Thistleblooms Rambles

[thistlebloom]

Or just big liars. You have to translate the sale language, just like for houses.

"Cute cottage" Made for midgets no room for kids or DH
"Needs TLC" Complete tear down.

"Green broke" Owner was able to wrestle the halter on - ONCE!
"Babysitter" Falls asleep on trail

LOL

That's what I meant by proud, haha! I love the ones that say " only selling because I don't have the time she needs" .

 

[thistlebloom]

Dh and I are going on our annual overnight on a mountain way out in the boonies tonight. There's a dirt road in to a small lake and 3 dry campsites.
Bring your own everything, although there is an outhouse.
We are usually the only ones there. It's an odd feeling to lay in the dark, knowing there are probably no humans within 20 miles.
We sleep in the back of the truck under the stars, and when it's clear the stars are incredible. Meteors and Milky Way and constellations I don't know the names of.
It is also cold, so I sleep in two down sleeping bags. Long johns, hoody (with the hood up) gloves and knit cap too.
Dh, being a tough guy gets too hot in his single down bag so unzips it and lays under it. I'm not too sure about him.

Food is minimal, sandwiches for dinner, hard boiled eggs for breakfast and what ever finger food snacks we take. Must have my morning coffee though so we take a small backpacking stove to heat water. I refuse to cook for a simple overnight trip.
We're taking the dogs, hopefully the grizzlies will be occupied with them, giving us time to get away. Haha. Just joking, sort of.

If I don't post again for awhile you can assume we have been recycled.
I'll take pictures. We're hoping for clear skies, though it may be hazy from fires.

The sky looks like this picture from the internet.

 

[Bruce]

It is also cold, so I sleep in two down sleeping bags. Long johns, hoody (with the hood up) gloves and knit cap too.
Dh, being a tough guy gets too hot in his single down bag so unzips it and lays under it. I'm not too sure about him.

That might change! I used to be hot, DW cold. Now she's under a single sheet (when the room temp was 60°) and I have 2 blankets.

 

[rachels.haven]

*gasp* I need to take my husband to a place like that before he goes blind. That sounds like a great camping trip.

 

[farmerjan]

Beautiful

 

[Baymule]

Y'all have fun and please don't turn into grizzly poop.

 

[chickens really]

Hope you have a fantastic night..
Definitely don't become TV dinners for Bears.

 

[Ridgetop]

We're taking the dogs, hopefully the grizzlies will be occupied with them, giving us time to get away. Haha. Just joking, sort of.

When the cougars used to come in to our neighborhood regularly, I taught my 4-H project kids to take their dogs out with them when they fed their animals. It was hard to get them to understand that they should run for help and leave the dogs to deal with the cougar or predator. They didn't understand that as soon as the dogs figured they were out of danger they would break off the fight and follow them to the house! Dogs are smart!

Hopefully no bears or cougars this trip!

 

[thistlebloom]

We're back and had a great time. it was a short trip, but long enough to get filthy and tired. "Our" mountain has become increasingly popular and the 10 mile dirt section up to the little lake is just about solid washboard. Took over an hour to negotiate that part. Our poor little truck shuddered it's way over the washboards and I hoped that no nuts were backing off any important bolts. (Aren't they all important?) We did lose a bracket off some sort of sensor on the muffler. We noticed the truck sounding a little more throaty halfway up. Could be what made the check engine light come on.

Once we got to the campsites, we were the only ones there, so that made it pretty wonderful. We did hear a car leaving from the lower lake, must have been day trippers fishing. Then we really had the mountain to ourselves.

Dh got the truck set up for sleeping and we got a little fire going. The hammock was hung. We call them bear burritos, .

Oops! A little too low.

That's better!

My turn...

You can see we didn't have clear skies, so star viewing was limited. But now and then the clouds cleared off a bit and the stars shone through.

We ate our dinner sandwiches, and I picked some huckleberries. It was a heavy year, but what was left on the bushes must have been the tiny late ripening ones, and the hordes of mostly out of state huck pickers that have been going up there in recent years got all the big ones earlier in the season. No matter, they were small, but still tasty. Took forever to pick a cupful though. Probably my faulty method. Pick one, drop two.

The girls and I took a little walk. It's never a bad idea to bring along some bear bait, haha.

I heated a pan of water over the fire and we had some hot cocoa with our book. We're re-reading "One Mans Wilderness" by Richard Proenneke.

The first time we read it I was impressed with his wood craft and building skills. This time I'm noticing more his self centerdness, his subtle arrogance and his bad attitude about women. His building skills are still impressive though.

It was a little hike to the vault toilet, (nice and clean and stocked with T.P., thank you Forest Service!) and they supply you with a little light reading in case you have to wait your turn. We didn't have that problem but I stopped for a read anyway.

We crawled into our bags at 7ish and talked about the day and the beauty of Gods amazing creation, not just here, but all over the earth.
We discussed the wonders of the stars and galaxies and things way over my head (literally! haha) The clouds would shift now and then and we saw stars and a satellite or two. It was very pleasant to hear nothing, just absolute silence.
Just as I was drifting off I sat straight up remembering I had taken my phone out of my pocket and set it in a safe place at the vault toilet.
So out of warm bags we crawl, fumble our shoes on and trudge back up the road in the dark. Fortunately no hungry predators greeted us.

We tossed and turned because our sleeping pads left a lot to be desired to old bones, but it did give us the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the night, the fitful clouds, silence, and remind ourselves that we were camping, and we weren't supposed to be comfortable!
Finally dawn broke and we got up, We scrounged our breakfasts out of the cooler (pot luck style) I had some campfire coffee and we hurriedly started breaking camp and packing up when it began sprinkling.
Dh loading up.

The only wildlife we saw were chipmunks and a young muledeer doe.
We heard a robin chirping at dusk, and a crow in the morning, so it was a pretty tame adventure.

 

[Bruce]

but I stopped for a read anyway

I notice a lot of posters related to bears.

Lovely picture!