Tentipi Enroute

I have been drooling over a Tentipi for some time. They are definitely not the cheapest tent there is, but from all the features and performance they seem to provide, they seem worth it. Besides, this is our real family hobby. Some people golf, spend big on luxury vacations......we camp. The atmosphere having a fire inside your shelter creates will well be worth it, I think, especially in not so great weather, with a family.

So, I got the notice that it shipped today. There is no place that I know of to buy them in the US, so I ordered it from ProAdventure out of the UK. I got the Varrie model, with the floor that unzips for having a fire or using a stove. We will see how long it takes to get here:)

It carried quite a hefty shipping charge, but I don't feel so bad because the shipping was still cheaper than people in the UK have to pay in VAT :) 17.5% tax is just crazy.

Since shipping charges did not go up by adding more items, I couldn't resist getting a couple of Tatonka pans. This is obviously not where I ordered them from, it was just a better picture of them. I have not been able to find these in the US either. Normally I would not be able to justify the shipping charge for such an inexpensive item, but like I said, shipping did not get more expensive. I first saw the Tatonka in use in a Ray Mears video. I like the shape a bit better than the Zebra Billycans because they are bigger around, and shorter. I also figured the shape would be a bit better for cooking things other than water. Billycans seem to concentrate the heat in a smaller area, making it easier to burn stuff. That is the theory anyway, we will see when they get here and try them out. I ordered a 1L and a 1.6L pot, with lid that doubles as a skillet.

Purposely Not Posting.......

I have purposely not been posting for a while. I have been writing stuff up, and saving articles and photos, but not publishing them. The reason is, I have had something in the works.

I was planning on making a series videos on how I sharpen knives with a belt sander. It seems I spend a lot of time on emails helping people out with that, so the videos seemed appropriate. I wanted to have short videos and text too. A blog post would work, but is not the best for long term storage. I came up with the idea to host it on a new website, and it just has snowballed from there to cover more topics too. So, I started a new website Backyard Bushcraft (www.backyardbushcraft.net).

It is currently only a skeleton, with very little content. I will be making functional changes, and adding content often. For now, I will probably duplicate posts here and there for awhile until I see how it things work out.

It should be fun……