Cold Camping

Good morning, one and all! What a lovely day it is! Cold, but lovely. I wasn’t going to write this morning because, like the previous several, I just don’t feel like it. However, there isn’t really anything else I feel like doing either so this won.

Happy Birthday to my baby sister, Marie!

Friday night Joseph and I went on a Bear Cub Scout campout. Friday night we had pita pizza, Dutch oven pineapple upside down cake, and s’mores. Not bad and all utilized the camp fire. The boys came up with some pretty interesting scary stories. It was cold, but we’ve got decent sleeping bags (each one consists of three bags and each bag increases the cold rating). In spite of the bags, I discovered that if you go to bed with cold feet, a good bag is not going to help. The rest of me was fine, my feet froze. As a result, and partly because I forgot my pillow, I didn’t sleep much. I know I did some because I had a dream, but not much. Plus, at least two of the other parents were snoring. Just FYI. The snoring didn’t keep me awake; I’ve slept through Paul snoring and if I can do that, I should be able to sleep through anything. Except cold feet.

Joseph and I were in the green tent. When I saw this picture and in light of the attacks on Paris the previous night, I wondered how many of these boys might find themselves at some point in their lives facing cold, unpleasant conditions as soldiers. While I hope it does not happen, it could. World War I was the "war to end all wars." What might the future hold for these boys? Indeed, for all of us?

In the morning, I mixed up the sourdough pancake stuff that I’d taken for breakfast and stuffed sleeping bags into bags and took them home so Seth and Cedric could use them for their scout campout/hike. I milked once I got home and then Cedric wanted to know if he could use my boots. Well, I left them at Brinker’s (where Joseph and I camped out) so we had to go get them. Once we left, Cedric realized he’d forgotten the food for dinner at home so we had to go home and get it. In spite of all the fun stuff, we still made it to the Carignan’s before 8:00. Only by three minutes, but still..... There was only one other car already there (not counting Carignan’s) and on the way out, I saw four or five going the other way. Most of them waved and/or I recognized.

Once I got back, there were two pieces of bacon for me and there were some still slightly warm pancakes so I had breakfast. After clean up there was knot review and then Whittling Chip fun. It was cold. But my feet were much happier with Birkenstocks than with boots. When I asked Joseph if he had fun, I fully expected him to mention the cold but he just said, “Yeah, it was fun.” He didn’t mention the cold at all.

For the Whittling Chip, Joseph took a bar of soap that I’d made, of course. The other boys had Irish Spring, Dove and Ivory. One of them said something and I said, “I don’t even touch that stuff.” One of the dads, after examining the label, said, “You just do everything, don’t you?” Well, yes, yes, I do. If I decide I want to do something, I do it. And since the soap I make is far better than the crap (oops, did I say that?) from the store, you bet.

This is Pack 12 at the top of Mount Monadnock holding a French flag to show their support for Paris. And, I think, the world. Cedric is behind the white stripe and Seth is sitting on the rock wearing the maroon sweatshirt.

When we got home, I had lots to keep me occupied. I finished some sourdough bread I’d been working on for a few days and made English muffins. There were dishes that had accumulated so a few got done and then I’d make more and then some would get done and then I’d make more. I also made some carmelized sourdough biscuits. The onions smelled heavenly but the biscuits are not on my list of have-to-make-again recipes. The bread turned out beautifully in spite of the fact that I forgot to score the top before baking and this morning I made my bruschetta using it and it tastes really good in spite of the fact I forgot to put salt in when mixing the dough. It has that lovely sheen that you expect from a good sourdough bread and it is most definitely on my list of have-to-make-again recipes. I’ll make sure to not forget the salt next time and I’ll start adding whole wheat flour and see what happens.

For dinner we had the English muffins and biscuits. To go with the English muffins we had a ham steak and eggs and I made hollandaise sauce as suggested by the blog for the English muffins. I would add more lemon juice next time but it is super easy and turned out super thick.

The dishes finally were done and I started folding the mountain of clothes on the couch while I listened to a couple of really good conference talks.

This morning I milked and had breakfast. Joseph had breakfast and is whittling another bar of soap. Amena went to take care of Ben, the horse next door down the street. Paul already showered and is actually eating breakfast.

At some point, I will need to pick Cedric and Seth up at Carrignan’s and this afternoon I have a midwifery workshop to attend.

Have a wonderful day!