Hunting Island Camping Trip

We just came back from one of our best camping trips! We will definitely go back again. Hunting Island is a great state park and very unique. We had a terrific spot, back in the maritime forest, away from the strong ocean winds but just a short walk to the beach. 

We explored a lot of places. The forest, the beach, the salt marsh. All so beautiful. 

We visited the lighthouse and all the big kids went up to the top with dad. 

I hung out with these guys :) We had lots to explore. 

The lighthouse from the beach. 

Our first day it was in the high 50s but after that it was warmer and just lovely. 

The kids found almost 70 shark teeth collectively in our week there! Also a mermaids purse, lots of sand dollars, a live starfish they threw back to sea, some dead horseshoe crabs, one dead jellyfish,  sea pansies, live conchs and lots of shells. 

On our marsh walk with a ranger we learned this glasswort is also called pickle weed and is edible! It tasted yummy, like salty cucumber. He said high end restaurants forage for it. 

Sadly, the island has a bad erosion problem. Especially on the south end. They lost all their cabins a few years ago. 

I actually climbed under this tree into those roots. It was a unique perspective and actually felt very moving. 

We also visited Fort Freemont, a Spanish American war fort. Very interesting and only recently taken under the wing of the county. 

South end of the island. 

This doe came into camp many nights and brought her yearling twins. She eventually ate out of the kids hands. Pretty neat. Not as neat were the raccoons. Bandits. Last night there they opened the screw top lid of the dog food canister and ate every bit!!

This camper has been the best investment ever. A week long vacation on an island within walking distance to the beach, close enough to hear the waves crash at night, for a family of ten for less than $400. Win! Our own little house on wheels. I adore it. I should have been a gypsy. 

Sorbetto Top

I haven't sewed in a long time. I haven't made clothes in a really long time. Actually, other than some attempts that were complete bombs, the only clothes I've successfully made were 18th century reenacting costumes. For my large family. So why can't I make clothes that don't look frumpy and homemade? 

Well, I think part of it is that patterns are made for a type of figure and maybe mine is different. 

As part of my continuing M. A. P. plans (Mothers As Persons), I decided to try adjusting a pattern to fit my body. I started with a free online pattern, the Sorbetto by Collete Patterns, and did a Full Bust Adjustment to fit it to me. It was really an easy pattern and I learned a lot making the FBA. The biggest issue was trying to make binding with my binding foot. Fail!

Here's the finished shirt before I put the binding on. I'm pretty happy with it. It is fitted and I think I'd give it a little more fullness next time and try some pintucks down the front. 

Speaking of pin-tucks...here's attempt #2 at clothing for me, Simplicity 2365. It's a flowy lawn type fabric and I haven't hemmed it yet. Hard to decide that in pjs.  I want to make this in white linen and I'm obsessed with pin-tucks. I made this on the size according to my measurements on the envelope and it was huge. My hubs had to help me take it in all over. Live and learn. I am excited to keep trying some indie pdf patterns, I will wear both of these and I really want to get some linen. As my girl says, it's hard to make linen look bad. 

February Hike

As much as I dearly love our books, some days it's just as educative to ditch them and go outside. Like February days when it's 57 degrees. And it's going to be 12 in the upcoming weekend. 

These snails were making good use of the warm weather, too. ;) The boys said, "Mom!, give them some privacy!" 

These two trees were fused together. I've never seen that. I wonder if they will grow together over the years like an old married couple.  I will watch as long as I can and see. 

We hiked four miles. My repeated ankle injuries have really messed up my hiking. It's been depressing. Before the second sprain? break? I was hiking 8m day hikes twice a week. I hiked once in December. Once in January. This was my first February hike and 4m maxes me out. I'm having weird pain still in my ankle and also my hips. But I'm determined.

 My first sprain was in October and on my driveway. I was hiking 9 days later. But that second one in November did me in. I'm too stubborn to go to the doctor so I'm trying not to complain. And it is getting better. It's just taking SO long. But it is healing. I'll get my groove back. The stubbornness is good for that. 

Lamp Shade Redo

Ugg, these lamps! They are mounted on each side of our fireplace where we have our wood stove. Don't judge. Keeping it real. All that grime is from burning wood. It's so messy! I bought new lamp shades at Lowes  but the only ones that fit are so bland. So here's my answer to that. 

Before, grime and all. 

I wrapped paper around the shade and taped additional paper on to get the right shape, slipped it of, cut it so it would flat and voila, a pattern. Then I just craft glued it on. I'm not sure how long it will last but the cute fabric was only a couple bucks. 

Done! 

Hope

The three little boys and I weeded the lettuce bed. It's 64 today!! We usually get a run of days in January that get up to the 60-70 degree range. I call that Hope. By the middle of January, this Florida native is done with what I know to some is a mild NC winter. So this day, with my little lettuces thriving, my daffodils sprouting and the discovery of some forgotten little onions is so cheering. 

 

Even still, this stack will be gone in less than a week. My lumberjack will be splitting more wood after school today, because we still have at least 2 1/2 wood months left. Sigh. 

Good old Sadie. She's 12 now, grey and her hips hurt. She has bouts of barely being  able to get up to then chasing the garbage man (for the treats he throws out to her) and trying to play with Atticus, our new puppy. 

Who really is an absolute doll. As Grace has demonstrated. I'm so glad our Christmas pound puppy has turned out so well. He's growing fast and is going to be big so his doll clothes wearing day are almost over. 

To Be With You...

Very busy holidays here. Food, laughter, hikes, tears, smiles, flurry, play, fights, makeups, more food, love. 

Our Christmas puppy, Atticus. He is a sweetie!

Piggybacks from biggest sister. 

Hiking with cousins.  

River rock climbers. 

My girl come home to our hills. 

Pinesap Flower

Found on today's hike above the falls at South Mountain. I thought it was a dark Indian Pipe, but it was just different. I looked it up when I got home, sure enough, although in the Indian Pipe family, it's a Pinesap. How have I passed so many autumns here and never noticed it? How is it that no matter how many trails I take or how many times I hike them, I see new things every week? It's infinite, creation is just infinite. I'm so utterly grateful. What a marvelous world the Creator has made.

Among all this hiking and being and coming more and more into my own, I have been doing other things. Like teaching my children, despite in all honesty just feeling tired after seventeen years of teaching. I love my children, I love the philosophy I have chosen to submerse our family in but I have been tired. I guess this week, actually this day, after four weeks of school, is the first day I actually enjoyed. I'm certainly not required to enjoy the things that I have chosen and believe to be right and good. But it sure does help. So, again, I'm grateful that as I've moved through the motions the feelings are returning.

I've also been doing fun things with friends, and this year started a Natural History Club with my dear friend, Sara. You can read about that if you like. It's a lot of fun and we are slowly learning. It's very wonderful to live in community with kindred spirits.

I'll leave you with a two year old cutie.

Little River Trail Falls

The boys and I hiked around 6 miles today. I saw so many neat things! It's a lot of hard work, going up and down hills but I am feeling stronger and I get to be in my favorite place, outside, doing what I love, seeing and experiencing creation. 

We intended to hike Saddleback but it was closed because it was too wet. So we chose to continue on to Turkey Ridge and connect to Little River Trail because that would be new to us and give us the extra miles we wanted to push ourselves on with. We started doing 2.5/3 mile trails so we are pretty proud. 

I've been wanting to see this for a very long time. Indian Pipe. This is a really cool plant that is white and feeds on decaying vegetation by a symbiotic relationship with fungus in the soil. Um, wow!

I believe this beauty is a Hoof Conk, but I'm new to identifying fungus so I could be wrong. A fungus/mushroom identification book is at the top of my Christmas list!

This bizarre mushroom is a Stalked Puffball-in-aspic. I'm certain of this identification. It was a really exciting find for me along the banks of Little River where we stopped to each lunch. 

In this photo you can see the grey cloud of spores that proofed out when Ben gently touched the ball of fungus. The stalk was gelatinous and gooey. They were growing out of a mossy bank all along the little path to the river. 

We stopped on the bridge to eat our peanut butter and honey sandwiches. It took us about an hour and a half to reach this point. We seem to average 2 miles per hour when we hike trails with elevation. We have backpacks that are pretty light. When I hike with a 35 lb toddler on my back it takes me longer to get up those big hills!

These very poor pictures show a vine growing in the tree down to the river with its roots in the water. 

I wish this was my lunch time view everyday!

Rattlesnake plantain and muscadines. We've enjoyed scavenging for trail snacks this September.  

We decided to continue on to the end of the trail but when we got almost to the end, we ran into this curious sign. 

I'm pretty strict about not leaving trails. But there was quite a worn path where many had gone before and I had two very adventurous boys with me. Sooo....

Over the fence we went, along a slightly inclined path and saw this:

(Or rather heard, then saw)

This pictures do no justice to the beauty of this waterfall. Looking down here we couldn't see much but it was loud and we could see another worn path so down we went!

It was so lovely! I felt like a little girl again. I stood as close as I could to the spray and just listened to the sound of the water and felt the rush of the cool air. I've never done that. It felt like our own. 

Looking down, we were at the halfway point and I'm guessing it was 25-30 feet high. 

We stayed a bit and ruefully regretted eating our lunch on the bridge where the river looked and sounded so placid.  Then we had to climb back up to the path like mountain goats but we loved every minute. 

Our view on the return hike, we could see so far. It was, as always, a good hike with my guys. I always feel so good after a long hike. I'm definitely getting stronger and have better endurance and that makes me very happy. 

Hiking

So I could say a lot of things here. I'm a bad blogger, I've quit facebook so I'll blog more, blah blah blah. 

For now I'll say, turning 40 has been amazing. It's been an awakening of who I really am. One thing I've discovered, I'm a hiker. I hike. A lot. 

That's pretty life changing. I'm used to the 1-2m nature hike but I'm up to strenuous 4-5m hikes 2-3x a week right now. That dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail? Gonna make that a reality in the future. 

I saw a meme. It said, Hike while you can. Yeah. That. I can so I am.

My treadmill. 

My hiking buddies.