RIde Along

i wanted to post a few pics from my Ride Along with the GV Fire Department earlier this month...

It was relatively quiet for the first few hours, but we did finally get a couple calls... nothing involving power tools, but it was exciting to ride in the fire truck nontheless...  and i got a little look into what being an EMT in my little town would be like...  it was fun and informative and i got to partake in some killer fish tacos with the crew...

and i got to try on a cool hat :) .... it was like being on a grown-up field trip!  i used to love field trips as a kid and always wished there were more...  so maybe i won't be a fireman when i grow up, but i think an EMT is a good possibility.... :)

It's a New Year, a new day and I'm feelin' good...

So we started off our New Year in a pretty awesome way .... a helicopter ride with our dear friends Betsy and James who was also our amazing pilot!

 It was a fantastic little 10-minute tour over the Las Vegas Strip (my favorite way to see Vegas by the way, from far away! :)  It was so fun getting to go with them...  I was so excited i could hardly sit still in my seat....
Both Chris & I worked the last 3 days of December and 3 more days starting Jan 2nd, so J & B were kind enough to let us crash with them (i should have put a sign that said "have air mattress, will travel"  on my backpack!) in cozy little Boulder City which is way more my pace than the garish insanity of Vegas.  After a yummy dinner of Mexican food we grabbed some card games and movies and settled in for the night at Casa Campbell, barely making it past the clock striking 12.
New Year's Day was the helicopter ride and i can't think of a better way to start the year.

I was musing on what could be my resolutions for the year and was inspired by a blog from Jack Schull:
http://jackschull.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/3-words-for-2012/

It was about picking 3 words to focus on to help define the goals you want to accomplish and it really resonated with me...
So i decided on my three words:
GROWTH - Now i know that's a pretty general term, but i feel that i've been stagnant in many areas of my development as a person... i know that, sadly, i'm beyond adding inches to my stature :) but i'm hoping to start stretching myself out of my comfort zone of laziness and adding some challenge back into my life.  i feel like i've finally gotten beyond being stuck on something i lost a long time ago, and now that i'm finally moving forward i'd like to keep that momentum going in a positive direction.
DISCIPLINE - this is a big weakness of mine in certain areas that i'd like to get under control, particularly in exercise and relationships...exercise is self-explanatory, but i've gotten lazy with my friendships and coasted by on groundwork that i laid in the past, and now i want to be intentionally focused on contribiting in a positive way to my existing relationships and getting out of my comfort zone enough to develop a few more.
CHALLENGE- i want to be inspired to try some new things and actually have the guts to go through with it... my brother is an inspiration to me in the ways that he tackles extreme sports and activities with relish, and throws himself full force into something... when he does something, its usually in a way that that makes people stand back in awe with their mouths hanging open, (or reaching for their phones to dial 911! - kidding, Luke ;)  now i don't think i'll be base jumping or street luging anytime soon (or ever!) but it does inspire me do do the little things that i talk myself out of -- why haven't i taken a photography class yet?  or learned more about weaponry, or read the manual and learned how to change the oil on my car, or become an EMT?

Today i have something new and fun on the schedule... i'm going on a ride along with my local fire department!  From 2-8 pm i get to accompany them on any calls they get.......maybe something exciting will happen...after all, the weather is pretty nice out and that means people might be out in their yards... with power tools!!!  I've never seen a fresh missing appendage before... although my brother has tried to oblige in a few instances :) 

I'll try to get some fun photos for the next blog :)

The Grinch's Heart Grows

For reasons unknown, i've been feeling a little off this holiday season.... in spite of lovely cold temperatures and even several very rainy days that are normally sure to get me in the Christmas spirit,  i had a hard time getting into it this year.  I think i was getting bummed out by the massive commercialization and materialism that Christmas has become in the media.  I know this is nothing new, and i avoid watching commercials like the plague...  nevertheless, sometimes it happens i suppose.

But it's finally hit me, thanks in no small part to some great stuff at church... and subsequently my heart grew a few sizes to accommodate the joy of the season.  I hope wherever you are, dear reader (i've always wanted to say that :), that your heart is filled with the joy of Christ's love and blessing and that you are surrounded by the warmth of family and friends.  Whatever is under the tree is just extra fun and will burn eventually like wrapping paper in the fireplace, but what I'm looking forward to and truly blessed by is time with the people in my life that put up with me.

And now, for something entirely different...

Tis the month of September
and we went on a bender
of magical places galore...

We saw wizards and heroes
ate hot dogs and churros
and rode rides till our guts cried "No more!"

The butter beer was great
but Florida makes me irate
so at last we packed to go home...

So here's a few photos
Though none of my mojo
Till again we go off to roam!

Survival Camping - Part 2

So after catching and cleaning our dinner, (yes, now i can pull guts out of fish successfully and without the slight bit of squeamishness.... fish oil is good for the cuticles, right?), we also collected water from the stream to purify by boiling it over the fire... and had a delish dinner of trout ramen!

Day 3: After a very restful night's sleep (seriously, i slept so hard that i drooled all over the hoodie i was using as a pillow) aided by earplugs (take that, crazy howling creatures!), i was ready to conquer day 3... we took our backpacks and decided to hike across the creek and along the Highline Trail to find a place so i could construct a shelter...

After scanning the area to make sure i wasn't going to build where i would get crushed by a dead tree falling over or flooded by a river of water when it rains, i set to work dragging over fallen timber for the framework....

Cutting some boughs for the next layer creating a windbreak and waterproofing....

And harvesting ferns to cushion my sleeping area and plug up holes in the shelter for waterproofing....

Then comes the fire circle (well, semi-circle) along with a handy dandy wall for reflecting the heat into the shelter.... pretty spiffy huh? :) Aaaaannnnnnnddd.....

After stuffing my emergency blanket up top to help catch the rain.....Voila! A first rate, kick butt shelter that i think even Dave & Cody from Dual Survival would be proud of! i did it all by myself, and just in time for the rain... it rained for a good 45 minutes and we stayed dry and cozy! i was so stoked with my success that we opted to make our final night's camp here...

While dad went down to the creek to catch the rest of dinner, i got a first rate fire started in record time!

Our last lovely dinner...

Then settling in for the night... now if only i could have done all that the first day! I had such a rockin' shelter that i didn't want to leave... i'll have to save learning how to set snares for another trip.... and although there was one squirrel who ventured close enough to have a close call, i didn't have to shoot anything (which i was secretly glad.... i can live on fish)... We did see one deer and a flock of wild turkeys, but suprisingly not as much wildlife as i expected...

So all in all, after my shaky start, i felt successful in my quest and feel like i may have stumbled upon a bit of mojo in the process... i definitely feel like i would be an asset now, especially if i was hiking and encountered an unexpected injury or weather change... and the best part of it all... My manicure held up in spite of dirt, splinters, fish guts, scales, and sharp objects....i didn't even break a nail! Kudos Heather, (my nail chick)... you rock!

Mojo Quest : Survival Camping- Part 1

Well, i survived my the first endeavour in my ongoing mojo quest!





It wasn't exactly how i envisioned it, and ended up evolving slightly, but i was pleased with what i learned and accomplished all my goals except for hiking 5 miles each day... here's how it went:

Day 1: we picked a campsite up on the rim and with the daylight hours winding down, i set upon my first task - making fire! after collecting some pitch and old man's beard from the trees to use as tinder, i finally got a spark to catch using a sweet knife my brother lent me for the occasion, a flint, and a magnesium block which i have decided i will never be without in my pack!
Next task was learning how to set up my hammock, which i had never used before... i did get dumped on my butt the first time i was gingerly testing it after dad convinced me it didn't need a knot at the end of my 9 hook (gee, thanks dad!), but after quickly remedying that, it held fast and was quite comfy!

Unfortunately, the night was much colder than we were prepared for and after trying to make adjustments to the hammock, and stuffing extra socks in my ears to block out the gentle chainsaw-like snoring coming from the other hammocks, i wussed out and climbed into the smallish backseat of the jeep wrapped up in my not-so-quiet emergency blanket.... just as i was finally starting to drift off in some semblance of REM, a heart-attack inducing, massive howl ripped through the night in THX surround sound!!!! I nearly peed myself, it sounded so close! now i have heard my share of coyotes and i swear, if that was a coyote, it was on steroids and rabid! it startled me so badly that i didn't even want to raise my sock stuffed head to try to locate the source of the fiendish sound.

Needless to say, that shot of adrenaline was enough to pretty much keep me awake til dawn, when i set to the task of relighting the fire in the dampness the the early morning....after blowing through an entire book of matches with no success (that's what i get for cheating ;/) i finally got it going with my flint again, just in time to save face before my parents roused from their hammocks.

Day 2: We went back to town to better prepare ourselves for the colder weather and decided to relocate camp to a slightly lower elevation.... we decided to set up camp at Christopher Creek and to distract me from my discouragement, dad showed me how to make my own rod, and find bait (locating and digging up earthworms!), and catch fish from the stream! Yep, just call me Tom Sawyer.....

AND i actually caught SEVEN fish!!! the largest of which was only about seven inches, but it was sustenance and there was no shortage of them i could have done this all day... that was the most fish i ever caught in the shortest time ever... yay, for dinner!

Back to the blog... Mojo Quest!

Well, it has been so long since i last blogged that i may no longer have anyone interested in reading anymore, but anyhow here goes....

I have been trying to get out of a somewhat darker place in my life that i not so fondly like to think of as "the pit of despair", which has also coincided with the loss of my mojo.... now since i do not have an Austin Powers time machine type contraption to find said mojo, i am left to my own devices...

My most recent idea (walking across the state of Arizona, south to north, by myself) in my mojo quest was met with a less than enthusiastic response and so it has evolved into this: finding a scenario that will still challenge me, but at the same time hopefully not result in my immediate demise.... and so Survival camping it is! I'll be spending 4 days & 3 nights hiking and camping in the wilds on Arizona, far enough north to locate a water source....
my goals on this trip are as follows:
hike around 5 miles each day, navigating by compass, locate food & water (NOT via the local Walmart) and set up camp
-learn to make fire without matches, lighters or your normal incendiary devices (by various means)
-build a temporary shelter from whatever i find in my vicinity
-find and purify water
-catch, clean and prepare fish for sustenance
-find other things to eat as supplied by Nature... perhaps to include a rabbit, hopefully i won't have to resort to bugs... I'm no Bear Grylls...

i basically want know if i can take care of myself if i got lost or stuck somewhere without anyone or any of the usual comforts of modern living... now i fully expect that there may be tears and much frustration since i am not a normally patient person, but it's no fun if it's too easy, right?

As much as i would like to do this by myself, i understand the wisdom against such solitary adventurism (yep, i think that might be a new word) and so Mom & dad are coming along to offer their experience and make sure i don't end up wandering off into California, but i was clear as a 5 year old to them: "I wanna do it MYSELF!" so i hope to only need them in the most dire of circumstances... such as 2 and a half hours of trying to make fire and having nothing but bloody hands to show for it...

What have i done to prepare for this endeavor? well, naturally.... i got a manicure.

Pictures (and perhaps video) to follow in my next blog of my amazing (hopefully!) success!