phone before changing to a series of iPhones.
The TRGpro still works!
I popped in a couple of AAA cells, turned it on and recovered a 2004 system back-up. This included SmartDoc (a simple word processor and PDB ebook reader) and some ebooks which opened fine. Just for fun I exported/converted a couple of current ePub books and manually transferred them to the CF card (no chance to sync transfer them – no RS232 serial ports on my current laptop). SmartDoc displayed these so the text could be read but the cover images were missing.
All ready to go if I need an ebook reader that runs on batteries – of course if I could not charge my iPhone (my ebook reader if choice) I could always use a “dead tree” version.
I bet if I took my current iPhone Xs out of a dusty cupboard, in 20 years time it would not work! However when you look at what a modern smartphone can do there is no real comparison between the old and the new.
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