The House & other Arctic musings

The GSI Javagrind revisited.

In May I reviewed the GSI Javagrind and was quite enthusiastic about it. Unfortunately it only took one more use of it to change my mind.

The other night I took the Javagrind and (reluctantly) GSI's french press over to Leah's parent's tent at Victor Bay, determined to have a good cup of coffee while over there. When it came time to brew the coffee I took the Javagrind and began grinding my Yergacheffe coffee beans. After about four turns of the crank, the Javagrind stopped working.

The central part of the burr mill is what turns, grinding the beans against the outer, fixed part of the mill. This turning piece is attached to the crank by means of a bolt, the hexagonal head of which sits in a recess of the mill, allowing it to turn. In only its second use the head of the bolt stripped out of its recessed fitting, causing the shaft to spin helplessly inside the mill.

Again this was only my Javagrind's second use, and it certainly hasn't seen any rough handling. I was able to finish grinding the beans by shimming the bolt in the recess with a thin strip of cardboard, but it appears that the material used for the mill can not stand up to the minimal torques of the grinding process.

Disappointing, as I was quite pleased to find a hand cranked coffee mill for out on the land. The press perfomed marginally better this outing, but still had a sloppy seal on the plunger and is not worth purchasing.

Coffee to go

For an update on the Javagrind, which failed on its second use, please go here.

Earlier this winter I bemoaned (to no one in particular) "what this country needs is a hand operated coffee mill for camping." What I didn't realize at the time was that one already existed.

The GSI Javagrind ($17.50 at Mountain Equipment Co-op) is a small hand cranked coffee mill (burr mill), and I ordered one as soon as I had learned about it. I also ordered GSI's Java Press french press at the same time, but more on that a little later.

First a short primer on why you'd want to grind your own coffee out on the land anyway. Coffee spoils rapidly and there are two rules you should follow if you want to drink good coffee, be it at breakfast in your house, or while sitting at a stream pouring forth from a canyon while you watch a Peregrine Falcon stoop at Snow Buntings. First use freshly roasted (good quality sustainable) coffee. Once the roasting process has started coffee begins to oxidize and break down.  The second rule is grind your coffee just before brewing. The process of spoilage really accelerates once coffee is ground, and (it was surprising to me until I did a quick experiment at home) the difference is noticeable quickly. Think about it in these terms, say you enjoy a fine wine and want to have some on the land, would you uncork the bottle and pour the wine into a plastic container to sit for days before you drank it? Or would you take along a corkscrew.

But back to the coffee mill, it is solidly built, though a little larger than I imagined. This isn't a major issue with me, because once again I don't backpack that much. The body of the grinder is stepped so it can sit right on brewers or containers of different diameters. A rubber dust cap sits over the mill and exit port proper, so it would removed and the entire mill is set down on what ever you are using to catch the grounds. The coffee beans would then be measured into the mill (whole beans measure out the same as the finished grounds - which is darned convenient) through a large sliding door on top and the handle cranked until all the beans have been ground. The handle reverses for storage. It all comes apart for ease of cleaning, although be careful as there are some small parts, springs and washers.

I found the grinder easy to use and quick. The coffee ground to a consistent size which is adjustable by means of a thumbscrew. Worked like a charm actually.

I wish I could say the same for their french press, but I can't. The GSI Java Press ($20.00 at Mountain Equipment Co-op) was disappointing. It is simple in design and seems robust enough for camping, the body and plunger are plastic and it fits into a neoprene sleeve, which functions as an efficient insulator to keep the coffee warm and at the same time protects the brewer.  The problem is with the plunger of the French Press, which creates the "seal" with two plastic split rings. The seal was not very good, in fact the plunger "plunged" on its own about halfway just by force of gravity. After the coffee had steeped for the four minutes I could push the plunger the rest of the way with very little resistance. I suppose that one should expect a little bit of sludge in their coffee while camping, but I prefer leaves and pine needles and will look for a better brewer to take with me.

The other aspect of the Java Press that I didn't like was the webbing handle. I realize, of course, that this is a piece of equipment meant for camping and portability, but it was awkward to pour with, and I just gave up and grabbed the body of the press to pour with it.

So all in all the Javagrind is good piece of equipment that I'm looking forward to using in the great out doors, the Java Press not so much. I'm looking for another press to take with me.

Oh, and in case I haven't made this point often enough, no matter where you drink you coffee - at home or in the great outdoors, make a point of drinking sustainable coffee, coffee that's gentler on the environment and better for producers. Many of the neo-tropical migrants, those birds that give us so much joy during the spring, summer and fall, are losing critical habitat to non-sustainable, monoculture coffee. For a wealth of information on coffee and the environment I urge you to visit my friend Julie's blog, Coffee and Conservation. Everything I learned about coffee I learned from her.

Eureka K2 XT Tent - First Impressions

Earlier this month my K2 XT tent arrived from Eureka Tents. It is probably going to be a while before I actually get a chance to use it, and thus really review it, but here are a couple of early impressions.

The Eureka K2 XT is one of Eureka's four season expedition tents, a four pole dome with a vestibule. It comes in at just over 5 kilograms (11 pounds, 12 oz according to their information), which is lighter than the tents I've been used to in the last little while, but I don't do much backpaking these days. It packs up fairly small, this picture is with my size 9s to give you an idea of the size.

As soon as it arrived (yes I'm pretty much the kid at Christmas whenever anything new arrives) I set it up in the Great Room. I only briefly skimmed the setting up instructions (a set comes with the tent and is also available as a pdf online), not because I'm a guy and instructions are for the weak (well maybe just a little) but because I wanted to see if there was a logic to the set up, and determine its ease of set up.

Set up was easy, the four poles are all of equal length (a fifth pole is used to stiffen the vestibule), they slide easily into the pockets and snap into grommets. The fly is easy to add also, and connects with velcro tabs, and fasteners. The vestibule pole is external and snaps into place.

The tent is roomy, with a surprising amount of head room, and while I'm older now and would like to be able to stand up in tents I certainly don't expect that in a tent built for this purpose. The tent will be very roomy for two people, and you can easily fit three snugly inside.  Travis and I will have plenty of room for our trip to the Peregrine canyon this summer.

On first blush it seems quite well made, but I'll leave more of that for when we get it out in the field. I like the large array of organizer pockets on two walls, and details paid to ventilation. I like the fact that there is zippered access to the vents in the fly. The vestibule is roomy, and will easily accommodate extra gear and boots.

All in all, my first impressions are positive, and I look forward to getting it out on the land.  The K2 XT is available online from Eureka tents for $469.90 US (it is one of their most expensive models). There is a wide range of tents to choose from.

Mmm... Coffee...

For someone who really isn't supposed to have caffeine I sure enjoy my coffee. And while I'm not yet a full blown coffeeophile I'm probably too far down that road not to end up there. Right now I'm enjoying a wonderful dark roast Ethiopian Yergacheffe (my current favourite) from Equator Coffee, along with some of my mother-in-law's delightful bannock.

Part of my greater appreciation of coffee, and the many incredible coffees available today, grew out of a growing awareness of the havoc that McLarge Brand coffees wreak on the environment, especially on the habitat of birds, especially neo-tropical migrants. When a simple switch to organic, fair trade coffees was made, I discovered that coffee can have a multitude of subtle flavours, and that fresh roast coffee, ground right before brewing, doesn't make my stomach churn after a couple of cups. 

I could go on about fair trade, organic, shade grown coffees, but I encourage you to visit Coffee and Conservation, a wonderful blog about coffee and the environment by the inestimable Julie Craves, for more information. Not only do the large coffee brands pay paltry amounts to growers for their fare, but the farms are barren places for birds, and the coffee not even close to being as good - for a variety of reasons. It behooves you to switch, and really won't cost you that much more. Up here my costs are roughly equal, getting my coffee on line through Equator vs buying Maxwell House or Timmy's at the store.

But back to my cup of Yergacheffe... which unfortunately is empty so you'll have to excuse me for a couple of seconds...  Ahh, that's better.

...My cup of coffee is tasting even better these days, thanks to a simple switch in brewing equipment.  For we now own a brewer that makes coffee at the proper brewing temperature (around 90 - 100C), the Technivorm KBT 741. You see, most home coffee machines, brew coffee at a lower temperature than ideal, and the hotter temperatures extract more flavour (not make it "stronger" but more flavourful). I ordered this coffee maker specifically because of this reason, but I have to admit that I was somewhat sceptical that there would be any discernible difference in taste. Especially to my sugar and cream addled tastebuds (as coffee purists everywhere recoil in horror). We ordered our Technivorm from Transcend Coffee, it arrived quickly and with reasonable shipping rates.

It's easy to set up, there being only a few parts; the brewer with reservoir, a lid for the reservoir, a separate filter basket and lid, the carafe, and a plastic shelf for the carafe to sit on. There is an on/off switch, a switch on the filter basket to stop or restrict the flow, and a cut off switch in case the carafe is not in place. It operates like any other drip coffee maker, fill the resevoir, put a filter and coffee in the basket (there is the additional step of putting the filter basket in place), carafe goes in place and you turn it on.

It is probably about twice as fast in brewing a carafe of coffee as our old Krup, taking about 7 minutes to brew. The brewing arm has several holes so it disperses the hot water evenly over the grounds. There is no timer, so you can't set it ahead of time, but that doesn't seem that onerous. Seven minutes isn't very long to wait for a carafe of coffee, and while you wait you can watch the bubbles rising up the middle of the reservoir like a rather colourless lava lamp.

The first thing you notice is that the coffee is HOT. How hot? Hot enough to get sued if a McDonald's customer dropped some in their lap (and before the lawyers all start shouting at me I know that there was more to that lawsuit than meets the eye. It just boggles my mind that coffee cups at McDonald are labeled "Hot" for a beverage that everyone would be up in arms about if they had some served cold to them). But I digress. I don't have any thermometres that would allow me to see just how hot the water is, but other reviewers have noted that the temperature at the brewing arm fall within the 195-200F range. 

But the main thing is the end product, how is the coffee? After letting it cool a bit (paradoxically while the hotter water extracts more flavour, really hot beverages dull our taste buds) a did a small taste test. Side by side with a cup brewed in the Krup, even I noticed that the Technivorm brewed coffee was more flavourful, and for the first time I noted a hint of blueberries in my Yergacheffe.  And like I said, I take my coffee generally with cream and sugar, and to notice a difference through that must mean something.

But don't just take my word for it, drop by for a cup some day.

Happy Birthday Mr. Peterson

Today marks what would have been the hundredth birthday of Roger Tory Peterson. It can be argued, quite easily I think, that no one is more responsible for the success of birdwatching as a hobby, avocation, or compulsion than him.  He figures quite significantly in my development as a bird lover, for like many people it was the gift of a copy of his Field Guide to the Birds that... that... hmm gave me the skills to identify what I was seeing in the field. Like many people, the ability to name something strengthens my desire to know more about it, to want to be able to name others, and to know more about them. I still own that first copy of his seminal guide, and still take it out from time to time despite its having been updated many times since it was published.

It is fitting of course that Houghton Mifflin, the publishers of the Peterson Field Guides, chose to issue a new edition of his Field Guide to the Birds. Actually it is a new edition to his two Field Guide of the Birds of Eastern North America and Birds of Western North America, for both editions have been included in this book, Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.

I love the book.  But what can I say, I am unabashedly a fan of the Peterson Guides, and they are the first guide I reach for most birds. Possibly because of early exposure to the Peterson Guides I've always been partial to field guides with paintings of birds, rather than photographs. And quite frankly for North America no one does painted plates better.  So, I imagine you can get more objective reviews than this one is going to be.

So, what is new about the book?  Well the most obvious thing is added bulk and weight. In fact that is probably the biggest drawback to combining the Western and Eastern editions. This is no longer a book that you can slip in your pocket, well without a big pocket. I've been known to carry around several large tomes with me in a back pack while out on an excursion, in Cuba I think it was six but hey I was supposed to be the expert (little did they know), so the size isn't a major issue with me, but it is a consideration that you must make if you're only going to get one field guide. I've heard that there are actually people who only own one field guide, I've just never met one. I can stop buying field guides anytime, really, not now, maybe later.

The larger size means that the plates are larger, and they now include the range maps on the page facing the plates, along with the description. Now my first impression was that the range maps were much too small for my liking, but there is a second, larger version of each map towards the back of the book.  About 40 new paintings have been added, and many of Peterson's original drawings have been digitally enhanced. 

With a nod to the impact the internet is having on birding and birdwatching with the book comes the opportunity to register for some video podcasts, that offer some further help with popular and common species, tips and a biography of Roger Tory Peterson.

I obviously think highly of Peterson's system of field marks, features of birds that are key to the species identification. It is a system that is especially suited, I believe, to the bird watcher who is just starting out. And while I think this book is worth picking up for everyone, its worth is greater for the beginner.

But if you're a birder who is just starting out, or a seasoned veteran, it is probably worth taking a moment to day to give thanks to Roger Tory Peterson, who really got the ball rolling in this grand game.

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds

I don't think it is possible to have too many Field Guides.  It is almost the same as having too many tools, it just doesn't seem like there could be an theoretical limit. Harper Collins has just published an excellent new one, for those of us who like to get as many as possible, or for those in search of their first.

The Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America covers some 750 species of birds found in the ABA area of North America, in a clear concise guide. A little too large to slip in to most pockets, it is nonetheless still very portable and easily taken into the field (where a Field Guide does the most good), and has one of those durable plastic covers that can take the abuse of being thrown in a pack, or kicked around in the car.  But what of the content?

One of the beauties of this book is the species accounts are each on a single page (in many cases there are two to a page). And they manage to pack a lot of information into each page. First of all there are sharp clear photos of the bird, covering at least the major plumages. Fantastic photos by the way. A code (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6) tells you the bird's status in North America; a single line instantly gives you the bird's size, and whether one sex is larger than the other. A small but quite useful range map, a brief but informative description of bird and habits and a description of major calls or songs rounds out the page.

The introductory chapters on how to use the book, how to identify birds, and the natural history of birds are excellent. They are a must read before you dive into use the book, as not only do they give you the overview of the system that the book uses, but they are an excellent primer on bird ID and natural history.

As an added bonus, included with the book is a DVD with 587 downloadable bird songs, covering a good selection of songs and calls of some 138 common North American species. It was a bit unwieldy getting them on to iTunes and subsequently my iPod, but that may have been more me than anything else.  I did put all 587 tracks (each accompanied by a quality picture of the bird) on my iPod, even though the chances of my making use of all but five Arctic species are pretty slim.  But hey, if a Dickcissel  finds its way up here I'm ready (I love that name, it always reminds me of school boy's insult - "Yeah, well you're a dickcissel." "Heh heh. He said 'Dickcissel'") It would have been nice to have a more complete coverage of species but I suppose space was the limiting factor.  As an aside that would be a good project for someone like Cornell's Macaulay library of bird song... partner with Apple and iTunes to offer bird songs/calls for individual purchase through iTunes.  That way a person could build their own personalized library (including geographic differences) for study or field ID.  Anyone in Cornell reading this?

In  short I found this book to be an excellent, practical field guide, well worth the purchase. I have a particular bias towards paintings as opposed to photographs for field guides but that is a personal choice. The book is functional and concise, and that is the main thing.  And wait, how would you like to win your own copy of this book, or maybe an iPod? The lads over at 10,000 Birds (the 600 lb gorilla of bird blogs - a very deserving 600 lb gorilla) are giving away 10 copies of the book and an iPod. The contest started yesterday but there is still time, check out the details and then give it your best shot. It is a worthy book to try for.

Franklin,

It is always interesting to read of the modern popular take of Sir John Franklin as “unimaginative” incompetent and the author of his final Arctic Expeditions demise (see the comments in this CBC article). Franklin was chosen, partly because of lobbying, but partly because he was the British Officer with the most Arctic experience.   His final trip was his fourth to Arctic regions.

Yes, his first overland expedition was beset with disaster, starvation, murder and a summary execution, but to state that he never learned from it, or that it wasn’t successful in part is just wrong.  The expedition mapped a large part of the Arctic and Arctic Coast, from the mouth of the Coppermine River to Point Turnagain.

More importantly he did learn from his experiences and mounted a very successful Second overland expedition that mapped much of the Arctic Coast in the other direction.

People tend to point to the size of the Franklin’s last expedition (and compare it to Rae’s small party led by natives) as a reason for the failure, and miss the point that they were looking for a commercial route through the Northwest Passage, much of which had been mapped. The whole idea was to be able to find a passage for ships through the NW Passage, not dog teams. They were, at the time, the best equipped Arctic Expedition ever, employing ships with reinforced hulls for the ice, that were equipped with steam engines, and they had some of the best officers available for their crew. It was provisioned with over three years of food and supplies (Hmmm…. And they didn’t start looking for them for how long?) and were expected to take at least two years to make the passage.

They also ran into some very bad luck.  Inuit testimony recounts there being “no summers” those years, resulting in greater ice pack than even they expected. Problems with the quality of their provisions  (supplied by a government contract) were out of their hands.  There is actually a suggestion (again by Inuit testimony) that there were still provisions left on board the ships.  And of course, by the time the crew was making their death march south, well Franklin was already long dead, probably from natural causes, given his age.

People who point to the Rae expedition as the model of success (and don’t get me wrong he was a very successful, capable Arctic explorer) ignore the fact that starvation regularly visited the Arctic Regions. A similar small expedition looking for Franklin evidence, the US Schwatka expedition, small, guided by Inuit and traveling in Inuit style, narrowly escaped starvation on their return to the Repulse Bay area from King William Island. Indeed starvation constantly stalked Inuit throughout the Arctic. It can be a very unforgiving place, even for those who have thrived up here for thousands of years.

In fact a major Starvation Event took place on King William Island shortly after the Franklin tragedy  It may have been even caused by the Franklin expedition, as (once again according to Inuit testimony) at some point the Franklin survivors had shot many caribou, carcasses were lined up from shore to the ships. Tragically many of the people best able to offer evidence of the Franklin Expeditions final years (there were probably still survivors in 1851) perished in that starvation event.

It is true that when Rae brought back his stories that the  Inuit had told him, of starvation and cannibalism that they were discounted, but it is hardly surprising. The British at time were not prepared to believe that their officers and men would resort to eating human flesh, and it was all to easy for them to dismiss the reports. But the British empire at the time all too often looked at indigenous people with indifference at best and disdain at worse. Wrong? Of course it was, but given the times it could hardly be unexpected.

For a good analysis of just what the Inuit have told us about Franklin I heartily recommend David C. Woodman's book Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony, an excellent insightful book.

The writing is on the wall

Okay Windows people, this seems obvious to those of us who use a Mac, but perhaps now is a good time to come over to the light side.

The Young Birder's Guide

One of the challenges to introducing youth to watching birds is the lack of age appropriate reference materials, such as field guides.  That has just changed with the release of The Young Birder's Guide: to the birds of eastern North America, the latest in the Peterson Field Guide series. Written by Bill Thompson III, he of Bill of the Birds, and illustrated by Julie Zickefoose, it is a Field Guide aimed at youths in the eight to twelve range.

The guide covers about 200 common or intriguing birds from Eastern North America, and is designed for the field with a compact size and tough plastic cover. Each bird receives a page treatment, with a picture, the basics to identify the bird and its voice, a range map and a "wow" factoid about the species. It keeps firmly to the K.I.S. (Keep It Simple) principle, with the idea that a regular guide will have too much detail and be overwhelming.

Thompson apparently consulted with his eleven year old daughter's class in coming up with the design of the book, so the book is really a family affair. I suspect that the book will work really well, especially at the lower age of the target audience. I think for an older child I'd supplement it with a regular field guide, to satisfy the thirst for additional details once the appetite has been whetted by this book.

All in all I think this would be an excellent gift for a youth, hopefully starting them down that path to observing nature in the wild.

Finding Your Wings

Like many people who like to observe birds, I'm largely self-taught. Identifying birds takes a rather complex skill set, and it is the rare individual who grasps them in the first instance. Often bird watching or birding grows from encounters with birds, be it at a feeder or on a walk, and the question "Hmm, I wonder what kind of bird that is?"

Once the desire to identify the birds starts, just where does one begin to learn the skills you need to put a name to the myriad and often confusing different species of bird? For me, apart from an early curiosity in all things natural, it began with the gift of a Peterson Field Guide to the Birds (Eastern) from my Grandfather.  It is still the guide I most often reach for, I love its familiarity. Thumbing through the book at the illustrations I gradually learned to narrow down my choices by family, to look for the field marks, those subtle differences in a bird that help identify it, that help to put a name to it.  As my skill sets grew I got better and better at confusing species, at the differences that are found in individuals. 

I didn't have a mentor, someone who could pass on their knowledge and skills. A mentor (or mentors) is probably the best way to learn these skills, and I know I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Early on I relied too heavily on illustrations alone, and not things like range maps, species descriptions and the like. It could prove to be embarrassing. On a trip to the tropics our guide noticed that I was keeping a list and asked to see it. When he looked it over he asked where I saw a particular bird I had listed, and smiled when I told him. The bird I thought I'd seen high in the mountains was a particularly secretive bird of the lowland rainforest, and much larger than the bird I thought I'd seen. Relying too much on an illustration I made an error that I vowed I wouldn't again.

So, again, apart from a mentor or teaching yourself through trial and error, what can the beginning birder or bird watcher do to learn the skills they need to put a name on that bird in the binoculars. There is a new tool available. Finding Your Wings (A workbook for beginning Bird Watchers) by Burton Guttman (published by Houghton Mifflin Books) is a great new tool for, primarily, beginning bird watchers, although I'd suggest it would be a help for all but expert birders.  The book is set up as a course in learning bird identification, complete with exercises designed for doing at home and in the field.  It is designed to be used in conjunction with the Peterson Field Guide to Birds, either Eastern or Western version.  

The book is well thought out and logically organized, and the exercises take one through from the basics right through to problematic groups of birds, such as raptors, gulls, warblers and sparrows.  It is an excellent resource, one I wish I had when I was starting out. Mr. Guttman has done an excellent job, and I like the way he approaches bird watching, for instance his admonishment that knowing a birds name is only a start, not the most important thing about bird watching...

"... the belief that knowing the name of something gives you power over it, and that you know something important about a thing - a bird, for instance - when you know its name. But all you know is a word. The real importance of knowing a bird's name is that you can start to learn something significant about it - its life, its habits, where it lives, how it lives, and so on. Please don't be satisfied with just knowing its name."