First of all, I love the idea that when you all give me advice, it is also here for future full-timers, eggers to see forever!

This thread is based on my other one really, I keep hearing that people find they took to much and end up getting rid of it. So, for posterity's sake, can you tell us what those things were that you took and ended up not needing?

I'm not a full-timer, but I do use my trailer frequently.
I used to pack a 110volt house type Coffeemaker for when we had hookups AND a stovetop Coffee Percolator for when we boondocked. Now we have one Coleman Stovetop Coffee Maker that we use all of the time.

How does it work? With heat from the bottom? Never seen anything like it...

Yes, you place it over a burner on your stove, which provides the heat.

I guess that explains the Stovetop part

Monica:

Here is an address showing a picture of the coffee maker I use....on the road as well as when I'm home. It makes good coffee, is easy to use, relatively small in size and every cup is fresh....

http://aerobie.com/Products/aeropress.htm

Things I ended up tossing

LOTS OF STORAGE CONTAINERS

It took me quite a long time to settle in on containers that worked for me based on where I wanted to put them and what went in them. Rubbermaid in particular made lots of money on me, they shouldn't need a bail out.

nothing beats a french press for coffee. your tea kettle for hot water soups tea... etc just add water press and presto perfect coffee and only 3 parts to clean with no filter to replace.

What a valuable thread for trip planning!
My Mother always told me to plan a few days ahead of your departure time. That would give you time to eliminate half of the clothing you packed and double up on the money. It works well so far.

Link to my Trailer's Inventory List

Since I wrote that list I have weeded out the following items:

• 12. 1 crocheted afghan lap throw (hand made) it's back in the house
• 13. 1 commercially woven lap throw ditto
• 14. 4 stuffed teddy bears (plus 1 vibrating frog) keep only 1 in trailer, rest are back in house
• 25. Corning ware 9 cup stovetop coffee percolator replaced it with the Coleman Stove-top drip-ulator
• 26. Mr. Coffee 8 cup electric drip coffee maker (with thermal carafe)
• 28. Hamilton Beech 12 speed blender I'll let someone else make margaritas
• 42. Plastic 3 drawer chest in closet reconfigured closet with shelving
• 46. 12 Volt battery Camping Lantern repacked with tent
• 47. 1 each 25’ extension cord & 50’ extension cord gave away 25' 30amp cord

1 item been ADDED.

• removable 5000 btu window air conditioner

It rides in a box under the bed/dinette until needed because I'm too cheap to buy a roof mounted one.

??????

Ha, good one!

I used to use a French Press on the boat, but even with using one of those Rubbermaid type spatulas to "pre-clean" it, I still found that it took a lot of water to rinse it out (supply limited). When friend broke mine accidentally, I decided to try something else.

Now I'm using a Chemex, which is essentially a drip coffee maker and has filters. Even though I liked not using filters, the water saved in not cleaning the press pot has driven me to them. I like that it is glass.

I think if I were to head out again, I might get a drip filter to fit over a metal Thermos™ I don't like that they are plastic and you are pouring boiling water though them, but maybe I can find one that isn't. Or maybe I'll just lug a smaller Chemex.

I drink most of my coffee cold, so I've also been thinking of trying cold brewing, but haven't yet.

Raya

I use a Bialetti stove-top espresso maker with the built-in filter. Easy to clean out, even without water (paper towel).

http://www.bialettiusa.com/bialetti/

do all of them have a filter? after our last camping trip during easter we broke the French press. this would be a great replacement. it wont be as delicate as glass.

I too use a stove top cappuccino maker but I have the 6 cup model-a mistake-too small for one of my cups. I should have gone with the nine. And, you can clean it with just a finger and a tiny piece of tp, too, with no water. No filter to toss, just biodegradable spent coffee grounds.

There is no filter. Water is placed in the bottom reservoir. Coffee is in it's own container above it, connected with a hollow tube to the water below.There is a built in metal filter below and above the freshly ground coffee beans. Heated water is forced up into the coffee through the tube, through the fresh coffee, then on up into the brewed coffee reservoir. When you hear the burbling of the last of the water forced up, the coffee is made and is now on top, ready to pour. Once cool you can unscrew it, dump out grounds and clean with a finger around the used coffee grounds and they just fall out. Ingenious in its simplicity. Almost all southern Europeans homes have them. I add powdered milk to it and pretend it is a "Cafe con Leche" from Spain. Really, It is not even close but it is better and simpler than drip variety-to me, at least.

Curtis,

If you like a French press they are made in plastic. Our local sports shop carries them as well as REI sports outlets throughout the US. I have one I purchased many years ago to carry in my backpack, it now resides in the closet as I have a stainless steel. Here's a link to the various presses they carry

http://www.rei.com/search?query=french+pre...amp;button.y=11

HI, removable? Please elaborate on this - need one for my Compact II. Thanks, pat

I also have the plastic French Press mug like that in Joy's REI link above for backpacking (Can also be used for tea, soup, etc.) -- I keep it in the back of truck with small camp stove in case I want a roadside cup of coffee in pleasant surroundings.

I also have the Bialetti Mukka Express which makes a Cappuccino or a Latte with real milk (or dried milk if you mix it up first) and I came to love -- More expensive, however!

BTW, dried milk seems to actually be skim or no-fat milk, when I look at the nutrition tables.

Right now, for me, all that is in the past, although I hope it will be again in the future. I had more cancer in my tongue, so they took the whole thing out in December. I am currently getting all my fluids, nutrition and meds through a PEG (stomach feeding) tube -- I could pour cooled coffee in there but wouldn't be able to taste it, just get the caffeine effects! Likely, I have a lifetime sentence to the PEG for primary nutrition, but they did leave a tiny bit of my original tongue, along with some taste buds, so when the swelling finally goes down (I also breathe through a tracheostomy tube), I may be able to learn to swallow again and have a cup of coffee!! I really miss the coffee!! The canned food, poured or pumped down the PEG, does make menu planning a lot simpler!

Easy for me to say, without a tongue problem, but one of my favorite parts of coffee is the smell. Same goes for bacon.

Pete, I had just a very minor taste of what you're going through when (a number of years ago) I had a small polyp type thing taken off the end of my tongue. Until it healed it was in pain and basically out of commission. Boy, until then I had no idea how useful a tongue is, and how hard it is to eat/drink/talk without it. Of course that first weekend I went with friends on a fall trip to Apple Country and as we went from orchard to orchard could only watch while they were all biting into crisp, juicy apples and sampling tempting hunks of caramel.

I hope your healing progresses well, Pete, and that you're soon sipping coffee again.

Raya

It's been a fun year -- In June, they took the front third of my tongue and replaced it with a hunk of tissue they harvested from my left wrist (called a free flap) -- I was just learning to eat and talk without the real use of the new part when we found more cancer further down in my throat -- The stripped out the new and old, and replaced with a large hunk of tissue harvested from my right leg, but this one doesn't move at all, plus part of the front part died, so I don't even have the filler in the front part of my mouth. I am just starting to be able to make some intelligible noises, but that's interfered with by the constant flow of fluids in my mouth and airway. I am getting good at txt'ing with my cell!

We really don't know what we have until it's gone, even as simple as drinking a cup of coffee! One of the guys on the oral cancer forum has been pouring wine down his PEG -- I tried a beer in the pump bag, and it put me to sleep almost instantly -- Waste of a good beer (Stella Artois).

Link to my easily removable window air conditioner.

Geez, Pete, what a year. Holy cow. Thank goodness for texting and Internet: You sound perfectly articulate here And it's good to be able to connect with people on forums, such as your wine-drinking bud (and us).

Did you ever see the Hitchcock movie "Rear Window"? I've thought about how dull that movie would be to watch now - just us looking over her shoulder at a computer screen while she surfed the web

Raya

Interestingly, I've learned that there are a number of ways to get from internet to cell phone, and the reverse, with txt msgs once one has puzzled out which carrier is served by the person you are trying to send a msg to. When someone calls me, I just let it go to voice-mail and then listen to it. I can even send a txt to a land-line phone and the Verizon system will recognize that and convert it to a spoken message (but that doesn't work as well with office systems like it does with private numbers).

If I were going out in my Scamp tomorrow, the food planning is easy, just plan on four cans of "food" per day, plus the bags to gravity feed or run with my Kangaroo Pump ('Roo bags, I call them) or the big syringes to hand-pump the food and water. A case of food lasts six days and weighs about 16 pounds. I like to set the 'Roo up with a full bag and pump it in at night while I read and then sleep, but that might not work so well dry-camping, but the gravity feed would be OK (Adjustable).

Suddenly, I don't need pots, pans, dishes, cups, flatware, spices, cutting boards, etc., just a place to discard the empty cans and the used 'Roo bags! And the only LP I would need is for my ODS LP heater.

So, once again, what one takes and doesn't take is dependent on one's camping style!

If anyone wants to read an amusing thread on having a portion of one's tongue replaced, read this rather long one from my oral cancer forum:

http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthr...31&page=all

Pete,

We always know in advance that a post by you will contain accurate, on topic, often in depth, useful information. To learn of your problems that you gloss over while helping others, adds to our admiration. Good luck and God bless you.

Des & Diane

Pete,
I just read the last page of messages on your support forum and didn't know whether to laugh or cry reading your messages. ( I was doing both at one time )
BTW the cheese cloth effect on your leg is used on burns. I have three of them on my legs.
Hang in there Pete.

Bill K

If anyone wants to read an amusing thread on having a portion of one's tongue replaced, read this rather long one from my oral cancer forum:

http://oralcancersupport.org/forums/ubbthr...31&page=all
[/quote]

Well, I weeded out two comforters, three sets of sheets, one big bath robe, a step for my door in a box that wouldn't fit my trailer that was in here when I got it, an alarm clock (what was I thinking?) and this morning my percolator coffee pot that just added to the heat and humidity here in TX. I know you all have given me some great suggestions for coffee pots, but I am not a big coffee drinker really, so when I was wanting some this morning, I figured I would try my percolator, ended up with "dew" throughout my trailer and it is humid enough here, so in the trash it went. I will be going through and organizing (again, endless organizing right now) again this evening when it cools off. My TV is loaded and loaded wrong with all the weight in the back and now I am pretty sure I can get about a third of that in the dumpster. Most will be writing materials that I wanted "just in case", yeah, okay, just need printer ink and printer paper and envelopes! Don't know what is in some of it cause I was in a hurry and there are two boxes I didn't even go through from my previous home, so need to do that. There is some valuable storage space in the trailer I have not been utilizing well either, will remedy that. My list of things will grow and I will add them once done this evening. Wish me luck on getting rid of a third of my crap!

I love my Black and Decker one cup coffee maker. There is no mess to clean up. The appliance uses paper filters that clean up by shaking them out of the cone and throwing them in the trash-- and coffee drips straight into my mug. I tried a french press [I think it is the aeropress] -- great coffee, but a bit messy to use. Although I have to brew cups one at a time, I've still found it to be my best solution.

The only draw back I've seen is that it does require electricity.

Usually the coffee maker sits on a small table outside our 13', and mornings consist of getting up, throwing on some clothes, and enjoying the peaceful morning while sitting outside, brewing coffee, and watching the campground come alive. When it's not in use, it fits under the kitchen sink, on the upper shelf.

I have the four cup B&D from Wally and it has been great. Sherry, you don't have to have electricity to use these. Just boil a pot of water on the stove and slowly pour it in the top. We use ours boondocking all the time, and if we have hookups, then all the better.

Me, too!

Does anyone have ideas for an oven? I thought I'd like to replace the microwave with a convection oven, but they're WAY too big. We don't do the camp-fire iron pot thing, so I'm thinking there should be some other ideas out there.
Christine
PS: God Bless you Pete, you've given me so much advice.

Do you cook outside and have a propane/gas stove? If so, a Coleman Portable Camp Oven may work for your needs (do not use inside... generates waaaay to much heat). They've been around for years. My Mom used one to bake berry pies and biscuits when we went camping back when I was a kid. Coleman Portable Camp Oven

I have a toaster oven and works for my (very small) baking needs. I've baked cookies in it (about four at a time) and also the very necessary toasted cheese sandwich (with hot soup) on wet and chilly Pacific NorthWET campouts.

Toaster ovens are great. For just the two of us, I hardly ever heat up the 'big oven'.

Between a toaster oven and an electric skillet, you would be pretty well set.

http://www.rivalproducts.com/category.aspx?cid=449

The 11" square is $19.96 at Walt Mart.

Chef Rogér

Of course it depends on whether you camp with "shorepower" electricity or not. Powering either a toaster oven or an electric skillet by solar panel would be a challenge. I suppose a generator would work, but I don't have figures to hand.

The Coleman oven will work over most campstoves, so you can "power" it with propane, butane, white gas, etc. if you're boondocking.

Raya

I have a Black and Decker Toast-R-Oven Countertop Convection Oven. Purchased it at WalMart. I like it better than the old Toaster oven I had. This one is deeper so I can put a small pizza in it where I coiuldn't with the other one.

I doubt you'd ever be able to use solar. I happen to have a generator if I choose to use the Toaster Oven or the Microwave when dry camping. The micro has it's permanent place but to use the toaster oven I either put it on the stove cover or outside on a table. The exterior of it gets much hotter than the micro so I'd never put it in a cabinet.

Mine too Joy. It rides/stores in a cabinet, but I put it on the stove cover for cooking. Besides those cookies baking need to have the aroma swirl around inside the trailer!

A good toaster oven or the convection combo Joy described sound like a great idea if you have shore-power. I tried a cheepy just for biscuits or that 4-cookie batch once in a while. Didn't check the specs on the box - when we opened it, discovered it had 'on/off' and timer dials, but NO temp. indicator - DUH! And the instructions also said to 'broil' the top of items during last few minutes of cooking to brown - NOPE. That little learning experience was donated to the Quartzsite Women's Club Rummage Sale. At the same sale, I found a vintage (from the 50's) "Westbend Ovenette" in original box. Do a 'google' - this is quite a gadget ... a stove top arrangement complete with TEMPERATURE gauge. Since we went from RV park hookup to daughter's electicity, I haven't tried it yet, but it should be fun to use, and does not take up much storage space. If I don't like it, I'll eBay-it and make a profit! Happy campin' and cookin' - L 'n D

Good idea. I hadn't thought of that, but it certainly would work.