| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - Apr 26 2009 : 09:14:24 AM
Oakley and I have been planning on sleeping up in the tree house ever since Lovin’ Man put a roof on the thing, but it was MaryJane’s Outpost book that gave me the idea of furnishing it with a real bed. Thankfully, Lovin’ Man left one of the walls open with a rail and installed a pulley system for bringing things up and down. I spent an hour or so climbing up and down the ladder, first tying mattresses and headboards and things, hauling them up and assembling them in the tree house.
I envisioned a turn-of-the-century scene with us brushing our hair out by candlelight and reading Little House on the Prairie. When it finally got dark, we put on our prairie girl under things, climbed up the ladder, and took a bunch of photos of brushing hair, smelling roses, and reading books.
First, Oakley wanted to read Grover’s The Monster at the End of This Book. That was a favorite when I was a child. Then we read a chapter from The Little House on the Prairie and by that time we were both yawning. Oakley got the bed and I slept on another mattress by the door.
The street light was shining straight into the tree house. It seemed to be as bright as day in there! We used the bright light to have a little shadow puppet theater. Oakley was a bunny and a butterfly. I was an alligator, a dog and a snake. The story lines mostly had to do with who was going to eat who or who was in love with whom, so they either ended with a kiss or with the disappearance of the weaker animal.
We snuggled down and listened to the night sounds that we always miss while sleeping inside. The frogs and crickets were making such a racket it felt as if the very air around us was vibrating. The geese couldn’t decide which lake to settle into so they kept flying over honking loudly as they went. The dogs were excited that we were outside and kept milling about under the tree, barking and growling at every little thing. The teenagers next door had visitors coming and going late into the night. It was not as peaceful as I had imagined it would be!
Finally, around one o’clock all the creatures began to wind down, even the crickets and frogs seemed to have brought the noise down a notch. I slept and woke, slept and woke. It didn’t get cold but it felt a little damp, so I put another blanket on Oakley and wrapped up myself in the mattress pad.
The roosters began to crow around three o’clock in the morning. I didn’t even know that roosters lived around here!
Oakley got a great night’s sleep and I, well, I’m getting old. I like my own bed, but we will probably do it again when some of Oakley’s friends come over. If only I could haul my own bed up there and wear earplugs and an eye mask, then I am sure that I could get a good night’s sleep up in the tree house.
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| kpaints |
Posted - Jun 04 2009 : 06:43:49 AM
I beleive it will be luxurious as my brother planned it but I hope to experience some 'off the map' experiences.
Find your joy and live it. http://cheneybaglady.blogspot.com/http://www.kpaints.etsy.com http://www.thevintagebaglady.etsy.com FG #377 |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - Jun 03 2009 : 06:08:26 AM
Oh, man, Chelsea, what an awesome experience! Yes, when I was little my mom was reading the book about that and she told me what happened. I was amazed at the kind of love that would allow them to still reach out to their husband's murders. God truly can work miracles in hearts and lives! - Oh my gosh, about the food! The thought of the river water broth is what is grossing me out! But I hope that the monkey arm didn't still have the skin on it. I hate skin. What did it taste like? Please, please, please, don't say chicken. HA!
Karen, how neat! I hope that you will share your adventures and photos with us when you get back! How exciting! I guess how much discomfort you suffer will depend on where you go and who you go with. I've read about some pretty luxurious safaris and tours in South Africa and then of course, seen stories about starvation and squalor in other parts of Africa. I guess it is a mixed bag, just as it is here.
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| kpaints |
Posted - Jun 02 2009 : 8:38:56 PM
Oh, my gosh!!!! How did you survive? I sure wouldn't have eaten that! Ugh! But I suppose if there was nothing else and you are starving.....I am going to Africa in the fall, sure hope I don't run into any toilet problems down there! :D
Find your joy and live it. http://cheneybaglady.blogspot.com/http://www.kpaints.etsy.com http://www.thevintagebaglady.etsy.com FG #377 |
| C.W. |
Posted - Jun 02 2009 : 5:07:03 PM
If everywhere is limited to Mexico, Ecuador, and a cruise in the Caribbean :) Other then that, just a few trips around the US and Canada, not much. Ecuador was one of those once in a lifetime things. Did you girls ever hear about the missionaries that were killed down there in the 50's. There was a movie on it recently called End of the Spear. Anyways, the son of one of those missionaries attends my parents church and took a few folks down there, with the movie's Hollywood producers, and Steven Curtis Chapman (he was making a music video) in order to show the movie to the tribe first.... before it was played in the US. It was just after my freshman year of college, I was a bit of a butt considering I was surrounded by these strong Christians and at the time I was not living according to my faith. It is a bummer now, because I barely talked to anyone. But other then that, crazy experience.... if you didn't get up in time, they ran out of food. We were served monkey a few times. This entailed a fire singed monkey arm chopped at the elbow and place in your bowl with river water broth. You were to pick it up and bite off the meat. |
| Nadine Bozek |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 2:00:08 PM
Thanks Nikki. That was helpful and easy. I'm good to go now. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 1:57:33 PM
Y'all have got to go to www.Kristascups.com (Kris put this link on here). Y'all will get such a kick out of it!
Wow! Chelsea! It sounds like you have been everywhere! And your Mom rocks! Oakley and I had to learn how use it outside when we first started going to the farm, and we found that we preferred going outside since it does feel so much more sanitary. But I guess it wouldn't be if everyone was doing it! - Hovering and working out the quads! Love it!
Cherry, oh yeah, I can just see a pregnant woman running around the yard taking pot shots at a snake! Only in the South! LOL! Red fingernail polish $4.00. Making Brian look like an eejit. Priceless!
Nadine, tanks for the compliments on the photos. It was lots of fun! I will tell you how to post photos. I dearly love to see everyone's photos!
First, get yourself a free account at photobucket.com Okay, you will need to either resize your photos or I think that you can do it on photobucket.com but it takes a long time. I have been sizing mine 3.75w x 5.5h at 100 dpi. Download your photos on photobucket and put them into an album right then if you want a group to be together. Whenever you drag your mouse over the photos there will be a drop down menu. Copy the img address. Paste that address into the comment section at MaryJane's and make sure that you are already signed in before you post or you could lose everything that you typed. Let me know if you have any questions!
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| Nadine Bozek |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 10:20:29 AM
oops |
| Nadine Bozek |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 09:24:37 AM
Nikki, These were truly magical photos and a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing them. It is a dream to spend a night in a tree house, even with the noise!! |
| CherryMeDarlin |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 08:46:43 AM
Congratulations, ya'll!! My first laugh-out-loud of the day!! And I've been down in the dumps and very much needed a laugh!
Nikki, chiggars are also known as red bugs around here, but you can't see them. They like to get behind your knees and in your armpits and in your groin area. They make a big knot under the skin and itch like CRAZY! Worse than a mosquito bite! Mama would always put fingernail polish on the bites to "smother" them. Must have been a pyschological thing 'cause Brian came home from working at the hunt club one week-end covered in them and I could only find red nail polish (hee! hee!) and I dabbed him right up! He said I was just plain mean 'cause it didn't work and I just wanted him to look like an eejit, walking around speckled up with red nail polish. Nevermind that no one could see it under his clothes. But he knew it was there!
Knock wood, we've never had a snake in the house! During our first few years of marriage, we lived in a single-wide. I was out-to-there pregnant with Lauren and had gone outside to do something and noticed a black racer headed towards the underpinning. There was no way I was gonna let that snake get under my house! Not that they're dangerous, but who wants a snake lurking around, scaring the bejeezus out of you? So I hurried back in and grabbed the first gun I came to, a .22. Ran back out, found the thing, took careful aim at it's head, pulled the trigger and thoroughly pissed that big ol' snake off! It started chasing my prego-self around the yard! I kept trying to chamber another bullet and not fall on my butt and I just kept popping them off at him 'til I had him back down at the edge of the yard! Last I saw him, he was climbing a pine tree! I just HAD to call Brian at work and tell him what happened! That was extremely stupid and short-sighted of me. All those boys he worked with had a big laugh at my attempt at snake wrangling!
Snakes being in those houses in Greystone tickles me big time!
Chelsea, your mama peeing on the flowers is hilarious!! I bet ya'll were for real rolling around laughing at her! And can you imagine a hundred years from now, some archaeologist poking around on that mountain and coming across that thing? Geez! I'd love to see that!
I can relate to the flies in Mexico. I had a similar experience. It's hard to shoo flies and do your business at the same time!
~~Cherry~~
http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com
"A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy |
| C.W. |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 08:26:44 AM
You girls are hilarious! I love to pee outside, so much cleaner then having to go in some outhouse or porta pottie.
I remember my mom bought one of those cup things (so you could pee like a man), she comes out on the patio...we are weeding the front flower beds...and says, "Hey look at this, opens her pants pulls out the tube and pees on the flowers." It was so cool, she needed it because she was hiking Mt Rainier the next weekend with a bunch of men. Anyways, she came home all bummed because somehow she accidentally dropped it and the thing slide down the mountain into a crevasse.
Nikki, I don't think you can see chiggers, the only time I have ever experienced them was in Ecuador. I had no clue why my legs itched and the folks we were with from Tenn said it was chiggers.
I also had my first 'beware of snakes' talk in Ecuador, we were in the rainforest and the bathrooms were two holes in the ground with a palm like teepee surrounding each hole for privacy. We literally were advised to use our flashlights and check the hole for snakes before we squatted.
My second worst bathroom experience was in Mexico, in the outhouse you had to swat so many flies in order to sit on the toilet (I'd hover....good quad workout). Those are the times I would rather just pull down my pants outside, where there is at least a breeze and no one else’s droppings.
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| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - Jun 01 2009 : 06:24:58 AM
About chiggers. Are they also called red bugs? I am sure that I have had them, I mean how could I live here so long and NOT? Just yesterday I was sitting in the tube on the grass and I would feel something stinging me and look at the spot just to see a barely visible orange mite that I could easily squish. Is that a chigger?
LOL about the jock strap, Cherry! I think the Diva cup is made to go "up there" and catch all of the menstrual flow. It sounds pretty doable, until they get to the part about cleaning it after you have used it all week. THAT is gross. Not going to be cooking period soup at ANY time of the month, thank you!
Oh, yeah. About the snake in the toilet, but then not really. A friend of mine's mother who lives in a nice neighborhood near Greystone found a pygmy rattlesnake on the heating vent in her dining room. Apparently, it had come in via the dryer vent and was attracted by the heat. So, if they want to, they can get in. And this kind of stuff doesn't just happen in the country, either. YIKES!
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| CherryMeDarlin |
Posted - May 29 2009 : 08:06:39 AM
I always fret over chiggars! UGH! Every summer I'd come back from summer camp, covered up in chiggars and my daddy would give me the hardest time about how I was able to get chiggars in my butt-crack! When Brian and I were going through our "troubles", we had a rollicking good fight and I stomped off in a pout and parked myself on a boulder to stew and punish him. Got absolutely et up in those lil' buggars! Brian laughed and laughed, saying it served me right for acting like a toddler!
I'm thinking I can do without going around wearing a jock strap that has to be boiled on the stove after use! Not that I have to worry about that now, but still! And if I did use one and was in the process of "cleaning" it, it'd be just my luck that Lauren or Brian one would come in with a gaggle of people just as I was scooping it out of the boiling water! That'd be right up there with the dog trotting through a roomful with your "toy" in it's mouth!
I'm all for one of you buying one of these contraptions and trying it out so you can give us an honest-to-God consumer review. You know how a thing can look absolutely simple as pie until you're faced with having to do it yourself!
I can't say I've ever thought about snakes in the toilet. I probably will now though. Thanks, Nikki! 
~~Cherry~~
http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com
"A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - May 29 2009 : 03:39:03 AM
Belle, I have had poison oak in a lot of places, in my eye, under a cast on my arm, and in fact, I have it right now in a couple of little spots, but I have never had it on my backside. THAT must be what true torture is and I hope I don't have to find out what that's like! Yikes
Karen, I hope that one day we could all meet up with our campers and have a rollicking good time, cooking over a fire, sharing our most embarrassing moment stories, laughing, and solving the world's problems. HA!
Kris! That website is awesome! I am going to have to get one of those and maybe one for Oakley, too. They are so reasonably priced! I couldn't believe that they have an actual photo of someone using it! So funny! But what a way to display how discreet it is, not indecent at all. And the advice on not peeing in the wind. Priceless! Hmmm, where have I heard THAT before?
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| kristin sherrill |
Posted - May 28 2009 : 9:08:31 PM
Nikki, go to www.Kristascups.com and check them out. She has both and in all kinds of colors, too.
Yeah, boiling something like that in a pot you cook with on the stove is pretty gross for sure. I'm glad that's all behind me now. I hope. And the snakes in the toilet is a fear of mine, too. I'm also afraid to run over one for fear of it getting inside the car somehow.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
| kpaints |
Posted - May 28 2009 : 7:10:05 PM
Oh, Nikki you made me laugh so hard! Wonderful, cooking story, never seen any of this stuff you are talking about but I can image something gross on the stove top! Ugh! You are so funny! Hope we get to meet someday! :D
Find your joy and live it. http://cheneybaglady.blogspot.com/http://www.kpaints.etsy.com http://www.thevintagebaglady.etsy.com FG #377 |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - May 28 2009 : 03:34:58 AM
Hey, Karen! Thanks. We enjoyed it so much! We want to do it again, but it has rained so much we haven't been able to find a dry night since!
Oh, about something biting your back side. I have to look in the toilet when I go at night because I'm afraid of snakes, having heard stories of them getting into people's toilet. I don't know how that could possibly happen here but it still creeps me out!
Oh, Kris, I said the wrong thing. It isn't the diva cup, that's for menstruation: I don't want to go there. Checked that out, too, but you have to boil the thing for 20 minutes before you put it away for the next month. First off, ew, gross to be boiling something like that on the stove. HOW do you explain that to the family? (Can you just imagine them coming in and asking what's for dinner and seeing that thing and wanting to know what it is and then vowing to never eat anything cooked on the stove again because of it) Second, I know that I would forget about it and end up melting it in the pot.
The standing to pee helping device is called the Sani-fem freshette. I think.
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| kpaints |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 2:53:18 PM
Oh, Nikki, what wonderful, wonderful pictures and memories you have made!!! It is so stunning I don't have words for the wonders you created for your daughter and yourself! So precious.
And I love all the pee stories. I was just always afraid something would bite my backend! lol
Find your joy and live it. http://cheneybaglady.blogspot.com/http://www.kpaints.etsy.com http://www.thevintagebaglady.etsy.com FG #377 |
| kristin sherrill |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 2:39:42 PM
And kids are the worst for getting it all over them. I have to make the grandkids take everything off. And of course as soon as we get somewhere where there is no bathroom ( and there usually isn't a bathroom) they have to go. Never fails. Even after they all use the bathroom before leaving. Well, I do, too. So I don't go too far away from a bathroom. So I think those little devices would be a great thing to carry along on a camping trip or a hike. I hope you get one, Nikki.
I know about the poison ivy. And ants. Ouch!
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
| Bellepepper |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 09:10:15 AM
Cherry, Ole Ron and I did the same thing when we bought our place 39 years ago. We had a station wagon and he and I and the 3 kids would come out here and cook supper and spend the night. Funny, don't remember where we peed. I do know that I didn't squat very low. Did that once when I was a kid. We always played in the woods. So when it was time to "go", we went behind a tree. I made the mistake of picking the tree with the poison Ivy around it. Won't do that again. |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 08:42:40 AM
Hey, Kris! I saw the diva cup at the back of MaryJanesFarm magazine and I had just recently seen it when I was looking at REI. That sounds like an awesome device. I've talked to several girls about it and read reviews of it and opinions and experiences have been mixed. I know that I am going to get one before I go dove hunting next year because I do suffer on that day when there is no where to go without being seen, especially if you have to pull your pants all the way down. The other way I can just turn away from everyone, slip that little thing in and pee like a man. Oh, THE FREEDOM!
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| kristin sherrill |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 07:24:28 AM
Do ya'll not have the pee cup yet? It looks like it's something I would use. Very handy to have out there and you can stand up and not have to pull your pants down. Just like the men folks! I think you can just google pee cup or diva cup. They also have reusable menstual cups. I don't think I could go there, but the pee cup I would definitely use.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - May 27 2009 : 04:39:10 AM
Oh, funny! They really set y'all up, didn't they! No, it isn't fair that they have it so easy in the urinating department!
Having to pee outside used to be one of my greatest fears about going into the wilderness. I was so afraid that I would end up with it all over me. But I've had a lot of practice in the past few years! I don't know if I could manage as well in the pitch black dark, though!
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| CherryMeDarlin |
Posted - May 26 2009 : 9:52:42 PM
When you wrote "camp out on your mountain" I immediately thought of the first time Brian and I actually spent the night up here. It was right after we bought the property and before he'd done any clearing. His forever-friend and his girlfriend and Brian and I decided to camp out one night. If you can imagine our property, from the road, you go up a hill to a flat-spot (where we built our house), then it runs back down into a hollow and up the other side to the next ridge. There's a creek that runs through the hollow. Now picture a baseball diamond, and our house would sit on the pitcher's mound and the creek would run from 1st to 3rd base. It would not do for Brian and his bud, Glenn, except for us to camp at that creek! We had to get to it with machetes! We got down there in the afternoon and set-up camp. Had us a nice fire going, roasted some hotdogs, drank some beer and before you knew it, it was dark. Then Kelli and I were faced with the prospect of needing to go pee. The boys told us that they'd forgot to pack flashlights. Um-hum.... What to do? What to do?! In the pitch-black, can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face-10'-from-the-fire DARK!! We were tittering over this when Glenn announced that, oh, yeah, he'd brought something just for that very thing for us! He'd brought us those snap-and-shake glow sticks! Can you imagine? Those silly things didn't illuminate anything further than three inches out! Kelli and I snapped and shook, draped them around our necks, then headed out to find an appropriate tree. (Always, always locate your pee-tree before the sun goes down!) And of course, Brian and Glenn suddenly had absolutely nothing to talk about while the crickets and katydids sang along, which wasn't near enough to mask the sound of taking care of your business! I could see Kelli's little glow stick bobbing around at the appropriate height, then saw it suddenly drop down. I found my spot and dropped down myself. And of course you want to keep your backside away from the light of the fire. Well, as it turns out, those stupid little glow sticks illuminated just enough, thank you very much, in that squatting position that a person 100' out could see just what you were about. All of a sudden this loud male laughter joined the crickets and katydids. It was ONE of the most humiliating moments of my life! Why, oh why, do men have it so much easier when it comes to that kind of thing?
The closest I can get her to camp out now is to lay on the deck with me ever so often and look for constellations. Then before you know, she's having technology withdrawals and absolutely must get back to either her cell or laptop! One day, though, I know she'll understand why I beg her to do at least that with me and then she'll be begging her own baby!
~~Cherry~~
http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com
"A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy |
| NikkiBeaumont |
Posted - May 26 2009 : 5:33:28 PM
Thank you! We had a super, duper fun time! But, oh, Cherry! You and La can still sleep outside! I bet you have lots of awesome places to camp out on your mountain! You could even read "The Monster at the End of This Book". She'll never be too old for that one. I know that I'm not! HA!
Farmgirl Sister #554 |
| CherryMeDarlin |
Posted - May 26 2009 : 11:00:10 AM
Nikki, I just came across this post of yours and absolutely, positively love, love, love everything about it! Oh, how I wish I'd thought to do something like that with La at that age! Beautiful, gorgeous pictures! Precious, precious memories!
We, too, enjoyed the monster at the end of the book!
~~Cherry~~
http://cherrymedarlin.blogspot.com
"A thing is as simple or as complicated as you make it." --TT Murphy |
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