Dehydrating Take 2

Being a lazy oik, I bought some microwave meals at the supermarket specifically to nuke then dehydrate. £2.00 - £2.60 for 800grammes per meal.

DSC03344s Meals Hosted on Zooomr

Wearing my lead apron and goggles, the microwave pinged away one meal after another. I was concerned about the sauces dripping off the edges of the parchment roll that I put on the base of the tray. Forgetting that nuking sauces for 8 minutes makes the sauce fairly stodgy. I pre-loaded trays away from the dehydrator, so that drips were caught on a tea-tray.

DSC03345s Setup Hosted on Zooomr

As the meals were being cooked and stacked on trays with baking parchment roll (from Lakeland) and I cut a hole in the middle. In the foreground is the beef jerky (£2.50 for all that frying beef). I've roughly marinated it in soy sauce, garlic granules and some sugar - just what I had in. Adding parchment to the base of the tray below the jerky stops it dripping onto the cooked meals below.

DSC03346s Ready to roll Hosted on Zooomr

All set up, with the clockwork timer plug counting down, and will switch the unit off after 7 hours. As this is a basic dehydrator, it doesn't come with such advanced features as a timer (link to examples). I'll see what's left tomorrow morning. Maybe it will all be dust?

preBellingham

Getting ready for the Bellingham meet. I'm still keeping Saturday night free, and will either be at the Brown Rigg camp site or off somewhere in Kielder Forest. See what's what.

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Trying out the dehydrator that came on Tuesday from QVC - making some beef jerky. Seems simple enough for my chuck-it-all-in 'style' of cooking. £2.60's worth of thin cut beef has filled two 13" diameter drying trays when sliced and soaked.

The dehydrator doesn't have a timer on it, so I've cunningly rigged it to one of those timer switches that plugs into the wall-socket. Set for 8 hours, it'll switch itself off at 2am. Hopefully. If not, I can use the results to make some wargames buildings.

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Amazon delivered a bundle to a neighbour for me, I'll take them (and some other books) down to Bellingham...along with some snacks.

• "Lighten Up!: A Complete Handbook for Light and Ultralight Backpacking" by Don Ladigin (link)
• "Lightweight Backpacking & Camping: A Field Guide to Wilderness Hiking Equipment, Technique & Style" edited by Ryan Jordan (Backpacking Light) (link)
• "Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy and Healthy Eating on the Trail" by Linda Frederick Yaffe (link)
• "Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpackers and Paddlers" by Alan Kesselheim (link)

All look like they are packed with interesting facts and hints and tips. I need a new bookcase - or rather, I have an ingo that has some empty wall-space that would be suitable for a narrow bookcase. Hmm, I'll be passing Ikea-Edinburgh on the way to Bellingham. I'll have a skeg round their site.

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Poor BG caught Lymes Disease from a tick. Unlucky, Stef :( He was such a nice chap too. Hmm, I'll need to fumigate the sleepmat he sent me on - which might be at the Sorting Office just now. I came home to find a "we called, but you were working" cards. I'm supposed to wait until 10.30 of Friday, but I'll be at work, so I'm up for some anarchy - turning up only 20.5 - 21 hours later to see how long it takes for someone to correctly file an undelivered packet.

It sounds petty, but I've seen the haradrin at the Sorting Office refuse to even go and look if a customer dares to come in a few hours early. Of course, she may know that the delivery people didn't have time to sort yesterday's undelivered packets and they are all in bags all over the shop. Or whatever the technicalities of it are.

If it is the Insul Mat Max Thermo Lite sleeping pad, and I get it on Friday, I'll take it to Bellingham (sorry, I'm stating the bleedin' obvious there). Some good photos from BG - oops, just found his email from Monday. Strange that his 'long' packs smaller than my 'regular' mat. Hey ho, all part of life's rich tapestry. I'm looking forward to comparing it with sleeping on the 3/4 length ThermaRest. If you don't get a good night's sleep, I found that it knocks you out for the next day.

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And then the Ben Starav group the weekend after with Simon Parke. We're meeting in the Kingshouse. I suppose I should wear a pink dehydrated carnation and carry a copy of TGO so he'll recognise me.

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Drive to/from Peterhead this morning was brightened by swathes of yellow oil-seed plants that have bloomed over the Easter break. Very nice.

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Quote heard on Radio 4 on Monday: "We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us." Winston Churchill. Seemed apt.

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And on the topic of Radio 4, their excellent "Open Country" programme was on Kinder Scout, and included a discussion about the 1932 Mass Trespass. (Link to site, with 'listen again' feature).

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Craig from Fast & Light popped up on SkypeChat to say that the Montrail Namches are almost here. Jacket's already in. Great stuff.

Monday Holiday

Local holiday here in Aberdeen. Woohoo. Rolled out of bed. Ouch ouch. Showered, didn't shave, shoulder healed nicely after being ripped in the sun when I only had a t-shirt on under the rucksack straps. Ouch ouch. Breakfasted. Gosh, lost 8 kilos; 17 pounds; 1.25 stone. Ouch ouch. put on the The Outdoors Station Podzines from The Outdoors Show and treated feet. Ouch ouch. Sooth. Started to order some gear. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.

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Ronald Turnbull's interview was good, many relevant snippets (e.g. pacing and eating). I'll be ordering his book on Ben MacDui when it comes out, by Millrace Books. I'm taken by the chap who took his service revolver with him on a hike to forage for food. I wonder if I can get a titanium Webley from anywhere?

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All the interviews were courtesy of Andy Howell's hard work. Good chap.

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Ordered 2 pairs of Air Force One X-Socks, and some more refreshing foot balm from BackpackingLight.co.uk.

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Weird Darren had ordered some of Agropharm's insect repellant, so will be good to hear wheat he got and how it worked out. Sounds interesting.

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Ordered a dehydrator from QVC (the shopping channel) for £32 inc postage. Thanks to Bearded Git for pointing that one out to me.

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University shooting being reported in Blacksburg, Virginia. Numbers of dead being increased as news comes in. Insert your own expletive.

26,000 students on campus, says the web. I keep failing to grasp the size of these places. As ever, my sympathy to the families involved. A lockdown on start of student year, and now this.