Shady grove 2013: day three

Shady grove 2013: day three

In the middle of the night I woke and tried to ignore the need to pee.  So I lay there- not doing a good job of it but just listening to the crickets and woodsy noises.  Occasionally a pine cone or acorn would fall on the cover tarp and roll roll roll off one of the edges.  there was an owl.  There were leaves falling every so often.  But then a noise that started out slow and irregular became more and more quick and rhythmic.  it began to drizzle lightly. So I stopped ignoring the urge- got up, used the baby bjorn, and started throwing things under the cover tent.  Shoes, the water cooler, and most importantly- the stroller.  After that was all taken care of I settled back down and listened to the sound of rain on our tarp, lulling me back to sleep.

In the morning when I opened the tent to peek out-I was expecting it to be colder than it was.  It was surely damp- but not too cold.

We are some granola I had made a big batch of earlier in the week and began to hunt down friends.

They were slow getting up- what with the drizzle and the late night before.  I found a friend and asked her husband if he could stop by our site on the way to "the biscuit place" so he could jump our car. 

Yes- it died again.

On my walk back to our site I decided that I should go buy another battery with another friends husband and just replace ours altogether.  So the biscuit team stopped by and I told them no need for a jump.  But the husband that offered to go buy a battery and I talked and I assured him that I think I'd rather get a jump and just get the walmart guys to put one in.  

So that is what I did.  Walmart in Dawson?  I think that's where it was.  I took the three youngest and left the older ones to "fend for themselves"- read "have the time of their life".

And we were back at the campsite two hours later.  

We walked a bunch that day- moving from site, to site, to site, to playground, to field, to site, back to field.  John fell asleep on out way back to our site for a snack so I bundled him in a blanket(the shady parts of camp were chilly) and threw a tent cover over him to protect him from any drippy trees.  

I prepped dinner while he was peacefully sleeping.  Frankie helped me locate all the ingredients for jambalaya.

Here's my recipe

Two medium onions

Two green peppers

5 ribs of celery

Butter

Sautée

Add two cans of diced tomatoes

Add 6-8 bay leaves

Cook some more

Next shred in some cooked chicken(I picked a rotisserie chicken up at walmart while the battery was getting switched out).

Then pour in some chicken broth.  

I used 2 boxes

And then some hot sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.

Then I add a lb of beef smoked sausage chopped/sliced

Finally about a handful of brown rice.  My hand holds about a half cup.

Bring to boil, cover, lower to simmer- and cook until rice is ready.  45 minutes to an hour.

I laid down while this was going on.  I zipped open my window flap so I could watch John's stroller from my couch bed.  Frankie rode her bike over to a friends site and I got to close my eyes for a bit.  

Some of the kids came back with friends to get life jackets for a canoe trip and after they left John woke up.  I visited with Laura Pasatiempo for a while and then we headed over to the group site pavilion for dinner- bringing the jambalaya, water cooler, cups, bowls, and spoons. 

After dinner we had a group Bon fire with skits and singing.  Samantha played blackbird on her guitar and the kids roasted marshmallows and ate them between gluten free ginger snaps(so John could have some).

I walked the younger kids back, leaving the older kids in the pavilion with their friends.  I figured they could stay up late on this last night.