Three Things Thursday: Camping

It bothers me that I always start my posts with something either about the weather or about how fast time has flown by--well, right now, I'm just stunned that it's JULY of 2023. I still feel like we're getting things "sorted out" for the year (budgeting and insurance and stuff like that).

I kept thinking to myself, "It would be great to do that this summer!" all year long--and now IT IS SUMMER and I have to do all the things. Except I don't remember them. Next week, though, we are going to Jeanie and Shawn's property up north. I am SO not prepared--prepping vegan food and bringing it with us is going to be stressful, but I'm going to make it as simple as possible.

Since we're back to more careful budgeting this year (after all the unexpected expenses last year), we don't have the savings to go on a "big" vacation. So, we are renting a minivan, the kids are each bringing someone, and we're heading up north for a long weekend. Jeanie and Shawn's cabin is a FAR cry from "roughing it" in the woods (seriously, it's super nice), but I thought that for "Three Things Thursday", I would write about three things that I like about camping/the outdoors.

I am NOT an "outdoorsy" person at all, so this actually won't be an easy post. But I wanted to keep it positive and look for a few things that I can look forward to...

1. Reading in my hammock under the trees.

I could literally do this all day long. After seeing my brother (Brian) with his hammock during Ragnar Florida Keys, I really wanted a hammock too! So I ended up buying one and while I don't use it very frequently, I *love* to use it up north. I got an extra big one so that we can put more people in it at once. Jerry and I liked to drink our coffee in there in the mornings. (Here is the link to a hammock very similar to mine; the one I have is no longer available. It's an Amazon affiliate link, in full disclosure.)

2. Sitting around the campfire in the evenings.

Summer nights in the northern peninsula of Michigan are pretty magical, I have to admit. The sky just seems so much deeper (clearer?) somehow. Everything is SO quiet and still. For some reason, telling stories around a campfire makes them that much more entertaining as well!

3. Working with Shawn in his shop.

I had a hard time coming up with a third thing I like about the outdoors! Haha, that's terrible. So this one is kind of a cop-out... it's not necessarily outdoorsy or camp-like, but it's something I like to do when I go up north. Shawn has a huge pole barn and my dream wood shop. I like helping him work on whatever it is that he's working on at the time. We worked on shiplap one time, which is how I learned what a planer and jointer do. His shiplap turned out to look amazing! (And naturally, I can't find the photo of it right now.)

Here is a photo of my other favorite thing to do up north--shoot Nathan's rifle. I am not, and never will be, a "gun person", but I do love shooting Nathan's rifle--it kind of makes me feel like a badass. We line up soda cans across a pond and shoot them, using a scope. Nathan's not going to be up there with us, so I won't be doing that this time, unfortunately.

So, there we are--three things I am looking forward to this summer next week. Good grief, time is going by faster every moment.