Eleven Year Old Six Mile Hike

Last weekend we took our Eleven Year Old scout troop on a six mile hike up the river bottom. Ringo and his friend joined in. They are the small fries in the group. When we got to the end of the hike most of the boys were disappointed that they couldn’t hike back. I told them it was because we didn’t have time but secretly it was because I was sore and tired.

My favorite quote on the trip related about the old building in the pictures below. The old house was a thing of beauty in its day. Inside was all wood tongue and groove walls with nice trim. It has been deserted for many years and looks like its been used as a cow shed. One of the boys was amazed at how old the building looked. Here is his direct quote: “Wow, this building is old. I bet it was built in like the 1980’s.”

The sad thing is that none of the boys even cracked a smile while me and the two other old and decrepit leaders were laughing our heads off. We had to explain why we were laughing and the boys still didn’t find it that funny. Youngin’s.

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Our troop meeting this week started by discussing how cool the hike was and ended with us planning a twelve to fifteen mile hike where we camp overnight and do the trip in two days. I'm sure the boys will handle this fine but I’m not sure about how well the leaders will fare. One of the leaders was talking about bringing a mountain bike or moped.

Of course that’s because he is old. He was born even before that 1980’s old building.

Outdoor shower adventures

I know, I know. I’m a bad blogger. It’s mostly my fault as I have just been too lazy to write anything the past while. It’s not that we’ve had that much going on lately, I’ve just been enjoying sitting around the fire and waiting for spring. (That’s an exaggeration, I better explain a bit more as Milly says I tend to inflate the truth a tad. I’ve traveled to New Orleans and Vancouver this past month so have been away for a while. My laptop exploded so haven’t had an easy way to write our happenings, and I’ve been lazy.)

Our grey water system has worked perfectly over the past winter. At any given time in freezing or slightly warmer times the temperature of our mulch basin has been around 52 degrees F. Our dog has actually made the basin a favorite sleeping spot as it’s nice and comfortable with wood chips, straw, and leaves.

One thing I purposefully omitted about our situation is our lack of bathing facilities. We’d probably lose the one or two friends/family members who will still hang out with us if they knew we didn’t have a shower in our new home.

Why don’t we have a shower? The bathroom isn’t finished yet. Simple as that. We want to get a nice claw foot tub and do the clay plaster in the room and we just aren’t ready for that yet. It won’t be forever. We will start smelling better eventually. (For some reason Milly succumbed to my never ending pleas to move in so we didn’t have to maintain two households. There is probably only one person in this world that would put up with my crazy way of doing things.)

Since moving into our unfinished house Milly and the kids have trekked up to Grey Beards and Dancing Queens place to shower. I say Milly and the kids not because I haven’t showered in four months (I have occasionally made the trip with them) but because I’ve been showering outside under the stars with the garden hose. I’m sure everyone has stories of when they were a kid and their parents sprayed them off with the garden hose before they were allowed inside, right? Well, that’s what Milly does to me before she lets me in the house.

OK, let me tell the truth. Before you wonder at my amazing will power and extreme manliness I should mention our outdoors tap is connected to hot water. And, I’ve come to absolutely love showering outdoors. I can’t tell you how pleasant it is to stand in the middle of the outdoors, looking up at the stars, with nothing on but flip flops (sorry about that mental image), and being hosed off with one of those garden hose attachments you use for watering flowers. It’s like standing under a hydrant of hot water falling from the sky. I hope to never shower indoors again it’s that nice.

Well, Milly isn’t quite of the same opinion. She seems to think the neighbors a mile down the road might be watching. She also doesn’t like the slight breeze we get here on the prairies (Ouch, she just hit me. The real truth is that slight breeze can be a 75 km/hr hurricane.)

So to appease the princess that is my wife, I decided to build her an outdoor shower while she was away for a few days with the kids basking in the sun to the south. (Once again the truth. Northern Montana is to the south of us but I wouldn’t necessarily consider it the far south. The grass is greener there. Literally. But still not San Diego weather.)

I had this structure ready for her when she came home. Used older pine boards and some log poles I had lying around. Put a roof on it and connected Pex piping so we didn’t have to deal with lead laden garden hoses pumping hot water over us.

Wouldn’t you know it. The Christening of the outdoor shower just so happen to coincide with a major snow storm. No worries. The shower was wonderful. We did have to drain the Pex pipe (easy to do as its connected to a high point on the structure) and unhook it from the outdoor tap after we were done. (Oh my, please don’t look too closely at the mess in our backyard. It will be cleaned up eventually this spring. Like in four months.)

After Milly came home we decided to build a real door instead of propping up plywood against the opening. We used tongue and groove cedar and made a really nice looking door. Now when we shower we can still see the river bottom but it smells like steam and cedar. Just like at one of those fancy spas at Beverly Hills. (I can’t believe how much of a hick I am now. It’s embarrassing. I’m sure Milly will make me take down this post soon so copy it to your laptop before any record of this is gone.)

I’ll take a picture of that fancy cedar door (and post it on The Simple Farm Facebook page) so you believe me it doesn’t look all that bad. My girls are now asking if they can shower in the outhouse instead of going to grandma’s three times a day. We make Ringo shower every week whether he needs it or not.

I sure hope we get our in-house bathroom done eventually. I’m tired of sharing my shower. I doubt I’ll ever shower indoors again.

Simple Farm goes to the South Pacific

Milly and I had the opportunity to head off to the South Seas this past week. We actually lived in the South Pacific for a couple of years when we were first married. We taught high school and I went to school during the week and then we snorkeled and played every weekend. Sometimes we wonder why we are living in the frozen Canadian tundra.

Anyways, I’m grateful the life of a farmer doesn’t have to always center around doing chores and canning food although most of the time it feels that way.

When Milly got off the plane she started crying like a baby. I guess the wall of humid 85 degree weather brought back a slew of memories and it was all I could do to hold back as well. The people we were with looked at us like we were crazy, and I suppose we are.

Working from home my wardrobe consists of conference T-Shirts and company logo ware. I’m not sure who IGeek is but here some free advertising for them.

You can see Milly’s smile. She smiled for five straight days.

Hard to beat a soft rain while walking down the beach.

We stayed in the above shacks over the water. It was pretty cool. We’d get up and jump in the water and snorkel for a couple of hours before breakfast. It’s a tough life.

After five days we are still white as any Canadian should be this time of year. Especially compared to the Tiki statue.

I want one of these hammocks in our yard. It probably won’t be the same without coconut and palm trees but what can you do.

This was the horrendous rude awakening we received when we walked off the plane. I thought we were going to die. Who would actually live in this country of their own accord?

I guess a farmer can only put off doing chores for so long before it’s time to get back to work.