Date: 2005-12-13
To: gear & dehydrating
Miles today: 0.0

Our trip to Asheville was great, we closed on our new house and stayed in it over the weekend. All we had was a bed, a couch and a card table & chairs. Anyway, while in Asheville, I bought a new pack ¢ I got the Granite Gear Nimbus Ozone. It weighs 3 lbs and can carry up to 40 lbs. I don¢t want to carry that much, but you never know¢¦ I was initially planning on just trying things on and then buying them on line to save on taxes, but the guy at the Diamond Brand Outdoors store in Hendersonville was so wonderful about trying on different belts with the pack to see what fit me best that I went ahead and bought it there. I got it with the men¢s medium belt. There was such a difference between the way the pack carried with the women¢s and the men¢s belt! The men¢s belt is about 14 inch or so wider than the women¢s and I guess that added some stability to the pack Also, on the women¢s belt, the strap comes from the tip of the padding, and on the men¢s belt the strap starts about one inch before the tip of the padding (I hope that makes sense)   I also bought a summer sleeping bag, Mountain Hardware 40* with a full length zipper, it weighs a little over 1 lb. So now, the only other major equipment to replace is my tent, and I want to get the REI quarter dome. I got on line to order it and suddenly it wasn¢t there anymore! Boy did I panic, so I called REI fearing that it has been discontinued, but nope, its just out of stock and they expect to get more in sometime in January, so I have to wait till then.So, now I¢m busy in the kitchen cooking and dehydrating. I found my old dehydrator so I have them both going. ¢ drying fruit in the old round one (it doesn¢t hold very much) and some pasta dinners right now in the Excalibur. I have made a couple of batches of a spicy peanut soup (its really really good) and about 16 pasta dinners (3 different recipes)   If I keep it going almost non stop, I can dry 9 meals a day in it (it has 9 trays) and it takes almost an entire day to cook and dry a meal, although I can probably get another batch going before I go to sleep tonight and have it dry overnight) So there shouldn¢t be any problem getting everything done before April. I found some Hummus mix in the bulk bins at Whole Foods, it tasted pretty good, so that can be some of my lunches, I have recipes for some salads that can be dehydrated, so that will be more lunches (I¢ve tried them in the past and they are great). There are also a bunch of potato, rice or egg dishes to make and dehydrate! I am vacuum sealing all the meals and have a problem with some of the pasta meals. The spaghetti is so crisp and sharp that it pokes through the bags and then it looses its seal. For now everything is being stored in the freezer, so they will keep and then I will put each days worth of food in a gallon zip lock so it should be ok. Oh, I weighed 7 of the dinners, 3# 1oz, I figure there will probably be about 7 days worth of food in a mail drop, but of course I also need my lunches, snacks breakfasts etc to add to that, when I get them made up, I will re-weigh stuff and post it here. I usually drink tea in the morning (herbal teas) but am debating taking coffee (instant) on the trail so there is less trash to deal with, The fruit will be trail mix type of snacks, I like to dehydrate pineapple, bananas, apples, mangos, I just tried some papaya ¢it wasn¢t so great, I¢ll add raisins and nuts to that mix.Tomorrow my son Josh will be home to visit for a month, he is in the Israeli Army and has a one month leave. Its been about 1 12 yrs since I¢ve seen him, so I¢m really excited about him coming home, and his twin brother Jeff called earlier and said he will be home for the weekend as well, - I probably won¢t get anything done for myself while they are here, but I don¢t care! I¢m so excited about having both kids home together.