That Year End Wrap Up Post

2016 started out hopeful... kind of went straight to hell from there but ended on a decent note.  I gained many experiences.  I'm going to trust that the ones I didn't enjoy and don't see the reason for are truly needful in some plan bigger than me.

So just what did I do?

I started saying "YES" to the adventures that presented themselves.  I went out and explored myself instead of waiting for a human companion.  I took more pictures because this world is an icredibly beautiful place.  I talked to strangers and listened to their stories of how life led them from where they were to where they are now.  I healed my soul a bit more and got a little closer to actually being me again.

I experienced some firsts. Even at my age there are lots of first times left!

• visited 13 states - AL, SC, VA, MD, WV, and PA for the first time
• tasted hominy, sauerkraut, bok choy, fish sauce and persimmon
• tried some new combinations of food - kidney beans and potatoes fried together, turnips cooked with beef, potatoes, onion, celery and carrots in a pressure cooker (I'd always eaten them raw from my Dad's garden before), a Pennsylvania Dutch dish called Slippery Pot Pie, and Vinegar Cake
• lived without running water or electricity for 3 months in a semi-remote mountain setting
• showered at a truck stop (I didn't even know you could before this experience!)
• drove a box (moving) truck
• had to ask for a jump when I ran my car battery out
• gave a jump to a stranger who was stranded alongside the road having done the same
• made blueberry jam (never lived where a bush grew in the yard before and I'm too cheap to buy them!)
• got the car stuck, and luckily unstuck, in the mud a few times
• learned to clip the dog's nails by myself

I also did some things again that I hadn't for a long long time...

• bathed in a creek
• pooped in an outhouse
• shot a pistol
• observed wildlife up close - mostly deer, wild turkey and a variety of other birds
• blogged a bit more regularly (at least toward the end of the year)
• picked enough wild blackberries and black raspberries to make jam
• experienced a Ward/Stake split/reorganization at Church
• took a course where I struggled hard to learn the material (thinking I will go out of  my way to avoid using it forever more - it was that hateful!)
• read the Book of Mormon
• forgave someone who was very hard to forgive

And I even did one thing that I'd sworn never again... moved to a place where winters are cold and snowy.

I've marveled repeatedly at just how adaptable, accepting, and forgiving my dogs are... troopers through thick and thin. They amaze and inspire me daily to try harder and do better and grow up to have their attitude about just taking life as it comes.

I failed friends.  Circumstances changed suddenly and I didn't/couldn't do what I promised and I'm still scrambling to get that set right. And friends failed me. Different ones in different ways. It hurts but I still love them and want them in my life so I'll get over it.

I've been scared. And sad, And lonely at times. I've had people worry about me. And I've wondered myself if I'm ever going to get me put back together and rebuild an entire life and future.

I've also felt peace and love and hope and connection.

And, again, declared the coming year to be THE YEAR OF ME!

My Prepper Potty

My tolerance point with the outhouse was met during the rainstorm last week. I don't really like it at its very best and I especially dislike the nighttime mad runs to go pee. And I outright hate it when rain has turned the trail into slippery, slimy, sink-to-your-ankles, slurping, sucking mud where you get "stuck" and dirty yourself in the attempt to avoid dirtying yourself all while trying to keep your cell phone dry and clean because it also functions as your only flashlight.  Yeah... the experience was all that, with a cherry on top!

For years I've seen various prepper potties on Facebook, Pinterest, Blogs and other places and I've intended to add one to my own camping/emergency provisions but, honestly, it took this wilderness adventure to motivate me into action.  I was planning on spending around $10 on it.  I spent more. If you take the time to shop around you can probably find the pieces well inside that budget but, as noted, I had met my utmost point of tolerance with the available bathroom facilities so price wasn't my #1 concern.

$12.97 at Walmart.

To make your own prepper potty you need just 2 things: a 5-gallon bucket and a special lid. I'm using it only for nighttime needs and will be dumping it in the outhouse and rinsing it out the next morning.  And I'll rinse it with bleach water periodically, too.

$3 at Home Depot.

If you're going to use it in the traditional camping, or apocalypse, setting there are additional sanitation issues you'll need to consider. Since other bloggers have covered that in varying degrees of graphic detail, I'm just going to give you a few links to check out and not include that part here.

http://preparednessnibblesandbits.blogspot.com/search/label/Emergency%20Toilet

http://momwithaprep.com/potty/

http://www.cheaprvliving.com/bathroom/go-bathroom-van/

http://www.foodstoragemoms.com/2014/09/emergency-toilet-set/

So... you went shopping and you've got your bucket and lid.  What to do with them?

Start by taking your lid out of its cardboard packaging.  Then snap it on the bucket pretty much the same way you'd snap the seal on your favorite Tupperware bowl.  That's about it... Congrats!  You are now the proud owner of your very own prepper potty!!

Lid up.                            Lid down.                           Lid up.

I think Home Depot's tag line is really appropriate for this project!

Using your prepper potty is interesting the first time or two.  It's not exactly ideal height... so getting yourself positioned can be a bit of a challenge.  (If you can find it, opt for a 6-gallon bucket and it's a little better!  Those extra two inches make a lot of difference!!)  Put an old towel under it if you're using it indoors just in case, you know, you don't "do this" in a straight stream.  Hey, sometimes it happens. TMI?  I sort of thought so, too, but decided since we are all friends I'd be safe sharing that sort of weird intimate personal detail.  This prepper potty is not a perfect substitute for indoor plumbing but it sure beats the outhouse! I highly suggest one for your tent camping/emergency equipment.

If you subscribe to any apocalyptic theories - End of the World, disaster bug outs, civil unrest pending the outcome of next month's Presidential election (all well within the realm of possibility) - I have an additional bit of advice.  Make your prepper potty NOW!!  And practice using it a few times so that it's familiar, especially if you have kids.  When the world around you is in a state of utter chaos is not the time to be perfecting your technique to squat!!

A New Adventure

Toward the middle of July, I had an old friend pay a visit.  We had a great time together and decided I needed to venture north and visit him.  And then we decided that maybe my life could do with a real shakeup and I should just move.  So in the spirit of saying ‘yes’ to adventure, I said ok.  And that, folks, is how I ended up in West Virginia.

The hillside I see looking out the front
door of the cabin.  Makes me think of the
opening credits of Little House on the
Prarie!

Ellenboro is a tiny little town.  Their Wikipedia page says there are just over 360 residents, but I’m not so sure they didn’t count a few cats and dogs to get up to that number.  There’s a couple of little fast food restaurants, a convenience store/gas station, an insurance agent, a couple of other small businesses and a window factory.  The nearest grocery store is about 5 miles down the road and, while I’ve been getting by quite well, it does not have the selection of the big city grocers I am accustomed to shopping.  To find those kinds of stores, it’s 27 miles in one direction or 42 in the other.  Let’s just say those special purchases take some effort…

Part of the drive to the cabin after you
turn off Highway 50 and cross the creek.

I am staying in my friend’s hunting cabin on a burned out old farmstead that’s a couple of miles out of town.  The property, which is mostly leased out for natural gas wells, is primitive.  Power could be brought in fairly easily, but it hasn’t been done.  Right now anything electrical would require a generator.  And there isn’t one on site.  So, long story short:  there is no electricity.

Or indoor plumbing.

Or refrigeration.  Or a washer and dryer.  Or any of those other modern inventions we think we need to live.  

We don’t.  Think about camping.  There flashlights and lanterns to light your way.  And camp stoves to cook your food.  Or that nice big BBQ grill we moved with me.  Or the fire pit I’m currently assembling.

There’s a scary old outhouse. It’s functional, just frightening.  And next trip into a city, I am stopping at Home Depot or Lowes and getting the stuff to make a camping potty out of a 5-gallon bucket to shortcut some of those urgent and oh so inconvenient runs in the black of night.  Actually… I’m getting several buckets.  One for the potty, one for a clothes washer, 2-3 or whatever the plan says for a clothes wringer, and one to rig a shower.  You can go search Pinterest now or just stay tuned and I’ll post my misstep-by-misstep instructions, hints for using and a review of how well they work (or don’t) here over the next couple of weeks.

Ha!  I got all excited about 5-gallon buckets there and jumped ahead in the story.

Looking off one side of the submersible
bridge.  I'll do a whole post on it later.

There’s a creek.  The water is ice cold and pretty clear.  It's nowhere as muddy and brown as it looks in my photo... Not perfect but drinking it hasn’t hurt the dogs.  I’ve used some to rinse out a few clothes between laundromat visits.  And it’s been the site of more than one rather invigorating bath.  You have to cross the creek coming into the property by traversing a submersible bridge.  My friend calls it a submarine bridge… Which might be a good description after a storm or in the spring when there’s a lot of runoff.  A submersible bridge is made for water to flow across when it gets high enough.  Yes, you read that right.  Water flows over the top of the bridge.  On purpose.  And yes, the thought of driving across it when there’s water flowing over it kind of freaks me out. I think I could summon the bravery for it if there were only a few inches but from what I understand a few feet is not beyond the realm of possibility.  And that’s just plain scary!

The first few times down there, I saw minnows from ½ inch to 2 or so inches long.  I keep looking but so far nothing bigger for me to try catching for dinner.  Yesterday there was snake swimming for the far shore.  I didn’t scream.  Or cry.  Or jump and down.  I didn’t do much of anything but observe and try to get a good look at the shape of its head.  And then I dipped dog water as calm as you please.  And turned up an old brown glass medicine bottle.  I don’t have it cleaned up enough yet to make out more than “Vick’s” on the bottom but I think it’s a pretty cool find!

Mother Goose Land

You know how some memories fade from your conscious thought process over time?  You can go years without having that thing that was the source of ultimate elation or that caused you some childhood trauma cross your mind and then one day someone brings it up in casual conversation.  Or, more and more often with today's technology, they post about it on Facebook. And bam!!  You are a 5-year old quivering puddle of ook all over again.

Yeah.  That happened.

These are someone else's 1950/1960-era family pictures (quite possibly Patty Pickett, who posted them in the You Grew Up in Idaho Falls... Facebook group yesterday)  from a trip to Mother Goose Land in Island Park, Idaho.  Mother Goose land is gone today but was a popular stop for area families going to camp, fish and hunt in the Park until it was torn down sometime in the 1970s.

 I only vaguely remember this building.  My memory of most of this place is so vague I could probably talk myself into believing this house was from somewhere else and I've just jumbled the memories together in my mind but since they are someone else's pictures and they also identify it as Mother Goose Land...  This is one of the magical 'fairy' houses in this kiddie road side attraction.  For the day, it might have even been called an amusement park.  I'm pretty sure there was a carousel there at the very least...

One of the pint-sized houses that could be played in and around.  I think there were several of them scattered throughout the area.

It all seems pretty innocent so far, huh?

But the next picture is the part of the attraction that gave me nightmares!  This atrocity was so frightening to me as a small child!!  I had nightmares for weeks and would wake up shaking and sobbing about getting eaten by the giant bunny.  It probably didn't help that my family found my terror to be hysterically funny...

There was a motion sensor activated speaker in this bunny statue.  When you walked by it, it would start talking to you in a really rough gravely voice.  Scared the pee out of my 5-year old self!!  I don't remember if that's literally true or not... but oh my gosh!  Walking up to that thing scared me so bad.  I did not want to go near it.  I did not care to pass by it and see the rest of the attraction.  All I wanted was far far away from it!  And my Dad kept pushing me toward it despite me putting full force into not taking a step and twisting out of his grip and screaming like a banshee while my mom, aunt, uncle and a couple of cousins laughed so hard they were holding their sides and had to wipe away tears.

Just the picture creeps me out.  Still!!  Which is weird because I actually enjoy exploring road side oddities and random attractions.  I'm even geek enough to stop and read historical markers.  Now...  But at 5, a giant talking rabbit was just not cool!

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Edit:  Mother Goose Land was designed and built by Fontella Nickle Pederson in 1956.  Here is her obituary from the Idaho Falls Post Register April 2009:

"Fontella Nickle Pedersen, 78, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, passed away on April 19, 2009. She was under the care of Good Samaritan Care Facility. She was born April 20, 1930, in Springfield, Missouri, to Clayton Nickle and Luzernia Jackson Nickle. She married Ronald Hugh Pedersen on November 19, 1949. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Idaho Falls Temple.

In 1956, she created, wrote and starred in a children's television show "Fon's Fairyland" on KID-TV. Fon designed and built Mother Goose Land in Island Park, Idaho, with her friend Margaret Munk. Her artistic vision and abilities were enjoyed by children and adults for many years in this nursery rhyme theme park. She was a gifted artist and expressed this talent through painting, writing poetry and short stories, sewing and sculpting. She taught art classes and loved to travel.

Fon was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many various callings throughout the years. She touched many lives by her kind, generous and loving nature, and was loved by all who knew her.

She is survived by her husband, Ronald; children, Rhonda (Troy) Belka, Deborah (Clark) Vanderniet, Kris (Colleen) Pedersen, Richard (Deanna) Pedersen, Jana (Tony) Malovich, Lisa (Joe) Cawley and Ryan (Tammy) Pedersen; sister, Mignon Johnson; brother, Jerry Nickle; brother, Monty Nickle; 27 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Fontella was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Jack.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 23, at Buck-Miller-Hann Funeral Home, located at 825 E. 17th St. in Idaho Falls. The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight and at 10 a.m. Thursday prior to the services. Interment will be in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, located at 3401 Highland Drive in Salt Lake City, Utah. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Buck Miller Hann Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to the family."