Random Access Memories

March 7, 2009

My Picnic Set

by @ 6:24 pm. Filed under Outdoors, Personal

So i’m sure you have seen a “Picnic Backpack”, a nice backpack with special pockets for plates/napkins/silverware for 4, a corkscrew, salt & pepper shakers, etc. All very overly pretty but not overly functional, not to mention heavy. This set alone is 85$ and 8lbs without a blanket.

Picnic Set (standard)

While the idea is a good one, notice how the backpack is filled. Every little thing in it’s own little place nice and pretty and tons of wasted space. But i’m a practical kind of guy, the idea of excess space and weight in something i’m going to carry for miles and miles does not really appeal to me.

So, I set about making my own “functionality-inspired” picnic backpack. (NOTE! This is not a cheap set, it’s a design built for compactness and weight reduction not frugality)




1 backpack (just about anything will do) I went with a black Everest bag with 2 side pockets for water bottles – $19.99

4 lightweight Polypropylene REI plates – $2.75 ea.
plates

4 sets of REI plastic utensils (I took out the big spoons, you can substitute titanium but the cost will go up exponentially) – $2.25ea. set
utensils

4 plastic collapsible wine glasses (The bottom unscrews from these and fits upside-down in the top) – $6.95ea.
glasses

1 “cork extractor” (I don’t like corkscrews, they mangle a perfectly re-usable cork too much) – $5 on Ebay
cork extractor

1 plastic orange peeler – $1.99
orange peeler

1 combination salt & pepper shaker – $3.95
salt & pepper

1 cutting board – $3.00
cutting board

1 decent quality knife (something that will hold an edge) – $9.99

5 cotton hand towels (4 napkins and one prep towel) – $9.99

1 Platypus bag for leftover wine – $7.95

1 Ikea Cotton Blanket – $29.99
ikea blanket

1 sheet heavy dropcloth plastic (For wet or muddy ground) – $2.50




My grand total? $140

Total weight? 7lbs, 1oz (3lbs 12oz without the blanket)

Not too bad I figure, the blanket weighs a considerable amount on it’s own but the cotton doubles as a certain amount of padding. I could have gone with a poly “microfiber” blanket and saved alot of weight (and I still might).

Any ideas on what else I might want to add? I think I might go with a slightly larger backpack for rain gear, hiking goods, etc. The blanket takes up a considerable amount of space in this one (I bought the backpack before the blanket). I think i’ll add a Frisbee, or the Aerobie I have laying around.

The next project is a second backpack cooler that is both light and functional.

Lasivian's small corner of the web.
(Please wipe your browser before entering so you don't track in mud)

Internal Pages:

Categories:


Misc:

Si hoc legere scis mimium eruditionis habes

Does your brain hurt yet?

retesostft vntphoim enuni toegtieittyft nece n tiog siheun sec eevd go doyvweelprnnstt ievtg h i tieosddfrntea ytiedtt uryrieyhmhsug rer hieoywle unie tnxeref nfls ettdsiedte fnsiei fdhfZ

(I can't remember how I encrypted this cipher , the first person to crack it gets 10$ via Paypal.)

My Email:

01001010011101010111001101110 10000100000011010000110100101 10010001101001011011100110011 10010000001101101011110010010 00000110010101101101011000010 11010010110110000100000011010 01011011100010000001110000011 01100011000010110100101101110 00100000011100110110100101100 11101101000011101000000110100 00101000001101000010100100110 00110000101110011011010010111 01100110100101100001011011100 10000000110011101101101011000 01011010010110110000101110011 000110110111101101101
WTF?

How long the USA has been under corporate rule:

Search Posts:

Archives:

December 2024
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

External Links:

Things i've read lately:

QR Codes

(Scan these on your cellphone)

My website URL

My E-mail

other:

38 queries. 0.515 seconds