From my hammock.. our poor tent...

I'm in my hammock Looking out on a sparkling Lake O'the Pines. This weekend is the pefect for camping. We r camping on the spur of a beautiful morn.
There r only a handful of Tenters with us and no one in our circle. We've biked the park without traffic. Fun.

We prepared in merely 2.5 hrs. We arrived n the dark even so set up n dinner over the fire went very well.

Last night a first.... The girls turned to each other "are you ready for bed yet?" soon they agreed and off they went. They even shared an air mattress. Amazing. I guess they we tired. It was 11:55!

We've listened to & watched a blue heron.

Maple stole bread and later meat n cheese to complete her lunch. Lovebug was not laughing with us after being told she was too close to Maple.

Sent from my wandering iTouch

Alas, from that point on we've gleaned camping lessons...

• Don't forget Dramamine needed from watching the waves
• Remember a book & knitting & cards for games

Lovebug and I headed home on the first sprinkles after a few chapters of Little House on the Prairie.

Where did this rain come from??? And when will it stop.

Hubbie and the little one bedded down... to awaken near midnight with water collecting on the tent.

Evacuated. We've left the tent in the rain... and hubbie & Ladybug got home about 1:30.

Today we must got get our poor wet tent. With what looked like 200# of water one of the poles has buckled... Oh, poor tent... now we're challenged to get it ready to camp again this month.

How do you dry a tent??!?? Oh, where's the lovely sunshine??

Grace! ss

That Campfire Smell

The mornings were wonderfully cool!!! Hubbie stoked the fire and it flamed right up.

We had breakfast duty for this weekend's camping. Somehow that first night I only sleep in those morning hours... thru the night we enjoyed the owl hoots, an unknown squalker and in the depth of the darkness we were entertained by a racoon... we followed him with a midnight clean up!!! The girls were up at 7... time for a cup of tea and breakfast.

8 Deer!!! Making a solo run to the other side of camp at 7p... Hubbie spied the deer just before the Trout Pond. He came and picked me up and five kids... and the deer yet outnumbered us... the doe and fawns were beautiful and calm at our watching... the young had lost their spots and dad was not in sight.
Nature!! The walking stick, shedding salamander & dragon fly entertained us. We killed our fair share of mosquitoes and ants. We only noticed the flies as we left!!

Fishing!! The girls claimed we broke the world record with 82 fish!! Wow!!! They caught a fish every minute for our fishing time!! Good thing that was not our dinner plan... and we released all save one for Ladybug to keep a bit longer.

Snakes Alive!!! The big kids found a long grass snake & Hubbie found a little garter snake. Hubbie is way comfortable with snakes... and he encourages his girls....

We also saw a baby squirrel that was adopted by friends... We saw it's eyes open over the weekend! They fed it puppy formula. How do you care for a baby squirrel??? They wrapped it in a towel and carried it in a pocket!!! They knew how!!!

The catastrophe for us was a sick little girl and a horrible mess in the tent... with HUGE help from Kara.... we recovered and made back up plans.... if she got up sick again... I was leaving....

By God's grace... we slept all night... no coons or anything!!! She felt great ever since!!!

Sunday coming home the vote was unanimous... everybody was ready to camp again!!! And laundry was not even done.... everything yet had that campfire smell...

Even so... I'm eager to go too!!! I'm glad we have another date!! (Just not this weekend!!) Want to come????

We found we are looking into a camping upgrade... the bikes are horrible to pack with... so now we either leave the bikes for scooters or get another method of hauling them.... but first Hubbie thinks we'll fix the brakes!!!

Loving it!!! Grace! ss

22 Fish!!!

Wow!! We had a wonderful weekend camping!!! We ended with catching 22 fish... a huge bonus!!

My Top 10 Camping!!

1. I set up the tent solo!!! The Taj... all by myself! in less than an hour!!!
   

   

   
   


2. The girls had a blast biking and biking and biking some more.
   

   

   
   


3. Blueberry Dumpcake in the dutch oven was yumm yummm!


4. Dry Ice... very cold is an understatement for our rock solid icecream!!! We could not even cut it. Finally we grilled the icecream :) And for the record -109.3°F is soooo cold!!


5. Sharing meals with friends has blessed me hugely!


6. Walking the trails took us to taste honeysuckly, read about & see many trees, girls learned to bike the gullies... and we nearly missed lunch! In the middle of all that hubbie & the girls were lost in a creek bed hunting tadpoles & crawfish!! Hubbies true delight!!
   

   

   
   


7. Braided pigtails are so very cute!! & a braided poney tail is perfect! Also, God provided girls for our weekend!! We were out numbered 8 boys to my 2 girls... Yikes. I'd wished for girls to borrow to camp with us!! God provided neighbor campers with girls 5 & 8 that biked & skated & shared their dog wiggles!!


8. The sleeping bag is warmer that a blanket... the fully functional facilities in the tent were an upgrade & carpets in the tent make it homey!


9. Night crawlers abound under logs & aside the driveways.
   

   

   
   


10. The little fishies... all 22 we very impressed with our night crawlers, one cricket, & 2 crawfish. Lovebug caught her first fish. Ladybug was saddened when the fish stole her last worm.
    

    

    
    

We are all tired!! We fished inplace of the ice cream evening. The car is unpack... Laundry is in process.... We ordered a pizza for dinner... and my bed is so much better than an air matress!!! Camping is a repeater!!! God is great!! Grace! ss

Comments
May. 6, 2008 - Posted by Jilann
Sounds like you all had a wonderful time camping! I'm hoping we'll get a few trips in this summer, as well.

May. 9, 2008 - Posted by Anonymous
Awesome camping trip!! We just got home from one and it was wonderful also! I am enjoying your blog!! Angie in GA

Tree Flying! Catapillar Naming! Camping!

Going 70mph..."Did you see that catapillar?" "Are you kidding... we're going 70!! A catterpillar???!!!!" Swinging us around we went back for that critter... Hubbie braved the traffic to catch it!!! A Giant Leopard Moth Catterpillar is HUGE!!!


Tree Flying!! Steve launched the kids from the trees!! The aftermath thru the forrest was evidence of the flights! I have some videos... humm.... to post them!????


With spring comes caterpillars!! Caterpillars were adopted and named... Cheetos, Peekaboo, SillySnake, Cheeto....


This Luna Moth joined our camp site. It liked the Hill's Christmas lights :)


It was a definate repeater!!! We had a great time!!! ss

My Fish and the circle of life...

Ok everyone it has been a long time since I wrote anything. I seem to be back to "full health"... several weeks ago we went biking in a local state park were I flipped over the handlebars of my bike and landed on my arm and head... no lasting problems... problems... problems so I guess I am well again. :)

Last night was the annual church men's/kids campout, camping with the kids moms get a free night. The campout is held on private property with a large private lake. I was not planning to go for two reasons. Our tent is so big it takes two days to setup... and if it is just the girls and I why bother, and last year I froze my hinny off.

Long story short I invited a friend to share the tent and so it only took us one day to set it up. This year the temperature was pleasant so the night was great and we enjoyed a cool crisp breeze.

Warning longwinded Hubby story to follow:

In the morning Lovebug and Ladybug both wanted to ride the paddleboat, but we could never figure out where the line was or who was in it next. Finally I threw each girl in the boat with someone (Ladybug, I literally threw because when I stepped in the boat it sank and so I pitched Ladybug and jumped for the dock, neither of us got wet).

Ladybug wanted to go fishing and I had heard there were a couple of boats around one end of the lake that no one was using so we investigated. The boat we settled on had a lot of water and a "small' leak... since we both know how to swim we jumped in just as Lovebug came along, she decided she did not want to get in a boat that might sink so Ladybug and I took off to the other end of the lake.

Ladybug had her 2 foot Scooby Doo fishing pole along and so she kept dropping the bait over the edge and of course the hook would get stuck as it went under the boat, lots of untangling.

The wind was against us but we finally got to the other end of the lake. I put a spinner on Ladybug's line and she threw it in and I showed her how to reel it in slowly. She was reeling in her first cast when I notice the line took off in the other direction and went under the boat... she was not paying attention so when she pulled the line in and had a bass flip into the boat she was quite surprised and excited, I was glad I bought those $0.64 stringers to put any catches on, I did not figure we would be throwing anything back. By the time she had had her fill of fishing she had caught four nice size bass and two large crappie.

When she walked into the camp carrying that stringer of fish she was standing 9 feet tall and walking like she had been fishing for years.

She put the stringer down at the dock and showed anyone who wanted to see it. Finally the catches were to be cleaned for lunch and so Ladybug proudly carried her stringer up to the gentlemen who were cleaning the fish. She was still holding the stringer when he took the electric knife and filletted the fish from the folks in front of us. When I finally caught up with her halfway to the lake and asked what she was doing she said she was taking them to let them loose.

Come to find out she and her friends had named the fish on the stringer and she did not want to take them to the gentlemen cleaning the fish. I told her that the fish had been out of the water too much and would probably die anyway even if they were released now. After many tears I handed the stringer to one of the men to deliver for cleaning. Ladybug wanted to go to the tent. We went and she cried because she did not want "Silver" and "Gold" (the crappie) to die and be eaten. She asked me when the fish die and when thier blood would stop. Needless to say she did not eat any lunch, I hope she will eat fish again someday.

I am reminded of the innocence that my girls possess and the tenderness that they harbor within them... I encourage all of you dads to step up to the plate and protect your child's innocence and teach them God's way. There is a circle of life... it is not defined by Disney.

Hubby

Comments
May. 9, 2008 - Posted by Anonymous
I loved this post..........especially the comment "there is a circle of life and it was *NOT created by Disney" Amen to that!!! =o) Be Blessed, Angie in GA

*ss added NOT