Forks, Knives and Spoons, Oh My!

So many things have happened in the past week, and I haven't had a chance to blog about any of them! Most importantly, my parents came home!!! We had not seen them in eight months-the longest they have been gone. We are so glad they are here!!!

Back up to last Thursday. Bryan and I had Friday off for Good Friday, so we decided to go camping. Our new tent arrived on Wednesday and we were "good to go," or so we thought. Here is a picture of Ivy, very proud of her new tent.



We arrived at our destination late afternoon, got the tent set up, and headed out to fly fish for trout. Bryan had never fly fished prior to knowing me. I was the one who bought him his first rod, waders, boots, etc. I am the one who used to get to skip school on my birthday when I was little to fly fish. I am the one who has fly fished in Colorado multiple times. Do you notice that I am the one between the two of us who has all grand knowledge about this sport? I'm not sure at what point in the past couple of years the transition has happened, but I'm afraid to admit that I am no longer the expert. No matter what I did on Thursday I could not catch a fish. We would switch rods and Bryan would catch a fish with the rod that I had been using in the same spot. He would catch a fish with a certain fly, I would switch to that fly and I would not get a bite. You get the drift. Norman Maclean's quote about his father from "A River Runs Though It" sums up the way I felt after a while. "If our father had had his way, nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching it." I was very out of practice and very frustrated and felt that I did not deserve to catch a trout. Very frustrated, tired and moody, we quit fishing around dark. I will not bore you with the rest of the painful story, but will merely make a few notations of the trip that we realized throughout the course of the rest of the night and next morning.

**We had no light, lamp, lantern, flashlight, nothing to see with except Bryan's headlamp
**We had no forks, spoons or knives except for Bryan's Gerber tool knife
**We had no water to drink or use except one Nalgene bottle
**Only two plastic wine glasses and a bottle of wine to drink
**Bryan had no Therm-a-rest
**We had no spatula to use to cook
**No paper to start a fire (this was really a no-biggie since Bryan is the expert fire builder and needs no paper)
**No coat hangers to use to roast my marshmallows for s'mores
**Luckily I am married to an Eagle Scout who is very resourceful and made chopsticks for use to use in place of forks and even a slightly larger "spatula" (both were made from what I think of as switches--got lots of spankings from those)
**The propane cooker which we received as a wedding gift would be thrown away if it were up to me. Supposedly it was this "really nice" thing that had two burners and a grill that could be used at the same time. WRONG. It took 30 min for the Gerber-cut potatoes to even start to feel warm and the bacon we cooked for breakfast too so long that it was hard. Burner and grill cannot be on at the same time. I finally wrapped the potatoes in foil and set them on coals in our campfire. Please note that the stupid thing wouldn't cook anything in less than two hours, except it did burn the toast that I put on top of it for a whole 20 seconds.
**We awoke to rain
**Nothing to put into my coffee at breakfast the next morning except for marshmallows and chocolate, which were both placed in the bottom of my plastic wine glass
**The water for the coffee took about an hour to heat up on our fancy propane cooker

You get the drift. I did end up catching trout on Saturday and somewhat convinced myself that I deserved to catch them. Even though I can be slightly moody when things don't go the right way, the trip as a whole wasn't too bad and we had fun.

After I finish typing this I will finish up gathering all of our gear for our second camping trip. Tonight. Woo hoo!

Months ago, mostly as a joke, Bryan entered my name in the turkey draw with the Arkansas Game and Fish to hunt on WMA land. Lucky me, I was the only one out of everyone he and his brother know that got their name drawn! Tomorrow, opening day of turkey season, I will be in prime location to knock one of those gobbler's heads off. Just a couple of notes about this adventure.

**Bryan called me on the way home from work a couple of weeks ago. Said he got me a surprise. Have I ever said that I LOVE surprise gifts? Should have known not to get too excited when I knew the only place he had gone was to Wal-Mart. He bought a turkey seat for me.
**Yesterday he called and said he had gotten me another surprise. Still LOVING surprise gifts I got excited. A pair of olive green mucky yucky knee boots. I noted that I had a pair of "farm" rain boots (medallion ones from Ballard Designs)--not good enough to use for turkey hunting. I commented to my mother that I supposed it was probably a good idea that I got some plain green ones to use because the turkeys wouldn't be that impressed with my Burberry rain boots or that I could wear a matching scarf. She howled in laughter at that.
**I will note that I am an excellent shot. Hannie Oakley. The only way I will come home without a turkey is if my husband doesn't call one in for me.

-Gobble Gobble!!!