Currently, I Am the Mosquito Magnet…

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mosquito Magnet. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m sure you folks in the Adirondacks will understand what I mean… I don’t know what it is about me– maybe because my body temperature is slightly higher than normal– but bugs LOVE me. I cannot go into my backyard or on any camping trip or hiking excursion without first slathering myself with bug spray. I am a little concerned about the chemicals in the bug spray… I have no idea what effect they have on me… but if I go in the woods without any protection, I am assaulted by black flies and mosquitoes. We traveled to Nichol’s Pond to see the old Oneida Indian settlement there, and I hadn’t brought any bug spray with me. As soon as we stepped out of the field and into the swampy woods, I was attacked. The same thing for my backyard (it’s forested and there’s a stream and a swamp next door). I have to be careful, because there’s West Nile virus here in New York… the hives and itching are bad enough from the blasted insects, last thing I need is to get sick, GRRR.

So I watched this video about something called
The Mosquito Magnet with great interest. It’s not bug spray– you don’t spread any chemicals on your body or clothing– it’s a gasoline-powered device that draws mosquitoes to the machine, where they are killed. Watch the end, when the guy shows how many mosquitoes he zapped after a month. Whoa.

There are more testimonials and more information about The Mosquito Magnet at the
mosquito magnet review website. Some folks bring the machine along when they go camping, too. Nice! Since it’s gas-powered, you don’t need electricity (and electrical extension cords) to run it. There’s a solar-powered device, too. Pretty neat! Check it out– it may just save your summer!

Cell Phone Gear

While I’m on a camping/hiking travel gear mode, I thought I’d post about this, too: cell phone accessories. The cell phone has completely transformed camping, I think. When once you were at the mercies of whatever nature could throw at you, while you ate and slept in a strange, forested, and completely unknown area, the cell phone hooks you up with the outside world and modern technology in an instant. I have only had my cell phone for a year, and it has really become an indispensable part of traveling. I even keep a phone book in my van, so that I can search the yellow pages for stores or services, if I need them. So are you needing accessories for your cell, or for your Blackberry, GPS, PDA, or other gadget? Check out SFPlanet for a complete listing of accessories and really comparable prices, including soem great deals on travel charger sets and more.

The Perfect Travel Light!

We’re hoping for an autumn camping trip in the autumn months (fewer bugs, nice cool weather), and I am slowly planning our itinerary and making a gear list. We promised the kids we’d check out a nice “rugged” place in the Adirondacks this year. The Lake George/Pilot Knob area is perfect, BUT it’s a three hour drive! So I’m slashing our gear list to include only things we absolutely, positively need. Got any suggestions?

We’ve already decided to ditch the metal kerosene lamp (which is about as large as a basketball) with its space-consuming container of fuel. I was looking at flashlights and saw THIS: a shake flashlight! Talk about cool!!!! Takes no batteries– you shake the thing to energize it. Something like that– having to shake it to get it to work– would also keep the kids busy, lol. I love the idea of an eco-friendly flashlight. The store I found it at, EcoGeekLiving, is here. Check it out for some great travel gear!

We’re all going on a camping holiday…

I have been too many weekend music festivals and, during each one, I have realised that I have not thought of everything one could possibly need for such an event. I have taken my children to festivals when they were younger and these trips necessitated a great deal of planning and packing for.

I have four children so we would take two tents, each one to hold one adult and one child for safety reasons. I was aware that many couples shared one tent with all the children together in another but I was never happy with that.

With all the experience of the past, my camping equipment for a weekend music festival nowadays includes, of course, the tents and sleeping bags. These are two three-man tents, with their accompanying ground-sheets and so on. We still take both tents even though the children are older now and less inclined to come with us. Our ‘spare’ tent has come in handy on more than one occasion when fellow festival-goers have, for some reason, forgotten to bring their tent or have even lost it on their journey to the festival site. Along with the tents, we take a two-burner Primus stove with two spare canisters; we do not, of course, expect to empty the canisters but I always like to be prepared in case we end up trapped somewhere and find our journey home delayed for some reason.

We take a six-person picnic set because the one we have contains so many useful things besides the plates, dishes, cups and cutlery. It also contains plastic tumblers, two flasks, even a hip flask, condiment sets and small canisters which we fill with the essentials like teabags, coffee, drinking chocolate, sugar and powdered milk. The set includes some plastic food storage containers which stack inside each other and are useful for all sorts of things.

Our camping supplies include three saucepans, which stack inside each other. These have detachable handles so do not take up much space. We take cooking utensils such as slotted spoons, ladles, serving spoons, a fish slice and barbecue utensils. Of course, we always make sure we take a barbecue, both our small permanent one and one of the disposable ones that are readily available these days. We include a box of Cook’s matches as well as a couple of lighters; we have a lovely Zippo lighter that we keep in the picnic box, fuel for the lighters, candles, a wind-up torch and a wind-up radio; these are a boon for camping trips because they remove the need to keep remembering to pack batteries.

Our camping equipment also includes wet wipes which are so useful for wiping hands and faces if you cannot get access to clean water; wipes which contain mosquito repellent, sun-block sticks, sun-tan lotion, after sun lotion, shower gel, shampoo, hair conditioner, hand soap and hand wash, travel wash detergent for washing clothes, clothes pegs and washing lines, including the circular ones that can hold lots of small items like socks and so on.

One of the most important things we take is our first aid kit which includes the usual plasters, bandages, scissors, tweezers, lint, dressings, wound cleaner, safety pins, latex gloves, cotton wool and medical wipes. I also take surgical spirit which is useful for cleaning the skin around wounds, almond oil which is great for dry skin, tea tree oil, ideal for spots, calendula ointment, for bruises, bicarbonate of soda which can be used for dealing with stings, cleaning the teeth if you’ve forgotten the toothpaste and combating indigestion. With the first aid kit, I also pack such basics as Paracetamol, medicine for upset stomachs, glucose tablets and vitamin C for anyone feeling under the weather.

Of course, along with all this, we take our non-perishable food and drink, bottled water just in case the campsite water is not drinkable, and a water container for storing water for washing ourselves, our clothes and our dishes, a washing-up bowl and a dustpan and brush to keep the inside of the tents clean.

We love our camping trips and hope to carry on taking them for many years to come; it was a lot of fun when the children were young but is much more relaxed these days.

Watch That Camper

Out camping on a trip and need to make a stop at the ATM machine? Here’s a little “safety” video to keep in mind when that thought of cash crosses your mind. Woh hoh!!!!

http://view.break.com/534959 – Watch more free videos

Hat tip Steven Video.