The D.I.Y. Six Dollar Bush Pot

Hydration is an important health issue.

We do not give it a lot of thought as long as we are close to a faucet or can grab a bottle out of the cooler at the grab it and go store. Get away from the settlements and established parks and drinking water has to be either hauled in or processed from whatever sources you happen upon.

We need water to stay hydrated. We need water to flush toxins and other junk out of our systems. Without water we can be dried-out dead in 72 hours. We become debilitated and unable to function before we become dead.

My canteen holds a quart of water.

On a normal day I need to drink at least three canteens to keep hydrated. Let the summer heat come on like it does, along with sweat running out my pores like water through a sieve, and I need to increase that amount. That is easy to do when I can turn on a faucet. It is not so easy to do when there are no faucets and every source of water needs to be considered potentially suspicious.

I really like the Stanley cook pots. They are great for stewing up a small meal or boiling some water for tea or coffee. 20 ounces though is way short of the quart that it takes to fill my canteen. It is also a bit small for boiling a grown squirrel that would be too tough to chew if cooked on a spit over an open fire.

I pondered the cook-pot dilemma for some time and looked at some of the popular bush pot offerings that are be had. They are nice pots but the thrifty side of me balked like a mule at the price they go for.

I was in Walmart a few years ago picking up some things and found what I considered to be the perfect pot for my purpose. Stainless steel with a lid and holds a little shy of half a gallon. It was not in the pots and pans section. It was in, of all places, the pet section and made to hold dog treats.

The pot cost me a whopping $6.00.

My thrifty side latched onto it and brought it home.

The lid had a soft rubber gasket on it that I pulled off and threw away as soon as the pot entered the house. Two little holes were drilled, and a piece of metal coat hanger was attached as a bail.

A stainless cup with folding handles sits in the bottom of the dog biscuit pot. The Stanley pot sits inside the cup leaving room for stuff like a dish rag or pot holder.

The pot comes with some stamped embossing around it. Dog tracks.

I told Shirli that I thought about hammering out the embossing. She told me those were bear tracks and to leave them alone.

Yep.

Bear tracks.

That’s what they are.

This pot has accompanied me on a good many trips over the years. It is still serving its repurposed purpose. Sadly, though, I have never seen another one like it in the pet section of that chain store.