So I'm sitting here on a Sunday night and the temperature outside is in the low 50's (F). I had one of my tents out in the living room for my 5 and 4 year old boys to "camp" in, and after picking up the mess once they had gone to sleep I took out the Coleman 425E from its resting place in my man cave. I set it up on a table in the backyard and fired it up in short order. It seemed a waste to have a stove going for no reason, so I put a tea kettle on a brewed my wife a cuppa chamomile. As the tea steeped I let the stove cool off, and sat there thinking about what other cooking I'd like to do on this fine old stove, if given the chance soon. I hate to say it, but at this point the old stove's been more than worth the $15 I paid for it in entertainment alone. Here's looking forward to many a fine meal at an actual campsite! -Matthew
Is stoving on the back porch and dreaming of real camping adventures odd behavior? Well, dunno, but if it is, then the whole lot of us is odd. Sounds like an evening well spent to me. HJ
I would have to agree HJ, much of my fuel burning occurs on the back porch or in the garage. I still do a lot of camping, matter of fact, I went on a camp last Friday through Saturday and burned a bunch of fuel to fulfill a few of my dreams. Took the old PW Autocook that did wonderfully. That thing is built like an army tank and cooked like the best of them. If that is weird behavior, Matthew, then I'm behaving weird! sam
Is it odd behaviour... probably... but I like it! 5 dollar tent (fairy down fortress high altitude 2 person tent) and a 111 braving the extreme conditions of my back lawn.
Thats the best $5 tent i have ever seen Nice stove too, Good place to pitch the tent, not far from the pantry.
Duh! If nature calls you have all the comfort without a snake looking up your butt You dont have to look out for strange creatures in the night except those on 2 legs Ron
Hardly. In fact, testing equipment before hand is highly recommended. Check and re-check. At least, that's my excuse.
That's a good point. Testing and retesting is not only fun, but necessary. Sometimes you go to a place that is quite remote and maybe you are backpacking far from civilization and have to depend on the equipment you have, whatever you can carry and it may only be one stove. You do have to make sure your equipment works, has all the parts, and has enough to keep you alive while you are out. Because you never know what might happen, especially in extreme environments like cold and winter weather. If I only get to take one stove, I make sure it is in excellent working condition before I leave on an adventure with it. Otherwise, I take a backup or I don't go until whatever I'm taking is up to standard. It's very enjoyable to getting the stoves up to standard, at least in my book! sam
Absolutely. So also with tents, water filters, or any thing complicated. If you're out on the trail, and you're taking it out of the box for the first time, you're doing it wrong. Ten miles from the nearest trailhead in 30F (-1C) weather with night falling quickly is not time to realize that your stove isn't working right. There's been at least once where I was SO glad I tested my stove. It had a cracked "O" ring, which leaked and caught fire when I tested the stove. Scary at home, but at least I could go down to the store and get some replacement parts. My trip? It went smoothly, thanks to having done testing beforehand. HJ
The first time my wife and I tried to put up our Trail Dome 6 tent, we were both glad we did it in the privacy of our own back yard!!! I still take one or two of my stoves out to the garage every weekend to make sure they still work and that I remember how to light them up,too. My M1950 and Coleman 530 still take some finess. I am not a backpacker and would never go camping with only one stove. Two or three is normal.
Whew! Glad I wasn't being too big of a goofball then. My wife was convinced I did it just for her cup of tea, but that was actually just made because I didn't want to waste all those BTUs... Guess I'm going to have to get one of those stovetop coffee percolators just to have an excuse to fire the stoves up some mornings too! -Matthew
Hummmmph; is that odd, not for me, but for you it might well be. Should you have done it? Absolutly. Was it fun? Must have been or it's highly likely you would not have done so. Did you learn anything from the experience? If nothing else you learned your wife is catching on to the stove pox. lance
I think you're fine too. Where I think you cross the line is when you want to test that cool German mil-surp folding shovel and starting digging a latrine to test in the back yard...
