Home made hammock.

How long have I been talking about becoming a hanger? Well the wait is finally over! This weekend Boo and I went to a couple of different fabric stores and picked up our ripstop fabric, polypro webbing, and some nylon thread. Then we headed over to REI for some items I needed for my suspension system. I'm doing tree huggers with a carabiner, a metal ring, and 5 foot rope ties at the end of my hammock. This probably sounds confusing, but I know what I want. I just don't know all the technical terms to describe it fully yet. Boo is doing a simple suspension of just webbing, or tree huggers. I'm the one that had to get all high tech so I could save a few ounces in weight. haha! By the way, the poly pro webbing is called tree huggers, or tree straps b/c it does not harm the tree at all when hanging up a hammock.

We drive up to my mom's, b/c she has a sewing machine and can help us fumble along as we attempt to make our hammocks. I tell her what we are planning on doing and she immediately has opinions on how it should be done. I tell her, "Mom!, I've been researching how to make hammocks for days on the www.hammockforums.net site and I've read all about the materials I need, the stitches I need, even the type of thread I need." She looks at me and says you don't need to "research" so much for a simple hammock. hahaha! That's my mom. :) She tells me to sit down and she goes to get her 25 yr old, metal Sears Kenmore machine that is in fantastic shape. Man, they don't make things like they used to anymore. This thing is built to last forever. She shows me how to set it up. I thank my mom for helping me out with my hammock and she tells me she loves having a project to keep her busy. I'm a bit shocked that she is actually enjoying this. I thought it would be a tedious chore for her that she would do only b/c I was her daughter, not because she was interested. Cool, a project we can both get into!

Well, Some how, my mom ends up sewing a rolled hem around both of our hammocks and the loops around our webbing. I just just sit there and watch, chit chat and help pull the material through :) I can't help but feel like a little kid again. My favorite part was watching her sew and listening to all the stories she told me about my grandmother, and the stories of my mom sewing entire bedding sets for all of kids when we were little. I had no idea my mom sewed my pink checked bedspread, curtains, shams, and pillows that I had when I was little. WOW! I learned alot today about my mom.

OH, and Boo, he was on a mission to help my dad get a converter box for his old TV in the sunroom. They went to Wal-mart to buy one before the whole digital thing goes into effect. Boo tells him he could call a number and get a stimulus voucher to help offset the cost of the box. The box is only $60 and the voucher is for $50, so my dad, being the frugal mcdugal that he is, decides to wait for the voucher. Boo then fixes my parents fax machine. Wow, that boy can do anything! My parents think he is "the man." I know he is. :)

So the hammocks are sewn, now boo and I gather up the edges, knot them until we are able to "whip" them, and decide to test out the hammocks in my parents backyard. We only have Boo's webbing suspension system b/c mine is too complicated to put together right now. At least too complicated for me, until I could do some more research! hahaha! We all go out to the backyard, our R and D office, (the outdoors is our research and development office, haha!) and watch Boo wrap the tree huggers (webbing) around the tree. I am just praying that it works. We are all so quiet that the only thing we hear is my mom's fountain in her pond, bubbling away. This is it! Boo gently sits in the hammock to test the weight, then swings his legs in and gets a big grin. SCORE!!! it worked! Our first homemade hammock with webbing suspension worked! Whoo hoo! Everyone gets a turn in Boo's hammock and we all agree at how comfortable it feels. aaaahhhhhh, I can't wait to go camping and use our hammocks. Now my turn to test mine out. we put it on the same suspension system. I gently get in, wiggle around, and frown. I can't get comfortable. My hammock has too much sag on one side and a ridge coming right up the middle of the hammock. Boo pulls me out and my dad trys, says the same thing, not as comfy as Boo's. It's back to the drawing board on mine. I need to work on some gathering or whipping techniques. All in all, it was a great day. Knowing we made our own gear just made it that much sweeter. I'll get my hammock in working order, you can believe that! It was great spending some quality time with my mom. My dad even asked her to make him a couple of hammocks to hang out by the pond! Looks as if we started something! hahaha!

Charleston, Spoleto, and Seafood.

We spent our anniversary/memorial day weekend in Charleston, SC checking out the Spoleto Festival. Man was it muggy HOT in the low country! I guess summer really is upon us. We drove down early Saturday morning and as we approached the turn off on I-26 to go into downtown Charleston, we somehow missed a turn and drove over the Cooper River Bridge. Impressive bridge, and I got some pretty neat photos. At the bottom of the bridge we did a u-turn and drove right back over and found the right exit ramp.

How about Charleston is not a car friendly city. The roads were packed and there were tons of people walking around. We drove around a bit and saw the Battery park and the huge homes where the Battery HOA would not let Oprah buy a home. Wonder why, she could of purchased the block with all her money! Seriously though, there were lots and lots of huge homes for sale, at least every other one was up for sale. Kind of sad when you think about it. These huge homes all empty. Anyways, we finally found a parking spot all the way down, near Rainbow Row, and get out for a few to stretch our legs a bit. I learned from Captain Ron, that back in slave days, that Rainbow Row used to be the market place in Charleston and if the ladies of the house needed something from the market they would send their slaves to get it. Because most slaves did not read/write or recognized numbers to locate an address, the ladies of the house would just say, "go to the yellow house for some eggs, then to the pink house for coffee and sugar, blue house for ..... "and on and on, hence the name Rainbow Row. So We walked along the southern end of the board walk for a bit then loaded back into the car and drove to a parking garage near the craft market. It's been about 6 hours since we had breakfast so we decided to stop for lunch at the first available place. We found "Mad River" bar and grille on North Market St. and popped in for some burgers and micro brews. It wasn't until I was seated and sipping on my "Beach Bum" beer that I noticed this place used to be an old church, complete with stain glass windows. I suddenly felt sacrilegious drinking a beer in a church! We refueled then hit the market. It was just OK. Had some interesting stuff. Like the Gullah ladies weaving baskets from palm leaves, but other than that, it looked like a giant flea market. We ducked into a couple of art galleries to cool off from the heat and found some wonderful paintings and blown glass. Afterwards, we walked back to the car, drove up to the marina, and bought two tickets for the Carolina Belle harbor tour. It's a 90 minute narrated boat tour that takes you past downtown Charleston, rainbow row, and the battery, then to Fort Sumter, Isle of Palm, Mt. Pleasant, then the boat turns around and you pass the big battle ship USS Freedom something and end up going under the Cooper River Bridge. I got some cool photos from that angle! After the bridge, the boat turns around and we headed back to the maritime marina. We saw a few dolphins swimming along with the boat which was pretty cool. Afterwards, we were pretty wiped out from the drive, the hot day, and all the walking around, and the boat ride, so we decided to check into the hotel, clean up, and rest for a bit.

After relaxing, changing clothes, (and a couple of Jameson and Gingers), we feel re-energized. Boo played on his I-phone and found us an outdoor dinner spot with a view of the water. He called and made reservations and we climbed back into the car and headed for Charleston Crab House for a sunset dinner. Now, I am NOT a big seafood person, but decided that give it a try. When in Rome..., right? Well, when we got to the restaurant and it was packed! Thank goodness Boo made reservations. We only had to wait ten minutes, but it was well worth it for the view! The outside deck had an awesome sunset view along the river. On to the seafood. So they brought out these hush puppies that had chunks of crab in them. I tried it and decided they were pretty good and gave them a thumbs up. The appetizers. I got bold and told Boo I wanted to try the oysters, but only 1/2 a dozen and the McClennanville style oysters on a half shell. Which were oysters baked in garlic and Parmesan cheese. Bewildered, he asked me twice if I was sure. hahaha! He knows me so well! When I said yeah, I am sure, he tried to give me the "it's not the flavor, it's the texture" lecture. I told him I really wanted to try it, so he smiles and orders my oysters and some coconut shrimp. I remembered liking the coconut shrimp at the Rock House Restaurant in Jamaica, so I'm not to worried about those little guys. Well the oysters came and all I have to say is YUM! I loved them! The coconut shrimps were also mouth watering. So thumbs up all around on some seafood! (People, I'm taking baby steps before I can try anything more daring! hahha) Then we decided to order dinner and b/c we had plenty of appetizers, I decided to stick with a salad. The waiter asks if I would like to try the "Crab House ranch dressing". Thinking it's just regular ranch dressing, I say "Sure!" Well, the "Crab House" ranch is actually ranch dressing with chunks of crab in it. Didn't expect that when I was drizzling it over my salad, but after my first bite, I was OK. To be honest, my salad was a bit of a disappointment. Not that it was bad, but compared to the exotic explosion of flavors that the appetizers gave my mouth, the salad was pretty boring. I didn't get to finish it anyways, the sky opened up and started pouring on us. It was already dark by then and the skeeters were coming out in full force, so it was time to leave. Afterwards, we pulled into the Piggly Wiggly and bought some brownies to have for dessert back at the room.

The next day, we drove down to Folly beach to escape the pouring rain in Charleston and had a great time. Boo flew his kite, and I chilled on the beach taking turns watching him and his kite and watching the surfers in the water. After a couple of hours, we headed back into downtown to see if the weather had cleared up and to check out the Spoleto festival. It did! We decided to tour the craft Piccolo Spoleto area first. Lots of homemade crafts and interesting art. Then we walked over to the Spoleto Art area and spent a good two hours looking at all the art paintings. There were some really stunning paintings that just took your breath away and just made you stop in your tracks and stare. I tried taking photos of some of the art work, but Boo scolded me and said that taking a picture of the art work right in front of the artist was in bad taste. I think he was just embarrassed. So the photos of the art work that I did take were when he lingered too long at a booth. I just moved to the next interesting booth and snapped away. It was beautiful work, worthy of being photographed and if in fact I did upset any artists, I apologize. By no means did I intentionally mean to upset you and you can rest assure that I have no plans of mass producing/copying any of the art work. Hell, I can't even color in the lines let alone whip up a forgery. Just my way of showing appreciation for your art, since I can't fork over the $12,000 price tag you insist on. :)

We decided we had had enough of C-town and wanted to go home a couple of days earlier. We could pull the puppies out of the kennel, and spend some quality time as a little family together. So we hopped on the I-26 and zipped up home to our dogs.

Charleston is a historically interesting place, but it didn't live up to the hype that everyone makes it out to be. Would I visit again?.... hmmmm... probably not. I didn't do any plantation or carriage tours because frankly Scarlet, I don't give a damn. The downtown is old, dirty, over priced, over populated, and in some places, not safe. We're really not the club goer type couple, so the nightlife didn't entice. To be honest, Charleston is just not my cup of sweet tea. To all those who are mesmerized by it's charm, good for you. You'll be happy to know there will be one less person crowding up your beloved cobble stoned streets. :) Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!

Mom's Pond

So on Boo's suggestion, we decided to become manual labor for mother day this year. My mom has be talking about installing a pond with a fountain in her yard for a few years now. We got up bright and early (7am) on Sunday, drove up to my mom's and commenced the digging. Hahaha! Not that easy. It's my family we're talking about, so you know it won't be that easy.

We arrived around 8am and in true mom fashion, she wasn't even dressed yet and wanted to make a big breakfast for everyone. I told her it would be best to get started on this project as early as possible, and then have a late lunch. She gave up, showed us what she bought and where she wanted the pond to be put in, and went to change clothes. Boo checked it out and realized my mom didn't buy a pump, but a filter only kit, so he and my dad had to go back to Home Depot to return the filter and buy the right pump/fountain/filter kit. My mom and I started digging, because if you would of sent us; 1. we would have no idea what to buy and 2. we would of spent half a day in the garden section just tooling around. So even though we got stuck with the dirty job, it was a smart move. Boo and dad were back in a flash and helping us finish the hole.

At some point, I'm not sure how it started, but my mom said she wanted to get rid of some of her forsythia bushes and I said I would love to take them and transplant them in my yard. So we both started digging up all 8 full grown bushes to load up on a truck and bring down to my house. (See how our minds wander from the project at hand.) Boo and dad finished up the hole and dropped the pond in to make sure it was deep enough. Perfect! Now with the pond in place, and the bushes pulled and loaded onto the truck, we had to collect these huge rocks to go around the pond's edge to give it a natural look. So we went around my mom's property and pulled up some of the landscaping rocks to place them around the pond. While my mom, dad, me, and the twins my mom sometimes watches did this, Boo buried the electrical extension cord that would be hooked up to the fountain and pump/filter and put the pump/filter together. After the stones were in place, we let the pond fill up with water while we had a late lunch. We tested out the fountain and it worked! YAY BOO!

Well, you would think our day is over by now right? WRONG. My mom said that if we transplant the forsythia now, because there will be a full moon tonight the bushes will live and develop deep roots. (Ummmm.... ok... I suppose I need all the help I could get if I want plants to survive in my black thumbed house. I am notorious for killing house plants, so I'll fall for that "planting on a full moon is good for my new plants" spiel. hahaha!) Off we go to my house for an evening of more hole digging, (eight holes to be exact), transplanting, and watering. My mom is a strong lady, I was feeling faint and like I needed a nap, but she had more then enough energy and kept us going.

The next morning, my back felt so bad, I called in sick. I couldn't move! I spent the entire day in bed. But the best part, was when my dad called. He said the my mom got up early and with coffee in hand, went out to fiddle with her pond. She planted flowers and various plants around the rocks to make it look inviting and when he went out to see what she was up to, she said that this was the best mothers day gift she ever got. SCORE!!!! all these years of stressing over the perfect mothers day gift. hahha! My little heart swelled up and I think I had a permanent grin on for the rest of the day. Happy mothers day mom. I love you! Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!

Sailing with Captain Ron

HAHA! if any of you have seen that Martin Short/Kurt Russell movie 'Captain Ron', then you know what I am talking about. On Saturday we drove up to our local lake and participated in a sailing lesson. Boo didn't need it, but it gave him so water time and I've not been on a boat since Antigua. So, I thought it would be a good opportunity to brush up on some skills. We signed in and filled out a survey, which the purpose of the survey was to pair you with the right boat and captain to make your lesson an enjoyable one. Boo and I were split up, he went to his assigned boat, and I went to mine. At the docks I met my crew mates (3 of us newbies) and got to see our boat, a J-80. Our Captains were pretty interesting. I couldn't help but feel a bit hesitant about one of them.

There he was, Captain Ron, barefooted, dressed in a flowered Hawaiian shirt, ball cap advertising some of type rum , cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth, and juggling a cup of Starbucks while he hoisted up the sails. The other Captain looked safe enough, so I weighed my odds and decided to take the risk. "Permission to come aboard Captain!" was what I blurted out. (Cheesy, I know, but I've always wanted to say that.) They smiled and welcomed us on. I noticed were the last boat to leave the dock, but that's OK. I'm out here for fun not a race. The Captain introduced us to Dan (Captain Ron) and tells us how very lucky we were, b/c the weather and wind are absolutely perfect for sailing. Whoo hoo!

We drifted out of the cove, into the lake, and in an instant I felt the wind pick up the sails and I felt the boat begin to pitch on its side. We were sailing! Captain Ron had asked me to hold is Starbucks while he tacked the sail. I noticed the cup was ice cold and felt the ice cubes chinkling around. I slyly looked over at him, swirled the cup around and asked, "what's really in this Starbucks cup." He laughed and winked. We continued to sail along with the Captain teaching us the proper names for the parts of the boat. Five minutes later, the boat picked up speed and all of the sudden, the entire crew was on one side, the boat was pitched up and I could see the other side of the boat skimming along the water. I nervously laughed, looked over at Captain Ron and said "this is more fun then I thought it would be, but if it gets any crazier, I may need a sip of your Starbucks." That was all he needed to open up. He bellowed out a laugh and said I was fearless and deserved a beer for that. He slapped an icy Miller light can in my hand and showed me his rotten smile. I couldn't help but laugh. I glanced over to the "real" Captain to make sure it was alright, after all, we were here for a lesson. He just grinned, so I popped open my can and took a long swig, and secretly hoping it would calm my nerves a bit b/c the wind was picking up pretty fast. We sailed, tacked, and Jibe-ho'ed for a while, when Captain Ron goes below to get more "coffee." I noticed his little flask and asked him about it. He said it was passed down to him, then he got a forlorned look on his face. To change the subject and lighten up the mood, I asked what type of "Starbucks" did he have in it. He flashed that half rotted smile and said it was a special rum from Key West and then asked if I would like to try it. By then, the first beer was already swimming around my head and I didn't want to be rude, so I said, "SURE!" I took a small sip and my entire throat caught on fire. I kicked a leg and arm out and croaked out a "whoa!". Captain Ron belly laughed and told our Captain that I was fearless and welcomed to crew on their boat anytime. Then he shoved a second Miller light in my hand and taught me a couple of sailor toasts. (OK... so I can't remember all of them b/c I didn't write them down, and my mind was a bit foggy by this point, but I did remember this one "Here's to the Seamen, their boats, and their women, I hope they never meet.") Everyone laughed, so he took this as a cue to teach us some salty sailor songs. He sang "what do you do with a drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor, what would you do with a drunken sailor, earlaaaaaaaay in the morning." and told us we had to sing it just like he did, but change the verse up. So when it came to my turn, I sang," what would you do with a cheatin' husband, .... throw him in the duuuuungeon" (in no way is this related to my Boo, I just needed something salty to throw out.) After a while, the Captain asked us if we wanted to fly the spinnaker. We were so pumped up from singing (and probably the beer) that we yelled YEAAAH! I got to unfurl and spinnaker, slowly working the wench to let it out, watching it luft and fill with air. It was awesome, but I'm pretty sure we went slower than before. Anyways, after flying it for a while the Captain told us to pull it in. I got to pull it in, and what a BIG difference. I had to pull in the line as fast as I could so we wouldn't, as Captain Ron would say, go shrimping. (Letting the sail fall into the water and acting as a net.) Then we headed back to the marina, and of course, we are the last boat to dock. hahhaa!

All in all, I had a great boat and I learned alot from my Captain. Like how to trim the sails, what starboard tack and Jibe-ho meant (avoid the boom!), I got to unfurl the spinnaker, and I got in a great sail. After we docked, I found Boo and ask how his lesson went. He said he got to man the helm (steer the boat) pretty much the entire time and pick the Captains brain. He worked so hard on all the wenches, lines, sheets, etc....that he had blisters on his hands! I was sooooo glad I didn't get assigned that boat. It would of been like listening to Charlie Browns teacher, "wa wah wah, wa wah...." UGGG! So serious. Sailing is suppose to be fun! I suppose I'm more of a cruiser and Boo is more of a racer when it comes to sailing. Thank goodness that survey was right on. We both got paired up with the right type of Captains for our sailing styles and we both had a great time. Afterwards, we hustled back to the car and went in search of a tasty burger :) Til next time, GET OUTDOORS!

Pilot Mountain

Boo had found an awesome deal on a new backpack at REI last week, so we were psyched to try it out this weekend on a section backpack trip of the Appalachian trail in Mt. Rogers. Well... the weather had other plans for us. When I looked up the weather it was supposed to thunder storm the entire weekend. It's not that we were afraid of a little rain, just that we were worried we wouldn't have any good views. So we went with the flow and just changed our plans a bit. We decided to go on a day hike with the dogs. I found out that Pilot Mountain has a river section (great for the dogs) and a mountain section (great for some views), so we decided to hike both!

We got up early on Saturday, loaded up the dogs in the car, and drove all the way to Pilot Mountain. Boo consulted the I-phone and calculated that we had about 3 hours before the rain started pouring down on us. So we decided to do just a 4 mile section of the river trail. The way I had interpreted the river trail was that we could hike down a mile to the river then wade thru to an island, hike and explore the island then come back. Well... we hadn't counted on the water level being so high. So we began our 1 mile descent to the river, (yes descent, so that means 1 mile ascent on the way back) and can I say I did some serious webbing. Seriously, why do spiders string there webs right at mouth level? YUCK! Anyways, we got to the river bank and the water looked brown from being churned up. It was flowing fast and looked really deep in some spots. Boo said there was no way to safely cross over to the islands or to let the dogs play in it. Bummer. So we opted to follow the trail along the river for a while. After 1/2 a mile in, we decided to just turn around. Not because it was difficult, but because we were wearing shorts and you needed either gaiters or long pants to hike along this tall grassy, thorny, narrow trail. So we back tracked and started our 1 mile climb back out to the car. We decided we had enough time to do make it to the mountain section for some good hiking and views.

Pilot Mountain State Park is located in two different counties, Surry County and Yadkin County. "1. The mountain section, 2. the north River Section (Surry County) 10 miles from the mountain section and the south River Section (Yadkin County) is 20 miles from the mountain section of the park. " (NC state park webiste.)

We hiked the south river section then hiked the mountain section. The drive to the mountain section was pretty cool Small rolling hills, then all of the sudden you see this striking "mountain" (2421 ft.) with a rugged rock tip, jut out into the sky. The rock tip is actually a "monadnock, an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain." (wikapedia)

We drove up to the summit and hiked the Jomeokee trail out to the rock tip. The monaduck was probably my favorite part. Just layers and layers of sandstone, that's actually called, "Quartzite a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone but converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression" (wikapedia.) I can see why this is a rock climbers paradise, all the grooves to place your fingers and toes on, and the height of the rock wall was intimidating. I felt like I was hiking through a deep canyon, then on the rim of mountain. When we came back to the trail head, we decided to take the short walk to the "little pinnacle" trail and check out a view of the rock tip and catch some amazing views of the surrounding area.

The hike would be considered moderate, some ups, some downs, but not that tough all around. The views, the breeze, the interesting rock formation, and the ravens, who look more like raptures, swirling around, make this hike a perfect day trip. As soon as we climbed in the car it started sprinkling. Thank goodness the weather held out for us. Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!!