(no subject)
It's probably time to confirm that I'm still alive and that I haven't been swallowed up by the earth. Our summer has been non-stop busy and we have been away for most of it. We've traveled around a lot. The last six weeks or so we've been hiding out in the forest. Just the thought of relating What I did On My Summer Vacation feels daunting. I have so many photos of different places and events that I've thought about just giving little stories here and there. Anyway, Ken and I are still alive and well. I'm back in school for another semester, but we've been taking advantage of the nice days and weekends to disappear into the forest to fish and gather berries. Kind of like a present-day version of hunter-gatherer tag-team.
Speaking of being swallowed up by the earth, though, I almost was at one point. We'd been out in deep-forest wolf country near Fredericksberg on a fly-fishing expedition. Fishing lakes are surrounded by marshy areas so most of them have a series of planks which surround them. It had rained heavily during the previous couple of days while we were camping there, but that day was sunny. I was in the forest doing my gathering routine and getting tired. I had filled my bucket with berries and decided to cut across this tall grassy area to the boards which surround the lake as a short-cut back to the camping place. I had tramped safely through the marsh closer in to our camping spot, so I had this idea that it was safe to tramp around in. We both wear high rubber boots, so a little squishy ground is no big deal. hmmm. I sank down in a bog up past my knees and fastened there. No way, no how could I get my boots out. For a minute I was afraid that I'd sink totally and disappear. A Swedish quick-sand death. I ended up having to lay across the bog to spread my weight out over it and take my feet out of my boots to get out of there. I was not a pretty site when I got back to our camper. I was covered in boggy swampy wet yuck, and boot-less. I made a pretty sight stripping down so that Ken could hose me off with a plastic container of cold water. He rinsed out my clothes and hung them on a make-shift clothes-line to dry. The next day they were covered in swamp-flies. They came home in a tightly sealed plastic bag. Um. So. That was an adventure. I don't tramp around in bogs anymore. Replacement boots are too expensive.
The fish were good here, but I lost a pair of boots to this bog. I wonder if they'll pop up personless sometime?
Speaking of being swallowed up by the earth, though, I almost was at one point. We'd been out in deep-forest wolf country near Fredericksberg on a fly-fishing expedition. Fishing lakes are surrounded by marshy areas so most of them have a series of planks which surround them. It had rained heavily during the previous couple of days while we were camping there, but that day was sunny. I was in the forest doing my gathering routine and getting tired. I had filled my bucket with berries and decided to cut across this tall grassy area to the boards which surround the lake as a short-cut back to the camping place. I had tramped safely through the marsh closer in to our camping spot, so I had this idea that it was safe to tramp around in. We both wear high rubber boots, so a little squishy ground is no big deal. hmmm. I sank down in a bog up past my knees and fastened there. No way, no how could I get my boots out. For a minute I was afraid that I'd sink totally and disappear. A Swedish quick-sand death. I ended up having to lay across the bog to spread my weight out over it and take my feet out of my boots to get out of there. I was not a pretty site when I got back to our camper. I was covered in boggy swampy wet yuck, and boot-less. I made a pretty sight stripping down so that Ken could hose me off with a plastic container of cold water. He rinsed out my clothes and hung them on a make-shift clothes-line to dry. The next day they were covered in swamp-flies. They came home in a tightly sealed plastic bag. Um. So. That was an adventure. I don't tramp around in bogs anymore. Replacement boots are too expensive.
The fish were good here, but I lost a pair of boots to this bog. I wonder if they'll pop up personless sometime?