Steaming

(1) Steaming is a method of cooking that uses steam to transfer heat to food.

Because of the heat of vaporization, steam at the temperature of boiling water actually contains much more heat energy than the boiling water it comes from. So When steam hits the surface of food it cools and condenses, transferring all that heat to the food, which cooks the food. (Good guess, right?)

Submerging food in boiling water also heats it, but requires enough water to cover the food.

Instead of using a large amount of heat to boil a large amount of water, it's possible to use a small amount of heat to vaporize a tiny amount of water and cook food faster with less fuel.

Amazing! But true!

Also, after food is boiled, you are left with a large amount of hot water that you typically don't need for anything, so you throw it out.

When done steaming you'll have only a trace of water to toss out, and therefore you save even more fuel.

Food can be steamed "bare", in a pot, or inside a container, like a heat-proof bag. Cooking food in a bag is roughly equivalent to baking it, but using steam instead of hot air. Since air is a poor carrier of heat, true baking is extremely inefficient, and even more so for the ultralight backpacker.

(2) Cooking by immersion in steam, or the action of steam on something. "The action of steam on something." Now that's a definition. If I wasn't so laid back I'd be totally steaming, though I'll never be tasty without lots of ketchup.

(3) Getting rid of an unwanted companion by simply being annoying enough that the person leaves your vicinity. Don't try this with someone who habitually carries a club though. (Word to the wise.)

 

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Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff@nullabigmail.com
Me? Recently got my nubbins buffed. All shiny now.

 

Etc...

so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
definitions: outdoor terms
fiyh: dave's little guide to ultralight backpacking stoves
boyb: dave's little guide to backpacks
snorpy bits: nibbling away at your sanity
last seen receding: missives from a certain mobile homer
noseyjoe: purposefully poking my proboscis into technicals

Raised Bog

(1) A raised bog is something you're unlikely to meet in person, especially if you avoid wet flatlands, and keep at least a minimal a lookout over your shoulder, though very few of them bogs these days have any real incentive or energy to get up and chase hikers any more. Mostly they just lie there and enjoy being mucky.

Mostly, as far as anyone can tell, raised bogs begin life as depressions, like maybe a pothole containing a huge chunk of ice broken off a receding glacier. After a while, things begin growing in the wetness, and by then it's a sort of pond. With time things die as they do, and sink, and rot. This can continue for a distressingly long time. But rot builds relentlessly, and the pond fills in, and then you get your grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees, and so on.

They all die too, and rot, and build up, and before you know it (like several thousand years) it's all filled in with what looks like soil with all kinds of things growing there, but still wettish and mucky, and whatever it is that is secretly hiding way down below gently transforms into peat, peat being yet another name for "partially decayed vegetation or organic matter", according to Wikipedia, what knows everything.

What this has to do with hiking or backpacking is anybody's guess, since no sane person would try walking around in bogs of any kind, but just in case, 'K?

If you find the landscape sort of sucking at your feet, and trying to climb your legs, well, it may be that you are in a bog and are actually sinking. Not that it's climbing up your legs and trying to eat you, but that you are sinking into the landscape, so it may be a good time to decide on a plan of action, one very common one being just to go with the flow and provide essential nutrients to this poor place, the nutrients you carry in your body, and by you yourself dying and rotting, contribute to the local ecology, which some might consider a bit more restful than keeping up with all the walking already, moreso if your pack is too heavy.

No more walking. Think about it. Could be an option. Join the peat. Rest your feet.

(2) According to the experts though..."Ombrophilous mire in which peat accumulation at the center of the bog is greater than at its edges, giving rise to a cross-section resembling an inverted saucer. The central raised portion is above the natural groundwater level, becomes solely dependent upon precipitation (ombrotrophic) and is extremely low in nutrients."

(3) Or some other experts..."A bog that has grown above its place of origin, whose center is higher than the margins and whose surface is convex. Growth is by deposition of peat. Water is supplied by rain or by capillary action in the peat. There is usually one or several very acid ponds near the center and around the rim is a sedgy channel (lagg) where water collects and flows away."

So hey. There you are. Happy now?

 

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Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff@nullabigmail.com
Me? Never raised at all. Still fully mucked.

 

Refs:
Which Statement Explains One Difference Between Marshes and Bogs
Nature Art | Heather Hinam Illustrator and Photographer

 

Etc...

so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
definitions: outdoor terms
fiyh: dave's little guide to ultralight backpacking stoves
boyb: dave's little guide to backpacks
snorpy bits: nibbling away at your sanity
last seen receding: missives from a certain mobile homer
noseyjoe: purposefully poking my proboscis into technicals

Pack Weight

This is a confusing and imprecise term which has been picked up by ultralight backpackers and turned into a religious debate and a weapon for scoring points against one another.

For us practical types, it's how much weight you carry. This depends on how you look at it. Base pack weight is the weight of the pack and everything in it, excluding consumables. Total pack weight is th base pack weight plus food, water, and fuel.

So, any questions?

No? Then get moving already.

 

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Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff@nullabigmail.com
Me? Mostly weightless. Waitless. Waistless. Whatever.

 

Etc...

so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
definitions: outdoor terms
fiyh: dave's little guide to ultralight backpacking stoves
boyb: dave's little guide to backpacks
snorpy bits: nibbling away at your sanity
last seen receding: missives from a certain mobile homer
noseyjoe: purposefully poking my proboscis into technicals

One-Pot Wonder

(1) By definition then, a One-Pot Wonder is any food or meal that requires only one pot to cook. By someone's definition. Maybe it was a definition found taped to the bottom of a rock. No one knows. But anyway, people accept it, so let's run with it for today.

(2) One-Pot Wonders are meals that can be made in one pot, but taste as though they were made by a world-class chef who cooked a multi-course meal and then dumped it all into one pot and stirred it well before serving and then let it sit and didn't remember it for another day or two and then served it.

Still better than freeze-dried food. Partly because there is no such thing as freeze-dried food, as such. More like "freeze-dried partly-edible synthetic manufactured substances that really, really cost a lot". But some people eat it anyway. Maybe Wonder Woman does. Maybe she can handle it. But she's probably not that dumb. Just backpackers. OK then. Backpacker food.

 

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Have anything worth adding? Then try sosayseff@nullabigmail.com
Me? Just itching to get up and give something a severe licking today.

 

Etc...

so says eff: sporadic spurts of grade eff distraction
definitions: outdoor terms
fiyh: dave's little guide to ultralight backpacking stoves
boyb: dave's little guide to backpacks
snorpy bits: nibbling away at your sanity
last seen receding: missives from a certain mobile homer
noseyjoe: purposefully poking my proboscis into technicals