the kids with their hobo stoves
Redundancy is key in good prepping. We live in the D.C. area and I worry about another Snowmageddon that could result in multiple days without power. We have a nice propane fireplace, so we would have heat for quite a while without electricity, but cooking can really be a chore in the cold. We can always use our BBQ grill, but who really wants to go outside if it’s THAT cold? Therefore, here at our suburban fortress I keep multiple cooking systems in reserve for just such an emergency. I divide my cooking into two categories: home cooking and field cooking. While many of you probably have the exact same home cooking systems.
My first line of defense, for heating things up at home, is a case of sterno I picked up at Costco (for less than $20). I have two different sterno cooking setups: one 
is a fondue set, and the other is actually a hot beverage urn holder. Sterno is also super easy for the kids to use! Our second and third lines of ‘electricity-free cooking’ are my small cooking stoves, one uses propane and the other butane. The butane comes in a giant can that looks like a big can of hairspray. You don’t tend to see butane stoves as much as the propane ones, but we have had ours for some time and it’s a pretty compact piece of equipment. Typically I have each stove packed in a bug-out kit in the garage. 
Last, for the home cooking, I keep two of the small portable grills for better fuel economy in an emergency.
When it comes to field cooking, we have a small variety of hobo stoves that we have in our bug-out bags. These have been great for the kids to get hands on fire making experience. But my husband, Mr. Marine, likes something a little bit quicker when he is in the field so I thought you would enjoy my husband’s review of his new Jetboil Zip Stove. Since he goes to the field so often, we have recently invested in the Jetboil Zip Stove. This is a smaller version of the original Jetboil and cost about $70 online. The big plus here for him is that it is a self-contained non-stick stove and coffee mug/cook pot all in one, with a coozie, handle, bowl and even a sipper lid. The pot even serves as the holder for the stove and fuel. The compactness is awesome for field use. Please note, we bought the one without the igniter so ours requires a lighter or matches to start. The cook system gets its name based on the extreme flame it puts off, which looks very much like a jet engine burning!
After recently spending a week in the field with his new stove, Mr. Marine said he was boiling 16 oz. of water in about 3-4 minutes, half of which would be used for his meal and the other for his instant coffee. A Jetboil fuel canister costs about $5, and in a week of light usage he still had fuel. Compared to a number of past field stoves, from years of deployments, he found this one to be far superior, primarily because of its compactness, simplicity and rapid cooking speed. The biggest downsides are you have to buy the Jetfuel pre-filled fuel canisters, and he mentioned that the pot gets extremely hot. The sippy lid and coozie are there to protect from the hot metal, so make sure you use it. You won’t forget after the first time you burn your lip!
We intend to eventually buy a couple more and stick them in the bug-out bags. I could also see putting one in the vehicle if I was taking any sort of winter driving trip where we could encounter serious weather. For anyone who preps, camps, hunts, or hikes regularly, the Jetboil Zip is a great stove.
Those Jetboil stoves are kind of cool. But for some reason I am stuck on the Hobo Stoves myself. I am not saying they are beteer or more efficient by any stretch of the means. When I started with them (Hobo Stoves) last summer I had fun. Now what could I do to improve one, if I could improve one. While cooking some burgers on my gas BBQ I noticed there were diffusers over the gas burners. That got me to thinking the top of a Hobo stove is like a diffuser. What would happen or how would it cook if it that diffuser was lowered. Would it be effective at all. So since last summer I have been playing with diffusers. Small rectangular ones above the burning wood, round ones, and round conical ones. Now the next thing I am going to try is round conical stacked. First two, then maybe three. The conical would be large to a little smaller one and then maybe inverted small to large. Heck still got to figure out how to test them. I was thinking of just plain boiling water and timimg it.
Heck it keeps an old guy thinking which is a good thing. Plus, I like to tinker. I was just watching a show on inventions the other day and saw something that wow, just make it smaller and it would be great.
Anyway, I like reading these blogs. Keep up the great job your doing.
We would love to see some pictures of other hobo stoves. My personal favorite is made from an Ikea utensil holder. You can find some on YouTube if you are interested. I also like that the hobo stoves reminded my kids that there are cool, useful things that they can make themselves.
We have a couple of Solo Stoves. Love them. Small and portable. Would love something a little bigger for “Buggin-in” but good in a pitch.