Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Not sure why, but for some reason I seem to be getting enthused about hunting season. Its pretty early to be even thinking about it since season doesn’t open until November. Still, for some reason I find myself looking forward to it. I suspect that its just me getting a hankering to grab a buncha cool gear and head out into the boonies for a while. Well, if that’s the case, so be it. Who am I to argue with such urges?
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A buddy of mine brought by his Kifaru Paratrap for me to play with. I was kind of interested in one of these as a ‘just in case’ shelter for this hunting season in case I wound up getting stuck somewhere. However, after setting it up and examining it, I think it would work out rather nicely for someone who wants to keep weight to a minimum. Coverage and ‘floor area’ is more than if you used the classic standby of a poncho and some paracord. More importantly, this thing compresses to something you could fit in an M16 3-mag pouch and weighs less than a pound. It has no floor, so youre going to have to either be okay with laying on the ground or perhaps roll out your poncho to use as a groundcloth. (or, a ground pad if you have one). Color is a nice neutral brown that blends with pretty much everything. A fascinating accessory for this thing is a vestibule that has a cutout for a stove. Kifaru makes a stove that folds flat and has a rollup stovepipe that, literally, gives you a woodstove you can fit in your pack. Very clever. Anyway, the Paratarp looks like something I might need to add to the Christmas gift list. Price is typical of Kifaru, a little south of $200, but I must say that Kifaru seems to be a pretty good example of getting what you pay for. For giggles I set up the Paratarp and then set up a poncho shelter. The Paratarp had more room, offered more protection from the elements, and was a lot lighter when rolled up. The only advantages to the poncho shelter are its price, about 1/10th the price of the Paratarp, and its multitask role as a poncho.
I’ve been fortuitous in that I’ve never been forced to overnight unexpectedly out in the sticks. It’s been close a time or two, though. If I did have to overnight in some inclement weather, this thing and my Woobie would make quite the difference…and given the rather light weight of both products theyre things that wouldn’t be objectionable to keeping in the hunting pack ‘just in case’. The prices though….oy.
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A friend of mine introduced me to curry. Im fairly predictable in my cooking and dining tastes. I have no problem eating the same thing over and over if its something I like. Some folks have a problem with that, but it suits me just fine. I suspect that if there was a 50# of Purina People Chow in the store, and I liked it, I’d live off it. (Two cups a day. One if Im trying to slim down. And maybe crack a raw egg over it if I want my coat to get glossy.) Anyway, the curry was interesting because all of the ingredients (curry paste, curry powder, onion, chutney, salt, pepper, lemon juice, tomatoes, etc, etc.) can be had in long-storage form. This means that a fella with 100# of rice sitting in a drum has a new option. This, naturally, interests me.
There are a few ‘cookbooks’ out there for cooking with long-term food and I’ve read the majority of them. They all seem rather bland and repetitive to me. Of course, this all depends on your idea of ‘long term’. For example, a can of tomatoes is good for a couple years whereas a jar of ginger may only be good for three months.
Still, theres very little that’s packed in cans and jars that won’t keep for at least a year or two these days.For example, I bought some spaghetti sauce when it was on sale a year or two ago and still use it. Tastes fine and keeps fine. (Of course, how you store things makes a tremendous difference in these matters.)
The missus has been reading backpacking magazines and as I was flipping through one I noticed that they have recipes for ‘on the trail’ meals. These meals require food that requires a minimum of preparation and doesn’t need a lot of refrigeration. So, I think I’ll have to start perusing the backpacking recipe books and whatnot.
Speaking of food, if anyone is interested I have an excellent deal on freeze-dried pork chop pieces. These are from a contract run of pork chops for the .mil. In the drying process some of the pork chops broke and therefore were rejected. But, hey, four 1-oz. pieces of pork chop is the same as one 4-oz. pork chop, right? More importantly, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. Freeze dried, raw (so cook ‘em after you rehydrate them), with a thirty year shelf life. I only have a couple cases sitting here but if anyone wants some theyre $30/can. MSRP on the whole pork chops is about twice that. Email me at zero@commanderzero.com if you don’t want to spend the apocalypse as a vegetarian.
