Tom & Shelly's build

[Tom&Shelly]

Seeing all of those Dutches, maybe I do wanna camp with you too...

Tony

I'll have to confess, we are rank amateurs at it. But our best camp-like cabin meals all involve baking, so we are determined to learn.

We are also "small eaters". We also have a larger Dutch oven, but it is simply two big when it's just the two of us. With the set in the galley, we can use the larger one for a good size dinner (probably with left overs) or the two smaller ones for individual portions.

Hope we can get together in the not too distant future and swap recipes!

Tom

[tony.latham]

...in the not too distant future and swap recipes!

Here's a quick favorite of mine for camp:

Mandarin Chicken

Fill the Dutch with cut chicken pieces, cover with Russian dressing. Five minutes before serving, cover with canned mandarin oranges.


Simple and fingerlicking good.

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

Sounds delicious! Thanks Tony.

Here are two of our favorites, adapted from a 1950's book: "Wilderness cookery" by Bradford Angier. (So far, we've only made these in casserole dishs in the gas oven. We should've tried them in the dutch when it was cool enough to have a fire in our wood stove, but we haven't yet.)

Irish Scallop--Arctic Circle Version (Angier's name for it)

Can of corned beef in the bottom, pour canned peas and carrots over it, retaining only some of the juice. Sliced boiled potatoes over them, salt and pepper, can of condensed tomato soup poured over it all.

One Dish Meal

Fry cubes of Spam and diced onions in bacon grease (don't tell your cardiologist*). Mix these with two kinds of canned beans, such as pinto, great northern, kidney, black, or garbanzo (we usually mix colors and hard vs mushy) and a small can of Hatch's (or equivalent) tomatoes with green chili. Cover with smashed Ritz cracker crumbs.

We also have recipes for coffee cake and tomato soup cake (tastes like spice cake) that we like in the casserole and want to try in the dutch ovens. Tastes were a little different in the 1950's, and we double Angier's suggested sugar for the coffee cake. We also haven't had the nerve to try instant coffee powder for a topping, as he suggests.

Bon appetit! (We're also planning to learn some converational French for when we take Cabin Fever to Quebec some day.)

Tom

* If you don't have a cardiologist, you may not have enough Spam or bacon grease in your diet!

[Tom&Shelly]

Progress on the hanger front!



Finally got the pad poured this morning. Three car metal garage going in here (assuming the company is still in business). (Otherwise, maybe I'll cut down more trees and build a cabin garage!)

Next week, they'll come back in and pour the pad in front.

We need this garage! Once we take Cabin Fever out of the workshop and down the hill, we're not sure we could ever get it back up the driveway and maneuver it in.

Notice the slope in the picture--that is the flattest land in these parts!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

...in the not too distant future and swap recipes!

Here's a quick favorite of mine for camp:

Mandarin Chicken

Fill the Dutch with cut chicken pieces, cover with Russian dressing. Five minutes before serving, cover with canned mandarin oranges.


Simple and fingerlicking good.

Tony

We tried a home version of this tonight Tony--very good! Shelly browned the chicken in a pan before adding the Russian dressing and simmering. We weren't sure whether to add the liquid from the oranges, and so didn't. Served over minute rice and peas, and it came out great!

We'll try it in the dutch soon--maybe this Fall when it's cool enough to have the wood stove going.

Tom

[noseoil]

Our friends here in Raton had a slab poured for a metal garage building recently. The contractor had an extra yard left over from the pour(?) which went on the ground. Turns out it was a foot short & 5" out of square on their forms. Check diagonals, runs & level prior to the building showing up at your site, just sayin'...

[Tom&Shelly]

Our friends here in Raton had a slab poured for a metal garage building recently. The contractor had an extra yard left over from the pour(?) which went on the ground. Turns out it was a foot short & 5" out of square on their forms. Check diagonals, runs & level prior to the building showing up at your site, just sayin'...

That's a good point Tim! Our concrete contractor had an issue a year ago with a pad being too short. He says it was the building contractor's fault... We watched him lay ours out, but we'll check!

Thank you!

Tom

[tony.latham]

and it came out great!

And it's just a damn easy camp meal.

You two do live on a slope.

We were down to about 5 miles of visibilty last night because of California/Oregon smoke. I think it's worse this morning. But I'd rather have this issue than an evacuation order.

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

We were down to about 5 miles of visibilty last night because of California/Oregon smoke. I think it's worse this morning. But I'd rather have this issue than an evacuation order.

Tony

We've had the same for the past three days due to a fire near Santa Fe. For some reason we don't have much smoky smell right now, which is what always bothers me.

You're right though Tony, much better to have the smoke than be too near the fire. They warned me this land will burn someday and I believe it; but odds are it'll be after our lifetimes. In the meantime, I try to be a responsible steward and clear out the dead wood from my land. Not to mention it keeps me is shape (although round is also a shape) and keeps us warm in the winter for free.

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Our friends here in Raton had a slab poured for a metal garage building recently. The contractor had an extra yard left over from the pour(?) which went on the ground. Turns out it was a foot short & 5" out of square on their forms. Check diagonals, runs & level prior to the building showing up at your site, just sayin'...

It's the right size, and square, just as long as sqrt[(36' 5.5")^2 + (25')^2] = 44' 2.5"

Tom

[pchast]

As long as both diagonals are identical and the lines are straight,
It Is.

[noseoil]

Unless they laid it out as a trapezoid, I had that once on a newbie's stained glass window, never saw that one before but that shape has equal diagonals... Go figure.

[Tom&Shelly]

Unless they laid it out as a trapezoid, I had that once on a newbie's stained glass window, never saw that one before but that shape has equal diagonals... Go figure.

Well, these are pretty cheap metal garages, so I'm not sure how square they really are. If the company goes under before delivering ours, and I have to build my own, I'll guide it off of the pad, so it'll be right by definition!

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

Rest of our pad is poured. The guy took my check on the way out, saying his helpers were removing the forms and would be done in an hour. Turns out they took the lumber and left the nails all over the place. I'm sure our tires will find them!



Think I should have insisted he come back with the Bobcat and fill the driveways up to the line



I may have some dirt work to do this Fall. I took some of the loose sandstone around here and made a porch about thirteen years ago; wonder if I'm still up to it?

The scheduler for the metal garage company is saying two to three weeks until they're here. We may be making progress...

Shelly is already looking at metal shelves and cabinets that we "have to have in there"

Tom

[pchast]

I picked up a couple of cheap bar magnets for hanging tools to drag around
after my garage was built. Picked up pounds of nails and screws......