The coin slot for my .02

Jen Molly and I all headed up to the rim country for a great weekend of walking talking and scratching. We drove up Friday after Jen got out of work and slept in the back of the truck at a primitive car camp site. We had a air mattress in the back that we slept on, nobody got a good nights rest, thanks to Molly. She wouldn’t calm down. Always up walking around. Looking back, we should have put her in the front of the truck, oh well. After getting our bags together for the 8-9 mile hike to our campsite, we set out heading up Chevelon Canyon towards the dam. We didn’t get more than a mile when I decided that bush wacking up the dry creek bed wasn’t what I had in mind for this trip. So we turned around, got in the truck, and drove up to an area with tall pine trees and more lush vegetation. We parked off the side of the road and just meandered towards the canyon that we would have eventually reached had we continued on our initial path. The walking was pretty easy but the day got warm in a hurry. We made it down to the creek, this time there was water flowing in it. And after scanning a few potential campsite, we decided on a luxury location to hang the hammocks. We passed up the spot with half a deer carcass, in case you were wondering. We quickly setup camp, and got to relaxing and enjoying being out of the hustle and bustle of our normal weekends. The temperature was wonderful and the water in front of our campsite got up to four feet deep in places. Perfect for a post hike dip. Although Jen didn’t care for the fish nibbling on her toes, she joined Molly and I as we all allowed the cool flowing water to ease the tension out of our bodies. After awhile I became content with the situation and decided to try my hand at fishing with my tenkara setup and see if I could catch any of the trout I heard ran in the creek. To make a long story short, I didn’t catch a single fish. No worries, I saw lots of crawdads skittering on the bottom and changed my focus to obtaining a small feast for my evening appetizer. At first I failed and failed, but with patience and some effort finally found a method that worked. sacrificing one the flys from my fly box I tied a leader to it and dangled it in front of the crawdads. They would grab it with a claw and attempt to eat it, all the while I was slowly lifting it out of the water and dropping it into my cooking pot. I got probably a dozen and would have got more but thats all that would fit in my ultralight camp pot. Cooked em up for dinner and made the other meals as well. We all feasted, we share our meals with Molly when we backpack, and then readied ourselves for the night. The weather was supposed to turn ugly and didn’t show signs of such until right at dusk, so we turned out of our hammocks and went to securing the tarp above to ward off the wind and also deter any rain that decided to fall. This night was more refreshing as we were able to sleep better, but still not great, as Molly insisted on causing a scene about every two and a half hours. Overall the night was warm, we did get a little rain and the wind howled at times, swinging our hammocks lightly as we slept. Morning came and as we broke camp and had breakfast we took in the beauty that surrounded us. Our hike back to the truck was relatively easy, I was expecting a greater struggle and as you can see by the image of our locator beacon points, we were roaming by our own direction, this was an off trail hike and was guided simply by a little compass jen had. We stopped by Apache Lake on our way out, lots of people packing up from their own weekend getaways and still more trying the luck at the fishing. We took a walk to the dam at one end of the lake and decided that our weekend was wrapping up nicely. Back to the truck for the 3 hour drive home and after unpacking it was a welcome relief to lay down on the couch and take a nap. I love backpacking, and I love that my wife has grown so fond of it as well. God has blessed me with both a hobby of enjoying his creation and a perfect companion in which to share it with.

A random hike in Chevalon Canyon

So in an effort to make the existing plant beds ready for planting, we have decided to try composting which has a side benefit of reducing waste. There are a few different ways to create compost and our biggest driving factor is speed. Not just because we’re impatient, but rather because we don’t have a lot of space to keep the compost around in. Through research I stumbled upon a process called “bokashi” composting. We filled a 5 gal pail with kitchen scraps and the active bokashi mix and set it to the side. It still takes two weeks but that’s considerably shorter than the alternative methods. Here is a picture of a smaller test batch I did to see what occurs inside.

So after doing some research and worrying that are soil is beyond repair to grow any plants, I stumbled upon the global buckets dot org site and thought id give their method a shot. Here’s our first planted crop.

Jen and I have ventured out on a new hobby. We are trying to cultivate a productive garden. We have planted various veggies and we are hoping to get some good pickins out of these. I’ll let you know how it goes.

oops, I guess I haven’t been very good at posting here. I’ve got a lot to put up here and will do it in pieces until I catch up to the current.

After a long drive we have arrived at our accomodations for the weekend. A wedding today and head back home tomorrow.

I had a great memorial day! Slept in a little, changed the oil in the truck, went swimming with Jen, and even got a couple short rides on the mountain board with the big kite. It was nothing to write home about, more frustrrating than anything. There are good bursts of wind but the lulls make it very difficult to keep the heavier kite in the sky, good times though, I look forward to improving on land and seeing if that makes a difference next time I get in the water. It’s late! Thank you service men and women, I owe you more than I know, I’m sure.

Jen and I had the pleasure of celebrating our third year of marriage ending and the fourth year begining this week. We were blessed by jens knack for finding great online coupons which allowed us to go on a hot air balloon ride for nearly half off. Even cooler was the fact that we were treated to a picnic breakfast when we landed which was a memorable e perience all in it’s own. This week marks the graduation season for us. Three repeat school clients hired the photobooth to send off their grads with memorable photos in their pockets, I enjoy the opportunity for the extra income but I’m alittle tired from this busy week and look forward to a relaxing ling weekend to unwind with jen and properly end our weeklong anniversary celebration.

oops, guess I’m going to forget that last couple weeks of my life since I’m not putting it into a digital memory bank. Oh well, kind of! Today I’m working on my mother’s day gift and also wondering how my dad is doing in Panama.

Our adventure on the trAil is over. Cut short by a minor injury to both of jens ach. tendons which are very important for bath backpacking and life in general. It was a great experience however, and we’d be crazy to think that hiking 40+ miles over the past 4 days hasn’t changed us and created memories for a lifetime. Thankyou for your support and prayers and feel free to ask questions if you have them.