Privilege Space

I woke up this AM with a good mix.  My brother's family was staying at a group campsite at Minneopa state park.  I ended up camping one night there as well but I reserved my own site because

A. I didn't want to be in a group/not knowing I'd be vaccinated now.

B. I like having time to myself.

However I also got to spend a little time with them and take the kids down to a stream this AM where they played quite a while as their parents packed.

I made that reservation before I knew I'd be spending much of the week with my niece and nephew.  I offered to let them stay with me a couple nights as a birthday present for my sister-in-law once I knew I'd be vaccinated right around her birthday (and after school got out). We haven't had an overnight together/been indoors since before Nov last year.  I offered to take them and give their parents a break and the offer expanded a bit so their parents can take a little trip.

I am in the midst of repacking so the kids and I can camp together one night this week.  It is nice to go mid-week as then I don't need a reservation and we can just pick a day based on the weather.  (We will go nearby).  Plus it looks like 2 of my 20 something cousins will just us for part of the week so I'll have some adult companionship.  It's such a gift to have guests again.

I'm well aware that as much as Americans want this to be 'over,' most of the world is not in this privileged space, and our privilege is dependent upon the rest of the world catching up with us vaccine wise.

Refreshing

* I went to Michael's eldest's la crosse car wash and then did a few paint touch ups on the car with assistance of my niece and nephew.  * They did a good job searching for cracks and my artistic niece is a skilled painter. *This pen thing my dad had in his trunk seemed to work quite well and somehow magically matches with any color paint.

*Michael mentioned possibly going for a walk with my sister-in-law. I'm so grateful they have a relationship where this is a possibility.  They did that once before when we were in a rough spot and the two of them could commiserate on challenges with my brother and I :). Things feel calmer around the house, we had a tense few weeks.

*Michael's daughters got their room cleaned up a bit in preparation for my niece and nephew to stay with me a few nights next week and give their parents a break.  I haven't done that in over 6 months so I look forward to it.  I had a friend in the house for the first time this weekend after vaccinations and it was so refreshing!

Buckthorn

 #1 - I need to work on expressing my feelings and I'm getting practice right now with the fan driving me nuts.

#2 - My friend and I had a great buckthorn (invasive species) pull volunteering at Elm Creek Park Reserve.  He mentioned best friend from college who he visited recently as he is dying.  The friend told him he needed to learn an instrument and find someone to love that loved him.  I suggested this outdoor group as a way to meet people they tend to be his age and there are a lot of women.  He said to send him the info and reminder.  

#3 - I forgot that I'd invited him to an event with this outdoor group a couple years ago already.  He said he was hard-headed and might need to be asked 15 times.

#4 - We had lunch by the nature center at Elm Creek and took a short walk - still spotting buckthorn.

#5 - Michael wants me to replace the bedroom fan if it is bothering me, sounds like it might be dangerous if I did it wrong and that heavy thing fell and broke on us, but I could look at it.  (I ended up just dusting it - the annoying noise is intermittent, so I don't know that I solved it, but it is quiet sometimes.)

Beaver Creek Valley State Park

 

 

 I did my first camping of the year, so I'm typing these up after the fact from Friday.  I went to this park once before, almost the same weekend in May of 2014 (I have photos on here from that trip too), and at the time I thought it would be a great park to bring kids here to play in the little stream.

 

 

 

 

 

  It was late once we got set up and in the tent so my gratitudes were brief....

#1 - We found Beaver Creek Valley state park finally, got here a bit late but all is well - no rain.

#2 - My friend was here first and found it ok and got all set up.

#3 - My niece has a positive attitude - helping with directions and getting all set up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#4 - Beaver Creek Valley is such a sweet little park - I'm reminded of this even though we arrived after dark and I look forward to seeing it in the light tomorrow.

 

#5 - Everyone is positive even though temps are cold (it got down to 32 F, 0 C in the early morning), no rain so we're fine, amazing stars.  We listened to a book on CD on the drive, Maniac Magee and my niece told me a detailed description of the book she's reading - Things Not Seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.   These were some cold temps at night, but it's so good to get outside early in the year.  During the day it felt perfect,  there are no bugs and having a campfire really serves a purpose.  My favorite story of the weekend was about the campfire.  We bring newspaper to start the one fire we have and the kids divide it up and try to keep the fire going as long as possible.

The next day they asked if they could have a match to start another fire.  Fires are a beautiful experience, but they also add a lot of carbon so we typically stick to one.  They had a big box of cardboard to burn from my friend's new tent so I told them it was fine.  They were doing this over at my friend's campsite and when I went over there later I saw a couple small logs in the fire.  "Where did you get these?" I asked.

"From the woods," they responded.  I then told them (I thought we'd talked about this) that you are not supposed to take logs from the woods (it's against the rules at state parks) because if everyone that camped there did that the woods would be stripped bare.  They are also an important part of the ecosystem.

 After that they wanted to go play at the big spring area which is in the first 3 photos.  My friend and her husband were on a walk so I told the kids they could go and I'd wait to tell my friend where they/we were.  

A little bit later my friend and her husband were back and we all headed down to catch up with the kids.  They hadn't gotten very far though.  My friend's kids were sitting at an empty campsite.  "We were walking along and someone left this campfire," one said.  I looked in the fire pit and there was a gigantic log still smouldering.  So they were waiting next to it, while my niece ran to fill up her water bottle to finish putting this fire out.

After that my disappointment with them taking a couple small logs from the woods was gone, I was so proud that they had learned a fire must be put out completely and were taking it upon themselves to do so when someone else hadn't.