Pie Irons and Hot Dog Forks – How Do You Store Your Gear?

Every time we prepare for a camping trip, it seems like we need just one more thing, another bit of gear that we have to have to make the adventure complete.  With a group our size, that “need” quickly adds up to a lot of stuff!   And then comes my biggest dilemma…How and where to store it and tote it on to the next trip?  As we go along on our adventures, we’re learning what works for us and also remembering that old adage, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention!”

  

We use pie irons and hot dog forks a lot while we’re camping because they’re so versatile and fun.  Quick pizzas are a favorite in the pie irons – with biscuit dough (either canned, a box mix, or made from scratch), a jar of pizza sauce, and some shredded mozzarella cheese we make awesome deep dish personal pizzas over the fire in minutes!  Add pepperoni or bacon and onions….Mmmmm – delicious! 

The only problem we found using pie irons and hot dog forks is their size and bulkiness when it comes to storage and packing them for the trip.  For a while I just stood them up in a random box and shoved them in anywhere I could find – not a good option as they tangle, tip over, and generally are a pain to transport.  After searching around in the camping section of a sporting goods store,  I found a small bag that was labeled for storing pie irons, but it only held one or two and was $10 – which doesn’t make economic sense for us as we have 5 pie irons and 7 hot dog forks – roughly $60 is more than I was willing to spend.  Plus, they were shorter than the utensils, so the irons and forks would stick out the top of the bag. 

I figured I could come up with something better and cheaper on my own, so off we went to the fabric store with a glimmer of an idea.  After browsing a while, the girls and I decided on a heavy-duty navy canvas fabric, and for $20 we had enough fabric to create our own storage bag – not too shabby if I do say so myself!  It’s basically just a large, heavy-duty drawstring bag with a handle and plenty of room for these oversized utensils – plus it’s washable!  

So all these forks and irons fit into this bag....

...perfectly!

How do you store your gear?  Ever had to create a solution?  Feel free to share - I'd love to hear your great ideas!

Happy Camping!

Getting Ready In Earnest

It's that time again – time to start prepping for our next adventure!  We have a little less than a month to go before we head out to the beautiful outdoors to spend 5 days near the shores of Lake Michigan.  We'll be taking our new experimental setup with us – the new truck and a small cube trailer rental towed behind.  We also have added a few things to our gear so we are definitely excited to try it all out!

Since we've been talking about prep, prep, and more prep - guess what I'm doing? Thinking about prepping this trip!  This usually pleases the compulsive list-maker in me and I will spend these next few weeks making lists and more lists of all the things to take, the gear to check, and things we are missing.  Then I revise those lists and make more lists – kind of a never-ending organizing loop in my head and on paper. 

First on my list for prepping this adventure – check the gear!!  I already have 3 items that need repair before we leave, but I need to make sure that everything else is in working order BEFORE we get to the campsite.  There’s nothing worse than discovering something doesn’t work when you need it the most! 

We have two self-inflating air pads, not quite air mattresses but enough to keep mom and dad a little cushy while we sleep.  We have only used them twice, but they seem to have developed air leaks in that brief period of time so they are in need of some repair.  I’ll be tasking this job out to my number one daughter, who recently discovered she has a keen ability to find air leaks in rubber tubing while working on her robotics team – a skill that she figured out all on her own I might add!

The second task will be a bit more difficult and involves some research on my part.  The bonnet of our tent (basically the outer roof) was severely damaged at one of the tie lines on our last trip.  There were some rowdy teenagers in the campground, unsupervised and playing tag in the dark, barreling through all the campsites.  My Superman was watching this, growing angrier by the second as they flitted in and out of the tents and RVs, knowing that one of them was going to get hurt or hurt one of our kids.  Sure enough, some poor teenage girl ran straight through our tent lines and landed SMACK on her face in the dirt!  Superman was literally steaming out the ears while I went to check on the girl, who seemed to be suffering from only scraped knees and a terribly bruised ego; she scampered off after she saw Superman’s angry face.  The bonnet, however, did not fare as well and was badly torn at the stress point right where the line ties into the material.  Thank goodness for our trusty purple duct tape, though – he was able to put a temporary patch on the bonnet and loosen the line enough so that the bonnet stayed put the rest of the trip.

One really nice outcome of that little disaster, though, was seeing how concerned the campground owner was when he heard what happened.  In addition to herding the teenagers and speaking to their chaperones about not running through campsites, he then went around to all the other sites and told everyone to keep the kids from running around after dark.  He was very apologetic about what happened, too, and spent some time talking to us about it.  Gotta love the small family campgrounds!

Plus, the teenage girl redeemed herself in Superman’s eyes the next day when she came into our campsite, bravely walked up to him and apologized profusely for what happened.   He softened quite a bit as she spoke, and at the end of their exchange I think even he felt a little better about the whole episode…

Now, off to repair that bonnet – wish me luck!

“Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance…”

A beloved music teacher of mine used to drill that into our heads…you’ll have to excuse the colorful language on this family blog, but there are times when the words are just so perfect…

Many years ago we were planning our first trip together, Superman and I.   It was our first vacation, freshly married and taking on the world as a pair.  We had barely any money but did have a tiny car and a great sense of adventure … and he had a big blue tent.  Having grown up in a very outdoorsy family and with his military experience, he reassured me that he would take care of everything - he was very adept at camping and he would show me how great it was.  I kept my apprehension to myself and we were off to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

We pulled in to a lovely little campground just next to the beach and by the time we got there I must say I was excited for our adventure to begin.  I was sure that this trip would vanquish my previously unpleasant experiences (I’ll share those in another series!)  and make a camper out of me yet.  We had our pick of campsites – the campground was conspicuously empty for that time of year – and we got the tent up.  Well,  HE got the tent up while I watched, and then it started to rain.  No worries, we were young and excited, not afraid of a little rain – and besides, there was a bar close by. 

We figured unpacking the gear from the car into the tent might not be such a good idea, so we headed off for the bar to wait out the rain.  We were surprised at the lack of customers at the cute little bar – wasn’t summer supposed to be busy near the beach?  The bartender quickly informed that this rain was actually the edge of a hurricane.  Apparently we missed that little detail of checking the weather while planning our trip!   Ah, yes, planning – we didn’t do too much of that in our haste for a new adventure.

We passed a nice, long afternoon in the bar and then decided to head back to the campsite – no little hurricane was going to ruin our fun, we thought.  We clambered into our big blue tent with some of our gear and discovered it was wet … really, really wet.  Again, we missed another little detail while planning – check your gear!  Planning, it was becoming painfully clear, was not our forte…ouch.  Our tent was riddled with holes and no amount of Superman’s great experience could fix it in that downpour. 

After some consideration we tossed the tent and the camping idea and made for a local hotel – thanks to that hurricane we were able to get a pretty nice room at a rock bottom rate that weekend.  But we never forgot the lessons we learned on that first camping adventure together – plan, plan, plan!  Check the gear before you go and check the weather, too, or you might be in for some big time surprises! 

Happy Camping!  

Ready, Set, Go!

You can't wait...the kids are already bored on summer break, the dates are set, the campground is reserved...you are counting the days until VACATION!  

But getting there is half the fun, right?  In our next few blogs we are going to focus on preparing for that camping vacation.  Not too many people actually enjoy preparation, but a good prep setup can save you a ton of stress and heartache, not to mention money, when you get to your destination.

I pride myself on being very prepared – I keep an emergency backpack in my truck with just about anything we might need while we are away from the house – either at the grocery store or on a road trip, and I keep a well-stocked pantry for all kinds of emergencies.  I believe in the old Scout motto:  “Be prepared.”  But I really dropped the ball on our last adventure, as you will soon see! 

As with any vacation, there’s always something that will be forgotten – with us last time it was pants.  And coolers.  How on earth could we forget pants – and coolers – for Heaven’s sake?  Unfortunately it’s pretty easy when you’re stressed and in a rush! 

This last trip our camping group consisted of Superman and I, our 5 kids, 2 kids from another family, and the dog.  Prepping was tough as Superman was coming off a stressful new part of his job, I was swamped with work, and one of our kids was actually going to be leaving us during this camp trip to go over to his Boy Scout camp for a week, so we had to have all his gear prepped for that trip inside of our trip.  But we did pretty well with packing most everything and figured we could sort it all out when we got there.  We had talked about purchasing our food at a grocery store a few miles from camp when we arrived as there was no space in our vehicles for food – with so much scout gear and 2 extra kids, we were loaded to the max for our 4-day adventure in the woods.

When we got there (after the traffic jams, no air conditioning in my vehicle, and 95-degree temps) we were exhausted.  Superman and the boys set about to prepping the gear and after some set-up drama I took the girls to the grocery store for those immediate food necessities.  It wasn’t until the checkout register that I realized I had cold food in the cart and no cooler to put it in.  Stupid, huh?!  Sometimes you just can’t see the forest for the trees, folks…so I bought a foam cooler.

That night I discovered that this camp in the woods was a mosquito breeding ground, and I had this nagging feeling that I forgot to remind everyone about nighttime gear to combat the little buggers – pants.  Fortunately, everyone remembered but ME!   It was late and I was tired – I put pants on my mental list to find the next day.

Needless to say, there were quite a few more shopping trips for that 4-day adventure.  I had to buy a bigger cooler (a real one and not a foam one), a pair of pants (in a grocery store, no less), and various kitchen items to help with cooking…all of that stress and a ton of money could have been saved had I taken a little more time on my prep setup! 

We are currently in the countdown phase for our next adventure, camping at a state park on one of the Great Lakes.  We are all so excited!   I’d like to hear from some of you out there – what are your best prep ideas and things you have learned over the years of camping with your family?  I invite you to post your comments – we’ll put together a list of tried and true tips for getting organized! 

Thanks for stopping in!  

Welcome!

Welcome to Camping with Momof5Cuties!  I'm so glad you've decided to stop by and take a peek at the first in what I hope to be a long series of blogs about all things to do with camping, campgrounds, nature, traveling, organization, preparedness, etc., and how we try and manage with our big brood!

There are 7 of us, my Superman hubby and myself and then our amazing kiddos who put up with us, ages 17, 15, 12, and twins who are 9.  We discovered the joy of camping a few years ago and only now are really getting into serious camping as a family.  Along with camping, we love to hike, fish, canoe, kayak - you name it and we're pretty game!  We aren't experts in any of these activities by any means and know that we have a lot to learn, but we do possess a healthy desire to try new things and are not afraid to keep at them, always learning.

We look at camping as not just a fun summer activity but believe that there are serious lessons to be learned and very important life skills that we can teach our kids as we are out traipsing through the woods and streams.  There is so much to learn that cannot be taught in a classroom and definitely not through the t.v. or video games, things like the patience it takes to learn how to tie a strong knot, the importance of preparation and organization, the absolute necessity of environmental stewardship, no matter where you are or what you do - there are so many things to learn, for the kids and for us!

So I invite you to follow along on our journey as we grow - thanks for stopping by and you're welcome back anytime!