Black Friday means nothing in this house, since most years we're not only nowhere near a mall, but also nowhere near electricity or running water.
For the past several years, we've spent Thanksgiving at the camp I run (ran? Yes, I'm retiring, but no, I haven't announced it yet, so if you're a camp person...well, I guess now you know). We don't go just to play -- we go to burn. I don't know what it's like in other areas, but in CA we are super aware of the threat of wildfire. All. The. Time.
We spend the summer and early fall creating huge burn piles of dead wood and excess fuel that has accumulated on the forest floor, and then when it snows, we head back up to burn it. Burning is not a one-day undertaking, though; aside from the fact that we have to snowshoe just to get into camp, the lack of water and electricity makes the entire experience a bit more difficult than in most other places conducting similar fuel reduction programs.
So if we're going to go to the trouble of getting permission to park (there's no road into this place, either -- and getting permission to park about 1/3 mile away isn't as easy as it sounds), packing up all four kids and the dog, along with all our sleeping gear, securing rental snowshoes (coincidentally from REI, since we only own two sets), we may as well throw in some gourmet food for our efforts. In the next few weeks, I'll share last year's Black Friday feast, in time for your own outdoor Thanksgiving.
This year, REI is jumping on OUR bandwagon and they've started the Opt Outside campaign. REI WILL BE CLOSED BLACK FRIDAY, halleluia. If you visit their website, you can join them and create your own Opt Outside photo, too.
And hey, if you want to Opt Outside and help us burn, just let me know...
For the past several years, we've spent Thanksgiving at the camp I run (ran? Yes, I'm retiring, but no, I haven't announced it yet, so if you're a camp person...well, I guess now you know). We don't go just to play -- we go to burn. I don't know what it's like in other areas, but in CA we are super aware of the threat of wildfire. All. The. Time.
We spend the summer and early fall creating huge burn piles of dead wood and excess fuel that has accumulated on the forest floor, and then when it snows, we head back up to burn it. Burning is not a one-day undertaking, though; aside from the fact that we have to snowshoe just to get into camp, the lack of water and electricity makes the entire experience a bit more difficult than in most other places conducting similar fuel reduction programs.
So if we're going to go to the trouble of getting permission to park (there's no road into this place, either -- and getting permission to park about 1/3 mile away isn't as easy as it sounds), packing up all four kids and the dog, along with all our sleeping gear, securing rental snowshoes (coincidentally from REI, since we only own two sets), we may as well throw in some gourmet food for our efforts. In the next few weeks, I'll share last year's Black Friday feast, in time for your own outdoor Thanksgiving.
This year, REI is jumping on OUR bandwagon and they've started the Opt Outside campaign. REI WILL BE CLOSED BLACK FRIDAY, halleluia. If you visit their website, you can join them and create your own Opt Outside photo, too.
And hey, if you want to Opt Outside and help us burn, just let me know...
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