Portrait in Linen

Day 1

We made it. Pressed through the challenge of planning, shopping, packing, scouting, and setting up camp.

It’s early evening. The stream here seems to fuss and cry beyond the clay rock clearing where we’ve set up camp. Frogs, crickets, grasshoppers twilling from the mosaic of shadows and brush. I knew it would be this peaceful.

I recognize this place. It’s much changed from the afternoon Miner brought me here over 10 years ago. I think we shared a smoke, screwed…I can’t remember. We were always smoking and screwing in the woods.

The kids each have their nature journals and a brand new pack of colored pencils. And a disposable camera. We’re all writing now, in our own little peaceful corners. Miner’s got the camcorder…doing what men do best–video-taping things.

I wish we could stay longer than three days….

And another surprise–no mosquitoes.

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Day 2

Good grief. We absolutely froze last night. Even with thermals, sleeping bags, hats, closed tent–seven people smooshed together like sardines, we were still cold. I didn’t mind the hard ground. I think I’m able to sleep comfortably that way because my back’s straight as a board. And I’m most comfortable on my stomach anyway. Plenty of padding there, ha ha. But the cold….

I pulled the drawstring around my face so the hole was just big enough for me to breathe. The warm air was trapped inside, head covered so no heat could escape. I slept all right, all things considered.

But waking up and having to crawl out of the sleeping bag to change–that was miserable.

Breakfast was great. Coffee from a pot. Ham and eggs fried over the fire with sausage gravy on wheat bread. Hit the spot! Not the same as Dad’s S.O.S., but still yummy. Hot food like that tastes so much better in the frigid wild.

After breakfast, Miner took the kids down to the creek while I cleaned up. They fished, and Bunny caught a brim–her first fish. Squeak caught her first not long after that.

Miner took us downstream to look for petrified wood. Squeak fell in and was shivering to pieces, so I brought her back. We hung out by the fire pit and talked about how to use a compass, the cardinal directions (she did pretty well for a five-year-old), while Rocky enjoyed his solitude, fishing and catching and throwing back because they were too small (again).

Almost time for lunch. It seems the day stretched by. It feels like 5:00, but it’s only about 1:00. Guess this must be how the Native Americans and Native Hawaiians lived out their days, by the sun. I can see how naturally I might adjust to a dawn-to-dusk routine, if outdoors were so easily accessible and meshing with life as I know it. I think I’d like a nap.

Sunset: No nap. Prissy and I went foraging for firewood instead. Doesn’t sound very eventful, but on the contrary, it was so interesting, trying to pick out fallen dead oak that’s just the right thickness, instead of the twiggy pine that crackles and saps and smokes in the fire. Then Miner came trudging through the forest with his axe–”The Looming Lumberjack”–no fallen tree shall go undiscovered….

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Things to Do Better/Bring Next Time:

. air mattresses
. brown clothes!
. beef jerky
. more water
. better shovel
. upright chairs (instead of fold-out-forever lawn chairs)
. tarp for tent porch
. dish tub and scrubber
. live well
. no overalls!
. feetie pajamas
. chain saw