Sunday, February 28, 2010

Trying not to be shut-ins

With this winter being the coldest in the history books we've been more apt to stay inside and not be outside. The longer I stay at home the harder it is to leave. Corey and I love going out and having fun but not when it's cold so we've done nothing that requires leaving the house in a while. Well, I've done nothing. Corey killed a deer a few weeks ago so we discovered the joy of making jerky. If you haven't done it you're not able to read the sarcasm because really it is disgusting and I had no idea. I'm not against killing animals for food and didn't think it would bug me so I was surprised when I felt like crying/vomiting at the sight of the fresh deer meat in the sink. A. It is a dark, weird color. B. It still had some hair on it. C. I kept thinking about how it had been alive only hours ago until someone (my husband) lured it into a trap with corn stalks and shot it unsuspectingly. Ah, so many confused emotions.
Once Corey ground it all up and squeezed the meat onto the dehydrator, we fired it up and started the long process. The first few minutes smelled like meat cooking and it was nice. After about 30 minutes it smelled like meat dying and it was HORRIBLE! I could barely breathe. Corey turned the stove vent on and put the dehydrator right under it so that helped but it was much more unpleasant than I ever imagined. I will never take homemade jerky for granted again!
This weekend the weather looked like it would be alright so we decided to get out of the house finally and we went to the National Zoo then the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It was fun and free but most of the animals were inside since it's still pretty cold. I'm just happy I made myself get out and try to have some fun. Plus, I need to work off all the baking I've been doing while enjoying my time inside. I make really good treats :)





Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Airstream Dreams


Well, since I have nothing exciting to post since the only thing going on around here is snow, I am just going to ramble about my lifelong dream of owning an Airstream. Since the first time I laid eyes on an Airstream I've wanted one. I love vintage things and so these trailers are right up my alley. I also love being free and able to go wherever I want and a trailer is very conducive to a gypsy lifestyle. But please, I don't want to sound too whitetrash. Airstreams are the Cadillacs of travel trailers so it adds a hint of class...maybe. Either way, I love them and I want one.
Corey has been a little hard to convince that this is something we absolutely need. Maybe it was the all the snow or the hours upon hours of being trapped inside that has made him sway an inch or two over into my world? But, this weekend he said, "Ok Carrie, when do you think you want to get an Airstream?" After I peed a little I said, "Maybe in about 4 years." To this he said, "That sounds reasonable."
Marriage is all about breaking the other person's resistance down to get what you want. He's had a tough will for a while but somehow the incessant nagging has broken his spirit and he now wants an Airstream! We want an Airstream! Ok, so I realize this is still mainly MY dream, but I'm very excited that he's at least indulging my dreams and giving me hope.
So, what are we going to do in our Airstream? Just travel the United States and see everything! Spend a month driving up the West Coast, a week or two at Yellowstone, camp in the Smokey Mountains. Definitely see Mt. Rushmore, visit as many National Forests as possible, canoe in as many lakes as we can, Zion National Park, Goblin Valley, the Grand Canyon. Do I really need to go on? I love traveling outside of the US but I would really love to not ever have to deal with another airport so I think I'll give the Airstream a try for a while. After 4 years of international travel.