This Thanksgiving weekend I was on call, so I have not been able to venture off very far. Thankfully though, I have a rather large yard now, so at least I do have somewhere to venture to. And venture I did.
This weekend my son and I cowboy camped under a mystical night. The stars and the moon shone very bright, however we only got quick glimpses of them since the steady winds quickly transported the clouds across the sky. The winds were blowing pretty hard and made the high 50’s feel slightly cooler. But that was a-ok. We enjoyed the night.
The next night the storm had made its way in. We had strong winds and lots of rain. Once I got home from visiting family members for Thanksgiving feasts’ I quickly headed outside with my OES tarp and went to setting it up. I missed the torrential part of the storm, which was good while setting the tarp up, but once the tarp was up, I admit I was looking for a second coming. The storm was still going good, but I missed the good part. So, my wife and I laid beneath the tarp, listening to the steady rain hitting the tarp until we drifted off. The next morning we awoke to freezing temperatures. Nice indeed!
The last night I was able to stay out was last night. The temperatures stayed at or below freezing last night and hit a low of about 25 F or so. I awoke to a frost covered tarp (inside and out) as well as a little ice on my sleeping bag. (The ice was from my breath. As I exhaled, the moisture quickly fell and landed on my sleeping bag. Of course as drops formed, so did the ice.) Also, since the day before had been good and cold, the ground was much colder. This gave me a good opportunity to try out my sleep system (NeoAir & ThinLight pad, and Marmot Helium sleeping bag). I must say it worked well.
So, once I got up and packed all my stuff back up I decided to leave the tarp up a little longer so the sun would come out and dry it off. So, while waiting I decided to carry my Gram Weenie Pro stove and my Backcountry.com 700 ml Ti pot outside to boil up some water for coffee. And of course what other vessel to drink the coffee from than my new Kupilka 21 cup! So, here is a video of me doing just that…
Stick's Blog 
I found your blog via the boilerwerks/backcountry boiler,after your commented your blog there.
I must say i immediately bookmarked your page! Its a very nice blog u have going on here! Keep up the good job!
Thanks to you i found out about the kupilka gear! So i bought a 21 cup from a local dutch dealer.
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Matrijn, thanks for checking out the site and your comment. Appreciate it. And, how about those Backcountry Boilers, huh? Nice. I wish I could’ve got one, but oh well, maybe next time… That’s cool that you were able to pick up one of the Kupilkas, and even more so locally. maybe one day soon they will be that easy to get in the states. Anyway, let us know what you think of the Kupilka. Chad
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Hey Stick, you hit on two of my favorite things, cowboy camping and rain on a tarp. I even open my windows when it rains so I can listen to the sound it makes on the gutters. Very cool!
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George, I couldn’t agree more, both of these are great. I would open our windows if I could when it rains, but this house is old, and only certain windows open… More reason to get out, huh? 🙂 Thanks for checking out my site. Chad
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