Thanks, The cat is one of a few I take care of. I have 4 kittens that I took away from a stary female at 4 weeks old. They are now about 9 weeks old and ready for me to give away. They are so much fun to watch play and they are at the age where they want to see everything I do. My cats and the kittens are my therapy and support group. My oldest cat will be 19 years old this November. He had Giardia a couple of years ago and it wasn't nice.

The cat goes along to catch my food. She also catches her own food so she only needs a little water from time to time. Mice are really good, taste just like chicken. I nice fat bird packed in mud and baked in a small fire is also good.

I just finished a water test of my new tarp. The stuff is amazing but as I said before it may not be for everyone.

Edited by bfornshell on 07/12/2005 16:24:50 MDT.

Bill,

Really great gear as I mentioned in my off line post some time back and hope you continue to recover quickly. I just hope the gear can stand up to the day to day use and punishment for such a long trip as the AT.

You will probably have a lot of requests at least for your plans here on BPL.

Rich

Edited by naturephoto1 on 07/12/2005 16:39:03 MDT.

Bill cats are great I have 3. they're always getting into my down bag whenever i am "airing" it out. your gear looks great. congrats on the water proofness

I had a small piece of the Cuben fabric left over and decided to replace the Bag from my ULA H2O Amigo water filter. The ULA bag with the fittings removed weighed 1.96oz. The Cuben replacement bag weighed 0.57oz or a savings of 1.39oz. I will replace the ULA stuff sack with one made from the Cuben fabric as I have more scrap.

I will multi-use the tubing from the Amigo on my Platypus bottle and save another 0.23oz.

Good job Bill. Looks as good as a professionally made item, but then, it appears that you are a real "pro" at gear fabrication - so this shouldn't surprise me any.

One question: how did you affix the yellow mat'l to the cuben?

Waitin' to see your next "creation", so to speak.

Thanks Paul.
I decided to use a piece of my "Yellow" AirCore Pro Ultralight Dyneema "shelter guyline from BMW for the water bag cord.

The yellow stuff is 3/4" grosgrain folded in half and pressed with a hot iron. Then sewn around the outer edge of the Cuben material. I then punched 16 holes in the grosgrain and strung the "yellow" AirCore Pro cord through the holes. I made the two Plastice Tube handles from two 4" pieces of the tubing from one of my feeding tube food bag sets and was done.

I have made a lot of sun hats, and the best brim stiffener I have used is just the stiffest interfacing that they have at the fabric store. I fuse it to both the top and bottom of the brim. In other words, there are two layers of it sandwiched between the two layers of cloth of the brim. Then I stitch through all layers in concentric rings, about 1/4" apart. This seems to make a reasonably stiff brim.

The only "bad" brims I've ever made were when I tried to use linen instead of cotton, or heavy cotton. Those brims sagged, I think because the fabric is heavy. They sagged more when the air was damp. I can't figure out how the tilley hat people make their hemp hat brims not do that. Maybe they have some really stiff brim stuff.

You are probably using a synthetic fabric though for your hat.

Nathan Asks:

- your tarp looks great. i'm thinking of using 1.3oz silnylon to have something a _little_ more durable (i hike on trail, but they're often really overgrown trails), so i was wondering whether you think the corner/guy-out pattern you used would still be necessary or be overkill. also, can you share the pattern you used for the hood?

I have two "bought" tarps. The lightest one is made from .5 spinnaker material that is a "for real" weight of a little over 1oz per sq yard. Both tarps have reinforcement sewn at the tie points. If you are going to use your Poncho also as a Tarp the extra reinforcement material should add very little weigh and will give you insurance against what might happen in a storm or high wind.

If you look close at the Roll-Top Collar on my Cuben Pack bag and at the Collar on my Poncho/Tarp (note: not a Hood) you should see that they are made almost the same way. I sewed a drawl cord around the top of the Collar on the Poncho/Tarp. For a pattern idea I looked at an old Army Poncho. The Army Poncho Hood opening was oval shaped and about 11" long by 7" wide. I made the opening on my Poncho the same size as the 11" by 7". The total Collar after seams is 8" tall.

I was looking at the mont-bell web site and found what they call a "Handy Scoop" this trowel is SS, weighs 1.4oz and is 6.25" long.

How many SUL backpackers or even Light-backpackers really carry a trowel ??????

I am making a Titanium Trowel more or less the same shape and size as the mont-bell Handy Scoop.

I have the blank cut and ready to shape into a trowel. It will weigh 0.32oz. I should finish it this afternoon.

I have a 2oz trowel that i carry sometimes. Good when the soil is hard. Useful for catholes & shallow drainage channels around the bivy.

i actually own the montbell trowel and it does a wonderful job digging cat holes. sometimes the dirt is so hard in the sierras that it is hard to dig and this tool does the job. it is small and lightweight. remember folks LNT.

One of my tent stakes is wide for soft soil; it can do double duty as a cathole shovel.

I finished my SUL Ti Trowel. It is 0.32oz. I creased the handle and just a little of the spoon area. This makes the Titanium Trowel very ridged and should work well in all but the hardest soil.

The last picture shows what I did use for a trowel before I made the Ti Trowel. The tent stake weighed 1.15oz. Heavy next to the Ti Trowel.

Edited by bfornshell on 07/30/2005 18:18:31 MDT.

Bill,

1) what gauge/thickness Ti stock did you use?
2) What did you use to cut and drill the Ti?

Jim Colten asks:
Q - 1) what gauge/thickness Ti stock did you use?

A - 1) I use 0.016inch - 6A14V -This is military grade titanium sheet and is extremely strong. It combines a high strength to weight ratio with corrosion and heat resistance. I buy it from Thru-Hiker.com The piece for the Ti Trowel is some scrape from my Ti External Pack Frame.

Thru-Hiker.com Link


Q - 2) What did you use to cut and drill the Ti?

A - 2) I cut the Ti to shape with a pair of WISS Tin Snips. These work really well for Titanium. I Punch my holes with a "Hand Punch". This is also easier than drilling in Titanium. You can drill Ti but where the punch will work it is easier to use. The forming is done by what I call my primitive "'blacksmith" skills. Heat and pound. File and sand, a lot.

looks great Bill!!

I have ordered one of the UltraLight Outfitters Ebsit Stoves for a Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot from BPL.com. I am also glad I waited to cut the lid off.

I hope I am high enough up on the list to get one in the first go-around.

I found one of the can openers that they UltraLight Out..... recommend at my local Walgreens and now have a Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot.

The "good cook.com" (Safe Cut) can opener works great. It took the lid off and left no sharp edge.

I want to see what they use for the "silicon rubber lip guard". I also will weigh the stainless steel windscreen and see if my Titanium or what BPL.com sells might make the set-up lighter.

So for now I have my Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot and my cozy for it and I wait.

Edited by bfornshell on 08/12/2005 18:38:36 MDT.

Bill,

Love looking at your projects! Do you know how much the fosters can weighs?

I'm curious how much the ESBIT stove weighs. The weight listed is 3.8oz, I would assume including the beercan pot.

Thanks!

I weighed my Fosters Beer Can Cook Pot and it weighs .9oz.

From the web site it looks like the 3.8oz is for:
1 - the stove (my guess is that the wire used for the stove is stainless steel).
2 - the windscreem - the wind screen is stainless steel and might make up most of the 3.8oz. This is what I will check first when I get mine and see if something else might weigh less.
3 - the lip guard made out of silicon rubber. It will be interesting to see just what this is and if someone can figure out where it comes from.
4 - from the web site picture and wording seems to include the beer can cook pot in the 3.8oz weight.

With -9oz from the 3.8oz total you end up with 2.9oz for the stove wire thing, the windscreen and the lip guard. That 2.9oz isn't much but still more than my Cuben fabric PACK weighs.

I will post the weighs of each item that comes with my stove when I get it.

Something interesting was posted in a message at the backpackinglight yahoo group today that gave me an idea for a name for my Ti Potty Trowel. My name for it is now the "DueDue 23". The name comes from a really early reference to LNT potty-ing.