Everything But The Kitchen Sink

  When my kids were small and lived at home, we used to camp out a few times each summer.  Now as my kids have kids of their own, mom and I seemed to have drifted away from the camp out days.  (It may have something to do with the fact that old arthritic joints and air mattresses don't work well together.)     I will say that the practice of camping out did get passed down to the next generation and now their families take time to tent and sleep on air mattresses.    Once a year we all still get together and spend a weekend at a park somewhere.

    When we get together, Pam and I always take care of the kitchen.   We bring the pots and pans.   We bring the seasonings and whatever will be needed to make the meals.    Currently there are 17 of us and there are a variety of dietary specialties that need to be met.   (Being the chief cook, it can be a little taxing at times.)   Next to sawing wood, I love doing it. 
   Over the years our kitchen tote has expanded and changed in appearance.   Lately we pack everything into totes and unload it all at the first available picnic table.

   Totes work well for this process in case it would rain (which always seems to happen at our family camp outs) as you can snap the lid on and keep everything inside dry. 
   As I have said before, it is my goal to use up some of my wood pieces from my scrap pile and I came up with the idea that I would build my own kitchen box for all the seasonings, coffee, tea, trash bags, oil,  and the other "stuff" you need when one cooks meals. 

    As you can see from the very first picture, a tote tends to give you some wasted space.   They slope outward from the bottom to the top and they have round corners.   I had two thoughts. (Amazing isn't - Two at the same time.)  The first was to just use up some of my cheap plywood scraps that I had on hand, which I did.   The second was ---- shoot I forgot what the second one was... 
  Anyway if this kitchen idea does not work so well, we can always set this on its side on the patio next year and plant some marigolds in it.

   As always when I have these hair ball ideas, there was no plan for this project.  It was build as you go.   I ran into a problem that I was a little mystified as to what to do.   I wanted a door on the front that when opened it would swing all the way around and lay flat on the top of the box.   In other words the hinge would have to open 270 degrees.   Normal hinges just open a half of a circle or 180 degrees.  I did see where I could order some special hinges online that would work, but for this project I did not want to spend that kind of money.

    I figured out a way that I could make old barn door hinges work.    I have to admit that they looked a little tacky when I first installed them.  Pam suggested that I paint them black which I did.   I'm not sure that doing that was a big improvement but it made me feel like it was somewhat better in appearance.    I had to keep reminding myself that this is something that will only get used once a year.    I do think it will be easier to pack in the back of the truck taking less space than the tote did.     While that box itself is made out of low grade plywood the door in front is just a piece of particle board left over from an old entertainment center that I tore apart.  I placed everything that  was in the tote into this new (Dagwood designed) kitchen box and when we actually think about using it we will be able to pack a little more stuff into it.
   My concern now is that I have three kids and only one kitchen box.   I know that all three are going to just love it.  I wonder when that time comes someday to divide the family estate if there will be a battle or a big argument over who gets the kitchen box.  Hmmm.

Nope!!!   You can meow all day long.   You can act like we are the best of friends.  You can rub up against that box all you want, but you are definitely not in the will.