barefootwalk

I continued the camper design and improvement. Last week's design was a half failure. The stove jack I got from Lowes, it was rated for 180 F, but it melted in contact with the pipe. I guess the shorter pipe gets hotter than 180 F. So I spent this week with a new more robust redesign. The picture is for the old failed design. I will test the new design this week and if it works, I will post updates. My 2nd design. Three is the charm! Note that although it looks like the pipe is touching the tarp, there is good 8 inch separation between the two. The black jack is holding the pipe tight, but no more, it melted about 1/4 inch around the pipe.  

Just more DIY projects. Probably most interesting are a new insulated jacket and a wool hat. The merino wool fabric is white(ish). It is wonderful color but unfortunately it shows dirt easily, so I dyed it.

A couple years ago I upgraded my down sleeping bag. I removed most of the older 850 fill duck down and replaced with premium 950 fill goose down. Major upgrade and I love it. But the main problem is, sleeping bags are not as versatile as quilts and down requires more attention. Synthetic on the other hand is cheaper and very easy to work with. It also performs better than down in wet condition. Nevertheless it is really heavier and bulkier but this is not a problem for camping. So I decided to make one and I am very satisfied with the results. We will see how it performs in real condition but so far it looks fine. Final product: And a few pictures of the process.

 It will take a while until I settle in the new environment. I am hoping this is more sustainable and stable, nevertheless there so many unknowns, as usual. I started working on new projects and it seems they can easily keep me busy for a long time. I already finished the truck bed extension over summer and recently I finished a new %100 wool pants. I also have new wood stove, all tested and work great. I should post more info as soon as I have their field test results but I am already feeling confident about their performance.

January 2022  I was looking for a nice packrafting spot nearby. The big advantage of being in south is a warm winter, while our friends up north are freezing. Although there are lakes very close to the town, I was craving for a rive and what better choice than Sipsey! It was the first week of January that we packed and hit the road. The packraft doesn't fit in the ultralight bill but it opens a gate to lot of possibilities. Basically you are not limited to many obstacles you can encounter in an expedition and these pacrrafts are getting lighter and more durable. We hiked the first day. We passed the river and camped on the other side. We had a nice evening and good night sleep. phone tripod mount, kind of! We started the next day with a nice and hot breakfast. and coffee of course! We started having fun and experimenting with the packraft. It is not as easy as a kayak but it's reliable under circumstances. We had a nice rest and we hit the road for another destination in Tennes...

 1- When I was an undergraduate student, I started taking electronic courses for my elective coursework. It was supposed to be a more science course and not much of engineering but they made a mistake and sent us an engineer instructor. So instead of learning about semi-conductors, he started teaching us about designing circuits, logical circuits and wi-fi transmitters! It appeared to I made a wrong judgment. 2- Couple years back, when the pandemic lockdown started, I decided to use a Raspberry Pi for remote access. One of best decisions of my life! The following decision however wasn't very smart; I purchased a UPS hat just to make sure a full time access while I can't go on campus. Well the hat was designed for version 3 and din't support my version 4 and it didn't worth returning, so it was laying around and reminding me of a wrong decision. 3- Last week I was frustrated by unstable solar panel charger and in a moment of enlightenment I found a perfect solution for i...

 This is my new DIY project. I have been making tents for last 5 years and I've tried different types. When I started backpacking I purchased a double wall, fully enclosed tent  (so called ultralight tent; market crap).  Most people don't really need these tents and they are not ultralight at all. I switched to a tarp when I started thru-hiking and I fell in love with it's simplicity. Tarp is fantastic. I tried copying zpacks solo tents then. It is a great design.   This time I was looking for a larger tent that can fit my dog as well and it's not as miserable looking as a tarp (people think you are broken!). I always resisted the idea of using a pyramid tent but after a lot of thoughts I settled down with a pyramid tent and I must confess this design offers fantastic features. Here how I did it.   Materials: I ordered all materials from:  https://ripstopbytheroll.com/   but I have used https://www.questoutfitters.com/ in the past and I enjoyed doing ...