Long Weekend of Primitive Camping Concluded

Camping brings out the real you.

You wake early. You dread the outhouse. Then you see a shooting star and suddenly all is well.

You look for bear tracks on the prairie road.

You suddenly want a sun bonnet like Laura Ingalls Wilder wore.

Morning mist over the prairie. I feel bathed in nature yet in severe need of a hot shower. Hygiene standards are shockingly low by Sunday morning.

Find a penny.  Pick it up All the day you'll have good luck. But not in the outhouse. Now is not the time to be thrifty.

Can You Canoe?

The whole fam damily came along.

Abby is scientific! I admire scientific!

She found a frog and a turtle egg! And she caught them. The egg was easier.

One egg was warm and uncracked so we put that back. This one was cracked and very cold. We regretted opening it as soon as the turtle moved in our hands. Those tiny feet though!

We named it Bob but did not know the species at first.We built a condo in the wet sand and protected Bob from the sun with willow cuttings.

Abby is the Minnesota version of Steve Irwin. Next she caught a turtle with the same spotted shell as Bob. This is Franklin, Bob's cousin. Both are softshell turtles. We are so sorry Bob and Franklin. We renamed Goose Poop Island to Turtle Egg Island. It's official.

My fam damily. Who decided I should be in the canoe with the youngest and most inexperienced? Well, we had the most fun and we saw the most turtles.  22. Lilly wants to be a screen writer. The next Diablo Cody?

Who wants to come next year?

Impressive Hammering!