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Thanks for all the photos. I really enjoy seeing what all you see, camp included. Such a different ecology from my location in the Rockies.

That's a good read and excellent advice. Experience. Best fun in a small group but be prepared to be very much alone, and the experience makes you a more attractive winter snowy walking partner. I'd carry double the amount of stove fuel that I would ever expect to need, you may be helping...

Avalanche Season here again. First just one, then some two's and now a group of 3 dead, 4 badly injured and 3 safe. Party of 10 Germans Heliskiing in the southern BC Rockies. Weak deep snow layer worst in a decade all along the west slope, like where I live. The layer can move like ball...

Curried fresh green beans with dice Roma tomatoes, dice onions and LOTS of thick-slice fried bacon. Probably lots of brown rice to make a chicken or bratwurst sausage fried rice tomorrow.

Every summer, we used to camp in the Canadian Boreal forest, lake-side, in the Precambrian shield country (rock and water and forest). Us just a family of 4 and one Woods 9x12 canvas tent. Fair sized power boat, a lot of fishing, maybe a little water skiing if not too cold. Different lake...

I've done a lot of the "tarp over the tent" camping. Really nice to have a lot of outdoor living space beyond the confines of the tent. Use two or more tarps for the truly "homeless" camp appearance.

I bought a Skil 3/8" variable speed, reversing, plug-in drill back in 1975. Has been a wonderful workhorse ever since. But there have been times when I need just a little hole or poke at something. The Skil is downstairs in my work shop So maybe 15 years ago, I bought a cordless Makita...

Most land mass can be subdivided into "biogeoclimatic zones" with different representative flora. In fact, there might even be a few "indicator" species that are exclusive to one zone and no others. I done this in western Canada for so long, I imagine that everybody has done so. Wrong, it...

In some species, the early wood and the late wood of each growth ring are layered vessel elements and fibers. One result is that ash, hickory and both red and white oak woods will function almost like leaf springs = tough and elastic with a good rebound. Not so with walnut. Instead, the wood...

The tricky part was to get the Health Gurus to reveal what they were on about for "toxic" fumes from gas-fired appliances. The kitchen stove is the only gas appliance without a chimney. We can buy gas-fired clothes dryers if we had gas for other purposes. Revealed, it's carbon monoxide. How...

There are "wood burners" and then there are wood burners. Which is which you talk about? Mine is practically smokeless. From the street, you can't tell if the stove is running or not. Wood pellet stoves are very popular here for smokeless heat and economics using trash wood post-wildfire...

Day length changes are considerable here at 53N. The increase, especially in the afternoons, is most welcome. At the solstice, it was mountain range shadows after 1:50PM and pitch-friggin' black by 3:30PM. Now, I can pour a drink in daylight.

All of a sudden (for me), we are getting lots of top quality frozen fruit. Mostly berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blue berries and the like. Mango chunks and medleys of these. Great replacement for ice. Fresh, a lot of these things have spent so long in transport that 20-50% are...

For decades, most of my kitchen prep has been done with a short little cleaver. Just at mid day today, I realized that almost all the other prep is done with a pair of 4" German Profinox kitchen knives. One has a straight edge, the other is serrated. They're not magnificent steel but OTOH...

Freezer surprise again. I know there's chicken, scallops and shrimp in there, some place. About time for curried rice with enough to make fried rice tomorrow.

Softwoods as opposed to hardwoods. Best if you can find some that's straight grained because the individual wood fiber cells are far longer that in any hardwood. Mechanically these should cleave much more uniformly. It's common knowledge among wood carvers that this tendency to split in...

You would enjoy a few nights out winter camping anywhere near my place. 1. Get out of the wind. Just ease your way into the coniferous forest, it's remarkably calm. Set up a movable tarp anyway. 2. With the snow on the ground, there's snow in the trees. A second tarp to prevent snow bombs...

Find any really popular university Biochemistry text and learn the chapters on Lipids and Steroids. It suffices to say that plant and animal fats, triglycerides, vary in the degree of saturation, single vs double bonds in the fatty acid chains. To some extent, the subunits are...

Get busy and carve your own wooden utensils. Wood carving isn't rocket science. I suggest that you begin with a soft wood such as Linden or most green woods such as the fruit woods. Metal utensils don't help hot food on a cold night. Then you get slopped up changing from one utensil to the...

BIG slurp for the chef. Crab/shrimp/cream cheese sort of Rangoon, baked in phyllo rolls. The frozen phyllo boxes were discovered in Canada's arctic permafrost.