Commerce

One of the real positive wins that has come out of this pandemic has been the ability to order local farmer's market produce, baked goods etc. online weekly.  We actually order from 2 different markets as the variety is quite different.  And depending on the market, you can choose a time for pick up.  It has provided opportunity to buy from producers that we would have not met otherwise.  

I don't know if it has been worthwhile for the farms to participate.  Just found out that dates have been extended through the winter into next spring for our local market so the hope is yes to the platform thriving and not just keeping heads above water until the world starts to normalize.

Like many others, we have also noticed that sports equipment, outdoor leisure supplies have been harder to come by and in the case of used bicycles, selling for far higher than they would have been last year.  We were too late with sourcing a couple of muskoka chair ottomans and another campfire grill.  

Now that I've gone down the rabbit hole that is Amazon, I can see just why they are so successful.  There are just some items that I cannot buy at the usual places.  After not being able to find directly, will now go through them.  

One thing hasn't changed though -- Still really like the online ordering for curbside pick up option.  There are stores that are a pain to shop at, at the best of times.  So being able to have all the searching done on our behalf has worked out really well for a couple of not enthusiastic shoppers.  

Camping 2

To keep my mind occupied for now and towards winter, I have been looking into ways to cook meals over an open fire while camping.  

Summer was hot this year, so we didn't get much of a chance to do much until the evening.  Even then, it was only hot dogs as fun food.  

Now that fall is upon us, we've been using a griddle over a fire to fry up onions, pulled pork, toast buns etc.  And will up things next with mulled wine and apple cider, kept warm in pots.  

Want to maximize use of the fire for as many things as possible.  And decrease our dependency on other fuels and cooking methods as their efficiency tends to drop off as temperatures fall.

We bought a stainless steel nalgene which has been used to boil water directly in the fire, saving grill space.  Learned about it online -- Works great and faster than you'd think, considering our go-to is a Jetboil!  Burnt sap stains on it though, depending on the wood.  But easy to wash off.  

My new winter sleeping bag arrived and it is a bit of a beast!  Am waiting on my waterproof bivy and likely a better tarp and I'll be set for some minimalist outdoor sleeping.

Shipping

Not aware if this is a univeral "big company" thing, but as I have been ordering more stuff online, I've notice that rarely do I get the entire order at once anymore and have it come from nearby. 

More often than not, it will be split into 3 with each coming from different provinces.  I don't know how companies can make money when orders work out this way.  Three separate UPS charges!  Sometimes, the items ends up costing less than the shipping.  Am concerned for them. 

Because of this, I cannot bring myself to reorder things just to get a sale price and have them take the hit with shipping again.  Just happened today, when I got an email notifying me of a sale, 2 days after I ordered a better winter sleeping bag.  And I haven't even received the bag yet. 

Have noticed that some companies have increased their minimum order amounts this year.  I feel they need to.  What's the use of being "competitive" if it puts you out of business?

Car Camping

As we are staying in our main home province until Christmas, we have taken up "car camping" since June.  Until now,  I've never camped in Ontario during the summers as I am a mosquito magnet and had imagined being so irritated, I would not enjoy the rest of it.

Thanks to Covid, I was aching to get out to nature so much, I surprised D with the suggestion of giving it a go.  He had already started bikepacking and have been used to me saying No Way, so that idea surprised him greatly.  I don't think he really believed me until I started getting my gear together.

Our initial mistake was deciding that we'd just throw everything in the car and go from there and not really think it through.  We are both so used to hard limits with packing for flights and bikes, it felt so freeing to have the entire vehicle's worth of room to bring pretty much everything we wanted.  It was license to go a bit nuts and we did.

The first time, we packed so much stuff, it looked like we were moving...spent too much money buying ice for all the extra food (like the 2 dozen eggs etc., etc.) we didn't need...brought 2 coolers (crazy, I know)...and eventually losing a lot of the food due to melted ice getting into containers and ziplock bags (lost some great ribs and potato salad etc)...

The second and third times, we did much better as we came to terms that just because we have room, doesn't mean we need to use it all.  That it still takes thinking and problem solving.  It was luxury to be able to buy an outdoor grill that went over the fire so we could cook stuff over it.  Not something we would take abroad but something that super enhances the experience in the here and now.

And there was the issue with showers not being available this year at our provincial parks.  After unsuccessfull searches for a small privacy shelter to be delivered in time, we found online plans to build one out of pvc pipes and tarps.  The trickiest part was finding the corner pieces.  A pool supply company came through for us.  It withstood wind gusts up to 40 km/hr.  D did use extra tent stakes and guy lines.

It was also an opportunity to add a camping size frying pan (gsi), a better camping pot kit (sea to summit sigma) and an ultralight camp stove (msr pocket rocket deluxe) and a couple of stainless steel plates (msr again) to our arsenal as we identified further needs and wants for when we move towards the more minimal end of the range again.

We are both quite tanned and excited for the fall and winter seasons.