I’ve moved

Photo by: ktylerconk

I’ve decided to start a new blog. It’s not becuase I didn’t love this one, but because I almost feel like I’ve outgrown it. I started this blog when I had just started on the journey to simplifying my life. I was mostly interested in frugality, voluntary simplicity and a little bit of green. Boy how things change. Since last November I have learned so much that my mind spins. I wanted to share, but somehow it seemed like such a departure from what this blog was about that I was reluctant to write about it here. Hence why posting here has been so sporadic. I just didn’t know where to start, so I didn’t. A new blog seems a good way to start afresh with my new outlook. And while this blog has remained anonymous from friends and family, I will be sharing the new blog with people I know.

On the new blog I’ll probably talk about things like the environment, energy, food, money, travel, work and maybe even the economy. Everything I’ve spent the last year cramming into my head will probably make it onto the blog at some point.  

So without further ado, I’d like to invite you to come and visit me at A Good Human. I hope to see you there.

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Lessons from our camping weekend

 Photo by: random letters

It had been many years since I last went camping, but in the last few months I have been aching for more time in the mountains surrounded by trees. Living on the coast in Southern California makes it difficult to get my dose of green, so I’ve been pestering hubby for weeks to take me camping. Finally we made the time to go the other weekend. We packed up all our stuff, put the dog in the back and headed off to the mountains for a couple of days hiking. Even though I knew I wanted to love camping, I wasn’t really sure how I was going to like it. Thankfully I loved every minute of it and I think there were a couple of important lessons that could be integrated back into my everyday life:

• Making do with what we we have. While camping, we only have limited amounts of food and water. Being happy eating from our limited stores is a good mental skill to have.
• Enjoying the simple things. Building a fire, practicing on the slackline or making a coffee over the camp stove can all be lessons in living in the moment and enjoying the simple things.
• Remaining flexible. On our first day of hiking, our dog was not well. After one and a half hour hours of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail she simply stopped and would not get up again. Hubby had to put her over his shoulders (all 62 pounds or 28kg) and carried her out. Thankfully we weren’t too far from a road, so I sat with her in the shade while hubby went back for the car. Our day of hiking was somewhat ruined, but conducting a medical evacuation for our dog was a good lesson in remaining flexible to changing conditions.

Since getting back to our everyday life, I’ve been dreaming of heading back to the mountains. Unfortunately we don’t have any weekends free at the moment, but later this month we plan to spend a week in Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming…camping all the way. I can’t wait.

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