Camping in Ulster

I’ve noticed that as my chocolate lab Coco has gotten older her eating habits have changed. We rescued Coco as a young dog approximately two years old so we never really had her as a puppy. When she was young she would devour any amount of food that we put out for her as soon as the bowl hit the ground. That led to us splitting her food into two servings during the day so that she wouldn’t eat her entire quota of food in the morning and be hungry and begging for food the rest of the day. Now, as an eight year old “senior” dog Coco has lower energy needs than those of a young pup. She tends to eat when she wants and only as much as she wants. Some days she’ll still eat all two cups of her kibble right away, other times she’ll snack when she feels like it, and sometimes she’ll look at it and look back at me as if to say “The exact same kibble again dad? Really?”, and proceed to wait me out to see if she gets offered something better – she usually wins :) Recently she has slowed down e...

Every since I first posted about my frustration with Esbit fuel tablets (more than four years ago now) and my eventual solution of developing a more efficient Esbit tray stove , I have received a steady stream of emails from readers asking if I could make them a stove and sell it to them. Despite giving away the instructions, a step-by-step guide, and a template, some people simply didn’t want to fiddle with making the stove themselves. That’s fine, I totally get it. For a while I tried making my Esbit tray stoves for those that asked and sold them for a few bucks just to cover shipping, but I didn’t have enough materials or the time to do it on a frequent or scalable basis. Successful DIY Builds Others have been making my stoves themselves and sharing their results via the Backpacking Light forums . John Abela of HikeLighter.com posted a wonderful, detailed review and analysis of my Esbit tray stove via his blog. John was the one who first coined the term “BGET” or Brian Gr...

Here’s a clever little Kickstarter project called the Compass Caddy . It let’s you carry your baseplate compass right on your trekking pole so that it’s easily accessible and ready for navigation while you’re hiking. The Compass Caddy is the brain child of Peter Knight an avid backpacker and hiker from Hadleigh, England. Fits all sizes Peter designed the Compass Caddy to accommodate different makes and models of baseplate compasses that have varying widths as well as attaching to different diameter trekking poles. This means that you can get the perfect fit for your particular compass and trekking pole combination. The image above shows a dummy compass being used in the same Compass Caddy that my Silva Polaris fits into. Peter very kindly made a 3D printed version of the Compass Caddy to work with my Gossamer Gear LT4 trekking poles. Despite my Silva Polaris compass not being the perfect width for this prototype it still holds very securely in place and the attachment to my ...

I recently reviewed the weBBem Watch Traveler and found it to be perfect for outdoor activities and extremely affordable for the features it provides. Now I am giving you the chance to win one of two styles of weBBem watches for yourself. Choose your model I have a weBBem watch Traveler model (black PVD case) and Overlander model (white dial) to give away thanks to the generosity of my friends at weBBem. Both watches come in a rugged waterproof pelican-style container and the option of a NATO style strap or paracord bracelet. They are both powered by Japanese Miyota quartz movements (as developed and used by Citizen watches), made from 316L marine-grade stainless steel, and have genuine sapphire crystal glass. How to enter To enter this giveaway simple pick any or all of the entry options in the Rafflecopter widget below. You must also leave a comment indicating which model of weBBem watch you would like to receive if you are selected as a winner. I wi...