The Eagle Outdoors

I'll be honest, but I'm sad. Not under the covers and sleep the day away sad, but almost. Why so blue? PIGYS is over for another year. No more Smash burgers and homemade bread pudding. No more S'mores cookies, popcorn, and hot dogs.

PIGYS 2025 is over and, while there were fewer sales this year - not to mention the rain on Friday - I'd still call it an overall success. Fish poles, self-inflating air mattresses, spin-glos for steelhead, which, by the way, are already in a box marked "Julie's," so, apparently, I can't use those. A new cookstove, tow rope, fishing string, four Victor D-9 mallard duck decoys, and a bar stool, all rescued from the "free" pile alongside the road. Important stuff. Necessary stuff. Stuff I didn't even know I wanted and/or needed until I got it home and asked myself, "And I bought this...why?"

That's why I was 100 kinds of giggly when, during our tour of Puget Island during the recent PIGYS sale, I came across a box with the writing 'Kangaroo Kitchen.' Now the last thing I need is another camp stove. I have several of the old school Coleman single- and double-burner white gas stoves, which, if you're interested, are incredible. There's Camp Chef, more Coleman, and half a dozen single-burner butane units. However, I had not seen one like this before, so that's one, and two would be the very nice young lady only asking $5 for it. Three would simply be this is PIGYS!

So I buy this thing, get it home, and discover it's actually very well thought out and designed. The problem is/was I can't find much on the history of the stove. I read it was originally made, perhaps in the 1970s, by the Furphy Foundry in Australia, which would explain the 'kangaroo' element. However, the box copy says that if parts aren't available at your local sporting goods store to contact Modern Manufacturing in Renton, Wash. Here the plot thickens, as today, Modern Manufacturing in Renton makes products for the railroad industry. Back to square one and back to the outdoors. Let's just say the Kangaroo Kitchen is a neat little deal. It's small (14" x 16" x 5"), lightweight (#5), doesn't take up much space, and runs off relatively inexpensive propane. According to the back of the box, you can bake on it, grill, fry, smoke, toast, steam, and use it as a stove. Fill it with soapy water, and it doubles (quadruples?) as a dishwasher. Mine came with a handle, double burner, regulator, and a bag of wood chips, I'm guessing to fulfill the 'smoking' portion of the advertised possibilities.

Okay, maybe my new, blue-brushed, aluminum Kangaroo Kitchen is a gadget, but it's an old school gadget that I can see being used on the North Jetty while salmon fishing, out of the Aquapod during duck hunting down time, or when the grandkids are here in August, simply because they've never seen a 'kitchen' like this one. As for the hot dogs, we'll see, but I'm sure the cylinders of mechanically separated chicken, pork, and beef will be awesome.

Do me a favor, eh?

This Fourth of July weekend, please do me a favor. While I know drinking beer and setting things on fire can, for some, be entertaining, let's try really hard - if you're going to indulge your Pabst and pyrotechnic sides - to do both safely. It's still awfully dry out there, and it doesn't take much to get a good grass fire going. Then we at District 4 fire get the call, which we're happy to take, to come put out said grass fire, which has now grown to two acres in size and is progressing rapidly uphill into the timber. Now it's a problem. See where I'm going with this? Please be careful with the fireworks, and give it all some thought before you "flick your BIC" and light that fuse.

Valley quail in the Elochoman?

Sunday morning, I was sitting upstairs minding my own business (as I usually do) when I noticed a starling running across the end of the driveway; or, at least, I thought it was a starling, at first. No, sir. It was actually a valley quail, also known as a California quail. There he went, sprinting up the valley, across the road, and disappeared into the reed canary grass. A valley quail. I've seen a ton of the handsome little game birds in Eastern Washington, but this is the first one I've seen here in the Elochoman. Don't know where he came from; don't know where he went, but it sure was great to see the little guy.