Author Archives: jackmansjourney

Camping – The Storm

08 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in camping, God Time

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Have you ever gone camping and been caught in a storm?  We did on Saturday night.  It was not too scary.  The clouds were rolling by so fast and it got so dark it was eerie.  It was only 7pm, so we knew something was coming along.  We packed everything into the cars not caring where things went in the car.  Covered the BBQ and wood with a tarp (we want to keep things dry) and got the fire going to try to get it some s’mores before the rain started.

The Storm is rolling in!
The rain started and we jetted for the tent!  It was really windy and at times we were holding up the side of the tent with our hands.  I thought it was going to cave in on us a couple of times, but it didn’t.  The thunder was so loud!  The rain was so hard.  The rain lasted for about 45 minutes.  The debate began.  Should we go or should we stay?
(it looks dark, but there really is a video here – we are in the tent)
Ah!  We survived the storm.  Thank you God for keeping us dry (besides a few drops that came in on the blowing down side that we kept up with a single air mattress.  It was damp on that side, but not wet.  We heard a lot of other neighbours who got WET!

The end of our fire that God reignited for us!  Amazing.  We were the only fire for quite a while.  We burned the rest of our wood.  Chatted.   Enjoyed the after storm of quiet until the neighbours started awakening from their cars and tents.  And we had another smore.  I really do think the peppermint patty smore is my favourite!

That was our storm.  It wasn’t that bad of a storm.  Interesting to be in the tent with the crazy wind, but not as bad as it could have been.  The next morning we did see branches blown down and a very thick branch cracked and hanging by its threads from the tree, but thankfully nothing fell on us and hopefully not on anyone else.  We were in a good spot that the rain didn’t run to our tent.  That happened a couple different times while I was tenting. Except I think they were older tents.  Sleeping bags and everything else soaked!

The tent is being dried and aired out at one of the girls houses since it would be a bit awkward drying it out on the apartment building lot!  Some of our things were mixed together as I cam e with one friend and went home with the other, but I think we have things sorted out.  Overall it was a good weekend!  I’m not sure if I have time for another camping trip this summer, but I’m hoping to get camping a bit more next summer.  I love it!

This part of the Series: Camping.  Check out more posts on camping here.

Camping – The Food

07 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in camping

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Really, isn’t camping about the awesome food you eat.  I don’t know about you, but I love camping food.  The snacks and bbq’s and even sometimes cooking over the fire (we didn’t do that this time).  We had way more food then we needed!

Here is a taste of some of the food we had.  It was so delicious!

Smores
Wholewheat Blueberry Muffins
Tea Time
We brought a pot, water, and a single burner propane stove to boil water for tea.
We also boiled water to put in with the cold water to do dishes.
Our Water
It wasn’t coming out very fast.  So I pushed on it.  Later we found out we were supose to make a little hole at the top.  We didn’t have good scissors or knife.  We used the lighter to melt the hard plastic and the tip of the scissors to pierce it.  Definitely worked so much better after that!  🙂
WHAT!?  Our smore ingredients all over the ground when we woke up.  😦
And our lovely snack from Julie.  Sad.  I had gathered it the night before and put it in the bag but I guess I didn’t put it in the car.  We don’t think it was a raccoon because the animal didn’t open everything.  Unless it is a smart raccoon and knows what he likes.  We did see a ground hog that day and wondered if he would be interested in that type of food.  Whatever it was, he tried sunflower seeds, party mix, a couple peppermint patties, and marshmallows (his favourite).  He didn’t touch the graham crackers, reese peanut butter cups, or the milk chocolate bars.
BBQ’ing up some ribs!
We used our fingers!  Delicious!
A knife and fork kinda girl.
Delicious no matter how you eat them!
Went well with baby spinach.
Such a good burger!
Don’t you just want to eat it up?
Peppermint Patty s’more after the storm.
The food was good!  No, it was great.  Wait, it was fantastic!  We also had delicious french toast with maple syrup.   Really, there is not much to say about it.  Thanks for some good food ladies! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
When camping, make sure you take your favourite food!  It makes the camping experience so much better.  Think ahead and make sure you have all the utensils for cooking that you need!

This part of the Series: Camping.  Check out more posts on camping here.

Camping – The Campfire

06 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in camping

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I love campfires!  I don’t have to be camping to enjoy it!  Although typically if I wasn’t camping I would call it a bonfire.  When I have been home for Christmas and New Year’s Eve over the past years we have even had winter bonfires!  Although I don’t remember if we toasted marshmallows or not in the winter.

We were able to have a fire Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night before the storm and then one after the storm.  It was great.  We also had wonderful smores.  I won’t go into detail about how to make smores, because I have already done that in another blog.

Our fire Friday night.  It took a bit to get going, but between the three of us, we did it!  It was great.  We had great smores and conversation around this fire!

Saturday afternoon we made a fire.  Much better success then Friday night’s fire.  We did have success on Friday night, but it took a while to get it going.  This fire – not so long to get going.  The coals were still hot and the paper started smoking right away and didn’t take long at all to get flame.

We survived the storm.  The fire was dead.
Amazingly it started again – no help needed.
This was definitely the easiest to start, because we didn’t.
It reignited itself.  We like to think it was a little gift from God.
We decided to burn the rest of the damp wood.  It took a couple of hours.

The fire after the storm.  Just thought it was a cool shot of the flames!

Our campfire was almost done.  We were tired and waiting for it to be low enough we could go to bed.  Would have been great roasting time for marshmallows or hotdogs.

Thus the end of campfires for the weekend.

This part of the Series: Camping.  Check out more posts on camping here.

Camping – The Site

05 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in camping

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I love camping.  One of the things I love is the camp site and what surrounds it and being out in nature.  It is relaxing and comfortable.  Except for the people that surround you, but I guess can I can share the surroundings with others!

Our site didn’t have too many trees or privacy, but it did have a nice grass covering, a good fire pit, and some shade during the day from the line of trees and bushes on one side of the site.

The campsite along with good friends who came with me!

The campfire pit – the first night.  Mmmm… Smores.  My new favourite is peppermint patti smores.

The Beach Area – we had to drive to it since we were in the lower campground.  Swimming, laying in the sun, chatting, relaxing, eating snacks.

This part of the Series: Camping.  Check out more posts on camping here.

Back to God’s Country

04 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by in Div College, Me and God Time, Rest, Self Improvement, Update

≈ 2 Comments

Heading back to the homeland – to God’s country – to a beautiful place that I miss and love.

I’m sure that most of us think that where we come from is God’s country, but the Maritimes are so beautiful.  Yes, I know I haven’t been out West yet to compare, but one day I will get there and I will probably still say that the Maritimes is God’s country.  Some might argue about which part specifically is the best, but I say it all is great and wonderful.

For my reader’s who don’t know, my journey has a bend in the road and I am indeed heading back to God’s country in the fall.  It was not an easy decision to make.  It is going to be challenging and a lot of hard work.  The easy and safe road would be to stay here, but I have been called to do more and so I am off.  Where to exactly?

I’m heading back to school to get my Masters of Divinity at Acadia.  I’m excited about this as I will be closer to family (so close I will be living with my sister).  I can see my niece more often (very much looking forward to this).  I get to study full time again.  Something that makes me a bit nervous, but with the help of Christ I will make it through.  At this time in my life I need a bit of change and have the sense that God is leading me back to God’s country.

The program is 3 years.  So for these next few years, that is where I’ll be.  If you are someone I’m leaving behind in Ontario I want to take this time to tell you that Nova Scotia is an awesome place to take vacation!  Which means you will have to let me know you are coming so we can get in a visit!  For friends and family that I am coming back to – I will see you soon!

I don’t know where I will be after 3 years, but I do know that I want to encourage leaders in Children’s Ministry and encourage networking among this very important ministry to kids and their families.  It is so important that these amazing leaders have support among each other and know about the resources that can help them do ministry 100 times better.  From experience, I know how important this is and is a ministry in itself.

Yes, I am excited to go back to my family and friends in the Maritimes.  Yes, I am sad to leave my friends and church family that I have grown to know over the past 9 years here in Ontario.  No, I won’t go insane over the next 52 days trying to pack, finish things up at work, and try get everything done on my Ontario Bucket List (already have 2 things checked off)!

Don’t worry, I still plan to blog along the way!  I will have something new to blog about – going back to school!

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Camping: S’more Goodness

21 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in baking, camping

≈ 2 Comments

The first campfire of the season along with the first roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and the best of all – s’mores.  Make sure you watch the video below!

I decided to see what was said about s’mores on the internet.  Here is Wikipedia’s definition of a S’more and where they might have originated from.  You can decide whether it is true or not (where they originated that is.  They have the definition pretty bang on – except for variations that people have created over the years.  You will see ours later in the blog.)







Definition:
A s’more (sometimes spelled smore) is a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the United States and Canada,[1] consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker.  

Etymology and Origins:
S’more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, “some more”. While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts” of 1927.[3] The recipe is credited to Loretta Scott Crew, who reportedly made them by the campfire for the Scouts.[4] It is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s’mores, but there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. Although it is unknown when the name was shortened, recipes for “Some Mores” are in various  Girl Scout publications until at least 1971.


Recipe to make the perfect S’More
Watch the video and see for yourself!  Enjoy!  Be sure to attend at least one camp fire this summer and be sure to try out this s’more goodness recipe to have the perfect s’more every time!  Your friends will be amazed!  

By the way, don’t be too nervous about balancing the s’more on the end of the stick (necessary to have a two pronged stick for this!).  Be careful when you take  off the s’more … it’s hot.  We had a drop because of this.  I am happy to say while balancing and roasting the s’more we had none fall in the fire.  If you do not have a steady hand, find someone at your camp fire who does!  

 hile these S’mores were not made while camping, it is a camping must, so it is now part of the Series: Camping.  Check out more posts on camping here.