[Sca-cooks] Beverages

[UlfR]

[Gunthar; is this getting too off topic for the cooks list?]

david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> [2003.09.28] wrote:
> Space and weight were important considerations in period, too--I 
> expect a pack mule carries a lot less weight than an automobile. 

According to my sources (Christina Dodwell; An Explorers Handbook. 1986)
a donkey can carry 150 lbs, a horse 200 lbs and a pony it varies greatly
depending on size (she gives the example of 160 lbs for a 14.4 h.h[1].
SO conservatively you should be able to carry 200 lbs of gear, on one
donkey and your own back. My Volvo has a listed capacity of around 500 kg,
including passengers. But the car also carries the passengers, which the
pack animal does not. At least in Sweden this leaves perhaps 20
kg/passenger for a full car, i.e. far less than one pack donkey per
person.

> Wouldn't it be an interesting project to figure out a period tent 
> design that was comparable in weight to your dome tent? It wouldn't 
> be a pavillion with a diameter of twenty feet--but it might be a 
> small gjeteld.

I've been looking at this problems, since one of my Plans[TM] is to some
day go for a (multi-day) hike using only period gear. It does not really
make sense to even attempt modern low impact no trace backpacking
techniques to this idea.

> I do, for example, have a period rope bed design that's comparable in 
> weight and bulk to a modern folding cot.

But presumably only the upper class (or rich merchants) would have
bothered to carry one? When a few minutes can yield a bough bed that is
as comfortable and as warm?

UlfR

[1] This can be compared to yaks (25 lbs) and camels (600 lbs) in the
same book.

-- 
UlfR Ketilson                             ulfr at hunter-gatherer.org
Graduate life: It's not just a job.  It's an indenture.