IN WHICH I
  • ... Write
  • ... Explain

Make a camp stove from a drinks can

26/1/2015

8 Comments

 
Almost everything I know about making a stove from a drinks can, I learnt from Tom Allen's video. It’s a must-see if you’re into lightweight camping gear or DIY fun!

How To Turn A Beer Can Into The Only Camping Stove You'll Ever Need from Tom Allen on Vimeo.

Construction

We got a can from our neighbours - doing our good bit for the environment and our wallets. (No self-respecting Australian drinks Fosters, just so you know.)

It took a while to cut the top out. It was fiddly to do with our little pocket knives and I got a bit annoyed and impatient at myself at this stage! Other people have suggested taking the top out with a traditional can opener, so I might try that next time. Note: If you want to do this with kids, please supervise them closely. I personally wouldn't recommend it for children under secondary school age.

Cutting the can down to size was easier. I was a bit too conservative, though: next time I'd make the stove shorter. As it is, it only just fits into its plastic container (which used to hold paper cases for muffins - hardcore).

Fuel

Before making the stove, I spent a while trawling the internet learning all about fuel, then trawling the high street to find it. From what I read, bio-ethanol seems to be a good choice, but we could only find methylated spirits (in the hardware store) and 90% surgical spirit (at the pharmacy). We bought both, to compare them.

We poured a centimetre or so of surgical spirit into the can and set a match to it. It didn’t seem to light straight away, but after a second the flames shot up - not bright, but definitely there! We put a pot with 500mL of water on top, popped the lid on and timed it to boiling.


The fumes were apparent almost straight away. I was glad we’d opened the door and window and set up a fan to blow the fumes out of the room. It took about 8 minutes to come to a decent boil. I smothered the flame (with the plastic muffin paper case) and poured the remaining fuel back into the bottle, noticing that it had turned blue.

Next, we tried the methylated spirits. This also took a while to light, and it whooshed even higher when it finally did. We put another pot of water on top (I cooled the pot down first; can't give one fuel an unfair advantage). 
I’m not sure if it was the build-up of fumes over two boils, but I thought the metho smelled stronger. This time, the water only took about 7 minutes to come to a really rapid boil, but the process seemed to use slightly more methylated spirits than surgical spirit.

Results

Our current gas-fuelled camp stove, which was never intended for backpacking and hiking, weighs 2.1kg (including case), while the drinks can stove weighs 30g (including storage). That's less than 2% of the weight! The drinks can stove is also absolutely tiny in comparison to the camp stove, so it's much easier to pack when walking.

Comparing fuels, a full can of butane for our camp stove weighs about 250g, as does 250mL of methylated or surgical spirits. However, the liquid can be decanted into smaller bottles.  Methylated spirits is cheaper (just!) per millilitre than surgical spirit and seems to bring water to the boil more swiftly. Surgical spirit seems to smell less and use less fuel.

By the way, we didn’t let all that water go to waste. We had a nice cuppa and biscuit for afternoon tea.
Tools of the trad
Cutting the top out
The can in parts
Making dents
Putting the stove together
Boiling a pot of water
Leftover surgical spirits (blue)

This microadventure-related challenge cost approximately £7 (fuel, tea and biscuits for two). Bargain!

How is your microadventure challenge going? You've got a couple of days left in January to go on a bivvying adventure and/or spend time on top of a hill. Go on, get out there!

8 Comments

Walk around the Brightling follies

20/1/2015

2 Comments

 
One of our favourite walks to do with visitors is this loop around the Brightling follies. History, views and odd local characters all included!
View with a horse
A friendly horse and the view over Darwell Reservoir.
The follies were built by John (“Mad Jack”) Fuller, who was Squire of Brightling in the late 18th and early 19th century. As well as fostering an aura of eccentricity, Fuller was a philanthropist, member of parliament, patron of the arts and sciences, plantation owner, vocal supporter slavery and noted drunk.

After parking in Brightling, the Tower is our first stop, just a short way over the fields and between the hedges. A sweeping view opens up as we walk, with the dark green Netherfield Woods running down to the bright blue mirror of Darwell Reservoir and the Rother valley beyond. Fuller is rumoured to have built the tower to spy on Bodiam Castle, which he bought in 1828, but while I climb the wobbly ladder at the top of the tower to look out the window, I have not brought my binoculars to test this theory.

Back into the fields, it’s possible to see the next two follies: the round Temple on a low green hill and the thin triangle of the Sugarloaf, which could almost be the spire of a church on the horizon. The Temple lies at the centre of our circular walk, but after heading down past the Ox Lodge sign, over the duck ponds and up past the barn, we’re as close as we can get. Did Fuller host wild gambling parties here? Rumours abound, but we may never know for sure!

We slither our way down the fields and through the ankle-deep mud in the woodland making quite a racket, which might explain why our wildlife tally boasts only a few curious sheep and one robin.

Next stop: the Sugarloaf and a flask of tea. This folly was supposedly built when Fuller made a drunken bet that he could see the spire of the neighbouring church from his window. When this proved untrue, he quickly ordered the Sugarloaf built on this spot to win the wager. Apparently, the folly was inhabited until the 1930s, and we can see where the beams for the second floor would have been set into the walls.

After all that mud, we welcome a bit of road walking. The road runs along a long stone wall, which Fuller commissioned after the Naploeonic wars at a time of high unemployment, ensuring the livelihood of many locals. We spot the Observatory, but decide against the detour for a closer look - we subsequently also miss out on seeing the Needle. However, by all accounts the Observatory never worked particularly well, and the Needle is a fairly plain obelisk, so we don’t regret it.

Instead, we head back into the woods and pick our way along a permissive path until we emerge into a field and find ourselves above the temple on the opposite side to before. In the distance, the sea glinting in the low winter sun. Behind us is the first folly Fuller built: a gothic Summerhouse. The view is spectacular, with the Temple below us and the sea in the distance, glinting in the low winter sun.

We follow a horse ride through the woods to Fuller’s house, then step through a Secret Garden-esque door into the churchyard. Fuller’s final resting place, built 20 years before he died, is known, for reasons that soon become obvious, as the Pyramid. Two centuries later, his legacy is as remarkable and ostentatious as ever.

Unfortunately, there's no pub in Brightling, but the Netherfield Arms, only a short drive away, is a cosy and exceptionally friendly spot for lunch.
The Tower
The Temple
Silhouette of the Sugarloaf
The Sugarloaf
The Summerhouse

A shorter version of this article first appeared as "Walking around Fullers' follies in Brightling" in the Battle Observer, Friday 19 December 2014, p32.
GPX of the Brighting Follies walk
File Size: 6 kb
File Type: gpx
Download File


2 Comments

Spend time on top of a hill

15/1/2015

10 Comments

 
How is your microadventuring going? This month’s challenge is to spend time on top of a hill (there's still two weeks to do it, if you want to join in!) and here is our contribution!
Sheep on a hill
This challenge gave us the opportunity to climb Mount Caburn (a hill of 146m - not a mountain!) near Lewes. It is quite a distinctive hill, recognisable to anyone familiar with the stretch of the A27 between Brighton and Eastbourne. From the south it looks almost conical, although it is joined to the rest of the Lewes Downs by a ridge to the north. If you look closely at Mount Caburn from the valley or from a vantage point on the South Downs, you can see a ring around the summit - the remains of an Iron Age fort.

We’d been meaning to go and have a look at the fort for ages. This time, we were meeting friends in Brighton for dinner, so we thought we’d have a quick picnic lunch at the top of the hill. Where there is a picnic, there should also be cider. Luckily for us, Middle Farm, which houses the national collection of cider and perry, is close by.

Instead of the usual article-and-photos combo, we decided to try making a film. I hope you enjoy it!

Microadventure on Mount Caburn from In Which I on Vimeo.

We filmed this entirely on an iPhone, without any tripods or other dooverlackies, and edited it on iMovie. The music is Creative Commons licensed and sourced through Vimeo.

It was fun to brush up on my undergrad creative media skills. There are a few things I wish we’d filmed differently (or filmed at all!) and a couple of questionable editing choices, but overall it was an enjoyable and interesting project. What do you think? If you like it I might try to make another one for next month’s microadventure!

This microadventure cost £19.70 (for two of us), including food, cider, tea and petrol (although we were on the way to Brighton and would have used that petrol anyway).

Please do join in with your own year of microadventure if you are up for it! I'll do a round up of your "spend time on a hill" posts/photos/videos/tweets at the end of the month.

10 Comments

Report: 2,000 miles of paths "under serious threat"

13/1/2015

0 Comments

 
East Sussex County Council is running a survey to find out how people use open access land and the county’s 2,000 miles of public rights of way. But a spokesperson from the local Ramblers group says the paths are not being adequately maintained and are "under serious threat."
ESCC is reviewing their management of rights of way and ten countryside sites, including Camber Sand Dunes and Seven Sisters Country Park. The council is seeking feedback from walkers, cyclists, horse riders and other countryside visitors on why people use public paths and open access spaces. 

Responses to this survey, which runs until 20 February 2015, will help the council develop a new management plan, which it aims to put into action in April 2016.

Lionel Pringle, Treasurer of the Rother Ramblers, urged all walkers to complete the survey. "It is important that ESCC is made aware that a not inconsiderable portion of their electorate use these paths, and expect them to be kept in a useable state," he said.
Path across a field
East Sussex boasts 2,000 miles of public rights of way
ESCC’s factsheet about the consultation says the council is "not proposing any changes at the moment" to countryside management. "As with all services provided by the county council, we are constantly reviewing how they are managed," said Cllr Carl Maynard, lead member for transport and environment.

However, Mr Pringle argued that the council’s current maintenance of public rights of way is inadequate. "A meagre staff and even more meagre budget" designated by ESCC to rights of way has meant paths are becoming "increasingly difficult" to use, said Mr Pringle. 

"The upkeep of these footpaths is right at the bottom of the heap when it comes to county council priorities," he said. "2,000 miles of rights of way in our county are under serious threat."

Public rights of way include public footpaths, bridleways and byways. These are subject to the same legal protection as all other highways, including trunk roads. As our local highway authority, ESCC has a duty to protect the rights of the public to the use and enjoyment of paths in the Hastings area. The council is legally responsible for maintaining the surface of paths, including bridges, and keeping them free of overgrowth. Public rights of way around Hastings can be found on the ESCC website and on Ordnance Survey’s Explorer Map 124.

The survey can be accessed here and a paper copy is available from local libraries. The survey is available in large print, Braille and languages other than English by calling 03456 080 193 or emailing scs@eastsussex.gov.uk.

This article first appeared in Hastings Independent, Issue 21, 19 December 2014, p7.

0 Comments

Sleep on a hill on New Year's Eve

9/1/2015

6 Comments

 
What better place to enjoy New Year’s Eve fireworks than the top of a hill? And what better way to make sure you’re on the hill at midnight than sleeping there?
Microadventure view from hill
We threw our bags in the car, picked up a very late lunch from a chip shop and headed to a nearby carpark to watch the sunset. It was completely overcast. We ate our chips overlooking a half-derelict old bus as the light faded and cars left the carpark one by one. A family flying a kite packed up. A couple of dog walkers came and went. By 4:30pm it was dark and ours was the only car left.

It was a brisk, windy walk to the top of our hill. Towns snaked away in a line of light on one side, and on the other was a skin of darkness, speckled with lights from farms and villages and cut through by the main road twisting out from the closest town.

We set up camp in a hollow to keep out the worst of the wind and, having learnt our lesson from last time, donned extra pairs of socks and trousers before hopping into our bivvies. We weren’t hungry and there wasn’t much else to do, so we decided to get a very early night. A few hours later, we woke up, cooked some noodles, brushed our teeth and went back to bed, setting an alarm for 11:45pm.

In the breaks between the clouds, it looked like the stars were speeding across the sky. I could hear gusts of wind approaching over the ridge and through the grass before they hit our little camp, whipping the bivvy bag around my head and making it rustle and snap like a sail. It was so strong that I moved when it buffeted me, like vehicles judder in the cross winds on a bridge. “How am I ever going to sleep in this?” I wondered . . .

. . . and then the alarm went off. I was warm and comfortable and had to convince myself to get up and watch the fireworks - that was the reason we were out here, after all! We spent a cold half-hour jumping up and down, running on the spot, shivering and rubbing our arms as the wind tore around us. There were a few sparkles here and there, but when it turned midnight every town and village within sight began sending up fireworks in earnest. We could see some big ones in the far distance - from Brighton, we decided - and the flares hanging over a nearby town demonstrated how useful they must be in an emergency. A village below us gave us a good display, but seen from high up and from a distance, most of the fireworks seemed rather puny. Still, we agreed, it was a new experience to watch the whole horizon twinkling so prettily. We wished ourselves a happy (Gregorian calendar) new year and dove back into our warm nests.

We woke up at about 5am and had a chocolatey snack to try and ward off the chill. I was thankful for my extra pair of trousers, but the three pairs of socks were still unable to keep my feet warm. At least I wasn’t tangled up in my sleeping gear like my partner. It was quite amusing (for me) to watch him wallow around like a walrus trying to sort himself out. We dozed again, then made porridge and tea as the sky turned from grey to pastel pink.

As we arrived back into the car park, we passed the first dog walkers of 2015. I wondered if they could tell that we'd slept out there?
Chips
These were good chips!
Pot and stove
Cooking noodles on the camp stove.
Blurry lights
The phone camera didn't quite catch the fireworks!
Our camp with me in bed
Sleeping near a trig point - proof that we're at the top!
Morning view, pink light
Couldn't ask for a better view from the bedroom.

This microadventure cost £14.90 (for two of us), including petrol, food and drinks.

Like the idea of sleeping outside every month this year? Join in with Alastair Humphreys' year of microadventure! Love the idea of microadventuring, but not 100% sold on camping? Join our alternative year of microadventure!

6 Comments

Make spicy mulled wine

5/1/2015

4 Comments

 
Is there anything cosier than sitting by a log fire, maybe after a brisk winter walk, sipping a mug of piping hot mulled wine? Possibly. Nevertheless, it is one of my favourite things about winter in the UK!

You can get mulled wine pre-mixed in a bottle or you can get sachets/bags of spice to add to your own wine, but making it from scratch is easy.  For a non-alcoholic tipple, use fruit juice like orange, apple or grape instead of wine. The following recipe produces an exceptionally fiery brew, so adjust according to your tastes.

Ingredients

  • A bottle of inexpensive merlot
  • 3 cups of orange juice (no pulp is better for this)
  • Spices: 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 star anise, 4 cardamom pods, 8-10 cloves, a pinch of nutmeg, a few slices of fresh ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes (ground spices/powders can give the mulled wine a funny texture, but they’ll do if you don’t have whole spices)
  • A few heaped dessert spoons of brown sugar (or jam, or even maple syrup if you’re posh)
  • A handful of dried fruit (sultanas or mixed peel are fine)
  • A glug or two of ginger wine, brandy or rum (optional but delicious)
  • An orange, sliced into rounds, to garnish
Mug of mulled wine
You're the foxy devil when you like...

Make some magic

  • Pop all the juice, spice and dried fruit into a large saucepan and simmer for 10-20 minutes (or longer), allowing the flavours to infuse.
  • Add the sugar or other sweetener and stir until dissolved.
  • Add your red wine and liqueur/liquor and stir again. Adding this at the end keeps the alcohol content high - the longer you heat it now, the lower the alcohol volume of the final drink.
  • When it’s heated through, ladle into mugs or glasses and garnish with slices of orange.
  • Whoosh! That will warm you up.
I discovered while researching different mulled wine recipes that there is a large contingent of people who don't like mulled wine at all. Are you one of them? Explain yourself!

This recipe was first published as "Fiery mulled wine" in Hastings Independent, Issue 21, 19 December 2014, p9.

4 Comments

    In which I

    In which I do things and write about them

    RSS Feed

    In which I tag

    All
    #30DaysWild
    Art And Architecture
    Audio And Music
    Australia
    Battle Observer
    Birmingham
    Books And Stories
    Bristol
    Buckinghamshire
    Cambridgeshire
    Cooking
    Cycling
    Devon
    East Sussex
    Eating And Drinking
    Film And Video
    Foraging
    Gardening
    Grand Union Canal
    Hastings Independent
    Hertfordshire
    Housekeeping
    Imagining
    Interviewing
    Kent
    Lake Field
    London
    Manchester
    Marketing
    Microadventure
    National Trust
    Netherlands
    Norfolk
    Northumberland
    Paddling
    Q&A
    Reporting
    Review
    Share The Love
    Sheffield
    Snowy River
    Somerset
    Suffolk
    Swimming
    Tea
    Wales
    Walking
    West Sussex
    Wiltshire
    Year Of Sleeping Variously
    Yorkshire

    In which I archive

    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.