Fun at The Farm

We finally managed to get out for a night of camping in what has seemed like forever. We've been wanting to take the truck up to the pond on the farm and camp for quite some time. Daniel messaged me on Saturday morning asking if we wanted to go camping somewhere, so we loaded everything up in the truck and set up camp next to the pond. It was also our first attempt at camping with our 10 month old beagle, Lucy.

We got everything set up before dark without any real issues other than realizing the rainfly for Jess's tent had mysteriously disappeared in the 3 or 4 years since its last use. We figured it was back at the house so we went without until a little later. We finally got everything set up and that's when Lucy began coming unglued.

We drove up earlier in the day to get some firewood ready and discovered most of the downed wood was a bit damp, but I took it anyways, I've never been unable to get a fire started and I wasn't about to go without one now. I also gathered up some smaller wood and kindling that was dry. I figured while it was burning and starting a good hot base of coals, it would dry out the bigger wood enough to burn. I managed to get the fire going enough on the little stuff that it was pretty warm and spitting flaming ashed off to the side, of course Lucy had to go after them. That was the first time she had ever been around a fire, she was a little freaked out but relatively fearless for the most part. She was even so bold as to try and pick up the cool end of a few logs and drag them out of the fire to chew on them. That didn't last long once she realized the other end was on fire.

Once Lucy got bored with the fire, she would not stop trying to jump on us. The bullfrogs had her freaked out the most, but she would do a complete 360 to investigate every little noise. To top that, the grass was too tall for her to be comfortable, so she wouldn't sit down. My tough little beagle is a bona-fide priss. Nothing like a fully trained rabbit dog you'd expect her to be. We had hoped she would take to camping relatively well/quickly, especially since she loves to travel, apparently she doesn't want to have anything to do with it.

Somewhere between the whining, jumping, and general chaos she exhibited, we opted to take her back to the house for the night and come back by ourselves. If anything, for peace and quiet. We picked up the rainfly for the tent while we were at the house since there was a small chance of rain, then headed back up to the campsite. By the time we got back up there, the fire had finally caught on the bigger logs, so I didn't have to fool with gathering any more kindling and finally got to relax. We sat around the fire for a few hours, roasted marshmallows and just took in the noises that come with the night.

We finally turned in for the night around 12, the crickets and bullfrogs quickly putting us to sleep. I figured we would probably get up around daybreak, but we wound up sleeping until almost 9am, when it finally got too hot and stuffy in the tent to be any sort of comfortable. We trudged around the campsite for a little bit then got everything packed back up and took off back down to the house.

It wasn't anything truly remarkable, but it was nice to get back outdoors for a night. I miss camping and we have made a vow to get out more, especially this fall once things cool off a bit. It's cheap and one of those things you can usually do pretty much on a whim, in fact it usually works out better that way. No reservations, no check-in/out times, I could get used to that again. I think it was Robert Burns who said it first, "The best plans of men and mice often go awry." Amen to that.