Yesterday I noticed that most posts begin with me talking about yesterday. Doh!

Today, my friend, is a beautiful day. I started the day torturing myself with a little weight lifting. Little being the key word. The drive to work was magnificent. And you know what the status of the top was.

Last night I made a trip to Home Depot to pick up some dowels, sheet metal, etc. DE and I will are beginning to begin the process of making the 3rd generation camp oven. He actually did all the work on the first two. I am on a mission. More about that later.

On the same but slightly different topic, the annual camping trip is rapidly approaching. Sure it is still six weeks away, but some planning time is required. We started the preliminary menu yesterday. Perhaps the salmon will make the final cut this year. Can you imagine sitting in the woods in the middle of nowhere with a nice salmon croquette with beurre blanc sauce and a glass of wine. Ok, so it wine will probably be in a itty bitty bottle. I would also like to introduce a layer cake this year.

The camping trip is a fairly long standing tradition. This will be the tenth year. It will be my fourth. Currently 10 folks are commited but I expect that will drop off to six or seven in the next few weeks. Part of the tradition is to hike out into the middle of nowhere, usually in one of those Carolina states, setup camp, and do some cooking, hiking, and for some trout fishing. As for the food, I have seen some rather amazing things for a camping trip. Brownies, chocolate pie, Tollhouse cookies, all homemade. Ever carried an egg in a backpack? And the rumors of past menus are pretty exotic. How about roasted feasant. Steak and baked potato's is the staple for the first night. That rocks after hiking a few miles with a 60 or 70 lb backpack.

I hope to get started on the rough design of the new oven tonight. I want to design it in such a way that it doubles as 'counter space' and a cook stove stand. Cooking on a little single burner Coleman cook stove setting on the ground is no picnic. To be continued...

BTR must be bird dogging his web statistics. I linked to him Sunday evening and by Monday I had gotten a thankyou note for my kind words. Who knew anyone was actually reading this. He has setup a link back in this direction and promised I would see my hit rate go up by 10 hits a year, or my money back! Brian, if you have to send my money back, I would prefer the 30 cents in the form of an Alabama quarter and one of those new nickels. Perhaps I could send him a few photos of the local Post Offices.

Did I mention I got a little time Sunday night with the barn doors open. Sweet!