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Fig Love
Chris came in last night for the closing of our house today. We made dinner then went to find a nonexistent ice cream shop (thanks Google Maps) before heading to the garden. The heat has been brutal this week, 100* many of the days; the beans can’t handle it and neither can a few other plants. Sometimes between moving we’ll have to find some time to do maintenance on our beds. I was busy watering the garden and Chris had been putting hoses on various beds and then piddling around. I went back up to the front of the garden and found him deep into picking figs off the Celeste…
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Eagle Rock Loop Day 2 | Ouachita National Forest
Read Day 1 if you haven’t already…. We woke up the next morning around 6 a.m. Dawn had already broke and the sky was getting light. Some of the other hikers had begun to rouse before 6, knowing it would take them longer to get ready and drink their coffee that morning. We were hoping to make maybe 12 miles that day in order to ease our mileage for the third and final day so we wouldn’t be leaving the forest so late for our four to five hour drive back to DFW. The ups and downs of the previous day were mostly over; the topo map showed mostly level…
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Heirloom Seeds and Bookish Thoughts
+Chris has been ordering a lot of seeds lately, mostly for later on. Today he planted these two crops at his mom’s house in lieu of the tomatillo plants that had bit the Texas dust. +We’re moving at the end of the week for the NW Houston area where we will be setting up house again. We’re taking two large potting containers with us—maybe we’ll plant some of these seeds there. +I’m dreaming of a real garden—some day. This time around we’re renting, again, with hopes of finding something of our own once Chris gets a job. Hopefully in time for spring crops! +Been reading lately. A lot of non-fiction,…
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Florida Trail Tales 6: S.R. 19 to Lake Butler
After leaving Buckman Lock we crossed S.R. 19 and into an area that as best we could tell was only used by ORVs. I’m not sure if it was public or private land, but we weaved through all sorts of dirt and mud roads that were completely destroyed by off roading vehicles. There was a lot of trash in this area, too, which is always disappointing to see. We ended up following a fire break line at one point, another section of fluffy sand. *gah!* Eventually we found an old, overgrown railroad bed that we followed until we found what was listed a potential campsite in the guidebook. Yes, our…
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Florida Trail Tales 1: Loop Road to John Stretch Park
So, the Florida Trail….before we started we spent four days in crowded civilization called South Florida. Having exited the state of Florida a year ago to hike the AT it was going to be fun to see some old sights and see friends. Our first stop was to Bass Pro Shop to purchase backpacker meals, fuel and some other essentials as well as to eat at the really yummy Islamorada Fish House for lunch. After lunch we drove an hour south to see our friend Christine who was leisurely working that afternoon. We chatted for a good while about all sorts of things from hiking to local geocaching gossip before…
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Trail Tales 18: Maine Part II, Stratton to Millinocket
Relevant posts: Almost There The Greatest Mountain After leaving Merf behind at Stratton we mosied on our way for the Bigelow Range. We stopped for lunch at the Cranberry Stream campground for lunch and privy before heading up. A parking lot is located pretty near the campsite and some day hikers had come by. One of them ended up talking on the phone and was hiking pretty close to us. It is one thing to use a phone in relative privacy away from a campsite, but to be hiking and talking on the phone??? Really? Chris turned around after awhile and told the guy off and eventually the guy fell…
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Trail Tales 16: New Hampshire
Relevant posts: The Whites: A Definition After crossing into New Hampshire we followed the trail along the road that leads to Dartmouth College and it opened up into what I’d imagined an Ivy League university to look like. It was sprawling, had many old buildings and a large, open field was situated in the middle of it all. College kids, clean college kids, were riding their bikes, walking by and smelling so clean! We found the DOC headquarters and sat down to use the computers. After getting our share of the internet we emerged back outside and while Merf and Little Brown had gone to a few other places, we…
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Trail Tales 9: Northern Virginia/West Virginia (Shenandoah to Harpers Ferry)
Relevent posts: Alive and Well on the Rollercoaster of Love…..hell really Harpers Ferry West Virginia Shenandoah National Park is known on the trail as the point in which you can really speed up. Some refer to it as the Appalachian Highway. It isn’t ‘flat’, but the terrain is very smooth and there are lots of flatter, easier, miles. After signing in at the kiosk just outside of the national park boundary we set off for five days through the park. The first day was mostly non-eventful, a few mist showers but that was it. The park has mile markers very frequently especially at roadways and trail intersections so it is…