The End

Well, this is it folks.  After an extended break from blogging during my trip and being back, I've come to the realization that it is now more work then fun and a good time to call it quits.  Life is just too busy at the present time.  But maybe again in the future.  Who knows?

It's been fun!

Winter Camping Part 1

I will just get it out of the way- if you are a wuss, don't winter camp.

There, that pretty much sums it up.  Probably the best way to show this is with lots of pictures and minimal words.  In a nutshell, I pulled a 50 pound sled through Northern Minnesota and up into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.   Way back in where the lake we were on was half US and half Canadian.  We then spent 3 nights and 3 days trying to stay warm.  Temperatures ranged from -15 degrees (seriously) to about 25.

The goal was fishing, but they didn't want to bite so we spent all day, every day, out on the ice chatting it up and contemplating whether we would walk across to Canada.  We didn't do it because the snow was so thick and it would have been a lot of work.  Actually, we really had a lot of fun, and the only time we were ever cold was climbing out of our two sleeping bags a piece, and changing clothes for the day. That part actually sucked because the head area of our sleeping bag from breathing in the super cold nights was frozen and had frost all over it.   Our hands were cold the most because they would start to freeze in the really cold weather and we had to take breaks from putting our clothes on and warm them up before we could tie boots and zip jackets.  Essentially we would do one thing, warm the hands, do another, warm the hands and then finally put our gloves on.

Here comes the pics:

Me in front of Lake Superior.  I had no idea it didn't freeze near the shore for most of the lake.

Lake Superior

Giant tree roots

From this point the lake is about 800 ft. down, we had crazy switchbacks and rigged up a pulley system to get down a hill that was more than 45 degrees.

This is the hill that was at about 35 degrees or so.  You can't tell how steep it is because of how far away the top is.  We would hook up a person to one end of the rope and the sled to the other and through a pulley, and then the person would run down the hill and the sled would go up.

Home base.  Doesn't it look cozy and warm?

If this picture doesn't scream fun then I don't know what does.  (Please catch the sarcasm!)

All bundled up

Gorgeous purple sunset

Chris in the distance blazing a trail.

And I'll leave you with the best part- a spam and macaroni eating movie

I'm Alive

We made it out.

I'm sore and sunburned and promise to post about it.

Tomorrow.

PS:  It was -15 degrees Friday night and I was sleeping in a tent.

My new mantra:

Only instead of rain drops falling in the picture, imagine feet and feet of snow

Guess what we're eating at some point on this trip?

Food of champions

Actually, to be fair, it does taste pretty good fried up and eaten like a hamburger with tomatoes and lettuce and mayo.  But then mayo makes just about everything taste better.

We're eating our spam with instant macaroni and cheese.  I am told by Chris that pretty much whatever we eat out there will taste amazing.  I won't go into too many details on the fact that that's probably because we're trying so hard to stay warm all day long....

Hope I'm still alive!  But seeing my winter survival test results were below 50%, and the fact that Chris had us redo our wills since the last three babies weren't in it (oops), plus the fact that he wanted us to bring a picture of the kids "just in case we were dying and wanted to look at them", who knows.  For real.  He really said that.

And on that note, here's some blogs for you to check out, since I'm not around to read them.
Hopefully not literally not around!!

Life In Grace

The Southern Eclectic

Stripes and Sequins

Pawleys Island Posh

A Cup Of Jo

I'm Off Winter Camping

So you're reading this from the comfort of your warm home (hopefully).  While I'm headed north to the frozen tundra that is the upper part of the United States.

It would definitely be worth it if this is what it looked like at night.

I googled tips on winter camping.  It wasn't very helpful.  Things like have a sleeping bag for 30 degrees cooler then the weather you're in.  I haven't seen a bag below zero, so that doesn't help.  Actually, we sleep inside two zero degree bags.  Also tips like use antibiotic wipes every 5 days to give yourself a "bath".  Well, we'll be gone just a little over 5 days so I'll pass on the baby wipe bath and wait until I get home.

And then I decided to take this quiz from Scouting Magazine on winter camping knowledge.  I scored a 45%.  Not a good sign.

Of course, there is all the planning on having appropriate ways to make fire and things for emergencies in case someone falls through the ice (not likely) or gets eaten by a bear (also not likely since they are all hibernating), but I would feel completely ridiculous without my own stuff, because I just know that if I didn't bring something, then inevitably something would pop up and then I'd need it and I would be wandering the wilderness while Chris is fishing and all hell would break loose because I got lost and all I had was hard candy.  Not to mention that while I was googling I discovered that there was a fairly large shooting in the Boundary Waters Wilderness in 2007.  And since we are essentially going to be almost to Canada, I have these grand visions of stumbling upon some type of terrorist trafficking into the US from the frozen wasteland.  Okay, not really.  That would make a good book or movie plot though....

Don't you just envy me?

Also Chris popped this idea to me today: let's build and then sleep in a quinzee.  Which is a fancy term for a pile of snow you build, let it settle for a few hours and then dig out your sleeping area, and then sleep in for all the rest of the nights.  Like this.

Except I already told Chris in no uncertain terms am I building and then sleeping in a dome of snow.  First of all because I am slightly claustrophobic, and secondly, I have terrible visions of it caving in on me like an avalanche and then dying because I can't breathe.  Even though I know that if you sleep in a quinzee, you can get the temperature up a lot higher than what you can in a tent.

Who's in for winter camping next year??

Ava And The Rattlesnake Head

Remember this snake?

It's the one we shot at my Uncle's home and then Chris ate.  Anyway, we kept the skin after we tanned it, and also kept the head in a glass container with water.  I think Chris was hoping to do something with it, but it's just sat on top of a dresser in our basement.

Until yesterday.

We heard this huge crash and Ava started screaming and screaming.  My first thought was that she got some glass into her foot.  But then she started yelling something about a snake and it didn't make any sense.  Turns out she accidentally knocked the glass container with the snake head off the dresser and when it hit the floor, the snake head bounced up and landed on her foot.  I ran downstairs as Chris was coming up with her.  The smell was completely disgusting.  Ava took a shower because we didn't know how much venom had been in the snake or if it was something to worry about (there's a tribe that dries snake venom and uses it in their tattoos to help promote resistance to snake bites).  And Chris very sweetly cleaned up the mess.

I have to admit seeing a splattered snake head sort of melted on our basement floor may have induced a little gag reflex in me.

What a way to start off the week.  I do wonder what it would be like to be a calm family.  Where things just move along smoothly and nothing exciting ever happens.  Probably mostly boring.

The Sugar Eaters

Look at these two naughty boys.

Do you see the black container Truitt is holding?  That's the sugar bowl.  That they were both grabbing handfuls of sugar out of and secretly eating and where I found them when it seemed awfully quiet in the house.  Together they probably ate about 1 cup of sugar.  Best day of their lives.  

I won't admit how terribly hard it was not to laugh at them seeing all the joy in their eyes as they thrust their chubby little hands into the jar and quick into their mouth.  

While they were eating sugar I was with Kembia on the couch.  She was supposed to have had a doctor appt. yesterday morning, but then Truitt threw up so I thought he was sick, but he had food stuck at the back of his throat and by the time I figured it out I had already canceled Kembia's appt., and she's getting worse and grabbing her throat and her fever moving up.

We ended up having to see a Dr. that we don't normally go to, but he was able to get us in later that morning.  And it was a good thing too.  Originally, I thought she maybe had a virus since all of the kids are slightly snotty and coughing, but we're gearing up for the Boundary Waters next week, and I didn't want to not take her in case it was something more serious. Turns out she has strep throat, an ear infection, and to top it all off, a respiratory infection.

And to think I wasn't going to take her in.

Now I am hoping that all of our kids will come down with it in the next few days so we can take them and get antibiotics for them before we go and my in-laws don't have to deal with it.  I already checked with the clinic and they said we just need a note giving rights to the grandparents to bring any of them in should they need it.  

Seriously  hoping Kembia is the only one, but definitely not holding my breath seeing as all the babies share sippy cups, and it is virtually impossible to prevent it.  I tried once to have a designated cup for each but gave up in frustration.

So far we are 1 1/2 months into 2013 and our medical payments are almost what they were for the entire year of 2012.  Maybe we're just getting all our sickness out right now and then will be done.  

Wishful thinking.