Kelly Kettle

During the power outage the other day, I was getting a little desperate for my  morning cup of tea. And since it was a little chilly I thought it would be a good way to warm me up a bit.

So I got out the Kelly Kettle.

I had seen one advertised on one of the websites I follow and thought it was such a clever invention. I just had to have one for our back up plan. I think it is really intended for camping.

It has two basic parts to it. The top part is the kettle where you put the water. Except that it's not your typical kettle. It's hard to describe so I've taken several photos which I'll include below. The middle of the kettle is hollow and acts as a chimney, with the water chamber on the outer circle. The bottom part is a dish where you light the fire. You can use any small pieces of twigs or leaves. Luckily we had a little bucket of that inside that we use to light our fireplace. All of the pieces are stainless steel.

The hardest part for me was getting the fire going. I'm not a boy scout. I had matches, so getting it lit wasn't the problem. It was a little windy that day so I had to move it around a few times until I found a good spot. After several attempts I finally got the fire going. And then it scared me a little because the flame shot up higher than I'd expected, since I was on the porch.

I was silly at first to think I wouldn't know when the water boiled, so I used one of my kitchen thermometers. But after it started to boil and bubble up, there was no mistaking that the water was on a full boil because you could hear it.

The trickiest part was pouring the water from the kettle. The kettle is hot and the water is boiling! It has a wooden handle and a little safety chain on the side but the spout is bigger than I'm used to. I set my teapot on the ground nearby, but ended up spilling most of it on the ground.

With the power still out by midday, I had a second try later on. I still had trouble getting the fire going.