Weekend Camping Trip, round 2

Last week it was all about spending a weekend in the woods with other dads and our daughters.  This week, it was my son and I.  We had fun, we always do.  He gets to spend time with friends that he only sees at the camp outs and I get a few minutes with him without video games or the TV cutting into our time spent together.  It is something that we both really look forward to doing twice a year.  We were talking about our fall camp out on the drive home on Sunday.  We are ready to go again for sure.  I think this picture sums up the weekend.

See the smile?  See the joy?  I can promise you that smile was mirrored on my face as I took this picture.

We cooked potatoes in the ground again, and for the second weekend in a row we had some tasty results.  Instead of taking a video, I was able to take a few pictures of the preparation.  Not being the person digging the hole has its advantages I guess.

When we got to the camp ground we built our fire and it burned all evening Friday and then throughout the night.  We dug our hole on the uphill side of the fire, deep enough to go through the thin layer of ash and into the hard ground below.

Into this hole we built a small secondary fire, with small branches and twigs that were found in the nearby woods.  We started the secondary fire with a shovel full of hot coals from the main fire.

After forming a secondary coal bed in the bottom of our hole, we lined the hole with several rocks that we had placed in the coals of the main fire.  We shoveled in some more hot coals from the main fire and then added the potatoes.  We covered the whole thing with dirt, deep enough that no smoke was able to escape.

We waited about five hours and then excavated our tasty treasures.  For the second week in a row our efforts were rewarded with perfectly baked potatoes.

 

Taking the potatoes out of the hole was the best and worst part of this whole effort.  The fire was so hot that even with a thick, fire resistant glove on, our hands were on the edge of being burned.  We had to take turns digging them out, because the heat on our faces was almost too hot to handle.

There is something very rewarding about eating something that you have worked hard to prepare.  Our tribe mates were appreciative and we were left with a feeling of satisfaction that came from more than just a full stomach.  I am confident that we will cook this way again, after two successful weeks and a great deal of confidence in our ability, we won't be able to help ourselves.

Right before I left for the camp out a package came in the mail with a Minnesota post mark, bearing the name Pinewood Forge.  More about that later though, this has gone on long enough.