A wonderful weekend

We decided to brave the elements (mosquitoes and heat, especially) and go on a family camping trip this weekend. It was wonderful! We ended up at a state park that we probably wouldn't have normally tried but everyone else also had the idea of going to the mountains and there were no campsites open. Instead, we went to Tugaloo State Park on the GA/SC state line and right on Lake Hartwell. We camped over Saturday night and then rented a pontoon boat on Sunday for half the day. I will let the pictures say it for me.

Erin the Eco-crazy lady

I made my New Year's promise to be friendlier to the earth and reduce my family's impact on it. We do a lot more recycling, I dry our laundry on drying racks outside (even more so since our dryer just broke), I got rid of my Explorer for a Saturn Aura Hybrid, we combine errands to reduce driving, and bunches of other things. Examples: my container gardening*, rain barrel, and compost pile.

It's driving Jason bonkers**.

Particularly when I bought the kids a book called "How the Land of Litter Became the Kingdom of Clean". It's not very well-written but now Patrick is way more into recycling than he used to be. Melkamu is still more interested in taking things out of the recycling bin, but I have high hopes for him in the future.

Still, I haven't decided whether to tell him*** my latest foray into the world of eco-friendliness: I bought carbon offsets for our flights to and from NY for my sister's wedding.

Help, I can't seem to stop! And truthfully, I don't know that I should--but if Jason ever leaves me****, it will probably be when I buy him hemp underwear or something like that.

Oh no, I just turned on Futurama and Layla is talking about how the things they're using that are doing long-term damage to the planet! It's everywhere!

Pictures coming next time.
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*Not producing as well as I was hoping, to be honest. We've had one meal including fresh green beans and the first of my cherry tomatoes are ripening as we speak, but there's only one chili pepper growing, no real blossoms on the other pepper plants, and the Swiss chard won't grow. It isn't dead but it's also not growing. Still, I'm enjoying having them there--just the smell of fresh tomato plants on the deck is really nice!

**Then again, he's started being a bit obsessive about turning off lights when we're not in a room. He says he's turning into his dad--Dad, if you're reading this, nice job!

***He clearly knows about this blog but I don't know if he ever reads it. Probably not.

****Our ninth anniversary is this coming Friday, the 20th. NINE YEARS. Wow.