Category Archives: camping

Series: Camping

26 Friday Jul 2013

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CampinI love camping.  In a tent.  In New Brunswick when I say generally you think camp ground.  When I was in Ontario when I said camping some thought I meant out in the woods where no one else was around.  They called my kind of camping Continue reading →

Camping – The Beauty

09 Saturday Jul 2011

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One thing that I enjoy about camping is being surrounded by God’s beauty.  God created something that is so marvellous and mysterious and creative and soul resting.  To be in the middle of nature – God’s creation – lifts me up.

I know there are many people who don’t enjoy camping or they enjoy nature but wouldn’t stay over night.  I am in a tent so I feel relatively safe.  I haven’t gone hardcore and gone out with a back pack and slept under the stars without the slight safety net of shelter – the tent.  Which let’s be honest – anything or anyone can get into a tent so it really isn’t that big of a safety net.  There are people all around you being loud and at times crazy and you just want to tell them to be quiet.  But there are so many good things about camping which I’ve already mentioned – the site – the campfire – the food – the storm – but most of all the beauty.

I don’t know how to express how I feel when I am camping but all things are good.

I swam out past the rope
As I was treading water I looked out all around me
Surrounded by God’s amazing creation
I gave him thanks for what he has done for me
For where he has brought me and where he is taking me
He is my source and my light and my life
All I can do is find beauty and mystery in what he has made

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

Camping – The Storm

08 Friday Jul 2011

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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

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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

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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

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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.