July 20, Perth
Went with D tour Algonquin college Perth campus.
D has wanted to take the Heritage Carpentry program for a couple of years now. In fact, this program is the reason he is even considering attending college.
The people we met were very nice. They answered all our questions. D even got a free tshirt!
After the tour we spent some time walking around Perth. It is a very pretty town.
This trip was truly about spending time together as a family.
K was the first one up each morning, naturally. He gathered kindling and lit the fire with his tinder kit. To get it going for breakfast.
Burgers and Corn for dinner.
D and B planned the wilderness camp very well. They chose the site and packed all the bedding and tent. They planned and organized all the meals. They did a fabulous job!
Our home for four days
We quickly got into a daily rhythm;
We would have oatmeal and tea for breakfast.
Then we would all tend the fire and work at preparing meals.
Everything was cooked over the fire.
D spent the morning of the first day building a tripod to put over the fire so we could hang the kettle and the cook pot over the stove.
Then he worked on carving us a flipper for the burgers and a ladle for the soup out of nice hardwood.
The tripod has a really practical double hook affair that could be raised or lowered to control the amount of heat for cooking.
While we were cooking or carving or tending the fire B was reading to us from a Neil Gaiman novel. It was quite nice. Even when she needed to pause for a few seconds to rework the story a bit to make it appropriate to read to her little brother.
Even the puppy lay down to listen,
What an adventure 😀
Wednesday June 21 to Sunday June 25.
Halliburton highlands water trails park
By time we all met up at the parking lot next to the boat launch it was getting dark.
And
VERY, VERY buggy. Tons of mosquitos. Yuck. 😜
K and I had stopped at the grocery store for snacks but B and D had planned all the meals. First the canoe came off the van. Then we had to quickly go through everything while under attack from the swarms.
So we all piled in the canoe and headed towards the campsite.
Out on the water was very beautiful. The water was completely smooth. All along the lake the shore was reflected in the water perfectly. I wish I could’ve taken pictures to share with you how absolutely stunning it was.
It looked very much like this;
http://www.eastshorervpark.com/home
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ocala/recarea/?recid=40233
Maybe it was the stunningly beautiful scenery or maybe we were just tired, but We took a couple detours before we found our site.
Once we found the right area D landed us at the right campsite the first time. Because he is just that good. 👍🏻
B and I were left at the campsite with the tent, two chairs, K’s survival kit and the dog. While the boys went back to the car for another load of gear.
In the dark. Oh yeah. We did have a couple hand flashlights to get the tent set up.
Next we had to scrounge around in the dark looking for kindling and wood to light a fire. At ’tis point we realized we had no matches or lighters. Just K’s tinder kit….
It took a bit but we eventually got it going.
Our signal fire.
Apparently finding the boat launch went as well as finding the campsite. They paddled along the shoreline until they found it. 🛶🗺
D found some more wood and we had some oatmeal and went to bed.
So tired.