Spring Bucket List

It was like a whole new world outdoors yesterday. Yeah, there was still some stubborn snow on the ground. (And, yeah -- we’re getting more over the weekend.) But we don’t take walking outdoors without coats (and shoes -- in my case!) for granted. Even in April. Here are a few things on our spring wish list for 2015.

I think it’s going to be a good one.

#1: Finish projects. We have several projects in our home that we started and never finished. Painting is a big one, and we’ve already spent some time this week checking rooms off the list. I have a few things to complete in the kitchen, but I’ll be writing more about this stuff soon.

#2: Hike in nature. We didn’t do much of the whole hiking thing with Ada when she was a baby. But we’d like to start taking her to more local natural attractions. So, some hikes in the Finger Lakes are in order.

#3: Take a weekend getaway. We don’t have the means to travel much, but I’d like to go on a one or two night trip somewhere -- with Ada -- within close driving distance. Maybe the ADK or down in PA. Not quite sure yet. Suggestions?

#4: Go river rafting down Pine Creek. There’s an all day 17-mile trek that Stephen and I would like to check out before the waters dry up in the summer.

#5: Cook out. Time to bust out the grill for the season and start cooking up some meals al fresco. I’m thinking grilled pizza is on the top of my list. I need to perfect that method/recipe.

#6: Do some landscaping. New year, new house. We want to start looking at landscaping. We won’t be able to do it all this year, but I have pinned some ideas of flowers and plants that I like. Can’t wait to get our yard looking lush.

#7: Visit family. Along with other mini trips, we’d like to get down to visit both families at least a couple times before the summer. Ada doesn’t have cousins, so it’s nice to see her spend time with Stephen’s cousins’ children in particular.

#8: Race here and there. I don’t have a ton of races on the calendar, but I’d like to do a few in the time I have before TTC again. After a few weeks of ramping up mileage from zero to, well, anything -- I’m planning to follow this intermediate 10K plan for the Laurel Festival 10K in June.

#9: Frequent festivals. There are lots of big and small festivals that go on in our area -- and we haven’t been to most of them. I want to get out there and experience the culture (food, music, fun) our area has to offer versus always wishing I was living elsewhere.

#10: Advance the homestead. Along with making the yard look pretty with more plantings, I want to get our composting system going and plant our vegetable garden. I think I might be a bit too late to get my seeds started (I had such good plans!), but I may end up getting some plants from a local nursery this year.

What’s on your spring bucket list?

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Gifts for the Active Family

When friends or family ask us what we want or need for Christmas, birthdays, etc., we often don't know what to tell them. As far as "stuff" goes, we're pretty good. But if I think hard, we have our best times when we're outdoors, being active, enjoying the world together. And there are a whole host of items that are helpful for making this experience more enjoyable or comfortable.

Here are some ideas from our family to yours. And, yes, those Sorel boots are well worth the investment! Stephen just bought a pair, too. We use them a lot on their own -- but also with our snowshoes, which we're finally getting use of this year!




One thing's for sure: There aren't many shopping days left (in general OR online -- Amazon.com says just 2 days left for free shipping for Christmas delivery), so be sure to check out these other gift lists.

Fun Gifts for Foodies
Active Gifts for Women
On Stephen's List
On Ashley's List
On Ada's List + 80 toddler gift ideas split into 20 fun categories!

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Creative Camp Food

We're not the most experienced campers ever. Not that it mattered at all on our recent trip to Maine. However, we're the kind of campers who -- halfway to a destination -- think of things like: "We brought all this yummy canned food. But did we bring a can opener?" or "It was a great idea to pick up this 'just-add-water' pancake mix. But did we bring a pancake flipper?" or "Can't wait to drink this wine/beer. But did we bring a corkscrew/bottle opener?"

In that latter example, after trying to come up with 1,000 crafty ways to crack open our Shipyard brews, I realized they were twist-offs. Problem solved. :)



So. Yeah. It's that bad. I say that our unpreparedness didn't matter much on our recent trip because it truly didn't. We were staying at a campsite in the middle of civilization. A grocery store was less than a mile down the road (with great local produce!). We were surrounded by fantastic restaurants. There was no way we'd go hungry. Regardless, after a few days of "roughing it" -- we started to get the hang of things.


We even enjoyed a pretty impressive dinner . . . it was the quintessential fancy-pants campers kind of deal. But, who cares? So what? We went to the grocery store, picked up our fresh ingredients (my favorite were the lopsided heirloom tomatoes -- you probably noticed them up above), and fired up the, uh, fire? That's right. We made "grilled" sandwiches by throwing them into our campfire. The results were oh-so cheesy and delicious.

If you, too, would like to dazzle your friends with your outdoor cooking skills, follow the directions below!


What you'll need . . .

• Slices of bread (a top and bottom)
• Tomatoes (we used heirlooms)
• Cheese (we used pepper jack)
• Spinach
• Basil, etc.
• Mustard (we used spicy brown)
• Oil (we used a spray canola)
• Heavy duty aluminum foil
• A campfire

Method . . .

1. Prepare your ingredients by slicing how you would for any normal sandwich. Lay out a generous piece of tinfoil underneath your prep space.
2. Then take your slices of bread and spray (or spread) both sides lightly with oil. Place one slice on the aluminum foil.
3. Pile on your ingredients in any order you like. Just as you would a normal sandwich. Then top with the other lightly oiled slice.
4. Roll your sandwich snugly in the tin foil. If this is your first try, you may wish to wrap twice to prevent burning.
5. Toss into the coals of the fire. Not directly on the flame. Then let sit for a few minutes (about 5) and flip. You can periodically check to make sure it isn't burning.
6. Sandwich is done when the bread is lightly browned and contents are warm (cheese is melted). You'll be surprised by how awesome it looks!

You can really go wild with this recipe. It's basically a sandwich -- with each slice of bread oiled -- thrown into a fire. It'd work with peanut butter and jelly. It'd work with just veggies. It'd work with pre-cooked or lunch meat. It'd work with tuna. It would even work with apples and cheese.

Campers out there: What's your favorite make-on-site meal? I'm sure you have way more experience than we do. Those of your not-so inclined, what do you think is the most difficult part of cooking in the great outdoors? Just leave us a comment or email us at neverhomemaker [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Savings Abound: Our New-To-Us Tent

And the savings just continue today on (never home)maker! Stephen and I love the mountains. We love the ocean. We love hiking. We love campfires. We love traveling. We love being outdoors! Naturally, camping is something we want to start doing a whole lot more of now that summer is near. In fact, we've already planned a four-night camping excursion for July on the coast of Maine.

Problem is: We didn't have a tent until very recently. I'm a bit of a camping princess. Not in the not wanting to get dirty part, though. I just like to have options. For example, if it decides to rain over the 4th of July (that's when we'll be in ME), I don't want to be stuck sitting in a soggy, tiny tent with a low ceiling. Plus, with all this money-saving going on, we wanted to purchase a tent that would work well even when we had kids someday. All this criteria led us to a cabin-style shelter.

I enlisted help from my Twitter friends for suggestions. And boy did we get a lot of them! Jessica, ultimately, was the person who suggested we seek out Eureka for a high-quality, water-resistant tents. They were a little pricey for the kind we wanted, though. (Like, $330 expensive, as in this particular model.) So, we waited. We went home to visit my family in PA one weekend . . . and something magical happened.


I was leafing through the local newspaper when I saw a small add for a sale IN OUR CITY for Eureka tents. I didn't even know we had a store in the area. Anyway, the sale was at the end of the week, and attendees could save anywhere from 10% to 40% off. It was meant to be, really. But would they have the kind of tent we wanted?

We had no clue.


When we got there, the place was packed. There were a variety of tents -- mostly smaller ones. But, then we saw it. The exact tent we had been eying on Amazon.com (well, almost -- it was REALLY close to it). It sleeps 6 to 8 people. It's ceiling height is around 7 feet. It has a front screened room (to suit my lust for variety of spaces). But there were all these notes on it like A-grade, B-grade, and C-grade. We had no clue what all this meant. After a quick chat with a salesperson, we discovered that A meant brand-new, B meant very gently used (only inside, never outside), and C meant used.



Who on this earth would want a used tent? Something a family had camped in for years and years. Rife with fleas. Or covered in deer urine. I don't know -- my mind goes weird places. Well, just open your hearts and minds, people! Used -- as we found out -- didn't mean quite what it sounds like. The tent, to be sold again, could only have been used for up to 30 days. So, there was a chance that the C-grade tent we decided to buy was basically new. And the price went from around $380 (the tent at the store was slightly different than the one we found online) to more like $180. After a discount, we got it for $165!


I'm bragging, I know. But what's the moral of this story? Be open to used items. We don't always need something brand new. Especially if it's just going to get dirty anyway! We swiftly returned home from Eureka with our (heavy) tent box and set it up that night (we wanted to make sure everything was in working order). I bet you're wondering if the tent was dirty. And, to be completely honest, it was just slightly. But hardly anything to be worried about. There was a leaf in the bag. Big deal. What we found when we set it up is that it worked perfectly. Anything that was "wrong" with it had been refurbished by the folks at Eureka prior to resell.



And now we have this gigantic tent for only a fraction of its original price! Do you have a story where you fell into a deal like we did? Where the stars magically aligned in your favor? Do you have any camping tips for us? Or anything else you'd like to share on this topic? Just leave us a comment or email us at neverhomemaker@gmail.com.


ALSO check out this month's Blog Love Fest. It's a special edition because we're not only sharing the links in a list this month. We're creating a categorized blogLOVEroll. For all the gooey details, just visit the BLF post.

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