Earth Day is such a great day to celebrate – you don’t need to decorate, send cards or buy presents – actually NOT doing any of these things is best! 🙂
Uncategorized
Skunk-A-Licious
Don’t stand, Don’t stand so, Don’t stand so close to me – I kept hearing Sting singing this song as I went out in public right after getting sprayed by a skunk to get some things to combat the stinky smell – I’m pretty sure Sting didn’t write this song about being sprayed by a skunk, but still….
So it’s been 2 weeks since Jo and I got sprayed by a skunk….and everything still stinks. Definitely not as bad, but the smell is just everywhere.
After my last blog post I ran to the grocery store to get hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to make the mixture everyone assured me would work. I also ran to the pet store to get special shampoo and spray to get rid of the skunk scent – I was gonna try EVERYTHING!! Almost everything I read online said the tomato juice doesn’t work and it makes a huge mess so I skipped that. (Dogs tend to shake off when they get wet and I read more than one horror story online about people putting tomato juice on their dog and then having to clean up the colossal mess after they shook it off. I decided pretty quickly I didn’t want to deal with that mess also.) As I was picking up everything to make the mix people around me kept saying “EW!” and/or “What’s that smell?!?” yeah it’s, me… 
When I got home JoJo was still waiting for me in her quarantined area of the bathroom. I mixed up 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1 cup baking soda, and a bit of dawn dish soap – put on some rubber gloves and scrubbed JoJo down. After I rinsed her off, I put the dog de-skunk shampoo, scrubbed her down waited the recommended 5 mins and rinsed her off again. Everything I used on Jo I used on myself as well – except putting the hydrogen peroxide in my hair after I got a message from my hairdresser strongly advising me to not do it. She suggested putting vinegar in my hair and letting that sit. We put bowls of vinegar all over the house as that is supposed to absorb the smell. It is quite amazing how the smell just permeates through everything – gets in every little crack, even closed closet doors to stink up all our clothes – I am not kidding when I say it is everywhere.
Not My Usual Morning Routine…
Skunks are extremely active in my area this time of year – and JoJo and I got a not so pleasant reminder about that early this morning….
I was letting Jo out, opening the door to the back deck and BAM – the door hit something…what the??? I look and in the dim light I see a fluffy black body, tail straight in the air – the smell hit me before my sleepy brain could register what was going on – and also unfortunately before I could grab Jo… she burst through the door excitedly to meet the new visitor, and doing what every dog does when meeting someone new – went up to sniff it’s butt…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The Sensory Trail and the Sunflower Cemetery
SUPERBOWL SUNDAYYYYYY!!!! As I know absolutely NOTHING about football (is that un-American?) I decided I would much rather spend the day outside. I called up a friend, grabbed JoJo and off we went to explore Blue Marsh Lake. There are many trails around the lake, but the map is very basic and doesn’t have a lot of the connecting trails on it. I love kayaking at Blue Marsh, but am not very familiar with the hiking trails so we decided to be adventurous, pick a trail and see where it would take us. We drove around almost the entire lake before we found a spot where we could park – a lot was blocked off for some reason or had a ton of snow piled up in the parking areas. We finally found a place to park and according to the map there was a loop trail near by called the Sensory Trail. We walked over to check it out and saw the trail was only 1/4 mile long – bummer! So we did the loop twice and sort of explored around the area a bit but it didn’t take us long at all. We hopped back in the car – determined to go for a longer hike than that and found a parking pull off that was clear of snow. We got out and started hiking, following the tracks of others. The snow is only a few inches deep now as we had a warm spell and most of the snow from the blizzard has melted away (no snowshoes needed for this trip!) We wandered around the trails and came to some fields – we started around the perimeter of one and came to an area covered with dried up sunflowers – I hiked part of a nearby trail in the summer that had TONS of blooming sunflowers – I never knew they were there before and it was so amazing to see.
Backpacking Dreams
So it’s 4:30 am as I’m typing this….I just woke up from a weird/ funny dream.
In the dream JoJo and I were backpacking somewhere and it started to rain like crazy. I pulled out an umbrella (?? I don’t have a backpacking umbrella- I know some people do, but I do not) and try to hold it up over me as I hike along. I couldn’t hold the umbrella over me and use my trekking poles at the same time so I decided to set up camp and wait out the rain.
GIVEAWAY!
This year when I was setting up my Christmas tree I was just not happy with all the old ornaments I have had for YEARS. They are just very generic ones that anyone could get at any major store – nothing personal about it. I remember being a kid and almost all of the ornaments on the tree had a special meaning – either my sisters and I MADE them or they had some other significance (1st Christmas, etc). Thinking about this made me realize my tree was pretty drab and how I could personalize it better.
I am a big fan of supporting local artists and shops on Etsy (In case you don’t know Etsy is a website that sells only handmade or vintage items), so I set out to see what kind of ornaments I could find to “spruce” up my tree (see what I did there?? 🙂 haha!) OK – bad jokes aside I found several LOVELY ornaments that would let me bring my love of the outdoors in! Then I thought, why don’t I share these with all my outdoorsy friends on my blog – and have a giveaway with one! (We will get to the giveaway in a sec)
Keratitis in Dogs
Recently JoJo was diagnosed with Keratitis which causes lumpy growths on her eyeballs. About a month ago I noticed these small growths – which at 1st I thought were just little “eye boogies” but they wouldn’t move when she blinked so that’s when I realized there were actually growing on her eyeball between the white part and the iris. I took her to see her vet – she suspected keratitis and told me it is a common thing for German Shepherds to get. She was put on eye drops – 2 drops for each eye 3 times a day for 2 weeks.
Plans Change….
Well this week did not go as planned – I was all packed and ready to go on my backpacking trip – and then Monday night I got some kind of stomach bug and got extremely sick. Tuesday AM I drove to my parents where my dad drove me most of the way to the trail head. We pulled over at a Sheetz – I was still not feeling well at all, I was trying to determine if it was nerves because this would be my first solo backpacking trip or if I was really sick. My stomach was making all kinds of crazy noises and just felt awful. I actually went to the trunk and picked up my pack which felt like it weighed a million pounds and thought, “Nope, not gonna happen today.” I didn’t want to get dropped off and then someone would have to pick me up because I was ill. I did not want my 1st solo backpacking trip to go that way, so we turned around and headed home. I was sick for most of the week and didn’t actually feel better until Thursday. What a waste of a perfect week! I was so disappointed. Wednesday night I went outside to let JoJo out and looked up at the sky – it was a perfectly clear night – you could see stars for miles and I thought, “I would be camping at Annapolis Rocks and looking at this view.”
But I guess in the long run it was better to stay home and get well – backpacking is hard enough without having a stomach bug and being weak – and I think being nervous just added to the way I felt.
So I will have to try again – I have already planned the mileage and stuff for the next time – just need to pick a weekend now!
I am also still confused if you need a parking pass to park your car at Pen Mar – on the AT official website it says you do and gives an email contact, but I never heard anything back after I sent my info in and it said I should get a parking pass to print out. The website says you don’t need one but it is highly recommended – so basically you need one – haha! Some people said cars get towed if you don’t have one. If anyone knows what you are supposed to do, let me know! 🙂
Calvin & Hobbes
This is my favorite Calvin & Hobbes of all time- I just wanted to share it as it always reminds me what I love about hiking- exploring–and snacks! Haha 🙂 Seriously this makes me smile every time and I have to wonder what adventures are in store for me!
Enjoy!!!
Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson
blisters and bug bites 