the venable kiddies graciously invited me to go camping into the linville gorge in pisgah national forest. we hiked in from the north side of the gorge on the bynum bluff trail (4) down into the bottom then along the river bed on the linville gorge trail (7) to the first night camp.
john russell, elizabeth lindsey, clifford blair, andrew quincy. before we headed out it was really cute to see how anxious john was to try his very first "sleepover" outside without his "binkie blankie."
for dinner we were treated to lindsey's gourmet beans and rice burritos (don't worry mrs venable all that NOLS money was worth it), as we were about the eat the skies opened to welcome us to "the nature." we huddled under the tarp to enjoy the beer we found generously left by previous campers and discussed how the solve world poverty and the like. we retired to the tents put john to bed in his "big boy power ranger sleepie bag" and fell asleep to his muffled whimpers as lindsey sang lullabies and slowly rocked her brother to sleep.
these boys aint only pretty theyre smart too
on the second day we made it less than a hundred yards before stopping to swim and drink beer.
life is hard
a stowaway that was hitching a ride
the last nights campsite in amongst the boulders. everything was going well through the night until i apparently left the zippered door open and woke to the tippy tap tap of soft feet on my face. i bolted upright the see a blurry clifford staring back at me. we turned on the flashlights to find a small furry mouse crawling up the mesh of tent wall which we girlishly flick out the door and squealed in relief. turns out cliff had had the visitor walking over his face all night and had repeatedly swatted it away without waking. by this point we'd awaken everyone else who apparently hadnt slept well either. the sentiments were roundly expressed with johns "i love civilization."
this is looking nne so the solar aspect for photovoltaic is good. it overlooks a valley from a great porch. the sq ft is around 800 with kitchen, living room with woodstove, bedroom, walk-in closet, and loft over the living room. it needs love but it will be a great project to implement the things im learning in school.
kitchen with propane stove
living room with large windows and woodstove
porch looking north
porch looking northeast
porch looking west to flat "garden/yard"
the yard
looking out over the valley from the porch
