Jemimah Takes a Retreat

A couple times a year I like to take a few days away from the chaos and have a 2 or 3 day retreat. This time I decided to take Jemimah out for 3 days by myself. I’ve never done that before, but it’s the perfect time of year for a retreat - school isn’t out, so the campgrounds are pretty quiet, and the weather is decent.

  

 

I’m not physically able to do all the setup myself (I can’t crawl on the ground to set the jacks and such, and I’ve never actually parked it in a campground) so my sweet husband delivered the trailer to my favorite campground and got it all set up.

 

 

It’s so beautiful out there. I enjoy the sound of the creek and the birds, the weather was perfect (what’s a little rain on the last morning?), and the quiet was ideal. It was a time for Jemimah to get out of the driveway, and for me to get away from the noise that is Scrivnerburg, and spend some time with my Savior.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by to see what Jemimah’s been up to! Next week she gets to go on the first family trip of the year!

A favorite campground

Jemimah and I are so eager to get out and go camping! Since it’s not quite time for that yet (at least not for us), I thought I’d share a bit about some of our favorite campgrounds.
I’ve already mentioned Charles Waters Campground here. It is part of the Bass Creek Recreation area. The campground isn’t big, but it’s lovely. There’s a nice little loop near the entrance, and another section of sites that extends to the west. The campground also has a wonderful, large field for kids to play in. It’s a fantastic place for kite flying!

Our favorite campsite is at the end of the road to the west - it give us good access to the field for the kids.

There was a lot of rain on this particular trip, so we created a tent/tarp city.

I think the family was coming back from a tromp through the woods here.

Bass Creek Trail is a nice hiking trail. As my daughter said, the dam and Beaver Pond are just up the trail a ways…around that next curve. (Yeah, right - it’s actually about a 2.5 mile hike up to the pond.) It’s a nice hike, with a lovely reward.

This was early on the trail. So pretty!

The views at the pond are worth the hike.

If you decide to check out Charles Waters Campground, be sure to have protection against bugs - there are mosquitos, ticks, and a bunch of other tiny irritants. There is potable water, and they have vault toilets. They also have a place to dispose of garbage. I think there is one site with electricity - a handicap accessible one - but no electricity isn’t an issue for our family. We generally bring our own firewood - I don’t know if the campground host has firewood or not. If that’s not an option, you can find it at the stores in nearby Stevensville.
It’s really a wonderful place to spend a few days. If you are through the area, let me know what you think of Charles Waters Campground!

Catching you up on Jemimah

Jemimah has had a busy spring and summer! After spending the winter in her undies, Jemimah has been getting all fixed up this year! My amazing husband took the skin off and replaced all the rotting wood in the front end. Once that was all done he put the window back in, and we moved on to the inside.

 

Ken and a couple of the boys pulled out the old, nasty carpet and then pulled up the linoleum that was under it. It was cleaned and prepped and then Ken laid peel-and-stick, wood-look flooring. We love how it looks!

A lot of the paneling was peeling or buckled, so eventually it will all be replaced. For now, we've replaced all of the paneling in the front end, and we just started painting the whole thing. That will hide some of the wear until we actually get all the paneling switched out. The kids helped take all the hardware off the drawers and doors for the painting. We only got to start the painting before our first trip of the year, but even that brightened the whole interior up significantly. 

Our first trip of the season was to Charles Waters Campground in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. It's our favorite close-to-home campground - there's a creek, a hiking trail, an interesting logging road to drive...and plenty of space to do nothing. 

 

A couple of happy campers.

 

Camp napping. Pure awesomeness.

Campfire nachos.

After this fun long weekend we brought Jemimah home again and got back to work. 

I love love love the bright interior!! I know some people don't like the idea of painting the inside of vintage trailers, but I really like it. It's so bright and happy. 

That's catches you up through mid-June. That's enough for today, right? Watch for the late June through July post coming soon. 

Thanks for stopping by! Jemimah appreciates the attention!

It's that time of year!

Whoohoo! Jemimah got out and about! After spending a couple weeks at my mom's house (due to construction on our street), Jemimah was ready to pull out and have some fun. 

We had our first family camping trip of the year over Labor Day weekend. We went to our favorite site at Chief Looking Glass. 

We enjoyed the fire, camp donuts, naps, bacon, company...

It was a great trip!

Just Lazin'

None of us (me, Ken, or Jemimah) did much of anything today. We talked about a trip to Mt. Rainier National Park, but we decided a lazy day at home was in order. We did go to Maple Valley to pick up a couple things, but otherwise we just hung out at "home". We had some rain today, but Jemimah was happy to provide shelter so we could play cards.

We got goodies for Jemimah while we were out...

And we enjoyed a campfire after dinner...

And that was all the excitement. What a peaceful vacation day!

Fun with BFF!

Our church, Bitterroot Family Fellowship, went on a camp out this weekend! Jemimah loved getting out and about…

We were at Chief Looking Glass Campground just north of Florence, Montana. I can’t believe that I never knew this place existed – it’s only about 15 minutes away from home, and it’s wonderful! We only saw one pump-style drinking water spigot, but since we haul our own water that wasn’t a big deal to us. If you camp here, it’s easier to bring water.

After Jemimah got settled it was time for a dip in the river. It was a hot, hot, hot afternoon!

(That’s Caleb, Gavin, and me. Oh, and the splash of water over on the left is Nathan. My husband took this shot.) That water was COLD, but it sure felt good!

Saturday we had a little bit of everything weather wise. For a while it was raining, so one of the young women in the church kept the kids occupied with beading. What a great idea!

We had a great barbecue Saturday evening – aren’t these two picknickers adorable?? They set up their own picnic blanket and enjoyed their meal in the shade. (And, of course, they had their trusty pistols at the ready – in case stinky boys came along to steal their watermelon.)

(The sweet little lady on the left is Hope, and the one on the right is my youngest daughter, Kristi.)

It was another hot day, so we did a lot of this…

Sunday morning, after a great breakfast, we did this…
I love worshiping together in the woods! (Thanks to Lenny Standish for the picture.)

And guess what we did later on Sunday…?

(Thanks again, Lenny.)

Unfortunately, the time came for us to head home. It was lot more comfortable hanging out in the water than packing up the camp site, but the work had to be done. It was quite a chore to get the kids out of the water!

Jemimah is back home and mostly cleaned out from the weekend. She’s hoping to have a few more improvements made in the next couple weeks - we’re still on the hunt for a replacement refrigerator. What we need is a Dometic RM2510 or a Norcold n510. If someone finds a good deal on one of those, please let me know! Jemimah would love to have a working fridge before she takes Ken and I off on our 25th anniversary trip in two weeks.

Thanks for stopping by. If you’ve been blogging or posting camping adventures, link them up in the comments – I’d love to see!