Getting Back to the Outdoors
Earlier I set three goals for myself for my garden. The first of those three goals was to plan the organization of my garden better, taking better consideration into the light sunlight available in the garden. Between a combination of Spring coming late to Wisconsin this year and work commitments, I’ve been a little behind in getting my garden planted this year. However, this week we got the garden in the ground, so we should be fine for growing season.
I’m fascinated with the Dutch oven, and am trying to practice to get better at it. After demonstration and discussion on Dutch oven cooking during my Baloo training, I was inspired to continue the practicing. The Dutch oven is also a great tool for cooking in a back yard, and I hope to make it a compliment to more of our barbecues now that the weather is getting warmer and we spend more time outside. Plus, my Thanksgiving cornbread turned out well, so it was time to build from there. This past weekend, my boys and I made a pineapple upside down cake in our backyard.
Last weekend I did my second adventure race. After the first one last fall, I spent the winter thinking about the fun that I had and how I could do better next time. While Spring came slowly to Wisconsin this year, we had a beautiful first weekend of May and a perfect chance to try out the Chasin’ the Bone Adventure Race from Elkbones Adventure Racing.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been impressed with Cub Scouts as I go through it again thirty years later with my own sons. In addition to programming for kids, scouting provides training opportunities for their adult leaders. Scouting is driven by adult volunteers. In contrast to Boy Scouts where the scouts themselves take on the planning, programming, and execution with supervision of the adults, in Cub Scouts, the adult leaders take on these roles to create experiences for these younger kids.
I enjoy growing vegetables in my garden in the back yard. Given the time and money spent each year, I don’t know that I’ll ever “make money” with my garden, but I enjoy it and that makes it valuable to me. What is my plan for a successful garden this year? Let’s dig 🙂 into it deeper.
I’ve had trouble with the jump to daylight savings this Spring. In fact, I often have trouble with Daylight Savings because we lose the sunlight in the morning. I rarely ever use an alarm clock, and I find that my waking schedule generally ends up following the sunrise. Continue reading “Daylight, Savings, and Energy”
Adventures in nature formed a lot of my strongest memories of growing up. This is one of the reasons that it is important to me to try to foster similar opportunities for my own children and believe that it is important for all children to have opportunities to experience nature.
The transition from child to an adult is a difficult one, but when that transition can occur across different environments, I think that lessons can be learned that can translate into other other areas. In my specific example, I think that the skills of planning, leadership, and confidence that I built up on adventures during these adolescent years, came in useful when navigating high school and college. Continue reading “Learning to be an Adult in the Boundary Waters”
I always liked the look of the red grips and blades that are shown associated with the voyageurs. I had a paddle for years that was painted in that manner, although much of the paint had flaked off over the years. One year it broke while I was on a trip in the Boundary Waters and that was the end of that paddle. Winter is as good of time as any for indoor projects in preparation for use when the weather gets nice. I decided that I wanted to improve the look of my paddles. Continue reading “Aesthetically Improved Canoe Paddles”
I remember as a kid liking the constellation of Orion. It is easy to find, there are other related constellations in the sky as well – Canis Major, Taurus the bull, and the Great Bear, so a story between them tells itself in the sky. The problem is that Orion is a winter constellation and clear winter nights in Wisconsin can get pretty cold, which isn’t ideal stargazing. Continue reading “Orion and the Night Hike”
One of challenges of getting back to nature is that I have committments and responsibilites that keep me local to my house in the suburbs of a city. So it is usually only with great planning that I’m able to get away for a whole day, let alone an overnight or longer. The extended time is important because it takes time to transition from from worker/husband/father to the version of myself that gets reinvigorated within nature. On further examination, however, while that transition is true and real, it is a skill that can be improved upon to my benefit. Continue reading “Getting Back to Nature with Appreciation”