Hot Tenting Trial - Algonquin Park.

My wife and I recently "invested" in a hot tent. A canvas tent that you can use a wood burning stove inside to heat. We invested in this to make deep winter camping bearable and to open a whole other season of back country travel. In order to successfully do multi day trips in the winter you need to be able to dry out your gear. If you cannot within a couple days it is so full of moisture that it ceases to be warm and that as a whole is no good.

So we found a nice looking 8'x10' wall tent on Wintertrekking.com, in their classified section. For the stove we purchased a Kni-co "Packer" directly from them. Our original plan was to head up to a local conservation area to try out all the new gear and see how it works and to see if we need anything else. However since we had a long weekend here we both took an extra day off and decided to jet up to Algonquin for some winter fun.

Our tent did not come with a internal frame, nor were we going to stay in the back country this trip to be able to find dead fall to construct a frame on the spot, so I had to come up with another means. So what I did is use a 2" x 27' ratchet strap between two trees as the ridge line, and make 4' "pikes" with lags in them for the side eaves. Then it was just a matter of guying out the tent by the "pikes". My wife and I had the tent up with no problem on a beautiful site in Mew Lake within a hour...Remember first time setting up.

The set up wall tent.

As soon as we got the tent up in went the rest of the gear, Stove set up, Chimney out the back, fire wood lit. Setting up the interior is a fun game, trying to maximize comfort and location for ease of access. My wife was going to be staying on a cot, and myself on the ground beside.  Within another hour we were fully ready for the weekend.

Smoke Stack Out The back.

Because this weekend was family day, there was all sort of demonstration and event happening within the campground, it made for quite a lively day, meeting and greeting new people sharing stories about adventures within the park etc. I even had the pleasure of meeting two gents from Wintertrekking.com who were there camping as well.

Relaxing By The Wood Stove.

As the night came to a close and the festivities wound down we retired back to our tent to relax and take in some reading. This is when I had my first lesson on wood stoves. Well as we were relaxing I notices that I could not get a good fire going, and there seem to be smoke coming into the tent. The adjustable elbow was leaking smoke. At first I thought it was perhaps the crimped ridges and perhaps they were not fitted properly. as we explored in a frustrated fury I decided to check the stove pipe and sure enough the Kni-co spark arrester had completely clogged and there was no draft. As I removed this the fire came back to life and we were able to calm down enough to hit the sack.

Seeing as this was a "learning trip" I wanted to see if I could keep the fire going all night for to reasons. One: to keep my wife warm, as she hates being cold, and two: just cause.  Well it seems that the small size of the stove made for hourly firewood installations. Not fun. I got a horrible sleep, if you can even call it that. It was -31 and me constantly trying to keep the fire going in a state of extreme tiredness was not fun. I would get the fire going, fall into a pseudo-sleep and the wake up a hour later cold and worried about my wife. Needless to say I awoke at 5:30 and was up and at em' with the stove making the tent a balmy 25*C

First coffee of the morning.

 We got coffee going ASAP and added twice the amount of coffee, a newly dubbed "Algonquin kick start" drink was invented. Both tried cold but happy we decided on a hike on Hemlock Bluff was in order for the day. One of the most beautiful winter hikes in Algonquin...My opinion.

7 am: Coffee and wool. Warm and ready.

 The hike was wonderful. The trail packed so no snowshoes were necessarily. The temp was about -25 and as we hiked perspiration was freezing on the outside of our clothes. This movement of sweat is great, it brings it to the surface keeping you dry, and with a  quick brush off goes all the moisture. The hike was about two hours and it was just long enough, as we were getting hungry and our lack of sleep made us a little stiff. After the hike we made our way to the visitor center to take a look. Apparently a Moose had been killed by a motorist and the Wardens had dragged the carcass out in to a field visible at the center. They do this in hopes to attract wildlife for people to see and take pictures of. There was only ravens on the moose during our visit. Oh well.

Hemlock Bluff Look out.

 We returned back to camp to relax and again try our hand at working this wood stove. While the wood available by the parks is just hardwood it take some small pieces to get decent flame for heat, It is unfortunate that it is not a mix for good burning. As we chatted and ate snacks around 8 pm we called it a night and again I was persistent to try my hand at keeping the fire. Well again it was -30 and I gave it more attention which only led to me getting colder faster, climbing in and out of my bag. I could not produce the energy to constantly be warming the air within the bag. At one point my wife whispered that she was "toasty" and that I should just leave it alone for the night to get some sleep. That was music too my ears and I was able to get about 4 hours of sleep.

Frost In my Wife's Hair.

 The next morning I was up at 6 am, got the fire going and awoke My wife to say if you want to get dressed up now is the time as the tent was cooking. She arose and we again had coffee on. Before long we had boiled eggs and oatmeal in our stomachs ready for our day. After some conversation we decided because of the lack of sleep we might take off for the weekend and take advantage of the extra day at home to "recoup" before work. So it was about-30 and we started the procession of taking down the tent. Within a hour or so we were packed up and saying good-bye to the wonderful scenery. The drive was beautiful and sunny. We had a great time, and discussed what we had learned while out and about my wifes first experience winter camping.

Along The Trail

Hot tenting is going to be a great part of our outdoors life. It's fun, exciting and such a wonderful time to be out in the bush. We hope to maybe get another small trip in this year. Also during the off season I will be building a internal frame out of 1" EMT conduit for close short back country adventures where perhaps distance is 1-3km and couple trips are do-able if needed.

Frost on my Swanndri Bushshirt.

I hope to meet some like minded people to perhaps have some deep back country trips with. Also we are pondering "renting out" the set up for experienced campers who cannot at this time fork out the funds for the entire set up, this would be great and totally worth while for both parties. So stay tuned folks. Here's to successful winter-trekking trips and learning even more.

Hemlock Bluff Look out.

Klaxon Howl On Kickstarter.

Klaxon Howl, The first store to stock Damn Yak Dry Goods has started a Kickstarter Project this week.  Trying to get funding to open a Pop-up shop in NY with the possibilities of a B&M in the future or if funding is exceeded. If your Canadian and have a passion for amazing locally made men's wear inspired by historic Work-wear and Military clothing then you know the quality Klaxon Howl represents. Owner Matt Robinson has made some stellar quality goods with superior quality fabrics and textiles.

So head on over and lay some of your drink money down and get some great clothing for some great deals, including a limited edition Klaxon Howl Patch (just for this project) and help fund a location for this all Canadian Brand to infiltrate the US.

PS.  Klaxon's Wool watchcaps are something else. The folding is perfect, Fits amazing and the wool is nice and warm (especially for us bald headed gents)

Kickstarter Limited Patch

Klaxon Signature Watchcap - Best on the market.

From The Top.

Hello everyone. Hope you New Years has been great, with upcoming adventures and trips in the works.

Things have been good here, Finally got around to setting up a hot tenting outfit for some winter back country camping. We invested in a 8' x 10' wall tent, a kni-co stove and toboggan (similar to this, but used). within the coming weeks we will make a small weekend getaway to give the set up a whirl.

I have also commissioned world famous Canadian pipe maker Michael Parks, to make me "the ultimate camping pipe". I had drawn some sketches and with his expertise we worked out a final design that should basically blow my mind. So stay tuned for that.

I have been out hiking a lot, usually every weekend consists of at least a 4-5 hour hike. Weather has been great. Good times all! what have you all been up to? highlights?

For those to go way back "Clicking Here" will bring you back to my first actual post, then by clicking "Newer post" you can read this blog like a book.

So thanks again everyone, some new post will be coming up soon, also I am still available in Twitter and Instagram.

Later days.

Closing up Shop.

Yup, that's the word, After almost two years and exactly 200 posts of writing about my interest and finds here on www.damnyak.ca, I am closing up shop. It has been a great two years, meeting and conversing with all sorts of awesome people, sharing ideas, and experiences. It really was a hard decision to make and has taken many a months to finally assure myself this is something I want to do. Being part of the blogging world and seeing new things be released and fade to the back (even having a couple items myself), I have found sometimes its all to much. How many leather phone pouches do we need? How many pairs of jeans that can last a lifetime do we need? How many pairs of welted boots do I need (a lot it seems)? Archival clothing's resolutions definitely have it right. I have found that I have all I need and there is not that much room in my life for new. When you buy to last, and you also write about it, you can only write so much till you feel like you are some what repeating yourself.

I will continue to do leather-work, I don't think I will ever stop, but I am for the time being I am not going to be offering any dry goods of sorts. So scoop them where they are available because that's the last you will see for a while, and possibly ever. I might take the odd custom job here and there, but juggling the blog, leather-work, my day-job, and other new interests is ending up being to much. And I still want to hike, bike, partake in some archery, camp and canoe.

So again I just want to say thank you to all the fantastic readers I have had over the past two years. Thank you for all your comments and feedback. Thank you all for your support with the leather-goods, It was truly  an amazing experience that has opened my eyes to some great products and consumer morals that I have passed on to many a family and friends.

Another thank you goes out to all my fellow writers and site owners, Thanks to (in no particular order) Donna & Angus, Brian, Alex, James, Obi, Jedd, Jeff, Lesli, Kevin, and many more. It has so amazing to have "met" you all, I hope one day I can meet the ones I have yet to meet face to face to share some laughs.

Also just so everyone rests assured, any damnyak products guarantee of craftsmanship will still be honored for life. If there is a issue or a repair, send me an email and I will look after you the best I can.

In the mean time people looking for some stellar leather goods please hit up some of my cohorts Hollows Leather, Corter Leather, or KG Leather. Tell them Chris from damnyak sent you.

So Thank you all, and I hope to keep in touch. Please do not hesitate to shoot me a email, and for sure there still might be the odd post here and there.

Sleep well My darlings.

Chris Adamiak.......and for those wondering my last name is pronounced "Ah-Damn-Yak".

T. Sisman Thoro-bilt Boots.

This past weekend after a morning hike we decided to hit up a local thrift shop. While walking around there was all sorts of goodies there. There was about a half dozen pairs of NOS Wrangler "Cowboy Fit" Jeans in size 27 waist. Unfortunately I don't know to many people with a 27" waist. Yikes that's small.

As I was taking a look in the shoes section I found these amazing boots. There are steel toe NOS Sisman Thoro-bilt Work boots. The crazy thing is that they were my size. The boots are extremely tough and well built. They are triple stitched on the side and have stitched and nailed Goodyear "Durocork" soles. They are unlined and have steel toes.  I am guessing they are from the 50's, and compared to my Red Wing GT's they are almost identical, the biggest differences are the Sisman's have thicker leather, larger aluminum Grommets, and no piping along the top. 

To be honest I never heard of the T.Sisman shoe Co. untill I saw these boots, but here is a bit of history for you all.  I cannot find a actual date in which the company was started, but in 1910 the Underhill and Sisman Shoe Manufacturing Co. moved to Aurora from Markem. Then Unfortunately/fortunately the partnership ended later that year. This new found freedom let T.Sisman build a larger factory in Aurora shown below.

The T.Sisman Shoe Co. built many different shoes, from combat boots for the Canadian Army in WW2, to big snow boots, to uniform boots for everyday Police Officers. Again I am sorry as information is pretty scares of the subject. But I have found a couple ads from their work boots. and I cannot wait to sport these Thoro-Bilt Boots this fall, and they are actually comfortable for being old steel toe boots.

1957 Work Boot Ad.

1933 Work Boots Ad.

Steam Era 2012.

This Weekend is the Annual Milton Steam Era show, Bringing back to life all the grand machines that carved out agriculture and construction in this Country. In its 52nd year of showcasing rural heritage, they included a beautiful display of Steam Construction equipment.  Below are some of pictures from out and about at the show as well as the Noon Whistle blow.

Making Sauerkraut.

This Weekend my Wife and I hit up the Aberfoyle Antique Market for some find. I was looking for a crock and my Wife was looking for a kitchen cabinet of sorts. Well we hit both marks perfect and now with my new 6 Gallon Medalta crock I could finally start making my own sauerkraut. The process is really quite simple and straight forward. Cut up cabbage mix it with a bit of salt and let it ferment naturally in its own juices. The recipe I found was from a blog called  "Wild Fermentation" . It is written by Sandor Katz, a culinary author, DIY food activist.

Any how for my recipe I used some carrots mixed with the cabbage for some extra sweetness. To prepare the sauerkraut first you must chop the cabbage as fine or as course as you would like. When you place a big handful of cabbage in the crock you just sprinkle on some salt, which draw the water out of  the cabbage and make a brine to ferment the cabbage into sauerkraut.

Once you have a bunch of cabbage in the crock you pack it down with your fist, this make sure its tight withing the crock and helps pound out some water. At this point you just keep repeating these steps with the cabbage, carrots, and salt. Layer after layer and punch/pound.  

In this recipe I used about 7 pounds of cabbage and a bag of carrots and 4 tablespoons of salt. I think I was a little over zealous with a 6 gallon crock, or I need to make allot more sauerkraut.

One you are all done, you put a glass or ceramic plate on top if the cabbage along with a weight of sorts. I used a huge mason jar willed with water to keep the plate down. From what I was reading if you do not keep the plate on top the fermentation process can expand the cabbage and make it overflow, thought I think I got enough room in the crock.

And there you have it; sauerkraut in the making. Every couple days remove the plate and give it a rinse, and withing 3 or 4 days you should start to taste the tangy-ness of the brine. and within 2-4 weeks you will have some killer kraut. Again check out  "Wild Fermentation" for more info on the process and the exact steps to making sauerkraut. I will keep you updated on the process over the next couple weeks, and If any of the readers have some tips please post in the comments below and let us know.