A little week-end project

Beside some gardening, we did a little week-end project.
Got three old doors out of storage. Spray painted 2 of the doors.
Connected all three.
The tricky part was to prop them up and brace them well so the wind won't knock them down. It all looked so good when we were finished that Debbie added her special decorative touch to it.
And...voila!
A nice little addition to the garden.

A graduating camping test

Finally! We feel we have truly camped. This is the first time we have camped in a place no one has camped before.
I don't mean that no one has camped in the Oconee National Forest before. But you're supposed to camp at designated camping areas. Well, this Forest does not have very many "designated" camping areas. There were brush fires around our favorite spot. Not too pretty. Our second choice was already taken. The next site was too far. This is a big forest!... we had just enough time to set up camp before nightfall and we haven't had diner yet.
Well, we did what any reasonable person would do.
Go back home...hahaha, that would be quite unreasonable. We spotted an abandoned trail and drove our Humvee (actually our Ford truck) around the fallen trees and mud holes and found the perfect camping spot. Perfect, because no one else will dare come here. It was on a dead end trail with enough obstacles to discourage the fainthearted. We cleared "our site" with tools we brought and set up camp.
We got our duties down pack. I was setting up stations left and right while Debbie was making a gourmet meal.  No worry, we brought wine and beer too! 5 Stars camping in the forest, you bet.
It then hit us! We just set up a comfortable camp site in the middle of nowhere. And we were happy like two little kids sent to heaven.
After some quiet moments, the birds started visiting. It was barely dark when the Great Horn and Barred Owls stated hooting like crazy. And the Whip-O-Wills (these are night birds), forget it, they were all around us wipowilling their hearts out! Just makes you smile.
The only unhappy campers we've made were a pack of some wild canines whose path we've inadvertently blocked. They howled, barked, cried, laughed like stupid hyenas in the middle of the night. No dice. It's now our spot for 2 nights! Stay away! When I realized what we did to them, I just smiled and went right back to sleep. We're the kings of the jungle, the humans. Everything else stayed away at a respectful distance. Maybe Debbie didn't see it the same way, but heck she had the loaded gun! I have my childish and naive confidence. I hesitated telling my "Betterhalf" we've blocked the path of those ... whatever they were. Nobody wants to scare his wife in the middle of a forest in the middle of the night! That would be stupid!

All in all we've identified 22 birds including 4 new species we haven't seen before. This does not include the dozen or so we could not identify or the ones we couldn't even see. 

We saw a water spring on one of our walks. Debbie saw it first...at a very Elvishlike setting of the forest.
A baby snake tried to crawl under our tent. I picked it up and threw it back in the woods, sparring his life. I could have just killed that lost soul but I guess I'm maturing now. That was the only snake we saw.  Usually we don't see snakes.  Maybe because they ran for cover when they hear us, or because we're looking up for birds. (Hey, we're not stupid though).
The memorable thing during this camping trip is the amazing serenity and peace of the place. At night, you have a beautiful sky full of stars. Glorious. We feel like just having graduated from camping after this pleasant adventure.

Picnic at Oconee National Forest

What's the next best thing to camping? You're right! An all day picnic in nature. And that's just what we did this beautiful Saturday Spring day.
We found the perfect spot by a running stream and set up our station complete with our own come-along bathroom. Ooooh, the sound of nature, the serenity of the forest, the melody of birds singing in the trees. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed it because everybody looked happy all day. Of course, the pulled BBQ pork sandwiches with macaroni cheese casserole helped. Did I mention chips, beer, all the bad stuff for you? Nah, we worked it off! There was the good ol' iced tea for those who don't drink, of course.
Debbie's Mom was visiting this week and enjoyed all of it too. The one thing you can't experience with these pictures is the soothing sound of the running water. I think that put Kelly to sleep.
Have you ever wondered why I enjoyed nature so much but I usually wear pants? Well, I wouldn't want any bugs crawling on my legs! That's why. And it makes it easier to go deep in the woods.
Oh yes, we did play some Rook games too. As usual, time passed by quickly. But there is another day.