Time Well Spent

I’m so ashamed. I broke my promise.  I must redeem myself.  Looking back on my last post, and noticing it was over two weeks ago, I had to ask myself—what do I do with my time??  Lay around the camper watching soap operas? Nope.  Get my nails done and have thrice weekly sessions with my personal trainer?  I don’t think so.   Go to lunch with my girlfriends?  Sadly, no.  Actually, much of my time is taken up by the extra work that camper dwelling demands.

After the cold snap we had endured released its icy grip on us, we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather that followed and set about building our “sun room”.  With the previously built pallet/plywood floor as a foundation, up went the 12x20 foot frame.  Eric found a discarded sliding door at the building center, and was able to repair it to perfect working order.  We now have an enclosed space attached to the camper that has Lexan walls and roof on the south side, solid walls and roof on the north and the slider on the west. With shelving and the soon to be completed insulated heated closet, we now have tripled our living and storage space.  On sunny days, the space gets so toasty, we need to leave the door open a bit.  Being able to move around and work in a bright, warm place is an incredible morale booster.

Without making special plans, my birthday turned out to be a fun one.  We went to T. Roosevelt Nat’l Park for a long run/walk and on the drive in were treated to a close-up of buffalo cows and yearlings grazing right next to the road.  They looked so unconcerned and gentle.  As we were running, there were two bulls up a hill from us.  With no trees in sight, we agreed to turn back rather than risk losing a footrace with charging buffalos.  The warm, sunny day was topped off with a steak dinner and coconut cake shared with our new friends Jeff and Karen from Alaska. 

 The next day Eric got a call to service a huge diesel generator north of Williston, and since I had no big plans, I volunteered to ride along. I grabbed several order forms for nursery-related items to keep me busy and off we went.  While Eric started working on the twelve cylinder beast, I stayed comfy in the truck pouring over plant descriptions and filling out forms.  When Eric needed my help I pulled on my trusty coveralls and became an “oiler” for a day, helping to get nearly 50 gallons of old oil out of, then the same amount of new oil into the machine.  After stops at the Laundromat and Walmart we finally got home after 9:00.  Ahhh, the coziness of it all.

Along with (sporadically) writing this blog, I have also been writing articles for our Huckleberry Nursery website—huckleberrynursery.com.  I spend a fair amount of time on these to ensure accuracy of the plant details and look at hundreds of photos to include in the articles.  I haven’t done this kind of writing since college, but I’m really enjoying it.  Maybe you will too.

Another thing I can spend hours on is recipes.  I am a member of several food websites and love to peruse them, sometimes randomly, other times with a specific purpose, like my latest one, Meatless Monday.   So far I have tried four recipes fromeatingwell.com—a strata, a Portobello sandwich, a black bean chili, and an eggplant/chickpea stew. They were all good, with the Portobello sandwich being our favorite and the eggplant dish warranting the comment from Eric, “needs meat”.  I intend to eat meatless at least once a week for the whole year and luckily my hubby is good with it, too.

We haven’t squandered the opportunity to enjoy the record smashing high temperatures here in NoDak.  Right out our door are miles and miles of hilly grazing land to run on along with little creeks and wetlands to explore.  We walked out onto a frozen pond to check out a muskrat den, speculating on what it must be like inside. Probably warm and serviceable, just like the camper.

On Super Bowl Sunday we drove out to a dammed-up section of the Missouri River and walked out on 18” thick ice.  We could hear the ice expanding and cracking and see deep fissures ¼” wide, which was a little alarming to this California girl, but Eric assured me we were safe.  There were ice fishermen and ice huts and pick-up trucks out there.  One group let us try our hands and auguring the ice, and it is harder than you would think!  No one was catching anything so we headed up to the bluffs for a wonderful run, until we got distracted by a slough filled with driftwood.  We poked around for quite some time, finding lots of treasures for yard art and a future furniture project.  Back home, we ran some more and did some strength work in our “gym” aka sun room.

 

We caught the second half of the game at a little bar in town which was non-smoking, had cheap beer, and free food brought in by the regulars, which was quite good.  The pheasant stew was rich and filling and went great with my Newcastle Ale.  Our team won (Yay!) and I won a black Absolut Vodka t-shirt that fit perfectly.  All in all, it was a great day.

There are only five weeks left until I return to Idaho, which I have mixed feelings about, because it means that Eric and I will be apart for long stretches of time.  We are both looking at this as an opportunity for personal growth and know we will get through it just fine.  That said, I’m still getting pretty excited to get back to my home, friends, family, cats, garden, work, stores, lakes, mountains…yeah, I love home. 

  

 Check out the photos below, the fog frost is really cool!