Tedster9, Thanks for the info. Yes, wood heat and canvas do go nice together. It's just nice when it gets around zero to knock off the chill before crawling out of the sleeping bag with a little propane. Last January(the whole month)some friends and I traveled a few states hot tenting and we had a blast. As long as we stayed dry we were fine. Hope to go again next year. That'll make the wifey happy...lol.

Here is the wood stove that I use. Works great, and doesnt leak around the door like most of them do. Don, the owner is top notch. Three Dog DX Steel Tent Stove keeps you camping in comfort--from Four Dog Stove Co.

 

you guys living in tents?

 

I wish sometimes...lol. Home and mortgage like most other folks. This year I did spend 89 nights in a tent though. I could live in one full time if I had to. I just enjoy getting out in the fresh air with nature. It seems to make mind more at ease. Most of the time it's on a riverbank while fishing. The thing is that I'm not much for cold and wet, but I love winter camping.

 

come to alaska theres plenty of people living in tarp tents up here. they dont look really relaxed though.

 

I would love to come up there and do some state hopping...maybe one day before I leave this world.

 

i was stationed in NC and it was a ok state also.

 

It's OK, but it's sure not what it used to be. The taxes, regulations, and population explosion are ruining it for the average joe that just wants to live the simple life. I've been here all my life(52yrs)and if it wasn't for the wife's parents getting up in age we would probably move or travel. I'm just outside of Raleigh.

 

I live on coffee...

I roast my own coffee beans. I get my green coffee beans from relatives who own a coffee roasting business here in Bandon. The coffees are organics that are sourced from the growers in Guatemala, El Salvador, Sumatra, Tanzania, Colombia, Peru, etc...

I have a little home-roaster that I'm using now - only does about a cup of beans at a time. I have one I built out of a modified popcorn-popper that works well - I can manually control the temperature on that one to get the kind of roast I want - I like a 'Full City Roast' - not too light, and not too dark. I'm not into the really dark roasts (French, and Italian roasts, for example) and I absolutely can't stand Starbucks 'charcoal roast' - they roast their beans past the 'espresso', and 'french' roast phases and go straight to the 'charcoal' phase using a temp that's so high that, to do it in the Diedrich roaster we have in the plant, would cause the roaster to shut itself down due to an overtemp protection feature (I want to say it's around 165-degrees F.)

I have a hard time understanding this whole Keurig thing... $10 for 6-ounces of coffee??? Seriously??? And, with Keurig (and Green Mountain) holding the monopoly on those things (The 2.0 machines have DRM built-in to prevent the machine from using a competitor's cup), it's not likely the prices are going to come down any time soon...

I'll stick with my little $15 coffee maker and my home-roasted coffee...

Here's a shot of our Diedrich at work - the roasting chamber has a load of green bean in it while the cooling chamber below is stirring the batch that just came out...

 

I was at the Marine base, camp llejeune 89-90 The Official Web site of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune

 

Thanks for serving, some of us do really appreciate it.

 

I've heard about the modified popper but I've never seen one. Care to explain?

The Keurig's can get somewhat expensive if you do it like they want you to. I use a refillable cartridge with my own coffee. Very convenient and affordable. I still prefer coffee cowboy style, in the pot, or use the french press.

I tell folks to stay away from the 2.0 DRM junk. Major mistake on Keurigs part. There are ways to hack it. In fact I hacked one last week for one of the neighbors that received it as a gift. She told me today that it's working perfect. Instructions are on YouTube.

ETA: Nice Machine!

 

I based mine off the instructions on this website: Air Popcorn Popper Method

Make sure you get the right style of popper - I find them in thrift shops all the time.

I took an old Poppery II; bypassed both the temp-limit switch and the thermostat; wired the heating elements up to a standard 120V light-switch; and wired the fan up to a rheostat (light-dimmer, with switch.)

The trick is to turn the fan on first (on highest setting), then the heating elements - use the fan speed to regulate the temperature from the heating elements. It takes a little trial-and-error at first, but once you get it down, it's easy... Chaff collection can get messy, though. And, you'll have to constantly keep an eye on the roast so you'll know when to shut the heating elements off and let the fan cool the beans down.

You can also use a temp probe to keep an eye on the roasting temps.

Make sure the beans are cooled down before dumping them - they can spontaneously combust... dumping them into a colander or a mesh strainer and stirring/agitating the beans over a fan also works well for cooling the small 1-cup batches...

 

you guys are truely nutty about your coffee.

send me a sample of the good stuff.

 

Thanks Furyus1, I will definitely be looking for one of these poppers. The wife loves thrift shops, this will give her something else to find...lol.

I forgot to mention in my last response as to the cost per cup of coffee in the Keurig. It's not $10.00 a cup as someone probably told you. The K-Cups average about $0.50 each and will make up to a 9-12oz cup of coffee depending on your strength preference. Still pricey for home brew though. The way I do it probably is around $0.10 a cup, maybe less.

Again, Thanks...

 

LOL...That's probably why me and the wife are still up at 5am here. I probably won't get much done today. I'm starting to feel a little nap coming on though.

Some days I drink a cup or two, other days I drink a pot or two(or three). Can you guess how much I've had today...lol?