I'm Dreaming of Camping......

There's a Facebook post:

We have a travel trailer so in no way are we living like we're "homeless".  We have a propane stove, microwave, washroom......but depending on where you stay it can get expensive.  Even if you have a tent you still have a roof over your head.  Anyhow, we really enjoy camping as a family.   Our very first camping experience was in a beautiful large tent:

Obviously we had a fantastic time or we wouldn't have continued to invest more money into the activity.  I was new to camping, this was my first camping trip EVER and even though you KNOW you should not dump food near your campsite, I did.  We had soup for lunch, I rinsed the pot and dumped it in the wooded area.  Well, I'm not positive if that's why we had the night time visitors, perhaps they would have came anyway but we had a family of raccoons outside our tent all night.  They were fighting and made their presence known.  We had 3 air mattresses at home.....I only brought one and it ended up being a double.  Thank goodness our Son was small at the time and there was room for the 3 of us but by morning the mattress was losing its air.  After that trip, and the fact we enjoyed everything about it except for our living arrangements, we started looking at alternatives to a tent.  Right off the bat hubby wanted to go with a travel trailer.  I am more conservative financially and wanted to stick with something much lower priced.  So, we purchased a Pop Up Tent Trailer:

This gave us more of the comforts of home, we were up off the ground, the roof over our heads was a bit more solid, we had a stove that you could use inside or outside, a fridge, it was great.  The downside to the pop up was when I wanted to get inside and it was not popped up.  If I wanted to change the bed sheets, do some cleaning, stock something up we had to pop it up.  If it was calling for rain, we had to put it down.  Not because it leaked, it was dry, very solid but because we didn't want to put it down wet and have the moisture trapped.  So we went on the search for a travel trailer we COULD AFFORD.....  

It turned into quite the search as our budget was quite low.  We were told by a local salesman, who is very trustworthy so it wasn't a forceful tactic to get us to purchase, if we found something in our price range we should grab it as they don't last long.  We witnessed that personally very shortly after, we were searching online night and day, looking for great deals.  We found one at that local dealer, the next morning I stopped by to have a look at it.  The one we found was a "lemon", it had water damage and our salesman didn't recommend it for us.  He showed me another, it was nice but not exactly what I was looking for.  It was in our price range but the bed was right in the main living area, right beside the sink basically.  We made arrangements to view it the next day anyway.  That afternoon the salesman phoned me, it was sold.  Then and there I knew IF I found something I liked in our price range we had to take it on the spot.  After weeks of searching online day and night, seriously we were up until the wee hours of the morning quite often looking at trailers and discussing our options,we found the one for us.  Our adventure that day started out to look at another trailer at a different dealership that was supposed to be a gem and was a great price.  When we viewed it, it was nice but you could see they had done repair work to it.  The condition of the interior wasn't bad, we had seen much worse like the one my husband tapped on the wall and poked a hole with his finger accidentally as it was very rotten.  The whole time this salesman tried to tell us it wasn't rotten and had no issues, the floor was buckled....anyway, back to finding our new home away from home....we went to several lots that day and our last stop was a friends house in Truro.  Our friend gave us directions to another dealer in the area.  I was tired, discouraged from what we'd seen, disappointed the one we went for wasn't what it was supposed to be but my husband insisted we take a look.  

We found the dealer no problem.  We explained what we were looking for and saw some beauties in the $14,000 to $18,000 dollar range.  Very nice and all well and good BUT way to expensive for our modest budget.  We still had our pop up at home, we weren't without a home away from home.....I was willing to wait.  This last stop was looking like a waste of time until my husband spotted a trailer along another line up that apparently just arrived and the salesman didn't know anything about it.  He took us on a tour and I fell in love.  While we were looking at it he called his manager to see what the price was.  It was very close to our price range but a tiny bit over.  Hubby said "we'll keep it in mind".  I asked him to come around the trailer with me, he probably thought I found something wrong but I wanted to get him out of hearing range of the salesman.  I said "I'm making him an offer of what we can afford, if he takes it we're buying it".  To shorten a very long story I made him the offer, they accepted it and a week or so later we had our new to us "home away from home".

All that winter I waited for Spring to arrive and bring with it the camping season.

Our first trip was to Kejimakujik National Park.  http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ns/kejimkujik/index.aspx

We love Keji.  Our first camping adventure tenting was at Keji.  So much to do and see there, so peaceful and very clean.  Our first trips for this season will be there, we look forward to it.  We love to go hiking, the fishing is great and you can also rent recreational equipment like canoes and kayaks.

There are many many adventures to be had at Keji.  And of course a highlight is always the campfire.  I love to set back with a magazine or word search book and just relax by the fire.  

In Slapfoot there seems to be a playground around every corner, which is awesome!

There's lots of swimming areas....

Though we have the fridge, stove and washroom we do not have a TV in our trailer.  There are two hook ups ready to go but I have no desire to take a TV camping with us.  I love leaving the technology behind, if we have it we will use it and it will ruin our experience.  I'm concerned and quite sure if we were to take a TV we would watch it instead of going outside for a hike even though it's drizzling a bit....it would be an excuse not to keep our plans.  Or instead of reading books before bed we'd be watching TV which I have actually been changing the course of at home.  Now, the TV goes off before bedtime and we spend some time looking at books and reading instead of watching TV right up until it's time to fall asleep.  The only technology we have with us is my smartphone.  We have a radio which is nice to hear the news and listen to some music.  One adventure to Truro last Fall hubby and I enjoyed listening to an old Rock station and reminiscing about the songs, trying to figure out who sang them.  It was nice, good music too.  :)

Because I have a full kitchen our meals do not consist of campfire roasted weiners and canned beans though those both things are tasty camping foods.  We have everything from campfire hotdogs, bbq steak, pulled pork in the slow cooker to chicken and stir fry veggies.....

With our day to day lives so busy camping is a nice getaway for us to spend time focusing on each other as a family.  It's good for our mental and physical health.  Our dog has certainly put on some pounds since the weather has changed and camping season ended.  Her and I put on a lot of miles at the campgrounds.  We got "lost" at Keji one morning.  There's tons of signs so you're never really lost but we did go in a few circles before we found our way back "home".  Needless to say I'm looking forward to getting back to the woods.  

'til next time.... have some fun and play as life's too short to work it away.....

Growing Vegetables in the Winter.....

My best laid plans of doing bookwork and baking cookies quickly got curbed to researching how to grow my own vegetables in the winter.  Why did this project fall onto my plate all of a sudden?  Well, a trip to the grocery store triggered it.  My husband went out to pick up a few groceries.  On my meal plan for tonight is Pork Roast and Baked Potatoes so I thought "lettuce and cream" would go great with that, what a treat it would be.  When hubby returned from the grocery store he had a sad looking shrivelled poor excuse for a bundle of leaf lettuce and it cost $3.  Seriously I can hold this bit of lettuce in the palm of my hand - for $3!!??  It looks like it was dragged behind the delivery truck from whatever country it was grown in.  That's it, my plan is to build a cold frame and grow my own lettuce and whatever else I can.  We already have the frame, the pigs threw it around in my garden all fall but I'm pretty sure it's still sturdy.  We will have to modify it a lot and hubby may just want to start from scratch, I am in search of a building plan.  Wish me luck!  Here's proof I can do it, this lady only lives about 45 minutes from our homestead and she says it's really easy to do.  Yay!  She shows her cold frame plan and it includes recycled materials which is even better!!  Right now it's raining here so maybe it will be warm enough to build our frame and start growing some lettuce soon.  Oh how exciting.  Now to talk to hubby which isn't a worry, he's fantastically accommodating and willing to lend a hand.........

http://eastcoastliving.ca/2011/11/gardening-winter11/

Taking Time To Chill......

As I sip my second cup of hot chocolate this morning, taking a moment to relax before I start my days home work, I find myself on Pinterest searching for different recipes from my boards.  Since I started meal planning we are eating less BBQ steak and more variety. I would, however, like to try some new recipes but find it challenging to select ones everyone will like.  My husband and Son are not fans of vegetables.  My Son loves stew, he likes his vegetables with flavour.  We are also eating way less take out.  Any time I don't prepare a monthly meal plan we slip back into the take out trap.  That happened to us last month, with preparations for Christmas added to our already busy life exhaustion sucked us in and we ended up eating too much take out.  Our pocket book and my waist line have both suffered.  So, this month I am making sure I have a solid meal plan in place and exercise to get rid of my extended waist line.

I also reflect on what I have to do today, my first day off this week.  I have cookie dough in the fridge waiting to be made into yummy cookies, I have a file of paperwork to my right waiting to be entered into Simply Accounting, I have my workout area calling my name......right now I am ignoring it all, taking the time to chill.

'til next time... take care, have fun and play.  Life's too short to work it away.....

Welcome to the Library!

I got my first ever public library card this week.  I want to read, I have enjoyed reading in the past, I enjoy reading to my Son but this way if I don't read a whole book, lose interest and return it I don't have to feel guilty.  No money was spent/lost in the fail of intent.

The library is at the local recreation centre where I go walking so it's convenient for picking up and returning books.  It's nice and very convenient to be able to search for and reserve books online for pick up.  The new library was seen as "a waste of money" by many with the new age of e-books but I prefer reading a real book made of paper, I stare at a computer screen most of my day.  Also, studies are showing a real book is much better for your sleep.  If you read at night an e-book emits blue light which interferes with your natural sleep.  The same blue light may also cause cataracts, not only emitted from e-books but computer screens and smart phones as well.  I'll take a paperback book any day.

'til next time.  Have fun, find time to play, life is too short to work your life away.

BRRRRR!

The weather has turned cold here on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.  I have been walking outside all summer on my lunch break at work.  It's a nice use of my lunch break, the fresh air and sunshine is rejuvenating.  With the arrival of the cold weather I have started walking at our local recreation centre.  It's quite nice, listening to the music and watching the public skaters below.

Today as I walked around the track, watching the skaters, I was once again impressed by the ease the elderly gentlemen skate.  So relaxed, so skilled. Their arms gently swaying in rhythm, their feet cross over each other as they round the corner.  I admire their skill.

I also observe the lady figure skating in the middle of the rink.  You can truly see her love of the sport as she glides and twirls about the ice.  Perhaps she's reminiscing of her younger years as a figure skater, she seems to be in a zone, a place of her own.

 I also relate to and sympathize with the middle aged man who fell and cleaned a good patch of ice with his buttocks.  That is my skill level.  Recently I was skating at a good pace, fell and slid a good 8 feet before slamming into the boards and skinning my knee.  I hobbled to the car that day.  The next time on skates I was a bit more cautious and timid.  Definitely not relaxed with my arms swaying.....  But non the less I enjoy skating whether it be alone or with my family.  It's great exercise and a great way to relax.  You're focused on your movements, giving your mind a break from thinking about the chores at home, the bills, the bookwork.....

Having a winter activity you enjoy helps the season move along quicker.  So far the winter has been easy on us, we've been lucky to have very little snow though I hear that is changing the end of this week.  We are already planning our camping trips for this spring and summer.  Just the discussion of summer vacations and activities made me a bit giddy today.  It's always nice to have something to look forward to, isn't it?  

'til next time, take care and have some fun!  Life's too short to work it away....

Name Change Alert!

I have been toying with a blog name change for quite some time.  Wild Apple Acres just didn't seem to work any more, it didn't inspire me.  It was too much about our property and too restricting.  I felt restricted to talking about only farm things.  Now I feel I can talk about general life.....as harried as it may be ;)

I hope you enjoy the changes.