As The Crow Flies

Here is my pack basket.  It’s a Cabelas Alaskan pack-board and an 11 gallon washtub.   I use it to walk around and pick up little sticks and cow patties for my fire.  Then I store the sticks under a big fir tree outside my cabin.

I have a pickup, a good chainsaw and a bunch of dead trees on my property to cut down but that is so unpleasant to me.  Picking up sticks is what I really like and the fires they make are so much hotter than what you get from logs.

When I wake up, in winter, my cabin is usually around freezing.   If I make a fire with logs, 4 hours later, sometimes, it’s only 50 degrees F (10C).   If I make a fire with little sticks,  in 1/2 an hour it will be toasty; then I throw a log on the fire and keep it that way.

It’s a joy to walk around picking up sticks  with my pack basket and  I can pretend I’m in training for a big hike.

Related post: Stove thermometer

A reader left a comment  wondering what food  I stock up on for winter.   So I thought I would make it into a blog post.

Last winter I ate “super oats” every day.   My “super oats” are: oatmeal, black-strap molasses, nuts, cut up apple, raisins, cinnamon, soy protein powder, iodized salt.  I also had a grapefruit everyday.

Sometimes that is all I would eat but  often I would also eat some spaghetti sauce, fresh lemon in my cal-mag fizz, a banana, broccoli and a carrot.   That was pretty much my diet for the entire winter.

There is a little log cabin store that is a 2.5 mile walk through the woods where I can get some fresh food  now that a couple of old hippies bought it.    I like the experience of not seeing anyone,  so I try to avoid going to the little store.

I’m kind of tired of oatmeal this year.   This morning I made myself a pot of oats and I didn’t eat it.  Probably because I had lots of other kinds of food besides oatmeal.

Here is what food I have for this winter:

Rice, beans, lentils, oats, pasta, peanut butter, canned beans, canned corn, lots of spaghetti sauce, salsa, nuts, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, fresh garlic and garlic powder,  fresh ginger, red pepper flakes, black-strap molasses, lots of tea, potatoes, onions, multivitamins and some other supplements , cal-mag fizz, box of apples, grapefruits, lemons,   “Better than bullion” chicken soup base, canned soup,  raisins, eggs, soy protein powder, tuna.   I also have a bunch of broccoli seeds that I thought I would try to sprout.  I wanted some canned pineapple but I forgot it.

I  have some other fruit and veggies but they will have to be replenished often because I don’t have any cold storage.

My son sent me a little lettuce growing kit last winter, everyday I would nibble on some lettuce, maybe I will get that planted again.

Last winter I didn’t eat from 12 noon till dawn the following day.    It’s a Buddhist practice aimed at giving up your attachment to eating but if not done with the right might set can increase your attachment to eating.  Even though I was working on my attachment to eating, I was  really joyous when dawn rolled around and it was time to eat my oatmeal.

I kept that practice up until spring.      This year I’d like to start it up again.  It’s amazing how little food you need if don’t eat after 12 noon.

Related Post: Delicious monotony

I obsess  over every little thing I put in my pack.   But cabin life is just the opposite.

Both of my cabins came furnished:  furniture, dishes, salt, foil, everything.    I never think about replacing anything.    That’s the thing about cabin life it’s not supposed to be perfect, you just do with what you have and it’s good enough.   There is something really settling about that.

When I had a house I was always thinking of things it needed and improvements I could make to it.   The list was endless.   In my cabin, if it works, it’s good enough.