outdoorshenanigans

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Katsudon

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Basic Homesteading Skills

Crafts

quilting

embroidery

cross-stitch

knitting

crochet

sewing

Cooking and Baking

homemade bread

homemade butter

homemade extracts

dandelion jelly

Canning

26 canning recipes

canning jars 101

60 canning recipes

Gardening

edible trees to plant

what to plant to save the bees

cure and braid garlic

save seeds for next year

braid onions for long term storage

build a greenhouse

Animals

homemade chicken feed

raising mealworms for chickens

why to raise nigerian dwarf goats

Outdoors

starting a fire with sticks

trail signs

knotting

find true north without a compass

Medicine

homemade neosporin

all purpose healing salve

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idk who needs to hear this but you deserve as many knives as you can carry

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Trip #2: Hampton Tract of Green Swamp Preserve Southwest Florida Water Management District

October 11-13

Our second trip was definitely an improvement from our first adventure. We came better prepared with food and drinks. We were still using the hand-me-down tent but we incorporated string lights and tiki torches to help with lighting our camp and creating a perimeter.

We enjoyed a full camping breakfast of bacon, eggs, and beer. Spent time watching the horses come through camp and saw some cool insects.

Overall a solid trip. Nothing fancy. The progress made between this trip and our November trip is impressive, so stay tuned!

- Jenna

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Camping Trip #1: Potts Preserve: Southwest Florida Water Management District

September 21-22, 2019

This was our first foray into the forest, and it definitely shows. Looking back at our big wonky tent, makeshift rain guard, and little as far as amenities, I’m surprised we decided to make this a regular thing. We spent only one night out there, but it was enough to inspire us to keep working and get better.

Pictured you can see our former hand-me-down tent, with our very dingy mat out front. We didn’t have much in the way of lighting or seating. We also underestimated how primitive the camp was going to be, and should have accounted for more water for hand washing etc.

We didn’t go in very well prepared with food or water, but we had plenty of snacks and alcohol 😂 last photo shows our Sunday breakfast of champions.

Since this trip we have made a lot of updates. @stonedoesnature and I have really turned this into a therapeutic art form. I’m hoping that this blog inspires others to start from somewhere. Just get out there and do the thing. Take some beer and sit in the woods for a few hours and tell me you don’t feel a bit better about life.

Get out there and enjoy everything the world has to offer.

-Jenna

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Low-light, low-quality footage of our camp.

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One of my favorite places to be while at camp is in the hammock with a book.

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This pan/pot combo was a hand-me-down from my roommate! The handle folds inward and locks over the lid so the entire thing compacts nicely about the size of a Whopper from Burger King! it will cook about 3 eggs at a time and fry about a ¼ pound of bacon. Closed with the lid on, it also holds a small 1 cup pot that can be used for heating up soup/chili or boiling single portions of water. This replaced bulky pots and pans and fits nicely in our cooking gear bag. I don’t camp without it!

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This simple little contraption comes in handy. It folds down nearly flat and slides into any nook in the car. It weighs less than a pound but saved us from having damp clothes and towels multiple times. I highly recommend this for car camping - especially at campgrounds where laundry facilities are not readily available. This was stolen form Jenna’s parents. Thank you, Rick and Tari!

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It is weird. And also way more difficult to put it in the bun.

Jenna said that I put my hot dog on my stick wrong (I’m the one on the left) - thoughts? 

admittedly, it was very difficult to get off of the stick and onto the bun. 

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Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park

1/24/2020 - 1/26/2020

This was our 5th camping trip together since September 2019 and we have made some major improvements to our set up and gear since that first trip. This specific site was not perfect. we were sandwiched in the small space between the fork in the road, so privacy was not even really a thing. We were directly across from the playground, so peace and quiet were not really things either, but our set up and execution have gotten so good, that those factors don’t even really matter anymore. 

We switched to a smaller tent a few trips back and even though we gave up a ton of space in the interior, we saved a TON of space in a gear bin - which now successfully holds about 95% of our gear! the tent is just big enough for both of our beds (I switched to a cot this trip - see previous posts) and a bag each. 

Another recent addition is the camping carpet. It not only provides a really nice aesthetic to our site, it helps a lot with keeping the dirt out of the tent. We had my niece and nephew visit us Saturday night of this trip and they were obsessed with going in and out of the tent, so the extra help with the dirt was greatly appreciated. It is a piece of gear that has to be transported outside of the gear bin, which I do not prefer, but maybe one day I will find a carpet that folds a bit more compact than this one. although, its usually pretty dirty when we pack up, so maybe its best to leave it on the outside. Unless we find a one that has a bag - I’m rambling. 

Behind our tent you can see the Pop-Up Potty. This is something that was 100% for me. For about $20 on Amazon and folds up to the size an an 18′’ disk, this was an okay investment. The idea was to have a private place on site to pop a squat. Decent logic. I drink a lot of water and beer while I camp and walking to and from the restrooms is annoying and Jenna does not like to  get a site that is too close to the bath house. This was my compromise. I wish it was bigger. Dancing around the shallow hole i need to squat over is not an easy thing to do in the dark while you’re a little drunk. I will work on making improvements to this over the course of the next few trips.

Jenna borrowed that pop-up canopy from a neighbor. This is a massive game changer. We dealt with rainy weather during our December trip so having that was a great way to insure we had a dry place to keep our gear. with a tent as small as ours, its important to have some sort of secondary shelter. This time we didn’t deal with rain, but the placement of our site left us vulnerable to direct sun, so the shade was lovely! in the summer months, we will add mosquito netting and a fan in there. And likely buy our own. The only downside is that this is obviously a piece of equipment that does not fit in our bin, so it takes up more space in the car. - I don’t think this is avoidable though. 

Under the canopy on the picnic table (which we have recently started covering with a table cloth - bigger difference than one would think) is our two coolers. This was the first time we decided to consolidate the drinks cooler with the food. We had them separate for the last three trips after the first trip ended in disaster (ice for drinks melted and drowned our food) but this time, space was an issue (we took my tiny car instead of Jenna’s Subaru) so Jenna worked to consolidate and we just made sure to drain the water regularly and use as little ice as possible. We made it through the weekend on one bag I think. That cooler also doubled as a soapy water bucket at the end of the weekend so I could wash all of our dishes. 

The 5 gallon cooler is for ice water. An addition made a few trips back to insure that we drink enough water through out the weekend. We have never (even with visitors this time) finished the entire cooler of water in one weekend. This weekend, I used it as a dish-rinsing bucket for washing dishes. Multipurpose items are key for car camping. 

Also pictured here is Jenna’s zero-gravity chair. I don’t use it as much as she does, but it is lovely. it leans all the way back and makes for wonderful afternoon naps when we can’t hang a hammock. My chair (covered in smoke here) is a simple, pop-up, utility chair with the little side table and a side full of pockets. I have a place for a cigarette pack (yell at me for this habit if you want), my water bottle, a knife, a knife sharpener, and a little pocket for trash if I need it. Both of these chairs have proven to be nice assets, but they both have to be packed outside of the bin too. Jenna recently was gifted two hiking chairs. which fold up to be the size (and rough weight) of water bottles! Those fit fine in the bin, but are not nearly as comfortable or as useful. 

We spent a lot of money on firewood due to the cold temperatures and our site location wasn’t ideal, but all in all I give this weekend a 7/10. We keep getting better and better at this and we pack, repack, and debrief better every time. February 2020 will be the first month that we skip a trip. We decided to do a back yard cook out and gear clean out at Jenna’s instead. We have already booked Goldhead State Park again for our March trip and that will be the first trip that we bring along other people! My girlfriend and whoever Jenna decides to bring will be tagging along and that will be an interesting addition to this tradition. 

Here’s to many more blogs to come! 

Stay Dirty 

- Stone  

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Keep reading

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Dispersed camping in national parks.

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Sofia The Subaru