tea

Walking along the River Slea with lightweight gear

/ General / , , , , , , , , , , ,

As I had the day off because of the American Football, I made bread and went for a walk, took some photos in what may be the last of the summer sunshine and made some coffee. I grabbed my Finnish haversack and some lightweight gear and headed out before the rain came. (Some of this blog was written whilst I was walking and some when I got home.)

Bridge over the River Slea​
Bridge over the River Slea​
Lincolnshire countryside
River Slea​
River Slea​ and weir
This was the view from the coffee stop

Coffee

I found a log down by the river to sit on to make some coffee.

I have a small twig stove from Bushcraft Essentials, in my cook set but I use gel fuel in it, and use a Burt’s Bees tin as a burner. I carry the fuel in a re-purposed hand sanitise bottle. It makes a truly lightweight brew stove when out walking – when the tin/burner is brim of fuel it can heat about 250ml of water hot enough for coffee, noodles or soup.

lightweight gear a gel stove adaption for a twig stove
gel fuel adaption for a twig stove
titanium mug and folding spoon - lightweight gear

Rather than use the ground coffee and tea strainer from the cook set I chose to use a coffee bag – this brand from Taylors makes a good strong brew in the amount of water I had.

lightweight kit for coffee
titanium lightweight equipment

Weir and lock

Well there was a lock, weir and associated machinery here in the past.

Weir and lock on the River Slea
Weir and lock on the River Slea
Weir and lock on the River Slea
Weir and lock on the River Slea
Weir and lock on the River Slea
Weir and lock on the River Slea - long shutter speed motion photo

I used the Camera+2 app for the long shutter speed motion effect.

Weir and lock on the River Slea

More Walking

Woodland
Woodland and River Slea
Haverholme Priory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haverholme_Priory
Haverholme Priory

Gear in the Haversack

Lightweight gear and walking kit in a Finnish haversack
The stove with the mug on it is in the background – the ground cloth is folded in quarters

For lightweight trips the Finnish Haversack can hold enough gear and I use it rather than one of my small rucksacks in the summer when I do not extra clothes and gear.

Contents today:

  • Backpacking cook set
  • Breakfast biscuit snacks and coffee
  • British Army bush hat
  • Lightweight poncho (camouflage as it was the lightest one I could get on Amazon during the lockdown)
  • Lightweight picnic ground cloth
  • 500ml steel water bottle – with an MSR 350ml titanium mug pushed on the bottom
  • 1l dry bag for electronics, Anker power pack, charge cable, Victorinox Swiss Card etc
  • Paracord (about 5m)
  • Small belt pouch – simple first aid kit, mini Petzl head torch, tea and coffee supplies, vegetable Oxo cube, salt packets, soup and chilli packs from instant noodles, Silva compass with thermometer, string, hotel sewing kit with some extra strong thread added to it, safety pins, Traditional Case mini Trapper knife, sharpening stone, duck tape patch, army style tin opener, refillable lighter, lifeboat whistle and lanyard for my Victorinox Camper knife, eye drops bottle re-purposed for hand sanitiser.

The little pouch is well packed for a trip like this but when I am on longer trips or away the lanyard and whistle are in use so making the rest of the items more accessible.

All images made with my iPhone 12 Pro Max which I carry in a belt case for lightweight trips like this.

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New tea and coffee station

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I was planning to go walking early today and photograph the sunrise but the weather had other ideas – it was raining really hard.

So I built some new shelves in the office and sorted out the tea and coffee…

What a difference a week makes – last week I was neck deep in the dissertation.

Octagon tea and coffee

I did have this published on the Octagon website:

Where’s my flying car? The Sequel

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Work from anywhere

/ Technology / , , , , , , ,

I have moved into my new space today – there is still some work to be done to finish it but is is perfectly useable. Michael has done an excellent job.

I now have somewhere to retreat to to complete my dissertation now that the University Library remains closed to me here in Lincoln. (Photos here and here of the views from Lincoln University library.)

For security only the seat, kettle, offices odds and ends and heaters remain in the shed overnight – the rest of the hi-tech stuff is my portable office so that goes.

Future plans for the “shed” include:

• Finish the decorating and hang the curtains.

• At the moment I am using the house Wi-fi. I want to get Octagon Technology to install a secure Wi-fi router/access point and VPN. As part of the build I had the electrician run a network cable at the same time he installed the power.

• We are going to install some off-grid 12v solar power.

Work from anywhere - garden office
The desk folds down for extra meeting space
Work from home - garden office
Complete with coat hook, kettle, tea and coffee

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Walk and a coffee

/ Outdoor Gear, Walking / , , , ,

The meeting this afternoon was cancelled so I took the opportunity to at last walk further than just round the village.

Sierra cup and British Army Stove

I bought this stove back in January but have not had an opportunity to use it. I keep it in a pack in the boot of the car, with the Sierra cup, some water and coffee, for days like today when I had not planned for a brew stop.

BCB stove

It worked OK but there were a lot of flames and it left more residue in the stove than I expected. But it was compact, easy to carry with three pots of fuel and a wind shield packed inside it and it boiled about 300ml of water on one fuel portion (in windy conditions). As a stand-by stove with well packed fuel for long term storage it is just what I was looking for.

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