A head full of dreams...

We have been in Massachusetts for about three weeks now.  It is a bit longer than we anticipated due to some hiccups, such is life!  We have been busying ourselves here by exploring, hiking, running, reading, working on projects, and the truck, getting health insurance (Thank you affordable care act aka Obamacare!), did a 1,000 piece puzzle, got injured while running, eating amazing home cooked meals(Thank you Judy Brewer!!) and showering regularly lol.  My projects have included curtains for being stealthy in the truck, a quiver for my arrows and an archer arm guard.  I've taken some photos along the way to share.  First up is a shot of my left leg, upper and lower that got scraped up pretty good from a fall.  I was trail running, got distracted looking at a bird I was trying to identify and tripped on both a root and a large rock.  Essentially I tripped twice and fell funny on my left leg scrapping my upper thigh and side of my shin.

Used this lovely salve thanks to Judy Brewer on my injuries and they healed a lot faster.

The next set of photos are from an outing to chesterfield gorge.  I didn't really get a great shot but it was a fun place to explore.  We found a blood root plant (trying to learn plants).  It was cool to see but I found it a little creepy too. 

Blood root plant

root of the plant, where it gets its name

The next set are from the curtains I made.  We needed curtains for the cap so we can have the lights on but it's not visible from outside the truck.  For this we went to Goodwill and found some opaque green and brown material.  After much deliberation we went with magnets to use for attaching the curtains.  It was a time consuming project mainly at the start to figure out how to do it.  We discovered that magnetic strips don't actually hold magnets, we had to get a steel sheet.  I had to cut the sheet into strips the those strips into 3 inch pieces.  I then filed the edges so we couldn't cut ourselves on them.  Once that was done I glued them to the frame of the windows.  I then had to sew little magnets onto the would-be curtains, attached the top first then made an outline of the edges, cut the material to size, sewed a hem, then added more magnets.  I did 4 curtains and it took me almost a week to complete.

The next project was a quiver for my arrows.  I bought some arrows and have been practicing.  It's a lot of fun and great for stress reduction!  Oh yea, that's something else we've been doing.  So I found a DIY quiver tutorial online here.. http://woodandfaulk.com/blogs/journal/15785153-archers-quiver-diy  We had some canvas and leather so I got to work.  It was fairly easy to make and for my first time making one I'm pretty happy with the final result.  The design is simple and functional with a pocket for my archery glove and bow stringer.

 I also made an arm guard.  My left arm is sore right now from drawing wrong and hitting my forearm.  I can also see a little bruising.  I thought at first it was motivation to shoot better... but it hurts and I don't want the dark bruises.  Again I searched online and found a simple design I liked.  It required buttons, which I did not have.  Matthew showed me how to make wood toggles, so much cooler than silly buttons!

We also went to an art festival over memorial day weekend that was really neat.  Sorry, no photos of that.  It was really cool to see what people can do, the most interesting to me was the wood work and the clothes (I still love clothes even though I don't own much anymore).  Everything was way too expensive for my budget or to fit in the truck anyway lol but it was fun to walk around and think of the possibilities.  I'm sure I've missed some things but those are the big ones.

I've been researching rock climbing in the area and in the White Mountains.  We are planning to do some climbing in 2 days about an hour from here.  We haven't climbed since Seneca so I'm really excited about it. After that once we head out we will be exploring the White Mountains for a couple weeks.  We are signed up for a WFR (Wilderness First Responder) course in 3 weeks. It's a week long course that I am really looking forward to.  I will feel a lot more comfortable wandering in the wilderness when I know what to do if something goes wrong.

Shout out goes to my big brother graduating this weekend, he has been working hard and I'm very proud of him, Love you Robert!

West Virginia, Country mama, take me home, country roads...

After saying goodbye to our apartment we traveled back to PA, to spend the weekend with two of my favorite people in the world!  Rachael and Andrew live in Camp Hill, they just bought a house and have done an amazing job making it their own.  We spent the weekend enjoying wonderful home cooked meals, playing scrabble (I won, woot!), exploring the area, catching up, drinking proper tea, watched the Jungle Book, discussing politics (very interesting since our views differ..except on the topic of Trump, no one likes what is happening there - Anyway!).  I was good this time and took photos!  Here are a few from the hike we did, it was really beautiful.  Did I mention this beautiful couple is expecting?  SO happy and excited that these two phenomenal human beings are creating another.

It was hard to leave them but the time came Monday morning and we drove out to Seneca Rocks, WV.  We both knew there was good rock climbing to be had but that was it.  We didn't know about the area, where we could camp or what kind of climbs to expect.  Matthew has a climbing book we used to do a little reading on it.  It mentioned a lot of Trad climbing options (setting anchors while you climb, as opposed to top roping like you would in a climbing gym).  We only know how to top rope but headed out anyway with hopes of getting lucky.  It took 3.5 hours to get there, once we arrived we decided to hike to the rocks and have a look around.

 There were two ways to get to each side of the rocks, we did one side and I took a few shots of that.  We did a little rock scramble for fun... it was a little scary to do without rope so I didn't go too far up.

Funky bug friend that landed on my leg.

He was braver than me... or dumber, you be the judge.

The other side took longer to get to.  It's a 1.5 mile trek and felt like the longest and hardest 1.5 miles!  It was a lot of switchbacks and fairly steep and steady uphill, the view was great.  We did about 5 miles of hiking that day.

Another shot of the rocks, we were told that we could top rope off the back of the rocks.  The next few days we spent patiently waiting in the cold and rain for a day to climb.  We found free camping about 30 min away and settled in.  

This first day turned out to be gorgeous and would have been great for climbing.  We ended up just hanging out around camp all day.  The weather was wildly variable here.  It would be sunny, then rain, then sun, then rain.  The wind constantly changed direction so we were dancing around the fire in the 'avoid smoke' dance to the fire gods.  The next day we decided to hike, there was a 3.2 mile hike about 1/2 mile away.  We had to ford the river on this trail about 6 times.  To help you appreciate this, it was in the 40's, the river was colder than that and in order to cross we had to take off our shoes or get them completely drenched.  Not one to back down from a challenge we pushed forward.  After the 6th ford we started thinking we might extend this hike to a loop so we could avoid going back the way we came.  Luckily that was an option... an option that ended up extending our initial 6 mile out and back hike to about a 9.5 mile loop.  We were pretty tired towards the end. In the past on long hard hikes Matthew has sung to me.  To keep our spirits high he started to sing.  He did one song, then I did a song.  I started with Sir mix-a-lot, Baby Got Back, a personal favorite lol  We ended up singing a lot of show tunes, I started dancing and had a blast.  Towards the end of the hike I did happen to twist my left ankle ( I have a history of this), it hurt at the time but didn't last and was fine by the time we got back to camp.  The following day we went to town to sit somewhere warm and get some wifi service.  This ended up being a 1 hour drive to the closest place with wifi.  The day after that was another hike day, but shorter this time.  We spent part of the day practicing belay techniques and going over some basics of Trad climbing.  I am now pretty good at starting and keeping fires going in the rain.  I acquired a few burns and my iphone doesn't recognize my print anymore.. but I kept warm by tending the fire!  Oh... I also managed to singe my hair thanks to the crazy changing winds.  It was minor, I need a trim anyway.

The sun came out Saturday and we were so excited to get going on the rocks!  We did the grueling 1.5 mile trek to the rocks, made more enjoyable by the gear and food we had to take with us.  We found two spots to top rope climb and each did 4 climbs.  We also repelled down for fun.

Oh and this happened...

That's my nail separating from my body.  It already had a new nail growing under it so Matthew suspects this is an old injury that finally came off from wearing my climbing shoes.  For those that may not be aware, climbing shoes are smaller than normal shoes and are pointy like heels, mine are curved as well.  They are like ballet slippers with a pointy toe to stick in small crevices.  They hurt, but it's worth the pain to climb.  It also gets easier with time, you get used to them and build up pretty calluses.  I don't have any more photos of climbing.  We tried climbing Sunday as well but the previous days climbs made it hard.  We did climb but not for as long as we'd like.  Ended up doing one climb, that we couldn't finish but attempted twice.  It made us sad, but we can't control the weather or the rate of our recovery.  It was still fun and a gorgeous day.  Looking forward to more climbing and building up my strength.  The next few days called for more rain, so we left.  Next is heading to Massachusetts to drop off some of Matthews things and visit his parents.  

Side note - We found where Chipotle gets their Tortillas... These big beauties were in a general store across from Seneca Rocks.

Enjoying the journey and missing the people I love.  Time to make some phone calls...

Joy to the world, all the boys and girls, joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me

It's been a week and a half since I left the working world.  We spent the first weekend visiting some friends of Matthew in Pittsburgh.  He went to CMU (he's a little smart) and they have Carnival yearly.  It's a weekend that a lot of CMU alum return to enjoy the festivities and catch up.  I got to meet a few of his college friends, they were all really nice.  He did a lot of walking around campus and to various get together's.  I took advantage of the location and went to Five points bakery.  It's a place I went with a friend while she was living in Pittsburgh.  They have divine pastries if you are ever in the area.  One of the highlights of the weekend was watching the buggy races.  They stick very petite woman into a buggy and race around a track.  It can be dangerous for the driver and there was one accident with a girl that went off the track, into the grass and landed on her side.  Don't worry, she was not harmed.  We stayed with a friend named Marjorie, her husband Justin and one of the coolest kids I've ever met named Zoe, a 6 year old pistol and future astronaut... or whatever she wants to be.  I also met one of Matthews best friends, a very tall viking looking guy names Ivan.  He is one of the tallest people I have ever met, while his wife,Lindsey, was shorter than me.  They were a very adorable couple and have a baby on the way.  They live in Wisconsin and are the main reason we went to CMU.  They are a lovely couple I hope to visit on our travels.

We stopped in Damascus, VA to break up the trip from Pittsburgh, PA to Lafayette, GA.  We found a pizza place and were the only customers with a very chatty server.  She was a nice girl and we took the opportunity to ask if she knew a good place we could sleep in our car without getting in trouble.  She directed us to a road with free camping sites!  We were near Callebs cove campground off of Whitaker Hollow Road.  Not only was the camping free but we had a view of a river.  Oh, I should let you know the photos for this post will be scarce.  I took hardly any, sorry I was busy living in the moment and not thinking about capturing it.  I'll try working on that a little for future posts.  I do have some random ones from our trip from Damascus to Lafayette, GA.  Here are two of Matthew and one of a globe in Knoxville, TN.  We stopped there to get groceries and a guy asked us to return his mobile cart inside.  We hadn't thought of that fact that someone who has trouble walking would need to get there things to the car then return the mobile cart and get back to the car... Not a perfect system.  It did make for a fun photo of him!

 He's a cutie!

World's Fair Park Knoxville, TN

We arrived in Lafayette, GA for the Rivercane Rendezvous on April 18th.  If you are curious here's a link to there site http://www.primitiveskills.org/  We parked the truck in a field and wandered around to say hello to whomever we came across. Actually for a photo of the truck Matthew has it on his blog http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/  

The days were spent waking to people playing the flute to welcome the sun (Matthew included)

Then going to breakfast, which was included, and chatting with people.  Then we all meet for morning circle around a fire that stayed burning the entire week.  Morning circle included announcements and classes.  There was a board with the next days classes but there was often something announced that didn't make it to the board on time.  You then had about 10-15 min to get to class.   There was a bell that announced lunch break, not included, so we'd meet at the truck and chat.  Then afternoon classes, about an hour break with an activity of some kind if you wanted to participate but optional.  Next dinner around 630-7pm.  The evenings always held some kind of entertainment around the fire, then off to sleep or meet up with others around there fires to socialize.  The days varied in how much involved we were with activities but that's the basic schedule of the days.  My first time being here I thought I'd keep my classes simple.  My first one was a cordage class, I learned what materials I could use and how to make rope!  

Dogbane to rope

I make this from a branch... seriously.  I took a stick and made rope by hand!  It was a really cool class.  Other than that I spent most of the week doing plant walks.  There are a lot of plants to learn and I figured the more exposure the more I'd pick up and learn.  Some walks were tree focused, some herb focused, and I did one collecting edible plants for a salad.  I also did an awareness walk to improve your awareness of your environment and it included games to improve recall.  I also did a bowdrill class to start a fire. For those that may not know that is a way to create fire using friction of wood, it requires 4 components so handdrill is easier to get parts for.  I met a ton of amazing people and could probably write a book about the week and all that happened.  It was a lot of fun, I have so much to learn and got really excited while there.  It was great to see Matthew in that environment too, he was like a kid in a candy shop.  

Site Map of Rivercane Rendezvous 

We drove back to Waynesboro 2 days ago.  We had to clean up the apartment and drop off the keys.  We also have a few things that went on a trailer to tow up to Massachusetts.  We spent 1.5 days doing that, now we are officially residents of the outdoors.  After I post this we are heading back out to the woods for 2 days then visiting some friends of mine in Camp Hill, PA.  After that... ?  We initially planned to keep heading north but lately there have been talks of hanging around VA/West VA area to camp and rock climb before completely leaving the area.  We'll see where the wind blows.

It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday...

It has been a month since my last post and I was inspired today to write so here I am with an update.  I said my first goodbye today.  It came unexpectedly.  By unexpectedly, I mean that I simply hadn't realized prior to meeting that this was going to be the last time I saw my friend, David, before leaving.  Here's to the first goodbye of many to come that I love and will miss!

There is a countdown in my mind that has begun.  One month to go, with the last one gone by so quickly.  Before you know it I will be posting about our departure.  I have been feeling ready to go, even though I will miss.  I will miss Charlottesville some but mainly I will miss all the people I love.  As the time ticks down I cherish each day and time with coworkers and friends even more.  I have developed, even before these plans, a habit of being conscious and appreciating what is present.  Part of my discussion with David today was about that.  I had a time, a beautiful time with friends that seemed perfect, like we would go on that way joyously forever.  Somehow in the midst of that I recognized it as fleeting, because such is life.  I knew it would not last and in those moments appreciated little details and felt more love and gratitude for the time we had, while we had it.  Now that time has passed, things have changed and continue to do so... and I look back fondly at those times, the times I have now and expectantly for what is to come.

Our apartment is now furnished with a dining room table, a few chairs and a mattress on the floor to sleep on.  It's feeling pretty open in here and I have to admit I really like it.  I have always liked open space.  I anticipate my future in the outdoors will suite me well.  We have most of 'the things' done for our departure.  My to-do list is short and we have been taking advantage of free days to enjoy this area.  This past weekend we did some outdoor rock climbing in Harrisonburg Saturday, an 8 mile trail run Sunday and topped it off by watching the Princess Bride.  I anticipate the next month will fly by as we finish our to-do's and say our goodbyes.  Then I will post about fun and interesting things instead of sad musings about leaving!