Recently

We have had a few days home recently, just hanging out and reading and taking care of things around here.  Last week, there were a handful of chilly days that kept us snugged up inside with the heat on. The wind kicked up one day and the boys decided the best thing to do would be to fly the dog.

 Harnessed and tied with kite string to a trash bag, Zep sits-if a little apprehensively-while Jess looks on in amusement.

 Modifications are made, line shortened, Zep turned around to catch the wind better...

and...then Jake panics and goes to unhook her, she takes off thinking THIS is the very best game ever: Chase!
He unharnessed her and she never made it off the ground.  I did see some drawings later that suggested the addition of a ground-control device addition for future attempts.

By Thursday, it had warmed back up and we went to Heather's to play and celebrate birthdays.

Matt made this for dinner one evening, I called it Cream of Cabbage soup and it was devoured in record time.  It has one small savoy cabbage, a bag of frozen peas, a bag of frozen okra, 4 cups of vegetable broth and a container of the new Philadelphia cream cheese savory seasoning and a block of firm tofu, cubed up.  It was SO good.

 I decided I wanted to learn to French braid, so I watched a youtube video and practiced on Chan.  Here is my first attempt:

Backpacking 101

Since we have everything to get started backpacking, even if some of it's just temporary until we can budget for more-like tennis shoes instead of decent boots-we move to step 2 of getting ready, which is getting in better shape.  Well, really step 2 should be finding cheap, light, nutritious food that all 3 kids and I will eat, since that will undoubtedly take a good deal longer.

I have read a few books on backpacking and the most stressed muscle group to strengthen for better hiking over-all is...the abs.  Unlike nearly every other muscle group, the abs can be worked every single day.  Imagine my joy.  One person simply said to 'crunch until it burns' for the amount of workout required. 

I downloaded several photos for different crunches that work different parts of the abs and yesterday, the kids and I lined up in the living room floor and got started.  Today, none of us can tie our shoes because it hurts too much.  Obviously the whole 'every day until it burns' is going to take a while to work up to, although today Jake warned Matt that he had been doing crunches for 'almost two days' when they were wrestling earlier.

The general consensus is 3 months to get in physical shape to tackle a long (week or so) trip.  About 2 weeks to start seeing results from core work.  I have wanted to do more core strengthening for the past year, but without a real reason, it never made it to the upper levels of my consciousness whenever I was looking for something to do during the day.

The other thing I am working on more is getting enough water in the day.  I bought a 1 liter bottle today, that's 4 cups, so 3 of those a day will have me in good shape.  Now to get the kids on board...I hope diluted pink lemonade counts as water somehow. 

Braces

I call this one 'pony' and 'sailboat', as in, I coulda boughta

Nettlevan

I love my van.  Despite her erratic check engine light because of that one hose, she's been nothing but a good-performing vehicle that has always gotten us there and back again.  And sometimes hauled things for me.

Today, we were going to run some errands and go to the local walking trail and get gas for our mower and so on.  On my way out, I stopped at Judy's next door to see if she needed mower gas, too.  Matt was going to mow Tuesday over there while she is not feeling well.  Already I am 2 points to the good for karma.  I am helping a neighbor and helping my husband.  She's has enough gas, so I head out.  BAM.

I backed into the pole for the security light.  Not one of 5 things or 10 things to avoid, not a rock that was 4 feet high and impossible to see out the rear-view, but a 25 foot tall pole that has been there, in the same place, for the past 15 years and then some.  I have seen it almost every single day of my life here.  The kids and I have gone down to watch bats swoop around it on summer nights more than a few times. 

I smashed out the tail light cover, banged up the bumper and dented the side panel on the van.  I picked up all the shards and taped them back together and taped them on the van, I have to get Chan and Jake to the ortho in the morning.  2 missed appointments would be $90.  They don't screw around with last-minute cancellations and they blocked a whole hour for Chan because she's getting her braces put on tomorrow.  (Jake told her they use a hot glue gun)

I THINK I can just replace the cover, but the housing is kind of bent up, so I am not really sure.  I sent out e-mails to several junkyards that have Kias hoping I can score one that way.  They run just under $70 new, so it's not the end of the world, just sucky as all get out because I really love my van and now she has been banged up on both sides.  That WAS my pretty side.

Richard Martin Trail Part 1

Today we met Gina in Athens and walked the southern 6 miles of the trails to trails Richard Martin trail.  It was a GREAT walk, the day was perfect and the trail was darn-near flat.

 We parked at the roughly half-way point after leaving her car at the southern terminus.  The plan was to walk to her car, they were going to leave and we were going to walk back to our car.  Well...yesterday at some point I must have banged me knee, or stretched it?  The joint was not hurting, it was the side of my knee, almost like a sting or a bruise.  I was awake several times during the night with a heating pad or cooling it off to keep it from hurting and it still kept me awake. 

After 6 miles, the kids were toast and when Matt asked Zep if he needed to carry her a while, she laid down and put her feet in the air.  The kids did skate for over 2 hours just yesterday.  I was concerned that while my  knee was not hurting, if I did 12 miles (we planned for 8 but the trail was not split the way I had thought) that the knee would start hurting and I would be stuck walking on it anyway, possibly messing up plans for more hikes in the very near future while it mended.  We all agreed 6 miles was a really good amount and so we rode back to the van and ended up getting a couple more geocaches and stopped for lunch and scored some .29 chocolate eggs, which probably negated any caloric burn.  hahaha.

On the way home, we topped the tank off at $3.39, I think it will be the last time until after September that we pay less than $3.50 a gallon or very close to that.  : (  They keep saying the hike has not affected the sales, that people are still going as usual.  They are not polling the right people.  Yeah, Matt still goes to work every day, he sort of HAS to.  But we have already cut back on driving Nettlevan and hitting $3.50 a gallon makes her $60 to fill up.  You better bet that will change our habits , that's $15 more than it was 2 months ago.

Anyway, great walk and a great trail, it will be double good when we have bikes.  We keep heading out to hike to get exercise, but when we came in tonight, we figured up that if we made a trail around the property, it will REALLY burn some calories AND would give us a 3 mile trail to walk without having to drive anywhere. 

in the crabapple tree

Big Plans

Jake and I decided yesterday that we want to backpack the 550 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail above the Smokies that goes through Shenandoah.  Ben and Chan are on board as well.  We think we can do it in a month, that's just over 18 miles a day.  Every day.  Maybe...2 months.  hahaha!


This year, we want to get some more experience under our belts and camp a good bit more than we have in the past.  We have all the backpacking gear we need to get started, we are just waiting on better weather.  I want our first few long trips to be warm and dry enough that we are not having to deal with that on top of the miles and wear on our puny bodies.  The kids and I have primitive camped many times and backpacked a few miles here and there for a single night.  Our new goal is 10 miles a week of walking.  We'll see how that works out...

Buck's Pocket

We headed out to Buck's Pocket around 1 this afternoon, I had heard Friday that the wildflowers were up and active in profusion there.  I was not lied to!  Plus, bonus waterfalls in full flow.
We had a nice walk around the campground, then walked the high bluff trail and went to the overlook.

Chan and I agreed, we want to head over and camp as soon as it warms up some.

D'oh!

Going gray at an alarming rate!!

Jack-in-the-pulpit
These were out in great abundance.

Jack and fiddlehead fern

Morel

nodding trillium

bee balm?

saxifrage

Sweet Betsy Trillium

toothwart