Weekly Mileage #134 and Last Camping Trip of the Season

We saw two hot air balloons on the way to preschool Monday morning

Monday morning I managed to go for a run and a hike. Such a good way to start the week.

I spent some time doing sample cuts/engravings on different leathers. I should have done this a long time ago, but didn't. It was a bit time consuming to do the design and enter all the different settings, but it was very informative and should save a lot of time and wasted leather in the future (no more charred leather projects like last week's banjo strap pad). The time involved is probably why I didn't do it earlier.

While the GlowForge was GlowForging away (three different leathers, 4 or 5 samples), I worked on a costume, which was a good use of my time.

the banner I was working on last week

Tuesday morning we squeezed in River's 6 year old checkup and the boys' flu shots before music lessons. We also got Ocean's ears looked at.

Last week Ocean's preschool teachers mentioned that he didn't seem to be hearing them if he wasn't facing them when they were talking: he wouldn't acknowledge them, and didn't participate in story time and singing time like he usually does. We've known something was off with him, but that was the trigger to realize it was probably his ears. Not sure why it hadn't occurred to us sooner. Maybe 9 months of no ear problems made us forget how it used to be. In any case, I spoke with his speech therapist and she watched him more closely during his next therapy session, and she confirmed that he seemed to be regressing in his attention span and speech.

I made an appointment to get his ears looked at Wednesday morning, but I also bought an otoscope camera (I was going to buy an otoscope, but decided to give the camera a try). I looked at everyone's ears, and they all looked good, except Ocean's. His looked pretty icky.

The doctor checked them out and found copious amounts of wax blocking his ears. After cleaning them (an ordeal in itself), the doc decided to keep the appointment the next day to do a hearing screening.

After music lessons, we explored some ruins. We've driven past them every week for the past 6 years, but never stopped in to check them out. I'm trying to get better about such things, and it was a nice day, so we stopped and looked around a bit. The house was destroyed by fire in 1884 (70 years after being built), but the walls were left standing.

After lunch I worked on the treehouse floor frame while the kiddos finished filling the garden boxes. Well, two of the boxes. One more box needs to be moved a bit, then it and the other one right in front of the shed need to be filled.

After building the framework, I started laying out the planks for the flooring and put a half wall up on the end that adjoins the middle level of the treehouse. There will be a mud kitchen somewhere on this level, and I'm thinking of putting it against this half wall. Still deciding.... Lots of walking as I walked back and forth, back and forth.

Wednesday it rained most of the day, so after taking Ocean in for his hearing screening (inconclusive, so we have an actual hearing test at the end of the month, just to make sure he can actually hear), he and I did the grocery shopping. We got wet, but it was a good use of our time.

Thursday we went for a hike at our local trails park to check the conditions of the trails after Wednesday's rain. They were a little damp, but not nearly as muddy as I expected them to be. I also screwed down a few of the flooring planks in the treehouse, but didn't get very far before both drill batteries were dead. They're old and it's past time to replace them, but we haven't needed them much lately. Guess it's time to stop ignoring the issue.

Friday our playgroup went on a hike at the trails park. We stopped and played in the river a bit. The water level was low, but still high enough for a good number of kids to get wet. I planned ahead and brought extra clothes for both boys to change into, as well as a towel. Bonus points to me for being prepared (for once)!

Friday evening we drove up to Shenandoah NP for the last campout of the season so we could dump the tanks. We've been planning this for some time, but I didn't realize that October is the busy season for the park as everyone comes to look at the fall foliage. Needless to say, we weren't able to get a reservation the first time we tried. We found somewhere else we could go, but it was further away, so I held off on making reservations. Last weekend I decided to check one last time, and found one spot available for Friday night!

It was cold, but we were all reasonably warm in our piles of blankets and sleeping bags (no hookups at the campground and our batteries are crap and won't last the night if something is pulling power, like the propane heater, which needs electricity to run the blower). Temps dipped down close to freezing, but we got the tanks dumped Saturday. Now Jeremy just needs to blow out the pipes and we'll be good for the winter.

While we were at Shenandoah, the boys did their Junior Ranger books (Sunshine earned hers several years ago) and we hiked to Dark Hollow Falls and back. It was fun, but the park was more crowded than we've ever seen it.

not a lot of water in the falls after the dry spell we've had the last couple months

 If we go back next year at the end of the season to dump our tanks, we'll have to go during the week, when the crowds aren't quite so bad. We may be able to go to a campground a lot closer next year though. It's closed for remodeling right now, but we've dumped our tanks there in the past.

We headed home mid afternoon and got home in time for Sunshine to take a quick shower before heading off to a stake youth activity.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.35 mile trail run
Monday- 1.75 mile hike
Tuesday- 2.00 miles walked outside
Thursday- 1.50 miles hiked
Friday- 1.32 miles hiked
Saturday- 2.36 miles hiked
total- 10.28 miles

24 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.56 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

105.73 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
41.16 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
80.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
229.45 miles total