Tangly Woods trip to Lost River State Park

I'm just in from all the morning animal chores. Jason is out working hard in the potato patch digging trenches for tomorrow's potato planting. There hasn't been any sounds from the girls' bedroom yet so I thought I'd take a few moments to share some photos and snippets from our little getaway this past week. Before too long, I'll whip up some nutty sweet potato waffles for brunch before we all head out into the gardens again. The "spring gardening blog post" will come once this little rush of seeding and planting comes to an end (and possibly a rainy day gives me a good reason to stay indoors). 

Alida got a coupon for her 11th birthday for a Tangly Woods' pod getaway to a surprise destination. She headed out in one vehicle with Grandma, Grandpa and Terah on Monday afternoon and Jason and I followed in the second car, being chauffeured by Kali (it was her longest driving stint yet!). The idea for this little trip was hatched a few months ago when I learned that while Alida had loved our precious time at Lost River, there were some sad feelings related to not getting to sit in a certain little rocking chair before we left. While it doesn't take much for me to look forward to a few days in the woods at a state park, I also thought it would be special to return and hopefully have a redo on the departure and maybe even find a little rocking chair for her to sit in. When it came down to it, it seemed the ritual of finding a little rocking chair for her to sit in now some 4 or so years later was more for her mother's conscience than for her. 

It's always a feat to get ready to leave the farm for a few days, but we were grateful to have someone farm-sitting who seemed up for the adventure of tending to the animals in our absence (including newly hatched chicks). We worked hard before leaving and are playing catch up now, but we soaked in time away from the project lists and many hours on trails in the woods. I know at least me and the girls were feeling some muscles that aren't used all that often - the trails there include lots of up and downs and we were comparing where the muscles were sorest on the second day when we headed out for another round. 

The weather worked out so wonderfully. It was super cold the day we arrived so we made that day for eating our dinner indoors. It got warmer the next day and still warmer the next. And then it was rainy when we left, making it not as hard to leave. It felt closer to camping when we lost water in the cabin for a few hours and then electricity later the same evening. Otherwise, the cabin was quite comfy and plenty roomy for the 7 of us. We spent a lot of the two full days there outside - hiking, playing at the various playgrounds, sitting around an outdoor fire playing verbal word games (French Toast and Contact) and telling stories, as well as eating pizza pockets and s'mores and experimenting with roasting turnips and carrots over the fire. We also enjoyed some game playing inside, reading (and napping for some of the adults who believe in naps!), and one of the younger gals favorite things was wrestling with Jason or being drug around the slippery wood floors. There was lots of laughter!

Jason and I did comment how different this getaway to Lost River was from the last one (when we came alone!). Time just the two of us was replaced with time all together as a family. It was precious too, just louder and slightly less restful! We did enjoy a long hike just with Kali while the younger two went with Grandma and Grandpa the first day. The second day our family of 5 set off leaving Grandma and Grandpa to enjoy a quieter hike just the two of them. Those aforementioned sore muscles in our littlest meant the hike was a little more challenging that day. But I did have a moment of brilliant inspiration when I suggested to Terah that she see how many things she could slip into Jason's back pockets while we hiked. He was a good sport and it thoroughly entertained her for probably nearly an hour. She really did exceptionally well keeping up with our longer legs. 

It was good to be away and also good to be home safely. I'm finding that when away from home or at home my internal landscape continues to be working overtime to sort out the big 2022 shake up and adjust to my role and identity changes in this new phase of life. It hasn't been internally very smooth, to say the least. But I did find the time in the woods to be soothing and have found the time in the gardens since our return home to also ground me in positive ways! 

One interesting thing that happened on our trip was that we passed a place on our way where there were chicken coops that looked like exact replicas of Jason's roving pens. On our way home, we pulled off to snap a photo, but Jason didn't feel quite brave enough to talk with the person in the garden with two small children at the place. He has a dim memory of someone getting chickens from him years back and coming to take photos of the coops. It was fun to see his pattern replicated so perfectly on someone else's place. 

Well, surprisingly, Kali is the first one out of bed at 10:40 a.m. It sounds like Alida is also awake (probably reading) and it won't be hard to wake Terah if there are waffles underway. So I better get to it!